EUGENE–Performances of original jazz arrangements, choral works and a touring German youth ensemble are scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music along with a high school marching band competition on Saturday.

The concert performances will be in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave. The band competition will take place at Autzen Stadium, 2700 Centennial Blvd.

For more information, call the music school weekdays at (541) 346-5678. To confirm concert times and ticket information, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2533, for a 24-hours-a-day taped message of the week’s events.

The Oregon Jazz Ensemble and Los Angeles composer-arranger Matt Harris will be featured in a Jazz Arrangers Concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

The first half of the program will feature the Oregon Jazz Ensemble performing various student arrangements and compositions. Harris will join the ensemble for the second half, performing several of his own selections.

Harris has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and a master’s degree in jazz composition from the Eastman School of Music.

After touring with jazz greats Maynard Ferguson and Buddy Rich, Harris moved to Los Angeles where his devotion to jazz education and his versatility as a writer, arranger and performer keep him very busy. His music can be heard on numerous jingles, film scores and live productions. Harris has created two CDs of original music, two published piano books and more that 100 published compositions.

Harris is currently director of jazz studies at California State University, Northridge, where he directs the award-winning Jazz "A" Band and teaches jazz arranging, improvisation, combos, jazz harmony and piano classes and gives private piano instruction.

The University Singers and UO Chamber Choir will give a fall concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students and senior citizens.

The Chamber Choir, directed by Kathryn Olson, will sing "If Music Be the Food of Love" by David Dickau, "Sing A Song of Sixpence" arranged by John Rutter, "Zion’s Walls" by Aaron Copland, and "Lord God, Assist Me Now" by Franciscan priest G.B. Martini.

The University Singers, directed by Sharon Paul, will sing three 16th-century Spanish carols, three Scottish folksongs, and "Let Me Fly," arranged by Robert DeCormier.

More than 30 of the Northwest’s top high school marching bands will fill Autzen Stadium, 2700 Centennial Blvd., for the 22nd annual Festival of Bands, one of the largest marching band competitions in the Northwest. Gates will open at approximately 7 a.m. for the preliminary rounds that feature hundreds of band musicians performing a wide variety of music including "Phantom of the Opera," "Spartacus," "The Planets," movie music and rock ‘n’ roll.

Preliminary rounds will conclude with an exhibition performance by the Oregon Marching Band at 4:30 p.m. Final rounds will begin at 6 p.m. and conclude at approximately 10 p.m. with another special performance by the Oregon Marching Band. The Oregon Marching Band drum line also will offer a clinic and perform during the lunch break.

Awards will be given after both preliminary and final competition. The presentation of the Grand Champion trophy will cap the daylong event.

Tickets will be available at Gate B at the stadium on performance day. All-day tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens. Children under five will be admitted free. Wheelchair accessible seating is also available, with a courtesy van available for the physically challenged. Parking at Autzen is free, and cars should enter through Entry 2 from Centennial Boulevard.

The Oregon Marching Band will be selling concessions and souvenirs. The Festival of Bands is the Oregon Marching Band’s largest fundraiser of the year and is run entirely by band members and staff. All proceeds from the event benefit the band.

More than 30 bands from the Northwest will be performing. Oregon entries include bands from Thurston, Willamette, Roseburg, Beaverton, Grants Pass, Lebanon, Centennial, North Salem, McNary, Sprague, Aloha, Sunset, Westview, Crater, Tigard and Bend high schools. The competition also will feature bands from Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada.

The Festival of Bands competition is divided into three competitive classes and one exhibition/novice class. All bands compete in the preliminary rounds during the day. In the evening, the 14 highest-scoring bands from the preliminaries will compete in the finals.

All audience members are encouraged to cheer on the bands and enjoy a full day of exciting music, drill and pageantry.

For more information, call the UO band office, 346-5670.

The acclaimed Youth Wind Ensemble from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on tour in the Pacific Northwest, will give a free concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall.

The concert program will include such selections as "Salsa Verde" by Lubos Fiser, "Al Fresco" by Karel Husa, "Procession of the Nobles" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "L’Heure du Berger" by Jean Francaiz and "Yiddish Dances’ by Adam Gorb.

Founded in 1983 to provide performance experience for talented young musicians in Germany’s southwestern state, the ensemble is supported by the Music Council of Baden-Württemberg. Ensemble members are prize-winning young players of the Jugend Musiziert solo competition. As members of the Youth Wind Ensemble, they have an opportunity to perform wind and chamber music of the highest quality.

The group’s permanent conductor and artistic director is Felix Hauswirth, professor of conducting at the Basel Conservatory in Switzerland. He is a leading exponent of European wind music and has written extensively about wind ensemble literature and conducting. He also serves as chairman of the Conducting Association, BOF, and is the president of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.

Since 1992, the Youth Wind Ensemble has toured in Asia, Australia, the United States, South Africa and Japan. It also has performed in Israel, Switzerland, Luxembourg, England, Scotland, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany. The ensemble has received international acclaim from conductors and composers for their five compact disc recordings.

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