The West Virginia University Chamber Winds will perform three worksincluding one written for the ensemble by West Virginia composer David WilliamsTuesday (Nov. 18) at the Creative Arts Center .

The concert, which features WVU professors John Weigand as conductor and James Miltenberger on piano, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre . The event is free and open to the public.

The program will include the premiere of Sinfonia for Wind Ensemble by Williams; Slavonic Dance No. 2 in E minor, op. 46 by Antonin Dvork; and Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments by Igor Stravinsky.

Williams is a noted West Virginia composer and a graduate of the WVU Division of Music .

I heard the Chamber Winds play a concert in Charleston in November 2007, which included Richard Straussbig Symphony in E flat,he said.I really enjoyed the performance, and when I stopped to talk to conductor Weigand after the show, he suggested that I might want to write something for the group. I started Sinfonia the next day. After all, I never had a chance to write for basset horns before.

Williams earned degrees in music education and music history and a doctorate in music composition from WVU . He studied composition with Thomas Canning and John Beall , conducting with Don Wilcox, musicology with Barton Hudson and Christopher Wilkinson , and orchestration with William Winstead.

He has composed more than 100 works, including pieces for wind band, chamber ensembles, orchestra, keyboard and liturgical functions. He has twice won the West Virginia Fellowship for Music Composition.

Williams lives in Dunbar, where he teaches elementary music in Kanawha County schools, conducts the West Virginia Youth Symphonys wind ensemble and serves as the classical music critic for The Charleston Gazette.

In October 2004, he was one of 25 music critics from across the country awarded a fellowship to attend the first National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Institute on Music Criticism in Classical Music and Opera.

His other recent works includeAnd the Marches after Twilightfor concert band;All the Past is Presentfor the WVU Laureate Wind Quintet, which performed the piece for the first time Nov. 2; and the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, commissioned by David Wright. Williamssetting of W. H. AudensLay Your Sleeping Head, My Lovefor tenor, clarinet and piano was first performed by clarinetist Robert Turizziani, who commissioned the piece, and tenor Michael Bresnahan at Roosevelt University in Chicago in May 2007.

Recent notablepremieres include String Quartet No. 1 by the Montclaire String Quartet in November 2005 andGrotesques: Concerto for Timpani and Wind Ensembleby Adam Mason and the University of Lethbridge Wind Orchestra and conductor Thomas Staples in October 2005.

Sinfonia for Wind Ensemble will also be performed Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Alderson-Broaddus College.

Students in the Chamber Winds ensemble include: Shelly Borgert, Colleen Hillyer and Ruth Miltenberger, flutes; Chase Kennedy, Mollie Talada and Matthew Ward, oboes; Scott Bartlett, Anne Gruskowski, Jessica Madison and Lacey Wallace, bassoons; Chelsea Cook, Michelle Farr, Meagan Pettit and Joel Rhodes, clarinets; Amber Irvin, Lauren Lucas, Meghan Reynolds and Maria Thomas, horns; Evan Boegehold, Dereck Scott, Eli Wallizer and Brandon Williams, trumpets; Irene Andhika, Doug Sgroi and Steve Shin, trombones; Gregory Larsen, tuba; Josh Mengel, timpani; and Rebecca Buxton, bass.

For more information, contact the College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4841 ext. 3108.