CAL STATE FULLERTON
SYLVIA A. ALVA
President, California State University, Fullerton
AMIR H. DABIRIAN
Provost and VP for Academic Affairs
ARNOLD HOLLAND, EDD
Dean, College of the Arts
CSUF SCHOOL OF MUSIC
DR. RANDALL GOLDBERG Director, School of Music
KIMO FURUMOTO
Assistant Director, School of Music
BONGSHIN KO
Assistant Director, School of Music
SCHOOL OF MUSIC FULL-TIME FACULTY AND STAFF
Faculty
Conducting
Kimo Furumoto – instrumental
Dr. Robert Istad – choral
Dr. Dustin Barr – instrumental
Jazz and Commercial Music
Bill Cunliffe* – jazz piano; arranging; Fullerton Jazz Orchestra, Fullerton Big Band and combo director
Rodolfo Zuñiga – jazz studies, jazz percussion, and music techology; Fullerton Chamber Jazz Ensemble director
Piano, Organ, Piano Pedagogy
Ning An – piano
Bill Cunliffe – jazz piano
Alison Edwards* – piano, piano pedagogy, class piano
Myong-Joo Lee – piano
Dr. Robert Watson – piano
Music Education, Teacher Training, and Teaching Credential
Dr. Christopher Peterson – choral
Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore* – instrumental
Music in General Education
Dr. John Koegel*
Dr. Katherine Reed
Music History and LIterature
Dr. Vivianne Asturizaga – musicology
Dr. John Koegel* – musicology
Dr. Katherine Powers – musicology
Dr. Katherine Reed – musicology
Strings
Kimo Furumoto – Director of Orchestra Studies and University Symphony Orchestra conductor
Bongshin Ko – cello
Dr. Ernest Salem* – violin
Theory and Composition
Dr. Pamela Madsen – composition, theory
Dr. Ken Walicki* – composition, theory
Vocal, Choral, and Opera
Dr. Robert Istad – Director of Choral Studies and University Singers conductor
Dr. Kerry Jennings* – Director of Opera
Dr. Christopher Peterson – CSUF Concert Choir and Singing Titans conductor
Dr. Joni Y. Prado voice, academic voice courses
Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion
Dr. Dustin Barr – Director of Wind Band Studies, University Wind Symphony, University Band
Jean Ferrandis – flute
Sycil Mathai* – trumpet
Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore University Symphonic Winds conductor
Staff
Michael August – Production Manager
Eric Dries – Music Librarian
William Lemley – Audio Technician
Jeff Lewis – Audio Engineer
Chris Searight – Music Instrumental Services
Paul Shirts – Administrative Assistant
Elizabeth Williams – Business Manager
* denotes Area Coordinator
facebook.com/CSUFMusic
instagram.com/CSUFMusic
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music.fullerton.edu
Welcome to the Spring 2024 Performing Arts Season at Cal State Fullerton’s College of the Arts. Whether you are a first-time or long-time patron, a friend, or parent to one of our exceptional students, thank you for joining us. Your support makes all the difference to their success.
I am pleased to present another semester of programming powered by the incredible gifts of our Art, Dance, Music, and Theatre students. This spring, the School of Music starts the season with a trio of concerts February 16–18 by artists-in-residence Talich Quartet; faculty artist Damon Zick and his Quarteto Nuevo featuring fellow faculty artist Bill Cunliffe; and University Symphony Orchestra. In May, University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus will close the concert season with a performance of Mozart’s emotionally charged “Requiem.” Begovich Gallery presents the Begovich Visual Arts Lecture Series with visiting artists’ talks throughout the semester, including multidisciplinary artist Hings Lim on February 22, whose work will also be exhibited at Grand Central Art Center. The Department of Theatre and Dance begins their season in March with “Marisol,” a darkly comedic fantasy where the title character must find hope in a post-apocalyptic Brooklyn where angels are taking up arms and coffee is extinct. Hilarious, multiple Tony award-winning modern musical send-up “Urinetown” closes the theatre season just as CSUF’s dancers and choreographers take to the stage for “Spring Dance Theatre.”
