UIWS 2015.03.20.Indd

Illinois Wind Symphony Linda R. Moorhouse, conductor Barry L. Houser, conductor J. Ashley Jarrell, conductor Ollie Watt s Davis, soprano Alaric Saxophone Quartet Nicki Roman, alto saxophone Hyungryoul Kim, alto saxophone Pin-Hua Chen, tenor saxophone Evan Clark, baritone saxophone

Foellinger Great Hall Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Friday, March 20, 2015 7:30 PM

HENRI TOMASI Fanfares Liturgiques (1947) (1901-1971) I. Annonciation

Barry L. Houser, conductor

MICHAEL COLGRASS + Urban Requiem (1995) (b. 1932) Alaric Saxophone Quartet, saxophone soloists Linda R. Moorhouse, conductor intermission WAYNE OQUIN Affi rmation (2013) (b. 1977) J. Ashley Jarrell, conductor

Spiritual Spirituals for soprano and winds (2015) arr. STEPHEN ANDREW TAYLOR * (b. 1965) I. Give Me Jesus (after Hall Johnson) II. Ride Up in the Chariot (after Bett y Jackson King)

Ollie Watt s Davis, soprano

OLIVER WAESPI Audivi Media Nocte (2013) (b. 1971) Linda R. Moorhouse, conductor

+ class of 1954, University of Illinois, performance and composition * Professor of Composition-Theory, University of Illinois Illinois Wind Symphony infl uence on my own music. On the other hand, I experienced the need for a con- siderable kinetic energy in order to outweigh the calm, contemplative fl ow of the trumpet percussion fl ute motet and to place Tallis’s music into a more contemporary context. Hence, various Tim Fernando Ben Clemons Jonah Angulo-Hurtig Erin Happenny + (picc) Jeff Crylen Dan Benson rhythmical motifs began to emerge, some of which were in turn secretly related Mora Novey Donny de la Rosa ** Colin Rambert to the rhythmical structure of the motet. Moreover, I developed a series of chords Jenny Shin * Morganne Garcia Andrew Shankland whose harmony constitutes a counterpoint to the modal background of the motet. Brian Reichenbach ** Trent Shuey * oboe Robert Sears Ben Van Arsdale Gradually, the piece developed a character of its own, loosely connected to the mystical imagery Mika Allison ** of the night, hiding our secret passions and regrets. It evolved into an instrumental drama rather Kristin Sarvela ** (english horn) horn harp Amy Shea Carly Charles Chanah Ambuter than a set of variations, including elements of a concerto grosso, as groups of soloists are featured Brad Dallman in quite unusual ways. The sonic character of a brass band, with its preponderance of heavy, bassoon Kate Eaton string bass low registers, its lyrical potential and its ability to shape compact rhythmical gestures, proved Carlos Garcia (contrabassoon) Jancie Philippus * Adam Davis favorable to my musical intentions. Audivi Media Nocte thus became a musical tale that oscillates Chris Williams Alex McHatt ie Annie Mason * somehow between past and present, between contemplation and frivolity, between prayer and rave. Niko Yamamoto trombone piano/synthesizer clarinet Quinten Breach Long-Tao Tang Sarah Altshuler Dave Day * The University of Illinois Bands Staff Jiyeon Choi ** Adam Kosberg (bass) Linda R. Moorhouse, interim director of bands Jessica Clark Colin Lord * principal Barry L. Houser, director of athletic bands | assistant director of bands Allison Yerkey ** co-principal Diana Economou J. Ashley Jarrell, assistant director of bands Vince Gilbert + + section leader Caroline Liao ** (e-fl at) euphonium Lana Custer, fi nancial associate Mitchell Lutz (bass) Bryce Conrad Terri Daniels, business administrative associate Bao Vo (contrabass) Spencer Hile * Elaine Li, bands performance collection librarian Carrie White Brian Coffi ll, graduate assistant tuba Morganne Garcia, graduate assistant saxophone Ethan Clemmit Pin-Hua Chen (tenor) Andrew Dolgon Trent Shuey, graduate assistant Evan Clark (baritone) Matt Wilshire * Long-Tao Tang, graduate assistant Erik Elmgren ** (alto) Brad Wallace, graduate assistant Hyungryoul Kim ** (alto) Nicki Roman ** + (alto, soprano) University of Illinois Bands Selected Events March 28, 2015, 7:30pm Illinois Wind Symphony at the College Band Directors National Association Annual Conference, Schermerhorn Symphony Center (Nashville, TN) April 2, 2015, 7:30pm Illinois Wind Orchestra with Warren Township High School, KCPA April 27, 2015, 7:30pm Campus and University Concert Bands, KCPA

