Community Gold Band concert to honour women
By Bobinec, Greg on February 15, 2020.
Greg Bobinec
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge Community Gold Band is recognizing International Women’s Day with a concert featuring women composers and conductors.
The concert will showcase local, regional and national talent from the wind band tradition. The performance will include guests Gillian MacKay, Cait Nishimura and the LCI Gold Symphonic Band. The performance takes place on March 7, at 7 p.m. at College Drive Community Church.
Celebrating the role women play in the wind band world, the entire concert will feature works by women composers, many of whom are Canadian. Women represent a fraction of composers in the classical music world, and more specifically, a small percentage in the wind band tradition. While there is recent movement and traction among band directors in North America to program women composers, very little work is performed. This concert intends to shine a light on the role women play in wind band music through composition and conducting.
MacKay is regarded as one of Canada’s pre-eminent conductors. Originally from Lethbridge and currently a professor at the University of Toronto, MacKay is sought after to conduct ensembles throughout Canada and the United States.
Nishimura is a composer and educator based in Toronto. Her compositions have been performed by bands across Canada, having one of her pieces selected as the winner of the 2017 Canadian Band Associations Composition Competition.
Joining MacKay and Nishimura on the podium for the concert are local conductors Tanya Arnold, Karly Lewis and Karen van de Vendel, all three being educators and performers.
Concert tickets are $15 each and are available online at lcbs.ca, in person at Casa, and at the door of the event. Children 12 and under can attend free of charge, but must have a ticket.
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