MUSIC AT EMORY
2022–2023
This concert is presented by the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
404.727.5050 | schwartz.emory.edu | boxoffice@emory.edu
Audience Information
Please turn off phones and all electronic devices. Photography, recording, or digital capture of this concert is not permitted.
Ushers
The Schwartz Center welcomes a volunteer usher corps of approximately 60 members each year. Visit schwartz.emory.edu/volunteer or call 404.727.6640 for ushering opportunities.
Accessibility
The Schwartz Center is committed to providing performances and facilities accessible to all. Please direct accommodation requests to the Schwartz Center Box Office at 404.727.5050, or by email at boxoffice@emory.edu.
Design and Photography Credits
Cover Design: Lisa Baron | Cover Photo: Mark Teague
Acknowledgment
This season, the Schwartz Center is celebrating 20 years of world-class performances and wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz.
MUSIC AT EMORY
Songs with Friends
Emory Wind Ensemble
Featuring members of the United States Army Band and Agnes Scott College Community Orchestra
Brianna Slone, conductor
Eli Parrish, student composer
Captain Adam Hilkert, guest conductor
Qiao Chen Solomon, guest conductor
Friday, April 14, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
Emerson Concert Hall
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
2022–2023
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Program
Feierlicher Einzug Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Featuring members of the United States Army Band Captain Adam Hilkert, guest conductor Jonathan Easter, organ
The Fly Oscar Navarro (b. 1981)
Jaded
Adoration Eli Parrish (b. 2001) Eli Parrish, student conductor Early Light Carolyn Bremer (1957–2018) Featuring members of the Agnes Scott College Community Orchestra
The Rusty Bucket Carol Chambers (b. 1970) Featuring members of the Agnes Scott College Community Orchestra
Program Notes
Feierlicher Einzug (1909)
Feierlicher Einzug (“Festival Procession”) was written by Richard Strauss in 1909. The occasion was an investiture ceremony for the Knights of St. John, a fraternal organization with roots going back as far as the 11th century. Today, offshoots of this venerable order still exist, doing charitable works—primarily in aiding the poor and the sick—around the world.
The original scoring of this piece included parts for 15 trumpets, four horns, four trombones, two tubas, and timpani. Strauss later scored the work for a full orchestra, including organ and optional chorus. An arrangement by Max Reger (1873–1916) for organ, two trombones, and timpani is still frequently performed today.
—Program note from publisher
The Fly (2013)
The Fly is a musical invention for symphonic wind band, conceived to emulate the sound produced when a fly travels across the different sections of the band. The music begins in the calmest manner, awakening the listener from a peaceful dream, and throughout the duration of the piece their mood will change into a state of wrath caused by the tediousness of this fly. We will be able to hear the “buzzing” sounds appearing throughout the different sections of the ensemble and creating a stereo effect. Later, after we have been awakened by the fly, the “ hunt” begins while the playful fly glides through each one of the sections of the ensemble searching for a target. The fly will then attempt to approach its victim with so much force that it will crash onto the floor. Disoriented, the fly will stumble around for a few seconds before regaining control. It will finally come to pose on the conductor’s nose, who, after screaming desperately, will try to hit the fly over and over until it is finally taken down with the help of the whole band.
—Program note from composer
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Jaded Adoration (2023)
Jaded Adoration creates a sonic environment of tension, decay, and renewal—burnout with perseverance—loss of inspiration with unwavering ambition—discovering purpose or recreating it?
This tone poem for wind ensemble hopes to rediscover a love for creative output in the midst of a numbness to creation—a fight between passion and paralysis. As the piece evolves, so does its complexity. The creation of creativity itself challenges each musical motion.
—Program note by composer
Early Light (1995)
Originally written for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Early Light premiered in July 1995. The material is largely derived from the Star Spangled Banner. One need not attribute an excess of patriotic fervor in the composer as a source for this optimistic homage to our national anthem; Carolyn Bremer, a passionate baseball fan since childhood, drew upon her feelings of happy anticipation at hearing the anthem played before ball games when writing her piece. The slapstick heard near the end echoes the crack of the bat on a long home run.
—Program note from publisher
The Rusty Bucket (2015)
This lively work is an Americana piece in the style of a reel. Effectively conveying the fun and playfulness of the old-time, acoustic-based dance music found in juke joints in the southeastern United States during the mid- to late-1800s, this spirited piece is expertly scored with somewhat challenging 16th-note melodic material for clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, solo euphonium, and solo trumpet (and spoons).
—Program note from The Instrumentalist
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Conductor Biographies
Captain Adam Hilkert is executive officer of the United States Army School of Music. Prior to being commissioned as one of just 22 active conductors in the United States Army Bands, Hilkert served as associate conductor of the George Mason University Symphonic Band and director of the Annandale High School bands, among many others. Hilkert is a doctoral candidate in musical arts at George Mason University and previously earned a master of arts degree in wind conducting at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A talented double bassist, Hilkert is heard on more than 15 albums on premiere labels. He is the Tiger Bands’ lead music performance development adviser.
Eli Parrish began his compositional career with a niche for wind instruments and symphonic bands. Parrish’s music has been performed at universities, high schools, festivals, and venues across the southeastern United States. His works for chamber groups, solo instruments, and large ensembles explore the intersections of storytelling, environmentalism, and sound-to-color. Parrish’s approach to orchestration, use of dissonance, and texture stems from his background of studying and performing wind ensemble repertoire. Parrish frequently collaborates with other young composers in the Emory composition studio to curate showcases and workshops for new music.
