The Georgia Brass Band

Opening Concert: Dances and Variations

The Georgia Brass Band will open its nineteenth season September 23 at Mercer University’s Fickling Recital Hall with an exciting program called Dances and Variations. The musical selections consist primarily of major original works for brass band, but also include a transcription from a dance suite originally composed for wind band and two transcriptions from the orchestral repertoire. It is an entertaining (and challenging) program which offers a wide variety of styles. Featured items include Kenneth Hesketh’s Danceries, a suite based on 17th century dances but with modern harmonies and rhythms; Michael Kenyon’s Variations and Fugue on Rachie, a sort of ‘listener’s guide to the brass band’ which takes the hymn tune Rachie as its starting point; and Gordon Langford’s exciting Harmonious Variations on a Theme of Handel, a tour de force of original and clever takes on a well known tune originally written for harpsichord . Transcriptions of works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Arnold round out this program of Dances and Variations. We hope you can join us as we return to Mercer University.

The show begins at 7:30. Tickets are $10 (free with student ID).