THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
University Concert Band
Chandler L. Wilson, Conductor
Collin Clark & Drew Hardy-Moore, Graduate Associate Conductors and
University Symphonic Band
Steven N. Kelly, Director
Andy Dubbert & Michael Tignor, Graduate Associate Conductors with special guest
John Drew, Trombone
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
7:30 p.m. | Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
Blow It Up, Start Again
University Concert Band
Jonathan Newman (b. 1972)
Sun Dance Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)
Collin Clark, graduate associate conductor
Poet and Peasant Overture
Funiculi-Funicula Rhapsody
Drew Hardy-Moore, graduate associate conductor
Franz Von Suppé arr. Henry Fillmore (1819–1895)
Luigi Denza (1846–1922) arr. Yo Goto
Pines of Rome
Ottorino Respighi IV. The Pines of the Appian Way (1879–1936) ed. Erik Liedzen
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Symphonic Band
Commando March Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Until Morning Come Andrew Boss (b. 1988)
Toccata Marziale
Andy Dubbert, graduate associate conductor
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) ed. Frank Battisti
Elixir Michael Markowski (b. 1986)
Michael Tignor, graduate associate conductor
Blue Bells of Scotland
John Drew, trombone
Council Oak
Malaguena
Arthur Pryor (1869–1942)
David Gillingham (b. 1947)
Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963) arr. Sammy Nestico
ABOUT THE FEATURED SOLOIST
John Drew joined the faculty of the Florida State University in 1980. Since that time he has been active as soloist and clinician, including frequent appearances at both the Eastern Trombone Workshops and the International Trombone Festivals. International solo venues have included The Netherlands and Australia, including the Sydney Opera House. In 2011 he was selected to be the first trombonist on the New Sousa Band’s tour to China. Later that year he recorded Sigmund Hering’s Forty Progressive Etudes for Trombone, which was published and distributed by the Carl Fischer Company.
In 1992 he became the first recipient of the International Trombone Association’s Outstanding Teaching Award. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Drew is principal trombonist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Florida State Brass Quintet, whose tours have included performances in the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and throughout the United States and Europe. In 2002 he completed a term as President of the International Trombone Association and in 2007 became President of the International Trombone
Festival. Currently he is the Coordinator of Winds and Percussion in the College of Music and also serves as a Master Artist for the Conn-Selmer Corporation.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Newman: Blow It Up, Start Again
Jonathan Newman holds degrees from Boston University and The Julliard School. He was also awarded the Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters. Newman has been noted for his music of diverse styles, often featuring rhythmic drive, and intricate sophistication while combining elements of jazz, pop, funk, and classical.
The composition Blow It Up, Start Again was partially inspired by the quote, “If the system isn’t working anymore, then do what Guy Fawkes tried and go anarchist: blow it all up, start again.” A review by the Chicago Tribune called the piece “riotously funky.” After the European premier one listener commented “This is not at all classical music, but them ’bones!”
Ticheli: Sun Dance
Frank Ticheli was born in Monroe, Louisiana. Ticheli earned a Doctor of Musical Arts as well as a Masters Degree in Composition from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Southern Methodist University. His robust career in composition has included nearly 50 compositions for the wind ensemble.
While composing Sun Dance, Ticheli envisioned a town festival on a warm, sunwashed day. The townspeople gathered in a park, some in small groups, some walking hand in hand, others dancing to the music played by a small band under a red gazebo. The composition is a careful balance of dancelike components and playful song invoking bright joy.
Suppé: Poet and Peasant
Henry Fillmore was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. As the son of a composer, music was abundant in his household and he grew up mastering many instruments including the violin, flute, guitar, piano, and trombone. Before starting his career as a composer, Fillmore graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. During Fillmore’s compositional career he composed over 250 pieces and arranged hundreds more.
