UW Wind Symphony Presents Fall Pops Concert Sept. 26

The University of Wyoming Wind Symphony will open its fall concert series with a program of popular music Thursday, Sept. 26.

UW Department of Music Professor Robert Belser will conduct the concert in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall at 7:30 p.m. 

Tickets cost $10 for the public, $7 for senior citizens and $6 for students. Tickets are available at the Performing Arts box office and the Wyoming Union information desk, by calling (307) 766-6666 or going online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts.

“In my initial planning, I wanted to perform a program much like the U.S. Air Force Band when it played here a few years ago,” Belser says.

As Belser added repertory to the program, he noticed that most of it was music associated with movies and television.

“Music has always been an integral part of the viewing experience in film and on TV, and there is no better-known composer of film scores than John Williams,” Belser says.

The program features Williams’ “Star Wars Trilogy” as well as his score for the comedy film “1941.” The program also will include Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt, which provided a backdrop to the antics of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in a classic Looney Tunes cartoon. The symphony also will perform “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy, which most recently evoked the Bellagio fountains from the closing of “Ocean’s Eleven.” Rounding out the concert will be “King Cotton March” by John Philip Sousa; “Ritual Fire Dance” by Manuel de Falla; and “Fandango” by Frank Perkins.

“All in all, this is an evening of music that will bring smiles to your faces,” Belser says.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.