CBDNA Program 2026

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

WIND ENSEMBLE Jason Missal, conductor

COLLEGE BAND DIRECTORS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Western/Northwestern Division Conference

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2026 Nightingale Concert Hall | 2:15 PM

Reno, NV

Dear CBDNA Colleagues: On behalf of the faculty, staff, students, and supporters of the School of Music at the University of Utah, I want to express how honored we are to be a part of the 2026 College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Division Conference.

Music-making and music education are strong in Utah, and I am grateful for the student-first approach that our faculty bring to every lesson, rehearsal, classroom, coaching session, and performance.

The University of Utah was established in 1850 and is the state’s oldest and largest institution of higher education. The University is a major research institution and offers the BA, BM, MA, MM, DMA, and PhD music degrees with programs in composition, conducting, jazz studies, music education, music theory, musicology, and performance. Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the School of Music is one of five academic units in the College of Fine Arts, and its beautiful facilities accommodate over 350 majors, 100 faculty and staff, and thousands of minors, certificate seekers, and non-majors who find a creative outlet with us each year. We are proud of our 75-year history of close collaboration with the Utah Symphony, our partnerships with Utah Opera, our community engaged music making in our College Preparatory Division and the Utah Piano Outreach Program (UPOP), and the honor of being an All-Steinway School.

We are also deeply grateful to our fantastic Advisory Board for their support

of our students and curriculum. Our faculty are internationally recognized scholars and artists who share their energy and deep commitment to musical excellence with our students every day. We are fortunate to support strong bands, theorists, orchestras, jazz musicians, composers, choirs, historians, operas, small ensembles, and chamber ensembles, and you may have seen our Marching Utes perform recently at the Rose Bowl. Artistry is amplified across the School of Music as our students excel in independent and collaborative research, the practice room, engaged classroom experiences, and on stage.

Under Dr. Jason Missal’s remarkable leadership, the University of Utah’s Wind Ensemble has earned a proud spot among our nation’s leading college bands. Congratulations to everyone who is a part of this year’s conference, and a tremendous thank you to Dr. Missal and our students for the work and dedication that has brought them to today’s performance. We are excited to share our talents with you!

Best,

DR. KIMBERLY H. COUNCILL Director of the School of Music Professor of Music The University of Utah kim.councill@utah.edu

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH WIND ENSEMBLE Jason Missal, conductor COLLEGE BAND DIRECTORS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Western/Northwestern Division Conference

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2026 Nightingale Concert Hall | 2:15 PM Reno, NV

PROGRAM California Counterpoint: The Twittering Machine (1993)

Nocturne (2021)

Passacaglia in Primary Colors (2023)

Cindy McTee (b. 1953) Zhou Tian (b. 1981) Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

la flor mas linda (2019)

Gilda Lyons (b. 1975)

Music for Prague 1968 I. Introduction and Fanfare II. Aria III. Interlude IV. Toccata and Chorale

Karel Husa (1921-2016)

PROGRAM NOTES California Counterpoint: The Twittering Machine | Cindy McTee (1993) California Counterpoint: The Twittering Machine (1993) was adapted for wind ensemble with a commission from the College Band Directors National Association (Western and Northwestern Divisions), and premièred by Tim Salzman conducting the University of Washington Wind Ensemble in Reno, Nevada, March 19, 1994, at the Regional Conference of the CBDNA's Western and Northwestern Divisions.

California Counterpoint: The Twittering Machine was originally written for orchestra (entitled The Twittering Machine) and later adapted for wind ensemble. The title is intended to recognize California conductor Mitch Fennell for having organized the commission to adapt the piece for winds, and is also meant to express my life-long fascination with the work of painter Paul Klee.

Klee's Twittering Machine is both a drawing and a painting of four birds perched on a crank shaft. The drawn images are whimsical, puppet-like, mechanistic, ironic, and playful, reflected by the faster sections of my composition. These are set against a lyrical field of transparent color, represented by the slower sections of my piece. I was especially drawn to the painting's biting humor; imagine what would happen to the birds if the crank shaft were turned! In my piece, I make attempts at humor through the use of repeated structures and denied expectation–rhythms are displaced, passages are suddenly transposed or textures juxtaposed.

There are elements of danger in Klee's painting: arrows piercing some of the birds, a gaping hole or ditch the birds might fall into, and the presence of an exclamation mark, which is a recurring symbol in Klee's work meant to suggest impending doom. The danger elements in my piece consist of many large silences, or musical holes, which the players risk falling into if they're not attentive.

Most important is my intention that the work, like Klee's Twittering Machine, convey movement -- that it engage the body as well as the mind -- that it "dance"!

Nocturne | Zhou Tian (2021) Nocturne is a chorale for wind ensemble conceived on a cold, winter night.

Lyrical and reflective, the music carries a strong sense of romanticism, and strives to convey a sense of spiritual blessing. The piece was originally written as a middle movement of my first string quartet.

