Yale Concert Band

Yale Concert Band

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director

Fall Concert Friday, October 12, at 7:30 pm

Woolsey Hall, Yale University

orch. IGOR STRAVINSKY The Star Spangled Banner (1941) trans. Charles Cushing ANDREAS MAKRIS arr. Major Albert Bader

Aegean Festival Overture (1970)

RICHARD WAGNER arr. Erik Leidzen

Trauersinfonie (1949)

SANDY MEHINOVIC

American Fanfare (2001)

RON NELSON

Medieval Suite (1983) I. Homage to Leonin II. Homage to Perotin III. Homage to Machaut

JOHN MACKEY Asphalt Cocktail (2009) ~ INTERMISSION ~

JEFF TYZIK

VIET CUONG

Riffs (2009)

Jonathan Allen, drum set Sound and Smoke (2011)

About Tonight’s Music The Star-Spangled Banner (1814/1941) Harmonized and orchestrated by Igor Stravinsky (Transcribed for band by Charles Cushing)

“Searching about for a vehicle through which I might best express my gratitude at the prospect of becoming an American citizen, I chose to harmonize and orchestrate as a national choral[e] the beautiful sacred anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.

“It is a desire to do my bit in these grievous times toward fostering and preserving the spirit of patriotism in this country that inspires me to tender this my humble work to the American people.” ‒ Igor Stravinsky, October 1941

Trauersinfonie: Funeral Music on Themes from Euryanthe by C. M. Von Weber (1949) Richard Wagner (Revised for Symphonic Band by Erik Leidzen)

In contrast to the grand sweep of his famous operas based on Norse and Germanic myth, the Trauersinfonie is remarkable for its relatively limited scope. The work premiered in 1844 as a small piece for wind ensemble written to commemorate the reburial of Carl Maria von Weber, viewed by many as Wagner’s predecessor in the tradition of German Romantic opera. The work was originally conceived as an outdoor procession; its slow, reverent strains draw heavily on material from Weber’s opera Euryanthe, a work greatly influential in Wagner’s own development as a composer.

American Fanfare (2001) Sandy Mehinovic

Sandy Mehinovic holds a bachelor’s degree in Composition and Music Theory from Sarajevo University, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He holds two Master’s degrees in Composition: one from the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia and the other from SUNY at Stony Brook, New York. He has won numerous awards, including the SUNY at Stony Brook Scholarship, awards for composing work (American Fanfare), awards for choral music, children’s songs, ear training and sight-singing competitions, and for his educational work. He has written chamber music, music for solo instruments, as well as choral, orchestral, electronic and computer music.

American Fanfare was written in honor of the grand opening of the Music Library at the SUNY at Stony Brook in the year 2001. Originally scored for a brass quintet, American Fanfare will be performed this time in an even more glorious setting by the Yale Concert Band. Mr. Mehinovic writes: “While living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a lot of good jazz and Western movie music. The reflection of these influences can be heard in American Fanfare.”

YALE CONCERT BAND Medieval Suite (1981) Ron Nelson

This piece was written in homage to three great masters of the Middle Ages: Leonin (middle 12th century), Perotin (c. 1155-1200), and Machaut (c. 1300-1377). These are neither transcriptions of their works nor attempts at emulating their respective styles. Rather, their music served as a sort of launching pad for three pieces that draw on some of the stylistic characteristics of music from that period.

Homage to Leonin evokes his sinuous melodic style and use of Gregorian chant. Homage to Perotin springs from his viderunt, with its driving rhythmic intensity, repetition, and pedal points. Homage to Machaut evokes the stately, gently syncopated and flowing sounds of this master of choral writing.

Asphalt Cocktail (2009) John Mackey

“Several years ago, when I was living in Manhattan, I was walking down Columbus Avenue with my good friend (and fellow composer) Jonathan Newman. Somehow, the topic of titles for pieces came up, and Newman said a title that stopped me in my tracks there on the sidewalk: Asphalt Cocktail.

“I begged him to let me use the title. ‘That title screams Napoleonic Testosterone Music. I was born to write that!’ I pleaded. ‘No,’ was his initial response. I asked regularly over the next few years, and the answer was always the same: ‘No. It’s mine.’ In May 2008, I asked him once again, begging more pathetically than I had before, and his answer this time surprised me: ‘Fine,’ he said, ‘but I’ll be needing your first-born child.’ This was easily agreeable to me, as I don’t like kids.

