UTSA Wind Symphony - From a Distance

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE OF LIBERAL AND FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF MUSIC PRESENTS

The University of Texas at San Antonio Wind Symphony

Ron Ellis

Conductor/Music Director

P R O G R A M :

“From A Distance”

Aegean Festival Overture (1967)

The The Low-Down Brown Get-Down (2020)

Suite from Mass (1971)

UTSA Faculty Brass Quintet

Andreas Makris (1930-2005)

Omar Thomas (b 1984)

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Arr. Michael Sweeney (b 1952)

Dr. Oswaldo Zapata-Trumpet, Prof. Jefferey Castle-Trumpet, Prof. Peter Rubins-French Horn, Prof. John Caputo-Trombone, Prof. Gary Poffenbarger-Tuba

INTERMISSION (10 min) followed by Senior Recognition

Lontano : Symphony for Wind Ensemble (2018)

I In the void, alone Void Alone

Glow Sunrise Terror Orb

Immersion Void Alone

I. Interlude – Spiral

II. Horizons

Tuesday, April 18 th , 2024 7:30pm

UTSA School of Music Recital Hall

Michael Martin (b 1985)

Spring 2024 University of Texas at San Antonio Wind Symphony

Flute / Piccolo

Hannah Benitez

Zackery Cuellar

Jazmine Dearlove

Jordan Rodriguez

Abigail Valadez

Oboe

August Naranjo

Julian Rivera

Bassoon

Brendan Tsai

Jared Worman (also Contra Bassoon)

Clarinet

Sikander Ahmed

Kali Crist

Joel Hernandez

Kenedy Lerma

Madilynne Mohr (M)

Brenda Reynoso

Joanna Sanchez

Bass Clarinet

Michael Lee Summers

Alto Saxophone

1 Makenzi Costa

2 Gabriel Campa

Tenor Saxophone

Brianna Castilla

Baritone Saxophone

Nicholas Zars

Horn

Brandon Bayer

Macy Harminson

Caleb Jones

Noe Loera

Andrew Ramirez

Band Staff

Jordan Rodriguez - Music Librarian

Jarred Worman - Music Librarian

Trumpet

Chris Barrera

Jay Hidrogo

Caleb McDonald

Gustavo Medrano

Raymon Saldana

Myles Thornton (M)

Karim Vazquez

Trombone

Eva Ayala

Andrew Garcia

Ethan Gomes (M)

Jayden Zunker-Trevino

Bass Trombone

Javier Lopez

Euphonium

Alex Guzman

Brandon Ichavez (G)

Tuba

Matthew Bruns (M)

Kenyon McCrary (M)

Percussion

Zachary Cook

Gregory Felter

Nicolas Morales

Rebecca Palmer

Mark Sawyer

Charles Settles

Meaghan Trevino (GA)

Double Bass

Heriberto Ayma

Organ

Scott Rushforth

Guest Musicians

Sarah Hamm – Bass Clarinet

Ethan Aguilar - Piano

Hannah Pais – Oboe

Raul Martinez – Horn

Lisa Huerta - Percussion

Graduate Assistants/Band Managers

Graduate students are listed with (G) above

Graduate Assistants are listed with (GA) above

Band Managers are listed with (M) above

Personnel roster is listed alphabetically to emphasize the important contribution made by each musician.

R o n E l l i s serves as Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Prof Ellis conducts the UTSA Wind Ensemble, the UTSA Symphonic Band, The UTSA University Band, and the UTSA Athletic Bands. His responsibilities also include teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in conducting, wind literature, and music education. A nationally recognized guest conductor, adjudicator, and composer/arranger, his works for concert band, orchestra and choir are performed by university, community, high school and professional wind bands as well as in Carnegie Hall. He also currently serves as a music director for Walt Disney Attractions Entertainment in Orlando where he has directed the Toy Soldiers and the Student Musician Program since 1993.

He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, Florida Music Educators Association, Florida Bandmasters Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity. He is also an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, and Pi Kappa Lambda. Prof. Ellis received his Bachelor of Arts in Trombone Performance from the University of Central Florida and a Master of Music in Wind and Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Florida where he was a conducting student of William Wiedrich.

The UTSA Wind Symphony is comprised of UTSA Students who have achieved an extreme high level of musicianship and who perform some of the most challenging music composed for wind band. Membership in this ensemble is open to all UTSA Students, regardless of major, who audition at the beginning of each semester. The UTSA Wind Symphony maintains a vigorous performance schedule of three demanding concerts each semester as well as an ensemble tour when schedule and budget permits.

