Mr. Brian D. Langdon is the Director of Bands at Boyertown Area Senior High School in Boyertown, Pennsylvania as well as the Jazz Band Director at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Langdon directs the BASH Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Percussion Ensemble, Mega-Band, the BASH Big Band and Boyertown Marching Unit. He also oversees the BASH Winter Guard, BASH Jazz Ensemble and various chamber ensembles at Boyertown Senior High School. Under his direction since 2012, Boyertown Senior High School has seen growth in students involved, curricular offerings for both performing and nonperforming classes, and performance opportunities for students including 3 international tours to Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, London and Spain. Prior to coming to Boyertown School District in 2012, he taught in the Pottstown School District and led the elementary band program. Mr. Langdon’s groups have received various honors and accolades at the festivals and adjudications they have attended during his tenure. Beyond his teaching duties, Mr. Langdon is an active clinician, adjudicator, and wind arranger for middle and high school programs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is also a contributing content creator for PMEA News and has presented at the annual PMEA All-State convention on cultivating student centered leadership within the classroom.
Mr. Langdon received his B.S. of Music Education, cum laude, from West Chester University and his Masters of Education degree at Lehigh University. He is also currently seeking his second master’s degree in Instrumental Conducting at West Chester University where he is currently studying with Dr. Andrew Yozviak. In 2016, Brian Langdon was selected as one of 20 Music Educators from around the nation by the National Association of Music Educators in association with 21st Century Fox and the Give A Note Foundation as a Music Ed Idol. He has also been nominated for the GRAMMY Foundation’s Music Educator Award as well the “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” As a performer, Mr. Langdon has had the pleasure of playing trombone and euphonium in both classical and jazz settings. He has played with world famous musicians including Alan Vizzutti, Bobby Shew, Randy Brecker, Matthew Niess, Bob Curnow, Brian MacDonald and Matt Gallagher. Beyond the band world, Brian loves to spend time at home and traveling with his wife Mandi, two children Ben and Nora.
Ignition, KevinDay(b.1996)
Kevin Day is a black American composer based out of San Diego, California whose music “fuses genres such as jazz, contemporary classical, R&B, Soul, and more.” His over 250 works for orchestra, jazz, chamber, concert band, and other ensembles have received critical acclaim and awards marking him as a prominent composer in today’s music landscape.
Ignition is a self-described “high octane” work originally commissioned by Dr. James Jackson III for The Hartt School TubaEuphonium Ensemble at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. The piece was later adapted in a quartet form for the Boston Symphony Orchestra Low Brass Section and consequently recorded in 2020 with an ensemble of three trombones and a tuba. Today’s performance features the orchestral low brass edition.
This highly energetic piece starts with complex rhythmic and metric phrases accompanied by virtuosic brass range and technique showcasing each player individually throughout the piece. The work delicately balances high-intensity technical passages with chorale-like sections including a challenging tuba solo accompanied by chordal playing by the other members. The piece ends by bringing back previously included material but raised a fourth to create brightness and finality.
SlavonikDances,Op46B83No2,AntonínDvořákarr.BrianLangdon(1841-1904)/(b. 1986)
From 1878 to 1886, Dvořák composed a series of 16 orchestral pieces inspired by Johannes Brahm’s Hungarian Dances which he titled Slavonik Dances. Originally scored for piano four hands and then later adapted for an orchestra, these pieces encapsulated the bohemian styles and forms of Slavic folk music. The types of dances Dvořák uses throughout here are traditional dance patterns from Czech, Ukrainian, Serbian, and Slovakian heritages. The second dance in e minor, is a traditional Dumka dance from Ukraine that is best categorized by John Tyrell as “a sung lament or an instrumental piece generally of a ruminative nature.” (Tyrell, 2001) Dvořák uses this dance twice in his collection of dances and maintains an e minor tonality in both.
Dvořák transforms two main themes throughout this work with multiple variations and iterations that are passed between voices in the ensemble. When originally working on this, the rhythms of Slavic music are what Dvořák used as source material, not melodies as they are Dvořák’s creation. This contrasts with other composers of the folk song revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specifically Brahms and his Hungarian Dances, who use the melodies as the source material. The arrangement is set for a woodwind quintet combined with a brass quintet (with only one horn shared between both traditional chamber ensembles.) This arrangement works to maintain many of the elements of the original work but is tailored to the preferences (key) and technical demands (register and rhythmic) of a wind chamber ensemble. The original work does include limited percussion such as timpani, cymbals, bass drum, and triangle but these are not included in this chamber setting.
LittleSymphonyforWinds,FranzSchubertarr.VerneReynolds(1797-1828)/(1926-2011)
Born in the suburbs of Vienna, Franz Schubert started studying to become a schoolteacher while taking lessons with the prolific composer Antonio Salieri. His talents as a composer were not as widely recognized during his short life as he died at the age of 31. It wasn’t until the decades that followed his death that his works were widely celebrated and elevated him to one of the great composers of his time resulting in many of his works continuously being performed to today.
