ONTARIO, Calif. - eTradeWire -- The Southland Wind Ensemble presents their upcoming concert, Dances for Band, on Saturday, May 9, 2026 at the Historic Bethel Congregational Church in Ontario (536 N. Euclid Ave, Ontario, CA 91762) at 4pm. Admission is FREE.

Under the batons of George Osorio, Connor Edmundson and Emanuel Esparza, the program highlights various dance forms, including Baroque dances, music from the countryside, Broadway musical highlights, and more! Our concertmaster, Albert Rice, will be featured as the soloist in Weber's Concertino, Op. 26.

Featured Music:

Our upcoming concert, Dances for Band, features composers ranging from the late 19th century to present day. The concert opens up with Arlen's Wizard of Oz Overture, conducted by our saxophonist, Emanuel Esparza. Arlen's overture features songs from the movie, including Over the Rainbow; Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead; We're Off to See the Wizard; The Merry Old Land of Oz and If I Only Had a Brain. Following that is one of the greatest works in the wind band repertoire, Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, which is often performed without the 3rd and 5th movements (we will perform the entire work) due to their complex meter and musical relationships across the ensemble. Carl Maria von Weber's Concertino, Op. 26 concludes the first half of the program, featuring our principal clarinetist, Albert Rice. The Concertino was composed for Heinrich Baermann in three days, between March 29 and April 3 of 1811, with its premiere on April 5, 1811. The success of this work prompted a commission for two new clarinet concertos (op. 73 and op. 74).

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The second half of the program opens with Kenneth Hesketh's Danceries, a four movement work that takes some original material from Playford's Dancing Master, a collection of folk and popular tunes of the 17th century, and creates some original melodies in the style of 17th century music. Assistant Conductor, Connor Edmundson, takes lead of the ensemble in Omar Thomas' setting of Shenandoah, a deviation from the usual settings that we've been accustomed to in past settings by other composers. Finally, we end with Stravinsky's Circus Polka, one of the first compositions written after his arrival to the United States in 1942. This work was composed for the Ringling Brothers Circus at the request of George Balanchine, which was to accompany a ballet of elephants with an anonymous instrumentation, based on the Ringling Brothers Circus' traveling band.

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Please visit https://southlandwindensemble.com/concert-dances-for-band