|UWA Wind Ensemble| 2024 Concert Honor Band April 5th, 2024 | 11:00 a.m. | UWA Auditorium

Overture for Winds (1959) - Charles Carter (1926-1999)

Echoes of Remembrance (2024) - Zachery Meier (b. 1992)

Shenandoah (2019) - Omar Thomas (b. 1984)

Perpetua (2019) - Peter Meechan (b. 1980)

Amparito Roca (1925/1935) - Jaime Texidor (1884-1957)/arr. Winter

Overture for Winds (1959)

Overture for Winds was given its title by the publishers. This three-part overture has remained Carter’s most popular composition for band. The opening section has a theme which is robust and rhythmic in character. The second theme, slightly slower and expressive, is a free form based on the original idea. The last section is a repetition of the opening thematic ideas, building to a final climax.

- Program Note from Program Notes for Band

Echoes of Remembrance (2024)

• Theme
• Variation I. (N.M.C.) "Ocean"
• Variation II. (D.L.M.) "Adventure"
• Variation III. (S.A.M.) "Lullaby"
• Finale

Echoes of Remembrance was inspired by the famous Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. Elgar composed this multi-movement theme and variations for friends and family members, constructing each movement from various memories, inside jokes/stories, or "in essence" of these important people in his life. Echoes is my version of his memorialized concept, written fondly for my immediate family, my father, mother, and sister. Three distinct variations to an original theme are presented in the work.

Shenandoah (2019)

Omar Thomas is an American composer, arranger, and educator. He completed his undergraduate work in music education at James Madison University and earned his master’s degree in jazz composition from the New England Conservatory in Boston. He joined the faculty of the Berklee College of Music as an assistant professor while still working on his master’s degree, and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition in the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

Folk music has been a popular source of inspiration in wind band literature for over one hundred years and the folk song “Shenandoah” has been adapted for wind band numerous times. Thomas’s piece takes the folk song in a bit of a different direction; he describes the piece as “at times mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful,” and also remarks that it shows the Shenandoah Valley “not bathed in golden sunlight, but blanketed by low-hanging clouds and experiencing intermittent periods of heavy rainfall.” The piece was commissioned by a consortium led by the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble, and was premiered by that ensemble in May of 2019.

Perpetua (2019)

Peter Meechan is a Canadian-based British composer. He studied undergraduate composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, and completed his Master of Arts and PhD (composition) at the University of Salford, Manchester, UK. His music has been commissioned, recorded, broadcast and performed by some of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, wind orchestras, brass bands, conductors and soloists, including: “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, The United States Air Force Band, and The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own.”

Perpetua was written in 2019, between two other pieces Meechan was writing with darker subject matter, Close to the Sun and let this place. As a contrast to these two pieces, it is purposely joyful, and is “perpetually” moving. Meechan says that, as opposed to “what I saw around me … Perpetua is the world I want to live in.”

Perpetua was commissioned by Foothills Concert Band (Calgary, AB, Canada) and their conductor, Anthony Reimer.

American Bandmasters Association Sousa/Ostwald Prize, 2022, winner

Amparito Roca (1925/1935)

This Spanish pasodoble march was written by Spanish bandleader and composer Jaime Texidor. The introduction and first strain are indicative of a bullfighter’s music, whereas the gentle, lighthearted trio section takes on the character of a couples dance, evoking the other essential element of the pasodoble. The powerful brass in the dogfight (bullfight), and the tutti texture of the final section bring this piece to a grand conclusion.

- Program Note by arranger

HS and MS Concert Honor Band Application Deadline: March 1st

Auxiliary Audition Application Deadline: March 20th

WAMB Drumline Registration Deadline: June 1st

Winds and Concert Percussion Audition Deadline: July 1st

UWA Bands website