Flutissimo

carthage music department presents

Flutissimo!

Wind Orchestra Concert Band AMATI Flute Ensemble

James Ripley, conductor Mandy Nelson, flute

Sunday, May 3, 2026 | 2:00 p.m.

A.F. Siebert Chapel

program Toy Symphony Allegro Menuetto Finale

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732—1809) arranged by Paige Dashner Long Flute Ensemble Robert Spittal (b. 1963)

Consort II. Aubade I. Jeux AMATI

Jules Massenet (1842—1912) arranged by Albert Austin Harding Jacob Muller, student conductor

Meditation from “Thais”

Eurydice Walks with Wounded Soles

John Cargille ‘26 (b. 2004)

Frontiers I. Dreams II. Coveted Peaks III. Murky Depths IV. Frontiers

Hope Johnson ‘28 (b. 2006)

Leroy Anderson (1908—1975) arranged by Mark Rogers

The Pennywhistle Song Drake Thomas, student conductor Sweet Nightingale

Gordon Jacob (1895—1984) Riley Gaylord, student conductor Concert Band

Concerto for Flute II. [Andante] I. Briskly

Mike Mower (b. 1958) Mandy Nelson, flute

Stars and Stripes Forever

John Philip Sousa (1854—1932) Wind Orchestra

program notes Toy Symphony To this day, no one is quite sure who wrote Toy Symphony. The kidfriendly work has worn Franz Joseph Haydn and Leopold Mozart’s names throughout the years, but it is now disputed whether either of them wrote it.

Even without a name attached to it, the piece has become a mainstay for children’s shows and Christmastime concerts. Each of its three movements features the sounds of actual toys and instruments that sound like they came straight from Geppetto’s workshop. The piece calls for a trumpet, ratchet, nightingale, cuckoo, drum, and for a handful of toys. Noisemakers rattle throughout the first of its three movements. The cuckoo and nightingale call out mischievously during the second, and in the third, the trumpets channel their inner kazoo. The presence of the toy instruments make this a fun piece for children to play, especially when there are also some toys waiting under the tree.

Composed in the mid-1700s but not published until well into the 1800s, Toy Symphony first appeared with the last name “Haydn” on it. A story surfaced that Haydn composed the piece after buying a handful of toys at a fair, then played it for his children at a Christmas party. Because the work did not appear in Haydn’s self-assembled catalog of work, scholars started to second-guess this story.

Consort Each movement of Consort reflects on the music of “Les Grandes Hautboise,” the court wind band of France’s great “Sun King”, Louis XIV. “Jeux” (games) is a whimsical, lively dance which reflect the frivolities and excesses of the court, while the “Aubade” (morning song) is more intimate, lyrical, and influenced by the imitative styles of vocal music of the period.

program notes Sweet Nightingale This short programmatic work was written in 1984 for the publisher G & M Brand during the final year of Jacob’s long and prolific career as a composer for wind band.

The youngest of ten siblings, Jacob enlisted in the Field Artillery to serve in World War I when he was 19, and was taken POW in 1917, one of only 60 men in his battalion of 800 to survive.

After being released he spent a year studying journalism, but left to study composition, theory, and conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Charles Villiers Stanford, Adrian Boult and Ralph Vaughan-Williams. After teaching at Birbeck and Morley Colleges in London, Jacob joined the RCM staff in 1924 and remained until his retirement in 1966. His pupils included Malcolm Arnold, Imogen Holst and Joseph Horovitz. Sadly, because of his cleft palate and a childhood hand injury, his instrumental abilities were limited; he studied piano but never had a performing career.

Jacob’s first major successful piece was composed during his student years: the William Byrd Suite for orchestra, after a collection of pieces for the virginal. It is better known in a later arrangement for the symphonic band. While a student Jacob was asked by Vaughan Williams to arrange the latter’s English Folk Song Suite in full orchestral form. At the time of his death in 1984, he had written over 700 works, with Sweet Nightingale among his final compostions.

The Pennywhistle Song From the master of light classical music, Leroy Anderson, this short feature for one, two, three (or more!) flutes was completed on June 3, 1951, and first performed for a recording made in June 1951. Written as a “moderate fox trot”, the melodic and rhythmic patterns fall very closely along the same lines as the composer’s Bugler’s Holiday and Trumpeter’s Lullaby.

program notes Meditation from “Thais” The Méditation is an instrumental entrʼacte performed between the scenes of Act II in the opera Thaïs; a wordless chorus joins in for the last reprise. In the first scene of Act II, Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, confronts Thaïs, a beautiful and hedonistic courtesan and follower of Venus, and attempts to persuade her to leave her life of luxury and pleasure and find salvation through God. It is during a time of reflection following the encounter that the Méditation occurs. In the second scene of Act II, following the Méditation, Thaïs tells Athanaël that she will let him take her to a cloister near the desert.

