BYU Concert Band Festival Featured Concert
Shawn Smith, conductor
Rebecca Phillips, guest conductor
Phillip Riggs, guest conductor
7:30 PM | MARCH 7, 2025 | CONCERT HALL | MUSIC BUILDING
Folk Dances DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH 1906-1975
Resignation
Sinfonia
I. Noir
II. Transit
III. Arioso
IV. D-O-N-E
Big Four on the River
Armenian Dances (Part 1)
Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite
1891-1971
The finest woodwind, brass and percussion players at Brigham Young University perform with the Wind Symphony, under the direction of Shawn Smith. The BYU Wind Symphony maintains an active performance schedule with programming that ranges from wind band classics to some of the newest wind repertoire. Participation in commissioning consortiums and hosting composers and guest conductors on campus offers ensemble members wonderful musical experiences.
In addition to on-campus concerts, the ensemble has been honored with performances at the Music Educators National Conference and Convention; the College Band Directors Association, National and Division Conventions; and the American Bandmasters Association National Conference. The BYU Wind Symphony was recently honored with an invitation to perform at the 2024 International Conference of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, held in South Korea.
Piccolo
Hailey Dalton
Flute
Kalina Rencher*
Daniel Woodfield
Camille Hunsaker
Abi Rasmussen
Mickayla Hunter^
Oboe
Rachel Johnson*
Camdyn Bentley
English Horn
Caroline Seamons
Bassoon
Zach Smith *
Brayden Holdaway
E-flat Clarinet
Seth Rugg
Clarinet
Reuben Allan*
Matthew Johnson
Dallin Jorgensen
Carly Conner
Jared Allison
Hyrum Buck
Conducted by Shawn Smith
Bass Clarinet
Amber Christiansen
Contrabass Clarinet
Melissa Coulter
Alto Saxophone
Jonathan Crane*
Nathan McCarthy
Tenor Saxophone
Jonathan Asay
Baritone Saxophone
Ethan Petersen
Trumpet
Alec Clark*^
Tommy Eskelsen
Caden Randolph
Casey Harris
Lola Heninger
Carter Glass
Horn
Aleah Dupree *
Nathan Fenwick
Eric Coons
Kirstyn Miller
Trombone
Daniel White*
Kevin West
Ezra Baldemar
Peter Merrill (Bass)
Euphonium
Madeline Chadburn*^
Luke Lehmuller
Tuba
Emma Hogge*
Hayden Thompson
Percussion
Thomas Biggs*
Ben Smith
Matthew Larson
Zac Larsen
Clay Williams
Ben Willis
String Bass
Neal Baird
Piano
Joyanne Bills
Harp
Jessie Peterson
*Principal
^Graduate Student
Conductor
Shawn Smith serves as Professor of Conducting and Director of Bands in the Brigham Young University School of Music. Prior to his appointment at BYU, he spent sixteen years as Director of Bands at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Smith holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting from Arizona State University, and Master of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Louisiana State University and Boise State University respectively.
In high demand as a band and orchestra conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, Smith has been invited to conduct professional and educational ensembles throughout the United States and in Asia, South America, Central America and Europe, including concerts with world-renowned trombonist Joseph Alessi, Grammy Award-winning chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird, Tony-nominated Broadway and television star Derek Klena and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band.
Equally at home with opera and musical theater productions, Smith has conducted pit orchestras for the Marriage of Figaro and a six-week run of Les Misérables. His performances have been heard numerous times on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” the most popular classical music radio program in the United States. In 2015 Smith was awarded second place for the American Prize in Conducting-Professional Band Division.
In the area of research, Smith has been published in the Journal of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles and in Alta Musica and he has presented his research at national and international conferences in the United States, Europe and South America. Smith has also presented numerous educational clinics, workshops and speeches, most notably at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois and at state music conferences throughout the United States.
As a public school teacher, Smith served as Director of Bands and Orchestra at one of the largest high schools in Idaho where he administered a very successful comprehensive instrumental music program.
An accomplished trumpeter, Smith has performed with the Corpus Christi Symphony (Texas), the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra (Idaho), the Acadiana Symphony (Louisiana), Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band, and with the Temptations.
During his tenure as Director of Bands at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Smith received the Texas A&M System Teaching Excellence Award twice. Smith holds honorary memberships in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Sigma Alpha Iota and Kappa Kappa Psi. He also holds memberships in the Utah Music Educators Association, the National Band Association, the College Band Directors National Association, and the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.
