Letter from the Department
Welcome to this concert presentation by the Music Program in the Department of Performing Arts. We are delighted to have the wonderful support of great families and friends. A very special welcome goes out to our visitors from the community who may not have any affiliation to our students, and simply come to hear spectacular musical performances by these talented student musicians. We hope everyone in our audience is pleased with the musical selections; and proud of the achievement of the students involved.
The students you will hear at this performance are not music majors. They do this for their love of music and dedicate their time and energy to cultivating their passion for this art form. They are as dedicated to their studies and career pursuits as they are to this intrinsic passion they have within them. The program is fortunate to have a bounty of students with this yearning. We would not exist without them!
The Music Program and Department of Performing Arts is dedicated to providing robust opportunities in the performing arts while students are at Drexel. Our goal is to provide a positive and supportive environment for our students. It is our hope that students and audiences alike feel they are represented in the selections being performed. The human connection is most important to us all.
Thank you for attending this performance. Being here is the greatest show of support for the students, the Music Program, and the Department of Performing Arts. Thanks to the dedicated leadership of the faculty ensemble directors and staff, we are pleased to present you with the following program.
Sincerely,
Luke Abruzzo, Music Program Director Miriam Giguere, PhD, Department Head, Performing Arts
Ensemble Director’s Message
Thank you for joining us tonight. Handel Your Vision grew from the idea that creativity often begins with something familiar, a melody, a form, or a tradition, and transforms it into something entirely new. Each composer on this program reimagines the past in a unique way, from Grainger’s playful take on Handel to Svanoe’s clever conversation with Sousa.
I am proud of this ensemble for the insight and flexibility they have brought to such a diverse program. These works demand both precision and imagination, and our students have approached them with curiosity and care. I hope this concert leaves you hearing something old in a new light and appreciating how invention and tradition continue to shape the sound of today’s wind band.
— Domenic J. C. Pisano, Ed.D. Director, Drexel University Concert Band
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Luke Abruzzo, Music Program Director; Miriam Giguere, Performing Arts Department Head; Jason Schupbach, Dean of Westphal College of Media Arts and Design; the administrative team, Ellie Ebby, Hannah Burke, Lauren Tracy; and our graduate assistant Elisha Robinson for your work, guidance, and support of our students in the Drexel University Concert Band.This does not happen without you!
Thank you to the Drexel community at large for your support and encouragement of this group of young musicians.
Drexel Performing Arts would like to thank Senior Vice President for Student Success, Dr. Subir Sahu, for his continued support of Performing Arts at Drexel.
About the Ensemble
The Drexel University Concert Band connects students from across the university through shared experience and performance. The students who make up this ensemble are non-music-performance majors who come from backgrounds in architecture, biology, engineering, computer science, fashion design, behavioral and health sciences, music industry, and more. These students rehearse twice a week, Monday and Wednesday, and perform great works from the concert band repertoire. Concerts are held at the end of fall, winter, and spring terms and are free and open to the public. Admission to the ensemble is by audition only.
About the Concert
Handel Your Vision: Suites, Strands, Faires, Visions, and Breakdowns celebrates how composers borrow, reshape, and reimagine familiar ideas to create something new.
Jager’s Third Suite honors traditional form and craft while cleverly tweaking familiar rhythms and gestures.
Gillingham’s Be Thou My Vision transforms a timeless hymn into something deeply personal and expressive.
Grainger’s Handel in the Strand playfully reimagines Handel’s Baroque spirit with a wink, and Erika Svanoe’s Fairest of the Renaissance Faire offers a witty, modern reflection on Sousa’s Fairest of the Fair, turning pageantry into parody and tradition into fun. The concert closes with Brant Karrick’s Bayou Breakdown, a Cajun-inspired twist on Bach-style fugues that fuses counterpoint with southern flair and rhythmic drive.
Together, these works remind us that music, like vision, evolves through creativity, humor, and the willingness to see something old in a new way.
