Blossom Music Festival 2015

S U M M E R

H O M E

O F

THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTR A

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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL P R E S E N T E D

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saturday July 4

A SALUTE TO AMERICA Blossom Festival Band Loras John Schissel, conductor Harold Summey Jr., xylophone

A fireworks display by American Fireworks Company will take place immediately following this concert, weather permitting.

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Blossom Music Festival

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BLOSSOM MUSIC FESTIVAL

Saturday evening, July 4, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.

B LOSSOM F ESTIVAL BAN D LO R A S J O H N S C H I S S E L , conductor

A SALUTE TO America The Star-Spangled Banner

words by francis scott key (1779-1843) music by John Stafford Smith (arranged for band by Loras John Schissel) the audience is invited to join in singing.

An Outdoor Overture

by aaron

copland (1900-1990)

Air (Dublinesque) from Fantasies and Delusions by billy

joel (b. 1949), arranged for band by Barbara Lambrecht

XYLOPHONE SOLO: Tambourin Chinois by fritz kreisler (1875-1962) featuring HAROLD SUMMEY JR., Sergeant First Class, The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own”

March: The Footlifter

by henry fillmore (1949-2006), performed in memory of GUNTHER SCHULLER (1925-2015)

Nautical Rhapsody: The Seafarer by haydn

wood (1882-1959)

INTER MISSION PROGRAM LISTING CONTINUES

Blossom Music Festival

Concert Program: July 4

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Scenes Historical: Sheridan’s Ride by john

philip sousa (1854-1932)

God of Our Fathers

tune by george w. warren (1828-1902) to the original lyrics by Daniel C. Roberts arranged for band by Thomas Knox

March-Past of the U.S. Armed Forces traditional arranged for band by Thomas Knox Performed in tribute to the men and women, past and present, of the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Air Force

Overture: The Year 1812

by pyotr

ilyich tchaikovsky

(1840-1893)

Additional selections during the evening and/or encores will be announced from the stage

This concert is sponsored by KeyBank, a Cleveland Orchestra Partner in Excellence.

Media Partner: Northeast Ohio Media Group

Soloist HAROLD SUMMEY is currently a member of The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington D.C., where he has performed as percussionist and soloist with the Concert Band since 2000. He was earlier a member of The United States Navy Band (1989-93). The Virginia native has been a drummer-percussionist for over thirty years. In 1992, he was the first prize winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and has performed with a with a long list of important and famous musicians, from Sonny Rollins to Pat Metheny, from Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra Jr. He has also appeared as soloist with a number of orchestras. In addition to performing, Mr. Summey is also an educator. He has taught clinics and masterclasses for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in the United States and abroad, as well as for a variety of colleges and universities across this country. He is currently a faculty member at Howard University and George Mason University.

The 2015 Blossom Music Festival is presented by The J.M. Smucker Company.

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Concert Program: July 4

2015 Blossom Festival

Waiting for the Bugle from “Waiting for the Bugle,”

by Thomas Wentworth Higginson “We wait for the bugle, the night dews are cold, The limbs of the soldiers feel jaded and old, The field of our bivouac is windy and bare, There is lead in our joints, there is frost in our hair, The future is veiled and its fortunes unknown, And we lie with hushed breath till the bugle is blown.”

The Attack “Up from the South at break of day, Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, The affrighted air with a shudder bore, Like a herald in haste to the chieftain’s door, The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, Telling the battle was on once more — And Sheridan twenty miles away.”

The Death of Thoburn ½from “The Soldier’s Death,” by Nancy A.W. Priest “But bear me first to yonder grassy sod, Whence I can turn my eyes upon the fight, Gently. Now leave me alone with God, And go you back to battle for the right.”

Scenes Historical: Sheridan’s Ride music by John Philip Sousa with descriptive texts excerpted from the poem Sheridan’s Ride

by Thomas Buchanan Read, and other writings of the period painting (above)

by Thomas Buchanan Read.

Blossom Music Festival

Sheridan’s Ride

The Coming of Sheridan from an officer’s account of the Battle at Cedar Creek “Far away in the rear was heard cheer after cheer.

