Carroll University Wind Symphony Performing Nov. 5

The will perform music inspired by Water on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Shattuck Music Center, 218 N. East Ave., Waukesha. Tickets are $8 adults or $5 students and seniors 60 and older; call 262.524.7633.

Songs will include “The Sunken Cathedral” by Claude Debussy, “Festive Overture” by Dmitri Shostakovich, “Blackwater” by Fergal Carroll, “Spoon River” by Percy Grainger and “Shenandoah” by Frank Ticheli. The featured piece is “Ecstatic Waters” by Steven Bryant, a 2008 composition for wind ensemble and computer.

Of the piece, Bryant said, “The overall title of the work is taken from poetry of Yeats, whose idiosyncratic personal mythology and symbolism of spiraling chaos and looming apocalypse figured prominently in the genesis of the work. Yet in a nod to the piece’s structural reality – as hybrid of electronics and living players – Ecstatic Waters also references the confrontation of unruly humanity with the order of the machine, as well as the potential of a post-human synthesis, inspired by futurist thinkers such as Kurzwiel.”

This concert is part of the university’s yearlong exploration of WATER: the essential element of life on earth, an interdisciplinary-themed series that will explore our relationships with water on personal, regional and global levels. During the 2011-2012 academic year, the Carroll community will examine how water informs cultural, environmental, spiritual, economic and political issues. For more information, visit www.carrollu.edu/water.

The Wind Symphony is conducted by Lawrence Dale Harper, professor of music, and performs the finest of traditional and contemporary wind literature. The ensemble is open by audition to all Carroll students regardless of major, and significant scholarships are available for students who qualify.