Drexel University Concert Band
Dr. Domenic Pisano, Music Director & Conductor
Third Suite ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mvt I: March, II: Waltz, III: Rondo ------------------------------------
Be Thou My Vision -------------------------------------------
Handel in the Strand ------------------------------------------
Percy Grainger/ Rohrer
Fairest of the Renaissance Faire ---------------------------------------
Mtv I: The Marche of King Jhon, II: Three Faire Maydens, III: A Birde’s Sweet Kisse, IV: William’s Wilde ---------------------------------
Fairest of the Fair -----------------------------------------------------
Bayou Breakdown ---------------------------------------------------------***Intermission***
Erika Svanoe ------------------
John Phillip Sousa
Brant Karrick
Robert Jager
Gillingham
Ensemble Members
Dr. Domenic Pisano
Music Director & Conductor
Piccolo/Flute
Sydney Chiang Flute
Hannah Bashore
Dane Gentles
Arina Glozman
Oboe
Abigail Holmberg
Bass Clarinet/Alto Clairnet
Thomas Cope
Bass Clarinet
Arthur Millet
Clarinet
Fisher Anderson
Brandon Colan
Eleanor Davis
Nelson Fiedelson
Akhil Roy
Angela Silva
Katherine Wolfe
Vincent Yang
Contrabass Clarinet
Amanda Douglas
Alto/Contrabass Clarinet
Talia Spolansky
Program Note
Drexel University Concert Band Members are listed in alphabetical order to denote each member’s importance to the ensemble.
Ensemble Members
Alto Saxophone
Cole Yacono (Soprano)
Allison Dern
Henry Lin
Carys Raber
Andrea Sperl
Tenor Saxophone
Ana Clara Ramirez
Chelsea Douglas
Baritone Saxophone
Elena Gonzales
Faith Harden
Trumpet
Theo Abrams
Nicholas Gazzara
Ethan King
Trumpet
Karson Paul
Brandon Stern
Mason Vetter French Horn
Yseult Barbedette
Natalie Cisneros
Kent Masten Trombone
Luke Faircloth
Muniru Kabba
Leandro Lucas
Guillermo Martinez-Rodero
Micah Miles
Bass Trombone
Nikola Jokic
Program Note
Drexel University Concert Band Members are listed in alphabetical order to denote each member’s importance to the ensemble.
Ensemble Members
Euphonium
Hannah Buckleman
Andrew Cox
Benjamin Liber Tuba
Matt Velardi
Percussion
Jason Adams
Alex Craig
Benjamin Elliot
Reeve Kleger
Alexander Lopez
Mia Nagy
Jacob Soslow
Loretta St Andre
Sim Wafula
Program Note
Drexel University Concert Band Members are listed in alphabetical order to denote each member’s importance to the ensemble.
About the Composers
Robert Jager
Robert Jager (25 August 1939, Binghomton, New York) is an American composer, conductor, arranger and educator.
He studied at the University of Michigan with William Revelli and Elizabeth Green before joining the U.S. Navy, where for four years he served as the Staff Arranger at the Armed Forces School of Music.
Jager taught at Old Dominion University and Tennessee Tech University, where he was Professor of Music and Director of Theory and Composition. He retired from Tennessee Tech in May 2001 as professor emeritus
Jager has over 150 published compositions for band, orchestra and various chamber groupings, with more than 35 commissions including the United States Marine Band and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. He has won a number of awards for his music, being the only three-time winner of the American Bandmasters Association's Ostwald Award. In addition, he has won the Roth Award twice (National School Orchestra Association); received Kappa Kappa Psi's Distinguished Service to Music Medal in the area of composition in 1973; and won the 1975 Friends of Harvey Gaul bicentennial competition. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, Kappa Kappa Psi, the American Bandmasters Association, and ASCAP. He is an active composer, conductor, and lecturer throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and Japan.
About the Composers
David Gillingham
David Gillingham (b. 20 October 1947, Waukesha, Wisconsin) is an American composer.
Dr. Gillingham earned Bachelor and Master Degrees in Instrumental Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the Ph.D. in Music Theory/Composition from Michigan State University. Many of his works for winds are now considered standards in the repertoire.
His numerous awards include the 1981 DeMoulin Award for Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Ensemble and the 1990 International Barlow Competition (Brigham Young University) for Heroes, Lost and Fallen. His works are regularly performed by nationally recognized ensembles including the Prague Radio Orchestra, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble, The University of Georgia Bands, North Texas University Wind Ensemble, Michigan State University Wind Ensemble, Oklahoma State Wind Ensemble, University of Oklahoma Wind Ensemble, Florida State Wind Orchestra, University of Florida Wind Symphony, University of Illinois Symphonic Band, Illinois State Wind Symphony, University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Wind Ensemble and the University of Wisconsin Wind Ensemble
Currently [2021] Dr. Gillingham is a professor of music at Central Michigan University and the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award (1990), a Summer Fellowship (1991), a Research Professorship (1995), and most recently, the President’s Research Investment Fund grant for his co-authorship of a proposal to establish an International Center for New Music at Central Michigan University. He is a member of ASCAP and has been receiving the ASCAP Standard Award for Composers of Concert Music since 1996.
