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News broke last night at a ceremony at The Law Society that Adam Gorb has been awarded the top award for Wind and Brass Band music written in the preceding 12 months for an unparalleled third time, following the successes in 2004 of Towards Nirvana and in 2008 of Adrenaline City.

Full details of the awards are here and you can listen again on BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days here. Forward to around 1hr 43mins into the programme.

First many seasonal greetings to anyone who browses this site. Once again it is time to wish everyone, albeit for some belatedly, for some rather early, a very happy Bohdi Day, Diwali, Eid Al-Addha, Hannukah, Modranect, Sadeh, Yule, Christmas, Parairvana Day, Hogmanay,Tohji-Taisai, Doing Zhi, Saturnalia or New Year, whether you are on the beach, on the ski slopes or by the fire. Apologies to any readers left out. Have a great holiday.

Back in 2007 I complained that at this time when the media are full of lists of The Best of this year’s Movies, The Best of 2007 Albums, The Top 10 DVDs of 2007, Book of the Year, Play of the Year, Footballer of the Year, Gerbil of the Year, we have no equivalent Best Band Work of the Year. I have compiled a list of wind orchestra pieces new to me which have impressed in 2009 and will remain with me into 2010 and longer.

It is great to discover that three of my commissions were played by Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra on 22^nd October, two others were played by leading British Conservatoires on Friday 27^th November, details below, while another appeared at the Royal Northern College in their concert on October 25^th. This was a final tryout for a recording of Adam Gorb’s Towards Nirvana and Farewell which will be included in a CD of all of his “serious” music to be published by NMC in the New Year.

Finally a huge vote of thanks to my long-suffering webmaster, Mark Heron. News here of the RNCM Conducting course which he organises, and of course of Canford Summer School Conducting Course. In the last month there have been well over 5,000 unique hits on this site, so a huge vote of thanks too to you all for taking the time to browse. We are uploading the long awaited file on Guy Woolfenden, and revised files on Concerto Repertoire and an update on British Wind Music from 1981. Hope you have a great holiday and please let me know any news or questions. Best wishes

Well over 300 submissions were sent to BASCA for the 2009 Awards which fete new works receiving their first UK performance between April 2008 and March 2009. As an indicator of trends in commissioning, it was significant to note that 49 entries were received for the Chamber category alone. Senior figures such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir John Tavener, Jonathan Harvey and Alexander Goehr received nominations together with established names from the next generation, Simon Holt, Anthony Powers and Mark-Anthony Turnage among them. Previous winners Judith Bingham, Adam Gorb and Gabriel Jackson were also on the lists as were John Adams and Magnus Lindberg for the international prize. Roger Wright, Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of the BBC Proms, says:

“This is the seventh year of Radio 3’s association with the British Composer Awards. The Awards continue to reflect the immense creativity that flourishes in this field today and we are delighted to support them. Contemporary music is central to the work of Radio 3, the world’s most significant commissioner of new music.”

Composer	Work	Ensemble	Publisher
Buxton Orr	A John Gay Suite	The President’s Own	Novello/MusicSales
Aulis Sallinen	Palace Rhapsody	Baylor University WE	Novello/MusicSales
Adam Gorb	Symphony No 1 in C	Baylor University WE	Maecenas
Kenneth Hesketh	Vranjanka	Irish Youth Wind O	Faber
Matthew Taylor	Blasket Dances	SUNY Fredonia WE	Maecenas
Adam Gorb	Adrenaline City	Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama WE	Studio

MY FIRST ELEVEN FOR 2009
Abigala, Brett	Petit Overture	Composer	James Logan Wind Symphony	3.00	WASBE
Basford, Daniel	Night Journey	Maecenas	Hertfordshire WO	40.38	concert
Corigliano, John arr Mösenbichler	Mr Tambourine Man Seven poems of Bob Dylan	Schirmer	University of Texas at Austin	35.00	CBDNA
Gorb, Adam	Tranquility	Maecenas	RNCM	7.00	WASBE
Long, Zhou	The Future of Fire	Oxford	UMKC Conservatory	6.00	CBDNA
Mobberley, Jim	The Word of Love	Composer	UMKC Conservatory	8.00	CBDNA
Puckett, Joel	It perched for Vespers Nine	Composer	UNC Greensboro WE	10.00	CBDNA
Pütz, Marco	Four Earth Songs	De Haske	Frysk Fanfare Orkestra	23.00	WASBE
Salfelder, Kathryn	Cathedrals	Boosey	Oklahoma State	10.00	CBDNA
Yi, Chen	UMKC Fanfare	Composer	UMKC Conservatory	3.30	WASBE
Yo Goto	Fantasma Lunare	Brain		7.00	WASBE

