This Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 PM, the UofL Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band are pleased to present their final concert of the 25 – 26 school year.
Highlights for the Symphonic Band portion of the concert, conducted by Dr. Amy Acklin, include the performance of 3 consortium premieres: “A Field of Wildflowers,” by Leslie Gilreath, “Refocus,” by RJ Horvat, and “River’s Rising,” by Roger Zare.
In addition to closing the concert with the premiere of “Lines from Longfellow,” the new three-movement work by Director of Bands Dr. Frederick Speck, the Wind Symphony is thrilled to welcome a very special guest artist, percussionist Ben Toth!
Professor Toth is spending a week-long residency here at the University of Louisville, and will join with the Wind Symphony to perform the most recent percussion concerto by Joseph Schwantner. This work was written especially for Professor Toth as soloist!
This is Ben’s second appearance with our Wind Symphony. Years previously, he performed the concerto “Tales from the Center of the Earth,” by Nebojša Jovan Živković, receiving critical acclaim from the Louisville Courier-Journal. This very photo was taken on the stage at our own Comstock Concert Hall.
We are so excited to welcome Professor Benjamin Toth this week and we hope to see you at the Sunday performance! Admission is free and all are welcome.
For more information on Professor Toth, please see his bio below:
Benjamin Toth, Professor of Percussion at The University of Hartford’s Hartt School, and recipient of the 2021 Roy E. Larsen Award for Excellence in Teaching, has presented concerts, radio and television broadcasts, master classes, and children’s programs in dozens of countries, spanning six continents. His performances have been described as “tour de force” (Gramophone), “riveting” (New York Times), “dazzling” (Beaumont Enterprise), “powerful” (Louisville Courier-Journal), “primal” (Die Rheinpfalz), “enchanting” (Kornwestheimer Zeitung), “beautiful and unusual” (Washington Post), “passionate” (Westfalen Blatt), “absolutely precise” (Marburger Neue Zeitung), “hugely virtuosic” (BBC magazine), “awe-inspiring” (Saginaw News), and “breathtaking” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). His varied musical interests are reflected in his performance credits, highlights of which include: chamber music performances with (Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame inductees) Percussion Group Cincinnati (member, 1987-1992), the Jovan Percussion Projekt (member, 1996-present), Illinois Contemporary Chamber Players (member, 1985-86), Gilda Lyons and the Dalí Quartet, and Myriad chamber ensemble, and duo performances with Nebojša Jovan Živković, David Macbride, Robert Black, Catherine Tait, and Susan Botti; concerto appearances with the Cincinnati, Lake Forest, Greensboro, Midland (MI), and Peoria (IL) Symphony Orchestras, the Symphony of Southeast Texas, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble; orchestral and ensemble work with the Sinfonia da Camera, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the Milwaukee Ballet; percussion and drum set work for regional theaters and national tours of Broadway musicals for the Goodspeed Opera House, Hartford Stage, Kenley Players, and Bushnell Theater, and for many touring artists, including Red Skelton, William Warfield, Mitzi Gaynor, Carol Lawrence, Bob Crosby, and the Jimmy Dorsey Band. He has premiered over 60 works, including two concerti written for Percussion Group Cincinnati (by Gerhard Samuel and Russell Peck), and three concerti written expressly for him (by David Macbride, Nebojša Jovan Živković, and Joseph Schwantner). His performance venues have included Ravinia, the Walker Arts Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Dagbe Arts Centre (Ghana), the Encontro Internacional de Percussao (Brazil), the Fifth International Percussion Workshop (Poland), the Festival Bicich Nastroju (Czech Republic), the June in Buffalo festival (with composer Steve Reich), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Glasbeni Maj v Pomurju festival (Slovenia), Nomus Music Festivities (Serbia), the Lithuanian National Philharmonic concert series, the inaugural Australian Drum and Percussion Festival, the Gudong Guoyin international percussion festival (Beijing), the John Cage Centennial Festival (Washington, D.C.), the College Band Directors National Association national convention, Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (sixteen appearances, including collaborations with composers Herbert Brün and John Cage), and the 2000 Panorama (Trinidad National Steel Band Competition). He has recorded for the Albany, Arabesque, Bis, Centaur, Chen Li Music, Equilibrium, GIA, Hartt, Impermanence Records, Innova, Musica Europea, Naxos, TNC and Yesa labels, having appeared on more than twenty recordings. His interest in world percussion has led to intensive study (in Ghana) with master musicians Bernard Woma (gyil), and Emmanuel and Ruben Agbeli (Ewe barrel drumming). He has also studied with frame drum virtuoso Glen Velez, hand drum virtuoso Shane Shanahan, Latin percussionists John Amira and Johnny Almendra, African percussion specialist Joseph Galeota, and Brazilian percussionists Rogerio Boccato and Vinicius Barros. His primary teachers were Thomas Siwe (University of Illinois), Larry Snider (University of Akron), and Bob McKee (drum-set artist). He previously served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Benjamin Toth is a Yamaha performing artist, he uses mallets made by Innovative Percussion and plays Zildjian cymbals.