Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 7:30 p.m.
Weigel Auditorium
Columbus, OH
Program
University Band
Shawn W. Davern and Paul Bissler, conductors
Halcyon Hearts
Kathy Copley
Shawn Davern, conductor
Halcyon Hearts is an ode to love and how it affects us all. Halcyon denotes a time where a person is ideally happy or at peace, so in short Halcyon Hearts is about the moment of peace when one finds their love or passion.
The piece centers around major 7th and warm colors to represent the warmth that love bring us. The introduction — which is sudden and colorful — symbolizes the feeling of the unexpected journey it takes to find love. Using the colors and natural energy of the ensemble, we create this sound of ambition and passion throughput the work. No matter what race, gender, religion, nationality or love, we all are united with the common thread of passion from the heart. This piece was written in dedication to those who love no matter which negativity is in the world; do not allow hate and prejudice to guide the way we live our lives. Always choose love and the halcyon days will come.
— Note from the composer
On Parade
Amanda Aldridge
ed. Kaitlin Bove
Shawn Davern, conductor
On Parade is an English “quick step” march featuring a typical first and second strain, trio, and an unusual secondary trio area that modulates the piece to a third tonal area. The original 1914 version of the march was published under the pseudonym Montague Ring. The 2020 edition resolves several practical and stylistic issues with the available 1914 Boosey & Hawkes score-less parts that can be found through the U.S. Library of Congress or IMSLP. Instrument parts have been struck or added to modernize the instrumentation. Stylistically, the dynamic range has been expanded and several courtesy slurs and articulation markings have been added to facilitate cleanliness of lines and phrases. Rehearsal letters, measure numbers, and a tempo marking have been added for convenience and errata has been fixed.
— Note from editor
Keltic Variations
Samuel R. Hazo
Paul Bissler, conductor
Keltic Variations is a short theme and variations on an original sea chantey that captures the excitement of sailing the seas. The bold lines give each section a turn on main theme and counterpart lines.
— Note adapted from publisher
Grant Them Eternal Rest
V. Agnus Dei
Andrew Boysen
Paul Bissler, conductor
Grant Them Eternal Rest was commissioned by Andrew Mast and the St. Ambrose University Symphonic Band and is dedicated to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. The piece follows the general outline of a requiem mass, but without voices, including five movements: Introit, Kyrie, Dies Irae, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
Dr. Mast and I are good friends and I was extremely honored when he asked me to write a piece for him and his ensemble. Over the course of several months, he and I discussed various approaches to the commission and eventually we settled on a multi-movement work that would reflect various aspects of childhood. I began to play around with some ideas and to search for poetic texts that might influence the piece.
I was almost ready to begin the work and spent part of the September 8–9 weekend finalizing ideas. All of that changed, of course, on the eleventh. The overwhelming emotions that I experienced on that Tuesday were something that I had never before experienced in relationship to an event outside of my personal sphere. I can't begin to explain them. I simply knew that I wanted to express them somehow. Dr. Mast agreed that changing the focus of the piece might be a worthy and appropriate thing to do, so I set to work on the new plan.
The concept behind the piece is expressed clearly in the title. I have no interest in exploring or re-living the moments of that day. Instead, the work is simply a prayer to bless those who died so needlessly. The pitch material for the piece is taken primarily from the Dies Irae and a chord progression that I originally sketched for possible use in my Symphony No. 2 for baritone, winds and percussion. The text under the original passage was "Lord, have mercy" and I felt a connection between the material and my thoughts about the piece.
Each movement is intended to reflect the text of the requiem mass, with the Dies Irae movement forming the centerpiece nd giving the whole piece an arch form. I eliminated some of the movements of the traditional requiem mass so that the work as a whole would have a balanced effect. Instead, I chose the five movements whose text most accurately reflected the emotions that I wished to convey.
— Note from the composer
Make the Moment
Shawn W. Davern
Shawn W. Davern, conductor
I believe there are very few people in our lives that inspire us to such a degree, that we decide to sit down and write a piece for them.
My father has and always will be one of those people. He has influenced me in a way that words cannot describe, and I consider Make the Moment to be a heartfelt and emotional thank you card dedicated to him. Make the Moment marks my first composition, originally composed for trombone choir in 2014 and later published by Warwick Music. The wind band version of the composition was presented to my father in celebration of his retirement from the West Genesee Central School District in the summer of 2021.