Not a vintage for great new repertoire, though there were enough significant works to put out a first eleven – probably I could have included another half dozen. The Abigala I found to be a very engaging 3 minute opener, and I hope that he writes more for us – commissions required here. The Basford is a wonderful choral work, 40 minutes long, and I found it captivating. The Corigliano was for me the outstanding experience of the year, an incredibly dramatic setting of Bob Dylan poems, transcribed brilliantly by Verena Moesenbichler. Tranquility, one of my commissions, was a pool of peace and quiet in a noisy WASBE conference, though I very much enjoyed the works by Joel Puckett and Jim Mobberly for the same reason. Joel’s work can be heard by following the links later in this homepage. My listing included two works of terrific energy cast in an exciting language by Chinese composers, Chen Yi and Zhou Long, a very beautiful fantasia on the Moonlight Sonata by Yo Goto and another fantasia on music by Gabrieli by the brilliant young composer, Kathryn Sakfelder. These are a few of my favorite things.

The Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen is one of the leading composers of his generation in the world today, and has frequently been hailed as the natural successor to Jan Sibelius, but with eight symphonies, six operas, more than fourteen concertante works, chamber and choral music, his music covers a far wider range than his illustrious compatriot. The Palace Rhapsody was written in 1996 in response to a joint commission from the Royal Northern College of Music and the College Band Directors National Association.

The 75^th birthday of Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen will be celebrated in April 2010. This birthday year gives the perfect opportunity to visit and revisit Sallinen’s wide catalogue of music. Sallinen’s music has received recognition with the award of the Wihuri International Sibelius prize (which he shared with Penderecki) and in 1981 the Finnish Government made him Professor of Arts for Life - the first appointment of its kind, thus making it possible for him to devote all of his time to composing.

I have enthused in several homepages about Cyrano by Piet Swerts which I first heard at the WASBE Conference in 2003. I wrote:

From France, we had the premiere of Cyrano by Piet Swerts, and from Belgium Jules Strens‘ Danse Funambulesque, both large-scale exciting works in the genre of Pütz’s Meltdown, or Comitas’s A Night on Culbin Sands.

I think that any of these works would be for a good band at around American Grade 4/5. Cyrano is published by De Haske.

I am afraid that I do not know any of Swerts’ other works, but here is a listing from the web and I suspect that many of these pieces are worth investigating.

A special collaboration between the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama focusing on music written for Wind Band.

The world premiere of Creation for Symphonic Wind Orchestra by prize-winning composer Stephen McNeff is the highlight of today's concert. McNeff's reputation as a dedicated composer for this important genre of music is enhanced by his recent CD, Image in Stone. The rest of this evening's programme celebrates the works of four other contemporary British composers and one French master.

Conducting Weekend: Friday 30 April to Sunday 2 May (Friday 1400 to Sunday 1800)

The conducting weekend follows on from highly successful Conductor Training Weekends in previous years, and features three days of dynamic masterclasses with internationally acclaimed conductors and RNCM Conducting Faculty members Mark Heron, Philippe Bach and Clark Rundell. Orchestras and ensembles for the weekend will be formed from members of the Stockport Symphony Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, North Cheshire Wind Orchestra and students from the RNCM and Manchester University.

The course is open to both active conductors and observers and will focus on key practical issues including conducting technique, interpretation, rehearsal and preparation. In addition to sessions with a variety of orchestras and ensembles there will be workshops with rehearsal pianists and discussions on topics of interest to conductors led by other RNCM Faculty members. Video playback facilities will also be available and all participants will receive a DVD of their conducting over the weekend.

Just back from the 2009 Canford course. 22 conductors from all over the world, a great wind orchestra of students and very fine non-professional players, 4 performances, 91 gigabytes of video, umpteen pieces of repertoire and goodness only knows how many beers. One of the unique things about this course is the mixture of students: orchestral and wind band conductors, some already very experienced, others less so, with a wide variety of backgrounds and ages from many parts of the world.

The dates for the 2010 course are 8th to 15th August. Details will be available on the school's website and on this site.

I was recently fortunate to conduct this work again with the Band of HMS Collingwood, HM Royal Marines, Gosport, and we attempted to sort out all of the errata that have come to light. Please let me know of any further mistakes in score or parts.

