Stage Band, Percussion Groups Concert April 20

The Fairmont State Stage Band will present a concert of jazz and popular music on Wednesday, April 20. The concert will take place in the Turley Center Ballroom at 8 p.m.

The Percussion Ensemble, Japanese Taiko Group and African Drum and Dance Group also will be performing with the Stage Band at the concert. The Percussion Ensemble is under the direction of Jonathan Burbank, Adjunct Professor of Music. The African Drum and Dance ensemble will perform dances from Ghana, Togo and Nigeria. The Japanese Taiko ensemble will perform an original composition of Burbank's titled "Sendai."f

The Stage Band, directed by Associate Professor of Music Stephen Johnson, is an ensemble consisting of FS music majors and minors as well as students in other disciplines. They perform various styles of classic jazz and other forms of popular music such as rock, swing, Latin and funk. The ensemble had a very active fall semester that included a well-attended November concert and a performance at the FS Faculty Christmas Dinner/Dance. The latter event called for the members of the band to learn more than 50 new dance tunes, some of which will be featured at the April concert.

The program will include William Stegmeyer's "And It Came to Brass," featuring the trumpet and trombone sections; George Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland," in the arrangement played by the Stan Kenton Orchestra; and a "swing" medley consisting of "Just a Gigolo" and "I Ain't Got Nobody."

Adjunct instructor of music and theatre, Stephanie Adlington, will lend her vocal talents to Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler's "I've Got the World on a String," and James van Heusen and Eddie DeLange's "Darn That Dream." This is Adlington's debut with the ensemble.

Classic tunes such as "As Time Goes By" (from the movie "Casablanca"), Henry Mancini's "Days of Wine and Roses" and the cha-cha "In a Spanish Town" will be performed for the pleasure of the dancers in the audience.

Concert admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (304) 367-4219.