THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Patrick Dunnigan, Conductor
Drew Hardy-Moore, Graduate Associate Conductor
Michael Tignor, Graduate Associate Conductor
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
7:30 p.m. | Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
Festive Overture (1954)
To See The Stars Again (2021)
Symphonic Movement (1966)
Drew Hardy-Moore, graduate associate conductor
Be Thou My Vision (1999)
Enigma (2024)
Four Scottish Dances (1957/1978)
Michael Tignor, graduate associate conductor
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
arr. Donald Hunsberger
Aaron Houston (b. 1987)
Václav Nelhybel (1919–1996)
David Gillingham (b. 1947)
David Biedenbender (b. 1984)
Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006)
tr. John P. Paytner
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Russian composer who lived during the Soviet Regime. While he outwardly conformed to government policies, it is generally understood that he disliked the regime. His music has been viewed as controversial as it was denounced twice in 1936 and 1948. Shostakovich prided himself on his orchestration, drawing inspiration from Mahler, Prokofiev, and Hindemith. While his most popular works include 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets, he has written extensively for piano, two operas, six concertos, and a substantial quantity of film music.
Festive Overture was composed in 1954 to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution of 1917. This piece begins with a triumphant fanfare in the trumpet section, quickly spreading throughout all of the brass; it then gives way to an energetic melodic line combined with a pulsating rhythmic drive. The work was transcribed for band in 1965 by Donald Hunsberger, the longtime conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Houston: To See The Stars Again
Aaron Houston’s music blends elements of rock, folk, and classical traditions into a distinctive and energetic sound. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has praised him as a “strong voice in composition,” and his works have been described as “alive and tangible to the audience” (Tallahassee Democrat).
An alumnus of Florida State University, Houston was awarded the 2017–2018 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Fellowship and graduated with the Master of Arts degree in Composition and Theory in 2020. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Winds, and Fifth House Ensemble, with performances across the U.S. and internationally. Recent commissions include Rude Moods (2023) for unaccompanied bassoon and All in Good Time (2023) for wind ensemble. He has been recognized as a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and was nominated by the Academy of Arts & Letters.
To See the Stars Again is a transcription of Houston’s original SATB choral setting of Ave Maria. The title comes from the final line of Dante’s Inferno—“…and we emerged to see the stars again”—marking the poet’s return to the world after a long and arduous trial. Composed initially during a period of personal uncertainty, the piece later took on a deeper meaning as Houston navigated the passing of his mother following her battle with cancer. To See the Stars Again maintains its choral origins’ introspective and expressive qualities through its evolving textures and lyrical phrasing. The work offers a space for reflection, inviting listeners to engage with its themes of perseverance, remembrance, and hope.
Nelhybel: Symphonic Movement
Václav Nelhýbel, born in Polanka, Czechoslovakia in 1919, pursued composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory and the University of Fribourg. His contributions to European music were significant, particularly as the music director for Czechoslovak Radio, where he shaped the country’s postwar musical programming by conducting performances that captivated audiences nationwide. In 1957, he immigrated to the United States, where he flourished as a composer, conductor, and educator. His prolific output includes over 400 works for various ensembles, showcasing his rhythmic intensity, bold harmonic language, and distinctive use of counterpoint.
Symphonic Movement exemplifies Nelhýbel’s compositional style, beginning with loud, ominous chords that fade into near silence, only to be interrupted by sharp, single-note interjections. The piece then accelerates, presenting syncopated-sixteenth-note ideas scattered throughout the ensemble, but coalescing like a jigsaw puzzle to propel the music toward a contrasting middle section with a subdued groove, characterized by an extended xylophone solo. The highly fragmented nature of the piece allows each instrument family to contribute distinct material, creating a layered and ever-shifting soundscape. The work’s dramatic pacing, rhythmic complexity, and striking use of contrast have solidified Symphonic Movement as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire.
Gillingham:
David Gillingham is an American composer and educator. He has won numerous composition awards, including the 1981 DeMoulin Award for Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Ensemble as well as the 1990 International Barlow Competition for Heroes, Lost and Fallen. Gillingham says it has been his “philosophy to create music with an underlying purpose and that emanates a sense of heart. Each of my works is a reflection of who I am, from the very surface to the deepest depths of my soul.”
Gillingham’s setting of Be Thou My Vision was composed in 1999 in honor of the parents of Ray and Molly Cramer. In addition to the original melody, Gillingham composed a countermelody in the same Irish hymn song style which is first introduced by the flute soloist. After a dramatic restatement of Be Thou My Vision in a new key, Gillingham brings both melodies together before ending with a soft, heavenly benediction.