Visit the University of Illinois Bands at www.bands.illinois.edu Bands at the University of Illinois The historic University of Illinois Bands program is among the most infl uential and comprehensive college band programs in the world, off ering students the highest quality musical experiences in a variety of band ensembles. These ensembles include several concert bands led by the Illinois Wind Symphony, the Marching Illini “The Nation’s Premier College Marching Band,” two Basketball Bands, Volleyball Band, the Orange & Blues Pep Bands, and the community Summer Band. Students from every college on campus participate in the many ensembles, and the impact on the campus is substantial. The Illinois Bands are a critical part of the fabric of the University of Illinois, and their infl uence on students––past, present and future––is truly unique. Ride Up in the Chariot is based on an interpretation by Bett y Jackson King (1928-1994), who was a THE CONDUCTORS prominent teacher and nationally known composer, lecturer and performing musician. King grew up in Chicago and received her bachelor of arts in piano performance and a master of music in Linda R. Moorhouse joined the Illinois faculty in the fall of 2010 and currently serves as Interim composition from Roosevelt University. She taught in the Chicago public system and later became Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music. Within the School of Music she serves as a music professor at Dillard University in New Orleans. Both King and her sister were infl uenced conductor of the Illinois Wind Symphony and teaches courses in graduate and undergraduate by the Negro spirituals sung at the Southern Christian Institute near Vicksburg, Mississippi, where conducting and graduate wind literature. Prior to her Illinois appointment, she served on the faculty her mother taught music. These spirituals so infl uenced King that much of her music included at Louisiana State University for over 20 years, where she was the recipient of select campus-wide arrangements of spirituals. awards for teaching excellence.

