halcyon hearts
Katahj Copley
Katahj Copley is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. He holds bachelor’s degrees in music education and composition from the University of West Georgia. He is currently studying composition at the University of Texas at Austin where he studies with Omar Thomas.
Halcyon Hearts was written in 2021. About the piece, Copley writes,
"Halcyon Hearts is an ode to love and how it affects us all. Halcyon denotes a time where a person is ideally happy or at peace, so in short Halcyon Hearts is about the moment of peace when one finds their love or passion. The piece centers around major sevenths and warm colors to represent the warmth that love brings us. The introduction—which is sudden and colorful—symbolizes the feeling of the unexpected journey it takes to find love. Using the colors and natural energy of the ensemble, we create this sound of ambition and passion throughout the work. No matter what race, gender, religion, nationality, or love, we all are united with the common thread of passion from the heart. This piece was written in dedication to those who love no matter what negativity is in the world; do not allow hate and prejudice to guide the way we live our lives. Always choose love and the halcyon days will come."
a thousand inner voices
Matthew Campbell
Mathew Campbell is from the La Hermosa barrio in San Benito, Texas. He earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and earned master’s degrees in music composition and wind conducting from Oklahoma City University.
A Thousand Inner Voices was commissioned in 2021 for…And We Were Heard. The title of the work is a reference to competing internal “voices” of self-doubt. About the piece, Campbell writes:
"All of the musical layers in this work represent the thousand inner voices. Some are positive, but most are negative. They distract from the theme and mock it at times… This battle between positive and negative lasts until the end of the piece where we hear a triumphant chord only to be followed by a sinking, negative ending. After all, this piece isn’t about only quieting these voices. It’s about learning to live with them."
Note by Dalton Guin
CONCERTPIECE NO. 2
Felix Mendelssohn
arranged by Harry Glee
Mendelssohn wrote the two Concertpieces for clarinet, basset horn, and piano in 1832, when he was twenty-three years old. They belong to the same period as the Symphony no. 4, “Italian” and The Hebrides. The high opus numbers are not related to the time of composition, but were assigned when, after his death, the posthumous works were listed.
These Concertpieces have been neglected by clarinetists because of their unconventional instrumentation. The basset horn has, unfortunately, long ceased to be used as a solo instrument. The solo voices have been interchanged so that the upper voice is alternatively confined to the two clarinets. This arrangement for two solo clarinets and band preserves Mendelssohn’s desire to demonstrate the clarinet’s tonal and technical possibilities.
Note by Harry Glee
Corsican Litany
Václav Nelhýbel (1919–1996)
Václav Nelhýbel was a composer and conductor born in Polanka, Czechoslovakia. He studied at the Prague Conservatory of Music and, by the age of eighteen, he was conducting the Czech Philharmonic. He became a United States citizen in 1962 and was active as a composer, conductor, and lecturer up to his death in 1996.
Nelhýbel writes regarding Corsican Litany,
"In many parts of the world, it was once common practice during burial ceremonies to have professional mourners dramatize the grief of the bereaved by means of loud and emotional lamentations, repeated endlessly like a chant. In some places, notably the Mediterranean countries, these laments were sung, usually by women who were skilled in this macabre art and could command pay for their services. Corsican Litany is based on a voceru first known to have been sung in 1775 at the funeral of a country doctor named Mateju who had been murdered by his own patient, one Natale. The melody is introduced mournfully but grows steadily in passionate intensity until an astonishing climax is reached in the final menacing oath of vengeance."
CELESTIAL SEAS
Julie Giroux
Julie Giroux is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and numerous concert band works. She studied at Louisiana State University and Boston University, while also studying composition with John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.
Celestial Seas was commissioned in 2014 by the Missouri Bandmasters Association for the 39th Anniversary of the Missouri All-State Band. It was premiered at the 77th Annual Missouri Music Educators Association Conference on January 31, 2015.
About the composition, Giroux writes,
"Celestial Seas is a musical story covering the next 5 billion years as it pertains to our galaxy, the Milky Way and its eventual collision with the Andromeda Galaxy which is currently approximately 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way. By mathematically fast-forwarding time, scientists also agree that none of the planets will collide with each other since they are all spread so far apart. Such distances are hard to imagine. The actual size of planets, measurements in light years and time passing not by thousands of years buy by billions is difficult for the mind to grasp. Our sun is 1,287,000 times larger than Earth. It takes more than a million earths in mass to equal that of the sun.
In relation to time and size we as humans becomes so very small and insignificant, like a grain of sand on a beach that is on a grain of sand on a larger beach a million times over which is still too significant a representation of a human. Five billion years from now as the collision starts, there will be no humans on Earth to see the extraordinary light show that will go on for thousands of years because our sun will be so much stronger by then on its nova journey, the surface of the Earth will be burned to a crisp. Some scientists think Mars may be far enough away. I look at it like this. All we have to do is a little planet hopping over the next 4 billion years and we won’t have to travel too terribly far to find a new home became an entire galaxy is going to pay us a visit.
