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Publication Date

12-2-2010

Year of Release

2010

Note(s)

Steven R. Barnett, conductor

Dr. Mark Zanter, electric guitar soloist

Personnel:

Allison Kessinger, Aaron Sowards-piccolo, April Bennett, Shey Dillon, Ashley Hughes, Clara Metz, Madelyn Mazzeo, flute

Adam Rhodes-1st, Allie Hughes, Christa Fry, Kayla Honaker-2nd, Ryan Striker, Emilea Burgh, Olivia Hughes, Tessa Gore-3rd, Kaitlyn Miller, Josh Blair, Rebecca Adkins, Emily Hall, Hanna Bird-bass, Ashley Gilbert, clarinet

Carl Hamlin, Phillip Bailey, alto saxophone

Zack Merritt, tenor saxophone

Chris Kimes, baritone, saxophone

Isaac Winland, Ben Stern, Chris Chapman, Cliff Workman, Brandon Layman, Josh Abbott, trumpet

Billy Holderby, Arleigh Dickerson, Kristen Bobuk, Kristen Liegy, Mindy Kelle, horn

Hugo Pinto, Katie Ferber, Ben Fredrick, Karen Barnett, Tyler Cannon-bass, trombone

Briana Williams, Matt Drummer, euphonium

Tyler Davis, Matt Kelly, Josh Sharp, tuba

Aaron Statler, James Hairston, Jenna Palmer, Mike Cochran, Joe Crowe, Tyler Stewart, Reece Watkins, Keith Bailey, percussion

Chris Miller, piano

Program Notes

Samuel R. Hazo is the first composer in history to be awarded the winner of both composition contests sponsored by the National Band Association. He is a full member of ASCAP and has been honored with multiple ASCAP-Plus Awards. Mr. Hazo has composed for the professional, university and public school levels in addition to writing original scores for television, radio and the stage. Mr. Hazo has been a music teacher at every educational grade level from kindergarten through college, including tenure as a high school and university director. His original compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard, Boosey and Hawkes, FJH Music and Wingert-Jones Publications.

... Go is written in honor of the 30th year of Carol Lynn Mizell's tenure as conductor of the Denton Texas Community Band. Ms. Mizell was the first person to purchase a published edition of Mr. Hazo's music. ... Go was written to be an impact-filled opener that would truly set the concert hall on notice. He wanted to offer the wind band world an obvious lead-off hitter with power.

Mark Zanter, an active composer/performer, has received commissions from the UIUC Creative Music Orchestra, CU Symphony, the American Composers forum, the WV Commission on the Arts, WVMTA, Due East, Solen Dikener, Rick Kurasz, Cetin Aydar and many others. He has appeared as a composer and performer on NPR's Live at the Landmark, WILL, IPR, Second Sunday concerts, on WVPN In Touch With The Arts, is published by Les Productions d'OZ, and Beauport Classical Records. His works have been performed nationally and internationally at festivals including, MUSIC "X" (Cincinnati Conservatory) June in Buffalo, The Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, NYCEMF and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

He is the recipient of grants/awards from The American Society of Composers and Publishers, The American Music Center, The American Composers Forum, The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, and WV Music Teachers Association.

As a performer Dr. Zanter is equally at home performing standard repertoire, creative music, and jazz and has appeared with orchestras, chamber groups, and improvisers, including the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, the Ohio Valley Orchestra, Sinfonia Da Camera, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, Vinko Globokar, George Lewis, Butch Morris, and Alphonse Mouzon. He has recorded with Deborah Richtmeyer, Vinko Globokar, and his work with Anthony Braxton received special mention in Downbeat Magazine.

Dr. Zanter's research interests include Algorithmic Composition, Structural Models for Improvisation, and Conduction® the music of Butch Morris.

Mr. Zanter completed his A. Mus. D. in composition at the University of Illinois where he studied with, Salvatore Martirano, William Brooks, Paul Martin Zonn, and Erik Lund. He is Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition at Marshall University, Huntington, WV.

Star Pulse (2010)

Over the past couple of years I've written a number of works for double second steel pans, all commissioned by Dr. Rick Kurasz who with several of his colleagues are seeking to expand the concert literature for that instrument. Originally Rick was scheduled to do this premiere at Marshall, but he had to cancel at the last moment. Interpreting this turn of events as an opportunity, I arranged the solo part to Star Pulse for electric guitar as part of an on-going, back-burner, pet-project of mine. Thus the version you are about to hear was completed several weeks ago. Special thanks to Steve Barnett for taking on this performance and being amenable to the last minute changes to the score that are part of this new arrangement. ....mz

Brian Balmages is an active composer, conductor, producer and performer. Mr. Balmages's works for symphonic band, orchestra and brass have been performed throughout the world. As a conductor, Mr. Balmages enjoys engagements with numerous honor bands and orchestras, university groups and professional ensembles throughout the country. Currently, Mr. Balmages is the Director of Instrumental Publications for the FJH Music Company Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Silence Overwhelmed is drawn from the second movement of an unpublished work for a cappella choir, Largo from Portraits in Bluestone. This work is driven by complex harmonies and textures. The title references the way the music constantly moves between moments of tranquility and massive power. Silence in and of itself can be extremely musical and somewhat overwhelming when presented in the right context. In this case, it is used in both a sustaining and transitional fashion. It represents the ideal that music continuously moves in and out of silence, and that silence itself can be a powerful means of expression.

