Syracuse Symposium hosts Excelsior Cornet Band for Nov. 8 concert at Crouse College

Syracuse Symposium hosts Excelsior Cornet Band for Nov. 8 concert at Crouse CollegeOctober 31, 2007Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The Excelsior Cornet Band will perform original Civil War music on period instruments in a concert at Syracuse University on Thursday, Nov. 8, as part of the 2007 Syracuse Symposium, presented by The College of Arts and Sciences.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College and is free and open to the public. Parking will be available in the Irving Garage for $3.50.

Special guest Ralph Dudgeon will join the band to perform on the E-flat cornet and the E-flat keyed bugle.

The Excelsior Cornet Band is New York state’s only authentic Civil War brass band. Founded in 2001, the band consists of a group of upstate New York musicians (including SU faculty and staff members) who are dedicated to the performance of original Civil War music on actual antique brass band instruments of the 1860s period, such as cornets, horns, bugles, trombones, basses and percussion instruments. Band members wear uniforms that represent those of a typical early-war New York state militia band.

The band performs the most popular melodies of the 1850-70 period, as well as patriotic airs, operatic medleys, marches and dance music by the era’s most renowned composers and bandmasters. All of the band’s musical arrangements come from the band books of Civil War-era bands, or are arranged from original Civil War sheet music.

The band has presented concerts, educational programs and living history portrayals for a wide variety of organizations and municipalities across New York state. The band received a Syracuse Area Music Award for “Best Recording, Other Styles” in 2006 for its debut CD, “Cheer, Boys, Cheer!”

The Syracuse Symposium, presented by The College of Arts and Sciences, is a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival that celebrates interdisciplinary thinking, imagination and creation. This year’s theme is “Justice.” For more information on symposium events,visit http://symposium.syr.edu.