When our students demonstrate their talents on stage and in the studio, their creative energy is undeniable, but the sacrifice and struggle it took to get there is often less perceptible. We can’t see the hours spent creating, the days of rehearsals, and the years of practice. For many students, the sparks of innovation and artistry that drove them to pursue the arts are often diminished by the high cost of an education. The Dean’s Fund for Excellence provides support for students in need through scholarships, artist residencies, and other financial assistance, ensuring them the opportunity to thrive in the arts. If you believe in their sparks of brilliance, please consider a donation of any amount to the Dean’s Fund for Excellence.
Thank you again for joining us this season and for championing the arts in higher education. I hope to see you at one of the college’s many performances and events this spring.
Sincerely,
Arnold Holland, EdD Dean, College of the Arts
PROGRAM
Shortcut Home (2003) ................................................................... Dana Wilson (b. 1946)
Mysterium (2011) ...................................................................... Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
The Information Age (2024) .............................................................. Larry Tuttle (b. 1955) (Consortium Premiere) ***** Intermission *****
Avelynn’s Lullaby (2011) ................................................................. Joel Puckett (b. 1977)
Against the Rain (2014)
Rosanne Etezady (b. 1973)
Daniel Castellanos, graduate student conductor
George Washington Bridge (1950) .............................................
William Schuman (2003)
The Black Horse Troop (1924) .........................................
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
Shortcut Home (2003)
DANA WILSON
Dana Wilson is an American composer and educator. He holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, and is currently associate professor of composition at the Ithaca College School of Music in Ithaca, New York. He has been a Society for the Humanities Fellow at Cornell University, a Yaddo Fellow (at Yaddo, the artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, NY), and is the Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus at the Ithaca College School of Music.
Dr. Wilson has many commissions, grants, and prizes to his credit. His previous work for wind ensemble, Piece of Mind, published by Ludwig Music Publishing Co., Inc., won the Sousa Foundation’s 1988 Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition and the 1988 American Bandmasters Association/Ostwald Prize. He is co-author of Contemporary Choral Arranging, published by Prentice-Hall, and has written articles on diverse musical subjects
On Shortcut Home:
American composer Dana Wilson completed Shortcut Home in 1998, in fulfillment of a commission by the Hillsboro (New Jersey) High School Band. Showcasing each section of the ensemble, this jazzinfluenced fanfare hovers around the “home” of C Major for the entirety of the piece. This “home” tonality is implied from the work’s very first note, but is obscured and clouded throughout with dense harmony, changing meter, and surprising flourishes. Utilizing devices such as pitch bends, walking bass lines, and drum set patterns, Wilson creates a stylized and energetic “shortcut” toward the satisfying final note—the only pure major triad to be found in the piece.
- Program Note from Indiana University Concert Band program, 7 February 2023
Mysterium (2011)
JENNIFER HIGDON
Jennifer Higdon (b. 31 December 1962, Brooklyn, N.Y.) is an American composer. Higdon holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.M. in flute performance from Bowling Green State University, and an artist diploma in music Composition from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Her works have been recorded on over two dozen CDs. In 2004, the Atlanta Symphony released the Grammy-winning Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra/City Scape. In fall of 2006, NAXOS released a recording of Higdon’s chamber works (performed by the Cypress String Quartet). At the same time, Cedille released a recording of Zaka, performed by eighth blackbird, and Crystal Records released a recording of DASH, performed by the Verdehr Trio.
Higdon enjoys more than 200 performances a year of her works. Her work Blue Cathedral is one of the mostperformed orchestral works by a living composer (more than 140 orchestras have performed the work since its 2000 premiere). Violin Concerto received a Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2010. Her Percussion Concerto was awarded a Grammy in 2010, and her Viola Concerto took a Grammy in 2018. Dr. Higdon also received the Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, which is given to contemporary classical composers of exceptional achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition.