C o n d u c t o r

T h e U T S A W i n d S y m p h o n y

H A V E A G R E A T S U M M E R ! ! ! ! ! !

Andreas Makris obtained his first violin “by accident” when one day, during World War II, his father traded the family’s ration of salt and olive oil to a man who begged him for the items, offering his violin. “So, for a month we had our bean soup without olive oil, and I began to play the violin,” Makris would later explain.

Makris continued his music studies at the National Conservatory in Greece and, beginning in 1950, in the U.S. on a Rockefeller Grant at the Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma. He attended the Kansas City Conservatory in Missouri from 1951 to 1953 and graduated from the Mannes College of Music in New York in 1956 with Artist honors. Additional musical training followed at the Aspen Music Festival in 1956 and 1957 and at the Fountainbleau School in France where in 1958 Makris studied composition with Nadia Boulanger

In 1958 Makris won a position with the Dallas Symphony and in 1959 moved to the St. Louis Symphony after a successful audition. In 1961, at the invitation of conductor Howard Mitchell, Makris joined the first violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra, where he would remain for 28 years. Over the years, the NSO would go on to perform many of his works, under Mitchell, Antal Dorati, Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin. In 1970 Makris became the first composer to have his work premiered at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and later would compose a work honoring the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy Center.

Rostropovich commissioned more works from Makris than from any other composer. “In my opinion, Makris is a great composer” Rostropovich remarked in 1978. From 1979 to 1989 Makris also served as NSO’s composer in residence where his job was to help Rostropovich sort through unsolicited scores that arrived in the mail from unknown but hopeful composers. Makris also composed and arranged numerous incidental pieces for the NSO including a piece for Leonard Bernstein’s birthday concert and an arrangement of Paganini’s Motto Perpetuo, which became a standard encore for the NSO’s many tours. He received numerous grants and awards for his compositions including a National Endowment for the Arts grant the ASCAP award.

Upon his retirement from the NSO, Makris rededicated himself to composing with renewed vigor. His favorite performers became young musicians for whom he composed numerous solo, chamber and orchestral works. He also cultivated his friendship with National Philharmonic conductor Piotr Gajewski, at whose request he composed several works including the Symphony for Soprano and Strings, the Violin Concerto and one of his final works, Strathmore Overture, composed for National Philharmonic’s gala concert, inaugurating its residency at the Music Center at Strathmore.

A e g e a n F e s t i v a l O v e r t u r e was written in 1967 as an orchestral overture for the Washington National Symphony and was premiered by that group under Howard Mitchell a year later at Constitution Hall. Its immediate success then and on tour occasioned the collaboration between Makris and Albert Bader of the U.S. Air Force Band to arrange the overture as a concert piece for band.

P r o g r a m N o t e s Compiled and Edited by Ron Ellis A e g e a n F e s t i v a l O v e r t u r e – A n d r e a s M a k r i s

From its first hammering dotted eighth rhythms, A e g e a n F e s t i v a l O v e r t u r e reflects the Greek origins of its composer, who was born in Salonika, a colorful Aegean seaport. The driving energy of the fast section with its restless 5s and 7s and the lyric plaintiveness of the contrasting middle section, all molded into a symphonic form, epitomize the musical style of Makris that is a blend of classic form and Greek folkloristic elements.

- Program Note excerpted from the Yale Concert Band concert program wuw

Omar Thomas is an American composer, arranger and educator.

Born to Guyanese parents, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music degree in jazz composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is the protégé of Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under Maria Schneider.

Omar's music has been performed in concert halls across the country. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Men's Choruses, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

He conducts the Omar Thomas Large Ensemble, a group was first assembled for Omar's graduate composition recital at the New England Conservatory of Music in the spring of 2008. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008 and was invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City.

Mr. Thomas accepted a position in the composition area at the University of Texas in Austin in the fall of 2020. Previously he was a member of both the Harmony and Music Education departments at Berklee, where he taught all four levels of harmony offered, in addition to taking charge of the "Introduction to Music Education" course. Omar was an active member of the Berklee community, serving on the Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Comprehensive Enrollment Strategy Workgroup, and acting as co-chair of the LGBT Allies. Omar was nominated for the Distinguished Faculty Award after only three years at the college, and was thrice awarded the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University, where he served as a teaching fellow. In 2024, he was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

The composer writes, “The end of the 60s into and through the 70s saw the era of the “blaxploitation” film a genre of filmmaking aimed at African-American audiences which put us in leading roles of stories that often followed anti-establishment plots. These films were often controversial due to their exaggerated bravado, hypersexuality, and violence. Noticing the lucrative potential of blaxploitation films, Hollywood began to market these films to a wider audience. Though low budget, they possessed an exciting, raw, soulful quality unlike any other genre up until that time, and from these films were born some of the most iconic characters (Shaft, Dolemite, Foxy Brown, and Cleopatra Jones, to name a few) and soundtracks ever

T h e L o w - D o w n B r o w n G e t - D o w n – O m a r T h o m a s

created, written by some of the biggest names in African-American popular folk music of the day and since, including Issac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye.