About the Composers
Percy Aldridge Grainger
George Percy Grainger (8 July 1882, Brighton, Victoria, Australia – 20 February 1961, White Plains, N.Y.) was an Australian-born composer, pianist and champion of the saxophone and the concert band, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.
Grainger was an innovative musician who anticipated many forms of twentieth century music well before they became established by other composers. As early as
1899 he was working with "beatless music", using metric successions (including such sequences as 2/4, 2½/4, 3/4, 2½/4).
In December 1929, Grainger developed a style of orchestration that he called "Elastic Scoring". He outlined this concept in an essay that he called, "To Conductors, and those forming, or in charge of, Amateur Orchestras, High School, College and Music School Orchestras and Chamber-Music Bodies".
In 1932, he became Dean of Music at New York University, and underscored his reputation as an experimenter by putting jazz on the syllabus and inviting Duke Ellington as a guest lecturer. Twice he was offered honorary doctorates of music, but turned them down, explaining, "I feel that my music must be regarded as a product of noneducation."
About the Transcriber
Thomas P. Rohrer
Thomas P. Rohrer is an American composer and educator.
Dr. Rohrer has degrees in music education and wind conducting from the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music and a Ph.D. in music education from Florida State University.
Dr. Rohrer is professor of music, director of bands, and director of music education at Utah State University where he has conducted the wind Orchestra, symphonic band, wind symphony, and the Aggie Marching Band as part of his leadership of a diverse collegiate band program and teacher training curriculum. Having established an international reputation as a conductor and clinician, he is music director and conductor of the Salt Lake (Utah) Symphonic Winds, the region’s most prolific wind and percussion ensemble, the quality of which is demonstrated by performances at the national convention of the National Association for Music Education and the Utah Music Educators Association conference. He consistently receives high praise from colleagues and composers for meticulous preparation and insightful interpretation.
An active composer, Dr. Rohrer twice earned honors as a winner of the Dallas Wind Symphony's composition competition in its first five years of existence, completed several commissions, had works performed at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association [CBDNA], and received the international premiere of Excessive Force for Wind Ensemble. Under his leadership, the Utah State University Wind Orchestra is held in high regard, three times receiving invitations to the CBDNA Regional Conference and hosting noted artists, composers, and conductors. A frequent conductor and clinician, Dr. Rohrer is published in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Band Research, Instrumentalist, and several state professional journals, and he has been invited to present at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, CBDNA conferences, and individual state conventions.
About the Composers
Thomas P. Rohrer
Dr. Rohrer is cited numerous times for outstanding teaching, including the recipient of the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation Young Scholar Award and the Utah State University Music Department and Fine Arts Teacher of the Year. In addition, he was honored as a top-five finalist for the campus-wide Master Teacher Award at Bowling Green State University He also taught collegiately at Florida State University and held positions at Northern Arizona University and the University of Cincinnati. His public school experience includes teaching instrumental music in the public schools of Southwest Ohio. A proponent of music education, Dr Rohrer has visited hundreds of classrooms, and he maintains strong ties with pre-service and in-service teachers.
Dr. Rohrer's professional affiliations have included the College Band Directors National Association -- for which served as Western Division President and is currently Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Music Educators National Conference, the National Band Association, the Conductors Guild, and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the CBDNA Journal, a scholarly publication founded online under his direction.
As a community member, he has served on the Community Council for Hillcrest Elementary School in Logan, participated on the Logan High School Athletic Boosters Board (chairing concessions), and coached basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer for the Logan Parks and Recreation Department as well as baseball for the Rocky Mountain School of Baseball He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma -- national band service organizations -- and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
About the Composers
Erika Svanoe
Erika Svanoe (b. 1976 Whitewater, Wisconsin) is an American conductor, composer, and educator.
Dr. Svanoe earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from The Ohio State University under Russel C. Mikkelson. She also holds a Master of Music degree in wind conducting from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.
