Wind Orchestra February 2024 Program

Feb. 6, 2024

February 6th, 2024, 7:30pm, Theatre Auditorium
Laurier Wind Orchestra
Director, LaToya A. Webb
Wind Orchestra Roster

Program

Panoramic Landscapes by Tyler S. Grant (b.1995)

On Shores of Endless Sea by Kevin Day (b. 1996)

The Nature of Trees by Cait Nishimura (b.1991)

EARTHDANCE by Michael Sweeney (b. 1952)

Stillwater by Kelijah Dunton (b.1999)

Three Ayres from Gloucester by Hugh M. Stuart (b. 1969), arr. Robert Longfield

Program Notes

Tyler S. Grant is an internationally recognized composer, arranger, conductor, and clinician of music for concert bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles of all levels.

“Since my early childhood, nature has been a major part of my life. Whether it be hiking in the woods, camping in the mountains, or sitting by a lake, I have always found that “the great outdoors” provides me with a tremendous amount of inspiration. Panoramic Landscapes is a musical depiction the awe-inspiring scenery that I find myself surrounded by on a regular basis.

Originally scored for brass and percussion, this work was performed by members of the Dallas Wind Symphony and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra as a winning composition in the DWS’s “Call for Fanfares” competition. While remaining true to the original, I have expanded the thematic material in a way that exhibits greater harmonic color and stunning panoramic imagery.”

- Program Note by composer

Kevin Day is an internationally acclaimed composer, conductor, and jazz pianist currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Laurier. His music has been performed by some of the world’s top instrumental soloists, wind bands, chamber ensembles, and symphony orchestras.

On Shores of Endless Sea was commissioned for the Tyler Junior College Wind Ensemble in Tyler Texas. It is a lyrical composition for band that is based on a verse from the hymn entitled “Called by Earth and Sky.” The composition depicts feelings of serenity, while longing for a paradise of immerse beauty and majesty. A place where endless seas and endless peace abide.

Precious these waters endless seas, deep ocean’s dream,

Water of healing, rivers of rain, the wash of love again.

- Program Note by composer

Cait Nishimura (she/her) is a Japanese Canadian composer based in Waterloo, Ontario. Known for writing nature-inspired, programmatic music, Cait has established herself as a prominent voice in the concert band community. Cait’s music has been presented at The Midwest Clinic, MusicFest Canada, and numerous other international conferences and festivals.

The Nature of Trees is dedicated to everyone in the music education community. To me, the nature of trees is love, resilience, patience, strength, adaptability, interconnectedness, and so much more. The nature of trees is to co-create an environment in which everyone can thrive, and I think this is a perfect metaphor for what we do in music education.

This piece was commissioned by the National Band Association [NBA] at Indiana University [IU] to be premiered by the IU Concert Band, conducted by Dr. Jason Nam. The students asked me to create a piece that would explore the emotional experience of returning to band after an extended hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I wanted to give them something hopeful, but I also wanted to be honest. This chapter of our lives has been tumultuous, heartbreaking, and transformative; we are not returning to the world we knew before. Writing this piece meant facing these feelings and allowing them to exist alongside gratitude and optimism. And so, this piece includes a wide spectrum of emotions, including moments of joy, yearning, hesitation, nostalgia, and of course, hope.

The members of the NBA-IU collaborated with the IU Center for Rural Engagement, and invited four local high school bands and their directors to participate in this project: Paoli High School (Bill Laughlin and Christian Karkosky); Salem High School (Bonnie Harmon); Brown County High School (Matt Finley); and Southridge High School (Lannie Butler). I am grateful to these communities for their support of this project and thrilled to have been able to contribute to a meaningful musical experience for their students.

As a small gesture of appreciation to the trees that sustain all life and provide inspiration for music such as this, one dollar from every sale of this piece is donated to Tree Canada. To learn about this organization and their meaningful work, visit https://treecanada.ca.

- Program Note by composer

Michael Sweeney is an ASCAP award-winning American composer and musician. He is currently Director of Band Publications for Hal Leonard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of the largest publishers of printed music in the world. Prior to working for Hal Leonard, he was a band director in Ohio and Indiana, working with successful concert, jazz and marching programs at all levels from elementary to high school.

In celebration of mankind's connection to our planet, EARTHDANCE is an extraordinary work for band uses an intriguing array of composition devices and captivating melodies. Listeners are immersed in a simulated rainstorm, the sounds of world drumming, overlapping tone clusters and textures, and finally a dance of jubilation as the piece comes to a satisfying and rewarding finish.

- Program Note from publisher

Kelijah Dunton is a New York-based composer. He studied alto saxophone through school and continues to be an active performer with New York City's own metropolitan music community. Dunton’s significant musical moments include performing in NYC honor bands, competitive NYSSMA festivals, traveling to prestigious music colleges, sitting in with various award-winning jazz bands, and most recently performing with an MMC community band for all ages and music education levels.

Stillwater was inspired by the beauty of a small town, Stillwater, Minnesota. This town has a big lake in its center, and out of everyone’s backyard it could be seen. During the winter, the very top of the lake freezes and creates this tranquil effect that could not be seen, but heard. When stepping out into your backyard, you’d see this frozen mass, stuck into place and completely unmovable, but if you listened closely, you could hear that the water underneath continued to flow.

Why is this important?

We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves, we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belongings.

- Program Note by composer

Hugh M. Stuart was an American composer, arranger and educator. He received his music training from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Columbia Teachers College, Rutgers University, Newark State College, and the University of Michigan. Stuart taught instrumental music in the schools of Maryland and New Jersey for 33 years and conducted several brass bands and ensembles. He also taught at various clinics and workshops for winds. Stuart wrote more than 100 published compositions, arrangements, method books, band and orchestral collections, solos, and ensembles in the educational field.

Three Ayres from Gloucester, a three-movement suite written in the early English folksong style is a piece that came into being as a result of the composer's fascination with an old 10th century couplet: "There's no one quite so comely As the Jolly Earl of Cholmondeley."

The resulting three compositions, The Jolly Earl of Cholmondeley [pronounced "Chumley"], Ayre for Eventide and The Fiefs of Wembley, are in early English folk song style and are designed to capture the mood of the peasants and their life on the fiefs of Wembley castle.

- Program Note from score