MOUNT VERNON — Fall concerts at Cornell College will feature the Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, in King Chapel, and two jazz groups at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, in the Ringer Recital Studio of Armstrong Hall. Admission is free to both concerts.
The Chamber Orchestra’s selections include Haydn’s Notturno VI; Aaron Copland’s “Down a Country Lane,” a lovely simple piece with a gentle, pastoral quality; and Mozart’s overture to “Don Giovanni.” The Wind Ensemble will perform Samuel Barber’s “Commando March,” written during World War II; Beethoven’s Egmont Overture; and Leonard Bernstein’s “Slava!,” an overture written at the request of Mstislav Rostropovich (“Slava” to his friends) for the inaugural concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rostropovich.
The jazz concert will feature the seven-piece jazz combo, the Cornell Screamin’ Jazz Babies, performing the well-known blues tune “Night Train,” a funk ballad arrangement of “Angel Eyes,” “Sittin’ Here” by jazz altoist Phil Woods and an original tune composed by the band, “Mary’s Mom.”
The 17-piece Jazz Ensemble’s program features a Count Basie-influenced arrangement of “April in Paris” by noted arranger and tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer; a Mintzer original, “Hop, Skip, and Jump”; Movements 1 and 2 from Mike Tomaro’s award-winning suite for big band, “Nightowl Suite,” an arrangement based on “a night in the life of the quintessential jazz fanatic” and featuring sophomore John Ugaste on tenor sax.