Encore Wind Ensemble presents “New Voices”

The Encore Wind Ensemble is celebrating the diversity of up-and-coming composers with its New Voices show on March 4. The ensemble, a small band with one part/player, includes44 Twin Cities-based musicians. “It’s a competitive ensemble to join,” conductor Jerry Luckhardt says.

The New Voices performance is unlike the ensemble’s other shows. “I’m calling it New Voices because all the pieces we’re going to play were written in the past decade,” Luckhardt says. Some were even written in the past two years. “We’re truly exploring new voices to the medium,” he says, including female composers as well as those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Luckhardt notes that the pieces tell a story and says, “It’s not music you might expect from a band. It’s new styles, new sounds. It’s fresh music.”