NATCHITOCHES – The Northwestern State Wind Symphony will hold its first on-campus concert of the 2026 calendar year on Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. The concert will celebrate the 10th annual Creative and Performing Arts Hall of Fame and its inductees, Mark Poole, Sherman Desselle, and Chris Brown. A reception will follow the concert at the Orville Hanchey Art Gallery Lobby. Admission is free and open to the public. Director of Bands Anthony Pursell will conduct the Wind Symphony.
The concert on Saturday will be the second performance of the academic semester, after the Wind Symphony’s appearance in New Orleans as the premier ensemble for the Louisiana Music Educators Association (LMEA) convention where they performed with the world-acclaimed Boston Brass.
The Wind Symphony will begin with David Maslanka’s “Traveler,” which was commissioned in 2003 by the University of Texas at Arlington Band Alumni Association, the Delta Sigma Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi and the Gamma Nu Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, in honor of the career contributions of Ray C. Lichtenwalter, retiring Director of Bands at UT Arlington.
““Traveler’ was selected for this concert to celebrate the three inductees into the CAPA Hall of Fame, not for their retirement, but for the contributions these individuals made while at NSU and the contributions they continue to make to the institution since becoming alumni,” said Pursell.
The Wind Symphony will then highlight faculty members Leah Forsyth and Douglas Bakenhus with Jenni Brandon’s “Orion Concerto,” a double concerto for oboe and bassoon with wind symphony. The composer describes her work as, “… a telling of the story of our galaxy, of the great unknown and what lies beyond, and where we belong within this vastness of space.” The work celebrates the conclusion of the Department of Music’s 2026 Double Reed Day.
The ensemble will perform “Variations on a Hymn” by Louis Bourgeois, which uses the Protestant hymn, “Old One Hundredth” as the basis for a highly energetic and virtuosic showpiece for the entire ensemble. Afterwards, the ensemble will perform “Gone,” a transcription for wind band of the sixth movement from Scott McAllister’s 60-minute concerto for clarinet, the “Epic Concerto.” Each movement is tied to an important moment of his life as a clarinetist. In the case of the sixth movement, an automobile accident ended McAllister’s career as a performer in 1994. The music represents the pain of loss, the process of healing and learning how to move on. The inspiration for the movement as a stand-alone piece was the death of his mentor, James Croft, a music professor at Florida State.
The Wind Symphony will showcase NSU graduate student Taylor Carrell, in the 1969 work “Concerto for Tuba and Band” by former Centenary College faculty member Rule Beasley. Carrell is completing a Master of Music in tuba performance this spring and has done extensive research into Beasley’s career and, in particular, this piece of music.
“We are proud of the work Taylor has done, not only in providing a new manuscript of the work for the wind and percussion players, but for all of the on-site research that he has done for over a year, including on-location interviews with Mr. Beasley,” said Pursell.
Following the tuba concerto, Brown, Desselle and Poole will be introduced into the Class of 2026 CAPA Hall of Fame, presided by CAPA Director Scott Burrell. Poole, director of bands at Lone Star High School in Frisco, Texas, will lead the Wind Symphony in the final selection, “British Eighth March.” NSU Demon fans will find the melody of the trio portion of the march familiar, as it is the tune used for the NSU Fight Song.
Brown has served as the official artist for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame since 2009. A former minor league pitcher turned nationally recognized sports artist, he is known for his dynamic athlete portraits and his ability to capture the emotion and motion of sport. His artwork has been featured in International Business Times, CEO Weekly and Beckett Magazine, and he has created pieces for major organizations including the Sugar Bowl.
Desselle is an evening reporter at Fox 26 Houston. His work blends artistic foundation gained at NSU with the demands of modern journalism: clear and compelling writing, narrative-driven reporting, audience-focused storytelling, and innovative digital and social media content creation. He anchored KALB-TV in Alexandria’s top-rated morning program “Jambalaya” for seven years and won numerous Associated Press and Louisiana Association of Broadcasters Awards before joining NBC affiliate WDSU-TV in New Orleans as weekend anchor. His work there earned a regional Edward R. Murrow award and a reputation for elevating stories that matter to the community.
Poole is originally from Mesquite, Texas, and is in his eighth year at Lone Star High School. The Lone Star Wind Symphony was awarded the 2024 TMEA 5A Honor Band recently and performed at the 2024 TMEA Conference. The Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the 76th Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in 2022. The Wind Symphony was recognized as a National Windband Honor Recipient of the Mark of Excellence in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The LSHS Marching band advanced to the State Marching Contest in 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025 and was a finalist in 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Poole was previously the director of bands at Forney High School for 12 years. The marching band made appearances at the Texas State Marching Contest five consecutive times. (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017).
Concertgoers are asked to consider a donation to the band program’s efforts in raising funds for the Spirit of Northwestern’s 2027 performance in Dublin, Ireland, (which many of the members of the Wind Symphony also perform). For more information, please visit: https://northwesternstatealumni.com/band-ireland-trip/