The Colombo Wind Orchestra proudly presents The Alfred Reed Music Festival

A Celebration of Timeless Classics

Alfred Reed (1921 - 2005), an American neoclassical composer with more than 200 published works for wind orchestras and chamber ensembles. He travelled extensively as a guest conductor notably to work with the renowned TKWO (Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra) in Japan.

During our concert on the 26th of March you will hear original masterpieces by Alfred Reed as well as some arrangements of famous works such as Franz Lehar’s Vilia from the Merry Widow, Greensleeves, a famous 16th Century English folksong and Henry Mancini’s movie medley. The first work is A Festival Prelude which is very often an opening piece. It is one of Reed’s most brilliant and powerful works for the modern concert orchestra. Reed separated the Brass section into 3 distinct tone colour groups and they blend in marvelously with the rest of the wind orchestra.

The second part of the concert will be devoted to the Armenian Dances, a brilliant and technically demanding fulllength symphony. Written in the 1970’s, these dances capture the essence of Armenian folk traditions. Many emotions are expressed from nostalgia to joy and festivity.

This Alfred Reed « special » will be conducted by Maestro Keiko Kobayashi herself and promises to be a captivating musical experience.

Tokyo-born conductor Keiko Kobayashi is no stranger to Sri Lankan audiences having been a guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka every year since 2008.

She has conducted the Colombo Wind Orchestra (CWO) since its inception in 2012. Formed by the wind players of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, the CWO consists today of more than 40 players representing the entire range of wind instruments from the piccolo flute through oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba and saxophones, in addition to percussion, double bass and keyboard.

The diversity of these instruments create a truly colourful and enjoyable musical experience! The repertoire consists of classical western music, pop, film music, jazz as well as Sinhala songs.

We are happy to play this exciting music by Alfred Reed and look forward to seeing you on MARCH 26th at 7.30pm in the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo 7.

By Jennifer Roux-Parkes