Concert Band Wind Ensemble 10.3.2025 by cmpaprograms

Program Notes

AYO (2022): Composer Katahj Copley has emerged as a significant voice in contemporary wind band music, with a style that draws from his life experiences and musical influences. Born in Georgia, his early exposure to gospel and jazz music deeply influenced his rhythmic and harmonic language. Copley often speaks about the importance of representing Black voices and culture in his work, and his music incorporates elements of hip-hop and R&B, giving it a modern and accessible feel. His compositional voice is characterized by vibrant energy, lush harmonies, and complex rhythmic interplay, creating a sound that is both emotionally resonant and intellectually stimulating.

AYO is a dynamic and exuberant piece that showcases Copley’s ability to blend diverse musical elements into a cohesive and thrilling experience. The title itself, “AYO”, is a common greeting in many cultures, and Copley uses this idea to create a sense of celebration and community within the music. The piece begins with a powerful, rhythmic motive that serves as the foundation for the entire work.

Copley writes:

Rooted from hip-hop and jazz culture, AYO is built in the Black language. It’s used to tell when something is right, when something is wrong, when something is awesome, and when something is too sweet for words. It’s use is seen with your closest people, your family, or people who know you best. It’s personal. In short, “AYO” is a personal embrace that an represent life. With this piece, I wanted to build the kind of embrace you would get from this word alone while also honoring its beginnings using hip-hop rhythms and colorful harmonies. By the end of the piece, we the listeners can go from uncertainty to home; and with the uniqueness of the piece, we in turn celebrate not only a word like AYO but also celebrate life.

Throughout the piece, Copley uses a wide range of colors and textures, from bright, brassy fanfares to lyrical, woodwind-driven passage, to create a sense of perpetual motion and joy. AYO is a testament to Copley’s unique voice, combining traditional wind band scoring with a fresh, contemporary sensibility.

With Quiet Courage (1995): Premiered by the United States Navy Band on September 16, 1995, With Quiet Courage was written for the composer’s mother.

Daehn writes:

Her life was heroic, but without fanfare. She worked and hoped and inspired. She loved and was loved.

Her life was a noble song of quiet courage.

Daehn, founder of Daehn Publications (1987), is a prominent figure in the world of American wind band music, both as a composer and a music publisher. His compositions, often characterized by their lyrical quality and emotional depth, have become staples in the repertoire for school and community bands.

Alligator Alley (2003): Michael Daugherty’s composition Alligator Alley refers to the nickname for the east-west stretch of Interstate 75 between Naples and Fort Lauderdale that crosses through the

Florida Everglades National Park. This park is home to many endangered species, one of them being the American alligator. One might see an alligator along the roadside when driving along this stretch of the road. The pieces captures the mysterious and wild essence of this unique ecosystem.

Daugherty crafts a dynamic narrative through two primary musical ideas. The first, which he calls the “alligator’s theme,” is a slithering motif played at the beginning by the bassoons, evoking the undulating movement of the reptile. This theme is contrasted with the second idea, a more aggressive and angular “hunter's theme,” performed by the brass and percussion. This theme includes sounds of an alligator snapping its jaws with two pieces of wood struck together. Through these contrasting themes and the imaginative use of instrumentation, Daugherty creates a vivid and compelling musical portrait of the Florida Everglades, a place where nature’s power and mystery are on full display.

Pentland Hills (1965): Pentland Hills, one of James Howe’s most popular marches, is named after a picturesque range of hills located just south of Edinburgh, Scotland. Composed in 1965, the march weaves together three traditional Scottish airs: “The Lass O’ Gowrie,” “John Anderson, My Jo’,” and “The Rowan Tree.” Today, this iconic march remains a staple of the British Army’s ceremonial repertoire. It is particularly associated with the ceremony Trooping the Colour, marking the official birthday of the British Sovereign, and is performed by the H.M. Scots Guards, a military band which Major Howe would later serve as the Director of Music.

Program Notes by Dr. George Shannon II, School of Music Faculty

Morning Star (1999): David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory studying clarinet with George Waln and composition with Joseph Wood. He studied for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and completed graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed. His works for winds and percussion have become standard in the wind band repertory. They include A Child’s Garden of Dreams for symphonic wind ensemble, Concerto for Piano, Winds, and Percussion, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Symphonies. Percussion works include Arcadia II: Concerto for Marimba and Percussion Ensemble, and Montana Music: Three Dances for Percussion. His catalogue also contains a wide variety of chamber, orchestral, and choral pieces.