Verne Reynolds, who originally is from Kansas, was a horn professor at the Eastman School of Music for more than 30 years while maintaining a successful career as a performer with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the American Woodwind Quintet. A founding member of the Eastman Brass Quintet, Reynolds has recorded and written more than 60 works for chamber ensembles, wind ensembles, and more.
The Little Symphony for Winds is a four-movement work (I. Allegro Moderato II. Adagio III. Allegro IV. Allegro Guisto) that is a collection of two different and previously written works. The first three movements Schubert pulls from Fünf Klavierstücke (1818) with the last being from the four-hand setting of Overture in Italian Style in C (1817).
The first movement (Allegro Moderato) is a lively and light tune that features solos first in the clarinet and then the oboe. Schubert takes these solo melodies and expands them throughout the movement for the full chamber ensemble This relaxed movement gently brings the listener into the large work with limited instrumentation that gradually increases to full. The pace of this movement is well done and provides limited surprises to the listener as Schubert gradually increases instrumentation and decreases it in the same fashion.
The second movement (Adagio) is started with the clarinets taking the melody and passing it to the oboe. However, Schubert does allow the horn and flute to showcase their talents throughout this movement with beautiful melodies and opportunities with mixed orchestration throughout this section. Reynolds describes this as a “typical Schubert song” that is “simple and calm.” In Schubert’s third movement (Allegro), a "waltz-like feel" is made of this scherzo. Light and playful passages are passed from player to player creating a conversation-like texture that, which I best describe as, “floats” through various tessituras. In the “trio” section of this piece, Schubert chooses a tempo rubato creating a contrast not only in tempo slowing down but also in “floating” tonalities as well as the tonal center continuously moving throughout this section. The movement once again returns to culminate this movement with excitement and lightness.
Beautiful lyrical melodies encompass the final movement (Allegro Giusto) is filled with triplet rhythms and dotted eighths. Once again, Schubert employs the clarinet and oboe to take much of the melodic material throughout this movement creating a satisfying bookmark on this larger work. The movement maintains tempo and presents four memorable themes before the piu moto section where tempo increases for the grand finale. The forefront of horns at this finale creates an exciting finish to this great work.
My journey as a musician, music educator, and conductor has been a wonderful journey filled with many people that I cannot thank enough. Without the guidance and support of my parents (David and Linda Langdon), my future would be completely different. Their decision to find me private instructor who was instrumental in my early development on trombone and euphonium (thank you Gail Glass) set me up for who I am today. Mom and Dad, thank you for everything you have done!
I have been blessed with fantastic and influential educators throughout my life. Michael Britcher, Dr. Ken Laudermilch, Dr. Matt Niess, Matthew Gallagher, Dr. John Villella, and Dr. Jonathan Fowler. I consider myself the luckiest person on the planet to have had the opportunity to learn from you. Your guidance and expertise have had an incredible impact on me and shaped me into the educator and musician I am today.
I would also like to thank my colleagues at both Boyertown and Ursinus College for being such great friends, mentors, and educators who I have learned so much from. Steve Yoder, Chris Cinquini, Jeff Brunner, Mike Jordan. The four of you have been such close friends and I am forever grateful to you! Dr. Holly Hubbs, thank you for your mentorship and friendship during the last two years at Ursinus. It’s been such a wonderful journey.
Dr. Andrew Yozviak, Dr. Adam Gumble, and Dr. M. Gregory Martin. This team at WCU is second to none. You all bring such a unique perspective and expertise to this program and it has greatly impacted me throughout my time here. Dr. Martin, thank you for your friendship and learning from you the way you mentor your students. Dr. Gumble, thank you for being such a mentor on cultivating leadership and for giving me a wealth of catchphrases that have made immediate improvements to my programs. Dr. Yozviak, it’s been a long journey for us! I am so thankful for that journey. You have coached me as a musician, conductor, leader, and person. My success is a direct reflection of you. I am so thankful for our time together.
To the musicians performing today, thank you for your talents and your time. It has been such a joy to put this recital together and work with you. I have learned so much from this process with you; thank you for your patience and musicality that you have shared with me.
Lastly, but most importantly. I am so thankful for my amazingly supportive wife Mandi and children Nora and Ben. This job is not easy. I could not do it without you. Mandi, you are one of the strongest people I have ever met; people will never know what you have done and continue to do for my students, myself, and our family. I am eternally grateful and love you so much. Nora and Ben, I love sharing this journey with you. You bring me all the joy in my life. I can’t wait to see you on stage one day as well.
Thank you for attending this afternoon. It means the world to me that you are here. I hope you enjoy the show.