Largest student band plays music by McBeth, Hazo

The UW-Whitewater Concert Band will perform tomorrow night, sho

wcasing a variety of music, including pieces by Fillmore, Samuel Hazo and Francis McBeth.

Music lecturer John Tuinstra, head of the program, is currently in his 16th year of conducting the band.

Tuinstra said a lot of the inspiration for the concert came from McBeth’s “Of Sailors and Whales.”

McBeth composed five musical representations of different characters within the classic novel “Moby Dick,” written by Herman Melville.

This inspiration came to Tuinstra after seeing a documentary about the true story “Moby Dick” was based on.
“Melville’s novel came about by the story of the whale ship Essex that was struck and destroyed by an eight-foot sperm whale. Out of the 20 men in the crew, only five men survived this mysterious attack. The surviving men were saved by another whale ship several days later,” Tuinstra said.

Tuinstra said before each piece is played, theatre and dance professor James Butchart will read a description of the character that each movement was written about. The Concert Band has been prevalent on campus for more than 50 years and is currently composed of 58 students.

The band will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Young Auditorium tomorrow.

Of the three large ensembles on campus, the Concert Band has the most participating musicians.

“The Orchestra and Wind Bands are made up of solely music majors,” Tuinstra said. “Our band consists of about half music majors and the other half are students from the other three colleges.

“There will also be wood-cuts of scenes from the story projected onto a large screen,” Tuinstra said.

All students who have prior band experience and are interested in the Concert Band are invited to become members.

“Our band is just like a high school band, the people are just a little bigger,” Tuinstra said. “There are no required tryouts; the participating musicians just need to register for the class that is only offered during the spring semester every year. The class and practices are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:45-5:25 p.m.”

Once a member is a part of the band, chair arrangements are decided based upon their performance levels when they play a piece in front of the conductor.

“We are very excited for the upcoming performance,” Tuinistra said. “Students should come see this performance because they’ll like it. The music is enjoyable and easy to listen to, especially the music surrounding the characters from ‘Moby Dick.’ ”