WCU’s Wells School of Music Welcomes
World-Renowned Composer, Jennifer Higdon
Wells School of Music students, as well as members of the surrounding community, have an opportunity to learn from a master when composer Jennifer Higdon comes to campus on Monday, February 18th.
Higdon is a Pulitzer Prize and two-time Grammy-winning composer with local ties. Her works are performed more than 200 times annually by world-class orchestras, operas and choral groups, and she has been touted as “one of the top two or three composers living today.” She currently holds the Rock Chair in Composition at Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute of Music.
On February 18th, Higdon will host a Q & A session at 4:45 p.m. with Wells School of Music students and faculty, as well as members of the public, in the Ware Recital Hall, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, at 817 S. High Street.
Following the Q ∓ A, Higdon will coach the Wells School of Music Wind Ensemble in Higdon’s own Fanfare Ritmico. The Wells Wind Ensemble will open their program with Fanfare Ritmico when they perform at the College Band Directors National Association conference, held later this February in Tempe, Arizona.
Director of Bands, Andrew Yozviak says, ‘All of us at the Wells School of Music are honored to have Jennifer Higdon here to work with us. Opportunities such as these are so important for our students as they forge their careers in music. Our Wind Ensemble can’t wait to perform one of Higdon’s own works for her, and to hear her advice on how to improve, prior to their prestigious performance at CBDNA.’
Local audiences can hear the Wind Ensemble’s full CBDNA program, including Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico, on Tuesday, February 19, at 8:15 p.m. in the in the Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, 817 S. High Street. The concert is FREE and open to the public.
The Wells School of Music Wind Ensemble is comprised of 55 of the finest wind and percussion students from the Wells School of Music, both graduate and undergraduate, and is one of four symphonic wind bands sponsored by the University. Ensemble members are selected through an audition process.