Ride Up in the Chariot (after Bett y Jackson King) Dr. Moorhouse is active as a conductor, clinician and adjudicator nationally and internationally and Gonna ride up in the chariot, Gonna meet my brother there, yes, Gonna chatt er with the angels, her service to the band profession is a matt er of record. She is a member of the Board of Directors Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, and is both a past president and the current Ride up in the chariot, Meet my brother there, yes, Chatt er with the angels, Executive Secretary of the National Band Association, where she also serves as Editor of the NBA Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, Journal. A Member Laureate of Sigma Alpha Iota, professional fraternity for women in music, she Ride up in the chariot, Meet my brother there, yes, Chatt er with the angels, was awarded the “Diploma of the Sudler Order of Merit” from the John Philip Sousa Foundation Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, Soon-a in the mornin’, in recognition of extraordinary service to the music community. In addition to her conducting and And I hope I’ll join the band. And I hope I’ll join the band. And I hope I’ll join the band. teaching obligations, Dr. Moorhouse has several notable publication credits including contributions to multiple volumes of both the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA) and A Composer’s O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, Insight (Meredith Music) series, along with other Meredith Music publications. O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, O, Lord, have mercy on me, Dr. Moorhouse received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the University And I hope I’ll join the band. And I hope I’ll join the band. And I hope I’ll join the band. of Washington, where she studied with Peter Erös and Timothy Salzman. She has a Master of Music Education degree from LSU, and a Bachelor of Music Education with Honors degree from Audivi Media Nocte the University of Florida. In the fall of 2010, she was inducted into the University of Florida Bands Oliver Waespi completed his studies in composition at the Musikhochschule Zürich under the tutelage Hall of Fame. of Gerald Bennett and Andreas Nick, and also att ended the Royal Academy of Music in London. Interpreters of his music include world-renowned symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, Barry L. Houser is the Director of the Marching Illini & Athletic Bands, Assistant Director of Bands soloists, choirs and many illustrious wind ensembles. Within the circle of interpreters it is clear that and Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Waespi maintains a wide and diversifi ed interest in music, which brings him into contact with both Champaign. His duties include conducting the Illinois Wind Orchestra, the 360-member Marching young, amateur musicians and internationally renowned professional artists and orchestras. Central Illini-The Nation’s Premier College Marching Band, the Illinois Basketball Bands, Volleyball Band, to his interest is the investigation of various, apparently contradictory aesthetic possibilities in order and teaching courses in instrumental wind band conducting and marching band procedures. to illuminate certain musical ideas from diff ering sides. It is thus that abstraction and clarity, linear and vertical orientated thinking, art music and folk music all combine harmoniously in his works. Professor Houser’s teaching experience encompasses both extensive public school and university experiences. Prior to his current position at Illinois, his bands have performed at the Macy’s Audivi Media Nocte is the 2013 winner of the William D. Revelli Composition Contest of the Na- Thanksgiving Day Parade, the NBC Today Show, the ISSMA State Marching Finals, and the IMEA tional Band Association, a contest which has been in existence since 1977. Originally writt en for State Convention. Other performances include the Indianapolis 500 Parade, the Target Thanksgiving the world brass band championships in 2011, Audivi Media Nocte was rescored for wind band in Day Parade, the Outback Bowl Parade and Half-Time Show, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the 2013. Washington DC National Memorial Parade, Chicago Bears Game, and performances with Maynard The composer writes, Ferguson and the Dallas Brass. Professor Houser serves as President and Director of the Smith- Walbridge Clinics, Chair for the North Central Division and Board of Directors for the National Whilst composing Audivi Media Nocte I was driven by several confl icting musical Band Association, and as one of the Directors of the Macy’s Great American Marching Band! ideas. On the one hand, I was partly inspired by the sixteenth-century motet by Thomas Tallis from which the piece draws its title. Tallis’s motet is sung primarily Professor Houser received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Florida, on All Saints’ Day, and its title means “I heard, at midnight …” Having remembered and a Master of Music in Wind Conducting degree from the University of Illinois, where he was a and cherished this motet for many years, I felt it was time to let it fi nally have an student of James Keene. J. Ashley Jarrell currently serves as Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Illinois at Urbana- K. Le Guin, was premiered in Portland, Oregon and at the University of Illinois in 2012. Champaign where his teaching and conducting responsibilities include the Hindsley Symphonic Besides composing for traditional instruments, Taylor also works with live electronics in pieces Band, Introduction to Conducting, Advanced Conducting and Graduate Wind Literature and History. such as Agoraphobia for fl ute, harp and electronics, premiered by Jonathan Keeble and Ann Yeung Prior to his appointment, he served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and the inaugural candidate for in Montreal in 2009. He is also active as a conductor with the Illinois Modern Ensemble, and as a the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Wind Conducting at the University, where he was a recipient theorist, writing and lecturing on György Ligeti, Björk and Radiohead. He also collaborates with of the Begian Conducting Assistantship. While a graduate student at the University, Dr. Jarrell the band Pink Martini, and rock singer Storm Large. served on the School of Music Graduate Committ ee and he received the Edmund C. Williams award for excellence in bands. He received the Master of Arts degree in Wind Conducting from Middle Born in 1965, he grew up in Illinois and studied at Northwestern and Cornell Universities, and the Tennessee State University and the Bachelor of Music degree from East Tennessee State University. California Institute of the Arts; his teachers include Steven Stucky, Karel Husa, Mel Powell, Bill Karlins and Alan Stout. His music has won awards from Northwestern, Cornell, the Conservatoire Before coming to the University of Illinois, Dr. Jarrell served as Director of Bands at Martin Luther Américain de Fontainebleau, the American Academy of Arts and Lett ers, Composers, Inc., the King Jr. Academic Magnet School in Nashville, Tennessee. Consistently named by U.S. News and Debussy Trio, the Howard Foundation, the College Band Directors National Association, the New World Report and Newsweek magazines as one of the fi fty best high schools in the nation, Martin York State Federation of Music Clubs, the Illinois Arts Council, the American Music Center, and Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet School Bands received numerous superior ratings, accolades, and ASCAP. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014. Among his commissions are works for three performances for the Tennessee Music Education Association Conference in the span of six Northwestern University, University of Illinois, the Syracuse Society for New Music, Pink Martini and years during Dr. Jarrell’s tenure. Previously, Dr. Jarrell also served as Associate Director of Bands the Oregon Symphony, the Quad City Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, Quartet New Generation at Middle Tennessee State University and Associate Director of Bands at Harpeth High School. and the New Philharmonic, Piano Spheres, and the American Composers Orchestra.

