Remembering and Reimagining: UMD Wind Ensemble
Remembering and Reimagining
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The UMD Wind Ensemble celebrates its first live performance since March 2020 with a program that features two works by composers with Georgia connections—the 2012 Walter Beeler Memorial Prize winner, Sound and Smoke, by California-born and Atlanta suburb-raised composer Viet Cuong and a four movement chamber piece titled Serenade by Georgia music educator and composer, Katahj Copley. Other repertoire will include Crossing Parallels by Kathryn Salfelder, Gustav Holst's Marching Song, Franz Biebl's setting of Ave Maria and Mother Earth (A Fanfare) composed by David Maslanka.
Program:
David Maslanka: Mother Earth (A Fanfare)
Kathryn Salfelder: Crossing Parallels
Katahj Copley: Serenade
Gustav Holst: Marching Song
Franz Biebl: Ave Maria
Viet Cuong: Sound and Smoke
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:
There may be COVID safety policies such as mask requirements in place when you attend this event. Please see our health and safety page for the most up-to-date information about attendance.
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MENU: PROGRAM • PROGRAM NOTES • ABOUT THE ARTISTS
PROGRAM
Mother Earth: A Fanfare
David Maslanka (1943–2017)
Crossing Parallels
Kathryn Salfelder (b. 1987)
Serenade
Katahj Copley (b. 1998)
I. Slow
II. Animato
III. Waltz
IV. Dance
Marching Song
Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
Ave Maria
Franz Biebl (1906–2001)
arr. by Robert Cameron
Sound and Smoke
Viet Cuong (b. 1990)
I. (feudal castle lights)
II. (avalanche of eyes)
PROGRAM NOTES
A note from the music director:
Tonight's concert is a momentous occasion for several reasons. Firstly, it is always exciting to finally arrive at the culmination of a rehearsal cycle and have the opportunity to share a musical experience with an audience. Secondly, this is the first large ensemble concert performance of the semester for most of the UMD Wind Ensemble (UMWE) members you will see on stage, and for some, it is their first performance in Dekelboum Concert Hall as students at the University of Maryland. All of these are significant occasions and ones we do not want to dismiss. But while we hold space for all of these reasons, tonight, we will also celebrate the occasion that we are able to make music—together and in person, and we get to share the experience with an audience!
Remembering and Reimagining
Hopefully tonight's repertoire will allow the listener the opportunity to reflect on previous experiences—musical, social or emotional, and also provide a spark to imagine what could be in this new reality we now find ourselves in—for the betterment of Mother Earth and all of the organisms that call this planet "home."
— Andrea E. Brown
Mother Earth: A Fanfare (2003)
Duration: about 3 minutes
David Maslanka is known for his many works for winds, including 50 pieces for wind ensemble, nine symphonies, 17 concertos, a Mass, four wind quintets and five saxophone quartets. He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and attended Oberlin College Conservatory. He also studied for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and did graduate study in composition at Michigan State University. He lived and wrote his compositions in Missoula, Montana, from 1990 until his death in 2017.
— Christine Higley
The composer writes:
Mother Earth was composed for the South Dearborn High School Band of Aurora, Indiana, Brian Silvey, conductor. The commission was for a three-minute fanfare piece. Each piece takes on a reason for being all its own, and Mother Earth is no exception. It became an urgent message from Our Mother to treat her more kindly! My reading at the time of writing this music was “For a Future to be Possible” by the Vietnamese monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. He believes that the only way forward is to be extremely alive and aware in our present moment, to become awake to the needs of our beloved planet, and to respond to it as a living entity. Music making allows us to come immediately awake. It is an instant connection to the powerful wellspring of our creativity, and opens our minds to the solution of any number of problems, including that of our damaged environment. My little piece does not solve the problem! But it is a living call to the wide-awake life, and it continues to be performed by young people around the world.
— David Maslanka
Crossing Parallels (2011)
This piece is meant to be played with one player on each part.
Duration: about 7 minutes
Kathryn Salfelder’s compositions borrow from techniques, structures and forms of early music eras such as chansons, motets and Masses from the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Salfelder has won many composition awards including the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederik Fennell Prize, the ASCAP Mourton Gould Young Composer Award, the Ithaca College Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize and the United Air Force Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel Award. Salfelder teaches harmony and composition at the New England Conservatory School of Continuing Education.
— Christine Higley
The composer writes:
Another program note? These “composer to audience” soliloquies have provoked recent discussion in the new music scene at Yale, in composition seminars, at concerts, in conversations with my colleagues and even online at NewMusicBox.org. Content, length, aesthetic, personal appeal to a broad audience and the use of technical musical jargon have all been topics of debate. Does one provide a textual road map to the sound? Impart programmatic intervallic, and textural details? Speak of one’s inspiration? The only consensus lies in this: the composer should share factors he or she believes important to understanding the structure and meaning of his or her new work.
Yet how does one impart structure and meaning to such a provocative phrase as “Crossing Parallels?” These seemingly contradictory words are almost irreconcilable. I propose two solutions: the intervals within Crossing Parallels are dictated by both Renaissance and Baroque gestures as well as serial and hexachord rows. There are echoes of John Dowland’s Lacrymae “Flow my Tears” (c. 1600), glimpses of 18-century fugal techniques and fragments of 20th and 21st century notions of set theory and harmony. Though spanning four centuries, these varied practices often result in similar or identical melodies and pitch material.
The second solution is described in the notes below:
Two divergent planes
naively self-sufficient
a succession of variations
vying for supremacy
interrupt, overlap, mimic
an intrinsic struggle
until the discovery
the very last moment
it is inevitable
they are too deeply intertwined
— Kathryn Salfelder
Serenade (2019)
This piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpet, horn and baritone saxophone.