Higdon maintains a full schedule of commissions, and her music is known for its technical skill and audience appeal. Hailed by The Washington Postas “a savvy, sensitive composer with a keen ear, an innate sense of form and a generous dash of pure esprit,” she is one of America’s most frequently performed composers. She teaches composition at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
On Mysterium:
Mysterium was commissioned by Scott Stewart (Emory University Wind Ensemble) and Scott Weiss (University of South Carolina Band). Higdon writes of Mysterium “...is a tribute to the wonderful mystery of how music moves us. Perhaps it is the unexplainable that creates such magic, for both the performer and the listener, but there is no denying the incredible power of a shared musical experience.”
- Program note by Florida State University Wind Orchestra concert program, 7 March 2013
The Information Age (2024)
LARRY TUTTLE
Larry Tuttle is an American composer and bassist. Trained extensively in double
bass from an early age, Tuttle’s youth growing up in Seattle was saturated with orchestral music. His bass mentors included Ron Simon, James Harnett, and jazz legend Gary Peacock. An obsession with the bass guitar and a long detour through rock and pop music eventually led Tuttle to an eclectic instrument called the Chapman Stick, and a pop-classical hybrid group called Freeway Philharmonic, which went on to release four albums. Through the Gates, a solo album by Tuttle featuring compositions for the Chapman Stick, is considered to be one of the landmark recordings of that instrument.
Tuttle writes propulsive and optimistic music with a strong sense of story and narrative arc. He works in an up-to-theminute contemporary idiom while still prioritizing more traditional musical values such as iconic melody, meaningful structure, and thematic development. Tuttle won the Pittsburgh Symphony’s 2014 H. J. Heinz Company Audience of the Future Composition Competition with his first orchestral work, Chorale and Fiddle Tune. His piece By Steam or By Dream won second prize in the 2016 Keuris Composers Competition, in the category of Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Avelynn’s Lullaby (2011) JOEL PUCKETT
Joel Puckett (b. 27 June 1977, Atlanta, Ga.) is an American composer. He is the son of a Dixieland jazz musician and a classical tubist. He spent his childhood improvising with his father and learning the fundamentals of both concert and popular music. He has held fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and at the University of Michigan where Joel received a D.M.A. in composition studying with William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty. Formerly a cantor at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit, he has also been an active performer of both contemporary and cabaret works. The Washington Chorus, recipient of the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance, commissioned and premiered Joel’s new work This Mourning, for chorus, orchestra, 40 wine glasses and tenor soloist, to rave reviews at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Of the third movement Baltimore Sun critic Tim Page said, «The final movement reaches profound heights. As the chorus intones Dickinson’s lines, ‘There must be guests in Eden, All the rooms are full,’
a cathartic, almost ecstatic rise of melody and emotion unfolds.”
Puckett’s music for wind band has enjoyed great success. His work Ping, Pang, Pong, which was written for Michael Haithcock and the University of Michigan Symphony Band, has been performed by some of the best college and professional ensembles in the country including “The President’s Own” Marine Band. Written just three years ago, this piece has now seen over 40 performances with many more scheduled for this season.
Puckett is the recipient of the first American Bandmasters Association/University of Florida Commission. The award, which was funded by a generous grant from the University of Florida band program, includes a major commission to create an artistic work for wind band. This commission resulted in it perched for Vespers nine
Upcoming commissions include a flute concerto for flutist Amy Porter and a consortium of university wind ensembles led by University of Michigan and Michael Haithcock. Just completed for consortium of 10 universities is Southern Comforts, an extended work for violin soloist and chamber winds and percussion. This work was premiered by Baylor University at the College Band Directors National Association conference in Austin, TX in March 2009.
This summer, Puckett joined composers Zhou Long, James Matheson, Mason Bates, and Kevin Puts as the featured composers at the Westport Arts/ South Shore Music chamber music series entitled, «The Composer Project» where Antares premiered Colloquial Stanzas. Joel has served as an adjudicator for national competitions for young composers, such as the SCI/ ASCAP competition. He also frequently gives guest lectures and master classes. He most recently has lectured at City College in Harlem, NY; Indiana University in Bloomington; The University of Texas-Austin; Michigan State University and Western Washington University.
Puckett is on the faculty of Peabody Conservatory after previously having served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at his alma mater, Shenandoah Conservatory. On Avelynn’s Lullaby:
My daughter, Avelynn, arrived on a spring morning with a pep in her step. Since day one, she has had the energy of three babies [although, to be honest, I’m not sure how that is measured].