Dr. Jarrell is active as a clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States. He is the co-founder of Tonight’s two movements of Spirituals was derived originally from a four-movement work of the Positive Performance Concepts, a comprehensive marching band leadership clinic. He is also an active same name writt en for string quartet and soprano in the fall of 2014. Each spiritual is based on an member of many professional organizations including National Association for Music Education, actual sett ing of the song by a prominent African American composer. National Band Association, Tennessee Music Education Association, Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and elected membership with American School Give Me Jesus is based on an interpretation by Hall Johnson (1888-1970). Johnson was a highly regarded Band Directors Association, Phi Beta Mu and Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. choral director, composer, arranger, and violinist, and he spent the bett er part of his career preserving the rich legacy and integrity of the Negro spiritual that developed under slavery in America. Johnson THE SOLOISTS dedicated his long career as a choral director to championing the Negro spiritual and the signifi cance of this black American art form. The Hall Johnson Choir was the fi rst professional group of its kind, Since making her New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 1990, soprano Ollie Watt s Davis has appeared and Johnson enjoyed a successful concert and recording career for more than 30 years in the United with many leading symphony orchestras, including those in San Francisco, Pitt sburgh, Minnesota, States and abroad. During his career, he coached hundreds of distinguished musicians, and virtually Houston, Dallas, and Milwaukee. Her international activities include a performances of Mozart’s every African American singer of note has performed his solo works and arrangements. C Minor Mass on tour with Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar of Caracas, Venezuela; performances at the celebration of the founding of the Pakistani American Cultural Center in Karachi; concerts Give Me Jesus (after Hall Johnson) in the Canary Islands with the Chicago Sinfoniett a; recitals on the University Artists Concert Series In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. in San Jose, Costa Rica; and performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Orquestra Sinfonica de In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus, Asturias in Oviedo, Spain. Professor Davis’ extensive concert credits include the Mozart Requiem, In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Just give me Jesus. You can have all this world, the role of Salud in Falla’s La Vida Breve, Bach’s B Minor Mass and St. Matt hew Passion, Handel’s Give me Jesus. Just give me Jesus. Messiah and Judas Maccabeus, Mahler’s Symphony No 2 and Symphony No 4, Gorecki’s Symphony No Give me Jesus, You can have all this world, 3, Honegger’s Le Roi David, Strauss’ Vier Letz te Lieder, Orff ’s Carmina Burana and Poulenc’s Gloria. Give me Jesus. When I come to die, Give me Jesus. She has also performed in roles with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, You can have all this world, When I come to die, Give me Jesus, and Opera Theatre of Springfi eld. Professor Davis appeared on the West Virginia Arts and Lett ers Just give me Jesus. When I come to die, Give me Jesus. Series at the Governor’s Mansion and as the guest artist for the Governor’s Inaugural Ceremony. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, When I am alone, You can have all this world, She has released two musical recordings, one conducting the UI Black Chorus, and one singing When I am alone, You can have all this world, arrangements of Negro Spirituals for solo voice and piano. Dr. Davis has also writt en two books, When I am alone, Just give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Talks My Mother Never Had with Me: Helping the Young Female Transition to Womanhood and Talks My “pulsating with urban power.” Oquin’s music has been premiered on fi ve continents, seventeen Mother Never Had With Me: A Loving Mother’s Perspective for Young Women, which targets elementary- countries, and in thirty states by such acclaimed musicians as The King’s Singers, The Aspen age girls. These publications are part of the TALKS Leadership Curriculum, published by KJAC Contemporary Ensemble, The United States Air Force Band, The United States Army Field Band, Publishing. Professor Davis’ work as both performing artist and teacher has been recognized at the and The West Point Military Academy Band. His latest work, Affi rmation, was commissioned in 2014 college, university, and national level. by the American Bandmasters Association. Dr. Oquin joined the Juilliard faculty in the fall of 2008 and was recently named Chair of its Ear Training Department. She is the founding director of the Black Sacred Music Symposium (1991), held biennially on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus with participants from across the nation. In The composer writes about Affi rmation: 1993 she received the College of Fine and Applied Arts Outstanding Faculty Award, an Appreciation and Recognition Award from the UI Alumni Association, and was named the Alumna of the Year by “To affirm the world is meaningless, unless one also affirms the tragic reality the College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia Institute of Technology. In 1994, Professor Davis which is at the core of existence. To live on—to develop means, as I see it, to was awarded the Bronze Medallion of Honor by the University of Illinois Women’s Association, enter always more and