Dualities of Our Nature: UMD Wind Ensemble
Dualities of Our Nature
UMD Wind Ensemble
Monday, March 14, 2022 . 8PM
Photo by Geoff Sheil.
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Join us in person at The Clarice or watch the livestream from the comfort of your home.
A diverse program featuring musical selections by Kenneth Amis, Melinda Wagner, Óscar Navarro, Luis Serrano Alarcón and others.
About the UMD Wind Ensemble (UMWE):
Under the direction of Andrea Brown, UMWE performs works from the most respected repertoire written for wind band and chamber ensembles with a focus on highlighting composers from underrepresented populations.
Health + Safety
All patrons 12 years of age and older are required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken within 48 hours of the performance for entry into the venue (home tests will NOT be accepted).
While we strongly encourage audience members to attend performances masked, it is no longer required. Please see our Health + Safety page for more information.
Islero
Kenneth Amis (b. 1970)
Scamp
Melinda Wagner (b. 1957)
Here We Rest
Anthony Barfield (b. 1983)
Selections from the Bestiarium Suite
The Fly
Óscar Navarro (b. 1981)
Charlie, the Chameleon
Luis Serrano Alarcón (b. 1972)
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Ferrer Ferran (b. 1966)
Islero
KENNETH AMIS
Born 1970 Bermuda
KENNETH AMIS
Born 1970 Bermuda
World renowned composer-performer, Kenneth Amis, enjoys an international career of high acclaim. Mr. Amis began his musical exploits in his home country of Bermuda. He began playing the piano at a young age and upon entering high school took up the tuba and developed an interest in performing and writing music. A Suite for Bass Tuba, composed when he was only fourteen, marked his first published work. A year later, at age sixteen, he enrolled in Boston University where he majored in composition. After graduating from Boston University he attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his master’s degree in composition.
Audiences around the world have enjoyed Mr. Amis’s music through performances by such groups as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Academy of Music Symphonic Winds, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Center Orchestra of Ottawa. In 2003 Mr. Amis became the youngest recipient of New England Conservatory of Music’s “Outstanding Alumni Award.”
Mr. Amis has served on the faculties of Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Trombones de Costa Rica International Festival in Costa Rica and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. He is currently on the faculty at Longy School of Music, the Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Lynn University, and MIT.
–Biography adapted from kennethamis.com
Islero was commissioned by Steven Lipsitt and The Boston Classical Orchestra to celebrate the orchestra’s 25th anniversary. The work was to be a fanfare that opened the ensemble’s season and only utilized the group’s woodwinds, brass and timpani. The initial sketches for this commission took on a light, neo-classical tone to reflect the history of the ensemble’s programming and to capitalize on the experience of its traditionally small wind section. However, upon learning of other works that were on the program—which included works by Arriaga, Villa-Lobos, Rodrigo and a Vivaldi lute concerto performed by Sharon Isbin—I abandoned the sketches and was inspired toward a different aesthetic. This new, decidedly more aggressive, work juxtaposes an ostinato against an improvisatory sounding fanfare theme introduced by the trumpet. The title Islero, chosen after the composition was completed, draws the association of the analogous disposition of a so-named infamous Miura bull. Islero was premiered on October 15, 2004 at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall.
–Kenneth Amis
–Program Note by Christine Higley
Scamp
MELINDA WAGNER
Born 1957 Philadelphia
Melinda Wagner is an American composer who received degrees in composition from the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion premiered in May 1988 and was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Major works of hers include Concerto for Trombone for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: Extremity of Sky, which was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax, and Little Moonhead, composed for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of its “New Brandenburgs” project.
Ms. Wagner has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College. She is currently on the faculty at Juilliard.