My sincere appreciation goes to David Thornton, who initiated this version for wind ensemble with an excellent transcription. I made further arrangements and composed new materials for the current version.

Passacaglia in Primary Colors | Michael Daugherty (2023) Passacaglia in Primary Colors for Symphonic Band was commissioned by the University of Michigan in celebration of Michael Haithcock’s twentytwo years as director of bands at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance.

The American artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) often employed repetition of images and vibrant primary colors in his art works. Passacaglia in Primary Colors is structured as a passacaglia, one of the most recognizable structures for musical repetition. The main musical motive consists of 15 pulses or beats, repeated and transformed into unpredictable tonalities and blocks of instrumental color. la flor mas linda | Gilda Lyona (2019) In September 2018, as protesters from Nicaragua's Carazo region prepared to march against the increasingly dictatorial Ortega government, my tios (my aunt and uncle) wrote us with pictures of blockades and descriptions of the armed forces that awaited protesters. A world away, I responded by recording and posting a verse of Carlos Mejia Godoy's Nicaragua, Nicaraguita, a song that has become as clear a symbol of the resistance as the blue and white

Nicaraguan flag. It was a cry into the abyss, but, to my surprise, it actually landed with dear ones and their friends in Nicaragua who wrote that they felt our family standing with them. From this urgent sense of reaching across distance through music grew la flor mas linda, written for Glen Adsit, Edward Cumming, and the Foot in the Door Ensemble.

With arms outstretched through sound, sonic images I associate with Nicaragua are slammed together: the basilica bells that toll freely during the Festival of San Sebastián; the pito and chischiles of the dance of the Toro Huaco, for which stand in flute and maracas; the firecrackers that announce celebration; scalar gestures that conjure the strong wind that blows through Diriamba, my mother's home town; fragments from Los Amores de Abraham, a tune my grandfather and his brothers played in their ensemble Marimba Diriangen; and a single gesture from Godoy's Nicaragua, Nicaraguita.

Despite an impulse to center on vibrant imagery, celebratory sound mutates into the sinister, and song becomes lament. Estamos con la gente de Nicaragua, siempre. Viva Nicaragua libre.

Music for Prague 1968 | Karel Husa (1921-2016) In 1968, Czechoslovakia began to experience a relaxing of Communist economic policies and a lifting of restrictions on media, speech and travel.

The Soviets denounced this “Prague Spring” and, after several failed attempts at negotiation, sent Eastern Bloc armies to invade the country on the night of Aug. 20. Composer Karel Husa heard about the invasion while on vacation at his summer cottage in upstate New York. The professor of music at Cornell University and Czech expatriate resolved to write a new composition for band that would honor the beauty of his native city, Prague, but also express the tragedy of the occupation. He based his Music for Prague 1968, which has been called one of the most important original compositions for band, entirely on a 15th-century Hussite war song, Ye Warriors of God and His Law, which Husa called “a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation.”

It is the composer’s wish that the following foreword be printed in its entirety in all concert programs of each performance of Music for Prague 1968:

Three main ideas bind the composition together. The first and most important is an old Hussite war song from the 15th century, Ye Warriors of God and His Law, a symbol of resistance and hope for hundreds of years, whenever fate lay heavy on the Czech nation. It has been utilized also by many Czech composers, including Smetana in My Country. The beginning of this religious song is announced very softly in the first movement by the timpani and concludes in a strong unison (Chorale).

The song is never used in its entirety.

The second idea is the sound of bells throughout, Prague, named also the City of “Hundreds of Towers,” has used its magnificently sounding church bells as calls of distress as well as of victory. The last idea is a motif of three chords first appearing very softly under the piccolo solo at the beginning of the piece, in flutes, clarinets and horns. Later it reappears at extremely strong dynamic levels, for example, in the middle of the Aria.

Different techniques of composing as well as orchestrating have been used in Music for Prague 1968 and some new sounds explored, such as the percussion section in the Interlude, the ending of the work, etc.

Much symbolism also appears: in addition to the distress calls in the first movement (Fanfares), the unbroken hope of the Hussite song, sound of bells, or the tragedy (Aria), there is also the bird call at the beginning (piccolo solo), a symbol of the liberty which the City of Prague has seen only for moments during its thousand years of existence.

