UIC Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band Concert 04/15/22

The University of Illinois Chicago School of Theatre and Music presents

Wind Ensemble & Symphonic Band Spring Concert Friday April 15, 2022 7:30 pm Christopher Vongvithayamathakul, director; Symphonic Band Nicholas Carlson, director; Wind Ensemble

Land Acknowledgement Statement

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The UIC School of Theatre and Music sits on the traditional homeland of the original peoples of the area: the Three Fires Confederacy (the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations) as well as the Menominee and Ho-Chunk who—along with many Indigenous people—were among its first inhabitants. With respect and gratitude, The School of Theatre and Music honors the many Native Americans who have, do, and will call this land their home.

STM acknowledges that we have benefitted from the repeated attacks on Native Americans that forced tribal representatives to sign the 1816 Treaty of St Louis, relinquishing to the U.S. all claims of the land from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. This land seizure led to the era of economic development and rapid growth that made Chicago the metropolis that it is today.

We have an obligation to our students and the nearly 65,000 Native Americans now living in Chicago to do no further harm, to amplify Native voices, and to fight for equity and inclusion by engaging in anti-racism policies and practices. For us, this work begins with this statement, and must be followed by actions that immediately affect our work and life on campus. STM therefore commits to the following initiatives: / The creation of an Antiracism Action Plan and Committee / Antiracism training for all STM faculty and staff / Annual Recruitment workshops and on-site special events for Native high-schoolers. / An annual master class or talk with Native musicians and/or theatre artists. / Free tickets to STM performances and concerts, provided through UIC’s Native American Support Program. / Increased representation of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices and perspectives in STM pedagogy, classrooms, and performances.

This is only the beginning of our work. We look forward to expanded and sustained STM programming that addresses ignorance, systemic racism, and white dominance.

Developed by STM Theatre Faculty 08.25.2020

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Repertoire UIC Symphonic Band Christopher Vongvithayamathakul, director A Place in Time (2020)

Kelijah Dunton (b. 1999)

The Seal Lullaby (2004/2011)

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

The Loop (2021)

Allison Loggins-Hull (b. 1982)

Illumination (2013)

David Maslanka (1943-2017)

Intermisson

UIC Wind Ensemble Nicholas Carlson, director Aurora Awakes (2009)

John Mackey (b. 1973)

Tuba Concerto (1976)

Edward Gregson (b. 1945)

I. Allegro deciso II. Lento e mesto III. Allegro giocoso Juan Peinado, tuba

Shenendoah (2019)

Omar Thomas (b. 1984) Juan Peinado, conductor

Repertoire Pendulum (2019)

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Steven Bryant (b. 1972)

I. Shouting Defiance II. Nocturne Exclamation IV. Meditation V. Zeal

March from Symphonic Metamorphosis (1945)

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) trans. Wilson

UIC Symphonic Band Personnel Flute

Anna Elsen

Michael Crosby

Matthew Fabian Angelo Sfyris

Clarinet

Jay Tuttle

Alex Campillanos Alexia Pohlod

Piano

Natalie Salas

Matthew Fabian

Alto Sax

+ Denotes member of

Natalie Salas

Kappa Kappa Psi

Trumpet Aubrie DaVall Horn Mathias Morales Sally Whitesides Trombone Robert Cornett Joshua Montanez Rebecca Nika Euphonium Eduardo Alonso Gabriel Flemenbaum+ Tuba Matthew Kelly+ Emmanuel Pizana+ Bass Sanna Halsted Percussion Josue Avila Ethan Cruz

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UIC Symphonic Band Personnel Flute

Maya Cornejo

String Bass

Youjia Wang*

Gabby Jones+

Jason Soto

Joanne Yu (picc)

Sammy Weintraub

Sophia Lopez

Louis Quigley

Piano Jonathan Magboo

Eliza Apavaloaiei(picc) Horn Oboe

Kyli Berkley*

Harp

Vivek Ily*

Daniel McCarrick+

Jennifer Ruggieri

Mark Watson (E.h.)

