The Heartland Winds offers free holiday concert

rvillanueva@thenewsenterprise.com
Winds in December might sound a bit chilly, but if they’re The Heartland Winds and it’s a holiday concert, you’ll likely want to take off your earmuffs so you can listen.
The community-based wind ensemble will present its winter concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Historic State Theater.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Director Chuck Campbell said the program is titled “O’ Holy Night.”
“That’s going to kind of be the theme for the night,” Campbell said.
The program will feature both traditional and non-traditional holiday music, Campbell said.
Matt Baucum, The Heartland Winds publicity manager, said the concert will include a variety of music including “A Christmas Flourish,” “Ave Maria,” “Midnight Sleigh Ride” and movement two from “La Fiesta Mexicana” titled “Mass.”
Soprano soloist Kim Strange also will perform the program’s title song, Campbell said.
Formed in May 2007 and based in Elizabethtown, the ensemble has performed numerous concerts in Elizabethtown.
“The Heartland Winds originally began performing one concert during the summer at Freeman Lake,” Baucum said. “Starting with the 2009-2010 year, we established a concert series where we have performed a concert in December, one in the spring and another in the summer.”
Sunday’s concert is the first performance in the second season of that concert series, Baucum said.
Campbell compared The Heartland Winds to a specific type of band.
“The band follows the same format as those conducted by John Phillip Sousa,” he said.
Approximately 60 members make up The Heartland Winds, which Campbell said is “mostly adult, semi-professionals and community members from Hardin and surrounding counties.”
Members are welcomed on a “pay-to-play basis,” Campbell said.
Information about The Heartland Winds, including how to join, is provided on its website, www.heartland
winds.webs.com.
Baucum said the group is always looking for new members.
Groups such as The Heartland Winds are beginning to resurge.
“Community bands are beginning to pick up steam,” Campbell said.
Robert Villanueva can be reached at (270) 505-1743.