Friday, January 23, 2026  •  6:30 p.m.

Weigel Auditorium | Columbus, OH

Symphonic Band

Scott A. Jones, conductor

PROGRAM

Overture to Colas Breugnon (1937/1967/2003)

Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904–1987), trans. Hunsberger

“Colas Breugnon” is a three-act opera composed by Kabalevsky in 1937 — his first venture into the large musical form. The overture is spirited and features themes that are approachable to the first-time listener. The highly animated themes of the first section are contrasted by more lyrical and flowing second section. The overture concludes with the same material of the first section that serves to bring this delightful overture to a conclusion. 

The son of a Russian mathematician, Dmitri Kabalevsky was encouraged to study mathematics, but was fascinated with poetry, painting, and the piano. Against the wishes of his father, Kabalevsky attended the Moscow Conservatory where he studied music composition and, at the age of 28, became a professor at the storied conservatory. Kabalevsky was awarded many state honors for his music and was elected the head of several organizations dedicated to music education for children. While Kabalevsky wrote various kinds of music, he was most noted in Russia for his vocal songs, cantatas and operas.

Winter Dreams (2015)

Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

“Winter Dreams is a contemporary musical reflection on the creative world of Iowa artist Grant Wood (1891–1942). Composed in memory of my father, Willis Daugherty (1929–2011), the music also reflects on the years when I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as the oldest of five sons in the Daugherty family. [The composition] is inspired by the bleak winter scenes of rural Iowa depicted in Grant Wood’s paintings and black and white lithographs of the 1930s–1940s, such as “January” and “February.” A haunting melody evokes a cold winter wind whistling “down in the valley.” The title …. also hearkens back to Jay Sigmund (1885–1937), an Iowa poet and close friend of Grant Wood. It was Sigmund who was instrumental in persuading Wood to turn his attention from Europe back to Iowa for artistic inspiration. In a poem entitled “Grant Wood,” Sigmund describes how “time found a new son / Dreaming on the plain.”

Multiple GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. Daugherty was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1954 and is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. In 1991 Daugherty joined the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, where he serves as professor of composition and is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. Daugherty is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world.

Deciduous (2023)

Viet Cuong (b. 1990)

“For a long time after my father passed away, I felt like I had 'lost my leaves.' In the ways that leaves harness light to create energy for trees and plants, I felt like I had so little left to harness creatively. Many days I feared those leaves would never grow back. After struggling for months to write, I finally found some healing which resulted in the composition Deciduous. This involved revisiting chord progressions that brought me solace as a child and activating them in textures that I have enjoyed exploring as an adult. The piece cycles through these chord progressions, building to a moment where it’s stripped of everything and the music must find a way to renew itself. While I continue to struggle with his loss, I have come to understand that healing is not as much of a linear process as it is a cyclical journey, where, without fail, every leafless winter is followed by a spring.”

Vietnamese American composer Viet Cuong is “known for his imagination and colorful voice, and … [capacity] to blend the whimsical and profound by finding new expressive possibilities through unexpected instrumental pairings and textures.” Cuong is currently a member of the music faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music theory.

Good Night, Dear Heart (2009/2015)

Dan Forrest (b. 1978)

Composer Dan Forrest was moved to write a musical elegy in 2008 following news of the tragic passing of a four-month-old Ethiopian girl — Etsegenet — soon to be adopted by his brother and wife. A search for a suitable text led him to a picture of a tombstone from his childhood hometown cemetery. The tombstone marks the grave site of the 24-year-old daughter of American author Mark Twain — Susy — who had also passed unexpectedly.  

Warm summer sun
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind blow softly here,
Green sod above lie light, lie light —
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.

Forrest initially set this text to music for choir, and in 2015 transcribed the composition for concert band, made possible by a small consortium of university and high school band programs.

Dan Forrest is widely recognized as one of the leading American choral composers of our time. His music has sold millions of copies, has received numerous awards and distinctions, and has become well established in the repertoire of choirs around the world. Forrest’s compositional catalog ranges from small choral works to instrumental solo works, wind ensemble works, and extended multi-movement works for chorus and orchestra. Forrest currently serves as composer-in-residence at Furman University (Greenville, SC), artist-in-residence at Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church (Greenville, SC), and Vice President of Publications and Editor at Beckenhorst Press (Columbus, OH).

Lincolnshire Posy (1937/1987)

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882–1961), ed. Fennell

I.    Lisbon  (Sailor’s Song)
II.   Horkstow Grange (The Miser and his Man: A Local Tragedy)
III.  Rufford Park Poachers (Poaching Song)
IV.  The Brisk Young Sailor (returned to wed his True Love)
V.   Lord Melbourne (War Song)
VI.  Lost Lady Found  (Dance Song)

Australian-born composer Percy Aldridge Grainger was one of the early champions of the wind band. His compositions display a fascination with timbral color and inventive orchestration not witnessed in other composers of his day. Grainger moved to the United States in 1914 and lived out the remainder of his life as a US citizen. A superbly talented concert pianist, Grainger frequently performed as soloist with symphonic ensembles around the world. In 1952 Grainger performed on the Ohio State campus in a performance as piano soloist and composer-in-residence with the Ohio State Concert Band (Manley Whitcomb, conductor).  

Lincolnshire Posy  was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their 1937 convention with the composer conducting. Since its premiere, it has been recognized as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire. What follows is a program note for the work by the composer: 

“Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937. Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from 1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score. 

This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England (one notated by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted by me, mainly in the years 1905–1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody — a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song — his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone.”