Noemi Morquecho+

Isaac Fertel

Kali Giancana Lauren Cole+

*Denotes principal or

Bassoon

Graeme Classen

co-principal

Galina Kiep

Brett Perzee

Lisa Rathje

Julio de la Rosa

+ Denotes member of Kappa Kappa Psi

Clarinet

Trombone

Abdo Timejardine-

Tommy Haepp*

Zomeño*

Luis Lema+(bass)

Simonne Harris

Phoebe Stoughton

Toni Smertene

Becca Nika

Chris Izzo

Joshua Gibson+

Gustavo Morales Euphonium Bass Clarinet

Julia Soulsby*

Alexia Pohlod

Francisco Cruz

Saxophone

Tuba

George Grunditz* (alto) Juan Peinado* Mark Parages (alto)

Adam Carlson

Sam Winters (tenor) Jericho Kadusale+

Percussion

(bari)

Caleb Fetzer* Jen Eng

Trumpet

Jair Manzanares

Luis Ortiz*

John Emiliano

Carolina Woźniczka

Matthew Greenberg

Lily Cruz+

Josue Avila

Program Notes

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A Place in Time This work was made possible through a commission from a consortium of 51 high school and college band programs from across Minnesota. The project was formulated and implemented by Matt Dehnel and Ian McKnight, the band directors at Roseville Area High School in Roseville, Minnesota.We currently live in a place in time where our country is at a cross roads between the America we are, and the America we want to be..

This country is divided along party lines, racial identities, and ideologies.

We need to decide whether or not we are really United as Americans.This piece has 2 contrasting moods and ideas, both represent the America we want, (peace, togetherness, harmony), and the America we currently are (Rough & Ridged, Unstable, and volatile).

-Program Note by composer

The Seal Lullaby In the spring of 2004 I was lucky enough to have my show Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wingspresented at the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop.

The workshop is the brain child of legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked,Godspell), and his insights about the creative process were profoundly helpful. He became a great mentor and friend to the show and, I am honored to say, to me personally. Soon after the workshop I received a call from a major film studio. Stephen had recommended me to them and they wanted to know if I might be interested in writing music for an animated feature. I was incredibly excited, said yes, and took the meeting.

The creative executives with whom I met explained that the studio heads had always wanted to make an epic adventure, a classic animated film based on Kipling’sThe White Seal.I have always loved animation, (the early Disney films; Looney Tunes; everything Pixar makes) and I couldn’t believe that I might get a chance to work in that grand tradition on such great material.The White Sealis a beautiful story, classic Kipling, dark and rich and not at all condescending to kids. Best of all, Kipling begins his tale with the mother seal singing softly to her young pup. (The opening poem is called The Seal Lullaby).

Program Notes

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Oh! Hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, And black are the waters that sparkled so green.

The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us, At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

Where billow meets billow, then soft bethy pillow, Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!

The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas!

Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936

I was struck so deeply by those first beautiful words, and a simple, sweet Disney-esque song just came gushing out of me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, had my wife record it while I accompanied her at the piano, and then dropped it off at the film studio. I didn’t hear anything from them for weeks and weeks, and Ibegan to despair. Did they hate it? Was it too melodically complex? Did they even listen to it? Finally, I called them, begging to know the reason that they had rejected my tender little song.

“Oh,” said the exec, “we decided to makeKung Fu Pandainstead.” So I didn’t do anything with it; just sang it to my baby son every night to get him to go to sleep. (Success rate: less than 50%.) A few years later the Towne Singers commissioned the choral arrangement of it, and in 2011 I transcribed the piece for concert band. I’m grateful to them for giving it a new life, and to the schools, colleges and directors listed who have believed in this new transcription. And I’m especially grateful to Stephen Schwartz, to whom the piece is dedicated. His friendship and invaluable tutelage has meant more to me than I could ever tell him.

