Ensemble Will Play Works from the Tour Program at Free Public Concert March 11 at DePaul

For many Chicagoans, the Irish festivities and music will conclude the day after St. Patrick's Day. But the celebration will be just beginning for a group of 52 students and faculty members from DePaul University's School of Music who will embark March 18 on a 12-day concert and music tour of Ireland.

The students, members of the DePaul Wind Ensemble, will perform four concerts of American and Irish music during their tour of Galway, Limerick, Cork and Dublin. Along the way, they'll learn about Celtic music while mingling with Irish musicians and attend the Limerick Sacred Music Festival. They'll also visit cultural and historic sites including King John's Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Bells of Shandon, and the Blarney Stone.

The ensemble will perform selections from their tour during a free public concert in Chicago a week before they leave. The concert begins at 8 p.m. on March 11 at the DePaul Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave.

"The tour is a wonderful opportunity for students to experience firsthand the music and culture of Ireland that represent the roots of Irish music and dance in the United States,"said Donald DeRoche, director of the ensemble and chairman of the performance studies department at the School of Music. "It also transforms students into ambassadors of American music."

The ensemble will perform at Galway University on March 21 and present three concerts in Dublin on March 24, 26 and 28.

The concerts will showcase American music such as "Stars and Stripes Forever," "Amazing Grace," "Hoedown" from the ballet "Rodeo" by Aaron Copland, works by Leonard Bernstein, and "Elegy for a Young American," Ronald LoPresti 's tribute to President John F. Kennedy. Three Irish reels and ballads are also on the program: "Molly on the Shore," "Irish Tune from County Derry (or "Danny Boy"), and "Handel in the Strand. " Joining the ensemble on stage at some of the concerts will be the St. Patrick's Concert Band, The Irish Youth Wind Ensemble and Cork University String Orchestra.

In addition to DeRouche, School of Music Dean Donald Casey, Associate Dean Edward Kocher, and George Flynn, chair the DePaul's department of musicianship studies and composition, will accompany the 45-member ensemble on tour.

DeRoche has led the DePaul Wind Ensemble on two other tours abroad. In 1985, the ensemble performed in Hungary and Austria and in 1988 they toured Russia, Poland and Estonia.

At home, the ensemble regularly presents concerts at the DePaul Concert Hall and has performed at music educator and band conferences. They can be heard on two commercial recordings: "French Plus 2" on the Toshiba/EMI label, and "Ebony Concerto," with Chicago Symphony clarinetist and DePaul faculty member John Bruce Yeh, on Reference Recordings.

Shannon Meffert, 21, of Nashville, Tenn., an ensemble clarinetist, said she's excited about the trip. "For a lot of us, this will be the only shot to go to another country and really experience it," she said. "From a musician's perspective, it will be interesting to talk to other musicians and find out what type of literature and schooling they have there. I'm big on tradition, so the heritage and tradition of Ireland's music really appeals to me."

DeRoche fondly remembers a student orchestra tour of Central and South America he took when he was 18. "It was a life-changing event," he said. "I got a different sense of the world and my place in it."