UK Wind Symphony hosts Louisville Youth Performing Arts School Wind Ensemble for 'Awakenings'
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 16, 2023) — The University of Kentucky Bands will present the UK Wind Symphony delivering an “Awakenings” musical experience in collaboration with Louisville’s Youth Performing Arts School Wind Ensemble 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, in the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall.
The partnership between the University of Kentucky Wind Symphony and the Louisville Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS) Wind Ensemble is a showcase of the diverse musical talent present within the Lexington community and beyond. The concert program will include works by composers John Mackey, Scott McAllister, James David, Alfred Reed, Luis Serrano Alarcon and David Maslanka, to name just a few.
John Cody Birdwell, D.M.A, conducts the UK Wind Symphony with guest conductor Brian Froedge. According to Birdwell, "the YPAS Wind Ensemble continues to be recognized as one of the finest high school concert ensembles in the United States and will be performing at the 2023 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois, in mid-December. The Midwest Clinic attracts over 15,000 attendees, student/professional performers, and exhibitors every year, and is the largest and most prestigious band and orchestra educational event in the world. We are very excited to have the YPAS Wind Ensemble join us as they perform a preview of their Midwest Clinic program."
The YPAS Wind Ensemble is conducted by UK alumnus Kevin Callihan, D.M.A., and associate conducted by Jason Gregory.
The UK Wind Symphony consists of the finest wind and percussion graduate and undergraduate students in the nationally recognized UK School of Music conducted by Birdwell, director of UK Bands. As the centerpiece of a band program that has served the Commonwealth of Kentucky for over 100 years, the Wind Symphony continues a rich tradition of performing the finest traditional and contemporary compositions in the concert band/chamber winds repertoire.
Tickets for UK Wind Symphony concerts are $14 for general admission, $7 for students and free for UK students with a valid ID before the day of the performance (at the Singletary Center ticket office). Tickets are available through the Singletary Center ticket office online at www.scfatickets.com, by phone at 859-257-4929 or in person at the venue.
The School of Music at UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.