DANBURY, CONN. — Take a break from holiday planning to relax and enjoy music to be thankful for as Western Connecticut State University music students stage three concerts in November. The performances listed below will each begin at 8 p.m. in Ives Concert Hall in White Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. Performances will be free and the public is invited; donations to support the music department will be accepted.

The first of three upcoming concerts will be on Wednesday, Nov. 18, featuring the WCSU Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band conducted by Fernando Jimenez. The Symphonic Band will begin the program with Respighi’s “Airs of the Court,” followed by “The Immovable Do” by Percy Aldridge Grainger. “Passages,” by Michael Sweeney, will complete the first half of the concert. Following intermission, the Wind Ensemble will perform Sean O’Loughlin’s “Burst,” a spirited piece for wind band full of exciting rhythms and memorable melodies. Also included in the Wind Ensemble’s set will be “Chorus Angelorum” by Samuel Hazo and “Mansions of Glory” by David Gillingham. The concert will close with “Vientos Y Tangos” by Michael Gandolfi.

The WCSU Orchestra will perform on Thursday, Nov. 19. The first half of the concert will be devoted to student soloists in performances of Vivaldi, Mozart and Mendelssohn. Bassoon soloist Dan Lovallo will open the program with one of Antonio Vivaldi’s energetic concerti for bassoon and string orchestra. Mozart’s popular Concerto No. 21 in C major (K. 46) for Piano and Orchestra will follow, with student pianist Justin Vendette as the soloist. The orchestra will then offer two works by German composer Felix Mendelssohn. The first of these works will be the Concertpiece No. 1 for Two Clarinets and Orchestra played by WCSU student clarinetists Kari Frederickson and Aaron Marshall. It will be followed by the last movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor. This standard of the violin repertory will be performed by WCSU junior violinist Hafez Taghavi, who is the WCSU Orchestra concertmaster, a regular soloist with the WCSU Orchestra and first violinist of the WCSU String Quartet I since his freshman year.

After the intermission, the WCSU Orchestra will expand to its full strength for a performance of the two last movements of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Symphonic Suite Scheherazade.” These movements of the suite highlight soloists from the percussion, wind and cello sections with a violin soloist (Taghavi) in the role of the Sultana Scheherazade trying to save her life over One Thousand and One Nights by spinning wondrous tales for her insane husband the Sultan Sharyar. Professor of Music Eric Lewis, coordinator of String and Orchestral Studies, will conduct.

On Tuesday, Nov. 24, the WCSU Chamber Singers and Concert Choir will take the stage. The Chamber Singers will concentrate on music composed and arranged by Americans, beginning with two early American hymns arranged by Alice Parker. Williametta Spencer’s “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners” will precede two movements of Cecil Effinger’s “Four Pastorales for Oboe and Chorus” with WCSU faculty artist Dr. Mark Snyder accompanying the group. The men will take over with the barbershop standard, “Vive L’Amour,” with the women singing “O Fondens Virga for women’s chorus, piano, and violin” composed by the conductor, Dr. Kevin Jay Isaacs. WCSU Adjunct Professor Patricia Lutnes, accompanist for the group, and Isaacs will lead the ensemble through “The Waking,” a Theodore Roethke poem composed by Giselle Wyers. The Chamber Singers will perform Robert Muczynski’s “I Never Saw a Moor,” before singing the madrigal “The Cricket’s Widow” by Robert Baska. Closing the program will be “Shenendoah” by jazz arranger Doug Andrews. In addition to the Chamber Singers, the Concert Choir will perform a variety of selections from Praetorius to Grotenhuis and three popular African American Spirituals. The concert will conclude with “O Sifuni Mungu,” an African rendering in the Swahili language of “All Creatures of our God and King,” accompanied by an instrumental combo and featuring two students who, through American Sign Language, will augment the text visually for the audience, adding another layer of interest to this foot-stomping piece.

For more information, call the music department at (203) 837-8350.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.