Desert Winds Freedom Band Outreach Activities
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
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Each year the Band awards scholarships to deserving high school seniors from our valley who will be attending music school in college. To date the band has awarded $42,000 in scholarships. The Awards are made from funds received from the Ralph Fingerle Education Trust annual donation and individual donations made to the James Hobart Davidson Scholarship Fund. The scholarships are awarded at our Spring Concert. This year, the Band was able to award scholarships to four local students!
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COMMISSIONED MUSIC |
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Each year for the Spring Concert, the Band performs a World Premier musical composition for our audience. This cutting-edge music adds to the excitement of our concerts for both the band members and the audience. For the Spring 2019 Concert the Band performed the piece 'Mother of a Revolution' by composer Omar Thomas, and in Spring of 2018 our premier piece was 'Pipers' by Dr. Kim Archer. |
MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL WORKSHOPS
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The Desert Winds also provides outreach to local high schools and middle schools during our spring concert week each year with our guest composer/conductor for that concert. In 2023, our guest composer/conductor Richard Saucedo and our Artistic Director visited six middle and high schools in the Coachella Valley. At each school they held a workshop with the school band, rehearsing one Mr. Saucedos' many compositions and allowing the students the rare chance to study a musical piece with the actual composer.
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The band has held these workshops for eight years now. They are very popular with the area school bands and we hope to continue this program every spring.
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