Poet and Peasant was originally composed by Franz Von Suppé before being arranged for the wind ensemble by Henry Fillmore. Two overtures associated with the old-time park band concerts of the past, when those events were at their peak in popularity, were Rossini’s William Tell and Suppé’s Poet and Peasant. Although Suppé is noted as the composer of a great number of comic operas, Poet and Peasant however, did not belong to an opera until several years after its 1845 composition date. The themes from this overture are among the most often quoted material for comic effects for stage productions and animated cartoons probably because they represent, in sound, an era of nostalgia and are familiar to audiences of all age groups. It is for this reason, if no other, that the composition deserves to be heard in its original context as a serious but highly entertaining selection.
Denza: Funiculi-Funicula Rhapsody
Yo Goto was born in Akita, Japan in 1958. Goto graduated from Music Division, Dept. of Education at Yamagata University. He later completed a graduate degree in composition at Tokyo College of Music. Goto is an active music critic and researcher in the field of music as well as a board member of the Academic Society for Winds, Percussion, and Band.
The famous melody of Funiculi-Funicula was written for the 1880 opening of Mt. Vesuvius’ funicular railway. A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tramlike vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope, the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalancing each other. Although this song was composed in only a few hours, it has remained popular for over a century. Richard Strauss later included the tune in the fourth movement of his orchestral tone poem, Aus Italien, believing it to be a popular Neapolitan folk tune.
Respighi: The Pines of the Appian Way from “Pines of Rome”
Ottorino Respighi was born in Bologna, Italy. Raised in a musical household, Respighi learned piano and violin, and viola. Before his compositional career, Respighi started his performance career as the principal violist of the Russian Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg Russia. During his time in the Russian Imperial Orchestra, Respighi studies composition with Rimsky Korsakov.
Pines of the Appian Way is the fourth movement of Respighi’s larger work, Pines of Rome. Each movement characterizes a different view of Rome, Italy. For the fourth movement, Pines of the Appian Way, Respighi offers the following quote to describe the setting:
Misty dawn on the Appian Way: pine trees guarding the magic landscape; the muffled, ceaseless rhythm of unending footsteps. The poet has a fantastic vision of bygone glories: trumpets sound and, in the brilliance of the newly risen sun, a consular army bursts forth towards the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to the Capitol.
Barber: Commando March
Samuel Barber was an American composer whose works are set for orchestra, winds, opera, chorus, and piano. Barber comes from a family with a strong musical background which influenced him to study voice at Curtis Conservatory. Through a long and successful compositional career, Barber received numerous awards and accolades including two Pulitzers, and his Adagio for Strings became one of his most recognizable compositions.
Premiered in 1943 by the Army Air Force Tactical Training Command Band, Commando March is Barber’s only composition for wind band. The march was commissioned and composed while Barber was in active service with the Army Air Forces. It became an instant hit and was performed frequently by military bands towards the end of World War II. Commando March has been recognized as serious and distinctive literature by the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE).
Boss: Until Morning Come
The music of Andrew Boss is widely acclaimed for expressing its creative voice, offering captivated listeners “something that have never been heard before” (Florida Music Teachers Association). His musical language is encapsulated in a “fundamentally tonal, often vividly spiced language (Baltimore Sun). Boss recently completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) as the 2013-14 Recruitment Fellow under the tutelage of Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, and Russell Pinkston.
Premiered June 1st, 2018, by the Marjory Stoneman Douglass Wind Symphony, Alex Kaminsky conductor. “Our Reply.” The composer writes:
“Until Morning Come, written and dedicated to Alex Kaminsky and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wind Symphony. In loving memory of the deceased victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting. May they rest in peace. Dedicated to the living victims of gun violence who continue their quest for love, peace, and understanding.
“This will be our reply to violence; to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” – Leonard Bernstein
– Andrew BossVaughan Williams: Toccata Marziale
Vaughan Williams is an English composer whose works are considered to be prominent in the British concert repertoire. He studied composition, organ, and piano at the Royal College of Music in London, where he became lifelong friends with his classmate Gustav Holst. Following his service in the First World War, Vaughan Williams continued compositions were considered to have been influenced by his time in the service. He continued to write several symphonies, works for band and orchestra, and several chamber works including settings of poems with piano accompaniment. He received many accolades during his career which led to the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society being formed after his death. His likeness is displayed at various locations across England, with a commissioned official portrait hanging at The Royal College of Music.
