HOMEPAGE NOVEMBER 3RD 2008
AUTUMN (OR FALL) GREETINGS FROM LANCASHIRE, UK

INDEX

THE BROKEN SEA to be premiered at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Award announced
ASCAP recognition of Wind Music
Bob Brookmeyer commission from Gotham Wind Symphony
CBDNA Programmes
Conferences – WASBE & CBDNA
CANFORD/BASBWE CONDUCTING SUMMER SCHOOL 2009
INTERNATIONAL CONDUCTING INSTITUTE
JAPAN – premiere of commission from Stanislaw Skrowaczeski
TEXAS - STEVE BRYANT premiere for band and electronics
ISRAELI PREMIERE in Kentucky
News from Croatia
News from Spain
Triptych - Peter Child’s work streamed
Three Concert Programmes in the USA

 700 not out!

Colleagues from overseas probably do not know the problem we  they [editorial correction: Tim is Welsh and sounds English therefore not entitled to write "we" when referring to Scotland!] have in Scotland painting the Forth Bridge; the urban myth is that by the time the maintenance firm has finished painting the bridge, it is time to start again, a modern Labour of Sisyphus. I feel a little like this with cataloguing my CD collection. I have recently reached CD 700, with over 3,000 performances, but the piles of CDs still waiting to be catalogued get taller by the week.

However, cataloguing is a great excuse to catch up on all those CDs I have either forgotten or not even listened to.

Constructing a programme for wind orchestra or ensemble is tougher than for symphony or chamber orchestra, so it might be worth looking again at a discussion which I transcribed from the WASBE Conference of 2003. I have jotted down a few rehearsal notes for Adam Gorb’s Dances from Crete, a work which I love and which can be heard on the Timpod for September. We have added to the composers file an article on Vaughan Williams which focuses on Toccata Marziale and includes a review of the splendid new book by Jon Mitchell, and to the conductors section, notes from a lecture given at the MidWest Clinic by tubist, conductor, teacher and administrator David McCormick, entitled "Please Conduct, Don't Talk".

NEW COMMISSION PREMIERE
I am delighted to announce the premiere of The Broken Sea by Christopher Painter,  a work I commissioned some years ago and which I have been unable to perform until now. More information below.

TIMPODS
Each month we will select three works which you can stream to your computers, one at professional level, one for college, community and good school bands, and one for school or community band, level three. This month we have chosen three works commissioned in memory of my third son, William:

An Elegy for Ur  is a concerto for oboe and orchestral winds, an heartfelt threnody for the city of Ur of the Chaldees, one of the greatest cities of ancient times. At an easier level is Blasket Dances, the first commission in memory of my third son William, celebrating the artistic life on Blasket Islands off the West coast of Ireland. This mix of dances and interludes is constructed more symphonically than most similar suites of folk music. To Ireland also for Song of Lir, a setting at about Grade 3 of a folk-like tune with connections to the legend of the children of Lir.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
Buying Christmas presents for your wind friends has never been easier. Just log onto Amazon or Mark Custom Recordings or browse my RNCM recordings page and send everyone a wind CD.

OPERA
As I write, I am listening to CD 700, Blue Mountain, a superb opera about the relationship between Edvard Grieg, his wife and Percy Grainger, with some incredibly dramatic and lyrical music by Justin Dello Joio, available from Amazon on Bridge 9273

Also available from Amazon is a double CD Troy 849/850, a great recording by University of Nevada at Las Vegas of Daron Hagen’s Bandanna, conducted by the composer.

NOTES ON THE INDEX
I always enjoy odd numbered years, for they bring to us two great conferences and a score of concerts by leading ensembles from round the world, with reminders of music we have missed in past years and usually a number of premieres of important new works. Browse on the links below for details of CBDNA and WASBE Conferences; strangely the WASBE website and the link to the Conference give no information yet of ensembles or music to be played, but to peruse the CBDNA programmes, browse on the link CBDNA PROGRAMMES or follow the link to the website. Perhaps more curiously, neither WASBE nor CBDNA give any information about eachother’s conference.

