Spring concerts at CLU range from marches to modernists

The California Lutheran University Wind Ensemble will present a concert titled "Marches of Freedom" at 8 p.m. Fri., April 7 in Samuelson Chapel on the campus at 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Under the direction of CLU music professor Dr. Daniel Geeting, the wind ensemble will focus on marches and works inspired by the march form. Civil War tunes, late 19th-century marches, modern works based on marches, and compositions by John Philip Sousa will be performed.

CLU's fourth annual New Music Concert will feature faculty percussionist Scott Higgins, accompanied by the CLU Percussion Ensemble, and faculty member Mark Spraggins on piano. The performance will be at 8 p.m. Tues., April 11 in Samuelson Chapel.

The program will include "Double Music for Percussion Quartet" by John Cage and Lou Harrison and "Fanfare for Tambourines" by John Alfieri. Higgins will be the featured percussionist in "Toccata for Two Harps and Mallet Percussion" by Bruce Broughton. Broughton is known for his score for the film "Silverado."

Spraggins will play selections from John Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano. Each note on the piano is "prepared" by wedging a variety of objects including bolts, screws and erasers between the strings. The result is an instrument that sounds more like a percussion or gamelan instrument than a piano.

A freewill offering will be received at each performance. For more information, please call (805) 493-3306.