Celestial Seas opens up with humans represented by three notes which make up a six-note melody. Those three notes are the building blocks for the entire work which takes us from now to the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies and beyond. Extreme dynamic contrasts, crescendos and decrescendos, the constant changing of chords and tempos and the continuous variations of the original melody are all musical attempts to keep us constantly sailing chronologically and physically on celestial seas."
cascadia suite
Robert Buckley
Robert Buckley is an English composer who has a diverse career as an arranger, performer, producer, and conductor. He has composed for and conducted major symphony orchestras, and his band compositions have been performed worldwide.
Buckley writes regarding Cascadia Suite,
"Cascadia Suite is a musical, aerial journey over the majestic mountains, the crystal-clear lakes and rivers, and the magnificent Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Named after the Cascade Mountains, the area abounds with breathtaking views, lush rain forests, and inspiring landscapes."
"The first movement, “Cascadia,” depicts the coast looking out to sea, and the Gulf, and San Juan Islands. Dolphins are playing, birds are flying, and wildlife is scurrying about. The second movement, “Cathedral Grove,” is a tone poem taking us into a park on Vancouver Island containing some of the oldest and largest trees in the world. It is the mood and the atmosphere of this wondrous place that the composer has tried to capture. In the third movement, “Sea to Sky,” we travel by air from the grandeur of the Pacific Ocean to the rugged beauty of Whistler Mountain."
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.
Anthony Taylor
Anthony Taylor, clarinet, has been on the faculty of the University of North Carolina College of Visual and Performing Arts and Principal Clarinet of the Winston-Salem Symphony since 2007. He has been an Artist/Teacher for the Eastern Music Festival since 2013 and served on the faculty of the Hot Springs Music Festival (Arkansas) from 2008–2012. He has formerly held positions with the Spokane Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and Whitman College. Taylor’s clarinet playing can be heard on recordings on the Navona, Centaur, Naxos American Classics and Gothic recording labels, and the most recent releases are two Centaur records projects with New Music Raleigh. The most recent is the world premiere recording of Brett William Dietz’s opera introspective Headcase, and another recent release is the debut recording of composer DJ Sparr, 21207. He can also be found on youtube; his video promoting his March 2011 basset clarinet performances of the Mozart concerto with the Winston-Salem symphony now has nearly 100,000 views. In 2014, Taylor was among the first performers of Donald Crockett’s Dance Concerto(please see media page for recordings). He has appeared at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest®, with a notable performance of John Adams’s clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons in 2010 and in 2011, the world premiere of UNCG composer Alejandro Rutty’s work for Guitars, for two clarinets and Ableton Live-based electronics. In recent years, Taylor has been expanding his pedagogical skills through extensive study of human movement and the Alexander Technique, and expects to complete his ATI certification as a teacher of the Alexander Technique some time during the 2016–17 academic year. Taylor holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the Florida State University and Washington State University. His former teachers include Steve Cohen, Ron Aufmann, Richard Hawkins, Frank Kowalsky, Jim Schoepflin, and Joseph Brooks.
Luke Ellard
Clarinetist, composer, educator, and new music collaborator Luke Ellard strives for art that continually reaches out, valuing a relational spirit, informed engagement, and unapologetic authenticity.
For Luke, collaboration is what gives music life. As clarinetist, they have performed with members of Bang On a Can All Stars, Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Arkansas Symphony, and Lone Star Wind Orchestra. Their current performance projects center around their self-produced solo cross-genre/electronic band LE, and commissioning new exciting works for the clarinet.
Their collaborative spirit is reflected in their life as a composer as well, drawing inspiration from a personal and communicative place. Their music has been performed by groups such as New Trombone Collective (Blue Interjections, finalist in the 2013 Slide Factory International Composition Contest), the North Texas Wind Symphony (The Seer, concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble), HOCKET (someone else’s days, #What2020SoundsLike), the University of Texas Symphony Band (Shifting Tides), Michigan State University Concert Band, Barkada Quartet (threads of execution), the Mother Falcon String Quartet (all I’m feeling right now, winner of Golden Hornet Composer Lab’s String Quartet Smackdown III), and in collaboration with cellist Nick Photinos (haven’t yet, Bang on a Can Summer Festival).
Dr. Ellard joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Fall of 2023 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Clarinet, having previously served on faculty at the University of Oklahoma and Midwestern State University while teaching privately and performing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Luke earned their Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet Performance with related studies in Contemporary Music and Music Entrepreneurship at the University of North Texas, studying under Kimberly Cole Luevano. Additionally, Luke has earned degrees from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (James Campbell & Eric Hoeprich), the University of Texas at Austin (Yevgeniy Sharlat, Dan Welcher, & Donald Grantham), and Louisiana Tech University (Lawrence Gibbs, Joe L. Alexander).