Well, good evening and welcome to the Bower of Music.

We're really pleased to have you here this evening.

But a year and a half ago, while I was, trying to select some music for this ensemble to perform.

I came across a piece called Unsung Heroes, and at the time things were so turbulent that I thought that it would be best to go ahead and program.

And I thought it was a great title.

Well we didn't get a chance to perform it last year.

And so I decided this summer, when I was selecting music for this year, that the overall theme in a big way for this program would be heroes.

And thus, the piece that you'll hear Unsung Heroes at the end of this program is part of that.

The opening number that we're going to do, Eternal Vigilance.

Honors our armed forces.

And the first part of it is a a slower homage to those who have given their lives and sacrificed so much for this country.

And then the middle part goes into more of a salute, a march style to those who are served.

And then it finishes with kind of a triumphant ending.

Calling those of us to continue to fight for freedom, and we hope you enjoy this, this is Eternal Vigilance.

Thank you.

So while I was doing my research, I would plug in words like, hero and victory and triumph.

And when I plugged in Victor.

I came up with this next piece, Viktor's Tail.

OK, so it has nothing to do with our hero theme, but the title works.

And so it's really nice because what it does is it allows us to feature one of our very fine clarinetist in the song somehow, and another wonderful colleague of mine here at Florida Gulf Coast University.

So I'm going to have you welcome them to the stage MacKenna McTusic clarinet and Dr. Tom Jaroussky on accordion .

Would you welcome them.

Thank you.

Wasn't that fun?

It's very.

So, you know, as we're thinking in terms of heroes and what we've all been going through over the last year and a half.

You know, one thought that came into my mind was that we are all in this together and we were all traveling through stages of life and different things that we do.

And so this next piece depicts some of that of some of the triumphs.

You'll hear, some of the introspection, some of the quiet moments that we think about what we're doing in our lives.

And we had a lot of downtime at times, at times to do that.

This piece depicts that is Traveler by David Maslanka, and it has a, the beautiful.

Well, I'll just tell you, there's a couple of sections of this that really move me, and I want you to listen to those.

It's very simple.

It's not like there's some really complex things in this, but there are some simple moments where there's just this.

Moving river underneath.

A statement on.

And it just has a very calming effect to the music, and I hope you enjoy that part of it.

Also, listen for The soprano sax.

The role of Frank is here.

There's just this this haunting is just really beautiful.

And those are a couple of my favorite moments in the piece.

And I think you can really enjoy Traveler.

Carl Maria von Weber was famous for operatic productions, most of them very triumphant.

And honorable.

And so this piece falls kind of in line with that, it's by paper and it features, one of our very, very fine adjunct faculty here.

We're so fortunate and blessed to have so many fantastic people working with our students.

And so this is going to be performed by Judy Christy, who is our vocal instructor, if you're a professor and we please welcome her to the stage, Julie Christy.

So that brings us to Unsung Heroes, and it's interesting piece.

The title is awesome as I think about it, I think about again over the last several months, and there are just so many unsung heroes and, I think that one of the things that we've learned from this is that we don't give up and we also we care for each other and we need to do that and can continue to do that.

And I think it continues on.

Something that will end at some point, this is something that we need to continue caring for each other.

Be it as unsung heroes throughout our lives.

Interesting thing about this piece.

I actually had Brooke Pi---earso the composer, zoom in during one of our rehearsals and talk to the students about the piece and the inspiration behind it.

I thought there would be this really amazing, inspirational idea behind it.

There wasn't a whole lot .

He took bits and pieces from other pieces that he hadn't composed yet, and even some that he had composed.

And then he put them all together into this piece and he needed a title.

And so we called it Unsung Heroes.

I took so many steps further than that, I, I thought it was just so inspirational that something that would inspire us and it will.

It's a really great piece.

And we hope you've enjoyed our program this evening.

Our next performance is on October 14th.

It's going to be at the outdoor pavilion at Bonita Springs at Riverside Parks on the 14th.

So come and join us, bring your lawn chairs and and join us there.

We would love to have you there.

A whole new program there.

And so that be on October 14th.

Thank you so much for being here.

And thank you for being a great audience and being an audience.

This is so nice to have.

And I hope you have a terrific evening.

Thank you so much.