Yale Concert Band
Yale’s Premier Wind Ensemble
Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director
feat. guest artist Tara Helen O’Connor
Yale School of Music Professor of Flute
Friday, October 3, 2025, at 7:30 p.m., Woolsey Hall, Yale University
WALTER PISTON
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
ed. Frederick Fennell
ERIKA SVANOE
Tunbridge Fair (1951)
The Fairest of the Fair (1908)
WILLIAM OWENS
REENA ESMAIL
Fairest of the Renaisssance Faire (2023)
I. The Marche of King Jhon
II. Three Faire Maydens
III. A Bird’s Swete Kisse
IV. William’s Wilde
And With This New Day... (2025)
Tuttarana (2024)
D.J. SPARR
JOHN MACKEY
The Frozen Cathedral (2013) ~ intermission ~
Precious Metal: A Concerto for Flute and Winds (2010)
Tara Helen O’Connor, flute
I. Silver Strettos
II. Platinum Sheen
III. Gold Rush
The Yale Concert Band was organized by Keith L Wilson in 1946. At that time and for decades afterward, the majority of music played by wind bands in the United States consisted of arrangements and transcriptions of popular orchestral, opera, and show music. Wilson was a nationally recognized band director, composer, and arranger, whose work is still held in the highest regard. As president of the College Band Directors National Association in 1962, he led the organization in the commissioning of music specifically for the wind band; these compositions were solicited from nationally and internationally known composers. The many years of music being transcribed for wind band did generate some masterpieces, and many Americans learned and loved opera, orchestral, and popular music through their local wind bands.
About Tonight’s Music
Tunbridge Fair (1951)
WALTER PISTON (1894-1976)
Tunbridge Fair was written as a commission from the League of Composers, led by Edwin Franko Goldman, in an effort to build a strong repertoire of American concert band music. When asked to replace his less descriptive original title, Intermezzo for Band, Piston used the diverse and bustling county fair in Tunbridge, Vermont, as his inspiration.
Tunbridge Fair stands as a marvel of concise, painstaking craft combined with an energetic and lyrical spirit of expression. Its riotous atmosphere is captured by the bright, bouncy rhythms of the jazzy first voice of the piece, pitted against the smoother, syncopated rhythm of the second voice. The work is bright and loud yet quietly underscored with subtle humor.
Fairest of the Fair (1908)
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA (1854-1932)
ed. Frederick Fennell
The title Fairest of the Fair is something of a pun: over many years playing regularly at the annual Boston Food Fair, Sousa repeatedly noticed, but never met, an especially attractive young woman at one of the displays. Needing a new march for his band’s usual appearance there, he used this stranger as inspiration, composing an ode to the fairest lady at Boston Food Fair. The work is generally regarded as one of his most melodic and best-written marches.
Fairest of the Renaissance Faire (2023)
ERIKA SVANOE (b. 1976)
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: “The March of King Jhon,” “Three Faire Maydens,” “A Bird’s Swete Kiss,” and “William’s Wilde.”
And With This New Day… (2025) WILLIAM OWENS (b.
1963)
The composer writes of his piece:
“Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) is rightfully recognized as one of America’s most formidable and influential first ladies. Widely regarded as the benchmark for those to follow, Roosevelt mightily used the platform to make better the lives of those less fortunate than herself. From helping immigrants adjust to American life, to championing rights for women and African Americans to lending hands-on support to the American war effort, ER endures as a true beacon of justice and equality for all Americans.
“‘With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.’ -- Eleanor Roosevelt
“The music of And With This New Day is inspired by this simple yet powerful thought, which encourages us to be open to positive change and recognizes that no matter how difficult previous times were, the new day always brings a fresh start.
“The introspective opening statement aptly illustrates the day anew, as we contemplate the good things to come. Beginning quite serenely with a clarinet solo and a gentle harmonic complement, the music gradually blossoms into a lush “pastorale” section. The energetic and brisk statement that follows is a true celebration of life, as the mood becomes lively and jovial. Throughout this sprightly section, an array of colors and textures are heard with strong melodic concentration and a driving rhythmic pulse at its core. The final statement calls us to reflect on the day’s end, as the music concludes serenely and peacefully.
“And With This New Day comes through the generosity and creativity of the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, Access) and is the result of the ABA [American Bandmasters Association] IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access) Commission Project.”
Tuttarana (2024)
REENA ESMAIL (b. 1983)
The composer writes of her piece:
“The title Tuttarana is a conglomeration of two words: the Italian word ‘tutti’, means ‘all’ or ‘everyone’, and the term ‘tarana’ designates a specific Hindustani (North Indian) musical form, whose closest Western counterpart is the ‘scat’ in jazz. The tarana is a place where musicians can put their greatest virtuosity on display, leaving an audience in awe. While a tarana is a solo form, I wanted to bring that same energy to an ensemble form. This work was originally written for treble chorus, then arranged for brass quintet, and is now in its third iteration for concert band.”
