Skip to main content

Let Freedom Ring: A Photo Essay of BYU Music's Veterans Day Celebration

GENTRI and BYU Wind Symphony Celebrate the Home of the Free, Land of the Brave, this Veteran’s Day

Gentri Veteran's Day
GENTRI Joined the BYU Wind Symphony to Honor Veterans. From Left to Right, Bradley Quinn Lever, Casey Elliott, and Brad Robins.
Photo by Ada Gjoligu
Shawn Smith Veteran's Day
Conductor Shawn Smith Led the BYU Wind Symphony in religious, Patriotic and Film Music
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

Utah County Community gathered to honor veterans with the BYU School of Music’s “For Heroes Proved: A Veterans Day Celebration with Special Guest GENTRI.”

Print-©2024AdaGjoligu_HeroesProved-18.JPG
Side View of GENTRI Performing in Veteran's Day Concert
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

Audience members from all armed forces, their families and other patriots gave multiple standing ovations to the tenor trio GENTRI;  BYU Wind Symphony, under the direction of Shawn Smith; and guest speakers.

Veteran Honored
A Veteran Stands to be Honored in the “Armed Forces Medley”
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

Photo by Ada Gijoligu

Speakers included Provo Mayor Michelle Kafusi and Colonel Amos L. Wright, a 100-year-old Army veteran and innovative engineer who has served his country in three wars and has overseen the construction of numerous temples and meetinghouses for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Wright is pictured here with composer and narrator Andrew Maxfield.

Print-©2024AdaGjoligu_HeroesProved-19.JPG
Gentri Singing in Patriotic Songs
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

Provo Mayor Michelle Kafusi spoke of personal ties to the event as a Provo native, BYU alum and one who lost her rother David, an Air Force veteran in service.

Provo Mayor Veteran's Day
Provo Mayor Michelle Kafusi
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

Print-©2024AdaGjoligu_HeroesProved-2.JPG
Conductor Shawn Smith Vigorously Leading the BYU Wind Symphony
Photo by Ada Gjoligu

The composer Andrew Maxfield narrated throughout the evening and reminded us that, “The ties that bind us are stronger than the stresses that divide us.”