CONWAY, Ark. (April 18, 2013) - Hendrix College will host the fourth annual Festival of Winds Honor Band for high school students grades 9-12 on Saturday, May 4.
Eighty students representing 19 high schools will gather for rehearsals from 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. and present a concert at 7:30 p.m. in Staples Auditorium at Hendrix.
High schools represented in the honor band include: Arkansas High School, Texarkana; Bigelow High School; Bryant High School; Cabot Junior High South, Cabot High School; Camden Fairview High School; Conway High School; Harding Charter Prep, Oklahoma City, OK; Hermitage High School; Hot Springs High School; Malvern High School; Marion High School; Parkview Arts - Science Magnet School, Little Rock; Pocahontas High School; Rison High School; Russellville Junior High School; Star City High School; West Memphis High School; and West Side Greers Ferry.
The guest conductor for the honor band is Dr. Tim Robblee. Dr.Robblee is the associate director of bands and conductor for the Institute for New Music at Northwestern University, where he conducts the Symphonic Band and Contemporary Music Ensemble, as well as teaching courses in conducting and music education (see full bio below).
The Festival of Winds Honor Band will perform The Battle Pavane by Tielman Susato / arr. Margolis, Prelude and Fugue in G minor by J.S. Bach / arr. Moehlmann, Shepherd's Hey by Percy Grainger, Old Churches by Michael Colgrass, Ave Verum Corpus by W.A. Mozart / arr. Kreines (Dr. Karen Fannin, conductor), and Foundry by John Mackey.
Sharing the concert with the honor band will be the Little Rock Wind Symphony conducted by Hendrix music professor Dr. Karen Fannin, on Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich, Sleep by Eric Whitacre (Tim Robblee, conductor), and Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Márquez / arr. Nickel.
This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Fannin at 501-450-1422 or fannin@hendrix.edu.
Guest Conductor Bio
Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Roblee served as the director of bands at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., and Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
Dr. Robblee holds a Ph.D. in music education and wind band conducting at the University of Minnesota, an master's degree in conducting from Northwestern University, and a bachelor's degree in music education from Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. He also spent a year at the Munich Hochschule für Musik pursuing graduate clarinet studies. Prior to graduate study, he taught for eight years as an instrumental music educator in the public schools of Palo Alto, Calif., where his students and ensembles were recognized for excellence on a state and national level, including recognition from the 1997 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards as the Outstanding High School Jazz Combo.
Dr. Robblee maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician and is published as part of GIA's Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. As an advocate of music in the public schools, he has adjudicated at numerous music festivals and presented at music education conferences throughout North America, including the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.