THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
University Wind Orchestra
Rodney Dorsey, Director
Andy Dubbert, Graduate Associate Conductor with Hana Beloglavec, Trombone
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 7:30 p.m. | Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
PROGRAM
Bravado (2023)
Cenizas (2022)
Gala Flagello (b. 1994)
Gilda Lyons
I. Volcán (b. 1975)
II. The Baptism of Momotombo
III. Stolen Things
IV. Promesas
V. Coronach en Río Mar
Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001)
Andy Dubbert, graduate associate conductor
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)
Go Down Moses (2023)
Music for Prague 1968 (1968)
Hana Beloglavec and Grant Keel, trombone
Brent Creekmore, bass trombone
INTERMISSION
DeSean Stokes, tenor soloist
Carlos Simon (b. 1986)
Karel Husa
I. Introduction and Fanfare (1921–2016)
II. Aria
III. Interlude
IV. Toccata and Chorale
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.
Trombonist and pedagogue Hana Beloglavec has a dynamic career performing as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teaching at Florida State University. Beloglavec has performed as a guest artist soloist at the 2022 International Women’s Brass Conference and with the U.S. Army Orchestra at the 2020 American Trombone Workshop. Her debut album, Bayou Home, was released through Summit Records in February 2023. This project was funded through the State of Louisiana Board of Regents ATLAS grant.
Also deeply interested in orchestral music, Beloglavec currently performs as the principal trombonist of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and has served as the acting principal trombone with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra for the 22-23 season. In summer of 2019 she performed as a substitute for the Armenian National Philharmonic’s production of Verdi’s Otello – the first female brass player to perform with the orchestra. She has also performed as a substitute trombonist with the Chicago-based early-music ensemble Music of the Baroque as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Beloglavec was a core member of Seraph Brass from 2017-2020 and with the group performed and taught across the United States and the world. With Seraph, she was a guest artist at the 2019 Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea, the 2017 and 2018 Lieksa Brass Week in Finland, and the 2019 Artosphere Music Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Beloglavec received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Northwestern University, where she studied with Professors Michael Mulcahy, Douglas Wright, Timothy Higgins, Randall Hawes, and Christopher Davis. She completed the Master of Music degree at Yale University and the Bachelor of Music degree at Western Michigan University, where she studied with Professor Scott Hartman and Dr. Steve Wolfinbarger, respectively. In 2019 she was awarded the Early Career Award from Western Michigan University’s College of Fine Arts. Hana Beloglavec is currently an assistant professor of music at Florida State University and has formerly held positions teaching at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Hana Beloglavec is a Shires Artist and an Ultimate Brass Artist.
Flagello: Bravado
Gala Flagello (b. 1994) is an American composer, educator, and nonprofit director who musically engages in environmental advocacy, gender equity and mental health. Flagello attended the Hartt School at the University of Hartford where she completed her Bachelor of Music in Composition, then completed a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Michigan. She co-founded Connecticut Summerfest, a contemporary music festival championing historically underrepresented composers, including gender-diverse artists and composers of color.
Flagello’s works have been performed by many prestigious groups such as the BBC Symphonic Orchestra, the United States Air Force and Coast Guard Bands. In the 2024-2025 season, her works will be featured at the Midwest Clinic, College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), and North Carolina Music Educators Association (NCMEA). Cleveland Classical described her music as “at times endearingly whimsical, at times ominous, but always moving,” and her teachers include Michael Daugherty, Kristin Kuster, Erik Santos, Evan Chambers, and Robert Carl.
Bravado (2023)—originally composed for orchestra—was written for the 2023 Tanglewood Music Festival and later transcribed for wind band at the commission of Col. Jason Fettig and “The Presidents Own” United States Marine Band. Flagello states that “a person with bravado can be seen as bold or reckless, daring or arrogant, confident or overbearing.” Flagello successfully accomplishes all these character shifts as the primary melody is transformed and passed around the ensemble. A contrasting second theme is presented by the French horn and later integrated together with the primary theme. Flagello accomplishes attitude and character shifts by featuring technically demanding passages, bright and joyful melodic lines, and dynamic color contrasts. For a relatively short composition, Bravado truly captures the old Italian definition of bravo, meaning “wild” or “courageous.”
Lyons: Cenizas
Gilda Lyons (b. 1975) is composer, vocalist, and visual artist whose works were first debuted at the age of 22. Lyons completed a Bachelor of Arts in music composition, vocal performance, and visual arts from Bard College, completed a master’s degree in composition and theory from the University of Pittsburgh, and completed her Ph.D. in music composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Lyons is a skilled contemporary composer for all musical mediums and premiered her first work for wind band in 2019 entitled La flor más linda. Among many other responsibilities, she currently is the composer-in-residence with the Chautauqua Opera Company and is the Program Chair and Assistant Professor of Composition at The Hartt School in Hartford Connecticut. Her composition teachers include Joan Tower, Daron Hagen, Eric Moe, and Anne LeBaron, and she studied voice with Arthur Burrow and Barry Busse.
