Encore Wind Ensemble performs

The Encore Wind Ensemble, a 45-member band under the direction of Jerry Luckhardt, will perform “American Masters” at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at The Phipps Center for the Arts.

Soprano Carolyn Pratt will be featured in a program that includes “Chester Overture for Band” by William Schuman, “Westside Story” by Leonard Bernstein, “Country Band March” by Charles Ives and “Easter Monday on the White House Lawn” by John Philip Sousa.

The Encore Wind Ensemble is a collection of instrumentalists in the Twin Cities who perform traditional and contemporary masterworks for band. The group provides an opportunity for serious wind players and percussionists from the Minneapolis and St. Paul area to share in a high level of musical expression and artistry.

Luckhardt is associate director of bands and conductor of the Symphonic Band and the New Music Ensemble at the University of Minnesota. He is also professor of conducting and coordinates all aspects of the undergraduate conducting curriculum at the University of Minnesota.

Pratt has performed on both concert and operatic stages throughout the Midwest. In the Twin Cities, she has appeared with the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Medalist Concert Band and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., Pratt is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Tickets are $21 for adults and $14 for all students with a current ID. For reservations, contact The Phipps ticket office at (715) 386-8409 or www.ThePhipps.org.

Tags: entertainment, hudson, wind, ensemble, performs