EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY/COMMUNITY CONCERT BAND TO PRESENT TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL SPRING BAND CONCERT SUNDAY, MAY 4

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. - Lieutenant Colonel Timothy J. Holtan, commander of the United States Military Academy Band, West Point, NY, will guest conduct Sunday, May 4 at the twenty-first annual Spring Band Concert featuring the East Stroudsburg University/Community Concert Band.

Holtan will lead the group in Sussex Mummers Christmas Carol by Percy Grainger. The program, "Classics to Moderns," also will feature works of Richard Strauss, Edwin Goldman, Philip Sparkle, Peter Mennin, Robert Jager and Gustav Holst.

A second guest, Casey Meola, an alumna of ESU bands, will conduct Into the Storm by Robert W. Smith. Otis C. French, assistant professor of music and Director of University Bands, is director of the group.

Performance time is 7 p.m. at Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall of the university's Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg. General admission at the door is $3. Students 12 and under and ESU students with current I.D. are free. There are no advance ticket sales.

Holtan assumed command of the United States Military Academy Band in 2005. He is a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, and a former public school music educator in Montana.

In 2000, Holtan was selected for the Army's "Training with Industry" program. He served as the Director of Operations and Associate Conductor of the Dallas Wind Symphony, while concurrently pursuing post-graduate studies at the University of North Texas. Holtan holds music education degrees from Montana State University and the University of Montana, and has pursued additional conducting studies with Elizabeth Green, H. Robert Reynolds, John Paynter, Larry Rachleff, Jerry Junkin and Eugene Corporan.

An active conductor, adjudicator and clinician, Holtan has presented concerts and clinics in 37 states, Canada, Japan, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Europe. Holtan's ensembles have been seen on national broadcasts of network television, A&E, TNN and C-SPAN, and diverse stages such as the Kennedy Center, DAR Constitution Hall, the Mormon Tabernacle and the Myerson Symphony Center.

The concert is sponsored by the Department of Music. The University Bands Program is supported by the Student Activity Association, the ESU Parent's Association, the ESU Foundation and the ESU Alumni Association.

For more information about the program, call the Fine and Performing Arts Events Line at 570-422-3483.