Grab your lightsabers and your favorite Wookie for the upcoming wind ensemble’s Star Wars themed concert Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in Akin Auditorium.
“This is probably the hardest thing they have ever played,” said Matthew Luttrell, director of bands. “It’s without a doubt the most difficult thing, because it’s kinda like the national anthem where everyone knows it. You screw it up and everybody knows, this is the same way, if you make a mistake people know you made a mistake. It’s very tonal in that respect.”
Following the jazz band’s classical-themed ensemble in a one-hour joint concert, the wind ensemble takes on its most demanding and recognizable pieces to date, Luttrell said.
“Everyone knows this, and if one thing’s wrong that’s a heavy thing on our shoulders,” said percussionist Jacob Partida, music performance junior.
Having only three weeks to practice, wind ensemble players take a leap with a more individual focused score, pushing previous boundaries.
“For a lot of these students they’ve never played anything that requires the precision that this requires, so they have to be right all the time, and they can’t rely on anybody else,” said Luttrell. “For example the four horn parts are all individual horn parts. It’s not the way it’s usually is in high school or early college. You’re usually playing with two players matching with two players. So in this case there’s a lot more independence.”
Justin Green, music education senior said, “I’m enjoying it. It’s difficult and doing it in such a short amount of time has been challenging.”
With the concert taking place so close to the new Star Wars film release, members of the ensemble expect a packed house.
“The performance is going to be a packed house. It’s kind of the premier for the new Star Wars movie. Plus we’re doing some multimedia content for the concert as well, we’re going to do some videography, some photographs and maybe some special effects,” Green said.
Luttrell said, “it’ll be about 20 minutes of music long. We have plans for multimedia and there may even be lasers. It could be sort of an interesting concert in comparison to what we have done in the past.”