Make the Moment is reminiscent of an epic fanfare, shortly followed by a resplendent and nostalgic theme. The chordal rhythm of the composition features a transition between the tonic and subdominant, Do and Fa in solfege syllables. My father served as the Director of Fine Arts during my time in high school, for which I coined him the “DoFA,” hence the motivic emphasis on the chords I and IV. The piece begins with a bright fanfare in F major, infusing various instrumental groupings to the texture of the composition. The tempo then slows, with the fanfare figures taking on a more grandiose sensation. With an immediate transition and tempo increase, the heroic main theme is stated. The energetic melody takes on a more sentimental attitude, accompanied by lush chords and a denser orchestration. A modulation to B-flat major, with a nod to the DoFA motive, takes a gradual dynamic shift downward and creates an indication of a pseudo ending. From silence, the composition builds to a powerful transition back into F major. A recapitulation of the original fanfare intensely sounds again, bringing Make the Moment to an exciting conclusion.
A sincere thank you to Dr. Bradley Ethington and the Syracuse University Wind Ensemble for performing the world premiere of the wind band version of Make the Moment and for allowing my father, for whom the piece was written, to conduct the piece.
— Note from the composer
Collegiate Winds
Phillip Day, conductor
Paul Bissler, guest conductor
Flourish for Glorious John (1957/1998)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
arr. John Boyd
Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes and influenced several of his own original compositions.
Vaughan Williams spent most of his life in London. He studied the viola, piano and organ, and he wanted to compose, but his family discouraged him from an orchestral career. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and studied composition at the Royal College of Music, as well as organ and piano with several teachers. He became good friends with Gustav Holst, and they often shared their works in progress with each other.
According to Hubert J. Foss in The Heritage of Music, “In Vaughan Williams we hear the historic speech of the English people. What he gives us in music is the language of the breakfast table. It is also the language that Shakespeare wrote.”
Sir John Barbirolli was a distinguished British conductor of the mid-twentieth century whose many recordings bear witness to his great talents. He was a friend of Vaughan Williams and led the Hallé Orchestra in premiere performances of the composer’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. To commemorate the 100th anniversary season of Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra and its great conductor, Vaughan Williams decided to write this short, colorful work. The piece opened the first concert of the 1957–1958 season and, after the composer was called on stage to join Barbirolli, a second performance had to be given owing to the enthusiastic applause showered on them by the audience.
Illumination (2013)
David Maslanka (1943–2017)
Paul Bissler, guest conductor
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; the 2nd, 3rd and 4th symphonies; 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.
About Illumination, the composer wrote:
“Illumination” — lighting up, bringing light. I am especially interested in composing music for young people that allows them a vibrant experience of their own creative energy. A powerful experience of this sort stays in the heart and mind as a channel for creative energy, no matter what the life path. Music shared in community brings this vital force to everyone. Illumination is an open and cheerful piece in a quick tempo, with a very direct A–B–A song form.
Grace Before Sleep (2011/2013)
Susan LaBarr (b. 1981)
arr. J. Eric Wilson
Susan LaBarr is the editor of Walton Music. Susan attended Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Music in Music Theory; she studied piano with Dr. Peter Collins, and choral arranging and composition with Dr. John Prescott.
Susan is an active, published composer, with works published through Santa Barbara Music Company (several through the Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series and the Janeal Krehbiel Choral Series) and Morningstar Music. In 2011, Susan won the Opus Award for her compositions Two Songs of Love Lost: "Forever Gone" and "At Dawn of Day," an award nominated and voted on by members of the Missouri Choral Directors Association. Susan served as the Missouri Composer Laureate in 2012 and 2013, a position chosen by the organization Verses and Voices, chaired by Missouri First Lady Georganne Nixon. In 2012, Susan served as composer-in-residence for the Chattanooga Girls Choir (Tennessee). Susan is currently the composer-in-residence for the Tennessee Chamber Chorus, a professional choir based in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Susan is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America, and is an active supporter of the International Federation for Choral Music and Choristers Guild.
Composed in 2011, Grace Before Sleep was inspired by a poem of thanks written by Sara Teasdale. A quiet opening builds into a gorgeous, resounding climax before coming to a more reflective, thankful close. This wind setting, arranged in 2013 by J. Eric Wilson, director of Bands at Baylor University, draws upon the warm sonorities of the concert band to reflect LaBarr’s musical intent and Teasdale’s poetic sentiments.
