CBNDA/NBA 2026 SOUTHERN DIVISION CONFERENCE: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
The USF School of Music is excited to share our Wind Ensemble with the CBNDA/NBA Southern Division Conference! This ensemble is comprised of students who are outstanding musicians and wonderful human beings. Their concert will be held in our beautiful Peter & Cynthia Zinober Concert Hall on February 19, at 8:30pm.
You are sure to enjoy the program our Wind Ensemble will be sharing. It will feature compositions by Paul Dooley, Percy Grainger/Joseph Kreines, Omar Thomas, Ricardo Lorenz, and Benjamin Horne. The concert will feature USF Alum José Ruiz Valentino, who will perform on flute, tenor sax, and electric bass on a concerto written specifically for him!
Matthew McCutchen, Director of Bands and Director of the Wind Ensemble, has been at USF for seventeen years. The level of musicianship and leadership he brings to the entire School, and especially to the Wind Ensemble, is impossible to measure. The School of Music at USF is a very special place in large part because of his work. Also conducting the ensemble on this concert will be USF conductors, Trevor Butts, Director of Athletic Bands and Associate Director of Bands, and Suzanne Charney, Music Education Professor and Assistant Director of Bands.
Please savor every experience at this year’s Conference, take in everything USF and Tampa have to offer, and enjoy the music making from the USF students and faculty!
David
A. Williams
Professor and Director
From the Director
WIND ENSEMBLE
Matthew McCutchen, Director
Peter and Cynthia Zinober Concert Hall
Thursday, February 19, 2026 / 8:30 pm
Fantasy of Colors………………………………………………………………………………………………Paul Dooley (b. 1983)
Program
Irish Tune from County Derry………..…………………………………...……. Percy Grainger/Joseph Kreines (1882-1961 / 1936-2025)
Suzanne Charney, Conductor In Memory of Joseph Kreines
Found Connections…………………………………………………………………………….………Ricardo Lorenz
I. Joy & Despair
II. Spirit & Flesh
III. Ascend & Anchor
(b. 1980)
José Valentino, Soloist
Last One Standing………………………………………………………………………………………….Omar Thomas (b. 1984)
Trevor Butts, Conductor
Go Tell It: From “Spiritual Symphony”……………………………………………………………….Benjamin Horne (b. 1975) Winner of the 2025 NBA William D. Revelli Composition Contest
Program notes
Fantasy of Colors was inspired by Baroque artwork and the genre of musical fantasias popularized by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I admire the massive scale and exuberance found in Lauri and Gagliardi’s epic painting Carousel in the Courtyard of Palazzo Barberini in Honor of Christina of Sweden on 2nd February 1656, and Johann Ulrich Kraus’ Celebrations in St. Peter’s, Rome, for the jubilee year of 1700, and the everlasting thematic developments, stark contrasts and intricate contrapuntal layers found in Baroque musical works like Bach’s Fantasia in C Minor and Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor. Throughout the piece, the timpani provide a festive, rhythmic and harmonic foundation for two sparring musical character motives, one first stated in the clarinets and saxophones, versus another in the horns and trombones. The match is interrupted with a new character personified as a lyrical waltz, showcasing the oboe, soprano saxophone and flutes. Droplets of musical color follow, with a fugato variation on our characters’ motives, showcasing the low woodwinds, euphonium and percussion. The piccolo, clarinets and trumpets push the celebration to a feverish crescendo, as all our characters vie for the musical spotlight.
- Program Note by Composer
Grainger’s first setting of Irish Tune from County Derry was for unaccompanied six-part wordless chorus in 1902 and called Irish Folk Song. Numerous other versions followed, including when Leopold Stokowski commission an arrangement in 1949, one of half a dozen or so pieces selected by the great maestro for a special recording project. In 1902, during his stay at Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, Grainger penned perhaps his most famous arrangement. It was his choral setting of the Irish Tune from County Derry which has in latter years been wrongly attributed the title of Danny Boy. This sumptuous melody was to be arranged in many different ways during Grainger’s lifetime, but the first published edition of his ‘elastic’ scoring concept was a highly chromatic version of the tune. The arrangement we are performing tonight was done by Joseph Kreines who wrote: “Unlike the other settings which Grainger made of this tune [e.g. for women’s voices, harmonium and three instrumental parts (elastic scoring), and men’s voices ad lib, 1920], all of which have the same basic harmonization in common, his version for band is an entirely different approach to the melody-highly chromatic and contrapuntal, with considerable dissonance and unusual harmonic progressions. The resultant mood is rather strained and anguished, though not without a proud and noble character. It concludes with an intense and powerful climax”. Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Joe Kreines who was a tremendously important figure in Florida bands for many years.