Rebecca Phillips Guest conductor
Dr. Rebecca Phillips is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Colorado State University where she conducts the CSU Wind Symphony and guides all aspects of the band and graduate wind conducting programs. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at the University of South Carolina where she was responsible for directing the Symphonic Winds Concert Band, “The Mighty Sound of the Southeast” Carolina Marching Band, “Concocktion” Pep Bands, teaching undergraduate instrumental conducting, and directing the Carolina Summer Drum Major Clinic.
Dr. Phillips has served as guest-conductor, clinician, and performer throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Highlights include conductor-in-residence with the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense All-Europe High School Honor Band in Frankfurt, Germany, guest-conducting the “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, and both professional and collegiate musicians in Prague (Czech Republic) for the “Prague Multicultural Music Project.” In addition, she has conducted members of the Prague National Symphony at the inaugural “2017 American Spring Festival” (Prague, Czech Republic). In 2018, she conducted members of the Des Moines Symphony in a chamber concert for the Iowa Bandmasters Association annual conference.
Dr. Phillips regularly conducts intercollegiate and collegiate honor bands, all-state bands, and festival bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe and she has been a rehearsal clinician at the Midwest Clinic: An International Band and Orchestra Conference. Ensembles under her direction have been featured at the 2020 Colorado Music Educators Association Convention, the 2019 American Bandmasters Association National Convention, the 2012 College Band Director’s National Association Southern Division Conference, the 2010 Society of Composers International Conference, and the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance International Convention.
Dr. Phillips believes in treasuring the traditional wind music of the past as well as promoting cutting edge works of today’s finest composers. She commissioned and conducted world and consortium premieres of works by several leading composers, including William Bolcom, James David, John Mackey, John Fitz Rogers, Kevin Poelking, Adam Silverman, Frank Ticheli, and Dana Wilson to name a few. Her conducting performances of David del Tredici’s In Wartime and John Mackey’s Redline Tango are both featured on the nationally distributed Louisiana State University Wind Ensemble compact disc project and the world premiere of John Fitz Rogers Narragansett is featured on the Compact Disc And I Await, featuring Dr. Phillips as guest-conductor of the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble.
As a trombonist, Dr. Phillips’ performances can be found on several internationally distributed recordings. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, U.S. Army Band (Pershing’s Own), the Tallahassee Symphony, and the Tampa Bay Opera Orchestra. She has also performed internationally in England, Mexico, the Caribbean, Russia, and Sweden, and has toured as a trombonist with Johnny Mathis and Barry Manilow.
Rebecca Phillips
continued
A native of the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Phillips earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University, Master of Music degrees in conducting and trombone performance from the University of South Florida, and Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting at Louisiana State University. She served as a secondary school band director for seven years in Florida, including Director of Bands at Howard W. Blake Performing Arts High School in Tampa, Florida where she developed an award-winning concert band program. She is a Past President of the National Band Association, serves on the Board of Directors for the American Bandmasters Association, served in various capacities with the College band Directors National Association, and is on the college/university board for the Western International Band Clinic.
Phillip Riggs
Guest conductor
Phillip Riggs, 2016 Grammy Music Educator of the Year, retired after teaching more than 30 years in North Carolina. He is a music instructor emeritus at the NC School of Science and Math, Durham, NC. Phillip is a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award and the Exceptional Contribution in Outreach Award presented by the UNC Board of Governors. Mr. Riggs was voted into the North Carolina Band Directors Hall of Fame (2023). Prior to joining the NCSSM faculty, he was the first fine arts chair at Ronald Reagan High School, Winston-Salem, NC where he was the first faculty member inducted into the Reagan High School Hall of Fame, (Fall, 2015). Before assuming that position, Mr. Riggs taught in Davidson County for sixteen years.
Phillip currently serves as a conductor/administrator with the World Adult Wind Orchestra Project (WAWOP) held in Austria each summer. He and his wife Carol are co-founders of the American Music Education Network. Mr. Riggs is a Past President of the NC Band Directors Association. He also served as chair of the North Carolina High School All-State Band (8 years), chair of the NCMEA Technology and founding chair of the NCMEA New Teacher/Mentor Program. He was the coordinator of the National Association for Music Educators, (NAfME) National Wind Ensemble at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (2011, 2012). He has also served as the Southern Division Representative on the NAfME Council for Band and the NC chair of the National Band Association. His professional affiliations include NAfME, NCMEA, NBA, and ASBDA. Phillip, a Conn-Selmer Educational Artist, is active as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States, Austria, and China.
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