Out of more than 130 of acclaimed music composer David Maslanka’s works, forty of them are pieces for wind ensemble. They include seven symphonies, fifteen concertos, a Mass and many concert pieces.

“His compositions have been performed throughout the U.S. and in many places throughout the world. Both our faculty and our students should benefit from meeting and learning from this master composer,” said Director of Bands and Wind Symphony Conductor Glen J. Hemberger. 

Dr. Maslanka will serve as an artist-in-residence at the university April 8-10. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition, spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and completed his masters and doctoral study in composition at Michigan State University. Malanska has been a freelance composer since 1990. He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943 and now resides in Missoula, Montana. He has also served on the faculties of State University of New York-Genesco, Sarah Lawrence College and New York University.

The composer will give lectures to several music classes, conduct master classes in percussion and saxophone and meet with students. He will also be supervising a concert titled “Give Us This Day,” which premiered in 2006. It will be given by the university’s wind symphony and the regionally and nationally recognized St. Amant High School band at the Columbia Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on April 10. The performance is free to the public.

The concert program includes Bach’s “Little Fugue in G Minor,” and Charles Ives’ “Country Band March.” Maslanka’s “Symphony No. 4,”which has become a major composition in the wind band repertoire with its demanding technique, style, range, and duration, and “Concerto for Alto Saxophone-Movement I; Song: Fire in the Earth,” which features Southeastern senior Jonathan Lyons, who will also be a part of the program. “Give Us This Day” was inspired by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, whose premise is that the earth’s future lies in individuals becoming deeply mindful of themselves.

For more information, call the Department for Fine and Performing Arts at 985-549-2184.