Our nighttime routine has become set in stone. I give her a bath, put her in her pajamas, and we read a book or two. And then we come to my favorite portion of the routine: the lullabies. Doing my part, I sing her slow lullabies while rocking her, and she does her part, fighting the onset of sleep.
By far her favorite lullaby is the one my mother used to sing to me: “Sail far away, Sail across the Sea, Only don’t forget to Sail, back to me.”
At least, I thought it was the one my mother used to sing to me. I got curious about the rest of the verses and found that the piece was written in 1898 by Alice Riley and Jesse Gaynor, and has only a passing resemblance to the song I remember my mother singing to me. Better yet, it has virtually no resemblance to the lullaby I had been singing to Avelynn!
So Avelynn’s Lullaby is both a journey of daddy trying to coax daughter to sleep, and a journey of daughter enjoying the song, fighting sleep and eventually succumbing to slumber.
Avelynn’s Lullaby was commissioned by a consortium of American wind bands led by John Carnahan and the California State University Long Beach Wind Ensemble. Dedicated to Avelynn Puckett.
- Program Note by composer
Against the Rain (2011) ROSHANNE ETEZADY
Roshanne Etezady (b. 16 April 1973, Bryn Mawr, Penn.) is an American composer and educator. As a young musician, she studied piano and flute, and developed an interest in many different styles of music, from the musicals of Stephen Sondheim to the 1980’s power ballads and Europop of her teenage years. One fateful evening in 1986, she saw Philip Glass and his ensemble perform as the musical guests on Saturday Night Live. This event marked the beginning of her interest in contemporary classical music, as well as her interest in being a composer herself.
Etezady holds academic degrees from Northwestern University and Yale University, and she has worked intensively with numerous composers, including William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, Michael Daugherty, and Ned Rorem. She completed her doctorate at the University of Michigan in March, 2005.
Since then, Etezady’s works have been commissioned by the Albany Symphony, Dartmouth Symphony, eighth blackbird, Music
at the Anthology, and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet. She has been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Performers and ensembles including Rêlache, Amadinda Percussion Ensemble, Ensemble De Ereprijs, and the Dogs of Desire have performed Etezady’s music throughout the United States and Europe. Roshanne Etezady’s music has earned recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Korean Society of 21st Century Music, the Jacob K. Javits Foundation, Meet the Composer, and ASCAP.
As one of the founding members of the Minimum Security Composers Collective, Etezady has helped expand the audience for new music. Through collaborative projects with performing ensembles as well as creative outreach programs, MSCC creates an open dialogue between composers, performers and audiences.
An active teacher, Etezady has taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Yale University, Saint Mary’s College, and the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. She has given master classes at Holy Cross College, the Juilliard School, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
On Against The Rain:
Against the Rain is based on a choral work I wrote as a part of a set of songs based on poems by Edna St. Vincent Willay.
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.
This work received its premiere performance at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Michigan, by the World Youth Wind Symphony under the baton of Steven D. Davis on July 14, 2014.
- Program Note by composer
George Washington Bridge (1950) WILLIAM SCHUMAN
William Schuman (4 August 1910, Bronx, N.Y. - 15 February 1992, New York, N.Y.) was an American composer and educator. He was the second child of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. In 1928, Schuman entered New York University to prepare for a business degree at the School of Commerce, while at the same time working for an advertising agency. He continued to collaborate on pop songs with E. B. Marks, Jr., an old friend from summer camp, and also created some forty songs with lyricist Frank Loesser, a neighbor who was also at the beginning of his career. Loesser’s first publication, in fact, was a song with music by Schuman. Together they wrote many songs for radio, vaudeville, and nightclub acts. In April 1930, having attended his first professional symphony orchestra concert, Schuman suddenly realized that baseball, business, and popular music must be relegated to subsidiary positions in favor of composing “classical” or concert music.
