This season, the San Antonio Wind Symphony will present music with ties to the diverse culture of San Antonio, celebrating our city's 300th Anniversary!

The next concert will be a collaborative endeavor with the San Antonio Mastersingers, directed by Dr. John Silantien, to be held in the sanctuary at Trinity Baptist Church.

We will be featuring three works by acclaimed composer, James Syler, The Temptation of St Anthony (For Wind Symphony and Chorus), Dear Sarah (for Chorus) and Hocus Pocus (for Wind Symphony).

Mr. Syler received a Bachelor of Music degree from Northern Illinois University in 1983 and a Master of Music degree from theUniversity of Miami in 1988. In 1991 he continued his studies at the University ofTexas at Austin. He has studied privately with composers Alfred Reed, Karl Korte and Pulitzer prizewinner Michael Colgrass.

Awards include a 2002 commission from the American Composers Forum in New York to compose String Quartet No. 1 for the Artaria String Quartet of St. Paul, MN; the 1993 National Band Association Composition Award; two grants from the American Music Center in New York; the 1993 Arnald Gabriel Composition Award; and more than twenty commissions to date.

Mr. Syler has been on the adjunct faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 2001 and teaches private composition lessons and Orchestration. Mr. Syler also teaches composition at the University of the Incarnate Word and is on the music faculty of San Antonio College.

Other works to be performed include, Festive Overture for Wind Symphony, by Dmitri Shostakovich; Meridian by Ola Gjeilo for Chorus and Wind Symphony, and Hallelujah (from Christ on the Mount of Olives) by Beethoven.