Dr. Svanoe maintains an active schedule as a composer, writing music for band and chamber ensembles. Her first published work, The Haunted Carousel, won the 2014 NBA Young Band Composition Contest and was featured at the Midwest Clinic and the CBDNA Southern Division Conference. Her piece Steampunk Suite was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, at the 2017 American Bandmasters Association National Conference, and performed by “The President's Own” United States Marine Band at the U.S. Capitol Building. Her DMA dissertation included a critical edition of Aaron Copland's El Salón México for wind ensemble, with related research published in the WASBE Journal and presented at the CBDNA national conference. She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).
She is also the creator of Marrying Mr. Darcy, the Pride & Prejudice card game, and occasionally advocates/speaks on the topics of crowdfunding, game design, and arts entrepreneurship, with past appearances at a variety of gaming-related events and media.
Dr Svanoe is currently an independent conductor, composer and educator living near Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has previously served as the conductor of the Augsburg Concert Band at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, director of bands at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn , and director of athletic bands at the University of New Hampshire. She is active as a guest conductor and clinician, appearing with high school, university, and festival ensembles across the United States.
About the Composers
John Phillip Sousa
John Phillip Sousa (6 November 1854, Washington, D.C. - 6 March 1932, Reading, Pennsylvania) was America’s best known composer and conductor during his lifetime. Highly regarded for his military band marches, Sousa is often called the “The March King” or “American March King”. Sousa was born the third of 10 children of John Antonio Sousa (born in Spain of Portuguese parents) and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus (born in Bavaria). His father played trombone in the U.S. Marine band, so young John
grew up around military band music. Sousa started his music education, playing the
violin, as a pupil of John Esputa Jr. and G. F. Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of 13, his father enlisted him as as an apprentice of the United States Marine Corps Sousa served his apprenticeship for seven years, until 1875, and apparently learned to play all the wind instruments while also continuing with the violin.
Several years later, Sousa left his apprenticeship to join a theatrical (pit) orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the U.S. Marine Band as its head in 1880, and remained as its conductor until 1892. He organized his own band the year he left the Marine Band. The Sousa Band toured 1892-1931, performing 15,623 concerts in America and abroad. In 1900, his band represented the United States at the Paris Exposition before touring Europe. In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets including the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe – one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years. Sousa died at the age of 77 on March 6th, 1932 after conducting a rehearsal of the Ringgold Band in Reading, Pennsylvania. The last piece he conducted was "The Stars and Stripes Forever", his most famous work and the US's national march.
Sousa wrote 136 independent marches, while a host of other marches and dances have been adapted from his stage works. Despite the genre's relatively limited structure, Sousa's marches are highly varied in character The vast majority are in the quickstep dance style and a third of their titles bear military designations. His earlier marches are best suited for actual marching, while later works are increasingly complex. He also wrote school songs for several American Universities, including Kansas State University, Marquette University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota.
About the Composers
Brant Karrick
Brant Karrick (b. 14 August 1960, Bowling Green, Kentucky) is an American composer, arranger and educator.
In the fall of 1991 Karrick entered the Ph D program in Music Education at Louisiana State University, completing the degree in 1994. His prior education includes a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Louisville which he completed in 1982, and a Master of Arts in Education from Western Kentucky University, completed in 1984. Dr. Karrick's musical life has been influenced by many individuals.
He studied trumpet with Leon Rapier, music education with Cornelia Yarborough, and conducting with Frank Wickes. His primary composition teachers were David Livingston, Steve Beck, and Cecil Karrick. His professional affiliations include: Music Educators National Conference, the Kentucky Music Educators Association, Phi Beta Mu, ASCAP, the National Band Association, and the College Band Directors National Association. Karrick began his service as a public school teacher in 1984 at Beechwood School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky In 1986 he returned to his alma mater, Bowling Green (KY) High School, as the Director of Instrumental Music. His concert bands received superior ratings at regional and state concert festivals every year of his five year tenure there, and in 1988 his marching band was named Class AA State Champion In 2003, Karrick joined the faculty of Northern Kentucky University as director of bands, a post he held until his retirement in 2022.
About the Works
Third Suite - Robert Jager
The Third Suite was written for Mr. Leo Imperial, director of the Granby High School Band of Norfolk, Virginia, and dedicated to him and his very fine organization. The suite received its first performance by them in December 1965 from manuscript.
