February 17, 2015

Maestro Filippo Salemmi will return as a special guest conductor of the Concert Band in a free-to-the-public performance on Sunday, March 1 at 7:00pm (Main Auditorium, 3141 Chestnut Street). Maestro Salemmi, who is from Central Italy, has conducted concerts throughout Europe and North America. He first visited Drexel as a guest conductor in winter 2013. The Drexel Concert Band is comprised of more than 70 musicians from across the University and their March 1 performance, Un Brindisi alla Musica Italiana, will feature works by Persichetti, Zaninelli, Gabrieli, Waespi and Rossini.

The central work of the concert will be Oliver Waespi's Il Cantico, based on the song Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi. The full performance selection was chosen collaboratively by Drexel Concert Band Director Dr. Wesley J. Broadnax and Maestro Salemmi, and represents cornerstone works throughout Salemmi’s most recent conducting engagements.

The Concert Band presents one concert every academic term of the finest wind band repertoire from each period of musical history, including classical, jazz, and chamber. The Concert Band aims to feature as many guest artists as possible each year to engage the ensemble and wider student body with world-class artists, fostering enhanced opportunities for growth as musicians. In addition, they engage with collaborative performance projects such as with Drexel’s dance ensembles.

For the past three years Dr. Broadnax has maintained a cultural exchange with Maestro Salemmi, who has conducted the symphonic wind band of the City of Bevagna (Italy) and the municipal school of music, N. Maurizi since 1987. He also conducts the symphonic wind band, City of Norcia, and the A. Bartoloni school of music in Norcia; and he is conductor of the Youth Wind Orchestra of Umbria and a stage orchestral project organized by the Region of Umbria with young musicians ages 14-20.