Cenizas (2022) was commissioned by the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Band Directors Association and was premiered at the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Convention in 2023. Lyons had been away from Nicaragua since 2018 when a civil uprising began due to a dictatorial government. In the winter of 20222023, she returned to her home country with her mother to spread the ashes of her father following his passing during the pandemic. The following notes are a summation of the composer’s compositional construction and inspiration. The five-movement work—performed attacca—traces the imagery between life and ash and is influenced by the
intersection of “profound courage and generosity” with “grief and pain, joy and hope.” Movement one recognizes the beautiful volcanic landscape of Nicaragua, and the second depicts the story of the friars who sent out to baptize the volcano Momotombo but never returned. Movement three recognizes the ashes left behind when rights, time, possessions, and lives are stolen, and movement four is influenced by promises kept and of things left undone. Lastly, movement five celebrates the life of her father, as his ashes are released in her hometown of Río Mar, with the blessing “Vuela ya. Descansa en paz.” (“Fly now. Rest in Peace.”).
Daugherty: Rosa Parks Boulevard
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954) is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and is an American composer and educator. Daugherty studied nationally and internationally from some of the most notable composers of the 20th century. He studied composition at the University of North Texas and Manhattan School of Music before pursuing computer music at Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris. Following completion of his doctorate in music composition from Yale, he was on faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of music and has been at the University of Michigan as a Professor of Composition since 1991. He has received six GRAMMY Awards and has been internationally recognized as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music. While receiving continuous awards, distinctions, and fellowships, Daugherty frequently serves as the composer-in-residence across the country for various festivals and orchestras.
Daugherty is known for immersing himself in the topic of his compositions, and Rosa Parks Boulevard (2001) is no different. The work was commissioned and premiered by the University of Michigan Symphony Band under the direction of H. Robert Reynolds at his retirement concert. In addition to fitting Daugherty’s unique compositional style inspired by pop culture music, Rosa Parks Boulevard features a melodic motive that he associates with Mrs. Parks. Building on this motive—first introduced by the woodwinds and vibraphone—the composition serves as a tribute to the woman who demonstrated courage, dignity and determination as a symbol of civil rights. Although Mrs. Parks was the primary influence for the composition, Daugherty was also inspired by the poem God’s Trombones by James Weldon Johnson. Daugherty features three solo trombones—positioned in the ensemble—that perform fragments of Mrs. Park’s favorite African American spiritual Oh Freedom which are intended to recognize the voices of generations of African American preachers across the United States.
Simon: Go Down Moses
Carlos Simon (b. 1986) is an American composer and arranger from Atlanta GA. In addition to studying in Austria at the Hollywood Music Workshop and at New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop, he received degrees from Georgia State University, Morehouse College, and completed a doctorate degree at the University of Michigan. Inspired by his faith and upbringing, Simon incorporates elements of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism in his works, and says “Music is my pulpit. That’s where I preach.” His current endeavors include premiere performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. Simon is currently the composer-in-residence for the John F. Kennedy Center, the inaugural Boston Symphony Orchestra Composer Chair, and was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY award for his album Requiem for the Enslaved. His teachers include Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, and Conrad Pope.
The composer shares the following about Go Down Moses:
The Jewish biblical story of the Plagues of Egypt resonated with the enslaved and they created songs that related to this story of bondage. While the horrific plagues that swept across Egypt are compelling in and of itself, the focus of this piece is recounted from the perspective of the stubborn Pharoah, who unwillingly loosens his grip on the enslaved people. Pharoah’s hardened heart is conveyed through two sharp, accented chords. The spirit of God, represented by light, heavenly, metallic sounds from the percussion, signal the beginning of each new plague. Frogs, pestilence, sickness and are not enough to break the Pharaoh’s will. It is only with the “Angel of Death”, which takes the life of Pharaoh’s first-born child, represented by dark, brooding harmonies, that he relents in despair. The texture grows thinner and thinner as Pharaoh loathes in emotional anguish. The once prideful Pharaoh is now broken down to a powerless whimper. I use the Negro Spiritual, “Let My People Go (Go Down Moses)” as a musical framework throughout this movement.
Go down Moses
Way down in Egypt land
Tell ol’ Pharaoh to
Let my people go!
When Israel was in Egypt land
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go!
