NEWS RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2009 FOR USE: Now CONTACT: Steve Quakenbush

COLUMBINE MEMORIAL COMPOSITION HIGHLIGHTING GCCC BAND CONCERT
Free public performance on Dec. 10 also including additional special features and premieres

William Biskup was the band director 10 years ago at Columbine High School in Colorado when two students shot and killed 13 of their classmates, a teacher and themselves in what became the fourth deadliest school massacre in U.S. history.
Biskup will pick up his baton Dec. 10 at Garden City Community College and direct a commemorative composition written to honor the lives lost in the shootings.
The selection will serve as the centerpiece of the GCCC Concert Band’s concluding performance of the fall term, set for 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Pauline Joyce Fine Arts Building. The program is free and the public is welcome. In addition to Biskup’s appearance as guest conductor during American Eulogy for Columbine, the evening will include a series of other special features, according to Daniel Baldwin, acting GCCC band director. Those include:
• The premiere performance of a new selection called A Winter’s Tale, written by noted European composer Philip Sparke, directed by Baldwin.
• The first presentation in the central U.S. of Deere Path Fanfare by Julliard School of Music composer Eric Ewazen, also conducted by Baldwin.
• A performance of Variations on a French Carol, with the selection’s composer, Matthew Saunders, on hand to hear it.
“There will be some great things happening in this concert, so we’re hoping people will come out to share the evening with us,” said Baldwin, who has been filling in this semester for GCCC Band Director Jim McAlister, who is on sabbatical. Baldwin credited the GCCC Student Government Association for providing a grant to help include the special features.
The band concert is one in a series of performances and events taking place during the holiday season. Others include the opening reception at Mercer Gallery for an art exhibition focusing on the 2009 edition of Carpe Verbum, the GCCC literary anthology, 2-4 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Pauline Joyce Fine Arts Building; the GCCC Potter’s Guild Holiday Art Sale, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 9 in the fine arts lobby; Tuba Christmas, a community performance directed by Baldwin at 3 p.m. Dec. 12 on Grant Avenue in downtown Garden City, sponsored by Commerce Bank; and the 2009 GCCC Vespers Concert, featuring college and community vocal and instrumental performers, led by GCCC Vocal Music Director Clay Wright at 3 p.m. Dec. 13 in the fine arts building.