-Program Note by composer

Program Notes

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The Loop The Loopis inspired by Chicago and its promise to African-Americanswho came to the city during The Great Migration. It opens with a train sound, representing the trains migrants took up to the city from places like Mississippi and other southern states. It also nods to Chicago's L train, which sounds throughout the city and circles a downtown area appropriately referred to as “The Loop.“ The piece is comprised of musical loops and also embodies the repetitive and rhythmic nature of factory labor, which the majority of black southerners found themselves doing once they made it to the big city --including my own grandfather who worked in a can factory. The piece has a driving and determined energy, much like the spirit that is needed when anyone migrates to a new home for a better life. For fun, I added house beats (house -Program Note by composer

Illumination “Illumination” --lighting up, bringing light. I am especially interested in composing music for young people that allows them a vibrant experience of their own creative energy. A powerful experience of this sort stays in the heart and mind as a channel for creative energy, no matter what the life path. Music shared in community brings this vital force to everyone.

Illuminationis an open and cheerful piece in a quick tempo, with a very direct A-B-A song form.Illumination: Overture for Bandwas composed for the Franklin, Massachusetts', public schools. The commission was started by Nicole Wright, band director at the Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin, when she discovered that my grandnephew was in her band.

The piece wasinitially to have been for her young players, but the idea grew to make it the center of the dedication concert at the opening of Franklin’s new high school building. Rehearsals ofIlluminationwere actually the first musical sounds made in their fine newauditorium.

-Program Note by composer

Program Notes

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Aurora Awakes Aurora now had left her saffron bed, And beams of early light theheav’ns o’erspread, When, from a tow’r, the queen, with wakeful eyes, Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.

–Virgil, The Aeneid, Book IV, Lines 584-587

Aurora –the Roman goddess of the dawn –is a mythological figure frequently associated with beauty and light. Also known as Eos (her Greek analogue), Aurora would rise each morning and stream across the sky, heralding the coming of her brother Sol, the sun. Though she is herself among the lesser deities of Roman and Greek mythologies, her cultural influence has persevered, most notably in the naming of the vibrant flashes of light that occur in Arctic and Antarctic regions –the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis.John Mackey’s Aurora Awakes is, thus, a piece about the heralding of the coming of light. Built in two substantial sections, the piece moves over the course of eleven minutes from a place of remarkable stillness to an unbridled explosion of energy –from darkness to light, placid grey to startling rainbows of color. The work is almost entirely in the key of E-flat major (a choice made to create a unique effect at the work’s conclusion, as mentioned below), although it journeys through G-flat and F as the work progresses. Despite the harmonic shifts, however, the piece always maintains a –pun intended –bright optimism.Though Mackey is known to use stylistic imitation, it is less common for him to utilize outright quotation. As such, the presence of two more-or-less direct quotations of other musical compositions is particularly noteworthy in Aurora Awakes. The first, which appears at the beginning of the second section, is an ostinato based on the familiar guitar introduction to U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name.” Though the strains of The Edge’s guitar have been metamorphosed into the insistent repetitions of keyboard percussion, the aesthetic is similar –a distant proclamation that grows steadily in fervor. The difference between U2’s presentation and Mackey’s, however, is that the guitar riff disappears for the majority of the song, while in Aurora Awakes, the motive persists for nearly the entirety of the remainder of the piece:“When I heard thatsong on the radio last winter, I thought it was kind of a shame that he only uses that little motive almost as a throwaway bookend. That’s my favorite part of the song, so why not try to write an entire piece that uses that little hint of minimalism as its

Program Notes

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basis?”The other quotation is a sly reference to Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band. The brilliant E-flat chord that closes the Chaconne of that work is orchestrated (nearly) identically as the final sonority of Aurora Awakes –producing an unmistakably vibrant timbre that won’t be missed by aficionados of the repertoire. This same effect was, somewhat ironically, suggested by Mackey for the ending of composer Jonathan Newman’s My Hands Are a City. Mackey adds an even brighter element, however, by including instruments not in Holst’s original:“That has always been one of my favorite chords because it’s just so damn bright. In a piece that’s about the awaking of the goddess of dawn, you need a damn bright ending —and there was no topping Holst. Well... except to add crotales.”