Schuman earned a B.S. in music education (1935) from the Teachers College of Columbia University. In the fall of 1935, Schuman settled into his first teaching position, at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y., where he remained on the faculty for a decade. In 1937, he earned an MA degree from Columbia University. In 1944 G. Schirmer, Inc., appointed Schuman Director of Publications. He began work there even before leaving the Sarah Lawrence faculty and continued to serve Schirmer as Special Publications Consultant after moving in 1945 to his next post, the presidency of The Juilliard School. During the 1940s he received his first of many honorary doctorates and was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize ever given in the field of musical composition.
On George Washington Bridge:
There are few days in the year when I do not see George Washington Bridge. I pass it on my way to work as I drive along the Henry Hudson Parkway on the New York shore.
Ever since my student days when I watched the progress of its construction, this bridge has had for me an almost human personality, and this personality is astonishingly varied, assuming different moods depending on the time of day or night, the weather, the traffic and, of course, my own mood as I pass by.
I have walked across it late at night when it was shrouded in fog, and during the brilliant sunshine hours of midday. I have driven over it countless times and passed under it on boats. Coming to New York City by air, sometimes I have been lucky enough to fly right over it. It is difficult to imagine a more gracious welcome or dramatic entry to the great metropolis.
- Program Note by composer
The Black Horse Troop (1924)
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
John Philip Sousa (6 November 1854, Washington, D.C. – 6 March 1932, Reading, Pennsylvania) was America’s best known composer and conductor during his lifetime. Highly regarded for his military band marches, Sousa is often called the “The March King” or “American March King.”
Sousa was born the third of 10 children of John Antonio Sousa (born in Spain of Portuguese parents) and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus (born in Bavaria). His father played trombone in the U.S. Marine band, so young John grew up around military band music. Sousa started his music education, playing the violin, as a pupil of John Esputa Jr. and G. F. Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of 13, his father enlisted him as as an apprentice of the United States Marine Corps. Sousa served his apprenticeship for seven years, until 1875, and apparently learned to play all the wind instruments while also continuing with the violin.
Several years later, Sousa left his apprenticeship to join a theatrical (pit) orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the U.S. Marine Band as its head in 1880, and remained as its conductor until 1892. He organized his own band the year he left the Marine Band. The Sousa Band toured 18921931, performing 15,623 concerts in America and abroad. In 1900, his band represented the United States at the Paris Exposition before touring Europe. In Paris, the Sousa Band
marched through the streets including the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe – one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years. Sousa died at the age of 77 on March 6th, 1932 after conducting a rehearsal of the Ringgold Band in Reading, Pennsylvania. The last piece he conducted was “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” his most famous work and the US’s national march.
Sousa wrote 136 independent marches, while a host of other marches and dances have been adapted from his stage works. Despite the genre’s relatively limited structure, Sousa’s marches are highly varied in character. The vast majority are in the quickstep dance style and a third of their titles bear military designations. His earlier marches are best suited for actual marching, while later works are increasingly complex. He also wrote school songs for several American Universities, including Kansas State University, Marquette University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota.
On The Black Horse Troop:
Sousa’s love for horses is reflected in this march dedicated to the mounted troops of a Cleveland National Guard unit. Their exclusive use of black horses was the inspiration for the title. Troop A, once known as the First City Troop of Cleveland, was originally an independent militia group and has had a long, distinguished history since its formation in 1877. Sousa’s most noteworthy association with the troop came in 1878. The Sousa
Band, having arrived in Cleveland just as the troop was preparing to leave for the SpanishAmerican War, marched in a parade escorting them from the Armory to the train depot. His first association was much earlier, however. As leader of the U.S. Marine Band in 1881, he marched with the organization in the funeral cortege of President James A Garfield.
At a dinner held in Sousa’s honor in November 1924, the march was requested by Captain Walker Nye of Troop A. The request was fulfilled promptly, and the march was presented in Cleveland on October 17, 1925, at a Sousa Band concert, which also marked the forty-eighth anniversary of Troop A, For the occasion, the mounted troopers were dressed in the blue uniforms of 1877, complete with black fur busbies. They rode right up onto the stage with the band. Sousa presented a manuscript of the march to Captain Nye. After the concert a reception was held at the Armory, and Sousa was presented with a bronze plaque.