T h e L o w - D o w n B r o w n G e t - D o w n is the soundtrack for a nonexistent blaxploitation film. It pulls from various sounds and styles of African-American folk music, such as funk, R&B, soul, early hip hop, the blues, and even film noir to stitch together its “scenes.” The title pulls from and is inspired by “post-jive” AfricanAmerican Vernacular English (AAVE). The word “Brown” in the title, in addition to its reference to none other than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, whose most-famous licks and bass lines pepper the intro and recur throughout the piece, also refers to the melanin of the people who created these sounds.

This piece unapologetically struts, bops, grooves, slides, shimmies, head bangs, and soul claps its way straight through its thrilling “chase scene” finale. It was my intention with the creation of this piece to go full steam ahead on bringing African-American folk music to the concert stage to take its place amongst all other types of folk music that have found a comfortable home in this arena. May this work push back against notions of “sophistication,” “appropriateness,” and “respectability” that have been codified in the concert music setting for a century and more.”

- Program Note by Composer wuw

Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, pianist, and conductor.

Bernstein was born to Russian immigrants and attended Boston Latin School, Harvard University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. His studied with composers Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston as well as conducting with Fritz Reiner. In the summers of 1940 and 1941 he studied conducting at Tanglewood with Serge Koussevitzky along with Frederick Fennell, Lukas Foss, and Walter Hendl. He became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943 and it was in this role he became famous by filling in last minute for Bruno Walter for a national broadcast on 14 November 1943.

His Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" was premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony in January 1944 followed by Fancy Free and On the Town by the end of the year. These successes led to numerous opportunities overseas, including being the first American to conduct at La Scala. In 1951 he become the head of conducting at Tanglewood and seven years later became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969). In this position he promoted new music, developed a series of Young People's Concerts, and recorded the symphonies of Gustav Mahler but was limited in his time to compose.

Bernstein was able to compose more in the 1970s. His achievements included Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime of Contributions to American Culture Through the Performing Arts, 11 Emmy Awards, election to the Academy of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Bernstein's MASS was a monumental 90-minute work written for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1971. In this suite commissioned by the Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, arranger Michael Sweeney focuses on a select number of movements, often using the brass quintet to represent the vocal lines found in the original. The striking

S u i t e f r o m “ M a s s ” – L e o n a r d B e r n s t e i n

and beautiful work includes Alleluia, Sanctus, the well-known A Simple Song, Agnus Dei, Offertory and Almighty Father.

Among the participants in the diverse and celebrated history of American music, there are few figures who are so commanding a force as Leonard Bernstein. His long and productive life of composing, conducting, performing, and teaching has influenced millions worldwide. Given his tremendously varied background, it should be no surprise that his 1971 MASS (stylized in all capital letters) is a grand pastiche of styles and influences spanning centuries of Western classical music. The original work was commissi oned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. An evening’s entertainment (clocking in at nearly two hours in length), the work is a spectacle incorporating orchestra, multiple choruses, actors, dancers, rock combo, and marching band. Texts utilized are not just from the traditional Latin mass and the composer himself, but also from collaborations with acclaimed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and (to a much smaller extent) American singer/songwriter Paul Simon

The dramatic arc of the work as a whole is a look into the celebration of a mass. The primary character, known as the Celebrant, immediately discards the unnecessarily complex counterpoint of the introductory Kyrie, instead encouraging a more direct and personal faith through A Simple Song, the work’s de facto thesis statement. Over the course of the celebration, the congregation (represented by the choirs) moves slowly from a position of acceptance to one of questioning faith in the face of trial. At the moment of greatest crisis, the Communion is interrupted by the growing dissent of the performers and the ensuing frustration of the Celebrant. At this moment when all seems lost, a sign appears in the form of a single altar boy who echoes the opening sentiment with Secret Songs. This brings the Celebrant and congregation back into harmony with each other for the final reprise of Almighty Father, as the Celebrant instructs the congregation (and, by extension, the audience) to “go in peace.”