Were reinforcements coming? Yes. Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a host!”

“The first that general saw was groups Of stragglers, and then retreating troops.

What was done? What to do? — A glance to them both.

He dashed down the line ’mid a storm of huzzas, And the way of retreat checked its course there, because The sight of the master compelled it to pause.

With foam and with dust the black charger was gray By the flash of his eye and nostrils’ play, He seemed to the whole great army to say: ‘I have brought you, Sheridan, all the way From Winchester down to save the day’.”

The Apotheosis — “Hurrah! Hurrah for Sheridan!

Hurrah! Hurrah for horse and man!

And when their statues are placed on high, Under the dome of the Union sky, The American soldiers Temple of Fame, There, with the glorious General’s name, Be it said, in letters both bold and bright, ‘Here is the steed that saved the day, By carrying Sheridan into fight From Winchester — twenty miles away’.”

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Blossom Festival Band C O N S I D E R E D O N E O F T H E F I N E S T ensembles of its kind in the nation, the Blossom Festival Band performs each summer in Northeast Ohio, continuing a long and wellloved tradition of outdoor band concerts in the United States. The ensemble has its roots in historic American band music and some of its legendary leaders.

Band music has been a part of each summer’s musical offerings at Blossom since 1969. That year, a Fourth-of-July band concert was presented as part of the second annual Blossom Music Festival. From 1969 to 1973, these band concerts were conducted by Meredith Willson (composer of Broadway’s The Music Man), who at age 17 had toured with the Sousa Band as a flutist. Based on the success of these concerts, a genuine symphonic band and concert program was organized under the direction of Leonard B. Smith, another of this country’s most respected band directors (he was music director of the nationally known Detroit Concert Band for many years and a widely acclaimed cornet soloist). Mr. Smith made his Blossom debut conducting “The Golden Symphonic Band of Blossom Music Center” in “A Salute to Labor Day” on September 4, 1972. The success of that concert provided the impetus to schedule a series of concerts during the 1973 summer season, with a newly selected band of 65 instrumentalists from the Cleveland area. David Zauder (1928-2013), a former student of Smith and a longtime member of The Cleveland Orchestra’s trumpet and cornet section, served as a guiding spirit for the Band and regularly performed as cornet soloist with the ensemble. Leonard B. Smith served as director from 1972 until his retirement in 1997. Since 1998, the Blossom Festival Band has been conducted by Loras John Schissel.

2015 BLOSSOM FESTIVAL BAND FLUTE/PICCOLO

CORNET

TIMPANI

Lyle Steelman

Dylan Moffitt

John Rautenberg George Pope Sally Sherwin

E-FLAT ALTO CLARINET

Michael Miller Michael Mergen John Brndiar

OBOE

Lisa Antoniou

PRINCIPAL

David Adamson BASS CLARINET

PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

PERCUSSION

Bruce Golden PRINCIPAL

Thomas Moore

Mark DeMio

Loren Toplitz

Frank Del Piano Jack DiIanni Matthew Larson Thomas Morris

ENGLISH HORN

Todd Jelen

TROMBONE

HARP

James Albrecht

Jody Guinn

Michele Tosser Smith PRINCIPAL

Thomas Moore B-FLAT CLARINET

Kristina Belisle Jones PRINCIPAL

Amitai Vardi Drew Sullivan Thomas Reed Robert Davis Blair Hotz Alix Reinhardt Lindsay Charnofsky Denise Soulsby Jaewon Kim