Found Connections is the result of a web of improbable connections. It started with the connection David Waybright made between potential collaborators who did not know each other. This led to a concerto-style work that draws from different performance practices to feature three seemingly unrelated instruments in the hands of one single artist. David reached out to congratulate me on being nominated for a 2020 Latin Grammy Award and to ask if I knew of multi-instrumentalist José Valentino Ruiz, his University of Florida colleague who had just won the Grammy in the same category I had been nominated for that year. For real? I thought to myself, is David calling me to brag about his colleague who beat me in the Latin Grammys? At that time, I did not know José Valentino other than by name. Towards the end of the conversation, it became clear that David was calling to share his vision of bringing us together for some type of collaboration, one that he was not quite sure what direction it would take or whether it would even be a good fit. When the call ended, I frankly didn’t know either.
A quick online search had me dazzled by José Valentino’s one-of-a-kind versatility and by his contagious, soulful energy. Immediately, it seemed as though I had been waiting all my life to compose a work featuring an extraordinary artist like him. On the one hand, I could pay homage to our common Latino heritage and, on the other, I could channel the jazz artists who greatly influenced my understanding of music, artist like Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Steve Kujala, and others. And so it was that David Waybright’s foresight resulted in this three-movement concerto for multi-instrumentalist and wind symphony which features José Valentino Ruiz on flute, tenor saxophone, and electric bass. As far as I know, no other concerto of its kind exists. It is a testament to a generation of renaissance musicians who, like José Valentino, are undeterred by boundaries imposed by musical genres or instrumental techniques. I am immensely grateful for being the beneficiary of David Waybright’s vision, José Valentino Ruiz’s unmatched talent and openness to collaborating, and the University of Florida’s generosity. In all respects, Found Connections is the result of an unprecedented series of circumstances and extraordinary team effort.
- Program Note by Composer
Last One Standing was commissioned by the Florida Bandmasters Association and a consortium of Florida colleges and universities for the 2026 Florida Intercollegiate Band. Thomas writes, “After witnessing the trajectory of my life, a dear cousin of mine told me that she now understood why I insisted on the volume being turned up so high when we played video games as kids in the 80s and 90s. Internalizing video game music set a solid foundation for my understanding of and appreciation for music at a very young age. Last One Standing is a love letter to some of the most memorable Nintendo-created racing game experiences of my youth.”
The work is structured in three sections, each of which is meant to recall a personally special gaming experience from the 90s. The first section, Cube, takes the iconic and musically compelling startup jingle of the Nintendo GameCube and builds upon it, expanding it into a white-knuckle, high-octane race against one’s opponents. Beginning with a gesture that will be immediately recognizable to any fan of racing games, the second section, Kart, channels the spirit of the most iconic of the genre, Mario Kart. It evokes its playful-yet-intense soundtrack, mimicking its spirited soundscapes and high-energy gameplay. This section transitions into the final section, Xero, a play on the names of the futuristic F-Zero and F-Zero X titles. Free from the friction of wheels in the previous section, this third segment rockets along at speeds so incredible that motion seems to paradoxically slow from within the cockpit of the hovering racing vehicles. Emulating the intensity and high stakes of the “final leg” of the race, the drama is amped up as the surviving racers rocket through surrealist landscapes, battling to be crowned the last one standing.
- Program Note by Composer
Spiritual Symphony is the winner of the 2025 NBA William D. Revelli Composition Contest. The first three movements are: Drinkin’ Gourd/Wade in the Water, Motherless Child and Deep River. We conclude our concert with the fourth movement, Go Tell It on the Mountain, which opens with My Lord, What a Morning as a chorale before progressing into an exuberant rendition of the titular spiritual. Both songs contain references to biblical events in their lyrics, but the connecting idea of a “new life” or a “new age” resonates throughout. As such, this setting aims to celebrate life both in this realm and the next.
- Program Note by Composer
Program notes
CONDUCTOR bios
MATTHEW MCCUTCHEN has served on USF’s Music Faculty since 2009, first as the Director of Athletic Bands for nine years, and then as the Director of Bands since 2018. His responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble and teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Conducting, Wind Band Literature, and Music Education. He is currently serving as the Associate Director of the School of Music.
McCutchen earned a Ph.D. in Music Education with an emphasis in Instrumental Conducting from Florida State University, a Master of Music in Conducting from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Furman University. Prior to coming to USF he taught middle school in Georgia, high school in Virginia, and served as an adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University for several semesters. He is active as a guest conductor and clinician. He is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Florida Wind Band, and the Founder and Conductor of the Bay Area Youth (BAY) Winds, which features many of the finest high school musicians throughout the Tampa area. He has been published in the National Band Association’s Journal (NBA Journal), the Florida Music Director and other notable publications. He is the Chair of the National Band Association/William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest Committee, and is a member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation Legion of Honor Selection Committee. In 2022 he was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.