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH WIND ENSEMBLE Jason Missal, conductor

Flute/Piccolo Nick Anderson, Bluffdale David Bennett, Stansbury Park#* Grace Loos, South Jordan Chloe Richter, Ogden

Saxophone Rebecca Ririe, Boise, ID Hayden Spurgeon, Portland, OR Jacob Struyk, Sandy Tommy Wilde, Springville*

Oboe/English Horn Drew Holland, Salt Lake City# Anna Larson, Portland, OR* Abby McMullen, Draper Ian Wagman, Salt Lake City#

Trumpet Braden Collison, Firestone, CO#* Braden Eddington, Roosevelt#* Kris Gilmore, Kannapolis, NC#* Ann Gray, Erie, PA#* Jaden Jones, American Fork#* Sarah Mark, Tokyo, Japan Morgan Staker, Midvale

Bassoon Lynnie Clayton, Stansbury Park Gracy Jane Pugmire, Magna Braxton Topham, Sandy* Clarinet/Bass Clarinet Willa Facy, Colorado Springs, CO Zane Jensen, Midway Cole Johnson, Bluffdale Zoe Kenner, Farmington Evelyn Newson, West Bountiful Andrea Rodriguez, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia Leila Sereki, Columbus, OH#* Watson Stilwell, Snohomish, WA Alvin Yeung, Hong Kong, China

Horn Tanner Chipman, Ogden Adam Hendrick, Rush City, MN#* Eleanor Taylor, Holly Springs, NC Jacob Wheelwright, Blackfoot, ID# Trombone/Bass Trombone Eric Curry, Saratoga Springs Tai Friel, Portland, OR Jackson Marz, Stansbury Park* Bjorn Swanson, Chaska, MN*

Euphonium Benjamin Blodgett, West Jordan* Henry Judd, Orem Tuba Joel Horton, Lorena, TX#* J. Logan Tolman, Provo String Bass Adeline Hiemstra, Fruit Heights* Piano Ian Wagman, Salt Lake City# Celesta Pearce Nitta, Las Vegas, NV# Harp Marienna Smith, North Salt Lake#*

*Principal #Graduate student

Timpani Ella Prawitt, Lehi* Percussion Zack Anderson, Sandy Rebekah Hall, Austin, TX Jake Harker, Idaho Falls, ID Peter Hill, Myrtle Beach, SC#* Alexander Kent, Park City Conner Johnson, Eagle Mountain Kaitlynn Steff, Las Vegas, NV Graduate Conducting Assistants Pearce Nitta, Las Vegas, NV# Mia Rossmango, Syracuse# C.J. Russell, Bridgman, MI#

JASON MISSAL is Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Utah. His duties at Utah include conducting the Wind Ensemble, leading the graduate wind conducting program, and overseeing all aspects of the band program.

Since Dr. Missal’s arrival at Utah, the Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform at the CBDNA Western/Northwestern Division Conference and the International Trumpet Guild Conference and has given the world or regional premieres of works by Omar Thomas, Dennis Llinas, Zhou Tian, Lindsay Bronnenkant, and others. In addition, the group has collaborated with world-renowned soloists such as Sean Jones, Alex Purdy, Floris Onstwedder, and Stephen Proser.

Before his appointment at Utah, Dr. Missal was the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he conducted the Symphonic Winds, led the Pride of Acadiana Marching Band, and taught undergraduate conducting and courses in music education. While at UL, he led the Louisiana premieres of works by Omar Thomas, Jennifer Jolley, Carlos Simon, Erika Svanoe, Paul Dooley, and Michael Mikulka.

Prior to his work at UL, he taught at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. At ACU, Dr. Missal led the Big Purple Marching Band, conducted the Concert Band, supervised student teachers, and taught music education classes as well as applied horn. While at ACU, he was twice awarded the Citation for Excellence in Teaching and guest conducted the Wind Ensemble at the 2014 CBDNA Southwest Regional Convention in

Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dr. Missal also collaborated with composers David Maslanka and Carter Pann. A staunch advocate of public school music, he also taught for four years in the public schools of Jenks, Oklahoma.

Dr. Missal has a national presence as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. He has conducted and presented clinics throughout the United States, including recent prestigious invitations to conduct the United States Air Force Band, the Utah All-State Symphonic Band, and to present at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Dr. Missal has published articles in The Instrumentalist and School Band & Orchestra magazines. His recording credits include production work on albums by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble and University of Colorado Wind Symphony and an upcoming invitation to produce an album by the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble.

His professional memberships include the College Band Directors National Association, Big XII Band Directors Association (he is the current Vice-President and President-Elect), Texas Music Educators Association, Utah Music Educators Association, Utah Bandmasters Association and an honorary membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He also recently received the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association for contributions to bands and band music.

Dr. Missal holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Music in Conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education from Oklahoma State University. His primary conducting teachers have been Jerry Junkin, Allan McMurray, Gary Lewis, and Joseph Missal.

Artistry amplified.

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WIND AND PERCUSSION FACULTY Lisa Byrnes, flute Caitlyn Valovick Moore, flute Tiffany Sedgley, flute Robert Stephenson, oboe Laura Grantier, clarinet Lori Wike, bassoon Jeffrey Allardyce, saxophone Peyden Shelton, trumpet Nathan Basinger, horn Stephen Proser, horn

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Donn Schaefer, trombone and euphonium Jim Andrus, tuba Alex Purdy, tuba Michael Sammons, percussion Jason Missal, director of bands Brian Sproul, director of athletic bands VIEW FULL DIRECTORY

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