“Around this same time, my wife and I were talking to Kevin Sedatole about his upcoming performance at the CBDNA National Convention. It was my wife who suggested to Kevin, after coaxing him with cocktails ourselves, that I write a piece to open his CBDNA concert, and that piece should be Asphalt Cocktail. Kevin told his friend Howard J. Gourwitz about the idea for the piece, and Howard generously agreed to personally fund the commission as a gift to Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony. The piece is dedicated to Jonathan Newman, because without his title I’d have written a completely different piece, like Bandtastic!: A Concert Prelude.

“Asphalt Cocktail is a five-minute opener, designed to shout, from the opening measure, ‘We’re here.’ With biting trombones, blaring trumpets, and percussion dominated by cross-rhythms and back beats, it aims to capture the grit and aggression that I associate with the time I lived in New York. Picture the scariest NYC taxi ride you can imagine, with the cab skidding around turns as trucks bear down from all sides.

“Serve on the rocks.” ‒ John Mackey

Sound and Smoke (2011) Viet Cuong

“Both the title and concept of Sound and Smoke were derived from a line from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Faust, when Faust equates words to ‘mere sound and smoke’ and declares that ‘feeling is everything.’ Each of the two movements has been given an abstract, parenthetical title to further incorporate Goethe’s conjecture that words will never be able to fully express what feelings and, in this case, music can. Therefore, these titles serve merely as starting points for personal interpretation and should not interfere with the music itself.

“The first movement, (feudal castle lights), blurs the many different timbres of the ensemble to create a resonant and slowly ‘smoldering’ effect. Because reverb is essentially built into the orchestration, harmonies must shift using common tones and are always built upon the notes preceding them. The second and final movement, (avalanche of eyes), opens with an alternating unison-note brass fanfare that is then spun out into a fast-paced toccata. Suspense and excitement are created as the spotlight moves quickly between the various colors of the ensemble and the fanfare is transformed.

“The original concept of ‘sound and smoke’ unifies these two otherwise dissimilar movements; ideas are often presented and then promptly left behind or transformed. Musical events therefore appear and dissipate as quickly as sound and smoke.”

- Viet Cuong

Upcoming Yale Bands Performances

• Saturday, October 13, 2012: Yale Family Weekend Concert. Yale Glee Club, Jeffrey Douma, Music Director; Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director; Yale Symphony Orchestra, Toshiyuki Shimada, Music Director. 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Wednesday, October 17, 2012: Yale Jazz Ensemble. Works by Toshiko Akiyoshi, Thad Jones, Gordon Goodwin, Stephen Sondheim, Greg Hopkins, Thelonius Monk, Scott Arcangel; and David Mann’s In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, featuring Dominic Coles CC ‘16, guitar. 7:30 pm, Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free.

• Friday, November 30, 2012: Yale Concert Band: New Haven Concert, featuring the Yale Glee Club. A New Haven Psalter (premiere) by Ingram Marshall, featuring the Yale Glee Club; Rocket Sleigh (Delvyn Case); Jerusalem the Golden (Charles Ives, arr. Keith Brion); The Alcotts (Charles Ives, trans. Richard Thurston); Bulldog, Bingo, Whoop It Up (Cole Porter); An American in Paris (George Gershwin); A Parisian in America (Thomas C. Duffy); Poem and Dance (Quincy Porter, arr. Keith L. Wilson). 7:30 pm, Woolsey Hall. Free.

• Sunday, December 2, 2012: Yale Jazz Ensemble at the GPSCY. Two concerts of cabaret jazz, with small and large ensembles. 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Yale’s GPSCY Bar, 204 York St., New Haven. Free.

YALE CONCERT BAND

About Tonight’s Guest Performer Jonathan Allen is a contemporary percussionist with a broad skill set ranging from jazz to orchestral playing. He graduated with distinction from the Eastman School of Music in 2011 with a degree in percussion performance and his Performer’s Certificate. He is currently studying at the Yale School of Music, pursuing a master’s degree in percussion performance and literature and performing with the world-renowned Yale Percussion Group. Jonathan has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg where he gave respective performances in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Schloss Höch Castle outside Salzburg. He was also a founding member of The Volta Trio, a percussion trio based out of Rochester, which gave performances and clinics throughout the Northeast and commissioned/premiered works from notable composers. He is a native of Cheshire, CT, and a 2007 graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall.