In my monthly round-up of News, it is important to note the work of ASCAP, who are now planning to recognize wind works in assessing payments to composers, and also announces the winner of their Fennell Composition Competition. New commissions will be premiered this season from veteran conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczeski, jazz icon Bob Brookmeyer, and from rising Spanish star Luis Serrano Alarcón, while at last Zagorske Slike by Croatian composer Davor Bobic reaches publication. There is a link this month to the stream for Peter Child’s fine Triptych.  

Preliminary news of the BASBWE/CANFORD Conducting School, a truly international gathering of conductors usually from Asia, Europe, UK and USA; news too of the International Conducting Institute in Paris, France, a truly exciting concept until you read the small print and find that it is open to US conductors and conducting students, rather like the World Series in baseball. It is the international mix which makes Canford so unique.

I am especially privileged in 2009 to be Visiting Professor at Cornell University with responsibility for their very fine Wind Ensemble while Professor Cynthia Johnston Turner is on sabbatical, and also to have the rare honour of being guest conductor with Dallas Wind Symphony. Under their dynamic conductor Jerry Junkin, they have established themselves through their concerts in the great Meyerson Symphony Centre and their recordings as one of the greatest professional wind orchestras of the world. I always enjoy browsing the programmes in the quarterly CBDNA Report, now available on their website back over a decade, so I hope that some will enjoy browsing my three programmes for my Spring visit to USA.

 ood browsing and listening. Please email me with any questions or suggestions.

Tim

PREMIERE AT ROYAL WELSH COLLEGE OF MUSIC & DRAMA
Thursday 27 November 7.30pm, St Teilo’s Church, Cardiff 

As a Welshman manqué, especially when we are winning at rugby football, it will be good to return home (both of my parents came from South Wales) to conduct the premiere of my latest commission, The Broken Sea by Cardiff composer Christopher Painter. The work is a tone poem which falls into five sections mirroring quotations from a poem by Vernon Watkins, a close friend of Dylan Thomas and Daniel Jones. The duration is twenty four minutes and it is scored for a normal wind ensemble, triple wind but with 4 Bb clarinets. Saxophone quartet, four each of horns and trumpets, trombones, euphonium, tuba, timpani and percussion.

The programme begins with a set of Welsh Dances by Alun Hoddinott, who was for many years the leading Welsh composer, and ends with Blasket Dances, my first commission in the current series which you can hear on this month’s Timpod. The programme is completed by Edwin Roxburgh’s moving An Elegy for Ur, a concerto for oboe and orchestral wind also on this month’s Timpod, Aloncon’s splendid Concertango  for solo saxophone, with jazz trio, and Adam Gorb’s jazzy Adrenaline City, commissioned by the US military and annoyingly in 10/8. 

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TWO CONFERENCES of major importance take place in 2009; for details browse below:

March 25 – 28, 2009
CBDNA NATIONAL CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Programmes are at the bottom of this Homepage  - CBDNA PROGRAMMES

July 5 - 11, 2009
WASBE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT CINCINNATI
Programmes to be confirmed

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JAPAN PREMIERE OF COMMISSION FROM STANISLAW SKROWACZEWSKI
Skrowaczewski will conduct the world premiere of the his new work for wind orchestra with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space Popular series on 21^st March 2009. The work is commissioned by a consortium of major American Orchestras and Universities, together with Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity College of Music and my own commissioning series.

Conductor: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C major, op.48
Skrowaczewski: Commissioned piece for wind orchestra (Japan premiere)
Brahms: Symphony No.4 in E minor, op. 98

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NEW WORK COMMISSIONED FROM BOB BROOKMEYER
Gotham Wind Symphony
New Year, New Music
Monday, January 5, 2009
8:00 p.m.
Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
New York, NY

Start off your New Year the right way with the sounds of brand-new music for 45 wind and percussion players by four award-winning jazz composer/ musicians:

GWS to Perform world-premiere Works of New Music for Winds by Bob Brookmeyer, John Hollenbeck, Mike Holober, James Chirillo

Bob Brookmeyer has an unusually varied and extensive background in all forms of improvised and composed music. He has played in and written for the bands of great jazz musicians including Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, and Gerry Mulligan. He spent a year with Jimmy Guiffre Three, including Jim Hall, which turned out to be the first group to employ regular free improvisation as a staple of the concert fare. Along the way, he made a two-piano album with Bill Evans, played on George Russell's New York, New York, and became a regular in the studio musicians "A" group. The Quintet with Clark Terry began in 1961 to great success and continues to this day. The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band found him to be a key member and contributing composer/arranger. He studied composition with Earle Brown. Details Gotham Wind Symphony Website

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PETER CHILDS WORK STREAMED
British composer Peter Childs is currently on the faculty of MIT and is composer in residence with New England Philharmonic Orchestra  His work Triptych for Wind Ensemble can be heard here.