TREVOR BUTTS joined the USF faculty in the fall of 2022. His responsibilities at USF include directing the USF Herd of Thunder Marching Band, the Rumble Pep Band, conducting the University Symphonic Band, and teaching the marching band techniques course. Butts earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in wind band conducting at Louisiana State University. He holds both a Master of Music degree in instrumental conducting and a Bachelor of Science degree in music education from USF. During his time at USF, Butts marched trumpet and later served as drum major of the Herd of Thunder Marching Band. Before returning to USF for his master’s, Butts taught high school band and orchestra in the Hillsborough County Public Schools system.
Dr. Butts is an active clinician and adjudicator in the state of Florida and Louisiana. Recently, Butts was selected as a conducting fellow for the 2022 United States Army “Pershing’s Own” Conducting Institute. Butts has marched with Teal Sound Drum and Bugle Corps, Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, and The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. He has served on staff with drum corps including Heat Wave Drum and Bugle Corps, The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, and is currently on staff with the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. Butts hold professional affiliations with Phi Mu Alpha, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Pi Kappa Lambda.
SUZANNE CHARNEY joined the USF Faculty in 2025 as the Assistant Director of Bands and Professor of Instruction in Music Education. Her responsibilities include conducting the Concert Band and teaching undergraduate courses in conducting, wind techniques, music education, and learner-centered pedagogy. She earned a PhD in Music and Human Learning at the University of Texas at Austin and received her BME, MM in Wind Conducting, and MME from Indiana University. She previously taught middle school band in central Texas and undergraduate courses in music education at UT Austin.
Charney currently pursues research in memory and motor skill development and her work has been presented at the National Association for Music Education National Conference, the International Society for Music Education, the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, and the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic and Convention. In addition, she received honorary membership to Tau Beta Sigma and is an active guest adjudicator and clinician. Charney is thrilled and honored to be an educational consultant for the Scoreable Music Project, a recent Rainwater Innovative Grant winner and revolutionary repertoire composition strategy that encourages inclusivity for varied ability levels in large music ensembles.
CONDUCTOR bios
artist bio
Dr. José Valentino Ruiz Dr. José Valentino Ruiz is an internationally acclaimed performing artist, composer, producer, and creative leader whose work spans music performance, composition, film, global arts entrepreneurship, and higher education. Recognized as one of the most decorated multi-instrumentalists of his generation, his career has earned 200+ juried honors and 390+ peer-reviewed publications across artistic excellence, innovation, research, and cultural leadership.
A four-time Latin GRAMMY® Award winner with additional nominations across major categories—including Contemporary Classical Composition, Children’s Music, Latin Jazz, Instrumental Music, and Spanish-language sacred repertoire—Dr. Ruiz has also received an EMMY® Award for Best Cultural Documentary. His cross-genre artistry has been further recognized with the Global Genius® Grand Prize and Beethoven International Music Competition® for jazz, classical performance, composition, technical mastery, and chamber music. He is a record holder with 55 DownBeat® Music Awards and 40 Global Music® Awards, alongside honors from the Anthem®, Davey®, and other international competitions. Having collaborated with artists such as Paquito D’Rivera, Chick Corea, Victor Wooten, Hubert Laws, and Alex Acuña, his artistic range and technical fluency are regarded as singular in today’s global music landscape.
A commanding international performer, Dr. Ruiz has appeared in more than 1,500 headlining concerts across six continents. As a film composer and producer, his work has been recognized at the Deauville Festival du Cinéma Américain, Miami International Film Festival, Bahamas International Film Festival, Heartland International Film Festival, and the Paladino d’Oro International Sports Film Festival. His discography includes over 150 albums.
Beyond the stage, Dr. Ruiz is the U.S. Speaker on Creative Economy & Global Arts Entrepreneurship for the U.S. Department of State, advancing cultural diplomacy and creative industry development across Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean. He is Founder and Program Director of the Music Business & Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Florida, where he has built nationally recognized curricula and experiential learning systems, and Founder & CEO of JV Music Enterprises, alongside serving as Chief Research Officer of Aravine LLC. Across all facets of his work, Dr. Ruiz remains committed to artistic excellence, economic empowerment, and mission-driven global impact. For more information, visit www.josevalentino.com.
Note: Dr. Ruiz gratefully acknowledges the accompanying artists for the concerto: Lannie Battistini (piano), Derris Lee (drums), Elias Tona (bass), and Valentin Ruiz (percussion).
