Student concerts on tap at Edison College

The 2008 Spring Student concert series will be the last which Dr. Dennis Hill will conduct as a full-time faculty member at Edison College. Under Hill's direction, the Concert Band, Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble have performed over 200 free public concerts over the past 32 years. The series opened with the Jazz Ensemble on Monday, April 7, followed by the Orchestra and Chorale on Monday, April 21 and the Concert Band on Wednesday, April 23. All concerts are at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall and are open to the public with complimentary tickets available from the musicians or through the Mann box office. Phone 481-4849.

The Symphonic Orchestra and Chorale will perform on Monday April 21 at 8 p.m. Orchestra selections will include "La Forza del Destino" by Giuseppe Verdi, Movement 1 of "Symphony No.5" in C minor by Ludwig Van Beethoven and lighter selections by Leroy Anderson. The Chorale will join with the orchestra to perform "Polovtsian Dances" by Alexander Borodin. The 45 members making up the orchestra are both Edison College music students and talented community musicians from the five-county area which Edison College serves. The Orchestra is under the direction of Dr. Dennis Hill.

The Chorale concert will begin with three pieces. The first, "Laudate Dominum", is by Spanish composer Tomas Luis de Victoria; the second, "Festival Hosanna", by Carole Stephens, and the third, "In Praise of Spring", by Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy. The Chorale will then join the Edison Orchestra for the Polovtsian Dances and The Salute to The Armed Forces. Guests this year will be the chorus from the Southwest Florida Christian Academy. The Chorale is under the direction of Candace Baranowski Sundby and Mary Griffin Seal, Accompanist. Special thanks to Jennifer Rousky for her collaboration.

The Concert Band will perform a program of traditional marches, overtures and show tunes on Wednesday April 23 at 8 p.m. Among the featured marches will be "The National Game" and "On the Campus" by John Phillip Sousa. Other literature will include "American Overture For Band" by J. Wilcox Jenkins and "Les Preludes" by Franz Liszt, transcribed for band by Mark Hindsley. Featured soloists will include euphoniumist Johnathan Orcel performing "The Carnival Of Venice" for Euphonium and Band, and "Deep River" featuring the tuba section. The 60-member band is comprised of Edison College music majors and other Edison students, area high school students who take early college classes at Edison College, and community members from Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Hendry and Glades counties. The band is directed by Dr. Dennis Hill.

Contributions in support of the music program may be made through the Edison College Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 60210, Fort Myers, FL33906.