Symphonic Band

Program notes

Aurora Borealis (2012)

Joel Love (b.1982)

In the words of the composer: Aurora Borealis was inspired by the natural phenomenon that occurs in the northern latitudes. In short, auroral events are caused by the collision of charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere. Last year I spent most of my summer playing piano in a rock band aboard a cruise ship that traveled from Seattle, Washington to Anchorage, Alaska, and back several times. During a geomagnetic event late one night, I was fortunate enough to see the aurora in the distance while sailing from Juneau to Hoonah, Alaska. The piece has three main figures: an ascending/descending tetra-chord, a repeated eighth-note motive, and a melody (first heard in the clarinet).

Joel Love (b. 1982) is an American composer. Love completed a DMA in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and holds degrees from The University of Houston’s Moores School of Music (MM) and Lamar University’s Mary Morgan Department of Music (BM).The music of Love explores an eclectic mix of genres, from short video pieces to works for chamber and large ensembles.

Love is the only two-time winner of the PARMA Recordings Composition Competition, which selected Lux and Synchronicity in Purple Minor for publication. Aurora Borealis was selected as a finalist in the third International Franck Ticheli Composition Contest. Real Fiction received a Compositional Excellence Citation by the New York Youth Symphony in 2010. In 2009, while Love was pursuing his MM in Houston, he was one of the first young artists with Da Camera of Houston, who presented him with an Aspiring Artist Award and the commission of Just One Person.

Love’s works have been performed by a number of large and small ensembles, exhibited at several art galleries, and screened at theatres and festivals throughout the United States. Love has also had his work set to dance: in 2015, his work, Lightscape, won a composition competition by Frame Dance Productions and was utilized as the foundation for a multi-generational dance that celebrated the company’s wide variety of talent and students.

His film scores include the documentary film Stitched, official selection at the 2011 Carmel Art and Film Festival, as well as a short film Kidfellas, “Best Musical Score” at Houston’s 2011 48-Hour Film Project. Last year, Love’s score for Socks in the City won honorable mention for “Best Musical Score” at New York City’s 48-Hour Film Project. He lives in Houston, Texas, where he teaches full-time at Houston Community College’s Southwest location in Stafford, Texas.

Suite from China West (2008)

Chen Yi (b. 1953)

In the words of the composer: Commissioned in 2005 by the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, Lawrence Isaacson, music director, the four-movement Suite from China West premiered on May 18, 2008, at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts. The authentic folk music from China West has amazed and inspired the composer to write this piece, which has folk music elements drawn from the folk songs Gadameilin and Pastoral of the Meng people; Ashima of the Yi people; Du Mu and Amaliehuo of the Zang people; and Dou Duo and the Lusheng ensemble music of the Miao people.

Chen Yi (b. 1953, Guangzhou, China) is a Chinese-American composer. She holds BA and MA degrees in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and DMA from Columbia University in the City of New York, studying composition with Wu Zuqiang, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky.

As a distinguished professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music & Dance, a prolific composer and recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chen blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. Her music has reached a wide range of audiences and has inspired peoples with different cultural background throughout the world. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.

Published by Theodore Presser Company, Chen’s music has been commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC, Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore Symphonies, The Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Rascher Sax Quartet & Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and recorded on many labels.

Chen has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1996) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1994), as well as the Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996). Other honors include first prize from the Chinese National Composition Contest (1985), Lili Boulanger Award (1993), NYU Sorel Medal Award (1996), CalArts / Alpert Award (1997), UT Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999), ASCAP Concert Music Award (2001), Elise Stoeger Award (2002) from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Friendship Ambassador Award from Edgar Snow Fund (2002), UMKC Kauffman Award in Artistry/Scholarship (2006) and in Faculty Service (2012), and honorary doctorates from Lawrence University in Wisconsin (2002), Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio (2008), University of Portland in Oregon(2009), and The New School University in New York City (2010).

Chen Yi was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in composition in China (June 1986) when she gave an evening concert of her orchestral works in Beijing, performed by the Central Philharmonic of China. She is also the first woman to give an evening multimedia orchestral concert in the United States during her three-year residency with The Women’s Philharmonic and Chanticleer (May 1996), supported by Meet the Composer. She has given two more whole evening concerts of her orchestral and choral works presented by the China National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2001 and 2008, and was appointed to the Cheungkong Scholar Visiting Professor at the Central Conservatory by the China Education Ministry in 2006, and the Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Tianjin Conservatory in 2012.

Most recent premieres include a wind ensemble version of her saxophone quartet concerto Ba Yin by the Prism Quartet and UMKC Wind Ensemble directed by Professor Steve Davis at Helzberg Hall in Kauffman Center (10/4/2015); a mixed choral work The Beautiful West Lake for University Singers directed by Professor Paul Crabb in UM-Columbia (10/24/2015); a solo percussion work entitled Colors of Naobo (2015) by Evelyn Glennie for her 50th birthday at Edinburgh Festival in the UK; Thinking of My Home for treble clef choir (2015) by Frontier Trail Middle School (Kansas) Choir, commissioned by the American Composers Forum in its ChoralQuest series; Three Dances From China South for Chinese traditional instrumental ensemble (2014) to celebrate Music From China’s 30th anniversary at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall (with 2013 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program Award); Not Alone for saxophone quartet (2014) by Prism Sax Quartet and Naini Chen Dance Company in New York City (New Music USA Dance Music Commissioning Award); Northern Scenes for piano solo (2013) by Susan Chan at Portland State University; Chinese Rap for violin and orchestra (2013) by Helen Kim and Kennesaw (Georgia) State University Symphony Orchestra; and Shuo Chang for guitar solo (2013) by Xuefei Yang at Wigmore Hall in London.

