The UNL Wind Ensemble will open their concert season with a program inspired by the sights and sounds of Paris throughout the ages. Opening with a late 20th century portrait of the City of Light (Martin Ellerby’s Paris Sketches), we will then travel back to the late 17th century through François Couperin’s Overture and Allegro from “La Sultane” suite. Composer Michael Gandolfi’s Flourishes and Meditations on a Renaissance Theme will then deftly weave together the 16th and 21st centuries, followed by Germaine Tailleferre’s modern yet curiously old-fashioned Suite Divertimento. The concert will close with Walter Piston’s Tunbridge Fair, a classic American band work that feels as if it has spent a semester abroad.

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