Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022
8 p.m.
The Ohio State University School of Music
Weigel Auditorium
UNIVERSITY BAND
Alex Mondragon, conductor
Joshua Reynolds, conductor
COLLEGIATE WINDS
Phillip Day, conductor
Sarah Baker, guest conductor
Dustin Ferguson, guest conductor
PROGRAM
University Band
Cenotaph (1992)
Jack Stamp (b. 1954)
A cenotaph is a "statue or monument to a person not buried there." The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monuments are familiar examples of cenotaphs. This fanfare connotes a breathtaking structure such as one of these cenotaphs. After the explosive percussion introduction, the work begins with a five-part fugue. An accelerando leads to a layering of ostinatos including a 7/8 hemiola in the woodwinds. The fugue subject returns in augmentation and is harmonized in a chorale style.
Cenotaph was commissioned by Mitchell Fennell and the California State University at Fullerton Bands for the 1992 Southern California All-State Band.
— Note by Jack Stamp
Autumn (2017/2018)
Cait Nishimura (b. 1991)
Autumn was originally composed for SATB choir and was later transcribed for wind band by the composer. The choral version features original text inspired by seasonal scenic imagery. The setting for wind band stays true to the pacing and character of the original, with added instrumental texture and color.
The sun hides
low in the sky
igniting the forest
with rays of light.
The air lies motionless
until a gentle wind whispers,
disrupting this peace.
With this wind
dances a colourful melancholy,
painting the seasons
with brushstrokes of time.
Memories swirl
in this cool breeze,
though warmth lingers
in the arms of trees
holding on
until the last single leaf falls.
— Note by Cait Nishimura
Ghost Apparatus (2017)
David Biedenbender (b. 1984)
I find it interesting that many people have a proclivity toward using narratives to structure the way they listen to music. If a title or a program note does not immediately evoke a narrative, many will invent one to frame their listening experience. In some ways, video games, some more than others, also allow you to create your own narrative.
Ghost Apparatus — a hidden network or force — is the soundtrack for a video game that exists only in my head. The narrative for this game is up to you. From the beginning, every note, every decision has a consequence — a cause and effect — that sets in motion a chain of events that cannot be undone. Every note, every gesture is part of a larger puzzle; these single points of sound come together to form something bigger. It’s not apparent from the beginning, but there’s also a force working against the music, against the game. It comes in the form of a melody that emerges slowly — just quick, dramatic swells at first — gradually becoming longer and punctuated by low, loud pillars of sound from the low voices until, finally, the music melts into chaos and this force overtakes the music entirely.
— Note by David Biedenbender
Commissioned by District 8 of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association.
— Note from the score
Stillwater (2019)
Kelijah Dunton (b. 1999)
This work was inspired by the beauty of a small town — Stillwater, Minnesota. This town has a big lake in its center, and out of everyone’s back yard it could be seen. During the winter, the very top of the lake freezes and creates this tranquil effect that could not be seen, but heard. When stepping out into your back yard, you’d see this frozen mass, stuck into place and completely unmovable, but if you listened closely, you could hear that the water underneath continued to flow.
Why is this important?
We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves, we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belonging.
— Note by Kelijah Dunton
Victory (2013)
Noah D. Taylor (b. 1982)
When I was asked to be the guest conductor and composer for the 2012 University of Wisconsin-Superior Tri-State Band Festival, I had decided to compose a new work for each of the bands performing at the festival. Dr. Pamela Bustos, Director of Bands and Instrumental Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, described the work in one word: "powerful."
It was my goal to write a piece that excited the young musicians who would be performing it. Victory is meant to uplift and empower the performers and listeners alike. The dramatic and conflicting nature of the piece is also meant to show the struggle one undergoes on their path to victory.
— Note by Noah Taylor
Collegiate Winds
Fantasia on a Theme by Camille Saint-Saëns (2019)
Randall Standridge (b. 1976)
Randall Standridge received the Bachelor of Music Education and Master in Music Composition degrees from Arkansas State University. From 2001 to 2013, he served as director of bands at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Arkansas. In addition to his career as a composer, Standridge is the marching band editor for Grand Mesa Music Publishers. He is in demand as a conductor, clinician, drill designer, composer and music arranger for the marching arts. He is also a freelance artist, photographer and writer. He lives in Jonesboro, Arkansas, with his family.
About Fantasia on a Theme by Camille Saint-Saëns, the composer writes:
Camille Saint-Saëns' Third Symphony (“The Organ Symphony”) has long been one of my favorite works from the composer. The beautiful orchestration, the wonderful flourishes, and the energy are all impossible to resist.
And then, there is the Maestoso.
Occurring in the second half of his symphony (he wrote it in two movements, but some modern scholars further divide it into four), this wonderful theme is introduced by the pipe organ. It is instantly memorable and glorious.
