100 YEARS OF FANFARES
Elizabeth Raum
This fanfare is meant to commemorate Saskatchewan’s centenary with the events of the first 100 years being represented as “echoes” of fanfares. The piece begins with a clarion call from the brass, the fanfares of the present culminating in the Maestoso. Then the music becomes more distant, fanfares of the past, played by the woodwinds and muted brass. The transition brings us back to the present with the return to the band’s full salute to Saskatchewan’s centennial.
Note by Elizabeth Raum
in living color
Katahj Copley
2020 brought the world to a pause. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, so many of life’s simple joys were taken, including the opportunity to perform music.
To me, music is one of the greatest means of communication. When it was taken away, the language of music became foreign—and for some, a passion for the subject disappeared. Now, as the world slowly takes its turn again, a love for music has grown—through separation, we grew stronger.
I wrote In Living Color as an ode for live music, especially music performed on the wind band stage. The piece offers a kaleidoscope of colors and energy from modern jazz artists such as Snarky Puppy, “American Boy” singer Estelle, and takes inspiration from George Gershwin.
Note by Katahj Copley
Scenes from indian life
Louis Ballard
Louis Wayne Ballard, or “Honga-no-zhe” meaning “Grand Eagle” in Quapaw, was an American composer who is sometimes dubbed the “Father of Native American Composition.” Born in Devil’s Promenade, Oklahoma, his mother was a member of the Quapaw tribe and his father was a member of the Cherokee tribe of Oklahoma. His Quapaw lineage traced back to a prominent traditional medicine family and his Cherokee lineage to the chief’s line. His mother spoke her native tongue, and Ballard himself was one of the last native speakers of the Quapaw language.
At the age of six, Ballard was sent to the Seneca Indian Training School, one of the now-infamous government operated boarding schools for Native American children living on reservations across the United States. The official mission of these schools was to assimilate these children into white American society and provide them with useful trades. These schools were created after tribes had been forced to resettle all over the country under varying conditions during the 1800’s.
Ballard described the boarding school as a “brainwashing center for young Indians.” He was punished for speaking his native tongue and practicing traditional dances in the school yard which were common institutionalized cultural genocide tactics at boarding schools across the country. After boarding school, Ballard spent several years living on the Quapaw reservation with his grandmother and brother while attending church and local tribal dances. His grandmother encouraged his interest in music and paid for his first piano and voice lessons through the church. He started to flourish towards the end of high school and piano became a constant in his life.
Ballard studied music theory and composition at Oklahoma University, Tulsa University, the College of Santa Fe, and William Jewell College. As a composer, music educator, and music journalist, he was passionate about furthering the understanding and appreciation of indigenous cultures in the United States.
“It is not enough to acknowledge that American Indian music is different from other music. What is needed in America is an awakening and reorienting of our total spiritual and cultural perspective to embrace, understand, and learn from the Aboriginal American what motivated his musical and artistic impulses.”
In 2004, he was a founding member of the First Nations Composer Initiative which included younger Native American composers such as Brent Michael Davids, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and Raven Chacon, the winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In February 2007, Ballard passed away at his home in Santa Fe after battling cancer since 2004.
Scenes from Indian Life is a satirical musical depiction of scenes Ballard observed from his new home in Santa Fe in the 1960s. Two locals, one Navajo and one Taos, were building a wall out in front of his house. He heard the two greeting each other, each in their own language. These utterances became the opening motifs heard on the clarinet and the trombone. A musical dialogue takes shape, and the themes are developed in each movement. The story continues as the onlooking “Indian Friends,” realizing that the two do not know what they are doing, aid in completing the wall. Ballard noted how “the stylized rhythmic elements of Pueblo music are utilized” throughout the work.
The first three movements were dedicated to Mrs. Stewart Udall, founder of The Center for Indian Arts of America, and premiered by the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra under Howard Hanson in 1964. Later, Ballard arranged the original three-movement work for elementary and advanced bands. As a result, it has been one of his most frequently performed works. The final movement, Feast Day, was added in 1994. According to Ballard, this movement is not tribe specific. It is “the world of the Rio Grande.” The San Jose Symphony and Leonid Grin premiered the complete work on January 6, 1995.
