The Wartburg College Wind Ensemble will present its annual fall concerts Nov. 4-5.

The band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Neumann Auditorium on the Wartburg campus. Admission is free.

Craig Hancock, director of bands and professor of music, directs the Wind Ensemble.

This year’s performance will include a premier of James Stephenson’s “this is most certainly true,” a work commissioned by a consortium of Lutheran college and university bands, including Wartburg College, for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

“The piece opens with a mystical medieval setting, setting up space for the opening Martin Luther theme. One might imagine an isolated Luther, quietly getting angry about the way things are going with the religious practices around him — namely the selling of indulgences in return for the forgiveness of sins — and that his frustration builds, builds, until finally he nails his ‘95 Theses’ to the door,” Stephenson said. “After this, the work grows quiet again — but only briefly — as his rebellion gathers followers and grows in strength and numbers, bringing us into the present day of celebrating 500 years.”

Also featured will be a premier performance of “LIFETIDE,” a composition by Wartburg senior Jason Costabile.

“In late 2015, I was asked by friend and colleague Aren Souhrada if I would be interested in writing a piece for her family to memorialize her sister, Anna, who was tragically killed in a car accident,” Costabile said. “Anna loved the sound of a violin, which is why the piece is written for solo violin. Anna, however, was a saxophone player, so the saxophones are featured throughout the piece as well. My goal in this composition was to tell Anna’s life story all the way through.”