Wake Forest wind ensemble premieres two compositions

The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Brendle Recital Hall.

Wake Forest composer-in-residence Dan Locklair composed “Pilgrim’s Lot” for the 50-member campus group. Based on a melody from an early American shape-note hymnal, “The Sacred Harp,” the piece is dedicated to Kevin Bowen, the director of instrumental ensembles at Wake Forest, and to the university’s band program.

The one-movement composition opens with percussion to introduce the melody and then the full band enters and begins to develop the theme, says Locklair.

Published by Subito-Presser, the piece will be available for performances by university bands and other musical groups across the country.

Locklair’s music is widely performed throughout the United States, Canada and abroad, including performances in England, Germany, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Korea, Japan, Finland and Russia. He has written symphonic works, a ballet, an opera and numerous solo, chamber, vocal and choral compositions. He has won consecutive ASCAP Awards since 1981, and numerous other awards. In 1996, the American Guild of Organists named Locklair AGO Composer of the Year.

The Wind Ensemble will also perform a joint premiere of “Empire of Light” by Johan de Meij. “Empire of Light” was commissioned by a consortium of eight university bands in the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association. Each of the eight institutions is participating in the premiere of the piece with performance on their own campuses.

“Empire of Light” is the final movement of “The Guggenheim Anthology,” a colorful suite in which de Meij represents in music four paintings from the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy. The movement is inspired by a painting with the same name by the Belgian surrealistic painter Rene Magritte [1898-1967].

Admission to the concert is free. For more information, call 336-758-5026 or 758-5364.