-Program note by Jake Wallace

Tuba Concerto The concerto is in three movements, following the usual quick-slow-quick pattern: Allegro deciso, Lento e mesto, Allegro giocoso. The first is in a sonata form shell with two contrasting themes, the first rhythmic in character, the second lyrical. There is a reference made in the development section to the opening theme of Vaughan Williams's Tuba Concerto,but only in passing. The second movement unfolds a long cantabile melody for the soloist, which contrasts to a ritornello idea announced three times by the band/orchestra. The last movement is in rondo form, alternating the main theme with two episodes. The first of these is a broad sweeping tune, the second jazz-like in style. After a short cadenza, reference is made to the opening of the concerto, and the work ends with a triumphal flourish.The composer gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Glynn Bragg in the preparation of this version.

-Program Note by composer

Program Notes

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Shenendoah Shenandoah is one of the most well-known and beloved Americana folk songs. Originally a river song detailing the lives and journeys of fur traders canoeing down the Missouri River, the symbolism of this culturally-significant melody has been expanded to include its geographic namesake –an area of the eastern United States that encompasses West Virginia and a good portion of the western part of Virginia –and various parks, rivers, counties, and academic institutions found within.Back in May of 2018, after hearing a really lovely duo arrangement of Shenandoah while adjudicating a music competition in Minneapolis, I asked myself, after hearing so many versions of this iconic and historic song, how would I set it differently? I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and before I realized it, I had composed and assembled just about all of this arrangement in my head by assigning bass notes to the melody and filling in the harmony in my head afterwards. I would intermittently check myself on the piano to make sure what I was imagining worked, and ended up changing almost nothing at all from what I’d heard in my mind’s ear. This arrangement recalls the beauty of Shenandoah Valley, not bathed in golden sunlight, but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall (created with a combination of percussion textures, generated both on instruments and from the body). There are a few musical moments where the sun attempts to pierce through the clouds, but ultimately the rains win out. This arrangement of Shenandoah is at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful.

-Program note by composer

Program Notes

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Pendulum Pendulum is symphonic in scope, developing a small amount of musical material over five movements. The music oscillates between exultant exclamations and introspective ruminations, a pendulum of mental states.

Shouting Defianceis an emphatic fanfare that opens the work with a defiant, yet optimisticexpanding chord progression. The title is taken from the lyrics forIllinois Loyalty:Lead on your sons and daughters, fighting for you,Like men of old, on giants placing reliance, shouting defiance— Nocturneis a short, simple chorale, using an impromptu melody I wrote on a napkin during Paul Bryan’s 98th birthday party in March, 2018. “PB,” as he is known to his friends, is the former director of the Duke University Wind Symphony, a noted musicologist, and still plays his Euphonium every day. During histenure at Duke (1954-1987), he commissioned Giannini’sSymphony No. 3, Dello Joio’sVariants on a Medieaval Tune, and Persichetti’sSo Pure the Star, among other works. He also once had Percy Grainger to Duke as a guest composer.Exclamationis a ninety-second interjection of material related to movements I and V –an outburst of manic energy that quickly expends itself. Persichetti’sDivertimento for Band(a favorite of mine from my days playing in band) is often lurking in the background of my sonic imagination, and, to my ears at least, this movement bears some influence from that work.Meditationis the most spacious music of the five movements. Beginning attacca from Exclamation, the music juxtaposes the opening chord progression from Shouting Defiancewith the melody fromNocturne. The patient pulse of time marked by a quiet bass drum underscores a continually evaporating, blurred texture. The music culminates in a brief episode of arrival which dissolves, returning us to a state of measured stasis. Zealignites immediately into a simmering cloud of breath and cymbals. The expanding chord progression from Shouting Defiance returns, and the music moves with simple-minded, burning self-certainty, embodying the seductive euphoria and danger of absolute belief.

