Pacific Wind Bands
Vu Nguyen, conductor
Joe Mazzaferro, trumpet
Jacquéline Hairston, graduate assistant conductor
Friday, November 7, 2025
7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
Conga del Fuego Nuevo (2001/2011)
Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) arr. Oliver Nickel
From the Delta (1945) Spiritual
William Grant Still (1895–1978)
Jacquéline Hairston, graduate assistant conductor
Selections from Miles Ahead
The Maids of Cadiz (1874/1957) by Léo Delibes (1836–1891)
The Duke (1955/1957) by Dave Brubeck (1920–2012)
New Rhumba (1955/1957) by Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023)
Joe Mazzaferro, trumpet
Suite of Old American Dances (1949)
Cakewalk
Western One-Step
Wallflower Waltz
Ragtime
arr. Gil Evans (1912–1988)
Robert Russell Bennett (1894–1981)
(b.
Márquez: Conga del Fuego Nuevo
Best known for his Danzón series, which includes the widely popular Danzón No. 2, Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) is no stranger to incorporating Latin American influences and culture into his music. Born in Sonora to a family of musicians, Márquez spent his early career studying across the country, practicing piano, violin, and music theory in both the United States and at the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico. Later, as a Fulbright Scholar, he studied composition in both France and later the California Institute of Arts. He has since enjoyed a prolific career composing both orchestral and chamber works. His most recent entry in the Danzón series, Danzón No. 9, was commissioned and premiered in 2017 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
Conga del Fuego Nuevo (Conga of New Fire) was written by Márquez following a commission for the Mexican festival “Festival del Tajín” held in north Veracruz. In a 2021 interview with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Márquez detailed his experience learning Veracruzano traditions, stating how the Veracruzano pioneers have very special traditions, some based on a “conga” that is danced every new year, called “The Conga of The Old Man.” He continued, “I loved a ritual that they do in Veracruz called ‘The New Fire,’ when a new period arrives.” Márquez is known for his use of different cultural traditions and rhythms in his music, including the danzón, which originates from the nearby Cuba. In the same interview, he described his love for the conga dance and its rhythms, stating that it has wonderful stories despite not being performed frequently, which led to the composition.
In Conga del Fuego Nuevo, the pace is very fast and energetic, with only one slower, lyric, section. The piece focuses on sounds traditionally found in the modern Mexican music setting, as well as those found in the Veracruzano tradition and the "conga." While several different areas of influence are present, including a strong and expressive trumpet presence and passages highlighting the repeated harmonic patterns in the strings and winds, the primary sound featured is that of the percussion. The percussion is led by several different Latin instruments, including congas, guiro, and claves, and they follow a specific rhythmic pattern during the piece, which is that of the "conga" dance. The conga dance features three steps on the beat and an additional strike that comes slightly before the fourth beat. This pattern is very present throughout the entirety of the piece, and it leads to several impactful moments by the percussion, including those provided by the tambourine and timpani. When asked about what to listen for during the piece, Márquez remarked that special attention must be paid to the
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percussion, noting that players must pay close attention to how they are blending the Latin instruments with the orchestral instruments as well as how they are playing their accents.
—Russell Wallace
Still: From the Delta
Known as the "Dean of African-American Classical Composers," William Grant Still has had the distinction of becoming a legend in his own lifetime. Born in Woodville, Mississippi on May 11, 1895, his parents were teachers and musicians. They came from a mixture of ethnic heritages including African American, Indigenous, Spanish, Irish and Scotch bloods. After his father's death, when William was only a few months old, his mother took him to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Still was the first to have a symphony performed by a major US orchestra (Symphony No. 1, Rochester Philharmonic, 1931); conduct a major symphony orchestra in the US (Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, 1936); have an opera produced by a major company in the US (Troubled Island in New York City, 1949); conduct a major symphony orchestra in the Deep South (New Orleans Philharmonic, 1955). Still wrote over 150 compositions including 8 operas, 4 ballets, 5 symphonies, numerous orchestral works, chamber works, and arrangements of folk themes, especially Negro spirituals.
William Grant Still composed four compositions for the wind band repertoire: Fanfare for the 99th Fighter Squadron (1945), From the Delta (1945), To You, America! (1951), and Folk Suite for Band (1963). From the Delta is a suite consisting of three movements: "Work Song," "Spiritual," and "Dance." It was first performed on June 17, 1947, by Richard Franko Goldman and the Goldman Band at the Central Park Mall Concert in New York City. The composer said, "This is the first time that I have tried to express in music the romance of the Delta country in my native state of Mississippi."
—Dane Teter
Evans: Selections from Miles Ahead
Gil Evans (Ian Ernest Gilmore Green) was born May 13, 1912, in Toronto, Canada, to Margaret Julia McConnachy; his father died before he was born. As a child, Evans and his mother moved frequently throughout the Pacific Northwest, where his mother got work as a cook in logging and mining camps in British Columbia, then in the US in Idaho, Montana, and Washington. She married a miner, John Evans, and the family settled in
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California when Gil was about 8 years old. Gil attended junior high school in Berkeley. It was there that he received informal piano lessons from a friend’s father, an avid jazz fan. From here on, Gil’s interest in music grew.
