BROOKINGS – The 2017 SDSU Honor Band Festival will be held today and Friday in the Performing Arts Center on the campus of South Dakota State University. 

The finale concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Larson Memorial Concert Hall.

This concert will feature the High School Honor Wind Ensemble, a competitively auditioned ensemble featuring 65 students from South Dakota and Minnesota, and the SDSU Wind Symphony, both under the direction of Jacob Wallace, SDSU’s director of concert bands.

“We’re very excited to be putting on this event. More than 200 students applied from nearly 30 high school band programs,” Wallace said. “Some of the best and brightest students from throughout South Dakota and Minnesota are a part of this group, and we can’t wait to provide a tremendous musical experience for each of them while they’re here on campus.”

Throughout the two-day event, student participants will rehearse as a group and work with SDSU faculty in small workshops. The Finale Concert features both bands performing.  SDSU Associate Professor Michael Walsh will perform as a soloist while Kevin Kessler, director of athletic bands, will conduct a piece. The program concludes with both bands taking the stage together to perform musical selections as one combined Festival Symphonic Band, including the premiere performance of John Mackey’s “This Cruel Moon.”

For more information, contact the SDSU School of Performing Arts at 688-5187.