Peter Child Triptych, 2007, 10'
Co-commissioned by the wind ensembles of Emory University, MIT, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Texas at Austin, and Yale University.

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NEW PIECES FOR ELECTRONICS AND BAND
Just a a few days after Portuguese conductor and scholar Andre Granjo circulated a list of works involving electronics, a list I shall post next month, an email from Jerry Junkin announced the world premiere of one of Andre’s listed works, Stephen Bryant’s Ecstatic Waters premiered by the University of Texas Wind Ensemble on Sunday October 26^th.. 

BORIS PIGOVAT PREMIERE IN KENTUCKY
News too from Dennis Johnson of the world premiere of Boris Pigovat’s Idyll, given at Murray State University, Kentucky, on October 14^th by the University Wind Ensemble.

Boris Pigovat (b.1953, Odessa, USSR) studied at the Gnessin Music Institute (Academia of Music) in Moscow.  He later spent many years in Tadjikistan before finally immigrating to Israel in 1990.  His works have been performed throughout the world including “Song of the Sea” for wind band which was premiered by the Murray State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in 2005.  About “Idyll” the composer states, “I wanted to depict an incredibly beautiful and calm place which is completely detached from our anxious world.  I wanted to embody (in sound) the atmosphere of appeasement and oblivion”.   

NEWS FROM CROATIA

 
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NEWS FROM SPAIN
Luis Serrano Alarcón conducted the premiere of his new work, Little Suite for Band, in Buñol (Valencia) with the Symphonic Band of Centre Artistic Musical de Bétera. The second performance will be at the Congreso Iberoamericano de Directores, Compositores, Arregladores de Banda in Tenerife. The work is in four movements, lasting 10 minutes and is approximately 10 minutes long.

THREE CONCERTS IN USA

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ASCAP RECOGNITION OF WIND MUSIC
Commencing with the October 1, 2008 Survey Year, ASCAP will credit Concert Band/Wind Ensemble works performed by duly licensed College, University or Conservatory ensembles for which programs are submitted to ASCAP, on a per count, or census basis. However, although these performances will be credited as large ensemble works, their monetary value will be subject to the funds available for distribution in the Educational licensing pool in each Survey year.

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CANFORD/BASBWE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
CONDUCTORS COURSE AND SYMPHONIC WIND ORCHESTRA
Information about the 2009 Summer School running from 2^nd to the 8^th August will be posted as soon as possible on this site, on BASBWSE and on the Canford Summer School site. For details of the course of last summer browse on CANFORD SUMMER SCHOOL 2008.

Repertoire for 2009 will probably include:

Felix Mendelssohn               Overture
Richard Strauss                  Serenade in Eb
Igor Stravinsky                  Octet
Ernst Toch                        Spiel
Paul Hindemith                   Symphony in Bb
Richard Rodney Bennett       Morning Music
Martin Ellerby                    Paris Sketches
Fergal Carroll                     Winter Dances
Adam Gorb                        Dances from Crete
Stephen McNeff                 Wasteland Music
Stephen McNeff                 Clarinet Concerto

INTERNATIONAL CONDUCTING INSTITUTE
Paris, France (for U.S. conductors and conducting students) - "International"?!....
June 10 - 26, 2009 Details.

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ASCAP/CBDNA FREDERICK FENNELL PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED
Cathedrals (2007) by Kathryn Salfelder
Duration: 6
Published by Boosey & Hawkes Windepenence Series

Kathryn Salfelder, 21, Wins $5000 Frederick Fennell Prize in Competition for Young Composers of Concert Band Music. The competition, named for Frederick Fennell, ASCAP member and founder of the CBDNA, was established to encourage gifted American composers who create new works for Concert Band.  The winning work was selected via a juried national competition, which attracted submissions from eligible composers (between the ages of 18 and 30) from across the United States. The award winning work will be performed during the National CBDNA Conference at The University of Texas at Austin, March 25 – 28, 2009 by the Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Joe Missal.

