Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026  •  7:30 p.m.

Weigel Auditorium
Columbus, OH

WIND SYMPHONY
Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor 
Brooke Woods, graduate conductor
with
Lindsay Kesselman, soprano
and
John Mackey, guest composer

Inspired by Literature

Program

Overture to Candide

Leonard Bernstein

trans. Clare Grundman

Brooke Woods, graduate conductor

Leonard Bernstein always said he wanted to write “the Great American Opera.” He probably came closest with Candide (1956), which he labeled “a comic operetta.” Based on Voltaire’s satirical novel of 1759, it chronicles the misadventures of Candide, a naive, pure-hearted youth, and his much more tough-minded sweetheart, Cunégonde. Candide was composed between 1953 and 1956, and its brief overture is chock-full of the youthful optimism that underscores much of the show and quotes several of the most memorable songs. Although the initial reception and lasting success of Candide pales in comparison to West Side Story, its overture has endured as one of the most frequently performed concert openers in the orchestra and band repertoire.

Songs from the End of the World

John Mackey

1. A long time alone
2. Raveling
3. At sea

Lindsay Kesselman, soprano

The cycle is inspired by a passage in the Odyssey in which Odysseus, shipwrecked and near death, washes up on the shore of an island belonging to the nymph Kalypso. Homer’s telling treats the ensuing interlude as just another bit of exotic travelogue, one of many adventures on Odysseus’ long journey home; these three songs imagine what it meant to Kalypso herself, and are sung in her voice.

i. A long time alone

Kalypso’s island home is beautiful beyond imagining but remote beyond reach. Her immortality is thus an eternal solitude. The first song in the cycle, set before Odysseus’ arrival, is her lament of this loneliness. Standing on her shore, she remembers long-gone days when she could still delight in her paradise, and tells of the slow erosion of sensation and even sense after endless ages alone.

ii. Raveling

The second movement begins after Odysseus has been with Kalypso for seven years. She sings as she moves back and forth with a golden shuttle at her loom, weaving a tapestry — the work of all that time — that tells their story. At one end, the luminous threads show the near-dead castaway washed ashore; nearby the nymph nurses him back to health. Flowers and fruit, ripe and radiant, tumble through images of the love they found together. But the simple happiness of the scene and the song curdles: Odysseus wants to return to his home, leaving Kalypso to her solitude; nothing she has given or can give means anything to him anymore. She is shattered, but he is cold. So Kalypso returns to her loom, singing again, but now unraveling the tapestry, unmaking the document of love.

iii. At sea

In the final song, Kalypso watches Odysseus sail away on a boat she has given him, borne by a breeze she has called up to fill a sail she has fashioned from the unmade tapestry. Waves carry him toward the horizon, and her loneliness washes in again.

— Note by A. E. Jaques 
 

— Intermission —
 

The isle is full of noises, Symphony No. 2

John Mackey

1. The enchanter's plot
2. Suffer a sea change
3. Rough magic
    

A shoddy and distracted duke, Prospero should not have been altogether shocked when his throne was usurped by one more interested in ruling. But as it happens Prospero was enraged — and has become only more so in the dozen years since. Deposed, deported, deprived of his wealth, power, and home, he has survived on a diet of vengeful scheming. As those designs spiral into the tempest for which Shakespeare’s play is named, we begin.

I. The enchanter's plot

From the island of his exile, Prospero summons all his magic. Decades of single-minded study have yielded enormous and devastating power: he weaves weather, loss, betrayal, and the tide into a brutal braid, a storm that shipwrecks the men who conspired in his downfall.

II. Suffer a sea change

The atmosphere is calmed, but interior tempests surge. With the instruments of his exile at his mercy at last, Prospero toys with his captives. He channels each one’s worst fears and fatal weaknesses into torrents of torment and temptation. The sorcerer’s manipulations transform them all, not least Prospero himself, as vengeance scars the avenger.

III. Rough magic

His return secured and his rule regained, Prospero relinquishes his magic in a final flourish — only to find that the fruits of his plot are not enough. A hunger remains: he pleads for, then demands, our adoration as well. As the depth of this need is revealed, his desperation grows. In the end, the things we feed may swallow us.

— Note by A. E. Jaques

Wind Symphony — Autumn 2026

Russel C. Mikkelson, conductor

Piccolo
Lance Korte
Shreeya Yampati
Nic Digena

Flute
Lance Korte *
Shreeya Yampati
Kaleigh Rummel
Zack Munoz
Nic Digena
Amelia Mancini
Katelyn Cheng
Samantha Vann
Haley Svec

Oboe
Benjamin Newman *
Lucas Reed
Laura Pitner
Thomas Alexander

English Horn
Laura Pitner

Bassoon
Brandon Golpe *
Gunnar Pellissier 
Jordan Houtz

Contrabassoon
Gunnar Pellissier

Eb Clarinet
Samuel Langer

Clarinet
Almudena Curros Varela *
Samuel Langer
Asa Mattson
Xinchen Du
Ethan White
Christopher Larsen Rivera
Nicholas Ritchey
Landen Gedeon
Noah Reilly

Bass Clarinet
Leah Henning
Quinn Jensen

Contrabass Clarinet
Christopher Larsen Rivera

Alto Saxophone
Hudson Müller * 
Alyssa Hartman
Sammy Smith
Ziheng Huang

Tenor Saxophone
Fisher Haraney

Baritone Saxophone
Qianyu Lin

Horn
Kaylee Skaris *
Andrew Waite 
Jared Giovannone
Nicholas Blum
Ella Baker 
Allie Polzin

Trumpet
Nick Schnitzspahn *
Brandon Ising
Bobby Petty
Zach Heffner
Will Fisher
Connor Caviness
Jude Abuzeide
Noah Madsen

Trombone
Gavin Abrams *
DJ Austin
Michael Malone
Jacob Myers

Bass Trombone
Nik Henderson

Euphonium
Ayden Casa *
Clayton Messinger
Matthew Grover

Tuba 
Justin White *
Zane Tekaucic 
Owen Thomas

Percussion 
Josh Green *
Ellakyn Brinkley
Brody Fogle
Jacob Cauley
Noah Landrum
Ryan Speicher
Kye Pyeatt

Piano/Celeste
Daniel Sheldon

Double Bass 
Owen Lutz

Harp
Abigail Bachelor

* denotes principal player
 

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