Maslanka’s style is characterized by a very contemporary blend of lyricism and rhythmic drive, coupled with an uncanny and remarkable ear for musical sonorities. Particularly in his well-known and acclaimed works for wind band, the music is notable for its poetry, warmth, and spiritual quality. Inspiration is frequently drawn from such fascinating sources as the work of psychologist Carl Jung (A Child’s Garden of Dreams), the work of African writer Ahmadou Kourouma (Tears), and theh poetry of Richard Beale (A Litany for Courage and the Seasons, Mass).

The composer writes:

Morning Star was a surprise to me. In planning the piece, I came up with a great many ideas enough for three or four pieces. When it came time to compose, I suddenly discarded all of the material and took up a little tune that came to mind. The result is a happy piece, a concept which does not usually attach itself to my music. The piece is a rondo shape with the primary tune being set in a series of variations 32 in all. The orchestration, while offering enough to brass and percussion, strongly emphasizes wind color and open sounds. Morning Star is about beginnings: the dawning of a new day, the beginning of lifie, and the newness for those who are hearing it now.

Bury and Rise (2023): In February of 2022, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine and launched an offensive on the capital city of Kyiv. Fierce Ukrainian resistance followed, and Russian forces were pushed back. Airstrikes to the city were devastating, and one of the many casualties was the mother of Catherine Likhuta, a Ukrainian-born composer living in Australia. As the war continued, Likhuta repressed many of her feelings about loss and the atrocities committed in her homeland. In 2023, the Dallas Winds a professional wind ensemble in Dallas, Texas sought her to write a work about the ongoing struggle. Bury and Rise presents a tragedy and lament with the stoicism and resilience of the Ukrainian people. Tonal and rhythmic content mimic styles of traditional folk instruments such as the sopilka (a flute-like instrument), trembita (a long wooden horn), and bandura (a plucked string instrument).

The composer writes:

The title of this piece, Bury and Rise, is a loose translation of a line from the iconic poem Zapovit (“Testament”, 1861), by Taras Shevchenko, arguably the most important artist for the Ukrainian identity. Shevchenko asks to bury him when he passes and then rise to defend the homeland. That is exactly what Ukrainians have done. Bury and Rise will be an ambitious project celebrating their spirit, their never-ending optimism against all odds, and as a news reporter recently put it their stamina as the fastest renewable energy source.

In evening’s stillness… (1996): The music of Joseph Schwantner is identifiably modern, displaying notable characteristics of minimalism the use of simple material in creation of musical and visual art. Schwantner, a Pulitzer-prize winning composer, taught on the faculties of Julliard, Eastman, and Yale schools of music. In evening’s stillness… is a refined example of compositional techniques and use of limited material to maximum effect. Based upon Schwantner’s own poem of the same name, the work begins with distant bass drum roll, setting an ethereal mood for solo amplified piano which plays a series of motives, serving as the basis for all melodic material found in the work. The work alternates between three distinct sections: a raucous fanfare, a lyrical and rhythmic ostinato utilizing a brass chorale in asymmetric meter, and a return of the opening section exploiting woodwind timbres and muted brass in extreme registers The music closes with a restatement of the lyrical ostinato, repeating until the texture disintegrates, leaving the solo piano and percussion to finish the last statement of the ostinato.

Variations on ‘America’ (1891/1968): Charles Ives is revered as one of America’s most innovative composers. His Third Symphony won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947, and the centennial of his birthday was highly celebrated. However, Ives’ musical genius went largely unnoticed by the American public until almost 20 years after his last composition. Born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1874, Ives was greatly influenced by his father, George a civil war bandleader with a penchant for musical experimentation. George Ives introduced his son to musical techniques of polytonality and multiple meters. As a youth, Charles was made to sing in one key while his father accompanied on the piano in another. In his teens, Charles held a position as a church organist and began to compose. Early compositions, including a slow march for the funeral of his cat, contained quotations of familiar tunes imbued with his unique approach to tonality and rhythm.