Cathedrals, has been selected for publication in the Boosey & Hawkes Windependence Series and was premiered in September 2008 by Gary W. Hill and the Arizona State University Wind Bands.  It will be featured in over a dozen concerts throughout the US during the 2008-2009 season.  Salfelder, a native of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, is completing a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition at The New England Conservatory of Music. Further information is available at www.kathrynsalfelder.com

Instrumentation:
Picc, 4 Fl, 2 Ob, 6 Cl, Bs.cl, 2 Bsn, Sop.Alto.Ten.Bar Sax Double Brass Choir: 2 Tpt, 2 Hn, 2 Trb, Tba (x 2 choirs) Timp. + 4 Perc: vib, mar, bells, w. blk, tom-toms (4), crot, bd, xyl, sus cymb. (2), tam-tam, t. blks (5).

Premiere: September 18, 2008
Arizona State University Wind Bands, Gary W. Hill, conductor ASU Gammage, Tempe, AZ

Program Note:
Cathedrals is a fantasy on Gabrielis Canzon Primi Toni from the Sacrae Symphoniae, which dates from 1597. Written for St. Marks Cathedral in Venice, the canzon is transcribed for two brass choirs, each comprised of two trumpets and two trombones. The choirs were stationed in balconies of the church according to the antiphonal principal of cori spezzati (It. broken choirs), which forms the basis of much of Gabrielis writing.

Cathedrals is an adventure in neo-renaissance music, in its seating arrangement, antiphonal qualities, 16th century counterpoint, and canonic textures.  Its form is structured on the golden ratio (1: .618), which is commonly found not only in nature and art, but also in the motets and masses of Renaissance composers such as Palestrina and Lassus. The areas surrounding the golden section and its series of extrapolated subdivisions have audible characteristics, often evidenced by cadences, changes in texture, or juxtaposition of ideas.

The work is a synthesis of the old and the new, evoking the mystery and allure of Gabrielis spatial music, intertwined with the rich color palette, modal harmonies, and textures of woodwinds and percussion. 

Honorable Mention:
Jonathan Bartz, age 22, Los Angeles, California – The Valley of the Dry Bones for symphonic concert band
David Biedenbender, age 24, Ann Arbor, Michigan – Stomp for winds and percussion
Andres Carrizo, age 26, Chicago, Illinois – Ecos Y Remansos for concert band
Michael Cortes, age 23, San Antonio, Texas – Europa Fanfare for concert band and pipe organ
Elizabeth A. Kelly, age 26, Rochester, New York  - Ice for electric guitar and concert band
Douglas Pew, age 28, Erlanger, Kentucky - 8 Bagatelles for concert band
Anthony Suter, age 29, Redlands, California – As We Shine. Singing, Over Waterless Seas for concert band

The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2008 competition were: Derek Bermel and John Mackey.  The conductor jurors were: Jerry Junkin (University of Texas at Austin); H. Robert Reynolds (University of Southern California); and Kevin Sedatole (Michigan State University).

INDEX 

CBDNA CONFERENCE PROGRAMMES

Oklahoma State University
Wednesday, March 25 at 8:00 p.m.
Joseph P. Missal, conductor

Joseph Spaniola: WATER FANFARE
Kathryn Salfelder: CATHEDRALS (Boosey & Hawkes)
David Maslanka: TRAVELER
James Kazik: CONCERTO FOR TROMBONE AND WIND ENSEMBLE
James Kazik: EVIL ELVES
Donald Grantham: STARRY CROWN (Piquant Press)
Roshanne Etezady: ANAHITA
Todd Malicoate: LA PEQUENA HABANA 

West Texas A&M University
Thursday, March 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Donald Lefevre, conductor

Paul Hindemith: GESCHWINDMARSCH (4:15)
Igor Stravinsky: CIRCUS POLKA (3:30)
Glen Cortese: COMMISSION TBA (12:00)
Donald Grantham: COMMISSION TBA (15:00)
Percy Grainger: THE POWER OF ROME AND THE CHRISTIAN HEART (15:00) 

