Doane University held its 30th annual Fall Festival of Winds concert on Saturday afternoon, November 4, inside Heckman Auditorium in Crete. High school honor bands, including seven students from Bridgeport, joined forces with the Doane Concert Band to perform select pieces in front of a full audience.
To be selected for the event, musicians had to prepare an audition and were selected for 200 spots out of over 350 submissions. The Festival Band consisted of Bridgeport’s Riley Golden on baritone, Maddie Martin on French horn and Morgan Amateis on trombone and was directed by Dr. Chris Baumgartner from the University of Oklahoma. They played four pieces, “Blue Sky Horizon”, “Dystopia”, “So-Called Unison”, and “Into the Blue”. Uniquely for an event like this, all four pieces were written by composers under fifty years old and from a variety of backgrounds.
The Honor Band was made up of Bridgeport students Cassie Hopwood on saxophone, Jake Paschke on trombone, Hanna Berry on flute, and Katie Eckhardt on bassoon, under the direction of Doane’s Band Director Dr. Andy Feyes.They performed three pieces, “Fearless”, “Hymn to the Dawn”, and the multimovement “Courtly Airs and Dances”.