Husa: Music for Prague 1968
Karel Husa (1921 – 2016) was a Czech-American composer, conductor, and educator. Although his family wished him to become an engineer, the engineering school was closed due to the Nazi occupation of Prague. Therefore, in 1939, he applied his minimal experience on violin and piano and attended the Prague Conservatory by securing the only available position in the composition department. Later he moved to Paris to study conducting with Jean Fournet and Andre Clutytens, and composition with Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger. Following this supplemental education in Paris, the Prague Conservatory awarded him a Doctor of Music degree in 1947. After starting his career in Paris, Husa moved to the United States in 1954 where he joined the faculty at Cornell as an instructor of music theory, and later Ithaca College in 1967. Among many achievements, Husa won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his String Quartet No. 3
On August 20th, 1968, the Warsaw-Pact troops invaded the city of Prague. While teaching in New York, Husa learned of this invasion through his transistor radio and created a musical response entitled Music for Prague 1968. Commissioned by Dr. Kenneth Sapp—Director of Ithaca College Concert Band—Music for Prague 1968 was first officially premiered at Ford Auditorium on December 13, 1968. The Ithaca College Concert Band then embarked on a tour in January 1969 where the work was performed at Rahway High School (NJ), Elkton Senior High School (MD) and a culminating performance at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC, now NAfME) in Washington DC. Soon after, Husa transcribed the work for the orchestral setting, where he conducted its premiere by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970. Over the following 50 years, records indicated that Music for Prague
1968 was performed over 10,000 times across the country. William Revelli programmed the work at least 150 times with ensembles around the United States and Europe; and Frank Battisti—a longtime friend of Husa—considered it to have had a monumental influence on the compositional evolution of wind band literature. Music for Prague 1968 continues to be considered a significant staple in wind band repertoire.
The following is included at the composer’s request.
Three main ideas bind the composition together. The first and most important is an old Hussite war song from the 15th century, “Ye Warriors of God and His Law,” a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation. It has been utilized also by many Czech composers, including Smetana in My Country. The beginning of this religious song is announced very softly in the first movement by the timpani and concludes in a strong unison (Chorale). The song is never used in its entirety.
The second idea is the sound of bells throughout; Prague, named also the City of “Hundreds of Towers,” has used its magnificently sounding church bells as calls of distress as well as of victory.
The last idea is a motif of three chords first appearing very softly under the piccolo solo at the beginning of the piece, in flutes, clarinets and horns. Later it reappears at extremely strong dynamic levels, for example in the middle of the Aria.
Different techniques of composing as well as orchestrating have been used in Music for Prague 1968 and some new sounds explored, such as the percussion section in the Interlude, the ending of the work, etc. Much symbolism also appears: in addition to the distress calls in the first movement (Fanfares), the unbroken hope of the Hussite song, sound of bells, or the tragedy (Aria), there is also the bird call at the beginning (piccolo solo), symbol of the liberty which the City of Prague has seen only for moments during its thousand years of existence.
– Karel Husa
Piccolo
Steven Fireman
Flute
Pamela Bereuter*
Nikkie Galindo
Jordi Bannitt
Kaitlyn Calcagino
Claire ‘Parky’ Park
Oboe
Nic Kanipe*
Samantha Osborne
English Horn
Alec McDaniel
Bassoon
Ryder Kaya*
Hunter Fisher
Contra Bassoon
Jake Narona
E-flat Clarinet
Brad Pilcher
B-flat Clarinet
Anne Glerum*
Dave Scott*
Hannah Faircloth
Travis Irizarry
Jenna Eschner
Andrew Prawat
Jaxon Stewart
Hali Alex
Jariel Santiago
University Wind Orchestra Personnel
Rodney Dorsey, Director
Andy Dubbert, Graduate Associate Conductor
Bass Clarinet
Morgan Magnoni
Alto Saxophone
Micah Cheng*
Luis Angel
Tenor Saxophone
Kaeden Parks
Baritone Saxophone
Parker Button
Bass Saxophone
Jack Blumer
Trumpet
Johniel Nájera*
Easton Barham
Jeremiah Gonzalez
Danielle Monahan
Wayne Pearcy
Schelvin Robinson
Noah Solomon
Horn
Tommy Langston*
Eric On*
Jordan Perkins
Clare Ottesen
Isaac Roman
Trombone
Grant Keel*
Connor Altagen
Justus Smith
Bass Trombone
Brent Creekmore
Euphonium
Anthony Gonzalez*
Cayden Miller*
Tuba
Colin Teague*
Charlie Nelson
Percussion
Austin Pelella*
Kylan Bigby
Jake Fenoff
Jackson Kowalczyk
Will Vasquez
Jessica Weinberg
Vocalist
DeSean Stokes
Piano
Lujie Wang
Harp
Noa Michaels
String Bass
Joshua Dennis
* Principal/Co-Principal