–Biography by Christine Higley, adapted from windrep.org
According to the composer, the title Scamp is a nod to its mischievous character. After the roguish wink of its opening bars, a bright and rollicking scherzo of sorts takes hold. Throughout the piece, the music makes several attempts at a serious turn, morphing into more lyrical passages. A quasi hymn-tune emerges multiple times, trying in vain to calm the skittering arguments between the choirs of winds, but the efforts are repeatedly foiled. The interruptions continue until the scamp at the heart of the piece finally wins the battle once and for all and dashes for the end with one final, incorrigible poke at the ribs.
Commissioned by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, Col. Michael J. Colburn, director.
–Program Note by publisher (Theodore Presser Company)
Here We Rest
ANTHONY BARFIELD
Born 1983 Collinsville, Mississippi
Based in New York City, Anthony Barfield is a composer, teacher, and audio engineer who holds degrees in trombone performance from the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. He also studied composition and his works have been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has been commissioned by groups such as the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble and Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2012 at the New York Wind Band Festival where Here We Rest was performed. His first composition album titled The Works of Anthony Barfield was released in the fall of 2013 with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble. Mr. Barfield currently works as an audio engineer at Juilliard.
Adapted by the composer from his work for trombone choir, Here We Rest, was dedicated to the state of Alabama in tribute to the victims of the April 2011 tornado. The title was the Alabama state motto during the Reconstruction Era.
–Program Note by Christine Higley, adapted from windrep.org
The Fly
ÓSCAR NAVARRO
Born 1981 Novelda, Spain
Óscar Navarro is a Spanish composer who began playing the clarinet at a young age. He later received a bachelor’s degree with a specialty in clarinet from the Conservatorio Superior Oscar Espla in Alicante, Spain. He later studied composition and conducting at the Allegro Internacional Music Academy in Valencia where he studied with Ferrar Ferrán before studying at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he specialized in Composition for Film and TV. He has received awards nationally and internationally for composition and has had his works performed and commissioned by many orchestral and wind ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisville Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Caldas (Columbia), Kiev Radio Orchestra (Ukraine), Downey Symphony Orchestra, North Texas Wind Ensemble, Banda Municipal de Madrid (Spain), and Banda Municipal de Valencia (Spain), among others.
The Fly, as well as the following two pieces on this program, are part of the Bestiarium Suite, a piece consisting of nine movements which were each written by prolific national composers.
The composer writes:
“The Fly” is a musical invention for symphonic wind band, conceived to emulate the sound produced when a fly travels across the different sections of the band. The music begins in the calmest manner, awakening the listener from a peaceful dream, and throughout the duration of the piece their mood will change into a state of wrath caused by the tediousness of this fly.”
–Program Note by Christine Higley
Charlie, the Chameleon
LUIS SERRANO ALARCÓN
Born 1972 Valencia, Spain
Luis Serrano Alarcón is a Spanish composer and conductor. His works have been performed in more than 30 countries and he has been invited to conduct his own music in Spain, Italy, Singapore, the United States, Columbia and Hong Kong. He has received commissions from national and international organizations such as the Valencian Institute of Music, the International Band Competition of Vila d’Altea, the CIBM of Valencia, the CIM La Armonica of Buñol, and the Hong Kong Band Directors Association, among others. In 2012, the Southeastern Conference Band Directors Association, formed by a consortium of 14 US universities, commissioned his first Symphony for Wind Orchestra which premiered in October 2013.
Charlie, the Chameleon is part of the Bestiarium Suite and tells the story of a hungry Chameleon named Charlie who is hunting a cricket for breakfast. The intro reflects sounds of the rainforest and even the sound of a cricket chirping. After the intro, Charlie’s theme is played, which sounds a little awkward and out of time, like a chameleon walking. The music gradually becomes faster and faster as Charlie climbs a tree and hunts for his prey. The cricket is found and Charlie waits with quiet anticipation for the perfect moment to snare his prey with his tongue. The piece ends with an ascending flourish in the woodwinds followed by a triumphant stinger from the rest of the ensemble indicating Charlie’s success.