BAR	INSTRUMENT	ERRATA TO BE CHCKED AND CHANGED WHERE NECCESSARY
3	3^rd Cornet	Insert mp crescendo mf diminuendo
31	Marimba	Should be the same rhythm as 29
42	Bottle 4	Should balance with alto and bass clarinet
55	Cor anglais	Should have E natural concert B natural written
64	Cor anglais	Should have D concert A written
79	1^st trumpet	Play E F# G---F# E same rhythm as in 85 end on dotted minim Eb Upper octave as in 85 very loudly but not drowning oboes…. #
98	Trombone 2	Should have Bb to A natural
125	Eb Clarinet	Has letter O missing
125	Trombones	Have O missing
201	Bb Clarinet 1	Should have A concert B written
209	Trumpet 2	Should have Eb concert dotted minim on beat 2 F written
209	Horn 3	Should have Eb concert dotted minim on beat 2 Bb written
215	Bb Clarinet 3	Should have D G Eb Bb concert repeated semiquavers E A F C written
221	Horns 3 & 4	Should have Db concert written Ab
228	Trumpet 1	Might be wrong should read Ab Eb C F concert Bb F D G written
229	Trumpet 1	Should read Bb Eb D G concert C F E A written
241	Low clarinets	May be missing – check with score afterwards
257	Bb clarinets	Should be in C major concert, two sharps written
257	Horns	Should have F# in key signature
265	Trumpet 2	Should be E natural concert, written F#
276/7	1^st bass clarinet	Play as in bars 68/69
273	Saxes	Could you please check your rhythm should be as in 271 dotted crotchet rest – quaver quaver rest quaver crotchet rest
282	Bb Clarinets	Letter X is missing
288	Trumpet 1	Play E F# G---F# E same rhythm as in 294 end on dotted minim Eb Upper octave as in 204 very loudly but not drowning oboes…. #
298	Horns	Should be in Db major – 5 flats
306	Bb Clarinets	Should be in C major concert, D major written – insert 2 sharps
306	Eb Clarinet	Should be in C major concert, A major written – insert 3 sharps
310	Bb Clarinets	Should be in F major concert, G major written – insert 1 sharps
310	Eb Clarinet	Should be in C major concert, D major written – insert 2 sharps
310	Bb Clarinet 1	Has Bar 310 numbered as 311

# There are some balance problems , especially between woodwind and brass in the sections around 79 and 288 where two oboes and cor anglais must play ff as do the heavy brass or whole clarinet section. I have taken the liberty of adding a trumpet to these two bars – without permission.

I'm pleased to announce, in collaboration with composer Tanner Menard, the FREE release of performance materials for his groundbreaking work for band, joe's last mix. Many of you know, love, and have performed this piece, and we're trying something a little different with it now:

On the website, you can download PDF files of full score and parts, released under a Creative Commons 3.0 license (details on site), for you to use and enjoy. You'll also find a few different recordings of the piece.

We are also excited to announce, along with this release, a REMIX composition contest. Details are on the site, but in short, we're seeking both composed and electronic remixes of joe's last mix, from composers of any age/experience, with the first round of composed remixes due by March 1. The best submission will receive a performance and recording by the Arizona State University Wind Ensemble on April 15, and other submissions as well as all electronic remixes will be posted on the site for all to enjoy.

Please visit the site, get some free music, and let me know what you think! Any and all feedback on this experiment from our terrific community would be most appreciated! (Also, if you've performed joe's last mix and have a recording you'd like to share, please send it along and I'll post it on the site.)

Coming to a cinema near you, well to dozens of cinemas in about 20 different countries, live opera from the Met. You are taken backstage, you interview the stars, and the opera is filmed in gorgeous close-up with subtitles – quite an experience.

I am sending you here my latest piece for Wind Orchestra. It is not only for Symphonic Band because the Simphony Orchestra withouth strings, can perform the piece. I am sending you here the You Tube´s links. You will have to excuse about the balances because it is a "domestic" audio. This piece will be published by Kliment KG Musicverlag in a short time. The set of part will be for rent.

The Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble is a professional-level wind band in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada.

PSWE is spearheading the commissioning of a new work by Adam Gorb that is a subversive patriotic march. The piece will be 6-7 minutes in length and will be in the vein of a Charles Ives or Kurt Weill dig at marches. Assuming that we get support for the project, this piece that will be suitable for high school and more advanced ensembles, will be completed for the fall of 2010. It will be premiered in the 2010-11 PSWE season. What we are looking for is folks who are interested in supporting this commission. Anyone can support to the tune of $500 Canadian. For this financial contribution, each supporter will receive a copy of the score and parts (pre-publication) and will have their name printed in the published score. This is an excellent way of supporting composers and generating new works that will hopefully become part of the repertoire.

