Thursday, April 17, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Weigel Auditorium
Columbus, OH
Program
Trumpet Ensemble
Timothy Leasure, director
Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon
Percy Grainger, arr. Barry M. Ford
An Overture and a Finale
Ronald LoPresti
Personnel
Jude Abuzeide
Graham Bentley
Luke Bingham
Connor Caviness
Ben Dickson
Ava Diederich
William Fisher
Gaby Hardisky
Zach Heffner
Nevaeh Keiper
Marlee Lawson
Noah Madsen
Connor Milner
Allison Morris
Colin Parker
Bobby Petty
Nick Schnitzspahn
Abigail Zunic
University Band
Shawn W. Davern and Paul Bissler, conductors
El Capitan March
John Phillip Sousa (1854–1932)
Paul Bissler, conductor
One of the perennial Sousa favorites, this march has enjoyed exceptional popularity with bands since it first appeared. It was extracted from the most successful of the Sousa operettas, El Capitan. El Capitan of the operetta was the comical and cowardly Don Medigua, the early 17th-century viceroy of Peru. Some of the themes appear in more than one act, and the closing theme of the march is the same rousing theme which ends the operetta.
This was the march played by the Sousa Band, augmented by over a hundred men and all at Sousa's personal expense, as they led Admiral Dewey's victory parade in New York on September 30, 1899. It was a matter of sentiment with Sousa, because the same march had been played by the band on Dewey's warship Olympia as it sailed out of Mirs Bay on the way to attack Manila during the Spanish-American War.
— Note from John Philip Sousa: A Descriptive Catalog of His Works
Three Folk Miniatures
Andre Jutras (b. 1957)
I. V’la l’bon vent
II. Isabeau s’y promene
III. Les Raftsmen
Shawn Davern, conductor
Based on well-known French Canadian folksongs, the three short movements are contrasting in tempo and style with colorful and solid scoring, fresh harmonies and interesting rhythms. Three Folk Miniatures is based on the following French Canadian Songs: "V'la l'bon vent," "Isabeau s'y promene," and "Les Raftmen."
The French-Canadian folk songs capture the essence of 17th-century Canada, before the English victory in the French and Indian War. The first song, "V’la la’bon vent," which means "here is the good wind," is said to have been sung by French sailors on their way to New France, as they hoisted the mainsail when encountering a good tailwind. The second song is "Isabeau s’y promène," which tells of the loneliness of being away from a loved one, as men often were gone for militia duty or hunting. The third song, "Les Raftmen," is a folk melody sung by loggers and lumberjacks. The steady rhythm provided a basis for swinging axes in unison. After the trees were cut down, they were tied together to make “rafts” to float downriver to the sawmill.
— Note from the publisher
The Cave You Fear
Michael Markowski (b. 1986)
Paul Bissler, conductor
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” — Joseph Campbell
I've been thinking a lot lately about all the opportunities we're given day to day to try something new or to go somewhere we've never been before — the opportunity to take a spontaneous road trip, to go see a concert by a band we've never heard of at a venue we've never been to, to try that new restaurant down the street where the menu is in a language we don't quite understand. Some people have an innate sense of adventure, who go with the flow, who live life for the unexplored, and I couldn't be more inspired by them.
For a long time, I was the opposite. I used to prefer to stay at home, working on my computer because it was the safe and responsible thing to be doing, listening to the same albums on my iPod, ordering the same meal at the same, familiar restaurants. And while there's nothing necessarily wrong with having a routine or knowing what you like, I eventually realized that my life was starting to have a certain predictability to it. It was a few years ago, while I was still living in the same state that I was born and raised in, that I had the most terrifying epiphany that I think I've ever had. I was becoming increasingly bored and incredibly boring.
In film schools around the world, Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With A Thousand Faces is required reading for filmmakers, screenwriters and storytellers because Campbell has single-handedly identified what we refer to as "The Hero's Journey" — the series of events and conflicts that arise along a character's path as he or she fights their way to some ultimate goal. After studying Campbell, it's easy to question where we are on our own paths. What is our own story? What are we fighting for? What does it mean to be a "hero" and how can we be more "heroic" ourselves? When we hear our own call to adventure, will we jump up, prepared, or will we ignore it, sit idly and take the easy way out because we would rather life be quiet and comfortable? According to Campbell, each of our adventures are already out there, waiting for us. That's not the problem. For him, "the big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty 'yes' to your adventure."