–Program Note by Christine Higley
Tyrannosaurus Rex
FERRER FERRAN
Born 1966 Valencia, Spain
Ferrer Ferran is a Spanish composer and musician. He studied composition at the Conservatory of Music of Valencia. He also earned a degree in chamber music and accompaniment and won a prize for composition and orchestra direction at the Royal Academy of Music in Britain. His works have been premiered around the world by renowned ensembles and have been published in Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Ferran is the Conductor of Honor for the Band Primitiva of Paiporta and head for the Wind Orchestra “Allegro” in Spain, as well as the conductor for the Symphonic Band “Ateneo Musical” in Cullera. For eight years he was the vice president of the Association of Valencian Symphonic Composers. He is currently a professor at the Professional Music Conservatory of Valencia specializing in composition, musical accompaniment, language, theory of music, and orchestra.
-Biography by Christine Higley, adapted from windrep.org
The dreaded “tyrant lizard,” the king of all dinosaurs lived between 67 and 65 million years ago. It is one of the largest known land predators measuring up to 12.8 meters long, 4 meters high and weighing 6-10 tons, and was the largest carnivore in its environment.
This work was intended to indicate the violence, rudeness, and grandeur of the dinosaur with aggressive and effusive motion, but whose actions were justified by the very law of survival. The piece is dark, daring, and full of tension until the very last moment to relieve the listeners of despair.
This composition belongs to the Suite for Symphonic Band Bestiarium, one suite comprising nine movements and each composed by a different author. It was released on March 15, 2013 in the Paul Tibón Theatre in Medellin (Columbia) by the Youth Symphonic Band Network Music Schools of Medellin, directed by Frank de Vuyst.
It will be a dark movement, daring, where I’ll try to keep tension, and get guided to the last moment, so that the listener after their 3-5 minutes of despair, have this need to encourage and achieve completion feeling the adrenaline at the end, make you cry spirit.
–Program Note translated and adapted from note by composer
ANDREA E. BROWN was appointed Associate Director of Bands at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2018. In this position, she conducts the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble (UMWE), serves as the Director of Athletic Bands and teaches conducting. Brown is formerly a member of the conducting faculty at the University of Michigan, where she served as Assistant Director of Bands and was a faculty sponsor of a College of Engineering Multidisciplinary Design Project team that researched conducting pedagogy technology. She also served as Director of Orchestra and Assistant Director of Bands at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. She is a frequent guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Brown completed a D.M.A. in instrumental conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), where she was a student of John Locke and Kevin Geraldi. While at UNCG, she was both guest conductor and principal horn on UNCG Wind Ensemble's fireworks and finish line CDs, both released on the Equilibrium label. Brown has also had several rehearsal guides published in the popular GIA Publications series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. She has presented at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago; Oxford Conducting Institute; Music For All Summer Symposium; the Yamaha Bläserklasse in Schlitz, Germany; the International Computer Music Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia; the College Music Society International Conference in Sydney, Australia; and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) National Conference.
A proponent of inclusion and equity issues in the music profession, Brown is a frequent guest speaker on these topics. She currently serves on the CBDNA Diversity Committee and is a member of the Drum Corps International In Step Committee. Brown is the founder of Women Rising to the Podium, an online group of over 4,000 members supporting and celebrating women band directors. Additionally, she also serves as the chair of the Sigma Alpha Iota Women’s Music Fraternity Graduate Conducting Grant and as an advisor of the chapter at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Brown previously served on the brass and conducting instructional staff of the DCI World Champion Phantom Regiment (2004–17). Other marching organizations she has instructed include the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band, Carolina Crown, and Spirit of Atlanta. Brown will serve as a music judge for Drum Corps International in the next active season, and she was nominated to become a member of the John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Shield Jury in 2021.
As a performer, Brown was a member of the AA Brass Quintet, which won the International Brass Quintet Competition hosted by Fred Mills at the University of Georgia. She performed with the horn sections of the Boston Brass All Stars Big Band, North Carolina Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. Brown has studied brass performance and pedagogy with Abigail Pack, J.D. Shaw, Jack Masarie, Freddy Martin, Dottie Bennett, Randy Kohlenberg, Richard Steffen, and Ed Bach.
