MASON BANDS: West Side Story

Some stories never stop demanding to be told. Tonight, two ensembles take up that challenge from opposite ends of the wind band tradition — one rooted in folk memory and lyric line, the other tracing a path from Bach's architecture to Bernstein's streets — and meet in the middle at something electric.
The Mason Symphonic Band opens with music that listens closely to where it comes from. Calvin Custer's Variations on Scarborough Fair takes a centuries-old ballad and turns it over in the light, finding new color in every facet. Frank Erickson's Air for Band slows the room down, trading momentum for breath and space. Then Frank Ticheli's Cajun Folksongs pulls the evening south, into the syncopated heat and dance-floor pulse of Louisiana — folk music reimagined with the same restless curiosity that defines this set.
The Mason Wind Symphony answers with a program built on contrast and connection. Two faces of Bach open the set: the quiet devotion of Fervent is My Longing beside the architectural precision of the Little Fugue in G Minor, proof that structure itself can be its own kind of beauty. Nicole Piunno's With Love and Grace brings a contemporary voice into the room, lyrical and unguarded. And then: Bernstein. Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, arranged by Paul Lavender, doesn't just close the evening — it ignites it, channeling rivalry, romance, and raw urban energy into one of the most enduring scores in American musical theater.
Two ensembles. Four centuries of music. One unmistakable feeling that the wind band is very much alive.