So for the next four minutes, let's take a chance, let's venture into the dark unknown, let's fight whatever monsters we find in there. And although we might not always prevail, at least we'll have a story to tell by the end.
— Note by the composer
Earth Song
Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
Paul Bissler, conductor
Earth Song for concert band is the grandchild of Sanctuary for concert band. Almost as soon as I completed Sanctuary , I became intrigued by the idea of making a choral version of at least part of the work. Within the same year, I realized this goal, inventing a poem that reflected the music's poignant lyricism, fitting the rhythmic stresses and melodic contour of Sanctuary’s melody. Thus, Earth Song for chorus came to be.
Six years after composing Sanctuary, in 2012, I received an email from Frank Troyka, director of bands at Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas, inquiring if I might consider making a concert band version of Earth Song for one of his colleagues. The irony of his request was not lost on either of us, but we both agreed that, in a sense, this full circle back to the music's concert band origins would allow me to create a grandchild possessing the genetic strengths of both its ancestors: the rich textured lyricism and more concise nature of its choral forebear, combined with the wider color palette and expressive power of its concert band forebear.
Thus, Earth Song for concert band was born: a more concise (and less technically demanding) descendant of Sanctuary.
— Note by the composer
Excursion! A Ride on the Erie Canal
Lisa Galvin (b. 1961)
Shawn Davern, conductor
“I’ve got an old mule and her name is Sal — Fifteen years on the Erie Canal!” These and other lyrics referenced in this work are likely less familiar that the simple melody of the folk song that has been recognized for centuries. Commissioned by the St. Marys (OH) Community Band — Mr. Dane Newlove, director — for the Bicentennial Celebration of the city in 2023, Excursion! was premiered during their Summerfest Celebration. As I began formulating ideas for this work, I became aware of a recognizable icon for the city of St. Marys — the famous canal boat called “The Belle of St. Marys.” This canal boat from the early 1800s still has an important place in the city, residing in a downtown park dedicated to its preservation. This vessel was used in the creation of part of the Miami and Erie Canal, which runs directly through the city of St. Marys. Many of the city’s first inhabitants were workers on the construction of the canal, and most were of Irish or German descent. This Canal, whose formation was inspired by the great Erie Canal from New York, provided the infrastructure and commerce for the western corridor of the state of Ohio, and was designed to provide a 274-mile waterway connection from Toledo to Cincinnati. Folklore states that the many workers who built the canal and its accompanying towpath for the mules were paid “twenty-five cents and a jigger of whiskey” for a good day’s work. The jigger actually served a medicinal purpose — to ward off any threat of malaria. In designing this piece to celebrate the 200th anniversary, the intent was to have all these inferences musically present in some fashion. You will hear the joyous atmosphere that opens the piece, followed by a section that sounds like an Irish Reel and another that harkens the flavor of German Polka. Much of the work calls upon the “Erie Canal” folksong, although it appears in altered time signatures and modes that are similar and yet interestingly different in their presentation. On a personal note — following the premiere of this work for the St. Marys community, there were a number of audience members who offered very personal and impassioned recollections of their childhood or their family’s ties to the canal. They were delighted to have an opportunity to re-live those images and memories while listening to this piece, and it was a wonderful evening of sharing stories and gratitude.
— Note by the composer
Collegiate Winds
Phillip Day, conductor
Paul Bissler, guest conductor
Gavorkna Fanfare (1991)
Jack Stamp (b. 1954)
Paul Bissler, conductor
Dr. Jack Stamp received his Bachelor of Science in Music Education degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from East Carolina University (ECU), and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Michigan State University, where he studied with Eugene Corporon. Stamp’s primary composition teachers have been Robert Washburn and Fisher Tull, though he was strongly influenced by his music theory teachers at IUP and ECU. Recent studies include work with noted American composers David Diamond, Joan Tower and Richard Danielpour.
Stamp retired as Professor of Music and Director of Band Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in 2015 after 25 years, where he conducted the Wind Ensemble and Symphony Band and taught courses in undergraduate and graduate conducting. Prior to his appointment at IUP, he served as chairman of the Division of Fine Arts at Campbell University in North Carolina. He also taught for several years in the public schools of North Carolina.
He is active as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and composer throughout North America and Great Britain. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading military and university bands across the United States. He has won the praise of American composers David Diamond, Norman Dello Joio, Michael Torke, Samuel Adler, Robert Ward, Robert Washburn, Fisher Tull, Nancy Galbraith and Bruce Yurko for performances of their works. He is also a contributing author to the “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band” series.
