Westchester Symphonic Winds Presents “Diamonds and Dragons”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2023

MEDIA CONTACT:
Curt Ebersole – Conductor/Music Director, Westchester Symphonic Winds
Phone: (914) 281-1976 · E-Mail: info@westchestersymphonicwinds.org
Website: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org

Westchester Symphonic Winds Presents “Diamonds and Dragons”

TARRYTOWN, NY – Westchester Symphonic Winds (WSW) is proud to present an exciting evening of music on Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 pm at the Tarrytown Music Hall. The concert will feature a diverse program of works from eight international composers including Steven Bryant, Omar Thomas, Mike Mower, James Beckel, Henri Kling, Hirokazu Fukushima, Viet Cuong, and Vasily Kalinnikov.

Under the direction of Curt Ebersole, the band will conclude its 35th Anniversary series of Tarrytown Music Hall concerts with this performance. “This concert will be a celebration of the rich and diverse repertoire of wind band music,” said Maestro Ebersole. “Audience members will be treated to a range of styles and moods, from the lush harmonies of Shenandoah to the playful energy of The Elephant and the Fly, and the intense energy of Eternal Memoir – Saga of the Lucky Dragon. We’re thrilled to close the program, as we do every five years, with the vibrant antiphonal brass sounds of the Kalinnikov Finale.”

The concert will take place at the Tarrytown Music Hall, located at 13 Main Street, Tarrytown, NY 10591. General admission tickets are $20, and student/senior tickets are available for $15. Tickets can be purchased in advance via this link to the Tarrytown Music Hall Box Office, or at the door on the night of the performance.

Program includes:

BRYANT – In This Broad Earth
THOMAS – Shenandoah
MOWER – Concerto for Flute and Wind Orchestra, Staff Sergeant Katrina Owens, flute soloist
BECKEL – Through a Window, Staff Sergeant Keith Kile, tuba soloist
KLING – The Elephant and the Fly, Staff Sergeant Katrina Owens, piccolo soloist; Staff Sergeant Keith Kile, tuba soloist
FUKUSHIMA – Eternal Memoir-Saga of the Lucky Dragon, Dr. John P. Lynch, conductor
CUONG – Diamond Tide
KALINNIKOV – Finale from Symphony No. 1

To Purchase Tickets: Tickets for this performance are priced at $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, and free of charge for children under 10. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Tarrytown Music Hall box office, by calling 877-840-0457, or online at https://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=2701.

WSW’s first performance of its 35th Anniversary Season was recorded and broadcast at Tarrytown Music Hall through generous donor support. As WSW concludes its series of Tarrytown concerts with this performance, gifts in recognition of the ensemble’s 35th Anniversary can be made by visiting their campaign online at https://donorbox.org/wsw-35th-anniversary-fund.

WSW is a dedicated ensemble of musicians who share a love of wind band music. The band is made up of individuals from all walks of life, and welcomes new members of all skill levels.

For more information about the concert or the Westchester Symphonic Winds, please visit www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org.

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About the Guest Artists:

Staff Sergeant Katrina Owens – Originally from McLean, Virginia, Staff Sergeant Katrina Owens is currently the piccolo player in the United States Military Academy Band at West Point. Prior to joining the Army in 2014, she completed music performance degrees from the University of North Texas and George Mason University. Additionally, Katrina performed in the Dallas area with the Madera Wind Quintet and the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, as well as working with Eugene Corporon and the North Texas Wind Symphony on numerous recording projects. She has also performed with the Ohio Light Opera and the Franco-American Vocal Academy Orchestra in Perigueux, France. Currently, Katrina regularly performs with the Hudson Opera Theatre and is an original member of Vent Nouveau, the Hudson Valley’s premiere wind chamber ensemble. In her spare time, Katrina enjoys gardening and hiking with her husband, Bill, and their young boys, Alec and Evan. 

