BLINN BANDS TO END SEMESTER WITH THREE MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

  

Blinn College band students will take their final exam before a live audience in three separate performances this month.

Blinn’s percussion ensemble will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, the concert bands will showcase their talents at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, and the jazz ensemble will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10. All three performances will be hosted at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center (map) in Brenham and are free to the general public.

The concerts will mark the students’ final performances of the semester.

“People will be blown away by the progress our students have made over the course of the semester,” said Dr. Sarah Burke, band director. “For most of the students it is not about pressure, but a way to share what they have been working on.”

The percussion ensemble will perform a variety of music, and won’t be limited to traditional instruments – featuring fun novelty pieces performed with buckets, as well as more serious works. Burke and Todd Quinlan, music professor and department head for the Division of Visual/Performing Arts & Kinesiology, will perform a piece together during the percussion ensemble. The concert bands will be split into the wind symphony and the symphonic band.

“One of the things that will make this concert special will be the premiere of a piece written by Dr. Kendall Prinz, our newly-hired assistant band director,” Burke said.

The jazz ensemble will include a variety of Christmas jazz selections to get everybody into the holiday spirit. All three performances are family-friendly and free to the public.

The Blinn Music Department offers small classes, one-on-one attention, practical learning and a dedicated faculty so students are actively engaged in a superior learning environment. The department is part of Blinn’s Division of Visual/Performing Arts & Kinesiology, which offers programs in arts, architecture, communication studies, kinesiology, music and theatre arts.