‘Dance away the Tax-Day Blues’ with the UF Symphonic Band on April 15

April 14, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Symphonic Band will present a concert of dance-oriented music from around the world to help lighten the mood on tax day.

“Dance Away the Tax-Day Blues” with the UF Symphonic Band, under the direction of School of Music’s associate director of bands John M. Watkins, Jr., will take place at 7:30 p.m. on April 15 at the University Auditorium.

The concert will open with the premiere of a chamber work entitled “Sechs Tanze,” by German composer Rolf Rudin, followed by a standard in wind-band literature, “La Fiesta Mexicana” by Alfred Reed, featuring dances of an Aztec flavor. The first half of the concert will conclude with Robert Russell Bennett’s “Suite of Old American Dances,” featuring turn of the century dances such as the cakewalk, scottische, western one step, wallflower waltz and concluding with a rag.

The second half of the program will feature other standard works for bands, including “Four Scottish Dances” by renowned English composer Malcolm Arnold, containing a Scotch strathspey, a reel, a Hebridean song and concluding with a lively fling. Guest conductor Charles Jeffrey Vaughan, a doctoral conducting student, will present John Barnes Chance’s “Incantation and Dance,” an original dance-based work with extensive use of percussion instruments. The concert will conclude with a transcription of Jacques Press’ lively “Wedding Dance” from his symphonic suite, “Hassaneh” (The Wedding).

This College of Fine Arts concert is open to the public. General admission tickets are $8 and may also be purchased at http://www.ticketmaster.com.