The Wartburg College Wind Ensemble will perform its final concert under Craig Hancock at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25, in Neumann Auditorium on the Wartburg College campus.

Freewill donations will be accepted, with all proceeds benefiting future Wind Ensemble tours. The concert also will be livestreamed on Knight Vision at www.wartburg.edu/knightvision. Speakers from Hancock’s 27 years at Wartburg will share his impact on them and the college during the concert.

A retirement reception will follow the concert in the Bachman Fine Arts Center lobby; the public is invited to attend. Hancock will officially retire in July after hosting the annual Wartburg Band Camp.The 45-member Wind Ensemble will perform repertoire from a variety of works that includes John Philip Sousa marches and pieces from contemporary composers like Aaron Copland, Samuel Hazo, Eric Whitacre and Julie Giroux. Brian Pfaltzgraff, Wartburg music professor, will join the band as a tenor soloist for some pieces.

“Everyone will find something during the concert that will reach out and touch them,” Hancock said. “Whether you want to be entertained, educated or somewhere in between, we’ll get your hands clapping, your toes tapping and hopefully some appreciative smiles for the great work of these fine youngsters.”

The concert is the final “stop” on the ensemble’s American Heartland that took them through Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. During the tour, the band performed at the Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference in Des Moines, where Hancock was awarded the Friend of the IBA award in recognition of his impact on Iowa music educators.

The Wind Ensemble is an auditioned group comprising the college’s finest wind and percussion players. Its members are first- through fourth-years and represent nearly every academic major on campus. Most members are in multiple music ensembles and almost all are involved in other co-curricular activities. The Wind Ensemble tours each spring and schedules an international tour every third year during Wartburg’s one-month May Term. The last tour took the ensemble to Japan in 2019.