Note by Karl Erik Ettinger
WILLIAM BYRD SUITE
Gordon Jacob
William Byrd (1540–1623) was a student of Thomas Tallis, a notable English composer of the fifteenth century. Many of his compositions are contained in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, a collection of almost 300 keyboard pieces written between 1562 and 1612 by dozens of composers for organ, harpsichord, and virginals. While the compositions display limited dynamic contrast due to the limitations of the instruments themselves, each piece is full of melodic variation and rhythmic invention.
Gordon Jacob was an English composer, teacher, and writer. He studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music and was on the teaching staff from 1924 until his retirement in 1966. Jacob’s students included Malcolm Arnold and Imogen Holst. Throughout his career, he wrote textbooks on orchestration and score reading with his career as a composer spanning sixty years. William Byrd Suite was written in 1923, most likely as a tribute to the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death. The suite is a compilation and transcription of William Byrd’s melodies found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.
CONCERTO FOR MARIMBA AND WIND ORCHESTRA
Emmanuel Séjourné
Emmanuel Séjourné has received awards for his incidental music for staged dramas, as well as musical comedies, film scores, and ballets. He has taken part in numerous international festivals, several of which have commissioned works from him. One such work was commissioned by the marimba virtuoso Bogdan Bácanu, to whom it is dedicated, and who introduced it with the Salzburg Solisten at the International Marimba Competition in Linz in 2006.
The concerto, which was quickly taken up by marimba virtuosi and pedagogues, was originally written for a small string orchestra and comprises two movements, marked, respectively, “Tempo souple” and “Rythmique énergique.” The wind orchestra transcription was adapted by Jordan Gudefin.
Note by Capitol Symphonic Winds
Blue Shades
Frank Ticheli
In 1992, I composed a concerto for traditional jazz band and orchestra, Playing With Fire, for the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the San Antonio Symphony. That work was composed as a celebration of the traditional jazz music I heard so often while growing up near New Orleans.
I experienced tremendous joy during the creation of Playing With Fire and my love for early jazz is expressed in every bar of the concerto. However, after completing it I knew that the traditional jazz influences dominated the work, leaving little room for my own musical voice to come through. I felt a strong need to compose another work, one that would combine my love of early jazz with my own musical style.
Four years, and several compositions later, I finally took the opportunity to realize that need by composing Blue Shades. As its title suggests, the work alludes to the blues and a jazz feeling is prevalent. However, it is not literally a blues piece. There is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found and, except for a few isolated sections, the eighth-note is not swung.
The work, however, is heavily influenced by the blues: “blue notes” (flatted 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) are used constantly, blues harmonies, rhythms, and melodic idioms pervade the work, and many “shades of blue” are depicted from bright blue, to dark, to dirty, to hot blue.
At times, Blue Shades burlesques some of the clichés from the big band era, not as a mockery of those conventions, but as a tribute. A slow and quiet middle section recalls the atmosphere of a dark, smoky blues haunt. An extended clarinet solo played near the end recalls Benny Goodman’s hot playing style, and ushers in a series of “wailing” brass chords recalling the train whistle effects commonly used during that era.
Note by Frank Ticheli
Jonathan caldwell
Dr. Jonathan Caldwell is director of bands and assistant professor of conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Prior to his appointment at UNCG, Caldwell held positions at Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and Garner Magnet High School (Garner, NC).
Ensembles under Caldwell’s guidance have performed for the College Band Directors National Association Southern Division, the North Carolina Music Educators Association, the National Band Association–Wisconsin Chapter, and in Carnegie Hall. His writings have been published in the Journal of Band Research and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. His book, Original Études for the Developing Conductor, was published in 2023 and awarded “Highly Commended” in the inaugural Impact Award category by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (UK). Caldwell has given presentations for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association, the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik (IGEB), and music educator conferences in North Carolina and Virginia.
