Fanfare and celebrations march
Yo Goto
Yo Goto is one of the leading Japanese composers and arrangers in the United States and Japan. He holds degrees in performance, music education, and composition from Yamagata University, Tokyo College of Music, and the University of North Texas. His teachers include Shin-ichiro Ikebe and Cindy McTee. Along with composing and arranging, Goto is an avid educator and researcher in the field of wind music, focusing on repertoire selections for school band programs.
Fanfare and Celebration March was written for flex instrumentation in 2017 and is one of three pieces commissioned for the 55th anniversary commemorative work of the Ishikawa Prefectural Band Association.
Chasing sunlight
Cait Nishimura
Cait Nishimura is a Japanese–Canadian composer based in Waterloo, Ontario. She was the winner of the Canadian Band Association’s composition prize in 2017 and is an associate composer for the Canadian Music Centre. She holds degrees in music education from the University of Toronto. Her music has been presented at The Midwest Clinic, MusicFest Canada, and international conferences and festivals. Prior to her composition career, she taught instrumental music and continues to advocate for the value of music education.
Nishimura writes about Chasing Sunlight,
"Chasing Sunlight was inspired by the experience of driving west into the setting sun, as if trying to keep up with the earth’s rotation to catch the last few rays of light before dusk. The steady eighth-note motif throughout the piece represents this sense of urgency, while the soaring, lyrical themes depict the warmth and radiance of the sun low in the sky. Just as the sun will always set, humans must accept the impermanence of all things in life and make the most of every opportunity before it has passed. Chasing Sunlight also represents the ongoing pursuit of these opportunities."
EDGE OF THE SACRED RAINFOREST
Brittany J. Green
Brittany J. Green is a North Carolina-based composer, creative, and educator. Her music facilitates intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses at the intersection of sound, video, movement, and text. Recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems. Her artistic practice includes spoken and electronic performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential projects, and acoustic and electroacoustic chamber and large ensemble works. Her music has been featured at TIME:SPANS, NYC Electronic Music Festival, WoCo Fest, and Experimental Sound Studio. Her collaborators include the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Transient Canvas, Castle of our Skins, Emory University Symphony Orchestra, and Wachovia Winds. Brittany holds awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Foundation, and New Music USA. She is a doctoral candidate at Duke University, pursuing a PhD in music composition as a Dean’s Graduate Fellow.
About Edge of the Sacred Rainforest, Green writes:
Edge of the Sacred Rainforest is a programmatic work. Written in C minor, the piece features mixed meters, aggressive rhythms, lush harmonies, and delicate melodic lines—all of which aid in creating the dark, damp mood of the piece. The piece is in ABA form, representing the beginning, middle, and eerily familiar end sections of the forest the listener encounters on this daring and mysterious journey.
The piece begins at the entrance of the rainforest where dark, lush chords in the middle voices and a delicate flute solo set a mysterious, foggy mood. As the A section continues, the first clarinet and oboe join the flute to create a solemn trio as the listener enters further into the rainforest and admires its beauty. Suddenly, the high and low brass, along with percussion, abrasively interject creating a mood of uncertainty and danger. Marked by a sudden meter change to 5/8, the adventure through the forest accelerates as the piece begins to transition into the B section.
The piece intensifies as the stress pattern bounces back and forth between 3+2 and 2+3 until finally the B section arrives with a daring melody in the low brass and low reeds. In the thick of the forest, the piece moves back into 4/4 and an eighth note ostinato is established in the low brass. The woodwinds temporarily take over in a call and response conversation between the saxophones and upper woodwinds until the melody goes back to the low brass. A dark and fierce percussion feature, then, transitions the listener to the final edge of the rainforest as the A section reemerges.
As the listener reaches the end of the rainforest, the A section returns, reestablishing the piece’s original mood and creating a sense of déjà vu. Much like in the beginning, the brass and percussion suddenly break this mood, creating a sense of urgency as the listener finally leaves the forest and the piece ends.
EMERALD SUITE
Dwayne S. Milburn
Dwayne S. Milburn is an American composer who received degrees in music education, conducting, and composition from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has been Director of Cadet Music at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Deputy Commander and Executive Officer of the United States Army Europe Band, and Commander and Conductor of the United States Army Ground Forces Band.
About Emerald Suite, Milburn writes,
"Emerald Suite was commissioned by the University of North Texas Wind Studies, Green Brigade College of Music, and Phi Mu Alpha in recognition of Dennis W. Fisher and his twenty-five years of service, leadership, and inspiration to the University of North Texas community.
Each of the three movements of this work uses a particular section of the North Texas State “Alma Mater” as its formative material. The opening movement, “Rondo,” is based on the music connected with the text “Singing glory to the green, singing glory to the white.” The second movement, “Air,” takes the music that accompanies the text “Down the corridors of years” and uses it as the accompaniment for a new melody introduced in the oboe. Movement three, “March,” forms the finale references to the entire “Alma Mater,” with a fanfare figure derived from the melodic fragment that brings forth “But North Texas.” The use of E-flat as the tonal center for the entire suite is a conscious homage to Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band and serves as a further reminder of the esteemed tradition to which Dennis Fisher and all conductors, composers, and performers of wind music are a vital part."
