Instrumental Ensembles

Jazz Ensemble

Northwestern’s Jazz Ensemble pursues musical excellence within the environment of a Christian liberal arts education. The ensemble performs professional jazz and big band repertoire. Jazz Ensemble performs in concert several times throughout the year and has hosted campus swing dances and dessert concerts.

Jazz Ensemble has toured in partnership with other Northwestern music ensembles.

Chamber Ensembles

Chamber ensemble students have the opportunity to delve into a wide variety of repertoire, expanding their existing knowledge of composers, genres, and styles, collaborating with other highly motivated students under the guidance of music faculty. Faculty members include Dr. Cassandra Bechard, Woodwind, Brass, Percussion Area Coordinator, Prof. David Kozamchak, String Area Coordinator, and multiple adjunct faculty.

Chamber Ensembles include Brass Ensemble, Chamber Winds, Clarinet Choir, Flute Choir, Harp Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Piano Trio, Saxophone Ensemble, and String Ensemble.

Symphonic Band

Under the baton of Dr. Cassandra Bechard, Symphonic Band provides both music majors and non-majors opportunities to experience a wide range of traditional and contemporary repertoire for the modern wind band. Symphonic Band continues to garner a growing recognition for its commitment to musical excellence within a Christian liberal arts education.

University of Northwestern Symphonic Band is a Christ-centered group of musicians who strive to honor and worship God through furthering their musical abilities and experiences, all while seeking to use their gifts to minister within the University community and beyond. Annual on-campus performances include Showcase (during Homecoming), Christmas at Northwestern, and Fall, Winter, and Spring concerts. As a community outreach and ministry, Symphonic Band also performs in area churches.

Committed to a full spectrum of classic and contemporary band repertoire, Symphonic Band has performed works of the masters such as Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, and Holst’s Second Suite in F for Military Band, in addition to newer works such as John Mackey’s Hymn to a Blue Hour and Quirks by Brant Karrick.

Seeking to provide a broad musical experience for its members, Symphonic Band performs 20–30 musical selections each academic year. Tailor-made programming varies in genre, style, and technical demand to allow all students to use their musical gifts and talents to honor God, continue their musical growth while pursuing excellence, and enjoy belonging to the UNW “Band Family.”

UNW Orchestra

The UNW Orchestra, under the baton of David Kozamchak since 2003, fulfills its mission to glorify God while providing music majors, music minors, and students from other academic disciplines with the opportunity to play a wide variety of orchestral literature from Baroque to contemporary, as well as jazz, film, and newly-composed music. The ensemble has performed for the Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Clinic and in 2007 represented the United States at the XVII International Music Meeting in Padua, Italy.

Committed to a full spectrum of historic music and music of the present, the UNW Orchestra has presented world premieres of Cowboy Songs by Libby Larsen, Sacred Americana Suite by former faculty member Dr. Barbara J. Rogers, collaborated with the Northwestern Choir in the full-length opera Ruth by Rogers and Pamela S. Wynn, and Hollywood film composer/orchestrator and alumnus Jordan Cox: Zachor, Andante and Capriccio for English Horn and Orchestra, The Holly and the Ivy, and Arran & Nerys which featured former UNW faculty members Roger Frisch, violin, and Michele Frisch, flute.

On campus, the UNW Orchestra pursues its mission through numerous performances, including the annual Homecoming Showcase in the fall and the annual Concerto-Aria Competition Winner’s Concert in the spring. The UNW Orchestra Praise Chapel has become a very popular praise and worship chapel, and the orchestra has regularly collaborated with the Northwestern Choir in presenting choral-orchestral masterworks such as Brahms’ A German Requiem, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Mass in C, Schubert’s Mass in G, Gloria by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 80 “Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott,” and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, among others.

The UNW Orchestra has presented domestic tours throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and in the Midwestern United States, and extensively throughout the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Every fourth year, the ensemble travels overseas. In its history, the UNW Orchestra has appeared in prestigious concert venues in Italy, in France at the Halle aux Grains in Lavaur, and at the Church of St. Denis in Nuits St. Georges, where a local critic described the ensemble as “Magnificent! A quality orchestra!” In Switzerland, the UNW Orchestra concertized in the Cathedral of St. Pierre, in Aula Hall at the Collège Calvin in Geneva. Their visit to Austria featured performances in Haydn Hall in the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, at the Orangerie at Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace, and Votivkirche.

Instrumental Ensemble Auditions

Instrumental ensemble auditions take place on Audition Days or during New Student Orientation. Add the ensemble to your course schedule and the director will reach out to you to schedule an audition. Contact the Music Office at (651) 631-5218 or (888) 878-5514 with any questions.