Caldwell received a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music in instrumental conducting from the University of Maryland, College Park. He holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Caldwell’s conducting teachers include Michael Haithcock, Michael Votta, Jerry Schwiebert, James Ross, and Tonu Kalam. He is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Alpha Rho), Tau Beta Sigma (Beta Eta), Phi Beta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi.
ERIC LAPRADE
A dedicated and passionate conductor, educator, and arts leader, Eric Laprade serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands at The College of New Jersey, where he conducts the wind ensemble and concert band, and teaches courses in conducting, rehearsal techniques, and instrumental literature. He also serves as Managing Director & Artistic Partner, and Festival Wind Ensemble conductor of South Shore Conservatory’s Summer Music Festival (Hingham, MA). Previously, he served as the Visiting Director of Wind Ensembles at The University of Utah, Managing Editor of the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research at the Eastman School of Music, and as Music Department Chairperson and Instrumental Music Teacher for the Randolph, MA Public Schools.
Laprade has conducted many of the nation’s premier wind bands, including The Eastman Wind Ensemble, The United States Army Band, "Pershing's Own," University of Michigan Symphony Band, and Manhattan School of Music Wind Ensemble. Recent professional conducting engagements include performances of Camille Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat as part of the Duxbury Music Festival and South Shore Conservatory’s Evenings Under the Stars series. An ardent supporter of new music, he has conducted world-premieres by such notable composers as Steve Danyew, Rollo Dilworth, Sally Lamb McCune, Nkeiru Okoye, and others. At TCNJ, ensembles under his direction have received national recognition, having been named winners of the 2023 American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award, and invited performances at The College Band Directors National Association Eastern Division Conference and New Jersey Music Educators Association All-State Conference. A recipient of the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize, as a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music Laprade served as assistant conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Eastman Harmonie, and associate conductor of the Eastman Wind Orchestra. He served as assistant conductor on international tours to Europe and Canada and was a guest conductor for OSSIA New Music, the Rochester Music Hall of Fame, and Sunset Concerts.
Laprade is passionate about nurturing the next generation of music educators. In 2018, he developed and launched the SMF Teaching Academy, a summer fellowship-program for pre-service music education students. Since its inception, the program has mentored over 20 fellows from some of the nation’s finest music schools. Laprade has been a clinician at schools throughout the United States and has served as the guest conductor of for multiple performances of the Commonwealth Wind Symphony (Massachusetts), Manhattan School of Music Wind Ensemble, Eastern Wind Symphony Youth Band, and the 2023 Bucks County Music Educators Association Honors Ensembles, 2022 Pennsbury District Honor Band, 2021 Massachusetts Music Educators Southeastern District Concert Band, 2020 Woodbridge New Jersey Honor Band, 2019 Port Washington District Band Festival, 2018 Massachusetts Music Educators Central District Junior Concert Band, 2017 Massachusetts Music Educators Western District Senior Concert Band, 2017 Augustana College Honor Band.
Laprade’s scholarly-creative work focuses on innovative programming, reimagining the pedagogical possibilities and methods within the large-ensemble setting, and fostering new models of inter- and cross-disciplinary collaboration and creativity. His arrangements of works by Astor Piazzolla, Margaret Bonds, and Sally Lamb McCune have received performances by such notable groups as the University of Michigan Symphony Band and the Sinta Quartet. At TCNJ, he is a member of The Artivism Project, having contributed to the project’s Springs Eternal and Weather initiatives. At South Shore Conservatory, as a two-time recipient of the first Kathy Czerny Innovation Fund Award, he developed and launched SSC Transform, a multi-faceted initiative aimed at reimagining the role of music education in our modern society. Most recently, he developed and edited Expanding the Canon: Chorales from an Inclusive Repertoire, published by Murphy Music Press, LLC. Laprade has presented his work at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Clinic, New Jersey Music Educators Association Conference, Massachusetts Music Educators Association Conference, New York State Band Directors Association Summer Conference, the College Band Directors National and Eastern Conferences, Art+ Social Change Conference, and at numerous school district professional development days. Laprade is also a contributing author to the Eastman Case Studies series, having published cases profiling the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School, Carnegie Hall, University Musical Society, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and South Shore Conservatory.