Concerto for Flute and Wind Orchestra Mike Mower is a British composer who originally studied classical flute at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He also plays saxophones, clarinets, keyboards and bass guitar. He has led numerous jazz ensembles, playing his own compositions from quartet to big band all over the world. In 1985 Mike founded and led Itchy Fingers, the internationally renowned saxophone quartet.

Mike’s playing and writing careers have always run side by side. As a self – taught composer and arranger, he has written for orchestras, big bands, saxophone quartets, string quartets, and wind bands to solo recital works. Mike also arranges music for the pop industry, TV and radio and through his wide practical knowledge of the disciplines of jazz, pop and classical genres, is in demand writing commissioned works for a variety of artists and ensembles.

He has written hundreds of pieces for flute from beginner to virtuoso level, he wrote and produced two albums for James Galway and his most recent commission was for a piccolo showpiece with the United States Air Force band. His Concerto for Flute was commissioned for a number of university bands and the Brannen Cooper Foundation in 2004.

about our soloist Mandy Nelson is a senior flute performance major and criminal justice minor from Loves Park, Illinois. Throughout her time at Carthage she has been involved in many instrumental ensembles including Wind Orchestra, Carthage Philharmonic, and Jazz Ensemble. Outside of music, Mandy is a member of the track and field team at Carthage. In the fall, Mandy will be attending Northern Illinois University College of Law.

carthage college wind orchestra philosophy “When we are on stage, we do the best that we can and make every performance as perfect as possible. We attain this goal with spirit – the idea being that each time we do something, it will be for our first and last time. This is the concept of ichigo ichie; we must do it right, here and now.” - Seiici Tanaka

personnel Flute Kaylynn Brewton * Addison Kelnhofer *+ Mandy Nelson*+ Eleanor Powell* Dani Tranchita Oboe Laurel Brown * Bella Howard *+ Toby Staaden * Ash Wilcox Bassoon Neil DuJardin *+ Clarinet Ely Aita Riley Gaylord * Maya Griffin * Hope Johnson * Emma Lorenz * Grace Miller * Jana Paulsen * Angel Raygoza Kaylie Szczepanik Meg Williams

Horn Michael Aylward *+ Ella Christensen * Lanie Klawonn *+ Ellamae Monk * Trumpet Nathan Esboldt * Elliot Podratz * Luke Rodriguez * Trombone Anita Gross * Johnathan Ledanski * Amelia McCray-Grotto Jake Muller * Andrew Schaer * Tuba Riley Betthauer* Oliver Juarez-Wunderlin * Percussion Cora Brown * Avery Conger * Cece Cooper * Davian Santiago * Drake Thomas *

Bass Clarinet Madison Bazylewicz * Dontice Wooley

Piano Alasdair Ladd *

Saxophone Ava Bartecki* John Cargille* Grace Grassinger Jalen Imroth *+ Zach Shoemaker *

* - Wind Orchestra + - AMATI

upcoming events Riley Gaylord: Wherever the Wind Takes Me, Student Recital Tuesday, May 5 • 7:30 p.m.

H. F. Johnson Recital Hall Spring Dance Show - Away From The Mirror Friday, May 8-9 • 7:30 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre Tickets Required. Visit www.carthage.edu/tickets for ticket information.

Dan Klimzcak: Lives and Times, Grad Student Recital Saturday, May 9 • 4:00 p.m.

H.F. Johnson Recital Hall Yingcheng Dou, Grad Student Recital Sunday, May 10 • 2:30 p.m.

H.F. Johnson Recital Hall Percussion Ensemble Concert Tuesday, May 12 • 7:30 p.m.

A.F. Siebert Chapel Lydea King; Time, Student Recital Wednesday, May 13 • 7:30 p.m.

A.F. Siebert Chapel

Arts at Carthage acknowledges that the land on which our building stands is part of the traditional Potawatomi, Sioux, Peoria, Kickapoo, and Miami peoples past, present, and future.

These homelands reside along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes. We honor with gratitude the land itself, and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. Many Indigenous peoples thrive in this place— alive and strong, and this calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as well.

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