Band concerts will honor retirement of longtime director Kurt Dietrich

Kurt Dietrich, director of the Ripon College band ensembles for 39 years, will retire at the end of this academic year.

His final two large band concerts will be held Friday and Saturday at the College. Both concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Demmer Recital Hall, C.J. Rodman Center for Arts, and are free and open to the public.

On Friday, April 26, Jazz Ensemble will perform with special guests Bill Nelson and Paul Dietrich. They will play a variety of jazz selections by Ellington, Basie, Mingus and Pat Metheny, combo tunes, an original by Fred Sturm and a selection from a new big band album by Dietrich’s son, Paul Dietrich. Some of Dietrich’s current and past students also have commissioned a new piece for the group by Paul Dietrich. Band alumni will join the ensemble for a selection.

On Saturday, April 27, a retirement celebration for Dietrich will be held from 1-3 p.m. in the lobby of Rodman Center.

Saturday evening, Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform selections by Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Philip Sousa, “Children’s March,” by Percy Grainger, “Variations on a Korean Folk Song,” by John Barnes Chance, and the recent composition “Febris Ver” (Spring Fever),” by Nancy Galbraith. Band alumni will join the ensemble for one selection.