The Evans family moved to Stockton, California in 1928, where Gil entered high school as a junior, and started teaching himself about music. He spent many hours practicing the piano at the homes of friends, since he didn’t own one. He also spent a lot of time listening to jazz on records and on the radio. Evans formed his first small dance band with some school friends, playing arrangements of popular tunes that he painstakingly copied off of records.
Gil graduated from high school in 1930 and entered the College of the Pacific, Stockton, in the fall. He transferred to Modesto Junior College, and his band started getting more local jobs at college dances and resorts. Two years later, the band was based back in Stockton, and Gil Evans and His Orchestra, now a nine-piece band, became a local favorite.
In 1937, singer Skinny Ennis took over leadership of the band, retaining Evans as pianist and arranger as they moved to Hollywood, where they were regularly featured on the Bob Hope radio show. In 1941, Claude Thornhill, who had been associated with the Hope show, hired Evans as an arranger for his first orchestra, which lasted for seven years. Evans was influenced by Thornhill's unusual voicings, particularly for brass and woodwinds.
Evans settled permanently in New York in 1947, and his arrangements began to attract the attention of some of the beboppers of the time, including Miles Davis, John Lewis, and Gerry Mulligan. It was around this time that Evans' apartment became a meeting ground for these and other musicians’ conversational exchanges that led to the recording of Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool session for Capitol Records. Evans spent much of the 1950s as a freelance arranger, until 1957 when he began working with Davis on the first of their four collaborations, Miles Ahead. Over the next few years, Evans and Davis worked together on Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, and Quiet Nights.
—gilevans.com, National Endowment for the Arts
Bennett: Suite of Old American Dances
Robert Russell Bennett was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 15, 1894. At the age of 22 Bennett moved to New York where he would enjoy a brilliant career as an orchestrator of musicals. Bennett was credited with orchestrating more than 200 Broadway shows. He collaborated with almost every leading theater composer including Irving Berlin, George Gershwin,
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Vincent Youmans, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Frederick Loewe. His work earned him an Academy Award, an Emmy, and numerous other accolades.
Many quality composers began to take an interest in the wind band after World War II, and Bennett was no exception. After attending a concert by the Goldman Band celebrating the 70th birthday of Goldman himself, Bennett remarked:
“When Edwin Franko Goldman arrived at his 70th birthday, it was celebrated by a concert sponsored by the League of Composers. For the concert (January 3, 1948) they engaged the Goldman Band of New York and asked Dr. Goldman to conduct his own band in honor of his own anniversary. Louise and I went to that concert and I suddenly thought of all the beautiful sounds the American concert band could make that it hadn't yet made. That doesn't mean that the unmade sounds passed in review in my mind at all, but the sounds they made were so new to me after all my years with orchestra, dance bands and tiny "combos," that my pen was practically jumping out of my pocket begging me to give this great big instrument some more music to play.”
Bennett's inspiration resulted in his Suite of Old American Dances. Despite his excitement, Bennett was only able to work intermittently on the Suite because of other assignments. The parts were written in between the scoring of Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, and other shows. He wrote out the parts one at a time from sketches or a short score. Months would often elapse between the writing of each part, as he would have to leave New York to score a show, then write a few more parts upon his return. It took a year and a half from the time the work was first sketched until it was completed. Of this practice Bennett once wrote, ''To satisfy all this urging, I found time to put a good-sized piece on paper. There was really no such thing as spare time for me at that time, but somehow I got a part done here and there."
The Suite was shown to Dr. Goldman under the title Electric Park, which referred to an amusement park in Kansas City that Bennett recalled from his childhood. He described this park as, "A place of magic to us kids. The tricks with big electric signs, the illuminated fountains, the big band concerts, the scenic railway and the big dance hall. One could hear in the dance hall all afternoon and evening the pieces the crowd danced to."
The five movements of the suite reflect popular dances of the day, hence the name the publisher later supplied. (Bennett's original title Electric Park was
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never used.) "I had a nice name for it, but you know how publishers are— they know their customers, and we authors never seem to," Bennett commented.
—Edward Higgins
Ticheli: Blue Shades
In 1992 I composed a concerto, Playing with Fire, for the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony. That work was composed as a celebration of the traditional jazz music I heard so often while growing up near New Orleans.
Four years, and several compositions later, I finally took the opportunity to realize that need by composing Blue Shades. As its title suggests, the work alludes to the Blues, and a jazz feeling is prevalent—however, it is not literally a Blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found, and except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.
The work, however, is heavily influenced by the Blues: "Blue notes" (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly; Blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work; and many "shades of blue" are depicted, from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.
At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichés from the Big Band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman's hot playing style, and ushers in a series of "wailing" brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.