Of Our New Day Begun (2015)

Omar Thomas (b. 1984)

In the words of the composer: Of Our New Day Begun was written to honor nine beautiful souls who lost their lives to a callous act of hatred and domestic terrorism on the evening of June 17, 2015, while worshipping in their beloved sanctuary, the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (affectionately referred to as “Mother Emanuel”) in Charleston, South Carolina. My greatest challenge in creating this work was walking the line between reverence for the victims and their families, and honoring my strong, bitter feelings towards both the perpetrator and the segments of our society that continue to create people like him. I realized that the most powerful musical expression I could offer incorporated elements from both sides of that line—embracing my pain and anger while being moved by the displays of grace and forgiveness demonstrated by the victims’ families.

Historically, Black Americans have, in great number, turned to the church to find refuge and grounding in the most trying of times. Thus, the musical themes and ideas for Of Our New Day Begun are rooted in the Black American church tradition. The piece is anchored by James and John Johnson’s time-honored song, Lift Every Voice and Sing (known endearingly as the “Negro National Anthem”), and peppered with blues harmonies and melodies. Singing, stomping and clapping are also prominent features of this work, as they have always been a mainstay of Black music traditions, and the inclusion of the tambourine in these sections is a direct nod to black worship services.

This work received its premiere on Feb. 20, 2016, at the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Conference, held at The Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina. Members of the Mother Emanuel AME congregation were in attendance.

This work was commissioned by a consortium led by Gary Schallert and Jeff Bright of Western Kentucky University to honor the nine victims and families of the June 17, 2015, terrorist attack on Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Omar Thomas (b. 1984, Brooklyn, New York) is an American composer, arranger and educator. Born to Guyanese parents, Thomas moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music degree in jazz composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is the protégé of Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under Maria Schneider. Thomas’ music has been performed in concert halls across the country. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Men’s Choruses and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

He conducts the Omar Thomas Large Ensemble, a group was first assembled for Thomas’s graduate composition recital at the New England Conservatory of Music in the spring of 2008. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008 and was invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City.

Thomas accepted a position in the composition area at the University of Texas in Austin in the fall of 2020. Previously he was a member of both the Harmony and Music Education departments at Berklee, where he taught all four levels of harmony offered, in addition to taking charge of the “Introduction to Music Education” course. Thomas was an active member of the Berklee community, serving on the Diversity and Inclusion Council, the Comprehensive Enrollment Strategy Workgroup and acting as co-chair of the LGBT Allies. Thomas was nominated for the Distinguished Faculty Award after only three years at the college, and was thrice awarded the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University, where he served as a teaching fellow.

Rise (2018)

Adam Schoenberg (b. 1980)

In the words of the composer: Rise is a two-movement work commissioned by the California Wind Band Consortium. I wanted to create a new piece that could be presented in three distinct ways: Both movements played back-to-back; standalone movements (Beginnings can be a concert opener or encore, and Farewell Song can be placed anywhere in a program); or having the movements bookend an entire program (i.e., the concert begins with Beginnings and closes with Farewell Song.)

Beginnings is designed to function as a long gradual crescendo. It begins with a rhythmic ostinato that becomes the driving force for the entire movement. As it progresses, the orchestration and overall intensity grows, ultimately creating an uplifting and optimistic ending.

Farewell Song is based on the final movement of my violin concerto, Orchard in Fog. This movement is meant to have a timeless feel, simultaneously serving as an atmospheric and pastoral-landscape type of sonic experience, while also being imagined as a goodbye song to a loved one.

A special thank you to John Burdett and Rickey Badua, who were not only instrumental in making the commission happen, but also provided me with invaluable guidance in creating a piece that would work for both high school and collegiate ensembles.

Adam Schoenberg (b. 15 November 1980, Northampton, Massachusetts) is a American composer and educator. Schoenberg earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Juilliard School as a student of John Corigliano and Robert Beaser. He also received his Master of Music degree from Juilliard and his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Schoenberg was a 2009 and 2010 MacDowell Fellow, and also won the first prize for best brass quintet at the 2008 International Brass Chamber Music Festival. Other accolades include ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Juilliard’s Palmer-Dixon Prize for Most Outstanding Composition, and a Meet The Composer award. Recently (2017) named one of the Top 10 most performed living classical composers by orchestras in the United States, Schoenberg’s music is “invigorating” (Los Angeles Times) and full of “mystery and sensuality” (The New York Times).

Schoenberg has received commissions from several major American orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Up! and La Luna Azul), the Kansas City Symphony (American Symphony and Picture Studies), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Aspen Music Festival and School (Bounce). Other recent commissions include works for the New West Symphony, Soprano Alyson Cambridge and the Washington Performing Arts.

Beginning in the 2015-16 season, Schoenberg serves as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence. Other upcoming projects include collaborations with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Iris Orchestra, Charleston, Amarillo, and Phoenix symphonies, and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra.

A committed educator, Schoenberg is on the composition faculty at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. He has given lectures and master classes for the Young Presidents’ Organization, Atlanta Symphony, The Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Blair School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, among others. An accomplished and versatile film composer, Schoenberg has scored two feature-length films and several shorts. Highlights include, Graceland, co-written with his father, Steven Schoenberg, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and received its nationwide theatrical release in the spring of 2013.