Precious Metal: A Concerto for Flute and Winds (2010)
D.J. SPARR (b. 1975)
The composer writes of his piece:
“Precious Metal: A Concerto for Flute and Winds is based on the three metals of which the flute is made. Each metal is a descriptive title that influenced the construction and materials of each movement of the work. In the first movement, ‘Silver Strettos,’ the flute begins with a simple melody that infiltrates the wind ensemble. Over the course of the movement, the flute acts as a catalyst for call and response with the ensemble as well as initiating quick canonic motives. When thinking about silver, I was inspired to write bright and pristine melodic material and orchestration. ‘Platinum Sheen’ alternates between flute ‘airs’ and sustained ensemble chords that
start very long but change at an ever-increasing rate. An instrumental consort comprised of clarinet, bassoon, harp, piano, and percussion often accompanies the soloist in this movement. Platinum does not have the glimmer of silver, so the orchestration in this movement is not as flashy as in the first movement, but as with platinum, the orchestration is strong and durable – using the low instruments of the ensemble for a strong foundation. ‘Gold Rush’ begins with a solo flute motive based on material from the first movement but now in a minor key. The ensemble interrupts with a pulsating crescendo that leads to a virtuosic flute cadenza. The middle section of this movement features a long accelerando with a soaring flute melody that ultimately leads to a musical accompaniment to a westward bound journey into sunset, a search for gold and riches.”
The Frozen Cathedral (2013)
JOHN MACKEY (b. 1973)
The Koyukon call it “Denali,” meaning “the great one,” and it is great. It stands at more than twenty thousand feet above sea level, a towering mass over the Alaskan wilderness. Measured from its base to its peak, it is the tallest mountain on land in the world—a full two thousand feet taller than Mount Everest. It is Mount McKinley, and it is an awesome spectacle. And it is the inspiration behind John Mackey’s The Frozen Cathedral.
The piece was born of the collaboration between Mackey and John Locke, Director of Bands at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Locke asked Mackey if he would dedicate the piece to the memory of his late son, J.P., who had a particular fascination with Alaska and the scenery of Denali National Park. Mackey agreed— and immediately found himself grappling with two problems.
“How does one write a concert closer, making it joyous and exciting and celebratory, while also acknowledging, at least to myself, that this piece is rooted in unimaginable loss: The death of a child?
The other challenge was connecting the piece to Alaska — a place I’d never seen in person. I kept thinking about all of this in literal terms, and I just wasn’t getting anywhere. My wife, who titles all of my pieces, said I should focus on what it is that draws people to these places. People go to the mountains — these monumental, remote, ethereal and awesome parts of the world — as a kind of pilgrimage. It’s a search for the sublime, for transcendence. A great mountain is like a church. ‘Call it The Frozen Cathedral,’ she said.
Clearly, I married up.”
The most immediately distinct aural feature of the work is the quality (and geographic location) of intriguing instrumental colors. The stark, glacial opening is colored almost exclusively by a crystalline twinkling of metallic percussion that surrounds the audience. Although the percussion orchestration carries a number of traditional sounds, there are a host of unconventional timbres as well, such as crystal glasses, crotales on timpani, tam-tam resonated with superball mallets, and the waterphone, an instrument used by Mackey to great effect on his earlier work Turning. The initial sonic environment is an icy and alien one, a cold and distant landscape whose mystery is only heightened by a longing, modal solo for bass flute—made dissonant by a contrasting key, and more insistent by the eventual addition of alto flute, English horn, and bassoon. This collection expands to encompass more of the winds, slowly and surely, with their chorale building in intensity and rage. Just as it seems their wailing despair can drive no further, however, it shatters like glass, dissipating once again into the timbres of the introductory percussion. (Program notee by Jake Wallace).
About Tonight’s Guest Artist
Tara Helen O’Connor, who Art Mag has said “so embodies perfection on the flute that you’ll forget she is human,” is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a twotime GRAMMY Award nominee, and a recipient of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. A Wm. S. Haynes artist, she is a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She joined the prestigious faculty at the Yale School of Music in 2023 where she is professor of flute. She is the Artistic Director of both the Music from Angel Fire Festival and the Essex Winter Series. Tara has premiered hundreds of works and has appeared on numerous recordings and film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, Highest 2 Lowest, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murder in the Building and Schmigadoon! Festival appearances include the Bravo! Vail festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music, the Great Mountains Music Festival, and Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival.
A charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era, O’Connor has collaborated with such distinguished artists as vocalists Jennifer Johnson Cano, Susanna Phillips and Dawn Upshaw, violinist Jaime Laredo, clarinetist David Shifrin, guitarist Eliot Fisk, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, and Stephen Prutsman, and with such revered ensembles as the Emerson, Orion, and St. Lawrence string quartets. Tara has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings and Bridge Records. She lives with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips and their two miniature dachshunds, Chloé and Ava, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Upcoming Yale Bands Performances 2025-26
• Saturday, October 4 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Family Weekend Gala Concert. The Yale Glee Club (Jeffrey Douma, Music Director), the Yale Concert Band (Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director), and the Yale Symphony Orchestra (Elizabeth Askren, Music Director). Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Wednesday, November 5 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Jazz Ensembles Big Band: Celebrating the Centennial of Miles Davis - “Birth of the Cool.” Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. World premieres of big band orchestrations for the Yale Jazz Ensembles Big Band by Michael Philip Mossman, feat. Boplicity, Budo, and Deception. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Sunday, November 16 – 3:00 p.m. Yale Concert Band Fall Concert, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Out of Darkness (Dana Wilson), featuring guest artist Ole Akahoshi, Yale School of Music Professor of Cello; Tone Parallel to Harlem (Duke Ellington, trans. James Spinazzola), James Spinazzola, guest conductor; Symphony No. 2 (David Maslanka). Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Friday, December 5 – 7:30 p.m. “Side by Side: The Nutcracker Swings!” The Yale Concert Band (Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director) and the Yale Jazz Ensembles Big Band (Wayne Escoffery, Music Director) present two settings of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. With both bands seated side by side on stage, the YCB performs the traditional classical arrangement by Mayhew F. Lake, with the YJEBB answering movements with Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn’s jazzy interpretation of this holiday classic. Woolsey Hall. Tickets General Admission $15, $10 students. Scan code at right for tickets. >
• Friday, February 13 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band Winter Concert, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Vespers by Susan Botti, with special guests the Yale Glee Club, Jeffrey Douma, Music Director. Other music TBA. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Wednesday, March 4 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band Spring Concert. Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Program TBA. Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Monday, April 8 – Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band at Dizzy’s Club, New York. Wayne Escoffery, Music Director.Two sets, 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. Info/$Tickets TBA. https://jazz.org/dizzys/
• Friday, April 10 – 7:30 p.m. Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. The Thomas C. Duffy Annual Spring Concert. Juvenalia for Solo Percussion and Wind Ensemble (Robert Honstein), feat. guest artist Garrett Arney, percussion. Also feat. Frank Morelli, Yale School of Music Professor of Bassoon: Bassoon Concertino (Francisco Mignone). Other music TBA. Woolsey Hall. Free/no tickets required.
• Sunday, May 17 – 7:00 p.m. Yale Concert Band Annual Twilight Concert, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Celebratory music and Yale songs on the eve of Yale’s Commencement. Outside on the Old Campus. Free/no tickets required.
Photo: Harold Shapiro
About the Music Director
Thomas C. Duffy is Professor (Adjunct) of Music, Director of University Bands, and Clinical Professor of Nursing at Yale University, where he has worked since 1982. He is known as a composer, a conductor, a teacher, an administrator, and a leader. His interests and research range from non-tonal analysis to jazz, from wind band history to creativity and the brain. Under his direction, the Yale Bands have performed at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and New England College Band Association; for club audiences at New York City’s Village Vanguard, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and Iridium; Ronnie Scott’s (London); the Belmont (Bermuda); as part of the inaugural ceremonies for President George H.W. Bush; and concertized in twenty-one countries in the course of nineteen international tours. Duffy produced a two-year lecture/performance series, Music and the Brain, with the Yale School of Medicine; and, with the Yale School of Nursing, developed a musical intervention to train nursing students to better hear and identify body sounds with the stethoscope. He combined his interests in music and science to create a genre of music for the bilateral conductor – in which a “split-brained conductor” must conduct a different meter in each hand, sharing downbeats. His compositions have introduced a generation of school musicians to aleatory, the integration of spoken/sung words and “body rhythms” with instrumental performance, and the pairing of music with political, social, historical and scientific themes. He has been awarded the Yale Tercentennial Medal for Composition, the Elm/ Ivy Award, the Yale School of Music Cultural Leadership Citation and certificates of appreciation by the United States Attorney’s Office for his Yale 4/Peace: Rap for Justice concerts – music programs designed for social impact by using the power of music to deliver a message of peace and justice to impressionable middle and high school students. Duffy has served as associate, deputy, and acting dean of the Yale School of Music. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee, the Tanglewood II Symposium planning committee, the Grammy Foundation Music Educators Award Screening Committee, and completed the MLE program at the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He has served as: president of the Connecticut Composers Inc., the New England College Band Directors Association and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA); editor of the CBDNA Journal; publicity chair for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles; and chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Professional Affairs and Government Relations committees. He is a member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Connecticut Composers Incorporated, the Social Science Club, and BMI. Duffy has conducted ensembles all over the world, including the National Association for Music Education’s National Honor Band in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (More extensive data is available at www.duffymusic.com, including a high resolution downloadable photo.)