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E-FLAT CLARINET

Dennis Nygren

Kyra Kester

BASSOON PRINCIPAL

SAXOPHONE

Howie Smith PRINCIPAL

Kent Engelhardt John Perrine George Shernit HORN

TRUMPET

Robert White PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

Paul Ferguson Jason Smith Edward Zadrozny EUPHONIUM

Travis Scott PRINCIPAL

Hans Clebsch

Rebecca Ciabattari

Robert Rearden Meghan Guegold David Brockett Kent Larmee

TUBA

PRINCIPAL

Kenneth Heinlein PRINCIPAL

Daniel Honaker Jason Tanksley J.c. Sherman

Blossom Festival Band

PRINCIPAL

STRING BASS

Gerald Torres PRINCIPAL

LIBRARIAN

Nishana Dobbeck PERSONNEL

Rebecca Vineyard INTERIM DIRECTOR

Christine Honolke MANAGER

2015 Blossom Festival

Loras John Schissel Conductor Blossom Festival Band

T H I S S E A S O N marks Loras John Schissel’s eighteenth year as conductor of the Blossom Festival Band. He also regularly conducts the Blossom Festival Orchestra and led The Cleveland Orchestra’s free annual community concert on Public Square in 2009, 2011 (a special 9/11 tenth anniversary concert), and 2014.

Mr. Schissel has travelled throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia conducting orchestras, bands, and choral ensembles in a broad range of musical styles and varied programs. A native of New Hampton, Iowa, Loras John Schissel studied brass instruments and conducting with Carlton Stewart, Frederick Fennell, and John Paynter. In the years following his studies at the University of Northern Iowa, Mr. Schissel has distinguished himself as a prominent conductor, orchestrator, and musicologist. He has just completed his 20th season as founding music director of the Arlington-based Virginia Grand Military Band, an ensemble comprised of current and former members of the four major U.S. service bands. In 2005, Mr. Schissel was elected to membership in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

As a composer and orchestrator, Mr. Schissel has created an extensive catalogue of over 500 works for orchestra, symphonic wind band, and jazz ensemble, published exclusively by Ludwig/Masters Music. His musical score for Bill Moyers: America’s First River, The Hudson, which first appeared on PBS in April 2002, received extensive coverage and critical acclaim. He also created musical scores for two films for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home in Hyde Park, New York. As a recording artist, Mr. Schissel has amassed a large discography with a wide variety of ensembles and various musical genres.

Loras John Schissel is a senior musicologist at the Library of Congress and a leading authority on the music of Percy Aldridge Grainger, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Schissel and John Philip Sousa IV (great-grandson of the composer) recently co-authored a book titled John Philip Sousa’s America: A Patriot’s Life in Images and Words, a photo-biography of the March King. 20th Century Fox reissued the Clifton Webb classic The Stars and Stripes Forever in conjunction with the Sousa-Schissel book. Mr. Schissel is currently writing a study of the famed impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

Deeply committed to young musicians, Loras John Schissel has appeared as conductor of All-State music festivals and of festival bands and orchestras in more than thirty states. He has conducted the Berea All-County Orchestra Festival and regularly visits Baldwin Wallace University as conductor of the Summer Band Camp there. He frequently appears with the Patriot Band of Avon Lake, Strongsville Community Band, Lakewood Hometown Band, and the Packard Band of Warren, Ohio. In July 2008, Mr. Schissel made his debut with “Pershing’s Own,” the United States Army Band, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Blossom Festival 2015

Conductor

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MORE MUSIC. MORE BLOSSOM! See a full listing of 2015 Blossom Music Festival concerts on pages 36-37of the Festival Book.

June 18 Saturday

Michael Feinstein A Big Band Tribute to Frank Sinatra

A CENTENNIAL SALUTE to “ol’ Blue Eyes” — no one

delivered a song like the Chairman! Frank Sinatra defined “cool” for an entire generation with a dazzling array of hit songs. Michael Feinstein, the multi-platinum-selling, five-time Grammy-nominated singer and pianist, performs live. Featuring such iconic tunes as “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” and more.

August 2 Sunday

Broadway Divas WICKED. LES MISÉRABLES. CHICAGO.

These iconic shows gave us the heroines we love . . . and the villains we revile — the unforgettable Divas of Broadway. Treat yourself to a Wicked-good evening of Broadway showstoppers, featuring selections from Wicked, Les Miz, Cabaret, My Fair Lady, Chicago, and more.

August 16 Sunday

The British Invasion

The Music of the Beatles, e The Stones, The Who & More THE BEATLES ARRIVED IN 1964 . . . but that

was only the beginning. The phenomenon called The British Invasion dominated the American airwaves, and leading the charge were the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, and more. Now, their hits are given the full treatment with brilliant orchestrations performed by The Cleveland Orchestra.