How can our minds and bodies be
Grateful enough that we have spent
Here in this generous room, we three,
This evening of content?
Each, one of us has walked through storm
And fled the wolves along the road;
But here the hearth is wide and warm,
And for this shelter and this light
Accept, O Lord, our thanks tonight.
Khan (2008)
Julie Giroux (b. 1961)
Julie Ann Giroux is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and numerous concert band works. She received her formal education at Louisiana State University and Boston University. She also studied composition with John Williams, Bill Conti and Jerry Goldsmith.
Giroux is an extremely well-rounded composer, writing works for symphony orchestra (including chorus), chamber ensembles, wind ensembles, soloists, brass and woodwind quintets as well as many other serious and commercial formats. Much of her early work was composing and orchestrating for film and television. Her writing credits include soundtrack score for White Men Can't Jump and the 1985 miniseries North and South. She has also arranged music for Reba McIntyre, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Giroux is a three-time Emmy Award nominee, and in 1992 won an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction.
Giroux has an extensive list of published works for concert band and wind ensemble. She began writing music for concert band in 1983, publishing her first band work, Mystery on Mena Mountain with Southern Music Company. Giroux left Los Angeles in 1997 to compose for concert bands and orchestras full time, publishing exclusively with Musica Propria. In 2004, Gia Publications, Inc. published the book entitled Composers on Composing for Band, Volume Two which features a chapter written by Julie Giroux. Her insightful chapter gives a down-to-earth description (which is often humorous) of her personal methods and techniques for composing for bands.
Giroux is a member of American Bandmasters Association (ABA), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP, and an honorary brother of the Omicron Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at West Virginia University. She was initiated into the fraternity on April 2, 2005.
About Khan, the composer writes:
This is a programmatic work depicting Genghis Khan and his army on the move. The opening theme, "Warlord," represents Genghis Khan which is followed by the "Horseback" theme (comprised of an A and B section). These three musical representations are used throughout the piece creating a musical "campaign," complete with a serene village scene just before its decimation. Most of the work is at a brisk tempo combined with energetic rhythms and driving percussion which continuously propel the music urgently forward. Extreme dynamic contrasts throughout the piece contribute to the emotional turbulence. Genghis Khan and his army ended the lives of thousands of people, and his "Warlord" theme, with great force, ends this work.
Genghis Khan (1165–1227) (more properly known as Chinggis Khan) was one of history’s most brutal, charismatic and successful warlords. He was a strategic genius. With his highly disciplined and effective army, Khan conquered more territory than any other conqueror, creating an empire that continued to expand even after his death, becoming the largest contiguous empire in history. Though many of his campaigns were in conquest of territory and riches, just as many were often a matter of retaliation.
His non-military feats included the introduction of a writing system which is still used in Inner Mongolia today (Uighur script), an empire and society that stressed religious tolerance, and the Mongol nation which would not exist today if not for his campaigns.
March “Grandioso” (1901/2001)
Roland F. Seitz (1867–1946)
arr. Andrew Glover
American composer and conductor Roland Seitz received his early education in the public schools of York County, Pennsylvania. Although he was interested in studying music as a profession, he became a printer’s apprentice with the Glen Rock Item, a weekly newspaper, when he was a teenager — his father had died when he was three, and it was necessary that he help with the family income. Fortunately, his early interest in music was encouraged by several of his relatives, including Seitz’s older cousin, Levi Z. Seitz, who obtained a flute for Roland and invited him to join the family “band.” The other instruments in this unorthodox ensemble consisted of a trombone, some violins and an organ.
Although Roland Seitz was reportedly a conscientious and capable printer, he still hoped for a career in music, and by saving every possible penny until he was 27 years of age, he finally succeeded in enrolling at Dana’s Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio (now part of Youngstown State University). Seitz also played the pipe organ at Zion Lutheran Church in Glen Rock, traveled on concert tours, and opened his own publishing business. In addition to his own music, his catalogue eventually included marches by a number of composers, including W. Paris Chambers, C. E. Duble, F. H. Losey, H. J. Crosby, George Rosenkrans, and Charles Sanglear. The firm was purchased by Southern Music Co. of San Antonio, Texas, in 1964.
