The Santa Fe Wind Ensemble will share the stage with students from the college’s hand drumming class in concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, in the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville.
Tickets are: $15 orchestra; $12 balcony; $9 for University of Florida students, seniors, and children 12 and under; and free to Santa Fe College students and employees. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 352-395-4181 or visit the Fine Arts ticket website at:
http://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts
Under the direction of Professor Gary Langford, students in the Wind Ensemble will perform John Philip Sousa’s “King Cotton March,” “Folk Song Suite” by R. Vaughn Williams, “Air for Band” by Frank Erickson, and “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Overture” by Franz Von Suppe, arranged by H. Fillmore.
Following a brief intermission, the students in Professor Leon Larson’s hand drumming class will open their performance with “Dance of Strength,” to be followed by “Fanga,” a West African welcome song; “Samba” from Brazil; “Abana” from the Caribbean; “Sinta,” a West African initiation dance; “Island Groove” from the Caribbean; “Primativo,” a capoeira rhythm; and “Cape Coast Connection” from Ghana.
Larson has been drumming for more than 50 years. His inspiration was Babatundi Olatunji, the Nigerian drumming master who founded the group Drums of Passion. For the past 15 years, Larson has studied with Gordy Ryan, a 20-year veteran of Drums of Passion, with a focus on West African culture, rhythms and dance. Larson co-founded Gainesville’s Lost Safari Drummers. He has worked with the University of Florida’s Agbedidi drumming and dance ensemble in addition to teaching at Santa Fe College and conducting drumming workshops throughout Florida.
For more information about the concert, call Gary Langford at 352-514-7752 and/or Leon Larson at 381-3862, ext. 6335.
For more information about programs in the Fine Arts Department, call Chairperson Alora Haynes at 352-395-5296.
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