-Program Note by composer

Program Notes

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March from Symphonic Metamorphosis Hindemith composed this work in 1943 while teaching at Yale University.

Believing strongly that the work should be made available in a band version, he asked his Yale colleague Keith Wilson to make a transcription. After permission was finally granted by the publisher in 1960, Wilson worked on this arrangement for 18 months. He regarded it as his largest and most significant transcription. The important two-bar fragment which is statedby the brass at the outset reappears and is developed at different points of punctuation throughout the movement.

There is also a more lyrical "trio" theme which is repeated and developed.

The form is somewhat different from that of a standard march.

-Program note from "Program Notes for Band"

Band Program Personnel Faculty and Staff Nicholas J. Carlson; acting director of bands ChristopherVongvithayamathakul; symphonic band director Ronald Stemley; pep band director Jordan Kamps; percussion Jen Eng; supervising librarian, wind ensemble librarian, percussion assistant Juan Peinado; equipment/locker manager, logistics Julia Soulsby; assistant librarian/symphonic band librarian, logistics, festival assistant Jason Soto; equipment/locker manager, logistics Phoebe Stoughton; assistant librarian/pep band librarian, logistics, festival assistant Abdo Timejardine-Zomeño; logistics, social media Kappa Kappa Psi National Band Fraternity Executive Board Luis Lema, president Lily Cruz, vice president of service Jericho Kadusale, vice president of membership Daniel McCarrick, treasurer Lauren Cole, treasurer Guadalupe Esquinca, secretary Joshua Gibson, secretary & historian Applied Faculty Mariana Gariazzo, flute EugeniaMoliner, flute Ricardo Castañeda, oboe John Gaudette, bassoon Nicholas Carlson, clarinet Jordan Lulloff, saxophone David Inmon, trumpet Jeremiah Frederick, horn Andy Baker, trombone Scott Tegge, tuba/euphonium John Floeter, string bass Jordan Kamps, percussion Ivana Bukvich, piano

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Conductor Biographies

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Nicholas J. Carlson joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago in the fall of 2010and currently serves as Senior Lecturer, Acting Director of Bands, and Coordinator of Instrumental Music. His responsibilities include conducting the Wind Ensemble, teaching the undergraduate conducting curriculum, teaching clarinet and chamber music, and all administrative aspects of the UIC band program. Prior to his work in Chicago, he was a graduate associate for the University of WisconsinMilwaukee (UWM) band department, where he earned a Master of Music degree with a dual concentration in instrumental conducting and clarinet performance under the direction of John Climer and Todd Levy, respectively. He served as the graduate conducting associate with the UWM University Band and UWM Youth Wind Ensembles and assisted with the overall administration of the university band program.Mr. Carlson is an active conductor, clinician, and freelance clarinetist and performs regularly throughout the Midwest. He is the Music Director/Conductor of the University of Chicago Wind Ensemble and the Music Co-Director/ Conductor of the Chicago Public Schools All-City Symphonic Band I. He has given numerous clinics throughout the greater Chicagoland area and has guest conducted honor bands in Wisconsin and Georgia. He is the principal clarinetist of the Chicago Arts Orchestra, Symphony847, and the Lake County Symphony Orchestra (LCSO). Other recent performances include the world premiere and recording ofMusic for Fiveby MarcMellits, the Midwest premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’s clarinet concerto Tahrir, and a featured performance with the concert series New Music Chicagoat the Chicago Cultural Center. As a featured soloist of the LCSO, he performed the world premiere of Donald Walker’s Fantasy for Clarinet & Orchestraand theArtie Shaw Clarinet Concerto.He has also performed with the Milwaukee Skylight Opera, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Wind Orchestra, and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra.Mr. Carlson attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in music education with Honors. Mr. Carlson taught instrumental music in the La Crosse Area School District and maintained a large private lesson studio. His professional affiliations include College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, Music Educators National Conference, Illinois Music Educators Association, and Kappa Kappa Psi National Music Service Fraternity.

