The Southeastern Wind Symphony showcased an array of music performed by the university’s top wind and percussion musicians as part of the 25th Fanfare on Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts.

The concert band is led by conductor Dr. Glen J. Hemberger, with special guest player Timothy McAllister, one of America’s leading classical saxophone performers.

“This is the concert I look forward to, as does the entire community, every year,” said Dr. Kenneth Boulton, director of the Columbia Theatre and an associate professor of piano at Southeastern.

The symphonic band presented their production “L’Oiseau de feu” (“The Firebird”), which opened with “March” from German composer Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis.”

Other pieces performed included Frank Ticheli’s “Postcard,” “O Magnum Mysterium” and Paul Creston’s “Concerto for Saxophone and Wind Band.” This concerto included frequent saxophone solos performed by McAllister, who holds the prestigious Albert A. Stanley Medal as well as the Earl V. Moore Award for soprano saxophone.

Also played during the performance were “Children’s March:  Over the Hills and Far Away” and three movements from Igor Stravinsky’s suite from “The Firebird.”

“Dr. Hemberger is always looking to challenge us,” said Carlye Latas, a sophomore and member of the Wind Symphony. “He picked some pretty difficult music last semester. He raised the bar this semester with ‘Firebird.’ From what I could see, it was a program based on varying human emotions conveyed into music.”

During the performance, members of the symphonic band wore ribbons that were colored pink, orange and blue.

Pink symbolized breast cancer awareness. Orange was for kidney cancer in honor of a band member’s father, who was diagnosed with the disease. Blue was in remembrance of four students from Vandebilt Catholic High School who were killed in a car accident. Latas was a graduate from Vandebilt.

At the end of the concert, the band was seated once more to give an encore performance of the finale from the “L’Oiseau de feu” production.

“‘The Infernal Dance of King Kastchei’ was my favorite,” said sophomore Mervin Brochard. “I liked how it was so powerful, and I liked how Dr. Hemberger varied the music. He played some old classical music and some modern classical music. Some of it was really rhythmic and some of it was slow and emotional. It showed well the musical range of Dr. Hemberger and the wind symphony.”