Photos: Harold Shapiro
Piccolos
YALE CONCERT BAND 2025-2026
THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director
STEPHANIE HUBBARD, Operations and Productions Manager
President: Jared Wyetzner | General Managers: Isaiah Harvey, Julien Yang, William Wakefield
Social Chairs: Zoe Frost, Lizzie Seward | Publicity Chairs: Greta Garrison, Amelia Shaw
Salena Huang YSEAS ’26*† Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Flutes
Zoe Frost MY ’27*† American Studies
Noah Watson TD ’28† Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Diego Lee TC ’29 Undeclared
Allie Gruber PC ’26 English
Allan An BR ’28 Music/Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Kaustuv Mohanty MC ’29 Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Peter Nelson JE ’26 Biomedical Engineering
Mei Hao YSEAS ’28 Mechanical Engineering
Noelle Smith BK ’28 History
Oboes
Sophia Graham DC ’26*† Economics
Penelope Emerson MY ’29 Applied Physics
Estelle Balsirow JE ’26† Linguistics
Cameron Gray-Lee DC ’27 Math and Physics/Music
English Horn
Sophia Graham DC ’26* Economics
Eb Clarinet
Nickolas Hamblin YSM MM ’25/MMA ’26 Music
Bb Clarinets
Sammy Feingold MY ’28† Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair‡ Neuroscience
Amelia Shaw TC ’28† Undeclared
Joshua Chen SY ’27 Mechanical Engineering
Su Min Pyo PC ’29 Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Trevor Strano MC ’28 Earth and Planetary Sciences
Eleanor Kandoll PC ’29 Music
Cameron Nye BR ’27 Political Science
Amalee Bowen GSAS ’28 Egyptology
Bass Clarinet
Jacob Knowles ES ’28† History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health
Bassoons
Ari Blehert JE ’28*† Applied Physics/Music
Bryce Falkoff TC ’29† Undeclared
Contrabassoon
Laressa Winters YSM ’26† Music
Soprano Saxophone
Lizzie Seward DC ’27* Physics and Philosophy
Alto Saxophones
Lizzie Seward DC ’27* Physics and Philosophy
Sean Yu PC ’29 Undeclared
Daniel Guo DC ’29 Undeclared
Richard Wong DC ’28 Undeclared
Tenor Saxophones
William Wakefield BF’29† Undeclared
Baritone Saxophone
Hanson Qin ES ’28† Computer Science and Economics
Cornets/Trumpets (rotating)
Jared Wyetzner PC ’27*† Physics
Lydia Berger MY ’29† Undeclared
Graydon Nolen DC ’28 Undeclared
Isaiah Harvey TD ’28 Ethics, Politics, and Economics
Kyle Chen SY ’27 Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
French Horns (rotating)
Micah Draper PM ’28*† Urban Studies
Esther Orlov-Mayer YSM ’27† Music
Atticus Chan TC ’29† Mechanical Engineering
Shell Ross GH ’26† Classical Civilization
Zakariya Bouzid GH ’28† Undeclared
Trombones
Griffin Rupp YSM ’26*† Music
Beatrice Beale Tate PC ’28† Undeclared
Nathan Lange SY ’27† Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Euphoniums
Alfred Ma JE ’29 Music/Computer Science
Tubas
Benson Wang BK ’27*† Economics
Gregory Wolf TD ’26 Psychology
Lillian Adey MY ’29 Electrical Engineering
String Bass
Ziv Shah SM ’29† Undeclared
Piano/Celeste
Matthew Li MY ’29† Economics/Mathematics
Harp
Sebastian Gobbels YSM ’26§ Music
Organ
Rory Bricca ES ’26§ Music
Percussion (rotating)
Madeline Chun SM ’26*† Economics/Humanities
Nikolai Stephens-Zumbaum BF ’26*† Mechanical Engineering
Gaby Garcia SM ’29 Undeclared
Jacob Leshnower GH ’27† Statistics and Data Science/Music
Mirabel Solomon BF ’28 Undeclared
Tally Vaneman GH ’27† Astrophysics
Zahra Virani SY ’26† Urban Studies/History of Art
Kyle Thomas Ramos MY ’26§ Political Science
John Raskopf PC ’27§ Music
Max Su SY ’25§ Mathematics and Computer Science
Music Librarians
Allan An BR ’28 Music/Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Zahra Virani SY ’26 Urban Studies/History of Art
* principal
† playing on Precious Metal
‡ Friends of Keith L. Wilson (Director of Yale Bands from 1946-1973) honored him by endowing the principal clarinet chair in the Yale Concert Band in his name. If you would like information about naming a Yale Concert Band chair, please contact the Yale Bands Office.
§ playing on The Frozen Cathedral only