—Frank Ticheli
Vu Nguyen is an associate professor of music and director of bands at University of the Pacific. He conducts the Pacific Wind Bands, and he teaches courses in conducting and music education. Nguyen maintains an active schedule as a clinician and has served as guest conductor with military bands as well as honor bands across the country. Ensembles under his direction have performed at state music educator conferences, at the Midwest Clinic, and at the College Band Directors National Association Conference.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nguyen holds degrees in conducting from the University of Washington and the University of Oregon, and he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from University of the Pacific. Prior to his appointment at Pacific, he served in similar roles at the University of Connecticut, University of Indianapolis, and Washington University in St. Louis. He began his teaching career in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.
In addition to his academic career, Nguyen is a retired officer in the Air National Guard (ANG) where he was the commander and conductor of the ANG Band of the West Coast.
Joe Mazzaferro is associate director of jazz studies and associate professor of practice in jazz at University of the Pacific. As a trumpeter, educator, and composer, Mazzaferro is active in the Northern California jazz scene and in demand as a guest artist and clinician across the United States. Mazzaferro’s debut release In Terms of . . . (2017)—which features saxophonist Jeff Clayton along with special guests, drummer Carl Allen and pianist Donald Brown—received high praise from critics and was described as “vintage hard bop with maturity” (George Harris, Jazz Weekly).
Mazzaferro has gained critical acclaim as a composer and arranger and has arranged works for pianist Edward Simon, drummer Carl Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. In 2019 he contributed arrangements to Smoke Session Record’s release Bird at 100, commemorating the centennial of Charlie Parker’s birth, which featured alto saxophonists Vincent Herring, Bobby Watson, and Gary Bartz. Mazzaferro’s
July 2020 big-band release Talk About It! Live @ The CLARA features exclusively his arrangements and compositions.
Mazzaferro is a graduate of University of the Pacific (Bachelor of Music in music education) and the University of Tennessee (Master of Music in jazz and studio music).
Jacquéline Hairston is the director of bands at Franklin High School and currently in her thirteenth year as a music educator and her tenth year at Franklin High School. She received her degree in music education and clarinet performance from California State University, East Bay (formerly California State University, Hayward), and is currently pursuing a Master of Music in music education at University of the Pacific.
Still an active performer, Hairston performs with the Stockton Concert Band on clarinet and bass clarinet and continues her musical connection in the Bay Area by performing as a pit musician for children’s musical theatre companies during the winter and summer months. She is also a member of the California Band Directors Association, the Northern California Band Association, the Association of Black Women Band Directors, and the Minority Band Directors National Association.
PACIFIC WIND BANDS
The Pacific Wind Bands at University of the Pacific include students who represent music majors, minors, and non-majors from across Pacific. The ensemble performs at least four concerts each academic year. It provides students the opportunity to play a broad range of music for winds, brass, percussion, and keyboards drawn from a repertoire that honors the rich history of the past and looks to the future, ranging from chamber to full wind band instrumentation. Recent premieres and collaborations with composers include Kevin Bobo, Viet Cuong, Kevin Day, Shuying Li, Catherine Likhuta, Giovanni Santos, and Alex Shapiro.
Flutes
Emily Aires
William Alvarado
Katherine Dubie
Riko Hirata, piccolo
Henrie Notley
Anshini Parikh
Arianna Pereyra
Jasmine Valentine, piccolo
Ethan Williams
Oboes
Walker Austin
Gabriel Jarata
Elizabeth Ledesma, English horn
Ernesto Pena
Clarinets
Mitchell Amos
Edmund Bascon
Audrey Ewing
Kaitlyn Ferreira
Tommy Galvin, E-flat
Eligh Mann
Adrian Rodriguez
Mandujano
Noah Sapol, alto, contrabass
Andrew Seaver, bass
Leah Troutt
Bassoons
Enrique Valdez
Nadege Tenorio
Saxophones
Ray Cruz, baritone
Danielle Densmore, alto
Antrell Gulley, alto
Jacquéline Hairston, tenor
Horns
Ciera Alkhoury
Marcelo Contreras
Jas Lopez
Madison Ma
Don Parker
Lily Walter
Trumpets
Jack Alorro
Melony Arroyo
Parker Deems
Alex Maldonado
Alayna Ontai
Kamron Qasimi
Yukina Shimokawa
Amalia Silva
Trombones
Bronson Burfield
Miguel Palma
Radley Rutledge
Kiyo Sato
Matt Young, bass
Euphonium
Jayden Laumeister
Tubas
Seth Morris
Alejandro Villalobos
Bass
Kyle Saelee
Percussion
Hunter Campbell
Ryan Eads
Casey Kim
Janae Jones
Jay Leandado
Daegan Luster
Robert McCarl
Peter Norman
Snowden Snyder
Ti’Anna Thomas
Rei Vindiola
Pacific Faculty Coaches
Brittany Trotter, flute
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, English horn
Patricia Shands, clarinet
Nicolasa Kuster, bassoon
Ricardo Martinez, saxophone
Sadie Glass, horn
Alia Kuhnert, trumpet
Bruce Chrisp, trombone
Jonathan Seiberlich, tuba, euphonium
Kathryn Schulmeister, bass
Jonathan Latta, percussion
Jonathan Latta, ensembles program director
Breanna Daley, ensemble librarian
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