Band conductor doing double duty in Friday's concert

The concert will feature both the community band and the Chadron State Wind Symphony, which Lambert also directs. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public free of charge.

The performance will feature about 80 musicians – 34 in the community band and 46 in the wind symphony.

Lambert, who joined the Chadron State faculty in the fall of 2005, said the department has been successful in recruiting many students who exclusively participate in the college’s various instrumental groups. The community band consists of half townspeople and half students – only one of which is majoring in music. The wind symphony has many students seeking music degrees, including some outstanding freshmen, he said.

Lambert said he has chosen music to highlight the strengths of the two bands.

“This concert will have a lot of high energy music,” Lambert said. “We like to start with a march that tends to get things rolling.”

Chadron State student Stephanie Aulston of Julesburg, Colo., will serve as a guest conductor for the community band’s performance of Frank Ticheli’s “Shenandoah.” Other pieces include “Midway March” by John Williams, “Hymn Variants” by Alfred Reed and selections from “Les Miserables.”

The wind symphony will play the Henry Fillmore march “King Karl King” and “American Salute,” a Morton Gould piece based on “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Other compositions on the program are Aaron Copeland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody,” “The Hounds of Spring,” which is another piece by Reed, and “Lux Aurumque” by Eric Whitacre.