South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble to Perform at National Convention

Musicians from southern New Jersey will perform in front of a national audience in March.

The South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble is slated to perform at the 36th National Convention of the Association of Concert Bands in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The 65-member concert band is based in Egg Harbor Township and is made up of professional musicians, music educators and other accomplished instrumentalists from Atlantic, Cape May, Ocean, Camden and Burlington counties.

The South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble is slated to perform on March 29 at 3:30 p.m. It is one of nine bands that will perform between March 26 and 30 at the Holiday Inn in Allentown Center City.

Under the direction of Music Director Keith W. Hodgson and Associate Conductor Ron Poorman, the ensemble’s reputation has grown nationally and is now recognized among the top community bands in the country.

In 2006, the band won the John Philip Sousa Foundation “Sudler Silver Scroll Award,” the highest highest honor an American community band can achieve.  Fewer than 50 bands have won this award in the foundation’s 27-year history.

The ensemble also gives high school musicians the opportunity to play alongside their college counterparts in side-by-side concerts, performed annually, the ensemble said in a release issued Monday morning.

The group also supports composers through its commission of a new piece of music each year.

The next South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble concert open to the public, “A Touch of Italy will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28, at the Richard Stockton College Performing Arts Center.