- Program Note from score
The first movement is a march which is altered rhythmically by the use of alternating meter signatures. The second movement is a waltz which continues the meter alteration idea and features oboe, flute, bassoon, and brass sections. The Rondo is full of fun and bright tunes which are developed near the end followed by a quick coda stating the main theme once again.
- Program Note from Program Notes for Band
Each movement depicts a quirky, slightly distorted, and cheerful melody that is developed throughout the movement. The first movement, March, makes use of the different colors within the band, while distorting the steady sense of time normally associated with a march. The second movement, Waltz, again distorts the sense of time within the dance, interspersing light and bright colors within the band's boisterous interjections. The final movement, Rondo, develops the entire movement based on the first five chords played in the introduction. The Rondo is upbeat, playful, and energetic.
- Program Note from Illinois State University Symphonic Band concert program, 5 October 2017
About the Works
Be Thou My Vision - David Gillingham
It's not often you come across a composition that offers the high level of musical merit needed to appeal to directors and also offers an emotional depth able to truly move an audience. This is such a piece. Gillingham bases his reverent and powerful work on the hymn tune Be Thou My Vision (also known as the old Irish ballad Slane), with its eternal message of faith and hope. It goes far beyond being an arrangement of a familiar hymn tune, as Gillingham gives moments of real drama in the shimmering tonal colors provided by the woodwinds and the glorious brass lines that break through like dazzling sunlight through the clouds.
- Program Note from publisher
It was an honor and privilege to compose this work for Ray and Molly Cramer in honor of their parents. The work is heartfelt, expressive and hopefully inspiring. The hymn tune Slane is one of my favorites and inspired me to compose a countermelody which is likened to an old Irish ballad. Since Slane is, in fact, an old Irish ballad, the two tunes share this unique camaraderie. The work opens with a medieval-like flavor of reverence leading to the first presentation of Slane (Be Thou My Vision) in D-minor stated in chant-like somberness by the euphonium. Following, the newly composed Irish ballad is sung by the flute, which leads to a dramatic statement of Be Thou My Vision by the full ensemble in A-major. The work is interrupted by a prayerful interlude. Following is the marriage of the two Irish tunes in D-flat major which grows to a glorious climax and then subsides. A heavenly benediction closes the work.
- Program Note by composer
About the Works
Handel in the Strand - Percy Grainger/Rohrer
My title was originally Clog Dance. But my dear friend William Gair Rathbone (to whom the piece is dedicated) suggested the title Handel in the Strand, because the music seemed to reflect both Handel and the English musical comedy (the "Strand" - a street in London - is the home of London musical comedy) - as if jovial old Handel were careering down the Strand to the strains of Modern English popular music.
- Program Note by composer
Although performance and teaching of the piano were Grainger’s primary sources of income, he preferred writing musical arrangements of folk music from the British Isles during a time when Holst and Vaughan Williams also made use of the musical heritage of England. Originally entitled Clog Dance, the existing title was suggested by a Grainger friend who felt the music reflected Handel and the light whimsy of English musical comedy. The work, then, is meant to reflect “jovial old Handel . . . careening down the Strand [the street that is the home of London musical comedy] to the strains of modem English popular music.”
-Program note by Utah State University Wind Ensemble
About the Works
Handel in the Strand - Percy Grainger/Rohrer
Handel in the Strand is one of Grainger’s early light orchestral pieces, written in 1911, before he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I. Grainger had no trouble allowing other musicians to arrange his music to suit their needs, so Handel in the Strand has existed in several different versions. After its original massed piano and string orchestra setting came versions for full orchestra, piano (solo and four hands), organ, trombone choir, and two different settings for band (Goldman and Sousa). Grainger gives an amusing anecdote on the piece’s origin:
My title was originally “Clog Dance”. But my dear friend William Gair Rathbone (to whom the piece is dedicated) suggested the title “Handel in the Strand”, because the music seemed to reflect both Handel and English musical comedy [the “Strand” – a street in London – is the home of London musical comedy] – as if jovial old Handel were careening down the Strand to the strains of modern English popular music.
Given the original instrumentation and label as a chamber piece in Grainger’s original publication, this transcription is taken directly from Grainger’s “foursome ” edition of 1912, transposed down a step from G to F major. It is scored to best depict the light (and sometimes percussive) quality of the piano along with the lyrical flow of the strings and the general character of chamber music without excessive doublings. The orchestration is standard band instrumentation with the addition of soprano saxophone and flugelhorn. Ultimately, the “ room music” quality of the original is the first priority in this transcription while the characteristic tones of each wind and percussion instrument are carefully selected to best depict the spirit of the piece in a way that Grainger might have chosen for indoor concert performance.
