Home Ensembles Concert Bands

• Concert Band
• Symphony Band
• Wind Ensemble

The Concert Band is an ensemble which studies exceptional band literature and promotes the finest in wind and percussion performance. Comprised of enthusiastic majors and non-majors who enjoy performing, the Concert Band provides a valuable experience for music students to become familiar with the band's significant repertoire and an outlet for students of other majors to be a part of an excellenct ensemble.

The Concert Band performs two programs per year during the Spring semester and frequently has the opportunity to serve as a reading ensemble for student compositions and arrangements. While a membership audition is not required, everyone is asked to perform a private audition for chair placement.

The Symphony Band is the principal concert ensemble of the TTU Bands and has earned its reputation as one of the finest symphonic organizations in the country. It programs and studies the finest in wind band repertoire. The Tennessee Tech Symphony Band has performed for State, regional, and national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference and the College Band Directors National Association and is regularly asked to record new music for publishers of band music. The Symphony Band's performances have been featured on National Public Radio and Public Television, and the band regularly seeks and is requested to premiere new literature.

Through its activities as a laboratory, the Symphony Band provides service to the Tennessee Conductors' Symposium, a weekend workshop for secondary school teachers and military band commander/conductors. It is a focal point for the annual Festival of Winds and Percussion, an honor band weekend, which creates an atmosphere of learning and sharing between high school and college students and the conductors from the 6-state region. The Festival of Winds and Percussion brings the nations's finest conductors and composers to the TTU campus. Some of the notable guests which have worked with the Tech Symphony Band are Morton Gould, Aaron Copland, Vincent Persichetti, Robert Jager, Vaclav Nelhybel, Claude T. Smith, Fisher Tull, John Paynter, Karel Husa, Mark Camphouse, Frank Erickson, Ken Bloomquist, Jared Spears, Jerry Junkin, Frank Wickes, James Croft, Ray Cramer, James Keene, Elliot Del Borgo, Myron Welch, Tom Lee, John Boyd, and David Waybright.

Graduates of the TTU Symphony Band have held positions in each of the premiere military bands in Washington D.C., have pursued further graduate study at other universities, are serving as noted conductors and teachers in public and private schools and colleges, and are exceptional music professionals and respected colleagues throughout the world.

The Wind Ensemble is a highly select group of instrumentalists selected by private audition. Its composition, consistent with the history of chamber winds and the wind ensemble concept, is flexible and instrumentation is determined by the demands of the musical works it is performing. This ensemble performs a variety of works ranging from the 16th century brass music of Gabrielli, the harmonie of Mozart, to the exploratory compositions of the modern era. The Wind Ensemble exists as the primary concert ensemble in the Fall semester. During the Spring semester, the Wind Ensemble is incorporated as a part of the Symphony Band.

The Wind Ensemble concept is one which capitalizes on the strength of individual players, usually one on a part, and a changing instrumentation. The Tennessee Tech Wind Ensemble utilizes player rotation on many parts providing students with a rich ensemble experience.