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Brianna Slone (she/her) serves as the conductor of the Emory University Wind Ensemble and upper school faculty at the Westminster Schools. Previously, she was the assistant band director at Hillgrove High School in Cobb County, Georgia, and a music library assistant with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Slone was recently appointed as a Music for All Band Clinician and in this capacity was selected as an instructor for the 2022 Music for All Tournament of Roses Honor Band.
Slone has a bachelor of music education degree from the University of Georgia and a master of music degree in wind band conducting from Georgia State University.
Hailing from China, Qiao Chen Solomon started playing violin at age eight and later studied viola, voice, piano, and conducting. Solomon performs as soloist, conductor, chamber musician, and orchestra player throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. Past performance highlights include a solo performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the University of Georgia Symphony Orchestra and a solo performance of Harvest Celebration at the Grumo Festival in Italy. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall with the ARCO chamber orchestra, and with the same group, she has performed and recorded Vivaldi’s Violin Concertos on the Art Classics Label as a featured soloist. Solomon has recorded Pulsar by Augusta Read Thomas and the Sonata for Viola and Piano by Rebecca Clark on a double CD collection of works by women composers commissioned by the National Council of Women of the United States. She was a prize-winner in the National Music Talent Competition in Guangzhou. She has also won awards at the fifth Liaoning Violin Competition (China), the West Waterford Music and Drama Festival (Ireland), and the MTNA Competition (United States).
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Agnes Scott College Community Orchestra
Under the baton of Qiao Chen Solomon, the Agnes Scott College (ASC) Community Orchestra is the largest instrumental ensemble on campus. The orchestra consists of Agnes Scott College students, community musicians, and ASC artist affiliates who are dedicated to rehearsing and performing a high standard of orchestral repertoire that represents a wide range of styles. The college-community nature of the ensemble size provides a valuable orchestral experience for instrumentalists from a variety of musical backgrounds and interests.
United States Army Band
The mission of the United States Army Band is to promote the Army and its national interests, enable commanders to shape the environment to accomplish their mission, and set the conditions that lead to trust and confidence in America’s Army and its readiness to conduct operations in peacetime, conflict, and war.
Emory Wind Ensemble
The Emory Wind Ensemble (EWE) is dedicated to performing wind band and chamber literature of the highest caliber while nurturing individual artistic excellence within an ensemble setting.
Concert programming comprises a wide variety of styles, forms, and genres from several centuries of compositional practice, designed to provide a comprehensive exposure to the masterpieces for winds and percussion from the Renaissance period through the modern era.
The EWE performs two concerts each semester, regularly participates in world premieres of new music, tours the United States and abroad, and is a national leader in the commissioning of new music, including works by Warren Benson, Bruce Broughton, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, John Mackey, Jonathan Newman, Joseph Schwantner, and many others. The EWE’s recent collaborations include performances with the Emory University Chorus; the Emory Dance Company; Emory’s Mary Emerson Professor of Piano William Ransom; Chris Martin, principal trumpet of
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the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Stuart Stephenson, principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Joe Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic; Adam Frey, international euphonium solo artist; and Grammy Award–winning solo clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, among many others.
The EWE has performed concert tours of Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Lucerne, Graz, Prague, Vienna, and Greece. Additionally, the EWE has performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) State Convention in Savannah, Georgia; the Southern Division College Band Directors National Association Conference (CBDNA); and for various events on the Emory campus, including the inauguration of James Wagner as president of Emory University. The EWE was recognized in 2017 as a Top 10 program among its peers by CBDNA and featured at the 2017 CBDNA National Conference Small Band Showcase. The EWE is recorded on the NAXOS music label.
Music at Emory
The Department of Music at Emory University provides an exciting and innovative environment for developing knowledge and skills as a performer, composer, and scholar. Led by a faculty of more than 60 nationally and internationally recognized artists and researchers, undergraduate and graduate students experience a rich diversity of performance and academic opportunities. Undergraduate students in the department earn a BA in music with a specialization in performance, composition, or research; many simultaneously earn a second degree in another department. True to the spirit of Emory, a liberal arts college in the heart of a research university, faculty members and ensembles also welcome the participation of non-major students from across the Emory campus.
Become a part of Music at Emory by giving to the Friends of Music. A gift provides crucial support to all music activities. To learn more, visit music.emory.edu or call 404.727.6280.
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Emory Wind Ensemble Performers
Flute/Piccolo
Emily Cui
Dorian Huang
Hannah Huang
Tabitha Watson
Oboe
Zachary Kant
Sophia Kim
English Horn
Eric Xu
Bassoon
Vishaal Kareti
Nathan Muz
Clarinet
Nicole Bring
Joe Van Duyn
Eli Parrish
Deston Lian
Karthik Valeveti
Alto Saxophone
Rishie Srivastava
Paulark Yan
Katherine Wang
Tenor Saxophone
Dan Dan
Bari Saxophone
Wenhui Lu
Horn
Kayla Beck
Tess Enmark
Amelia Young
Trumpet
Joey Chen
Natalie Park
Trombone
Timothy Brewer
Shiven Sinha
Josh Peacock
Euphonium
Allen Zhang
Kerry Zhu
Tuba
Michael Amsel
Double Bass
Alex Petralia
Percussion
Kaylor Garamella
James Grant
Alexa Mohsenzadeh
Peter Rubin
Emmy Shi
Organ
Jonathan Easter
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Music at Emory
Music at Emory brings together students, faculty, and world-class artists to create an exciting and innovative season of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes. With more than 150 events each year across multiple Emory venues, audiences experience a wide variety of musical offerings.
We hope you enjoy sampling an assortment of work from our student ensembles, community youth ensembles, artists in residence, professional faculty, up-and-coming prodigies, and virtuosos from around the world.
404.727.5050
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