On 10th of November "...then thy words will take wing..." was premiered at St. Katharin church in Osnabrueck (Germany). It's a 21' piece in 4 movements for Wind Orchestra, Violoncello-Solo (Soloist: Yuri Kim) and Children Choir about 4 drawings by Z. Tolkatchev (Liberaton of Auschwitz). The texts are by Nelly Sachs and Rabindranath Tagore. The piece has been commissioned by several organisations, among the " Freundeskreis von Yad Vashem in Deutschland ".

New is in of a new work for solo Tuba and Wind Ensemble by Brian Earl, Principal Tuba of the La Scala Milan Opera, written for Alessandro Fossi, which will be premiered at the Conference of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association in Arizona in 2010. For more information about Brian earl and his compositions, checkout his new website www.brianearl.net

His chamber opera Nosferatu, written on a libretto by Lorenza Cantini, resident producer at La Scala, for 15 winds, 10 singers, a small chorus and a few dancers, is seeking a premiere production. Contact Brian Earl at brianrichard.earl@inwind.it for further information.

2006 saw the 200^th anniversary of the death of Michael Haydn, celebrated by the commissioning of a setting of the mass by the South African composer Shane Woodborne. The world premiereof the Rohrau Mass was given in Rohrau, the composer’s birthplace, by the Musikverein Rohrau, and was later performed at the Universityof Latvia and recorded by the University Wind Band and Mixed Choir Juventus conducted by Janis Purins. In four movements, lasting just over twenty two minutes, the work is eminently suitable for amateur wind orchestras and choirs, and the score can be accessed by browsing on ROHRAUMESSE or

Marco Pütz was guest conductor of the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales in their tour of Luxembourg, with Philippe Schartz as soloist. Philippe, originally from Luxembourg and currently Principal Trumpet with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, gave the first performance of a specially-commissioned concerto by Welsh composer, Gareth Glyn, at Trifolion, Echternach's newly-opened concert hall. The NYWOW's programme also comprises works by other composers from Wales, including Gareth Wood, and from Luxembourg, including Roland Wiltgen and Marco Pütz. Details of the Trumpet Concerto from Gareth Glyn

MARCO PÜTZ reports that his wind band version of Four Earth Songs will be published by De Haske.

Polish composer Norbert Palej, now relocated to Toronto where he is Professor of Composition at the University, will have two wind works performed in early 2010.

The University of Toronto Wind Ensemble, conducted by Gillian MacKay, will perform Souffle de Lumière [Breath of Light].

The University of Toronto Wind Symphony, under Jeffrey Reynolds’s baton, will perform my Three Movements for the Young: Vigil, Game, and Prayer.

For the third time, Spanish commissions from Gregory Fritze, chair of composition at Berklee College of Music, took first prize in the World Music Contest at Kerkrade. This year’s composition was Magallón: Instrumento de Civilizaciones, commissioned by the Sociedad Artistico Musical de Magallón (Zaragoza). For more details of Gregory Fritzes, contact gritze@berklee.edu.

The second National Congress of Band Directors took place in Alcoi, Spain from 30^th October to 2^nd November. The event is an initiative by band conductors in Spain who have formed a new association aimed at furthering communication and sharing knowledge. Still a fledgling organisation, the event was on a fairly small scale with only one concert and two days of seminars and discussions. Mark Heron was the guest conductor for the concert and conducted a programme of English music: Vaughan Williams Toccata Marziale; Guy Woolfenden Gallimaufry; Ken Hesketh Masque and Adam Gorb Yiddish Dances. Felix Hauswirth was among the clinicians.

ADAM GORB has been commissioned to write a work entitled War of the Worlds to be premiered by Bromley Youth Concert Band, conductor Michael Purton, at St John’s Smith Square on Sunday March 7^th at 6.00 pm, drinks from 5.30 pm. The work will be about twenty minutes, and will be based on the novel by H G Wells who was born in Bromley.

Michael Short’s Water Music was given its world premiere at a concert entitled King Bladud’s Concert in Bath on 7^th June. Also in the programme given by Zephryian Woodwind Orchestra was Sulyen Caradon’s King Bladud and the Goddess.

GEOFFREY BURGON is writing a Saxophone Concerto for Marlborough College to be premiered in May 2010, conducted by Alex Arkwright.

Some months ago I enthused about Joseph Turrin’s chamber opera The Scarecrow scored for singers and a chamber wind ensemble. By putting your browser on the links below, you can hear the whole of this exciting work:

Two recordings and a programme note for this fine work by Joel Puckett can be found at