Many of the former Sousa Band members expressed their fondness for the composition and commented on the descriptive character it assumed when performed by Sousa himself. Part of the effect was due to the 6/8 rhythm, which suggests the canter of horses. Also contributing to the effect was Sousa’s use of simulated hoofbeats.
- Program Note by Jack Gottlieb
Flute
Christian Azarias
Janeva Garibay
Karla Hernandez
Shawnee Herrera
Krystal Jasso
Rogelio Justo
Jeffrey Nguyen
Aylin Zuazo
Oboe
Brett Houston
Megan Kimmel
Bassoon
Gil Alvarado
Alejandra Conde
Albert Godinez
Clarinet
Shawn Bryant
Adan Hernandez
Aaron Luthi
Ryan Nguyen
Matt Prichard
Jesus Santiago
Joshua Schaefer
UNIVERSITY SYMPHONIC WINDS
(listed alphabetically)
Saxophone
Lennon Gamez (alto)
Silvia Ibarra (alto)
Andrew Ramos (alto, tenor)
Jon Salarda (baritone)
Trumpet
Dominick Bonelli
Carl Fong
Alonna Freeborne
Andrew Gonzalez
Isaac Montano
Yasmin Olmos
Isaiah Soto
James Teubner
Rudy Xool
Horn
Alexander Gellatly
Tim Moy
Anthony Olague
Quintin Toma
Trombone
Arnold Garcia
Rami El Ghossaini
Luis Hernandez
Matheu Padua
Bass Trombone
Nikolas Hernandez
Nicholas Perez
Euphonium
Stephen Lopez
Jackson Nguyen
Tuba
Dre Barlow
Gregory Barnes
Percussion
Cameron Abrahamson
Maritza Alejos
Daussel Echevarria
Sylvie Furman
Gabriela Guzman
Peyton Johnson
Diego Mendoza
Piano
Julia Chubb
Harp
Laura Griffin Casey
String Bass
Andrew de Stackelberg
Graduate Student Ass’t
Daniel Castellanos
The University Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Associate Director of Bands Gregory X. Whitmore, centers artistry and musical excellence each concert season. The ensemble continues to explore new music initiatives each concert season, undertaking commissions and world premieres of new works for winds by renowned and emerging composers. With a primacy towards artistic collaboration, it regularly welcomes composers to Orange County for residencies with the ensemble. Previous composer residencies have featured composers Jack Bertrand, Kevin Charoensri, Viet Cuong, Frank Duarte, Adam Schoenberg, Alex Shapiro, Larry Tuttle, and others. Additionally, the ensemble regularly collaborate with guest artists and esteemed conductors from across the United States, including Pacific Symphony Orchestra Music Director Maestro Carl St.Clair.
Programmatically, University Symphonic Winds balances the breadth and depth of the established wind band repertory with works that are, “of our time.” Members of the ensemble are selected by audition and are students in the applied studios of the California State University Fullerton School of Music. It undertakes performance tours and has been a featured performer at local and regional conferences. Each concert season, the ensemble presents a concert series consisting of six to eight performances. Its performance home is the beautiful Vaughncille Joseph Meng Concert Hall on the Cal State Fullerton campus (Fullerton, CA).
Daniel Castellanos
Daniel Castellanos is currently a graduate student conductor at California State University, Fullerton, studying wind conducting with Dustin Barr and saxophone with John Hallberg. Before starting his graduate studies, Castellanos earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and a teaching credential from CSUF. As an undergraduate student, Castellanos also performed with the nationally recognized CSUF Wind Symphony as an ensemble player and soloist. After earning his B.A. and teaching credential, Castellanos taught at Day Creek Intermediate School, John L. Golden Elementary, and C.P. Lightfoot Elementary. His ensembles were awarded Unanimous Superior ratings by the Southern California Band and Orchestra Association during his time there. In addition, musicians from the Day Creek Bands were selected to perform with the SCSBOA All-Southern and CBDA All-State honor groups.
Castellanos teaches applied saxophone lessons at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale, California. He is passionate about helping young musicians succeed and advocates for music in public schools.
