Final performances for the year by Concert Band, Wind Ensemble April 24

The Youngstown State University Dana School of Music hosts the final concert of the year for the YSU Concert Band and YSU Wind Ensemble 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 24, in Stambaugh Auditorium.

The performance opens with the Concert Band, conducted by Brandt Payne, playing Frank Erickson's classic “Toccata for Band,” Boysen's “I Am” and Gordon Jacob’s “William Byrd Suite.” The Concert Band concludes with John Mackey's “Night on Fire!”

The YSU Wind Ensemble, conducted by Stephen Gage, opens with Aaron Copland's “Quiet City,” featuring senior trumpet performance major, Michael Barkett of Canfield, Ohio, and Elliot Kwolek, English horn, a third-year performance major from Beaver, Pa.

Graduate student Brady Amerson will then conduct the Wind Ensemble on a pair of Percy Grainger pieces, “Gum-Suckers March” and “Irish Tune from a County Derry,” more popularly known as “Danny Boy.” Amerson is an instrumental music teacher in the Crestview School District, and an active freelance woodwind performer in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, as well as in the Pittsburgh-area.

The closing number of the concert is “Pictures at an Exhibition.” In 2016 arranger Paul Lavender was commissioned to set piece for wind ensemble which the U.S. Marine Band premiered and recorded. The YSU Wind Ensemble will give the first performance of the new setting of the classic work in the region.

Tickets, available the night of the concert, are $6 for adults and $5 for seniors. Anyone with a valid YSU ID is free. Parking is free in the lots adjacent to Stambaugh Auditorium. For more information, call 330-941-2307.