The Bethel College Wind Ensemble under the direction of Joel Boettger kicks off the first of several concerts closing out the 2022-23 school year, with a performance Wednesday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium.

The concert is free and open to the public, with a freewill offering taken to support music study and performance at Bethel.

The program includes Movements I and II of the Second Suite in F for Military Band by Gustav Holst; Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance; and the Frank Ticheli version of the 19th-century American tune “Shenandoah.”

“March,” the first movement of Holst’s Second Suite, is built around three folk tunes: a traditional British brass band march based on a Morris dance called “Glorishears,” and the tunes “Swansea Town” and “Claudy Banks.”

The second movement, titled “Song Without Words,” is based on the folk tune “I’ll Love My Love.”

Chance wrote Variations on a Korean Folk Song using the traditional Korean “Arrirang,” which he learned while serving in the Eighth U.S. Army Band during the Korean War in 1958-59.

A second theme to the concert is that of love and care for the earth, first in David Maslanka’s “Mother Earth (A Fanfare),” inspired by St. Francis of Assisi and the writing of the late Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh.

Also on the program is “Joy,” the finale from Joseph Curiale’s Awakening (Songs of the Earth).

The concert closes with Iberian Escapades by Robert Sheldon, a commission for the Boca Raton (Fla.) Middle School Band, inspired by the resort architecture of Addison Mizner.

Wind Ensemble personnel are: flute, Angelika Donaldson, Highland, Ill., Eli Regier, Newton, Abigail Griffin, Cheney, Kan., Kristin Shaffer and Kenna Graber; oboe, Peter Buller, Inman, Kan.; clarinet, Emil Benavides, Stockton, Kan., Caleb Mondragon, Wichita, Tristan England, Pretty Prairie, Kan., and Jill Gatz; bass clarinet, Leah Fast, Moundridge, Kan.; saxophone, Bryce Wilson, Sterling, Kan., Timothy Schrag, Goessel, Kan., and Rebecca Schlosser, Newton; trumpet, April Powls, Garnett, Kan., Jacob Schrag, Goessel, and Phillip Balzer, Hurley, S.D.; horn, Julianna Schrag, Goessel, Elizabeth Alderfer, Goessel, Daniel Kaufman, Moundridge, and Angel Hernandez, Freeman, S.D.; trombone, Christopher Strecker, Goessel, Isaac Tice, Hutchinson, Kan., and Dylan Yoder, Hutchinson; trombone, Trae Gehring, Pretty Prairie; and percussion, Brad Shores, Samuel Hernandez, Liberal, Kan., and Rachel Geyer, Oxford, Iowa.

Coming up in 10 days following the Wind Ensemble’s April 26 performance are the annual Masterworks concert with mass choir, soloists and orchestra and featuring the Mozart “Coronation Mass” and Beethoven “Choral Fantasy,” April 30 at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall; the Steel Drum Band concert (the final one for Brad Shores before he retires from Bethel), May 1 at 7 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium; the Bethel Voice Studio recital, May 2 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building chapel; Jazz on the Green, May 3 at 7 p.m. with Krehbiel Auditorium as the rain venue; and the joint concert by the small a cappella ensembles Woven (soprano/alto) and Open Road (tenor/bass), May 7 at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall.

All are free and open to the public. Freewill offerings will sometimes be taken.

Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges,” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel is the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu