Wind Symphony members perform home concert, reflect on tour experiences
Aerial photo of the Concordia University, Nebraska Wind Symphony’s home concert on March 21.
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia University Wind Symphony finished up their spring 2025 tour with a home concert at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward on March 21.
The symphony led by Assistant Professor of Music Robert Cody traveled to the American Southwest for their 11-day tour from March 7-17. Their stops included Colorado Springs, Colo., Alamosa, Colo., Albuquerque, N.M., Roswell, N.M., San Antonio, Texas, Austin, Texas, Tomball, Texas, Houston, Texas and Mustang, Okla.
Repertoire included pieces by Alfred Reed, Johann Sebastian Bach, Rossano Galante, Jared Spears, Bruce Fraser, Brian Balmages, David R. Gillingham, Katahj Copley, Dan Forrest, Jess Langston Turner and William Owens.
The concert as a whole was centered on the theme verse of Romans 8:38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Cody’s intention with the program was to take those verses and turn them into a musical interpretation to explain the Apostle Paul’s words in a new way.
“Every piece is tied to one of the elements in the text, and it is like an audio representation of it,” said Cody.
Without lyrics to guide the audience’s perception of the music, the band has the exceptional challenge of getting its message across purely through instrumentals and their melodic interactions. Yet, the significance of Paul’s words was able to be expressed to audiences despite the lack of vocal assistance.
“We had many examples of people actually having a deeper realization of the text Romans 8:38-39 for their own personal life, and that’s why we do it,” said Cody, “I mean, in the end, that’s objective one.”
For junior saxophonist Grace Donnelly, the message from Romans has not just been a message performed for audiences, but a message of hope and peace even within the band.
“I think that has hit really hard for some of the band members this semester because life happened, and crap happens, and then we get to come and make music together and that is a really beautiful thing,” said Donnelly. “Life happens, but God loves us no matter what, and nothing, nothing can take us from that, and that has been so incredibly powerful this semester to share with people all over the country.”
Donnelly finished her second tour with the group and her first long tour as the Wind Symphony swaps spring break tours with the Concordia University Nebraska A Cappella choir.
“It was like a mountaintop experience,” said Donnelly. “Literally because we were in Colorado, but it was amazing and I’m very grateful to have experienced this.”
Alongside the message from Romans, the ensemble focused on the relationships cultivated throughout the tour, whether it was within the group or to the people they interacted with over the 11 days.
“Tour was the most growth I’ve ever seen in an ensemble,” said Cody, “We left ready, but we’re never as ready as we want to be when we leave, but we came back the best we’ve ever been, which was exciting. We got to meet many people that we never met before. We established relationships with three or four new churches we’d never been to before, and it was a really great experience.”
For freshman tuba player Matthew Frerking, the tour was a fantastic opportunity to become closer with the people across the room whom they might not talk to during rehearsal, but were suddenly stuck on a bus with for an extended period of time.
“This was our time where we got to know each other better, grow as a family, learn our strengths and weaknesses, get the opportunity to see the country overall, but more importantly, just to have a fun time,” said Frerking. “I mean, with us having our spring break taken away by tour, tour is the perfect replacement for it.”
Donnelly also highlighted the special relationship work behind the scenes of the concert through interactions with host families. For many tour stops, Concordia puts the call out to request that local families take in a few students for the night. These host families give them a bed to sleep in and make sure that they return to the performance location on time to board the bus and head off to the next location.
The evenings with host families are some of the most impactful moments of the tour for many of the students as they discuss the concert and the music and then learn more about each other by sharing stories and experiencing new things.
“Being able to create relationships with them, I think, is the next step after our band repertoire,” said Donnelly. “Affecting them with our music is one thing, but then connecting with them personally is an entirely new one. And I think it’s a really beautiful thing to learn about them and we can only imagine how our music and our interaction with them affect them. But I just know how it affects me, and it’s really cool to know people from all over and hear about their experiences in life and with God and with music.”
Frerking, who finished his first tour with the Symphony, credited God with helping him survive the exhaustion and lingering fear and anxiety that come with performing on such a professional stage.
“He helped me realize that no matter what situation we’d be in, He would always be there for me,” said Frerking. “He also helped me realize that no matter how tired I felt or how wounded everyone else felt, He knew that in a way, He was gonna work through us [the Symphony], make us sound like professionals and help us to grow as a family.”
The Wind Symphony will have its traditional final performance at Concordia’s commencement ceremony on May 10.
For a day-to-day recap of the tour’s events, check out this story from reporter Michaela Gibbs, a freshman trombonist in the Symphony.
