Bands concert to bring hip-hop collaboration to 'Lincolnshire Posy'

When the Lawrence University Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble take the stage at Memorial Chapel on Nov. 16 for the final concert of Fall Term, it’ll feature a collaboration unlike anything the bands have presented in the past.

In a program celebrating a variety of voices, the Symphonic Band will present a regional premiere of Aakash Mittal's Salt March for Wind Ensemble and the Wind Ensemble will feature Professor of Trumpet John Daniel in John Barnes Chance's Concerto for Trumpet and Band and a performance of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy conceptualized as a vehicle for hip-hop via the talents of Wasonu Allen ’20, aka Sonu.

Andy Mast, the Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music and director of bands, will lead the Wind Ensemble while Matthew Arau ’97, associate professor of music education and associate director of bands, will lead the Symphonic Band.

The performance of Lincolnshire Posy with a hip-hop collaboration takes the concert into new territory, Mast said.

Lincolnshire Posy is a standard in the band repertoire, but this one comes with a significant twist, with alumnus Sonu. performing in collaboration, reframing the piece, which is based on folk songs dealing with issues of justice, love, and loss.

Mast said a colleague at the University of Maryland shared a video last summer of a hip-hop-wind ensemble collaboration.

“I found it compelling and thought-provoking,” he said.

Mast had already been planning on programming the Lincolnshire Posy, one of the most widely recognized masterpieces in the wind band repertoire. He wanted to reframe the folk songs through the lens of contemporary hip-hop. That led to working with Sonu.

Mast called Sonu. “an already accomplished artist and human being” and said the energy leading into Wednesday’s concert is palpable.

“It will truly be Lincolnshire Posy as you’ve never heard it before,” Mast said. “It’s a risk, for sure, but this is what art should do. I look forward to every performance of every piece in this concert but particularly hope our audience can help support a truly different approach to music, poetry, and life.”

The concert is set for 8 p.m. Nov. 16 in Memorial Chapel. Admission is free. It also will be webcast at https://www.lawrence.edu/music-arts/webcasts.