The Wartburg College Wind Ensemble will preview the “Western meets Eastern” repertoire for its May Term tour of China and Japan with a home concert Sunday, April 7.
Under the direction of Dr. Craig Hancock, professor of music, the 56-member ensemble will travel to Asia, April 28-May 20, for 12 concerts, spending one week in China and two-and-a-half weeks in Japan. The home concert will be at 2 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium. Admission is free.
Hancock said the band has prepared a mixed repertoire.
“Most of what we’re playing is typical band music, but there is a specific piece for the Chinese audience that we won’t play in Japan and vice versa,” Hancock said. “We’re taking their music home to them and hoping that they will be impressed with our ability to play their music.”
The Wind Ensemble will perform in universities in China and high schools in Japan.
“The venues include not only a performance at a high school or university, but a day of interaction with those students,” Hancock said. “Our college students are going to get to see what a day in the life of a Chinese or Japanese music student is like. They’ll be going to school with these people and seeing what they study, which often are not the same things we study.”
The Wind Ensemble’s first stop in China will be Beijing, the capital, followed by visits to the ancient capital city of Xi’an and Shanghai.
Chinese culture and the government require the group to stay in hotels rather than home stays, which have been common on other international tours. The cultural requirements also determined the venues.
“In China, we will share almost every concert with a university band,” Hancock said. “They’re going to be very proud of what they have to offer. We’re going to play in places that are grand.”
After China, the ensemble will fly to Tokyo, where it will visit smaller cities and Hiroshima, which was devastated by an atomic bomb in August 1945 at the end of World War II.
The Wind Ensemble will play in Japanese high schools and spend nearly every night in Japanese homes.
“One of the best ways to see the culture is to spend a night in a home stay,” Hancock said. “To see how they live in their own homes is a wonderfully life-changing circumstance.”
In preparation for the tour, the Wind Ensemble has dedicated one day per week to learning more about Asian culture. Groups have been assigned to research and present information about different aspects of China and Japan.
“I hope to learn more about Chinese and Japanese culture and ways of life that aren’t Westernized,” said senior Elizabeth McElligott , a flutist from Brooklyn Park, Minn. “It will also be really interesting to learn how other cultures use music in similar ways to express ideas and emotions.”
Hancock took the Wind Ensemble on a 2007 tour of Japan and is excited about the learning experience.
“I most want them to know that, when they come home, they’ll be significantly different, to know that they have encountered the rest of the world and have done it successfully.”