The UNL Wind Ensemble returns to Lincoln after their performance at the College Band Directors National Association conference. The conference theme, “…and all that jazz,” infuses the program. From Dana Wilson’s quirky Piece of Mind to Morton Gould’s classic Ballad for Band, Gernot Wolfgang’s idiomatic hybrid Three Short Stories to Donald Grantham’s award-winning Fantasy Variations on Gershwin’s Second Prelude, jazz is the order of the day. And to top it off, the world premiere of a composition by Kimberly Archer that sets the wind ensemble on one of the idiom’s most enduring harmonic foundations.

The Wind Ensemble, directed by Carolyn Barber, is the university’s premier concert band. Its select mission is to provide instrumentalists of advanced technical proficiency a pre-professional ensemble experience.