Duration: about 11 minutes
A Georgia native, Katahj Copley has written over 60 pieces, and over 25 of those are for wind band. He has a bachelor’s degree in music education and composition from the University of West Georgia (UWG) and has composed pieces for UWG’s Brass Ensemble, Concert Choir, Saxophone Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Jazz Ensemble and Wind Ensemble. Additionally, his compositions have been performed by the 1st Infantry Brass Choir, Rhode Island Recording Ensemble, Axos Saxophone Quartet, the Admiral Launch Duo and the Nu Alpha chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at Georgia State University.
— Christine Higley
The composer writes:
This is a piece originally seen as an anti-serenade. I wanted to write about the idea of a relationship going bad. However, I took that idea and decided to go a different route. Instead of this being a piece for the love of someone or the breakup of someone…this is the growth of a person from heartache. The first movement is written from the perspective of someone out of a relationship, hence the rather somber beginning; however, the movement shifts into a change of mood for the person—a more hopeful mood. Second movement is a quirky encounter between two people—they are both shy and don’t know what the future holds for them. The third movement is a scene for a first date for the couple. The final movement begins with the clarinet and is rather slow; however, as the movement progresses, it gets faster and louder until the end. The movement represents the pacing of the couple so that they finally admit their love for one another.
— Katahj Copley
Marching Song (1906)
Duration: about 3 minutes
British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) began studying music at an early age. He learned piano, violin and trombone. After studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Holst began a career as a professional trombonist joining the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1898 and the Scottish Opera two years later. In 1905, having given up his orchestral career, he became the head of the St. Paul’s Girls School in Hammersmith and remained there for the rest of his life. As a composer, Holst contributed to English choral music (folk songs, madrigals and church music) but is most known for his orchestral suite The Planets. His wind works include the First Suite in E-flat, the Second Suite in B-flat and Hammersmith.
Marching Song is the second movement of Holst’s Two Songs Without Words, Op. 22 and was originally scored for orchestra. Like most of his wind works, Marching Song was later scored for small military band. Holst dedicated Two Songs Without Words to his friend Ralph Vaughn Williams.
— Christine Higley
Ave Maria (1964, arr. 2004)
Duration: about 7 minutes
Our performance of Ave Maria tonight is dedicated to all of those beloved souls around the world and especially here in the U.S. that have lost their lives to the pandemic. May their memory always be a blessing to those that know and love them.
— Andrea E. BrownFranz Biebl was a German composer and choir director who wrote primarily for choral ensembles. He served as the choral director at St. Maria Catholic Church in München-Thalkirchen from 1932 before becoming an assistant professor of choral music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in 1932. Biebl was drafted into the military during World War II in 1943 and became a prisoner of war from 1944 to 1946, where he was detained at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan. After the war, he returned to Germany where he served as the director of the town chorus in Fürstenfeldbruk.
Ave Maria is his best-known work and was originally scored for seven-part men’s voices. Biebl also arranged the piece for women’s choir and mixed choir. The wind ensemble version is an adaptation of the arrangement for mixed choir.
— Christine Higley
Sound and Smoke (2011)
Duration: about 15 minutes
From Marietta, Georgia, composer Viet Cuong grew up playing piano, clarinet and percussion. He later earned degrees in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music (Artist Diploma), Princeton University (M.F.A.) and the Peabody Conservatory (B.M./M.M.). His music has been commissioned and performed by many ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Dallas Winds. Cuong is currently the California Symphony’s 2020–23 young composer-in-residence and is also on the music theory and composition faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
— Christine Higley The composer writes:
Both the title and concept of Sound and Smoke were derived from a line from Johann Wolgang von Goethe’s play Faust, when Faust equates words to “mere sound and smoke” and declared that “feeling is everything.” Each of the two movements has been given an abstract, parenthetical title to further incorporate Goethe’s conjecture that words will never be able to fully express what feelings and, in this case, music can. Therefore, these titles serve merely as starting points for personal interpretation and should not interfere with the music itself.
The first movement, (feudal castle lights), blurs the many different timbres of the ensemble to create a resonant and slowly “smoldering” effect. Because reverb is essentially built into the orchestration, harmonies must shift using common tones and are always built upon the notes preceding them. The second and final movement, (avalanche of eyes), opens with an alternating unison-note brass fanfare that is then spun out into a fast-paced toccata. Suspense and excitement are created as the spotlight moves quickly between the various colors of the ensemble and the fanfare is transformed.
The original concept of Sound and Smoke unifies these two otherwise dissimilar movements; ideas are often presented and then promptly left behind or transformed. Musical events therefore appear and dissipate as quickly as sound and smoke.
— Viet Cuong
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ABOUT THE MUSIC DIRECTOR
ANDREA E. BROWN
Brown was appointed the 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 the 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 the 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 US, 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.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND WIND ENSEMBLE
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
Oluwatobi Ajiboye
Austin Fairley
Brian Macarell
Pedro Martinez
Marlia Nash
Bass Trombone
Pedro Martinez
Euphonium
Thomas Lin
Tuba
Alexander Chen
Aiden Dingus
Grace Tifford
Ryan Vest
Percussion
Jason Amis
Chris Boxall
Craig Bruder
Beatriz Fanzeres
Kyle Graham
Mariana Lemon
Dhruv Srinivasan
Piano
Ria Yang
String Bass
Omar Martinez Sandoval
Wind Ensemble Librarian
Brad Jopek