The Hugh Hodgson Faculty Series opens the series' 2016 schedule with a slate of “extraordinary” music on Thursday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center.

Michael Heald, associate professor of violin at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, will join with pianist and fellow School of Music faculty member Liza Stepanova to perform works from Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schubert.

The Hodgson Wind Ensemble’s (HWE) January performances take them out of the familiar setting of Hodgson Concert Hall, out of Athens, out of Georgia and even out of the United States.

From Jan. 4-10, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s premier wind ensemble will present a series of concerts and master classes to Panamanian children and young adults in less advantaged communities and donate gently-used instruments to music schools there.

The Hodgson Wind Symphony (HWS) is in the running to earn another national accolade for the Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

The American Prize recently announced the ensemble as one of four finalists for it’s 2015 Band/Wind Ensemble award for colleges and universities.

Nominated with the wind symphony are ensembles from Illinois State University, The College of New Jersey and Baylor University.

An Athens holiday tradition continues with the UGA Holiday Concerts, held this year on Dec. 3 and 4 in Hodgson Concert Hall at the Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m.

The UGA Symphony Orchestra, directed by Mark Cedel, and the combined choirs of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music will perform John Rutter’s “Gloria,” the first suite of Robert Shaw’s “Many Moods of Christmas,” excerpts from Bach’s “Magnificat,” and other seasonal favorites.

The Hodgson Wind Symphony will bring the works of several notable American composers to Hodgson Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m.

Performing compositions from Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Michael Daugherty and Frank Ticheli, the Hodgson Wind Symphony will perform their final concert of 2015 with the help of several Hugh Hodgson School of Music conductors and musicians.

The UGA African American Choral Ensemble (AACE) will present its fall concert on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 8 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall at the UGA Performing Arts Center.

“This concert features some of the gems of African American choral literature, including spirituals and gospel songs,” said Dr. Gregory Broughton, associate professor of voice at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music and director of the AACE.

Dr. Skip Taylor, associate professor of music in string education at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, will soon be trading East Campus for the Eastern Hemisphere. Taylor is going to Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 14-23 to conduct a youth orchestra during an inaugural international music symposium at the Almaty International School.

The UGA Symphonic Band takes the stage on Monday, Nov. 16, with a repertoire of modern music, spanning the years 1929 to 2005. 

The concert, starting at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall, is conducted by Dr. Michael Robinson, director of Athletic Bands, and is free to attend.

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s graduate-level saxophone quartet, the Nach Saxophone Quartet, will perform on Monday, Nov. 16, in the Dancz Center for New Music at 7:30 p.m.

The sax ensemble, made up of School of Music graduate students—Rick Firestone playing soprano, Caroline Halleck playing alto, Hassan High playing tenor and Charlie Young playing baritone—will perform pieces from as far back the 18th century and as recent as 2004. Connie Frigo, associate professor of saxophone at the School of Music, coaches the ensemble.

The Bulldog Brass Society, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s resident graduate student brass quintet, will hold its fall 2015 recital on Monday, Nov. 16 in Edge Recital Hall at 6:30 p.m.

With Anderson Romero and Geoff Wood on trumpets, Peter Riggs on horn, Matt Norman on trombone and Rachel Matz on tuba, the quintet will perform works from James Barnes, Leonard Bernstein, Victor Ewald, and Vince Gassi.