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News and Announcements

The SWE is looking for new members for the 2010-11 academic year. Players of all instruments are sought, as many members graduated with the classes of 2009 and 2010. In addition, a number of other band veterans will be taking a semester or two away from campus for their Junior Year Abroad experience. The saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, low brass, and double reed sections have been particularly impacted by recent graduations and student participation in study abroad programs. Most of the sections of the band are looking for "new blood," and we would welcome your participation!

First-year players are always welcome; typically, about ten to fifteen members of the ensemble are new to the College. For more information on joining the SWE, visit Joining the Ensemble and 2009-10 Auditions Scheduled (below).

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The Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform four programs again during the 2010-11 academic year. After just about five weeks of rehearsals, the fall concert will take place during Family Weekend, on October 23, while the Winter Concert is scheduled for December. The chamber winds program in February will be followed by the final performance of the year, in April.

The 2010-11 Repertoire Considered for Performance:

Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968
Eric Whitacre: Godzilla Eats Las Vegas
Frank Ticheli: Blue Shades
Leonard Bernstein: Four Dances from West Side Story
Walter Hartley: Concerto for 23 Winds
Percy Grainger: Children's March-Over the Hills and Far Away
Antonin Dvorák: Serenade in D Minor, Opus 44
William Schuman: Chester
Edgard Varèse: Hyperprism
Charles Ives: Variations on "America"
Ludwig van Beethoven: Octet, Opus 103
Loris Chobanian: Colors
Morton Gould: Ballad for Band
Fisher Tull: Sketches on a Tudor Psalm
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Arnold Schoenberg: Theme and Variations, Opus 43
Darius Milhaud: Suite Française for Band
Dmitri Shostakovich: Folk Dances
Walter Piston: Tunbridge Fair-Intermezzo for Symphonic Band

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The Kenyon Symphonic Wind Ensemble performed five concerts during the 2009-10 academic year. The format of the on-campus performance schedule changed slightly. In previous years, the Family Weekend concert in October was something of a truncated version of what was to be performed in the main fall concert in November. In the fall of 2009, that was changed, with the Family Weekend concert assuming the function of a Fall Concert and the SWE subsequently developing another program that became the Winter Concert, performed on December 13. The SWE then extended what has become now an established tradition of performing a chamber winds program (i.e. one player per part) in February. The fourth and final program, the Spring Concert, was performed on April 17. The Symphonic Wind Ensemble also performed in January as a part of the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association Annual Honors Band Festival. This event was hosted by nearby Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, and for this event the MVNU Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Kenyon SWE collaborated to form a joint ensemble.

The Kenyon Symphonic Wind Ensemble hosted several guest artists during the 2009-10 academic year, including guest conductors Dr. John Packard (MVNU) and Prof. Len Salvo (Ashland University). Additionally, Dr. Antoine Clark was featured as soloist in the Fall Concert and as guest conductor during the February Chamber Winds program. Dr. Clark was then Kenyon's Instructor of Clarinet and Saxophone, and we extend our hearty congratulations to him for his recent appointment as an Assistant Professor of Music at Wayne State College in Nebraska.

The list of works performed during the 2009-10 year includes the following compositions:

Paul Hindemith: "March" from Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
W. Francis McBeth: The Sea Treaders, in Calm and Storm
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov: Concerto for Clarinet and Military Band
Daniel Bukvich: Symphony No. 1: In Memoriam Dresden-1945
Giovanni Gabrieli: Sonata Octavi Toni a12
John Cage: Six, for Percussion
Carloz Chavez: "Allegro un poco marziale," from Toccata for Percussion Instruments
Carl Orff (arr. Krance): Carmina Burana
Clifton Williams: Symphonic Dance No. 3, Fiesta
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No. 10, K. 361
Richard Strauss: Serenade, Opus 7
Guy Woolfenden: Illyrian Dances
Vincent Persichetti: Symphony No. 6 for Band
William Schlacks: Amazing Grace
Sergei Prokofiev: March, Opus 99
Richard Wagner: Trauersinfonie
Alfred Reed: Armenian Dances, Part I
Samuel Hazo: Fantasy on a Japanese Folk Song
Ralph Vaughan Williams: "March: Seventeen Come Sunday," from Folk Song Suite

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Alas, sixteen dedicated members of the band completed their degree requirements and graduated in the Kenyon College class of 2010. Many of these students had participated in the SWE throughout their four years at Kenyon. All will be sorely missed!

