Abigail Shimniok

The Symphonic Wind Ensemble (SWE) is undoubtedly the most intense ensemble a UW-Platteville musician may aspire to join. Directed by Matt Gregg, this skilled coalition of students performed a concert on April 17, titled “The Word”. The word referred to is the written word; poems, prose and the function of words all played a part in the amalgamation of the performance.
SWE’s spring season involves a tour of schools, and the chosen songs present the sheer skill that SWE students possess. “We tend to set the bar kind of high with the literature and they get really mad at us in the front end but usually by the end of the concert cycle they rise to the occasion, and I think they did that tonight.” Gregg stated in an interview.
The concert began with “In Living Color.” The piece was a modern composition constructed after COVID-19 and features sudden shifts in timbres while maintaining an upbeat, alive underlaying
theme. The second piece took a shift into a more reflective, peaceful scape. “Blessings – a journey through parenthood” featured two soloists, Daniel Rowland on the euphonium and Heather Huckleberry on the oboe. Further adding to the piece were four poems written into the music, read aloud by Anne Farrelly and Jeffery Strange. The poems involved aspects of being a parent, and the entire piece featured soft, almost lullaby-like themes which shifted with each poem.
“I tend to plan things out sometimes years in advance, and this one that I’ve kind of had brewing in my mind for a while; pieces that were based on some type of literature. Poems, plays, all kinds of other things and there’s so many more, but these are some of my very favorites,” Gregg continued. “This Sam Hazo piece where there are the 4 different poem excerpts being narrated is something I’ve wanted to do since I heard it and you can barely find a recording of that piece online, so I was so excited that we got a chance to perform it and got a chance to collaborate with our theater faculty on that piece, and I thought they did a great job.”
In contrast to the lilting piece, SWE then continued with Henry Fillmore’s march “Americans We”, a classic piece of “good old fashioned American patriotism” in the words of Gregg. Following the song, a portion of the ensemble left the stage. “Pax Aeternam” involved Daniel Rowland performing a tuba solo, and the piece was dedicated to Ethan Squires, a UW-Platteville student who had recently passed away. “Tonight, Pax is for Ethan,” Rowland stated before playing. The piece was slow, with a bittersweet sad feeling to it. After the song ended, Rowland mentioned his tuba solo album, “Widening Circles.”
Romanian Dances 2 was an incredibly fast, technical piece that flawlessly showed off the skills of the Ensemble. The melody and countermelody tumble over themselves effortlessly, and Ensemble members rocked and shifted along with intense tempo. The choice of this song, according to Gregg, was simply that it was a nice encore to the previous piece.
After the intermission, the Ensemble continued with “Overture to Candide Bernstein,” directed by Aaron Cooley. The song switched themes the way an overture does, with frequent returns to the same motifs. Senior Guin Diehl conducted the next piece, providing a small speech beforehand about the significance of the piece “Amazing Grace”. The feeling of Americana associated with the piece was perpetuated by the Ensemble’s attention to the melody and subtle details.
The finale to the performance was seven movements from the Carl Orff’s “Carmina Orff.” The selections ranged from love ballads, gentle tunes to the dramatic finale of “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi.” The selection showed the sheer skill and range that SWE possesses. Some of UW-Platteville’s finest musicians proved their skills in an impressive concert.