David Biedenbender (b.1984) is a composer, conductor, performer, and educator whose music is shaped by his diverse musical background, including experiences in rock, jazz, wind band, Indian Carnatic music, and contemporary classical ensembles. This eclectic influence results in compositions that have been described as “... seizing the ear through a blend of expressive beauty and formal prowess…at turns rapturous and intimate, menacing and exuberant...” (Gramophone).
His works have been performed by ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, the United States Navy Band, and the “President’s Own” Marine Band. He has received numerous awards, including the Rudolf Nissim Prize and the Sousa/Ostwald Award. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Composition at Michigan State University.
Enigma was originally composed for brass choir and organ for the Red Cedar Organ dedication at Michigan State University’s Alumni Chapel. It was later arranged for wind band for Henry Dorn and the St. Olaf Band and was awarded the 2024 National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Prize. The title, derived from the Greek word meaning “to speak in riddles,” reflects the piece’s gradual unveiling of its central theme—a motif from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor—which unfolds through 21 variations, mirroring Bach’s original structure.
Dedicated to José-Luis Maúrtua, Biedenbender’s former teacher at Central Michigan University, Enigma serves as both a musical tribute and a reflection on Maúrtua’s lasting impact as a composer, conductor, theorist, and educator.
Arnold: Four Scottish Dances
Malcolm Arnold was British composer who at a young age was drawn to the creative freedom of jazz. He studied composition with Gordon Jacob and trumpet with Ernest Hall at the Royal College of Music before joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra as second trumpet in 1941. Though, by the age of 30, his life was devoted to composition. He is primarily known for his natural melodic gift which is displayed in many of his sets of dances.
Four Scottish Dances was first composed in 1957 and dedicated to the BBC Light Music Festival. All of the melodies are original except for the first movement, which was composed by Robert Burns. Arnold wrote, “The first dance is in the style of a slow strathspey -- a slow Scottish dance in 4/4 meter -- with many dotted notes, frequently in the inverted arrangement of the “Scottish snap.” The name was derived from the strath valley of Spey. The second, a lively reel, begins in the key of E-flat and rises a semi-tone each time it is played until the bassoon plays it, at a greatly reduced speed, in the key of G. The final statement of the dance is at the original speed in the home key of E-flat. The third dance is in the style of a Hebridean song and attempts to give an impression of the sea and mountain scenery on a calm summer’s day in the Hebrides. The last dance is a lively fling, which makes a great deal of use of the open string pitches of the violin.” The work was transcribed for band in 1978 by John Paynter.
University Wind Ensemble Personnel
Patrick Dunnigan, Conductor
Drew Hardy-Moore and Michael Tignor, Graduate Associate Conductors
Piccolo
Kathryn Lang
Flute
Cameron McGill*
Alex Kotsonis
Lexi Smith
Sarah Kimbro
Oboe
Loanne Masson*
Haley O’Neill
Lorin Zamer
Bassoon
Timothy Schwindt*
Zach Martin
Susanna Campbell (+Contra)
E-Flat Clarinet
Malik Mullino
B-Flat Clarinet
Reymon Contrera*
Dawson Huynh*
Daniel Gonzalez
Nicholas Mackley
Ava Raposo
Eric Olmsted
Malik Mullino
Elizabeth Kennedy
Bass Clarinet
Daniel Burrow
Contrabass Clarinet
Elizabeth Kennedy
Alto Saxophone
Casey Caulkins*
Jennifer Fuentes
Tenor Saxophone
Micah Mazzella
Baritone Saxophone
Caleb Wolf
Trumpet/Cornet
Bob Kerr*
Joshua Puente*
Katherine Brinkman
Sharavan Duvvuri
Alisyn Jones
Max McLaughlin
Horn (Rotating)
Vincent Aldoretta*
Emma Brockman*
Brandon Doddy
David Pinero
Davis Craddock
Brandon Bourdeau (Floater)
Trombone
Mateo Buitrago*
Ethan Colón
Connor McDonald
Bass Trombone
Kevin Li
Euphonium
Alan Jean-Baptiste*
Adam Zierden
Tuba
Thomas Ambrose*
Connor Kelley
Xavier Gauthier
String Bass
Aaron Hernandez
Piano
Rebecca Edmiston
Harp
Ezekiel Harris
Percussion
Mackenzie Selimi
Jordan Brown
Cole Martin
Will McCoy
Gabby Overholt
* Principal/Co-Principal