Gavorkna Fanfare was composed for and dedicated to Eugene Corporon and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony. The work exploits the idea of a fanfare for full wind band, rather than the traditional brass and percussion instrumentation. The opening pyramids lead to the melodic minor third cluster heard in original and inversion simultaneously. A polychordal transition based on the upcoming "fugato" subject leads to a minimalist accompaniment to the four-part counterpoint. The opening idea returns with a coda based on the melodic minor third.
The composer writes:
Composer Jack Stamp writes, “I wish I had never named this work Gavorkna. I constantly receive calls inquiring as to the meaning of the title. It is a made-up word and a joke between Eugene Corporon and myself.
Gene called me in October 1990, stating that his Cincinnati College Conservatory Wind Symphony would be performing at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in Kansas City in February. He asked me to suggest an opener. I said, “Let me write you one. If you like it, you can have it for free. If you don’t I won’t be upset.” I wrote the piece in two days. I scored it and sent it to Gene. He called and said, “You can ignore me completely, but the fugue is boring.” I said, “How can a four-part fugue be boring?” But he was right! So, on Christmas Eve, I re-wrote the fugue by ornamenting each entrance. It made the work much stronger. To date, this is my most popular work and has launched some of the earlier works as well as provided numerous commissions. I owe Gene a lot, both as my teacher of conducting, and as a friend.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (1977)
Elliot Del Borgo (1938–2013)
Dr. Elliot Del Borgo taught instrumental music in the Philadelphia public schools and was professor of music at the Crane School of Music, where he held teaching and administrative positions from 1966 to 1995. An award-winning member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), he was a frequent consultant, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator in the United States and abroad. Dr. Del Borgo was an internationally-known conductor of bands and orchestras. He was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association in 1993.
In addition to his music for the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, Del Borgo published nearly 500 compositions for a variety of media. His music reflects the aesthetics of twentieth-century musical ideals through its eclectic nature and vigorous harmonic and rhythmic style.
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night was commissioned in 1977 to commemorate Jill Marie Waterland and Mandy Doel, two Peninsula High School (Gig Harber, WA) students who were tragically killed in a car accident.
The Dylan Thomas poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" was the motivation for this musical composition. While not a programmatic depiction of the poem, the work attempts to recreate the essence of the poem in sound. The opening motive, representative of the life force, permeates much of the work. A Charles Ives-like use of sound layers — in the form of polytonal hymns — calls to mind the struggles and persistence of the human spirit and its refusal to "go gentle."
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Rollo Takes a Walk (1980/1985)
David Maslanka (1943–2017)
Over the past four decades, David Maslanka has become one of America’s most original and celebrated musical voices. He published dozens of works for wind ensemble, orchestra, choir, percussion ensembles, chamber ensembles, solo instrument, and solo voice. However, he is especially well-known for his wind ensemble works. Of his ten symphonies, eight are written for wind ensemble, and an additional forty-one works include among them the profound “short symphony” Give Us This Day, and the amusing Rollo Takes a Walk. Maslanka’s unique compositional technique is known for its emphasis on meditation, psychoanalysis, self-discovery, and the accession of one’s own subconscious energies. His search for spiritual and metaphysical discovery ultimately spurred him to leave New York City in 1990, and move to Missoula, Montana, where he lived and worked until his death.
Maslanka's works for winds and percussion have become especially well known. They include among others, A Child's Garden of Dreams for Symphonic Wind Ensemble; Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion; Symphonies No. 2, 3 and 4; Mass for soloists, chorus, boys chorus, wind orchestra and organ; and the two wind quintets. Percussion works include Variations of "Lost Love" and My Lady White for solo marimba, and three ensemble works: Arcadia II: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble; Crown of Thorns, and Montana Music: Chorale Variations. In addition, he has written a wide variety of chamber, orchestral, and choral pieces.
The composer writes:
Rollo is a complicated little idea, and when asked to explain it I am often at a loss. Rollo is a fictional character created by the American composer Charles Ives, who lived from 1875 to 1953. Ives used Rollo in his writings about music as the model of an average person with conservative musical tastes. Ives would say “Rollo would really like that tune!” or “Rollo wouldn’t like that one at all!” Rollo was Ives’ measuring stick for a level of American popular taste. The irony was that Rollo wouldn’t have liked most of Ives’ own music. So, when Rollo takes a walk, he moves about among tunes that he likes, and some stuff that’s hard for him. Finally, Rollo is simply a quirky little bit of fun, a bit of a musical cartoon. I hope you enjoy!