As defined by the title, Toccata Marziale is a march style toccata intended to showcase the wind bands virtuosic technique and capability. A toccata (to touch) is traditionally written for keyboard instruments intended to demonstrate the pianist’s expressivity and dexterity. Vaughan Williams pushes the boundaries of the wind band as Toccata Marziale provides textbook examples of counter-point composition including contrapuntal melodies, canon, and fugal writing. The composer demands various levels of “touch” from the wind band as they strive to achieve true virtuosic toccata style. This artistic challenge justifies the selection of Toccata Marziale as a frequently required excerpt requested for university and military band tuba auditions.
Markowski: Elixir
Michael Markowski is an American composer and has a very unique background. He graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Film Practices. While he didn’t study music in school, he worked on his compositional skills through extracurricular programs, such as National Band Association’s Young Composer and Conductor Mentorship Project and the NYU/ASCAP Foundation’s Film Scoring Workshop. Markowski was awarded first prize in the Manhattan Beach Music’s Frank Ticheli Composition Contest in 2006 for his work Shadow Rituals. He
has multiple high profile commissions and has been Artist in Residency for many organizations and festivals.
Elixir was commissioned in 2012 by the Dr. Ralph H. Poteet High School band in honor of their first Director of Bands, Scott Coulson. The title makes reference to the “Elixir of Life,” said to grant immortality to those who drink it. The piece revolves around a two-note motive that is present throughout the entire piece. During parts of the piece, there are injections from the trumpets and trombones, almost antagonizing the upper woodwinds. Dr. Marc R. Dickey writes about the end of the piece, “the motive returns for two last massive swipes with a foreboding antagonistic mix of B-flat minor in the lower winds versus B-flat Major in the upper ranges. This attempt by the B-flat minor to have the finale sway is co-opted by a stark, brilliant B-flat Major whole note throughout the entire ensemble…The perseverance of the original motive is rewarded; goodness, courage, and honor prevail.”
Pryor: Blue Bells of Scotland
Arthur Pryor was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. Pryor spent twelve years with the Sousa band and played over 10,000 solos with the ensemble. After leaving the Sousa band, he formed his own band who toured until 1909. The Pryor Band settled down and took residency in Asbury Park, New Jersey. At the same time, Pryor became a staff conductor and arranger for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden.
Blue Bells of Scotland is arguably Pryor’s most famous work for trombone. The piece was arranged from a Scottish folk song and was first published in 1801 by English actress and writer, Dora Jordan. This arrangement of the piece is technically challenging and allows the soloist to show off a flowing legato while, in different places, requiring some difficult leaps.
Gillingham: Council Oak
David Gillingham is an American educator and composer whose works have made substantial contributions to the wind band and percussion repertoire. He completed his undergraduate degree in Music Education at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and completed his PhD in Music Composition/Music Theory at Michigan State University. Gillingham served in several army bands during the Vietnam war, then returned to the United States to teach and continue his education. While embarking on his compositional career, Gillingham served as a professor of music theory and composition at Central Michigan University. Having retired from teaching in 2016, Gillingham continues to remain an active composer.
The composer writes the following about Council Oak:
On the Seminole Hollywood Reservation in Florida, on the corner of U.S. 441 and Stirling Road, stands the “Council Oak” tree. During the long history of the struggle of the Seminole tribe in Florida, this oak tree was of special significance. When the Seminole tribe was faced with termination by the United States government, leaders of the tribe began meeting regularly underneath this great oak tree which helped to breathe new life back into the Seminole tribe. In 1957, the U.S. Congress officially recognized the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
Council Oak was inspired by the significance of this tree and by the poetry of Moses Jumper Jr., who wrote a poem by the same name which chronicles the history of the Seminoles as told by the oak tree. The thematic material is taken from four songs of the Seminoles as officially recorded
by Frances Densmore in his book, Seminole Music and archived in the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. Additionally, I have composed a new theme, which I call the “Song of the Council Oak” which is indicative of Seminole and Native American, melodic/rhythmic style.