Laprade holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting and Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music in wind conducting from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music in music education and tuba performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he was the recipient of the school’s prestigious Performer’s Certificate. His principal conducting teachers include Mark Davis Scatterday, Michael Haithcock, and Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and holds honorary memberships in Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. Laprade is a member of the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, and National Association for Music Education. (December, 2023)
KRISTIN ARP
Kristin Arp is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with Dr. Kevin Geraldi and Dr. Jonathan Caldwell. Before coming to UNCG, Kristin taught high school and middle school band in the Knox County, Tennessee public schools.
Kristin holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Education and Instrumental Conducting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she studied with Dr. Donald Ryder and Dr. David Royse. At UT, she frequently conducted the University of Tennessee Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and Trumpet Ensemble. As a graduate assistant for the Pride of the Southland Marching Band, Kristin’s responsibilities included teaching drill, music, and the supervision of Volleyball and Basketball Pep Bands. She also has extensive experience with Drum Corp International and performed with 2009 DCI World Championship Finalists, the Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps from Casper, Wyoming.
Eric Willie
Eric Willie has a varied career as an international soloist and teacher. Having performed on three continents, Eric has presented solo performances throughout the United States, Russia, Brasil, and Colombia. He has performed as soloist with the Tamborimba Ensamble in Cali, Colombia; and conducted Edgard Varese’s “Ionisation” at the III Encontro Percussivo in Recife, Pernambuco Brasil. In the United States, Eric has performed or conducted at twelve Percussive Arts Society’s International Conventions (PASIC), presented at the Midwest Clinic, as well as several state days of percussion and music educator conventions.
A Fulbright Scholar, Eric has studied Maracatu Nações in Recife, Pernambuco Brasil. In the spring of 2022, he lived in Recife to continue his study of Maracatu as well as perform with Grupo Percussivo Quebra Baque in Carnaval (Recife and Olinda). In addition, he served as a Regency Professor at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco alongside Professor Antonio José do Rego Barreto Filho, and assisted with the direction of IV Encontro Percussivo.
Active within the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), Eric was recently voted to serve on the PAS Board of Advisors. Previously, he served as Chair of the International Percussion Ensemble Committee, President of the Tennessee Chapter, as a New Literature and Recordings Reviewer for Percussive Notes journal. Eric now serves as Vice President for the North Carolina Chapter of the Society. His percussion ensembles have been named winners of the 2015 and 2020 PAS International Percussion Ensemble Competition.
In addition to his talents as a classical percussionist, Eric is known for his marching percussion arranging and teaching experience. He has served on staff with the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, served as a Percussion Consultant with the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps (2012-2013), and instructor and/or arranger for the Spirit, Southwind, Carolina Crown, and the Madison Scouts drum and bugle corps. He has also instructed for the University of North Texas "A" Line, Music City Mystique, and as Faculty for the Music for All World Percussion Symposium.
His solos and books have been published by Musicon Publications, Ox and Lamb, TapSpace, and Row-Loff. With the latter, his coauthored All-Inclusive Audition Etudes book, the book has been adopted for use by the North Carolina and Tennessee Music Educator's Associations. He recently co-authored the book Rehearsing the Concert and Marching Percussion Ensemble by Meredith Music, compiled by James Campbell. This book will be released at PASIC 2022 in Indianapolis, IN USA.
Currently, Eric serves as Professor of Percussion Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he directs a comprehensive percussion program. In addition, he serves as Percussion Area Head, a member of the UNCG Faculty Senate, and Chair of the Faculty Council for the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Eric and his wife, Rebecca (assistant concertmaster with the Winston-Salem Symphony), reside in Greensboro, NC, with their children Aiden and Elina.