Onward!—Connection, Innovation, and Community

In its 21-22 academic year finale, MITWE celebrates its innovative/community ethos with premiere arrangements and by featuring guest performers from local public schools, MIT alumni, and its own members. Kenneth Amis leads the Boston-area premiere of his arrangement of Francis Johnson’s Collection of New Cotillions. Born in 1792, Johnson was the first African American to publish sheet music. Continuing its exploration of Brazilian music, MITWE will present world premiere arrangements of three works by Hermeto Pascoal and Egberto Gismonti, arranged by Francesca Gaza, Sebastián Greschuk, and Oscar Latorre, and the MITWE Percussion Ensemble performs Antônio Carlos Jobim’s Surfboard.

Elgar’s popular Enigma Variations, along with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Rheinische Kirmestänze are also featured on this special program, along with the MITWE Brass Quintet performing music of Victor Ewald.

Honoring local music educator Cesar Garde (who has served Blanchard Memorial School in Boxborough, MA for nearly 30 years), the MITWE percussion ensemble will combine with 20 percussionists, grades 4 through 12, from the Acton-Boxborough Public Schools for the world premiere of The Master of Time by John McLellan.

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ABOUT MIT WIND ENSEMBLE

Founded by Music Director Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. in the fall of 1999, the MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE) is one of the most innovated such ensembles of its kind. Comprised primarily of outstanding MIT undergraduates and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines within science, engineering, and the humanities. Repertoire includes outstanding traditional works and new music for full wind ensemble, chamber winds, brass ensemble, percussion ensemble, and woodwind ensembles. MITWE has commissioned 45 original works from many prominent composers. MIT Affiliated Artist, renowned composer, and tuba player of the Empire Brass, Kenneth Amis, is the Assistant Conductor of MITWE.

MITWE has been featured on NPR and was the subject of the 2014 Emmy-winning documentary Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring Through Music, aired on PBS. MITWE is also featured in the 2019 Emmy-nominated documentary The Great Clarinet Summit, and Call and Response: Creativity at MIT. MITWE’s joint recording with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, Infinite Winds, received a five-star review from DownBeat and was chosen by the magazine as one of its “Best Albums of 2015 Five-Star Masterpieces” — the first such recognition of its kind for a collegiate wind ensemble. The Boston Globe called the recording “one of the most compelling of 2015.”

Throughout its 21-year history, MITWE has collaborated with elementary, middle and high school students throughout Massachusetts. In March of 2019, MITWE embarked on its first tour, spending a week in the Dominican Republic, presenting four concerts, many STEAM presentations for middle, high school and college students, and premiering the eco-music piece In Praise Of The Humpback.

In May of 2020, MITWE had the honor of opening MIT’s virtual Commencement with To The Light, To The Flame. MITWE also participated in MIT’s 2021 virtual Commencement, performing Diary Of A Pandemic Year.