Originally from Milan, Tennessee, Brown is a graduate of Austin Peay State University and earned a Master of Music in horn performance and a Master of Music in music education with a cognate in instrumental conducting from UNCG. Prior to her positions at Maryland, Michigan and Georgia Tech, Brown was the Assistant Director of Bands at Austin Peay State University and taught at public schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Dallas, Texas. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Kappa Lambda and CBDNA. She was awarded the Rose of Honor as a member of Sigma Alpha Iota Women's Music Fraternity, and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.
Melinda Wagner is an American composer who received degrees in composition from the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion premiered in May 1988 and was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Major works of hers include Concerto for Trombone for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: Extremity of Sky, which was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax, and Little Moonhead, composed for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as part of its “New Brandenburgs” project.
Ms. Wagner has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College. She is currently on the faculty at Juilliard.
Juan José Navarro is a native of Godelleta in Valencia. He graduated as Profesor Superior of the Clarinet with Honours. He has studied and assisted on various clarinet seminars with teachers such as Jean Luis Sajot, Ramón Barona, Roy Jowit, José Tomás, Walter Woykens and J. Vicente Herrera among others. In 1997 on becoming a teacher in the Conservatorio Elemental de Musica of El Ejido and the Conservatorio Profesional of Córdoba he became a member of the Cuerpo de Profesores de Música y Artes Escénicas pertaining to the Junta de Andalucia. Subsequently he attained his current position at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Almeria.
He has led a number of courses for the conducting of wind band and orchestra with teachers such as Salvador Más, Manuel Hernández Silva, Enrique Garcia Asensio, Jerzy Salwarowski, Paollo Belomia and Cesar Álvarez. He obtained the title of Profesor Superior de Dirección de Orquesta with José Miguel Rodilla in the Conservatorio Superior de Música of Murcia, finishing his studies with the highest possible results and graduating with L´Histoire du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky. He was nominated by the Conservatorio Superior to perform the duties of assistant director for the Orquesta de Jóvenes de la Region de Murcia.
Juan José Navarro has conducted concerts in Spain, Italy, France, North Caroline, Pennsylvania, Poland, Germany, South Korea, Missouri, Romania and Holland, with such ensembles as the Orquesta del Conservatorio Superior de Música de Murcia, Sinfónica Municipal de Albacete, Elblagska Kameralna Orchestra (Poland), Corelli Chamber Orcestra (Italy), Sinfónica San Indalecio de La Cañada de Almería, Sinfónica Municipal de Sevilla, Coral Emilio Carrión, Orquesta Joven de Almería, Orchestra Cittá Di Grossetto (Italy), Baltic Neopolis Orchestra (Poland), Diesis Wind Ensemble (Spain), Philadelphia Winds Symphony ( Peensylvania), Gangnung Philarmonic Orchestra (South Korea), University North Caroline Scholl of the Arts Chamber Winds of Winston-Salem ( North Caroline), Sinfónica de la Unión Musical de Godelleta, Oltenia Philarmónic Orchestra of Craiova ( Romania), Orquesta de la Compañía Lírica andaluza, Orquesta de Jóvenes de la Región de Murcia, Sinfónica Provincial de Almería, Lake Como Philarmonic Orchestra (Italy), Orquesta Sinfónica del Conservatorio profesional de El Ejido, Triangle Wind Enssemble (North Caroline), Unión Musical de San Pedro del Pinatar (Murcia), Pitesti Symphony Orchestra (Romania), Greensboro University Symphonic Band ( North Caroline), Banda Sinfónica del Conservatorio Superior de las Islas Baleares, Eindhoven Symphony Orchestra, (Holland), Lomza Filharmonia Kameralna (Poland), University Jewel College Symphonic Band ( Missouri ), Kansas City Winds Symphony ( Missouri), Banda del Conservatorio Profesional de Música de El Ejido y Ensemble Fiatti di Música Aperta (Bérgamo).