Flute: Rachel Rosenberg, Laura DiNardo
Oboe: Bobby Toth
Clarinet: Gina Viner, Elaine Dicicco
Saxophone: Anneke Mason, Jacob Shanley
Horn: James Diskint
Trumpet: Jean Turner, Charlie Halsted, Alex Murphy
Trombone: Kendall Krawchuk
Euphonium: Anna Kephart
Tuba: Megan Kirkendall
Percussion: Nate Gabriel, Darren McCorkle

Best of luck to the SWE alumni from the class of 2010!

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Gina Viner '10 (clarinet), Rika Garland '12 (clarinet), Will Bowman '13 (euphonium), Pam Moriarty '11 (euphonium) Bobby Toth '10 (oboe), Nate Gabriel '10 (percussion), and Genny Dorgan '13 (trombone) were selected for the 2010 Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association (OPCICA) Honor Concert Band, which rehearsed and performed in January at the organization's annual festival, convened at the Mt. Vernon Nazarene University. During that weekend-long event, the seven Kenyon participants worked with students from over twenty other Ohio schools and under the direction of five guest conductors.

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Thanks in part to funding provided by a Kenyon College Teaching Initiative Grant, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble released its first "studio style" recording in November, 2008. The final two rehearsals of the spring 2008 semester became recording sessions, with Soundwaves Recording, of Huron, Ohio, sending a technician to Kenyon to do the recording. With some time needed to change the seating set-up, achieve good sound tests, etc., the Symphonic Wind Ensemble recorded much of its 2007-08 concert repertoire over the course of about three hours of real time. The recording includes the following compositions:

W. Francis McBeth: Of Sailors and Whales (featuring Prof. Fred Baumann as Narrator)
Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Pavel Tchesnokov: Two Chorales (Katie Woods '09, Conductor)
Vittorio Giannini: Symphony No. 3, movements 1, 2, and 4
H. Owen Reed: La Fiesta Mexicana--A Mexican Folk Song Symphony

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For those interested in joining the Symphonic Wind Ensemble for the 2010-11 year, the usual no-stress auditions will be held on Saturday, August 28. A sign-up sheet will be posted, on a table in the hallway near Storer 028, at the beginning of orientation week. Anybody interested in playing should stop by and sign up for a time!

These auditions provide an opportunity to gauge each player's technical and musical abilities and gain a context in which we can determine an appropriate part assignment rotation. These auditions are "no-stress" events, and are not generally for admission into band, except in the unlikely event that more people have signed up to play a particular instrument than space in the rehearsal room allows. Nor are these hearings to set "chairs," as part assignments are rotated throughout individual sections.

As has become standard over the last few years, those interested in playing will be asked to play a short, lyrical duet with the director, as well as a couple of brief technical exercises. This music will be on the same table as the hearing time sign-up sheet, near Storer Hall 028.

If you want to play, we welcome your participation! For more information on joining the Symphonic Winds, see Joining the Ensemble. Feel free to contact the director, at heuchemerd@kenyon.edu, should you have any questions.

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Alas, fourteen very dedicated members of the band completed their degree requirements as members of the Kenyon College class of 2009. Several of these students had participated in the SWE throughout their four years at Kenyon. All will be sorely missed!

Flute: Christine Dutko
Clarinet: Jim Boston and Lesley Green
Contrabass Clarinet: Melissa King
Saxophone: Jack Hornick
Horn: Katie Woods and Caleb Ruopp
Trumpet: Adam Shoop and Yancy Edwards
Trombone: Adam Latek and Sasha Minium
Tuba: Tova Yoast-Hull
Bass and Percussion: Nick Mahowald
Percussion: Kate Gunby

Best of luck to the SWE members of the class of 2009!

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Ayako Tokuyama '11 (flute), Adam Shoop '09 (trumpet), Anna Krause '12 (saxophone), Katie King '09 (horn), Gian Garduque '12 (horn), Pam Moriarty '11 (Euphonium) and Laura Snoddy '11 (flute and percussion) were selected for the 2009 Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association (OPCICA) Honor Concert Band, which rehearsed and performed in January at the organization's annual festival, convened at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati. During that weekend-long event, the seven Kenyon participants worked with students from over twenty other Ohio schools and under the direction of five guest conductors, including the director of the Kenyon SWE, Prof. Dane Heuchemer.

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