The Empire Strikes Back (Finale) (1977/1980)
John Williams (b. 1932) / trans. Jack Bullock
Carmen Ohio/Across the Field
arr. Roger Cichy (b. 1956)
Personnel
University Band
Musicians are listed alphabetically within each section.
Flutes
Macy Adams
Ananya Chada
Addi Ganshow
Zach Grant
Ella Johnson
Cecelia Le
Zoe Weston
Oboe
Connor Croley
Clarinets
Emily Baker
Abby Baldwin
Grace Beebe
Savannah Coyle
Hannah Eggenschweiler
Kaitlyn Fields
Aaron Geiese
Lauren Hailey
Haley Kramer
Jack Pfeifer
Ryder Robins
Isen Zhang
Bass Clarinet
Jacob Claggett
Alto Saxophone
Stephen Connair
Ryan Martinez
Jenna Moyer
Jacob Oberdier
Nick Paul
Nicole Susko
Mary Vaughn
Tenor Saxophone
Ian Claggett
Ayden Olic
Baritone Saxophone
Kaitlyn Daum
Kayla Schmidt
Trumpet
Paolo Atriano
Grace Everett
Amanda Hann
Noah Jones
Samuel Lanier
Annie Liedtke
Erin Madden
Grace Monfort
Finnian Paul
Levi Rickenbach
Austin Smith
Jess Vanek
French Horn
Shelby Kenley
Trevor Paul
Alec Wang
Trombone
Jade Blevins
Emily Leninsky
Lindsey Shimoda
Abigail Rutherford
Cameron Mills
Nathan Vernon
Favius Pena-Amaya
Matthew Wheeler
Jake Meyer
Euphonium
Jade Blevins
Elliot Luman
Angel Luong
Louie Polien
Amelia Wells
Erik Zhang
Tuba
Michael Bacasa
Marco Cagliuso
Brandon Crouch
Jonathan Kessler
Percussion
Daniel Allen
Ellie Burkholder
Will Fisher
Dylan Kerniskey
Keira Lamont
Orion Stufflebeam
Collegiate Winds
Musicians are listed alphabetically within each section.
Piccolo
Rebecca Margolis
Kehlin Morgan
Flute
Abby Birr *
Rebecca Margolis
Kehlin Morgan
Allegra Tannoury
Hana Winchester
Oboe
Sarah Burdick
Jaleea Gamble *
Natalie Kittle
Bassoon
Gunnar Pellissier *
Jack Householder-Wise
Clarinet
Phillip Ainsworth
Isabella Ake
Sam Baccei *
Eris Dale
Leena Futoryansky
Connor Gibson
Evan Milam
Ellis Neuman
Montana Runser
Max Webster
Elise Zavaglia
Bass Clarinet
Swaraj Patnaik
Tori Steinbrecher
Matthew Watson *
Alto Saxophone
Holly Barger
Clara Carrocce
Samantha Goldsmith
Blake Steele *
Andrew Vannorsdall
Luke Willis
Tenor Saxophone
Zachary Brutko
Conner Ozatalar *
Baritone Saxophone
Charlie Peterson
Trumpet
Luke Duane-Tessier
Nevaeh Keiper
Marlee Lawson
Ryan Matthews *
Andrew Novotny
Colin Parker
Olivia Truocchio
Horn
Aria Christensen
Leila Culp
Adeline Hannig
Annalise Johnson
Sami Steinhauser
Aravind Upadrasta
Lydia VanVleet *
Randall Wiles
Trombone
Veronica Ball
Luke Brown
Fernando Flores IV
Jackson Hammond
Reese Hiller Freund (bass)
Abigail Miller
Gavyn Schooley
Amara Suchy
Kenta Thompson *
Nicholas Zahniser
Euphonium
Dominic Barnes
Corina Clagg
Brendan Elliott *
Tori Klinger
Tuba
Joseph Orr *
Ryan Schoeff
Matthew Sliwinski
Percussion
AJ Berman
Andrew Bourget
Alexander Garza
Peter Kindt +
Colin Spears *
Hayden Techter
Marie Zantopulos
* principal player
+ assisting musician
Join us…
School of Music performances are free, unless indicated otherwise. Many performances are livestreamed for later viewing.
Receive news and upcoming events. Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter, OVATION.
Visit Events for upcoming performances, lectures and more.
Visit Outreach for opportunities for middle/high school musicians and educators, as well as Youth Summer Music Programs.
Interested in lessons? Our Community Music School offers opportunities for all ages and ability levels.