University of Georgia
Thursday, March 26 at 4:00 p.m.
John P. Lynch, conductor
Carter Pann: THE WRANGLER
Zechariah Goh Toh Chai: CONCERTO FOR MARIMBA
Joseph Schwanter: AND THE MOUNTAINS RISING NOWHERE
Claude Debussy/trans. Patterson: LA CATHEDRALE ENGLOUTIE
Kristin Kuster: LOST GULCH LOOKOUT
Wayne Oquin: TBA 

University of North Texas
Thursday, March 26 at 8:00 p.m.
Eugene Miraglio Corporon, conductor

Derek Bourgeois: SYMPHONY FOR WILLIAM
Karel Husa: LES COULEURS FAUVES
David Gillingham: CONCERTO FOR EUPHONIUM
Russell Peck: THE GLORY AND THE GRANDEUR
John Estacio/Linkletter: FRENERGY
Toshio Mashima: LES DANSE DU PHENIX
Dmytry Shostakovich/Dorthy: TAHITI TROTT
Donald Grantham: LONESTAR TWISTER
Morten Lauridsen/Reynolds: AVE MARIA
Melinda Wagner: SCAMP

University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music
Friday, March 27 at 2:30 p.m.
Steven D. Davis, conductor

Chen Yi: TBA
Alban Berg: KAMMERKONZERT
Paul Rudy/Bobby Watson: TBA
Jim Mobberley: WORDS OF LOVE
Zhou Long: THE FUTURE OF FIRE

University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Friday, March 27 at 4:00 p.m.
John R. Locke, conductor

Igor Stravinsky, trans. Mark Rogers: FIREWORKS, OP. 4 (3.5’) (Southern Music)
Joel Puckett: IT PERCHED FOR VESPERS NINE (10.5’) (composer)
Arnold Schoenberg: THEME AND VARIATIONS, OP. 43a (12’) (G. Schirmer)
David Dzubay: SHADOW DANCE (9’) (Pro Nova Music)
Carter Pann: FOUR FACTORIES (15’) (composer)
Luigi Denza, arr. Yo Goto: FUNICULI-FUNICULA RHAPSODY (6.5’) (Bravo Music)

The University of Texas at Austin
Friday, March 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Jerry F. Junkin, conductor

Donald Grantham: MUSIC FOR THE BLANTON (50’) (Piquant Press)
Richard Strauss: FEIERLICHER EINZUG (7’) (Boosey & Hawkes)
John Adams: GRAND PIANOLA MUSIC (35’) (G. Schirmer)
Steven Bryant: ECSTATIC WATERS (21’) (Gorilla Salad Productions, Hal Leonard)
John Corigliano: MR. TAMBOURINE MAN – SEVEN SONGS ON TEXTS OF BOB DYLAN (35’) (G. Schirmer) 

Intercollegiate Band
Saturday, March 28 at 2:30 p.m.
Virginia Allen, conductor

Steven Bryant: RADIANT JOY (5’) (Gorilla Salad Productions)
Morton Gould: SYMPHONY FOR BAND (16’) (G. Schirmer)
Kenneth Hesketh: MASQUE (7’) (Faber)
Jennifer Higdon: FANFARE RITMICO (6’) (Lawdon Press)
Karel Husa: CHEETAH (6’) (G. Schirmer)
Jonathan Newman: CLIMBING PARNASSUS (9’) (OK Feel Good Music)
Luigi Zaninelli: THREE DANCES OF ENCHANTMENT (11’) (C. Alan) 

Baylor University
Saturday, March 28 at 4:00 p.m.
J. Eric Wilson, conductor

J.S. Bach/Holst: FUGUE A LA GIGUE
Gustav Holst: HAMMERSMITH
Mark Kilstofte: BALLISTIC ETUDE 3.0 – PANIC
Joel Puckett: COLLOQUIAL THREADS
Scott McAllister: TBA
Dmitri Shostakovich/de Meij: DANCE FROM “JAZZ SUITE NO. 2” 

Michigan State University
Saturday, March 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Kevin L. Sedatole, conductor

John Mackey: ASPHALT COCKTAIL (8’) (Osti Music)
Ricardo Lorenz: EL MURO
Carter Pann: CONCERTO LOGIC (20’) (Carter Pann)
William Bolcom: FIRST SYMPHONY FOR BAND

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