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St. Olaf Band to perform reunion concert Friday, May 25

mjc
May 21, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? The St. Olaf Band will perform a varied program of music during its Commencement-Reunion Weekend Concert Friday, May 25.

The concert, free and open to the public, will begin at 8 p.m. in Skoglund Center Auditorium. The St. Olaf Band will be conducted by St. Olaf music faculty member Timothy Mahr. The band has been led in rehearsals by Richard E. Strange, professor of music and director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University, while Mahr was away on sabbatical leave.

The band will perform "Ja Vi Elsker" by Rikard Nordraak; "The Star Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott Key, arranged by J. S. Smith; Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings" by Johan de Meij; "Irish Tune from County Derry" by Percy Aldridge Grainger; "Everyday Hero" by Timothy Mahr; "Passacaglia" by Ron Nelson; "Children?s March" by Percy Grainger; "Lagan Love," arranged by Luigi Zaninelli; and "Elsa?s Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin" by Richard Wagner.

The St. Olaf Band is the oldest music organization at St. Olaf College, and from its earliest days has toured nationally and internationally. Founded in 1891 as the St. Olaf Cornet Band, it has developed into an ensemble noted worldwide for superb musicianship. In 1906 the Band became the first American collegiate band to make a European concert tour ? a four-week, 30-concert tour to Norway. The Band has subsequently toured several times in Norway, Great Britain and central Europe, as well as throughout the United States.

Last summer, during an 18-day tour in the British Isles, the band performed in Dublin, Ireland, with the Royal Irish Academy of Music Wind Ensemble; Derry, Northern Ireland; Livingston, Scotland; York, England; Warwick, England; Swansea, Wales; and London, England, with the Band of Her Majesty?s Grenadier Guards.

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In 1995 the St. Olaf Band performed for King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway during their visit to the United States. In 1996 the St. Olaf Band traveled to Norway for an 18-day tour.

Conductor Timothy Mahr is in demand internationally as a conductor of all-state bands, intercollegiate bands and honor band festivals. Well known as a composer, he has received commissions from the U.S. Air Force Band, the Music Educators National Conference, the Nebraska and Indiana Bandmasters Associations and many colleges, universities, high schools and community bands. He joined St. Olaf College faculty in 1994, after the retirement of Miles H. "Mity" Johnson, who conducted the Band for 37 years.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.