He has conducted for many of the productions of the Compaña Lírica Andaluza, such as El Barbero de Lavapiés, Agua Azucarillos y Aguardiente, El Dúo de la Africana…in venues such as the Teatro Alameda of Málaga and the Nuevo Teatro Infanta Leonor of Jaén.
He has run courses, lectures and given master classes for conducting in Universities as Almería (Spain), Virginia Tech University (Virginia), University North Caroline Greensboro (North Caroline), University Jewel College ( Missouri), Kansas University (Arkansas) and in places as Murcia, Galicia, Jaén, Granada and Almería organized by such institutions as the Vicerrectorado de Extensión Universitaria of the University of Almería, the Federación Andaluza de Bandas de Música, the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Música of Almería as well as for the teaching staff at the Centro de Enseñanza al Profesorado.
Juan José Navarro is frequently invited to adjudicate as a member of the board of examiners for composition, orchestra and wind orchestra, chamber music and best young musician as well as for the National Competition of Wind Orchestra in Murcia, the National Competition of Composition in San Pedro del Pinatar, Concorso Internazionale “Tomasso Traetta” (Italy), the Valencia Wind Bands Competition, the UK´s National Concert Band Festival, International Music Competition Florestano Rossamunda ( Italy) and the National Orchestra and Wind Orchestra Competition in South Korea.
He got the second prize conducting the San Indalecio Wind Orchestra in the National Competition in Murcia and the first prize conducting the Unión Musical de Godelleta in the Special Section of the Wind Bands Competition of Valencia.
He has been titular musical director for 8 years of the Sinfónica Municipal de Almería.
He is co-founder along with José Miguel Rodilla of the Academia de Dirección de Orquesta y Banda, “Diesis“, which gives classes in Almería, Murcia, Sevilla and Valencia to more than eighty pupils from every part of Spain.
Currently he is music director of the Sinfónica San Indalecio de Almería, teacher at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Música of Almería and conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Choir at the University of Almería.
ENSEMBLE PERSONNEL
Music Director
Andrea E. Brown
Flute
Courtney Adams
Lucas Howarth
Andrew Hui
Ksenia Mezhenny
Cecilia Skorupa
Piccolo
Courtney Adams
Lucas Howarth
Andrew Hui
Ksenia Mezhenny
Oboe
Zander Barrow
Katelyn Estep
Ayeesha Fadlaoui
English Horn
Katelyn Estep
Clarinet
Alexis Deifallah
Jenna Dietrich
Ava Dutrow
Kristina Nie
Nyla Ortiz
Sophia Ross
Sabrina Sanchez
Jerry Sun
Matthew Vice
Bassoon
Jolene Blair
Will Duis
Lurr Ragen
Isabela Rey
Saxophone
Colin Eng
Brandon Greenberg
Andrew Hilgendorf
Colson Jones
Hansu Sung
Horn
Alex Choiniere
Andrew Bures
Christen Holmes
Alyssa Proctor
Julia Terry
Matthew Tremba
Kaitlyn Winters
Trumpet
Allison Braatz
Maddie Hamilton
Caleb Johnson
Justin Lumpkin
Rodrigo Slone
Abel Solomon
Jacob Weglarz
Trombone
Tobi Ajiboye
Austin Fairley
Brian Macarell
Pedro Martinez
Marlia Nash
Bass Trombone
Pedro Martinez
Euphonium
Christian Folk
Malachi Gaines
Tuba
Alexander Chen
Aiden Dingus
Grace Tifford
Ryan Vest
String Bass
Shawn Alger
Percussion
Jason Amis
Chris Boxall
Craig Bruder
Beatriz Fanzeres
Maia Foley
Kyle Graham
Mār Lemon
Dhruv Srinivasan
Graduate Assistants
Christine Higley
Brad Jopek
Alex Scott