Solutions
Sonya Leonore Stahl
Sonya Stahl is an American composer and violinist with the Gainesville Orchestra and Ocala Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of the University of Florida, her works have been performed by the Gainesville Orchestra, the Indiana State University Wind Symphony, the Santa Fe College Wind Symphony, and the Charleston Southern University Flute Ensemble.
About Solutions, Stahl writes,
"Because of my upbringing around Celtic fiddle music and Wagner’s Ring cycle, my music is often highly modal, or tonal but with the key in constant motion. Many of my works feature themes of the fairytale and fantastical, and Solutions builds on those ideas: A mysterious prelude, powerful march-like sections, and a “bagpipe” chorale evoke the magic potion referenced in the title. Crafting a magic potion takes concentration—the opening solos can be considered an evocation or magic spell.
In 1998, as a high school student, I embarked on the journey of writing my first piece for symphony orchestra. One of my biggest champions and mentors was my high school orchestra director, Wendell Simmons. During my time as his student, he had encouraged my composition, even programming some of my string orchestra works—although we had to put false names on them so my peers would take them seriously!
His encouragement never wavered, even as he left for another position, and he remained a supporter for many years. In June 2022, Wendell Simmons passed away. Solutions is dedicated in tribute to a talented educator and conductor, who saw me writing music about carnivorous plants and woodpeckers and thought, “okay, there’s something there.”
I wanted to do something powerful with Solutions. I love big music, music that makes you feel feelings, music that evokes not only images but entire movies."
Solutions was commissioned by a consortium of twenty-two ensembles led by Dr. Nikk Pilato, director of bands at Northern Kentucky University, and included the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It received its premiere on October 5, 2023 at Greaves Concert Hall on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
Over wild suite
Katherine Bergman
Katherine Bergman is an American composer based in Minnesota. She draws from environmentalism, literature, and found materials to create music that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota.
TARANTELLA
Carol Brittin Chambers
Carol Brittin Chambers is an American composer and educator. She currently serves on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University. Prior to Texas Lutheran University, she taught middle and high school band in the North East Independent School District in San Antonio, TX. Chambers received a master’s degree in trumpet performance from Northwestern University and a bachelor of music education degree from Texas Tech University.
She writes about Tarantella,
"A tarantella is a type of lively dance, usually in compound meter. Possibly dating back as early as the 14th century, the dance derives its name from the southern Italian town of Taranto and originated as a manic response of field workers to the bite of a spider (tarantula is also related to Taranto). Apparently, victims could be cured by frenzied dancing. I wrote this tarantella in overall ABA-Tag form, with the 6/8 A section serving as the main tarantella theme. I chose to add a slow, “tango-esque” B theme in the middle to add some variety of style, mood, and color. Think of this episode as an interruption in the dance, in which the spider tries one more time to take control, even hypnotizing, or putting the dancer in a trance. Despite the spider’s attempts, however, the dancer snaps out of it upon hearing the chimes and begins to dance again. And the final tag revs up even more with an accelerando to the end!"
kristin arp
Kristin Arp is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in instrumental conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with Dr. Jonathan Caldwell. At UNCG, she teaches courses in undergraduate conducting and directs the UNCG Concert Band. Prior to UNCG, she taught middle and high school band in Tennessee for six years.
Kristin serves as the Assistant Conductor of the Duke Wind Symphony located in Durham, NC. She 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 conducted the Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Trumpet Ensemble, and worked as a Graduate Assistant for the Pride of the Southland Marching Band.
jennifer walter
Dr. Jennifer S. Walter is currently Professor of Music Education at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, specializing in instrumental music education. Dr. Walter taught elementary, middle, and high school band in North Carolina and Tennessee, and she is an experienced clinician. She is also active in the field of music education research and has presented her research at state, regional, national and international conferences. Dr. Walter’s current research involves the level of noise exposure experienced by music teachers and students, and also how to develop pre-service teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions toward successful and ethical teaching. Dr. Walter lives in the Greensboro area with husband Donny and daughter Charlie.
DALTON GUIN
Dalton Guin is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with Dr. Jonathan Caldwell and Dr. Jungho Kim. He completed his Bachelor’s of Music in Horn Performance in 2023 at UNCG, studying with Dr. Abagail Pack.
Prior to his time at UNCG, Dalton served as a Horn Instrumentalist in the United States Marine Corps. During that time he performed with diverse and wide-ranging ensembles in Hawaii, New Orleans, Calgary, Amerika Samoa, and Palau; to include the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, JALPAC Chorus Without Borders, the Oahu Civic Orchestra, and the HMCS Tecumseh/NCSM Tecumseh Naval Band. Closer to home here in North Carolina, Dalton has performed with the Carolina Ballet, Triangle Youth Ballet, and Goldsboro Theatre Society, as well as various ensembles within UNCG.