Spring COD Student Music Group Performances

College of DuPage student music groups will perform several concerts this spring in Belushi Hall of the McAninch Arts Center on the Glen Ellyn campus, 425 Fawell Blvd.

All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $6.

The College's Percussions Ensemble will perform Wednesday, April 29. The program will include works by Morris Brand, Trevor Hill, Ivan Trevino, Dustin Schulze and others. The group performs under the direction of Ben Wahlund, who is a Grammy nominated, award-winning music educator, composer and performer. In addition to leading COD's ensemble, he is a music education faculty member at North Central College. Wahlund conducts the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra's Percussions Ensemble and is program director for Birch Creek Summer Music Performance Center's Percussion and Steelband Session. He earned a master's degree in Music Theory and Composition and a performance certificate in Percussion from Northern Illinois University and his works have earned awards in numerous competitions, including the Quey Percussion Duo Annual Composition Contest and the Percussive Arts Society International Composition Contest.

The Chambers Singers and Concert Choir will perform Thursday, April 30. The Concert Choir program features accompanist William Buhr and a selection of Canadian and American folk music, Gospel, as well as selections from Mozart and Sondheim's "Into the Woods." The Chamber Singers program features music by Randall Stroope, Gwyneth Walker, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and COD Director of Choral Activities Lee Kesselman. Kesselman has been director since 1981. In addition to COD groups, he is the founder and director of New Classic Singers and has composed more than 100 choral works, as well as operas, chamber music and art songs.

The College's Chamber Orchestra performs Thursday, May 7, under the direction of Alison Gaines. The program features favorites by Handel, Vivaldi and Marcello, as well as jazz standards.

"While the difference between Baroque music and jazz is obvious on the surface, this program explores their similarities: both have a strong, bass-driven 'rhythm section' that supports the melody on the upper voices, creating a type of polarity between the lyrical melodies and the strong, rhythmic bass lines," Gaines said of the program.

Gaines is currently assistant conductor of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra where she also serves as principal bassist. She previously conducted with the Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Breckenridge (Colorado) Chamber Orchestra and at Rock Valley College. She earned a doctorate of Music Arts in conducting from the University of Kansas where she worked with both orchestras and jazz ensembles.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call the MAC Box Office at (630) 942-4000, or visit: www.atthemac.org.