AMFS faculty artist Joaquín Valdepeñas conducts AMFS wind students in this varied program. After meeting Jean Françaix when he was a child, Maurice Ravel wrote to Françaix's father: "Among the child's gifts I observe above all the most fruitful an artist can possess, that of curiousity." Composed in 1973, the 9 pièces caractéristiques reflect the influcences of Chabrier and Poulenc. Charming and often humorous, his music accomplishes his own stated primary purpose: "to give pleasure. " The unusual scoring of Stravinsky's Octet, which combines four woodwind and four brass instruments, was inspired by a dream the composer had one night in Biarritz in late 1922. He began to compose the work immediately. Dvorak wrote his lyrical and harmonically rich Wind Serenade in only two weeks after being impressed by a performance by Mozart's Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments he heard in Vienna. Using Mozart's piece as his model, he supplemented the wind band with a bass part for violoncello and double bass.

Hear an ensemble of top AMFS wind students in this delightful concert!