Conductor Biographies

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Christopher Vongvithayamathakul (Mathakul) joins the University of Illinois Chicago School of Theatre and Music in the 2021-22 academic year as the Ensemble Programs/Public Engagement Coordinator and director of the Symphonic Band. Currently, Mr. Mathakul is a doctoral candidate in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Washington, studying with Professor Timothy Salzman. As concert bands graduate assistant at Washington, Mr. Mathakul served as the director of the Concert Band and assistant conductor for the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band. In the Spring of 2021, Mr. Mathakul and fellow graduate conducting student Daniel Fischer presented a clinic entitled “Creative Learning Experiences for Music Ensembles Using Digital Audio Tools” at multiple state music education conferences. This presentation was inspired by the virtual composition project entitled "Putting the E in E-nsemble" piloted by the University of Washington Wind Ensemble in collaboration with composer Alex Shapiro inthe Spring of 2020.

Mr. Mathakul earned a Master of Music degree in Wind Conducting from the University of New Mexico where he studied conducting with Professor Eric Rombach-Kendall and clarinet with Professor Keith Lemmons. During his time at New Mexico, Mathakul served as graduate assistant for the UNM bands, where his responsibilities included assisting and conducting the concert bands, marching band, and running the “Soundpack” basketball pep band. Mr. Mathakul also served as the music director for the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, a community orchestra. Prior to his doctoral studies, Mr. Mathakul served for seven years as a high school and middle school band director in schools on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i, where he was an active member of the O'ahu Band Directors Association and chair of its Beginning Honor Band.

Conductor Biographies

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Our featured Tuba soloist and guest student conductor, Juan Penaido, is a senior Bachelor of Music inPerformance student at the University of Illinois Chicago. Juan is a 2018 graduate of Thomas Kelly High School, a Chicago public school. At Thomas Kelly, Juan performed in multiple instrumental ensembles including Marching band, Brass Quintet, Symphonic Band, Jazz Band and the New Orleans Brass Band.

Through these experiences, Juan developed apassion for music, leading him to pursue a music degree at the University of Illinois Chicago to study with accomplished tubist Professor Scott Tegge. Following his upcoming graduation at the end of this spring semester, Juan will be attending DePaul University as a Master of Music in Performance student while also pursuing a teaching license to fulfill his dream of becoming a band director in the Chicago public school system.

UIC Concert Series Spring 2022 Sunday, April 24

Friday, April 29

UIC Orchestra

Percussion Ensemble

Whitney M. Young High

L280 Theatre, 7:30pm

School Auditorium,

1044 WHarrison St.

3:00pm

Chicago, IL

211 S Laflin St Chicago, IL

Saturday, April 30 Contemporary

Tuesday, April 26:

Music and

Pop Rock,

Student Showcase

L285 Recital Hall,

L280 Theatre, 7:30pm

7:30pm

1044 W Harrison St.

1044 West Harrison

Chicago, IL

St. Chicago IL 60607 Wednesday, April 27 Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo L285 Recital Hall 7:30pm 1044 W Harrison St. Chicago, IL Thursday, April 28 Jazz Workshop and Jazz Combo L285 Recital Hall, 7:30pm 1044 W Harrison St. Chicago, IL

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Mission

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The School of Theatre & Music provides innovative, rigorous, and comprehensive academic and performance programs as part of our diverse, urban context. Our programs develop practical knowledge, cultural sensitivity, intellectual resourcefulness, and imaginative daring in emerging artists and scholars. We connect students to Chicago's abundant, vibrant theatre culture and to the city's dynamic jazz and classical music networks.

Thank you for being a dedicated member of our community!

At UIC, about 55% of theatre and music students receive some form of financial aid. Many more need support. Your donation will help us transform students’ lives as we prepare them for paths in the arts and other creative fields. Consider making a donation to our Theatre and Music Scholarship Fund today. https://theatreandmusic.uic.edu/donate-now