The Lehman College and Community Band will open its 2017-18 season with “Autumn Leaves,” a concert program of masterworks emphasizing wind instruments and displaying the many “colors” of the ensemble, on Sunday, November 19 at 2:00 p.m. in the Lovinger Theatre on the Lehman campus.

The Lehman College and Community Band will honor the college’s Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning Distinguished Professor John Corigliano, who will turn 80 next year, by performing two movements of his Gazebo Dances, originally written for piano four hands and arranged for concert band by the composer himself. 

Also on the program is another keyboard arrangement, the dramatic Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, written by J. S. Bach for pipe organ, but which lends itself quite naturally for a wind ensemble; and Percy Grainger’s seminal Lincolnshire Posy, a suite of folk song adaptations resembling musical wildflowers and one of the great masterworks of the genre.

Rounding out the program is Elegie, a haunting piece from Canadian-based British composer Peter Meechan and a solo feature for the band’s baritone horn player Walter Barrett, plus works by Gershwin, Shostakovich, and Mozart. 

Admission is open to the public. All donations are welcomed and appreciated.