In 2019, Jeneatte Soebbing asked me to create a work for the Argo Community High School Band (Summit, Illinois) in celebration of the school’s 100th anniversary. When deciding what to write, I knew that I wanted to create something joyous and triumphant. My mind immediately turned to Saint-Saëns’ Third, and the Maestoso that I love so much. The resultant work uses this as its primary theme.
The work begins with a triumphant fanfare in compound meter, and the theme is first sounded in the oboe. It then shifts into an off-kilter waltz (or as one of my composer friends dubbed it, "a waltz for one and a half people"). After coming to a brief rest, the piece leaps forward into a dazzling galop that is both exciting and humorous. The mood then shifts dramatically into a more pensive mode with the melody featured in the bass voices. The piece then begins to build towards its finale and the Maestoso is heard again in its original form.
The Grace in Being (2013)
Julie Giroux (b. 1961)
Sarah Baker (DMA), guest conductor
Julie Ann Giroux was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and Monroe, Louisiana. She received her formal education from Louisiana State University and Boston University. She studied composition with John Williams, Bill Conti and Jerry Goldsmith, to name a few. Julie is an accomplished performer on piano and horn, but her first love is composition. She began playing the piano at age three and published her first piece at age nine.
Julie 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. She began writing music for concert band in 1983. Since that time, she has composed and published numerous works for professional wind ensembles, military bands, colleges and public schools, and has conducted her music in clinics worldwide. She is also a very well-received speaker and clinician. Julie is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
About The Grace in Being, the composer writes:
Everybody deserves to be what they are meant to be. To be exactly how God made them.
This music was composed for all those who struggle with the oppression of this world, a world that has yet to embrace the differences inherent in each of us. Race, religion, sexual orientation: these things and others should never be oppressed.
It is sad to think that so many in this world live with this oppression. We should stop dreaming of the day when this oppression is lifted and instead work each day to make it so. We each deserve the "Grace to Be."
Variations on a Korean Folk Song (1966)
John Barnes Chance (1932-1972)
Dustin Ferguson (DMA), guest conductor
John Barnes Chance, composer and 1966 American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award winner, notes:
I became acquainted with the folk song known as Arrirang (pronounced ‘AH-dee-dong’) while serving in Seoul, Korea in the Eighth U. S. Army Band in 1958–59. The tune is not as simple as it sounds, and my fascination with it during the intervening years led to its eventual use as the theme for this set of variations.
Chance strives to encapsulate the Eastern culture through heavy use of the pentatonic scale and characteristic percussion sounds, such as gong and temple blocks. The piece is divided into six sections — an introduction with the opening theme, followed by five distinct variations alternating in tempo. The slow introduction presents the main Arrirang theme in the clarinets. The first variation is a fast setting featuring percussion. The second variation is a slow, serene setting of the melody, which is first inverted in the oboe, then returns to its original form in the trumpet. Variation three is a fast march and the fourth is majestic and expansive. The piece closes with the final variation featuring both the original theme and the first variation in an exciting finale summarized perfectly by its indication “with impetuousness.”
Hymn of St. James (1984)
Reber Clark (b. 1955)
Reber Clark was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education under the direction of Gene Witherspoon, and studied composition with James Perry while attending Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Arkansas. Reber taught in the public schools for several years before leaving that profession to pursue a career as freelance composer, arranger and performer.
He has fulfilled numerous commissions for college, high school and middle school bands. Reber has been a speaker at the national ASBDA convention speaking on procedures for commissioning a new work. He has arranged hundreds of talent charts and production numbers for state scholarship pageants, "gridiron" and other variety shows.
His performance experience includes many years on trumpet as a studio musician. He has performed in bands for internationally known performers such as Bob Hope, Mitzi Gaynor, the Four Tops, The Temptations and others, including a road tour as lead trumpet for the New Sam and Dave Revue.
About Hymn of St. James, the composer writes:
Hymn of St. James is a composition for band based on the hymn, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” from the Liturgy of St. James (4th century) translated from Greek to English by Gerard Moultrie, 1864, which is set to a traditional 17th century French carol melody.
Over the years, many people have asked me about the origin of this work. I was raised in the Episcopal Church, and this was one of a very few hymns that fascinated me from a very early age. The melody always haunted me and, having the opportunity to write a piece completely unfettered by money or time constraints, I decided to utilize this childhood memory.
The setting depicts the words of each verse of the hymn. The melody is played in its entirety four times and is descriptive of the hymn’s four verses. The two-bar marimba solo at the beginning represents silence. The first time the melody is played it is descriptive of the hymn’s first verse. The strong tertian first statement is concrete and straightforward as the first verse is strong and firm in its faith. The tonal ambiguity of the second statement suggests the paradoxical, mysterious poetry of the second verse: “King of kings, yet born of Mary,” “Lord of lords in human vesture,” etc. The militaristic style of the third statement describes the “host of heaven,” and the cluster that fades into an A major chord coincides with the lyric “as the darkness clears away.” The fourth, and last, statement’s attempt at a “celestial” quality coincides with the fourth verse’s celestial descriptions. The key of the original hymn is D minor, or possibly D aeolian, but six measures from the end a D major chord was chosen to signify the inevitability of good. Tritones, six measures before the end, question all that has come before, with a final answer given on the final D major eighth note.