At the age of seventeen, he composed Variations on ‘America’ for organ. The piece uses the tune America as a basis for a theme and variations, reflecting not only metrical and tonal diversity, but complete shifts in musical genre. After a brief introduction, Ives subjects the melody to five variations that incorporate a satiric barber shop cadence closing the second variation, a Spanish fandango, and a simultaneous statement of the melody in two different keys. The fifth variation, characterized by a lively trumpet solo, was originally scored by Ives for the organ pedals two

octaves below, and bore the marking “as fast as the pedals can go.” Ives noted in an old manuscript of the work, “This passage was often played by the pedals while the left hand hung on to the bench.” While the work was composed as a serious piece of music, Ives noted that his father would not allow portions of it to be played in church as it “upset the elderly ladies and made the little boys laugh.” The current arrangement, transcribed by William Rhoads in 1968, is based upon William Schuman’s orchestral transcription premiered on May 20, 1964, by the New York Philharmonic.

Program Notes by Dr. Barry Kraus, School of Music Faculty

Concert Band Personnel

Flute

Emma Berride Classical Performance Richmond, VA

Camilla Clark

Music Business Minneapolis, MN

Ashley Feely Biology Wayland, NY

Barbara Hogue

Paige Marlow

Joseph Ramirez

Audio Engineering Technology Valley Stream, NY

Music Education and Music Theory Nashville, TN

Music Business Tucson, AZ

Lola Virelli* Elementary Education | Music Minor Batavia, IL

Oboe

Briana Crowder

Music Business Glasgow, KY

Will Fedak* Classical Oboe Performance Atlanta, GA

Bassoon

Ian Burns* Finance | Music Minor Northbrook, IL

Brooklyn Smith Music Education Pulaski, TN

Clarinet

Emily Bonham

Audio Engineering Technology Magnolia, TX

Morgan Franklin Music Smyrna, TN

Alayna Lepore

Music Therapy Skanee, MI

Addison Patrick* Undeclared Branson, MO

Trinity Whitaker

Audio Engineering Technology Swannanoa, NC

Bass Clarinet

Coltrane Frenton

Alto Saxophone

Joseph Aey

Conner Burchwell

Evan Gorsline

Annelise Pérez

Shane Taylor

Magdalena Turner*

Tenor Saxophone

Whitney Gabriel

Megan Gretz

David Hofmiller

Audio Engineering Technology San Mateo, CA

Music Technology Youngstown, OH

Music Education Nashville, TN

Music Business Mt. Juliet, TN

Social Entrepreneurship Chattanooga, TN

Commercial Music Portsmouth, RI

Audio Engineering Technology | Mathematics/Studio Art Minor Lititz, PA

Music Education Batavia, IL

Music Education Charlotte, NC

Audio Engineering Technology Clarksville, TN

Katie Kirstenpfad Marketing Chino Hills, CA

Ainsley Mahoney*

Baritone Saxophone

Logan Abramo

Livi Crawford*

Trumpet

Joanna Bello

John Berns*

Music Education Stanford, IL

Audio Engineering Technology Annapolis, MD

Music Therapy Chula Vista, CA

Audio Engineering Technology Seaford, NY

Music Education Oconee, IL

Evan Boling Biology Nashville, TN

Zachariah Govan

Classical Performance Parkland, FL

Jackson Karlovsky Architecture Fox River Grove, GA

Evan Pinkston

Music Education Nolensville, TN

Ayvah Steveson Composition Franklin, TN

Jack Winn

French Horn

Eva Christmann*

Kevin Randles

Valerie Zillgitt

Music Therapy Orlando, FL

Neuroscience Cleveland, TN

Music Business Chicago, IL

Film and Television Writing Muskego, WI

Trombone

Jordan Nguyen*

Knyah Mattison

Euphonium

Music Education Nashville, TN

Music Business O’Fallon, IL

Katie Funk Elementary Education Irvine, CA

Tuba

Andrew Itzla

Music Education Briarcliff Manor, NY

Lincoln Karlovsky* Data Science Fox River Grove, IL

Percussion

Harper Benjamin

Commercial Music Valparaiso, IN

Savannah Cummings Music Business Ashby, MA

Isaiah Haynes Applied Mathematics Nashville, TN

Jayce Howard Computer Science Detroit, MI

Presley Kane Music Business New Lenox, IL

Jai Morton-Cox Biology Nashville, TN

Bryce Rosenberg Classical Performance | English Minor Las Vegas, NV

Karissa Szarek*

Flute

Brienna Duteau

Music Education Mt. Juliet, TN

*principal

Wind Ensemble Personnel

Music Business Townsend, MA

