UMass Lowell’s two New England Youth Wind Ensembles combine our college student music mentors and teaching artists with talented younger musicians. This year’s concert will include works featuring contemporary composer Brian Balmages. His two works Moscow and Kiev bring current issues into our junior music ensemble, with his treatment of each work interlinked. The Nathan Hale Trilogy, about one of the first American spies of the Revolutionary War, is a favorite of our young musicians. Our Senior Wind ensemble presents an American flair, featuring John Phillip Sousa’s work Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, with well known Scottish, Irish and English melodies, written by this American composer. Other works include a variety of Shaker Gift Songs and of course, the well-known" Simple Gifts". Iberian Escapades musically describes the Floridian villas of Boca Raton which feature Mediterranean style estates and architecture, as found on the Iberian Peninsula of Spain, that launched a “Floridian Renaissance”. The Spanish flavored work presents exotic themes, romantic colors, and Flamenco flair. Each group performs multiple works. The concert is an hour and fifteen minutes.