John Mackey holds a Master of Music degree from the Julliard School and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Mackey particularly enjoys writing music for dance and for symphonic winds, and he has focused on those mediums for the past few years. In February 2003, the Brooklyn Philharmonic premiered John's work "Redline Tango" at the BAM Opera House. Mackey made a new version of the work for wind ensemble in 2004, Mackey's first work for wind band. The wind version won the 2004 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize and in 2005 the ABA/Oswald Award from the American Bandmasters Association, making John the youngest composer to receive the honor.

Aurora Awakes is a piece about the heralding of the coming of light. Built in two substantial sections, the piece moves from a place of remarkable stillness to an unbridled explosion of energy. Aurora - the Roman goddess of the dawn – is a mythological figure frequently associated with beauty and light. Aurora would rise each morning and stream across the sky, heralding the coming of her brother Sol, the sun. Though Mackey is known to use stylistic imitation, it is less common for him to utilize outright quotation. The first quotation appears at the beginning of the second section and is an ostinato based on the familiar guitar introduction to U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name". The second quotation is a sly reference to Gustav Holst's First Suite in E-flat for Military Band. The brilliant E-flat chord that closes the Chaconne of that work is orchestrated nearly identically as the final sonority of Aurora Awakes. Aurora Awakes has been awarded the 2009 American Bandmaster Association ABA/Ostwald Prize and the 2009 National Bandmasters Association's Willam D. Revelli Award.

Samuel Barber displayed musical ability at an early age, composing music at age 7, and playing organ at church services by age 12. He received his musical training at the Curtis Institute. His compositions earned him many awards and scholarships, among them two Pulitzer prizes for music: one, in 1958 for his opera Vanessa, and, one in 1962 for his Piano Concerto. Barber's musical style has been called neo-romantic; essentially lyric and dramatic, utilizing the harmonic language of the late 19th century.

Commando March was written shortly after being enlisted in the United States Army during the Second World War. The work was completed in February 1943 and was premiered on May 23 of that year by the Army Air Force Tactical Training Command Band in Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, most likely with the composer conducting. The critic Fredric, V. Grunfeld writing in High Fidelity magazine described the march as “an old-fashioned quickstep sporting a crew cut,” and the work received many performances in the final years of the war. Barber made a transcription of the march for full orchestra, which was premiered by Serge Koussevitzky leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston on October 29, 1943.

Eric Whitacre was born in 1970, and is quickly becoming one of the bright stars of the American music scene. He is a regularly commissioned and published composer, and has received performances of his works throughout the world. Eric has received awards from ASCAP, the American Choral Directors Association, The Barlow International Foundation, and the Dale Warland Singers commissioning program. Whitacre has studied composition with John Corigliano and David Diamond and holds the Master of Music degree from the Julliard School of Music.

Ghost Train, Mov. l was written in the winter of 1993-1994 and received its premiere March 7, 1994. In the first movement, the legend of the Ghost Train, a supernatural maching that roars out of the night through forgotten towns and empty canyons, is deeply rooted in American folklore, and it was this spirit that Whitacre worked to capture.

David Holsinger was born in Hardin, Missouri, the day after Christmas 1945. Pursuing a low brass/music education major, Holsinger earned degrees from Central Methodist College (BME, 1967) and Central Missouri State University (MA, 1974). For more than 16 years, he served as chief musician and composer-in-residence at the Shady Grove Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. His compositions earned him the prestigious American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award in 1982 and 1986. In 1995, the Gustavus Adolphus College conferred the Doctor of Humane Letters Degree upon Holsinger for his lifetime achievement in composition. His repertoire spans the secular and sacred, with the latter prominently represented by his Hymnsong series. His music is often characterized by unrelenting rhythms, mixed meters, and polylineal textures. Throughout his more than 50 band works, there is a sense of sincerity and gratitude that carries high emotional impact.

American Faces is Holsinger's tribute to the multifarious qualities and standards that make up the "faces" of America. It is not a patriotic montage, but rather an overture of diverse themes, original and borrowed; each conveying the composer's impression of the American exuberance, pioneering spirit, and underlying faith.

Note

Smith Recital Hall

Library of Congress Authorities

Barber, Samuel, 1910-1981. Commando march

Whitacre, Eric, 1970- Ghost train

Keywords

recitals, wind symphony

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Fine Arts | Music | Music Performance

Marshall University Music Department Presents the Wind Symphony, Fall Concert, Steven R. Barnett, conductor, featuring, Dr. Mark Zanter, Composer and Soloist,

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