Pacific Wind Bands
Wednesday I February 15, 2023 I 7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
Vu Nguyen, conductor
Marie A. Douglas, composer-in-residence
Brittany Trotter, flute
Ryan Abdelmalek, graduate assistant conductor
Ghost Apparatus (2017)
A Proper Goodbye (2020) a good rain a proper goodbye
Flute Concerto (2022) (Consortium Premiere)
Brittany Trotter, flute Pause
Nostalgia (2017)
Ryan Abdelmalek, conductor
Scenes from the Louvre (1966)
The Portal
Children’s Gallery
The Kings of France
The Nativity Paintings
Finale
Umoja (2001; 2008)
(b. 1984) Joel Puckett (b. 1977)
Vu Nguyen is an associate professor of music and director of bands at the University of the Pacific. He conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band, and he teaches courses in conducting and music education. Nguyen maintains an active schedule as a clinician and has served as guest conductor with the United States Air Force Bands of the Golden West and Mid-America as well as honor bands across the country. Ensembles under his direction have performed at state music educator conferences, at the Midwest Clinic, and at the College Band Directors National Association Conference.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nguyen holds degrees in conducting from the University of Washington and the University of Oregon, and he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from the University of the Pacific. Prior to his appointment at Pacific, he served in similar roles at the University of Connecticut, University of Indianapolis, and Washington University in St. Louis in addition to being a visiting conductor with the Indiana University Concert Band. He began his teaching career in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
In addition to his academic career, Nguyen recently retired as an officer in the Air National Guard (ANG) where he was the commander and conductor of the ANG Band of the West Coast. In this position, he was responsible for all activities of this forty-member squadron, including participation in ceremonies, parades, concerts, and other public performances.
Marie A. Douglas is a Grammy-nominated arranger, multigenre composer, and conductor who has been noted for the arrangement and orchestration choices within her works for various ensembles. Her music focuses on affording quality voice leading, memorable rhythms, and unique and interesting textures for musicians at all levels of music performance. Marie is inspired by the music of modern African American and minority music composers such as R. Nathaniel Dett, Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, and many others. Marie enjoys arranging, transcribing, and orchestrating the music of others, in addition to writing her own compositions.
Marie has most recently served as arranger, composer, conductor, and musical director of the Big Femme Energy Live Experience tour featuring Ambre, Baby Rose, SayGrace, and Teyana Taylor. Marie is currently a composition and music theory doctoral student at the University of Memphis where she studies with Kamran Ince and Mahir Cetiz.
Prizewinning flutist Brittany Trotter leads a diverse career as an educator, soloist, and collaborator. She joined the faculty of University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music in Stockton, California, in the fall of 2021. Trotter previously served on the faculties of Dickinson College, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Duquesne University. She is program chair of the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention, competition coordinator for the National Flute Association’s Junior Soloist Competition, and serves on the development committee of the Umoja Flute Institute, NFA’s career and artistic development committee, and publicity chair for the Flute New Music Consortium.
Trotter has been awarded first prize in numerous national and regional competitions including the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in woodwinds in the states of West Virginia (2017, 2016), Wyoming (2015, 2014), and Mississippi (2009). She has also competed as a semifinalist in the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Trotter has performed in the flute sections of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, among others. Equally versed in post-classical contemporary and experimental music as well as electro-acoustic music and interdisciplinary works, she has performed and premiered new works with the Pittsburgh-based new music ensemble Alia Musica.
Trotter regularly performs, teaches, and serves as a guest lecturer throughout the United States. Her recent appearances include those at Virginia Tech University, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Southwestern Oklahoma University, and Missouri Southern State University. Trotter has performed and presented at numerous regional and national flute conventions such as the Kentucky Flute Fair, Florida Flute Association Convention, Rochester Flute Fair, Mid-Atlantic flute convention, and National Flute Association Convention where she was a featured soloist in the 2020 virtual summer series celebration concert series.
Recipient of the NFA’s 2020 Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation entitled Examining Music Hybridity and Cultural Influences in Valerie Coleman’s Wish Sonatine and Fanmi Imen, Trotter continues to actively study the merging of Western classical music, diverse culture, and modern popular music. She recently presented a lecture recital entitled “Flute and Hip Hop” as part of her artist residency with Unisound of Pittsburgh. Her passion for engaging with underrepresented communities through classical music has led her to collaborate with several local nonprofits. She has served as the program coordinator for the Guardian of Sound’s Hip Hop Orchestra Summer Music Camp and as a teaching artist for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Arts Education.
A native of Laurel, Mississippi, Trotter has received degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi (BM, BME), University of Wyoming (MM), and West Virginia University (DMA, Certificate of University Teaching). Her primary teachers included Danilo Mezzadri, Nicole Riner, and Nina Assimakopoulous.
