History, auditions and can't-miss performances

One of Western Washington University’s newly hired faculty, Jacob Scherr, the visiting director of bands, directs a Western Wind Symphony concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 at the school’s Performing Arts Center Concert Hall. The free event is open to the public and will feature two works by Omar Thomas, “Of Our New Day Begun” and “Come Sunday,” as well as Kimberly Archer’s Symphony No. 3 and Percy Grainger’s “Handel in the Strand.”

Thomas was born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984 and moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying music education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston gay mens' choruses, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He’s now an Assistant Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Find out more about the concert at cfpa.wwu.edu/event/wind-symphony-presents-works-omar-thomas.