- Program Note from Broken Arrow High School Wind Ensemble concert program, 16 December 2015
Information about this work collected by The Wind Repertory Project Click Here to read more
About the Works
Fairest of the Renaissance Faire -
Erika Svanoe
Fairest of the Renaissance Faire takes melodic themes and motives from John Philip Sousa's march The Fairest of the Fair . These melodic materials are transformed into a Renaissance context, with inspiration drawn specifically from William Byrd's Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and Tielman Sustato's Danserye, both of which have very successful arrangements for concert band. The piece is in four short movements.
- Program Note from publisher Commissioned by the Ohio Private College Instrumental Conductors Association
- Program Note from score
Information about this work collected by The Wind Repertory Project Click Here to read more
About the Works
Fairest of the Fair - John Phillip Sousa
One of Sousa's favorite sayings was "A horse, a dog, a gun, a girl, and music on the side. That is my idea of heaven." When all of his march titles are examined, Sousa's appreciation of the fairer sex is obvious. In this instance the subject was a pretty girl who worked at the annual Boston Food Fair. Even though the March King never met the young lady, her memory inspired this title when he was preparing a new march for the food fair in 1908. The work is generally regarded as one of his most melodic and best-written marches.
-Program Note from Program Notes for band
The Fairest of the Fair is generally regarded as one of Sousa’s finest and most melodic marches, and its inspirations came from the sight of a pretty girl with whom he was not even acquainted. It was an immediate success and has remained one of his most popular compositions. It stands out as one of the finest examples of the application of pleasing melodies to the restrictive framework of a military march.
The Boston Food Fair was an annual exposition and music jubilee held by the Boston Retail Grocers’ Association. The Sousa Band was the main musical attraction for several seasons, so the creation of a new march honoring the sponsors of the 1908 Boston Food Fair was the natural outgrowth of a pleasant business relationship. In fairs before 1908, Sousa had been impressed by the beauty and charm of one particular young lady who was the center of attention of the displays in which she was employed. He made a mental note that he would someday transfer his impressions of her into music. When the invitation came for the Sousa Band to play a twenty-day engagement in 1908, he wrote this march. Remembering the comely girl, he entitled the new march The Fairest of the Fair.
About the Works
Fairest of the Fair - John Phillip Sousa
Because of an oversight, the march almost missed its premiere. Nearly three months before the fair, Sousa had completed a sketch of the march for the publisher. He also wrote out a full conductor’s score from which the individual band parts were to have been extracted. The band had just finished an engagement the night before the fair’s opening and had boarded a sleeper train for Boston. Louis Morris, the band’s copyist, was helping the librarian sort music for the first concert, and he discovered that the most important piece on the program — The Fairest of the Fair — had not been prepared. According to Morris’s own story, the librarian, whose job it had been to prepare the parts, went into a panic. There was good reason; considerable advance publicity had been given to the new march, and the fair patrons would be expecting to hear it. In addition, the piano sheet music had already been published, and copies were to be distributed free to the first five hundred ladies entering the gates of the fair.
Morris rose to the occasion. He asked the porter of the train to bring a portable desk, which he placed on a pillow across his lap. He worked the entire night, and the parts were nearly finished when dawn broke. Both were greatly surprised by the appearance of Sousa, who had arisen to take his usual early morning walk. When asked about the frenzied activity, they had no choice but to tell exactly what had happened. There were many times in the life of John Philip Sousa when he demonstrated his benevolence and magnanimity, and this was surely one of them. After recognizing Morris’s extraordinary effort and remarking that it was saving the band from considerable embarrassment, he instructed him to complete his work and to take a well- deserved rest, even if it meant sleeping through the first concert. With no one the wiser, Louis Morris hero of the day was asleep in his hotel as Sousa’s Band played The Fairest of the Fair for the first time on September 28, 1908. Sousa did not mention the subject again, but Morris found an extra fifty dollars in his next pay envelope the equivalent of two weeks' salary.