The work was met with some controversy leading to its premiere due to beliefs that anti -war sentiments present throughout the text were a political indictment of the presidential administration a notion that is summarily dismissed by Nina Bernstein Simmons in her notes on MASS: “While the work is certainly antiwar and calls on ‘you people of power’ to do what is right, it is not overtly political. It is unquestionably religious.”

S u i t e f r o m MA S S , arranged by Michael Sweeney for the Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, takes particularly memorable selections from throughout the course of MASS and sets them for featured brass quintet and full ensemble. The brass quintet most frequently takes on the role of the solo singers from the stage production. The arrangements themselves are remarkably true to the original work, though ordered differently. For instance, in the suite, A Simple Song is the middle movement and acts as the gentle centerpiece between the more virtuosic expressions of the exterior sections, as opposed to its early presentation within the full version. Part One, in contrast, sets some of the more aggressive moments of the original. While the Alleluia is jubilant, the Sanctus and Agnus Dei (which come from near the end of MASS at the moment when the congregation’s furor is at its highest) blare with sizzling cacophony. The finale sets the Offertory and Almighty Father with the beautiful sonorities of the hymn cadencing with an "Amen” sung by the ensemble. Though the medium has shifted, Sweeney’s conscientious work lets Bernstein’s voice sing through unabashedly, as always passionate and profound.

- Program Note by Jacob Wallace for the Baylor Wind Ensemble concert program, 19 December 2014 wuw

Michael Martin is an American trumpeter and composer.

Mr. Martin attended Northwestern University where he received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in trumpet performance, studying with Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer. Mr. Martin was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2006 and 2008, receiving the Roger Voisin Trumpet Award both summers. In addition to being the first brass player in 25 years to win the Northwestern University Concerto Competition, in 2006 Mr. Martin was also the winner of the National Trumpet Competition in Washington, D.C. and was subsequently invited to perform at the Kennedy Center representing Northwestern University as part of "The Conservatory Project," an initiative aimed at highlighting the nation's most distinguished collegiate musicians.

Mr. Martin joined the trumpet section of the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops as fourth/utility trumpet in October 2010. Prior to joining the Boston Symphony, Mr. Martin enjoyed a dynamic freelance career with a diverse group of ensembles and performing artists including Sufjan Stevens, the Burning River Brass, and the Still Swingin' Big Band of Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Martin has been a finalist for positions in the President's Own United States Marine Band, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic as well as the symphonies of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, and San Francisco. Mr. Martin is also co-Artistic Director of the National Brass Symposium.

An award-winning composer, Mr. Martin also studied composition at Northwestern University and orchestration at the University of Chicago with renowned composer, orchestrator and conductor Cliff Colnot and has been commissioned by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Chamber Musicians.

A devoted teacher, Mr. Martin has taught students ranging from age 10 to 24 and in middle and high school concert and marching band programs around the country. Mr. Martin is also a brass instructor with the Drum Corps International World Champion Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. He currently consults with the Arizona Academy of the Performing Arts of Tucson.

L o n t a n o : S y mp h o n y f o r Wi n d B a n d was commissioned by Mallory Thompson and the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble in honor of Thompson's 20th anniversary as director of bands at Northwestern. In writing it, Martin said he wanted to create something "huge in scale and meaningful, not just for Mallory and the current Symphonic Wind Ensemble, but all past and future ensemble members," who forever connect the past to the future, and ground the future in the past.

The word lontano is an Italian term, used in music to suggest something heard from a distance. The work is in three movements, beginning with In the Void, Alone, and progressing through the middle Interlude: Spiral movement to the final triumphant Horizons, which Martin said at the work's May 22, 2016, world premiere, was "a celebration of our community."

"The piece itself IS a journey, travelling from the depths of loneliness to the heights of joy," Martin wrote in his website blog. "It's about traveling through the vastness and the blackness of space to arrive at a beautiful horizon."

L o n t a n o : – S y m p h o n y f o r B a n d – M i c h a e l M a r t i n

Lontano is an Italian word meaning “at or from a great distance,” often used in a musical context to describe something intended to be played extremely quietly or very distantly offstage. In the case of this piece, the title is certainly representative of the use of both musical devices, but is intended more to describe a musical range and scope in a context that is subjective to the listener. While the published narrative of the piece may be slightly cryptic (if a bit simplistic), it is my hope that the listener is able to simply enjoy what they hear; the music perhaps inspiring something more personal for each person than what I imagined. That being said, there is a somewhat specific journey the music is intended to illustrate, and in the spirit of trying to create something special and personal for the commissioner of this piece, Mallory Thompson, Director of Bands at Northwestern University, it is worth it to me for you to be at least peripherally aware of where we start, where we end, and how we get there.

