Symphonic Band Travels to Ireland

Members of the St. Ambrose University Symphonic Band will make Irish eyes smile – or at least make some toes tap on the auld sod – when the SAU group visits the Emerald Isle May 12-21.

Nicholas Enz, DMA, director of bands and an assistant professor in the Music Department, said the trip will be the ensemble's first overseas in decades, but it won't be the last.

Similar to a choral trip to Europe two years ago, this is an opportunity the department plans to repeat every four years. Ideally, that will allow most SAU music students the chance to perform overseas in the course of their college careers.

The band will give five performances while also seeing the sights in Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford, and Dublin. They will enjoy the rare opportunity for an American band to perform at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Enz said the band will play a mix of American music, including a Sousa march, Bernstein medley, and some Dixieland jazz. "In talking with different people about this they suggested we program things that are quintessentially American," he said. "You can't get more American than jazz."

The band will preview its repertoire at noon May 4 at the Galvin Fine Arts Center during St. Ambrose Band Day at the Bandshell. The program is free and open to the public.