- Program Note from John Philip Sousa: A Descriptive Catalog of His Works
About the Works
Bayou Breakdown - Brant Karrick
Bayou Breakdown began as an attempt to write a fugue in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. The main melody is introduced in a fourpart fugue scored for woodwinds, followed by a second statement of the fugue by the brass. A brief transition introduces a folk song-like lyrical theme based on a pentatonic scale. Another transition takes the piece to its most dissonant section, evoking a poorly played waltz. The main melody attempts to reappear but is swept away by a progression of descending chromatic chords. After a complete stop, the initial fugue returns featuring solos by the clarinet, bassoon, alto saxophone, oboe, trumpet, and tuba. After a few short trio statements of the main tune, the piece ends with a polyphonic flurry from the full band.
In writing Bayou Breakdown, I hoped to create a piece that would provide musical and technical challenges for performers yet could be immediately enjoyed by the listener, musician and non-musician alike. While the piece was written for my terrific students in the University of Toledo Wind Ensemble, it is dedicated to one of my most influential mentors, Frank Wickes, Director of Bands at Louisiana State University.
- Program Note by composer
This fun and whimsical fugue with a Cajun twist provides musical and technical challenges for performers while being a tuneful treat for the audience. Each section gets a good workout plus several solo opportunities.
- Program Note from publisher
About the Works
Bayou Breakdown - Brant Karrick
Bayou Breakdown was composed for the Wind Ensemble at the University of Toledo. While the melodic material is drawn from a style of jazz heard in and around the Mississippi Delta, the formal structure for the piece originated as an attempt to write in fugal counterpoint similar to that of Johann Sebastian Bach. The composer dedicated this work to Frank B. Wickes, who served as director of bands at Louisiana State University from 1980 to 2010.
- Program Notes by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Wind Orchestra concert program, 28 February 2015
Information about this work collected by The Wind Repertory Project Click Here to read more
Dr. Domenic Joseph Christian Pisano Concert Band Music Director & Conductor
Dr. Pisano is currently the Director of the Drexel University Concert Band and Pep Band, as well the Coordinator of Visual and Performing Arts for the Brandywine School District, serving over 80 teachers in 16 schools with over 8,000 Visual and Performing Arts students.
Dr. Pisano has been a music educator for almost 30 years, teaching at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts and the Upper Perkiomen School District before becoming the Music Department Chair and instrumental music teacher at Concord High School in Wilmington, Delaware for 17 years.
Dr. Pisano has written extensively about music education, including “Music Educators:
Investigating the Relationship Between Undergraduate Music Education, State Certification, and Professional Responsibilities,” and he was a contributing author for the book “Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips: A Mobile Technology Guide for Music Educators.”
He has directed ten honor bands through Europe with American Music Abroad and edited several pieces of band literature with his mentor, Dr. Jack Stamp. Dr. Pisano has also served as a clinician, guest speaker, adjudicator, guest conductor, and lecturer for Universities and several state MEAs and worked on educational policy with various state agencies.
Drexel offers four different music minors:
Music: requires 26 credits, including work in Music Theory, History, private lessons, ensemble performance, and 9 credits of music electives.
Music Theory and Composition: aimed at people who are writing their own music or who would like to begin doing so. You will take courses in Music Theory, Arranging, Composition, and Digital Composition, and end with a portfolio of several completed pieces.
Music Performance: requires two years of private lesson studies with our artist faculty culminating in a recital. The Music Program will provide support for the recital venue and accompanist.
Jazz & African-American Music: includes course work in Jazz History, African-American Music, Jazz Theory, private study in Jazz performance, and ensemble work in several ensembles devoted to jazz.
Support Great Performance
Dance, Music, and Theatre are a vital, central part of the Drexel academia and student life. Donations support performing arts ensembles and programs, as well as the operation of our performing arts venues, including the Mandell Theater and URBN Annex Black Box Theater.
Drexel University Department of Performing Arts Staff
Department Head
Dr. Miriam Giguere
Program Directors
Luke Abruzzo
Music
Nick Anselmo Theatre
Jennifer Morley Dance
Administrative Staff
Ellie Ebby Department Assistant
Hannah Burke Department Administrator
Caroline Leipf
Mandell Theater Managing Director
Elisha Robinson
Performing Arts Graduate Assistant
Liv Shoup
Audience Services Coordinator
Lauren Tracy
Ensemble Production Associate
Production Staff
Paul Jerue
Theatre Production Manager/Black Box Theater Technical Director
Asaki Kuruma
Costume Shop Manager
Chris Totora
Mandell Theater Technical Director
Upcoming Performing Arts Events