When we first discussed the piece in 2013 in anticipation of her 20th year at Northwestern, Mallory requested that it in some way honor and represent both her relationship with all of her Symphonic Wind Ensemble (“SWE”) students of the past 20 years and also her connection to one of her greatest mentors, the late Vincent Cichowicz. “Vince” is a powerful voice not only in the history of Northwestern, where he was the professor of trumpet spanning three decades and mentor to hundreds of aspiring brass players, but also in the world of brass playing from his years as 2nd Trumpet in the Chicago Symphony. Vince transformed the lives of countless musicians, not just trumpet players, with his singing and fluid approach to playing a brass instrument. Mallory studied trumpet with Vince during her time as a student at Northwestern, and in her words, Vince “forever impacted the way I thought about music, performed music, and eventually how I taught and conducted it. In some way, however small or large, everything I have to give in a rehearsal or a concert found its origins in something I learned from Vince. He’s there with me everyday, and by extension, with whatever group I am in front of.”

Musically speaking, Vince is there throughout the symphony as well (F, E, F, G, F, D); his theme opens the first movement in the clarinets and piano, then is expanded and inverted in solo bassoons, laying the tonal foundation for the entire symphony. It returns here and there, always present in some way. The same theme brings the symphony to a close in the final phrase of the last movement, in unison brasses.

As anyone who knows me might expect, there is some theatricality involved in this symphony: offstage brass and percussion, extra players, and a narrative that asks you to suspend disbelief for a moment and open yourself to the complex depths of grief, catharsis, and inevitably the heights of triumph. The movement titles, and individual “chapters” listed within the first movement, are intended to depict a somewhat visceral and narrative representation of grief, whose process is at once unique and common to us all. The analogy is that of floating through complete blackness, becoming immersed in a massive orb of light, being flung violently back into the dark, spiraling out of control, and eventually arriving at a collection of the most beautiful horizons we could imagine. Indeed, the grieving process is a long one, the destination of which always seems to be just out of reach; always a great distance away. I have specific thoughts in mind for what every measure of this music means to me. I would prefer not to impose those thoughts on you, the listener, (also for whom this was written), but for you to experience the piece as you are, at whatever stop in your journey brought you to this concert. My sincerest thanks to Mallory, Jerry, Northwestern University, and The University of Texas for bringing this symphony to life.

- Program Note by composer

wuw

ALL UTSA STUDENTS can make music with us!

The 350-member “Spirit of San Antonio” Marching Band is open to all UTSA students, regardless of major. Like all college bands, the group is comprised of students of various performance backgrounds. The “Spirit of San Antonio” will perform a standard pre-game show, 4-5 different halftime shows, stand tunes, and maintain UTSA traditions, while at the same time promoting a positive learning and social environment for its members. College bands strive towards being fun and spirited organizations while still achieving a quality of performance representative of the image of the university.

The UTSA Wind Ensemble is comprised of UTSA Students who have achieved an extreme high level of musicianship and who perform some of the most challenging music composed for wind band. Membership in this ensemble is open to all UTSA Students, regardless of major, who audition at the beginning of each semester. The UTSA Wind Ensemble maintains a vigorous performance schedule of three demanding concerts each semester as well as an ensemble tour when schedule and budget permits.

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The UTSA Symphonic Band is made up of 45-55 outstanding wind players who perform a repertoire chosen from a variety of historical periods and for ensembles of various sizes. While the group occasionally presents pieces composed for smaller groups, much of its time is spent in the study and performance of works from the standard symphonic band repertoire. Membership is open to all students at the university who audition at the beginning of each semester.

U T S A U n i v e r s i t y B a n d

The UTSA University Band performs a wide variety of works from different composers and arrangers, in addition to maintaining an active three-concert schedule each semester. There is no formal audition required to participate; students must be able to read music and play a concert band instrument. Membership in the ensemble includes students from almost every discipline on campus. We invite all students interested in performing in this ensemble to come out and join us at the beginning of each semester!

B a n d s a t t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f T e x a s a t S a n A n t o n i o

S p i r i t o f S a n A n t o n i o ” M a r c h i n g B a n d

U T S A “

U T S A W i n d E n s e m b l e

T S A S y m p h o n i c B a n d

Special thanks to the following for their ongoing support and dedication to the UTSA Bands:

Dr. Tracy Cowden, Director, School of Music

Dr. Stacey Davis, Acting Director, School of Music

Dr. Kasandra Keeling, Associate Director, School of Music

Naomy Ybarra, Administrative Services Officer 1

Steven Hill, Administrative Associate

Wesley Penix, Senior Events Manager