Jake King Classical Performance Chicago, IL

Mya Ploor** Multiple Woodwinds Sturgeon Bay, WI

Hannah Steele Audio Engineering Technology Mishawaka, IN

Brendan Wilson* Classical Performance Glasgow, KY

Oboe

Lily Chantler

Dillon Ellington

Music Education Clarksville, TN

Commercial Music Gallatin, TN

Amanda Rebstock*/** Classical Pedagogy and Performance Nashville, TN

Shawn Redmond** Multiple Woodwinds Ellwood City, PA

Bassoon

Lucy Guthrie

Cayman Hogue

Emily Okamura*

Harrison Sampson*

Brooklyn Smith

Clarinet

Michelle Babyak*

Jojo Fisher

Morgan Franklin

Natalia Johnson

Heidi Linhart

Tommy Steele

Kylie Watson

Bass Clarinet

Music Education Nashville, TN

Classical Performance Fernandina Beach, FL

Music Therapy Dallas, TX

Classical Performance Newport, TN

Music Education Pulaski, TN

Music Education Shorewood, IL

Commercial Performance Nashville, TN

Music Education Smyrna, TN

Music Business Columbia, MO

Audio Engineering Technology Grapevine, TX

Music San Antonio, TX

Psychology Ankeny, IA

Chloe Schmidt Publishing Murfreesboro, TN

Jude Whalen

Alto Saxophone

Jamie Heuser*

Camm Lary IV

Justin Whitaker

Tenor Saxophone

Ted Bielecke

Charles Greene

Baritone Saxophone

Dylan Ahrens

Trumpet

John Berns

Duncan Blackstock

Zachariah Govan

Jackson Henderson

Music Business Cincinnati, OH

Commercial Music St. Charles, IL

Commercial Music Austin, TX

Music Education Antioch, TN

Commercial Music Woonsocket, RI

Entertainment Industry Studies Bowling Greene, KY

Composition and Music Theory Annandale, VA

Music Education Oconee, IL

Music Education The Villages, FL

Classical Performance Parkland, FL

Music Education Frisco, TX

Isabella Jones

Music Education and Classical Performance Nashville, TN

Kristen Lester Music Education Dallas, GA

Turner Avila

Luke Woody*

French Horn

Holden Cessna*

John Berns

Classical Performance Pittsburgh, PA

Classical Performance Sharpsburg, MD

Classical Performance Clearville, PA

Music Education Oconee, IL

Duncan Blackstock Music Education The Villages, FL

Zachariah Govan

Jackson Henderson

Isabella Jones

Kristen Lester

Turner Avila

Luke Woody*

Grace Helton

Caroline Holmes

Ellie McClellan

Classical Performance Parkland, FL

Music Education Frisco, TX

Music Education and Classical Performance Nashville, TN

Music Education Dallas, GA

Classical Performance Pittsburgh, PA

Classical Performance Sharpsburg, MD

Music Therapy Sarasota, FL

Music Education Plymouth, MA

Classical Performance Orem, UT

Alli Voyles Music Franklin, TN

Trombone

Dawson Fulcher

Caedmon Goettel

Composition Evansville, IN

Classical Performance Franklin, TN

Jude Hasenpflug Music Butler, PA

Luke Myers*

Euphonium

Adam Chavez*

Annabelle Simmons

Tuba

Bryce Bobo

Hudson Butler*

Music Education Omaha, NE

Commercial Performance Mount Pleasant, SC

Audio Engineering Technology Mascoutah, IL

Audio Engineering Technology Lucas, TX

Music Education Nashville, TN

Percussion

Cole Counihan

Rebecca Dillon**

Peter Drescher

Braxton Hill

Gramm Raedeke*

Joshua Wingard

Harp

Audrey Smith

Piano

Sebastian Gomelsky

String Bass

Ryan Stone

Classical Performance Naperville, IL

Commercial Performance and Pedagogy Round Rock, TX

Classical Performance Spring Hill, TN

Classical Performance Opelika, AL

Classical Performance St. Louis, MO

Classical Performance Flintstone, GA

Classical Performance Cincinnati, OH

Classical Performance Shreveport, LA

Classical Performance Signal Mountain, TN *principal **graduate student

Upcoming Concerts and Events

Musical Theatre

Anything Can Happen in the Theatre: The Musical World of Maury Yeston

Friday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 4, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 5, 2:00 p.m. Massey Concert Hall

This is a ticketed event, Students may purchase tickets at the Belmont Box Office

Jazz Small Groups II & III

Monday, October 6, 7:30 p.m. Harton Recital Hall

For more information on upcoming concerts and events, please visit www.belmont.edu/cmpa or “like” Belmont University School of Music on Facebook.

Concert Band Wind Ensemble 10.3.2025

Belmont University School of Music