Whip and Spur (1902/1990)
Thomas S. Allen (1876–1919)
arr. Ray Cramer (b. 1940)
Thomas S. Allen’s music reflects his life as professional musician and manager in the world of entertainment. He was a violinist and made his debut with a professional dance orchestra in Massachusetts at age twenty. He later played in an opera house orchestra in Boston. Allen was the business manager for Edwin G. Bates Musicians for a time, managed several musical acts and was even the musical director for a burlesque show, but eventually he returned to orchestra playing. Allen wrote a great amount of music for a variety of dances, acrobatic acts and short dramatic sketches, but unfortunately almost all of his works are forgotten. Only a few rags and galops are still heard in rodeos, circuses and concerts.
Whip and Spur was written to be played during an old-time rodeo. The performance tempo and style of this piece made it a favorite for the most exciting circus acts and rodeo rides.
ROSTERS
University Band
Musicians are listed alphabetically by section.
PICCOLO
Jerry Zou
FLUTE
Marley Bielek-Walsh
Katie Freytag
Addi Ganschow
Julia Jenkins
Chloe Kirsch
Lauren Nemec
Saanil Rao
Emma Smith
Jea Yun
Jerry Zou
OBOE
Witty Kwok
Emma Robinson
Lauren Yoder
CLARINET
Ruth Bonnice
Maura Coiner
Kaitlyn Collinsworth
Robert Gangwer
Savanna Gasper
Tamya Halison
Ollie Kandakatla
Brian Lo
Ericka Niehaus
Riley Zelazny
BASS CLARINET
Jacob Claggett
Danielle Marshal
Tori Steinbrecher
ALTO SAXOPHONE
Jack Burkhart
Hunter DeWitt
Elizabeth Howes
Alex Kandakatla
Michael Zhu
TENOR SAXOPHONE
Ian Claggett
Susie Horton
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Kaitlyn Daum
TRUMPET
Derek Dougherty
Evan Freeland
Alex Hartsough
Sam Jadaan
Aidan Johnson
Jonathan Levene
Vishank Raghavan
Joshua Silver
Stephen Strouse
Jess Vanek
HORN
Lexi Adair
Clark Hou
Autumn McComb
Allison Simon
Charlie Wallace
Emma Wiinkleman
TROMBONE
Nick Carter
Teagan Davies
Grace Dreier
Jacob Gnau
Satvik Gupta
Meghana Kanathur
Isaac Shah
Ben Syme
Noor Yunis
EUPHONIUM
Dominic Barnes
I. Burgos
Bri Cochill
Antonio Mora
TUBA
Michael Bacasa
June LoGalbo
PERCUSSION
Gavin Brown
Claudia Church
Carter Fry
Muhammad Khairie bin Iswandy
Travis Jahna
Varun Kathiravan
Dylan Kerniskey
Andrew Lineweaver
Morgan Riddiford
Chris Smallwood
Vivek Soni
Collegiate Winds
Musicians are listed alphabetically by section.
PICCOLO
Cooper Greenlees
Devin Zdanowicz
FLUTE
Jhon Fajardo *
Adrianna Fay
Cooper Greenlees
Jillian Kumfer
Julia Norris
Natalie O’Brien
Corrina Pohlman
Devin Zdanowicz
OBOE
Samir Haurani
Sarah Wagner
Maddie Wittman *
BASSOON
Cora Anderson *
CLARINET
Phillip Ainsworth
Audrey Beckman
Ethan Dale
Hannah Eggenschwiler
Leena Jafri
Sophie Lockwood
Sydney Thompson *
BASS CLARINET
Swaraj Patnaik
ALTO SAXOPHONE
Alecia Carpenter
Shogo Nakayama
Brandon Pisell *
TENOR SAXOPHONE
Conner Ozatalar
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Willow Mauldin
TRUMPET
Duke Biscotti
Luke Buzard
Rebecca Dunn
Ryan Durbin
Joel Kellar
Gregg Mendel
Joung Min Oh
Jacob Schwartz
Alex Tuma
Abbey Zunic *
HORN
Katherine Indyk *
Annalise Johnson
Ray Johnson
Olivia Sexton
Aidan Walsh
TROMBONE
Brendan Akins
Lucia Cherok
Reese Hiller Freund
Aaron Inkinen
Safa Jeelani *
Lily Kent
Andric McNabb
Nathan Palmer
Jordan Updegrove
EUPHONIUM
Zach Ferko
Sayaka Iimura *
Clayton Messinger
TUBA
John Chamberlain *
Michael Flowers
Sydney Reeves
Lucas Snouffer
PERCUSSION
Andrew Bourget
Donna Brown *
Nicholas Dye
Logan Gardiner
Mary Paydock
Adam Quinn
Joey Speidel
Marie Zantopulos
* denotes principal
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