Roland Seitz composed a number of works for band, but, beginning with Encomium in 1889, he became best known for his stirring and melodic marches — he became known as the Parade Music Prince — about 50 of which were published and 6 unpublished. Among the most popular are Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band, Brooke’s Triumphal, March Grandioso, Salutation, Third Brigade, Triumphal, and University of Pennsylvania.
Personnel
University Band
Musicians are listed alphabetically within each section.
Piccolo
Delaney Niklaus
Flute
Emma Hamilton
Megan Hubbard
Ella Johnson
Cecillia Le
Delaney Niklaus
Oboe
Sarah Burdick
Bassoon
Robert Mullen
Clarinet
Bella Ake
Emily Baker
Leah Bauer
Grace Beebe
Thomas Beck
Lauren Campman
Aaron Geise
Connor Gibson
Leahandria Hood
Olivia Putnam
Ryder Robins
Bass Clarinet
Jacob Claggett
Persis Saji
Alto Saxophone
Clara Carrocce
Josh Gutierrez
Ryan Martinez
Jacob Oberdier
Keegan O’Leary
Elliott Smith
Mary Vaughan
Tenor Saxophone
Savannah Coyle
Ian Claggett
Patrick McClelland
Evan Schneider
Blake Steele
Baritone Saxophone
Kaitlyn Daum
Charlie Peterson
Kayla Schmidt
Kameron Troxell
Trumpet
Paolo Atriano
Shane Carlisle
Derek Dougherty
Ayden Gardner
Alex Hein
Annie Liedtke
Finn Paul
Levi Rickenbach
LJ Duane Tessier
Kendall Todd
Jess Vanek
Jizhi Xia
Horn
Shelby Kenley
Artem Vovchenko
Trombone
Jade Blevins
Erin Emans
Emily Leninsky
Cameron Mills
Abigail Rutherford
Lindsey Shimoda
Jenny Speidel
Nathan Vernon
Matthew Wheeler
Euphonium
Luka Khutsidze
Tori Klinger
Angel Luong
Louis Polien
Amelia Wells
Tuba
Zach Grant
Paden Knowles
Delaney Ray
Jeremy Timog
Double Bass
Tim Wintrode
Percussion
Daniel Allen
Ellie Burkholder
Dylan Kerniskey
Keira Lamont
Sophia Pack
Orion Stufflebeam
Collegiate Winds
Musicians are listed alphabetically within each section.
Piccolo
Devin Zdanowicz
Flute
Adrianna Fay
Maryssa Hoermle
Jasmine Kaur
Rebecca Margolis
Kehlin Morgan
Anna Muehleisen
Natalie O’Brien
James Rheinfrank *
Allegra Tannoury
Hana Winchester
Devin Zdanowicz
Bassoon
Olive Bennett
Jack Householder-Wise
Gunnar Pellissier *
Clarinet
Sam Baccei
Samantha Buckley
Mackenzi Buynak
Jarom Christensen
Eris Dale
Leena Futoryansky
Natalie Hall
Jenna Harkin
Evan Milam
Andrew Parulekar *
Max Webster
Ethan White
Elise Zavaglia
Bass Clarinet
Rowan Hauer *
Swaraj Patnaik
Tori Steinbrecher
Alto Saxophone
Holly Barger
Gabe Gasper
Samantha Goldsmith
Angela Rakhmistrovskaya *
Luke Willis
Tenor Saxophone
Zachary Brutko
Conner Ozatalar *
Baritone Saxophone
Andrew Vannorsdall
Trumpet
Nolan Daly *
Nevaeh Keiper
Graham Kowal
Marlee Lawson
Noah Madsen
Ryan Matthews
Diego Moreno
Andrew Novotny
Carter Wells
Horn
Aria Christensen
Adeline Hannig
Annalise Johnson
Alycia Stier *
Aravind Upadrasta
Randall Wiles
Trombone
Aaron Bekele (bass)
Clarissa Cousart *
Fernando Flores IV
Jackson Hammond
Sebastian Peña
Gavyn Schooley
Amara Suchy
Nicholas Zahniser
Euphonium
Corina Clagg
Matthew Grover *
Rayhaan Mir
Tuba
Luke Funk *
Sydney Reeves
Percussion
A J Berman *
Andrew Bourget
Garrett Campbell
Alexander Garza
Colin Spears
Marie Zantopulos
Piano
Nevaeh Keiper
Rayhaan Mir
* principal player
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