A Serenade: President-Chancellor’s Concert

On April 24, 2018 in the Hayden Hall Theater, the annual President-Chancellor’s concert took place on SUBR campus. The event featured multiple performances from our very own Southern University marching band.
The music selections were chosen from a variety of different composers, such as Peter Tchaikovsky and Claude T. Smith, to name a few, who have composed some of the most renowned works of art in the genre of classical music.
The set to start the event was Southern University’s own Symphonic Band, led and conducted by Conductor and Assistant Director of Bands, Brian Simmons.
When asked as to what all goes into preparing for an event such as this, Simmons said, “It takes us a long time for us to prepare, because we have to change the style of playing. The difference between a concert band and a marching band is simply setting.”
Performing four different songs by four completely different composers, such a performance is one that Simmons commented that he is proud of, but expects from his group.
“They gave me a B-plus. They’ll never get an ‘A’,” said Simmons on his personal opinion of his group’s performance to start the night off. Simmons continued on to say that in regards to the high standards he has for his group at all times, “My standards are too high [and] Southern University’s standards are too high.”
During intermission at the event however, there was a brief honoring of a local high school, Baker High, with Southern University’s own “Winner’s Circle – Lifetime Achievement” Award.
After the intermission, the Southern University Wind Ensemble took to the stage to perform. Performing pieces such as Rossano Galante and Oliver Nickel, the Wind Ensemble played a total of six songs to close out the concert.
While the audience of the concert was mainly comprised of alumni and older members of administration, there was also a relatively high number of current students in attendance, who came out to see their band’s performance.
Alsha Guss, a freshmen Mass Communication major from New Orleans, Louisiana, spoke on what drew her to an event such as the President’s Concert.
“I’m happy that the ensemble was able to change the ranging of the performance. I was able to hear all of the instruments,” said Guss in response to the positives she took away from the performance.
Guss, an experienced member of the band herself, echoed Assistant-Director Simmon’s sentiments on the innate difficulty of making an outside band perform well, from an audience perspective, into an inside setting.
Filling up the room in the Hayden Theater, this year’s concert welcomed faces old and young to witness classical music in the heart of Southern University’s campus that was heard by all in attendance.