Stillwater NewsPress

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February 15, 2013

Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble gets set for first concert of semester

By Chase Rheam Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER, Okla. — The Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble invites music lovers to attend their first concert of the spring semester Feb. 21.

The concert, held at 8 p.m. in the Seretean Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, will be under the direction of conductor Joseph Missal.

The performance will include the debut of a new piece by Edward Knight, the head of the composition division at Oklahoma City University, titled “Inbox.”

“Inbox is a piece that was written especially for the OSU Wind Ensemble,” Missal said.

Knight’s daughter studies oboe with a teacher at OSU.

He usually sits in the hallway during her lessons, Missal said. One day, Missal invited him into a rehearsal and Knight asked if he could write a piece for the group, to which Missal agreed.

“The piece is about a computer and each movement deals with various aspects of email or websites,” Missal said. “One of the movements is Match.com. One of the movements is an eBay bid war. So, it’s a very humorous piece.”

Missal said Knight is very talented.

“He’ll be at the performance and we’ll have him do an introduction to the piece,” he said.

The wind ensemble will also perform with accomplished Stillwater ballerina Michaela Harrington, the daughter of OSU clarinet teacher Babette Belter and her husband Michael Harrington.

Michaela Harrington works with the Tulsa Ballet and has completed summer intensives with companies in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

“Michaela is a very very talented ballerina,” Missal said.

Harrington will dance during one of the movements of “Pineapple Poll.”

“Pineapple Poll is kind of a musical spoof on operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan,” Missal said.

Missal said he enjoys integrating arts.

“The more that we can integrate the arts whether it be vocal or instrumental or film with music or sculpture with music or painting with music or dance with music, I think the better chance of all art forms surviving and continuing to be vital to our society,” he said.

The performance will be capped off with an additional two pieces — the chamber work Serenade in E flat, opus 7 by Richard Strauss and Symphony No. 7 by David Maslanka, which Missal said is one of the most difficult pieces in the wind ensemble’s repertoire.

“The slow movement is very exposed and offers lots of opportunity for individual expression,” he said.

“In the fast movement, it’s just technically difficult.”

Admission is $8 for adults and $6 for students and senior citizens. All proceeds benefit the OSU Department of Music.

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