The abuse children go through when they are young, along with the happiness felt on the rides at Walt Disney World, was the depicted in the first concert band performance this semester Sunday night.

Corey Francis, the assistant director of bands, conducted the performance. The band performed in the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The band consists of music students who are currently taking classes at Eastern, two of the students being music graduate students.

The instruments played included the piccolo, flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, French horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba and percussion.

The band opened the concert with a piece called “Shine” followed by “Blessed Are They,” a piece graduate student Bryan Chesti conducted.

Francis said snowy weather has turned into a type of tradition for the concert band events.

“Every year we do this performance; there is always a snow storm or some sort of snow issue,” Francis said.

Francis talked to the audience after this piece, explaining the next song would be about child abuse. The piece was called “Watchmen, Tell Us of the Night.”

“This song starts off happy like a child, then throughout the piece, an darker tone is added to represent the abuse the child is going through,” Francis said.

After this performance, the band went straight into the next two pieces called “Strange Rumors” and “Lux Aurumque.”

“If you have ever ridden the Dumbo ride at Walt Disney World, you will recognize the piece ‘Florentiner,’” Francis said, the last song performed that night.

Francis said the reason he chose to have this song in the concert was because it is a reminder of what his wife and children call the happiest place on Earth.

“Disney is the happiest place on Earth, so why not play it in the concert?” he said.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at sewhite2@eiu.edu.