The TJC Wind Ensemble will be opening for The Dallas Winds on Oct. 22 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The Wind Ensemble is preparing to play “Wings of Victory” to welcome the fans of The Dallas Winds Symphony.

TJC Director of Bands, Jeremy Strickland, explains how this opportunity came about. 

“‘Hey, I’ve noticed that you guys have college groups that come and play. We’d love to come and play.’ As soon as we were invited to play at TMEA, all of a sudden it became something that they should invite us to do,” Strickland said.

The 52 members of the TJC Wind Ensemble will have the opportunity to watch the concert following the performance and gain the experience of performing for a professional group and possible recruits for the school.

“It’s an audience that we don’t normally get in front of,” Strickland said. “The Dallas Winds draws a big crowd there at the Meyerson Symphony Center. They’ve got loyal fans and a lot of band directors and a lot of high school students that come to that concert. It’s a professional wind band, and so for us to have the chance to be in the lobby to play for all of those people, I’ve seen sometimes the musicians from the Dallas winds go out and listen.”

The performance area inside of the concert center requires the ensemble to get out of their traditional set up and rehearse together in different configurations. This challenges the musicians to tune and adjust to each other and their new environment.

“I’m gonna take them outside in the front of our building, let them play on the stairs. We may go all around campus and find some weird places to rehearse just to get used to playing in a different environment,” Strickland said. 

The opening fanfare “Wings of Victory” written by Benjamin Miles, is a three-minute brass and percussion fanfare that will be premiered for the first time at the concert.

“It’s mostly just getting the fanfare together, because it’s hard,” Mackenzie Mburugu, the principal French horn player for the TJC Wind Ensemble, said. “We didn’t know what it sounded like before. I tried looking for a recording for it and I’m like no one recorded it. And so that’s even more exciting. We’re the premiere of this piece, and so that’s really exciting, too.”

The TJC Wind Ensemble has its first event of this semester at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center. The concert will feature the TJC Wind Ensemble alongside the TJC Choir. This is the first time the two programs will be performing together. Admission to the concert is free to everyone.

“I would love it if we get more people to come to our concert. They’re always a good time,” Strickland said.