Wind Ensemble Presents 'Godzilla Eats Las Vegas May 3'

SALISBURY, MD -- Wondering what Godzilla has been up to since his last movie came out? Come and find out at "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas" performed by the Salisbury State University Wind Ensemble concert on Thursday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Holloway Hall Auditorium. The public in invited to participate with a script that simulates a campy, over the top Godzilla movie.

For the Maryland premier of "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas," Eric Whitacre has included metal trash cans full of glass bottles as instruments and the music of Wayne Newton, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Liberace.

"The concert continues our reputation of performing the latest in new and sometimes off-the-cuff music," said Dr. Richard Johnson, SSU's Music Department chair who is producing the 1996 work.

"Whitacre's music for chorus or band is guaranteed to raise eyebrows and get plenty of laughs," he added.

Whitacre's work was written in 1996 for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Wind Ensemble.

The evening performance also features the Maryland premier of Frank Ticheli's 1992 work, "Blue Shades," as well as more traditional works.

"Blue Shades" was influenced by traditional jazz band and orchestra music. Ticheli said his work burlesques some of the cliches from the Big Band era, not as a mockery, but as a tribute.

"At times the extended clarinet solo played near the end of the piece recalls Benny Goodman's hot playing style," he said.

Other pieces to be preformed include van der Roost’s multi-movement Suite Provancale based old French folk songs, Greg Danner's Walls of Zion in a free setting of the revival spiritual and Brian Balmages' Summer Dances written for the Columbia, MD Concert Band.

Established in 1989 as the Wind Sinfonia, the SSU Wind Ensemble includes wind, brass and percussion performers. The Ensemble performs music representative of all of the musical epochs from an educational approach as well as an historical and aesthetic perspective. This includes repertoire written for chamber ensemble to full band, transcriptions to original works for the genre, and avant-garde to traditional music.

For information call 410-543-6385 or visit the University's Web site at www.salisbury.edu.