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Concert Band Cavalcade scheduled April 20 at Normandale Community College, Bloomington

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April 10, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? The Minnesota Symphonic Winds, a Twin Cities concert band, and the Norseman Band of St. Olaf College will appear together in a first-ever collaboration on Friday, April 20, at Normandale Community College.

The concert, at 8 p.m. in the Normandale Community College Auditorium, 9700 France Ave., Bloomington, Minn., is open to the public. Paul Niemisto, conductor of the Norseman Band and a St. Olaf College music faculty member, will be guest conductor for the concert. (Timothy Mahr, Minnesota Symphonic Winds? current conductor, is on sabbatical leave.)

The "Concert Band Cavalcade" program will include both well-known works and newer compositions for concert band.

The Minnesota Symphonic Winds, founded more than 20 years ago by St. Olaf Band conductor emeritus Miles Johnson, has been a very active performing ensemble, with several concerts annually in the Twin Cities and tours around the Midwest and abroad. A large percentage of Symphonic Winds members are graduates of St. Olaf College.

The Norseman Band is one of two symphonic bands at St. Olaf College. The 95-piece ensemble has developed a reputation in recent years as a dynamic and exciting concert ensemble. The band performs regularly on the Northfield campus and tours each spring to cities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada.

The Norseman Band membership reflects the broad spectrum of academic interests and geographical diversity of St. Olaf College students. Last year the Norseman Band was invited to present a concert at the Minnesota Music Educators? conference in Minneapolis, and provided music for the honorary degree ceremony for Estonian President Lennart Meri. The band recently returned from a tour to South Dakota, and will perform again in Northfield on Thursday, April 26, as part of the inauguration of St. Olaf College?s tenth president, Christopher Thomforde.

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Niemisto has conducted the Norseman Band since 1978 and teaches low brass instruments at St. Olaf College. Before 1978 he taught in eastern Canada, where he was a band and orchestra conductor and a member of the CBC Halifax Orchestra.

He is director of Ameriikan Poijat ("The Boys of America"), a well-traveled Finnish-American Brass Ensemble. He also conducts the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra; directs the Trombone Choir, Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble and Brass Choir at St. Olaf; and has led the St. Olaf Summer Music Camp. He is a scholar of Scandinavian music, particularly Finnish music.

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.