The Hartt Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. T. André Feagin, Director of Bands & Wind Ensembles, returns to Lincoln Theater on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. for its second concert of the 2026–27 academic season. The program features works by Florence Price, Igor Stravinsky, Philip Sparke, Ron Nelson, and Dennis Llinás. The program explores the relationship between music, dance, and movement, bringing together five works that approach movement through rhythm, gesture, cultural tradition, choreography, and musical form.

 

“I’m very excited about this program and the ways these composers use music and movement to communicate,” said Feagin. “Each work approaches that relationship from a different perspective, but they all demonstrate the extraordinary expressive and communicative possibilities of the wind band. This repertoire also gives our students an opportunity to grow as artists, moving beyond simply performing the notes on the page and consider how we use sound, gesture, and musical expression to communicate something meaningful to an audience.”

 

Florence Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes, originally composed for piano in 1953 and later orchestrated by William Grant Still, draws upon Black American dance traditions including ragtime, the slow drag, and cakewalk. Igor Stravinsky’s Circus Polka offers a strikingly different connection between music and movement: the work was written at the request of choreographer George Balanchine for a 1942 Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus production featuring elephants and dancers.

 

Philip Sparke’s Dance Movements, commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and premiered in 1996, consists of four connected movements that the composer describes as dance-inspired without employing specific dance rhythms. The program also features Ron Nelson’s elegiac Chaconne (In Memoriam…), commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association, extending the program’s exploration of movement through the recurring structure of the chaconne.

 

Closing the concert is Dennis Llinás’s La Chancla, a contemporary work that juxtaposes what the composer describes as “mythical” musical elements with the rhythmic vitality of merengue. Commissioned by a consortium led by Thomas Verrier and Vanderbilt University, the project was also conceived to provide copies of the work to band programs in Latin America with limited resources for purchasing music.

 

Together, the works present movement not as a single musical idea, but in varied forms, from social dance and choreography to abstract gesture, reflection, and cultural expression.