Thank you to Dr. Julia Baumanis, Assistant Director of Bands at Rutgers University, for her assistance in the performance and presentation of this composition.
Lecuona: Malaguena
Ernesto Lecuona was a Cuban composer and pianist. Lecuona’s talent for composition has influenced the Latin American world in a way quite like George Gershwin in the United States, in his case raising Cuban music to classical status. He studied with Joaquin Nin at the Peyrellade Conservatoire and later graduated from the National Conservatory of Havana with a Gold Medal for interpretation at sixteen years old. Sammy Nestico is an American composer, most famous for his work arranging for the Count Basie Orchestra.
Malagueña was originally the sixth movement of Lecuona’s suite, Andalucia, written for solo piano. The piece has been adapted for numerous forms of ensembles and has been a very common piece to hear performed in Latin themed shows by marching bands. This piece was arranged for concert band by Sammy Nestico in 1992.
Piccolo
Heeseo Han
Flute
Renee Roberts*
Raul Parra
Nicki Howard
Oboe
Meghan Sauressig
Lily Owens
Alejandro Lopez
Bassoon
Ryan Kegg
Richelle Teets
University Concert Band Personnel
Chandler L. Wilson, conductor
Collin Clark and Drew Hardy-Moore, graduate associate conductors
B-Flat Clarinet
Elizabeth Kennedy*
Ryan Tone*
Claire Huggins
Regan Gomersall
Grace Harveste
Shane Smith
Ryan Brabham
Elijah Rowe
Bass Clarinet
Emma Evans
Saxophone
Nick Lohse, Alto
Gabriel Ortiz, Alto
Brianne Yates, Tenor
Brody Stump, Baritone
Trumpet/Cornet
John Bradley*
Jonathan Tordi*
Katherine Hatfield
Kai Okamoto
Kye Turner
Horn
Ashlie Green*
Lizzy Wasson*
Anna Leach
Hailey Swanson
Korynna Moncada
Trombone
Justus Smith
Tyler Butler
Tyler Figenscher
Samuel Cote
Frank Hobbs
Tyler Berman
Euphonium
Garrett Harvey*
Cale Bazley
Yasha Foster
Tuba
Sophia Farfante*
Alden Cruz
Braden Meyer
Collier McBride
Xavier Gauthier
Allie Nutting
Percussion
Joshua Hamburger
* Principal/Co-Principal
Piccolo
Isabelle Rodriguez
Flute
Taylor Hawkins*
Mary Moshos
Carissa Kettering
Javier Rivera
Oboe
Samantha Osbourne
Alice Frisch
Maddy Jenkins
Bassoon
Hunter Fisher
Michelle Gibson
Eduardo Ambris
B-Flat Clarinet
Alexei Kovalev*
Nicholas Mackley*
Halle Mynard
Maia Ruiz
Eric Olmsted
Anita Butler
Marie Yonts
University Symphonic Band Personnel
Steven N. Kelly, director
Andy Dubbert and Michael Tignor, graduate associate conductors
Bass Clarinet
Brit Gummerman
Contrabass Clarinet
Marie Yonts
Alto Saxophone
Marshall Knapp
Casey Caulkins
Christian Magar
Pauly Herrera
Tenor Saxophone
Mackenzie Meiers
Baritone Saxophone
Arwyn Hill
Trumpet
Jordan Myers*
Sharavan Duvvuri*
Joshua Peunte
Joshua Briley
Grason Peterson
Marin Kelly
Horn
Adam Agonoy*
Clare Ottesen*
Sarah Meza
Abby Odom
Samantha Rivera
Trombone
Mateo Buitrago
Sarah Castillo
Jane Cohen
Romus Edenfield
Hadyn Lopez
Greg Lambert
Kyle Krogel
Euphonium
Adam Zierden*
Elizabeth Reese
Alan Jean-Baptiste
Tuba
Anthony Borda*
Michael Levanti
Sam Williams
Chris Bernhardt
Percussion
Will Vasquez*
Kenneth Sharkey
Mackenzie Selimi
John Baker