Elmhurst University bands are proud to present their first concert of the 2026-2027 school year, starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18 in Hammerschmidt Chapel on the Elmhurst University campus.
The concert will feature the Elmhurst University Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band. Admission is free and open to the public; no ticket required.
The Elmhurst Wind Ensemble’s program is titled “Recuerdos” featuring music from all Latin composers. The program begins with a premiere performance of multiple time GRAMMY nominated composer Juan Pablo Contreras’s first piece for band, Quinceañera, The entertaining and expertly crafted work relives the composers time crashing the lavish parties as a teenager, and is filled with exciting rhythms, dance music and a heartfelt, poignant nostalgia of childhood.
The program continues with En Mi, Familia from Cuban American composer Ivette Herryman Rodriguez, which takes the listener through a meditation on the importance of family, and their ever-present role in our lives.
Next is music from major Spanish composer Luis Serrano Alarcon. Spanish Dances, book 1 is the composers take on three traditional Spanish dances. The piece marks the beginning of a lifelong project for the composer to set as many classic Spanish dances for the world to experience as possible.
The Wind Ensemble will then feature music from Elmhurst University’s own award-winning composition faculty, Dr. Josh Rodriguez.
Tikal is the composer’s remembrances of visiting the Guatemalan Pyramids with his father for the first time as a child. The intricate and complex piece is a true musical palindrome.
After the initial ascent up the pyramid and a moment of repose to enjoy the view of nature, the second half of the piece recreates a descent that is an exact, note for note inversion, or backwards playing, of the first half of the piece. This complex compositional feat is not only appreciated in study but also aurally identifiable to an audience thanks to Rodriguez’s advanced command of thematic material and harmonic content.
The Wind Ensemble’s program will then close with Colombian composer Victoriano Valencia Rincon’s San Pelayo, a tribute to the emergence of bandas in Colombia in the early 20th century, and their trademark music, a high flying, groove orientated fusion of Colombian Flamengo and merengue. The work is an entertaining show piece for winds that has audiences clapping and dancing along!
Preceding the Wind Ensemble, the Elmhurst Symphonic Band will present its program titled “Visions and Vistas.” The program musically explores the intersection of the physical world and the mind, from sweeping panoramic geography to the internal landscapes of human memory, dreams and hope. The program opens with composer Tyler Grant’s Panoramic Landscapes, written when the composer was still in high school.
The piece evokes the experience of standing on a tall peak and experiencing the great vistas beyond. The program then progresses with Cait Nishimura’s Boreal Pines, a piece inspired by the resilience of evergreen forests of North America.
The next three pieces, Bright Shadow Fanfare by Nicole Piunno, Lucid Dreams by Adrian Sims, and As Summer Was Just Beginning by Larry Daehn explore the illumination of the human mind and memory. Finally, returning to nature, the Symphonic Band will close with Rassano Galante’s Red Rock Mountain, a cinematic and virtuosic finale that captures the rugged power and timeless elegance of the American West.
The concert is sure to excite and inspire audiences with a wide ranging and highly absorbing set of repertoires. For further information regarding this concert, future band performances, a map of the campus and more, visit www.elmhurst.edu/music.