Staff Sergeant Keith Kile, originally from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is the Principal Tubist of The West Point Band. Outside of The West Point Band, Keith is an active free-lancer and has performed recently with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavik, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Also a passionate educator, Keith serves on faculty at The New School’s Mannes Prep Division in New York City and the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Prior to moving to New York, ​Keith performed regularly on both tuba and euphonium and appeared with The Mr. Jack Daniel’s Original Silver Cornet Band, the Hal Leonard Studio Ensemble, numerous regional orchestras in the Midwest and Southeast, and served in the 129th Army National Guard Band for eleven years. As a successful soloist, Keith was selected the winner of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music Concerto Competition and is now a regular performer at conferences around the United States.  Keith holds a B.S. in Music Education from Tennessee Tech University, a M.M. from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.

John Lynch is a leading international wind band conductor and a dual citizen of the United States and Australia. He is currently the Director of Bands/Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a freelance conductor/composer/teacher based in Madison, Wisconsin. He was formerly the Director of Bands and Wind Symphony Conductor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he created the first graduate degrees in wind conducting and the first comprehensive university band program in Australian history. He is the founder and artist director of the Verbrugghen Ensemble, the Conservatorium’s chamber orchestra in residence, and was previously Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Georgia and the University of Kansas. Other positions include those at Northwestern University and Emory University. He was the conductor of Chicago’s renown Northshore Concert Band and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony and is the founder of the Greater New York Wind Symphony and the University of Kansas/Kansas City Youth Wind Symphony. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia including the national conferences of the College Band Directors National Association, American Bandmasters Association, National Association for Music Education, Australian National Band and Orchestra Conference, the Midwest Clinic, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, as well as at Interlochen, Barcelona’s Grec Festival, and invited tours of Ireland, Spain, China, Argentina, and Europe.
Lynch has three professional recordings on the Naxos label including the premiere in the Wind Band Classics Series, and one on the Klavier label. He is a published composer through C. Alan Music and Maestro and Fox. Awards include The American Prize, the national Stanbury Award for outstanding conducting and teaching, New York’s Big Apple Corps National Leadership in the Arts award, The University of Georgia Creative Research Medal, a Northwestern University Searle Fellow for Teaching Excellence, elected membership in the American Bandmasters Association and Phi Beta Mu international band honor fraternity, and was nominated for Performance of the Year in the Australian Arts Music Awards. An advocate for diversity in music, he serves on the boards of several think tanks including the Institute for Composer Diversity and is one of the featured conductors in “The Horizon Leads Forward.” John Lynch is a passionate advocate for new music and has commissioned, recorded, and premiered works from around the globe by both today’s leading composers and those new to writing for the wind band medium with a focus on diversity. He holds degrees from Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Membership in the Westchester Symphonic Winds is available to all qualified musicians. Membership information can be obtained via email (personnel@westchestersymphonicwinds.org), or by U.S. mail (Westchester Symphonic Winds, Box 485, 333 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY 10605). You can also visit us online at: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org and through any of our social media platforms.

Westchester Symphonic Winds, Inc. is a Section 501(c)(3) Not-for-Profit organization. Corporate and personal contributions, financial assistance, and volunteers are essential and always welcomed! 

For additional concert and ticket information, advertising, donations, and updates, visit us at: www.westchestersymphonicwinds.org.

About the Conductor:

Curt Ebersole has served as the Conductor/Music Director (John P. Paynter Memorial Chair) of the Westchester Symphonic Winds since 2008, fostering its exponential growth over the past fifteen years, culminating in The American Prize for 2018-2019. He retired from Northern Valley Regional High School (Old Tappan, New Jersey) in 2013 after serving as Director of Instrumental Music for 31 years, and now teaches at The Masters School, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Master of Music in Conducting degree from Northwestern University, where he studied conducting with John P. Paynter and clarinet with Larry Combs, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Clarinet Performance from SUNY-Purchase, studying with Ben Armato. He has served as guest conductor/clinician for many county, regional, and all-state student ensembles, and adult community ensembles across the nation, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Symphony Space, and in Las Vegas, South Korea and Australia. His achievements include multiple teaching awards, ensemble performances as a clarinetist and basset hornist, and speaking/clinic engagements with the Midwest Clinic, TEDxOneonta, and numerous state music education conventions and conducting symposia.