About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy (b. 1955), composer and conductor, is Professor (adjunct) of Music and Director of Bands at Yale University. He served as Acting Dean of the School of Music in 2005-2006, having served as Associate Dean since 1996 and Deputy Dean ­­ since 1999. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee and was a member of the historic Tanglewood II Symposium (2007). He attended the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education in 2005. He has served as president of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) and the New England College Band Association (NECBA), 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, and has represented music education in Yale’s Teacher Preparation Program. He is member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, Connecticut Composers Inc., the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and BMI. An active composer with a D.M.A. in composition from Cornell University, where he was a student of Karel Husa and Steven Stucky, he has accepted commissions from the American Composers Forum, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Field Band, and numerous bands, choruses and orchestras. He joined the Yale faculty in 1982.

In 2009 he received an award from the United States Attorney’s Office for his innovative program with the Yale Concert Band (Yale 4Peace Rap for Justice) which, through the integration of classical and rap music, addressed gangs, crime and violence in Connecticut’s cities.

For further information please contact: Yale University Bands P.O. Box 209048, New Haven, CT 06520–9048 ph: (203) 432–4113; fax: (203) 432–7213 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu; www.yale.edu/yaleband

YALE CONCERT BAND 2012-2013 THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE T. HUBBARD, Business Manager Piccolo Joohee Son SY 15

Bass Clarinet Ben Weissler CC 15

Flute Leah Latterner CC 14 Principal Paige Breen SY 16 Ariana Hackenburg GSAS 17 Lance Banks ES 15 Rebecca Su SM 16 Monica Ague SM 14 Vicky Tu DC 16

Bassoon Nick Baskin ES 14 Principal Miguel Goncalves ES 16 Elizabeth Qi CC 16

Oboe Mason Ji MC 16 Principal Jessica Hallam SM 16 English Horn Mason Ji MC 16 Eb Clarinet Carrie Cao MC 15 Clarinet Albert Jiao SY 16 Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair Eugene Kim BK 16 Acshi Haggenmiller MC 15 Daniel Hwang TC 16 Molly Haig DC 14 Catherine Holland ES 16 Liz Jones BR 15 James Mandilk SY 13 Carrie Cao MC 15 Nathan Prillaman JE 13 Melinda Becker TC 15 Rachel Yen SM 14 Paul Singer JE 16 Rachel Lawrence DC 16

Contrabassoon Elizabeth Qi CC 16 Alto Saxophone Alex Pappas SM 15 Principal Alyssa Hasbrouck MC 14

Trombone Emily Massey JE 14 Principal Noah Steinfeld MC 14 Kevin Dombrowski YSM 14 Timothy Hilgert YSM 13 Euphonium Stephen Ivany YSM 14 Tuba James Volz SY 15 Billy Dietz YSM 13 Harp Antoine Malette-ChĂŠnier YSM 14

Tenor Saxophone William Gearty BR 14

Piano David Molina TD 15

Baritone Saxophone Catherine Stark BR 16

Percussion Chase Young CC 13 Principal Samuel Anklesaria ES 15 Victor Caccese YSM 13 Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez YSM 13 Kate Gonzales CC 11 Erin Maher SM 14 Anne Schweikert BK 15

Trumpet Jean Laurenz YSM 13 Principal Robby Moser YSM 14 William Thomas PC 16 Joshua Stein TD 13 Connor Moseley BK 14 Jeffrey March TD 15 Sagar Setru BR 13

Music Librarian Nick Baskin ES 14

French Horn Craig Hubbard YSM 13 Principal Samuel Nemiroff JE 16 Sarah Au Wing Lam YSM 14 Austin Long CC 15

YALE CONCERT BAND OFFICERS

President: Sagar Setru Personnel Manager: Katherine McDaniel General Managers: Monica Ague, Erin Maher Media Specialist: Rachel Yen Social Chairs: Melinda Becker, Annie Schweikert