more deeply into the very essence of tragic reality.” and has been listed on the Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign every year to date. In 1998 Professor Davis received a Aaron Copland Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana- April 21, 1931 Champaign. That these lines were written in a private letter by one America’s foremost composers, one known for his optimistic populist works, is eye-opening. Though In 2008, Ollie Watt s Davis was named a University Scholar, one of the highest honors the University Copland intended this description for his own dark and sinister Piano Variations, the bestows on its faculty. Other honors include national honorary membership in Sigma Alpha Iota, meaning of his words—that it is impossible to affi rm life without also considering honorary membership in the National Arts and Lett ers Society, and membership in the Phi Kappa the tragic—serves as the impetus for my own Affi rmation, a ten-minute refl ection Phi Honorary Society. Professor Davis serves on the faculty for the summer SongFest in Malibu, on wide range of often confl icting emotions that encompass the human condition: California. life and death; love and loss; darkness and light. Hailing from all over the globe, Alaric Saxophone Quartet has performed at notable events including At no point in the work are these extremities juxtaposed side by side; but rather, MTNA’s East Central Division Competition, Beckman Institute’s “Thursdays at 12:20 Concert Series” they gradually materialize. While the music travels far in terms of its range of and the Illinois Fall School of Music Open House. Individually each member has received national register, harmony, and dynamic it does so almost imperceptibly, as one long arc and international acclaim as soloists in their fi eld. Originally from northern California, Nicki Roman from beginning to end. (soprano saxophone, 2nd year MM) is a national fi nalist in the 2015 MTNA Young Artist Solo Competition and has been awarded 2nd prize in the 2014 NASA National Solo Competition. Born in Affi rmation is dedicated to the American Bandmasters Association and to the South Korea, Hyungryoul Kim (alto saxophone, 2nd year DMA) is a graduate of the Eastman School University of Florida Bands with much appreciation for their continued support. of Music and one of the University of Illinois’s concerto competition winners. Born in Taiwan, Pin- I’m also indebted to Col. Larry Lang and The United States Air Force Band for Hua Chen (tenor saxophone, 3rd year DMA) was the fi rst Taiwanese saxophonist to advance to the giving an astounding world premiere. semi-fi nal round of any international competition and is a founding member of the MIT Saxophone Ensemble, a group devoted to broadening the saxophone environment in Taiwan. Completing the Affi rmation was recently named the winner of the 2014 National Band Association/ William D. Revelli quartet is South Carolina native Evan Clark (baritone saxophone, 1st year MM), who recently took Composition Contest. 3rd prize at the 2014 International Saxophone Symposium and Competition and was named a fi nalist in 2011 by the National YoungArts Foundation. The quartet will be featured with the University of Spirituals Illinois Wind Symphony at the 2015 College Band Director’s National Association Conference in Stephen Andrew Taylor’s music often explores boundaries between art and science. His fi rst orchestra Nashville, TN., where they will perform Urban Requiem for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra commission, Unapproachable Light, inspired by images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the by Michael Colgrass. These University of Illinois graduate students are all proud members of the New Testament, was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 1996 in Carnegie Hall. Illinois Saxophone Studio and study under internationally renowned saxophonist and pedagogue, Other works include the chamber quartet Quark Shadows, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Professor Debra Richtmeyer. and premiered in 2001; and Seven Memorials, a 32-minute cycle for piano inspired by the work of Maya Lin and premiered by Gloria Cheng in Los Angeles, 2004; she also performed the work at Tanglewood in 2006. The Machine Awakes, a CD of his orchestra, chamber and electronic music was released in 2010 on Albany Records; and Paradises Lost, a new opera based on a novella by Ursula PROGRAM NOTES documentary “Soundings: The Music of Michael Colgrass.” He has been awarded two Guggenheim Fanfares Liturgiques Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, First Prize in the Barlow and Sudler International Wind Ensemble Henri Tomasi was a well-known and well-regarded French composer, conductor, and pianist with Competitions, and the 1988 Jules Leger Prize for Chamber Music. a signifi cant catalogue of works, the best-known of which are concertos and other pieces for winds. Regarded as a major contributor to 20th century wind band music, Colgrass’s major works - including He was born in Marseilles to Corsican parents, and he quickly demonstrated musical precociousness. Winds of Nagual, Arctic Dreams, and Urban Requiem - are considered staples of the repertoire. His father encouraged his talent, sending him to the Marseilles Conservatoire where, even as a teenager, the young Tomasi was able to earn a living playing in a variety of sett ings such as cafés and The composer writes: movie theaters. Eventually he won a scholarship from the city of Marseilles itself to travel to Paris for further study. While in Paris, he continued to perform, and also won fi rst prizes for conducting Urban Requiem, for four saxophones and wind orchestra, was commissioned by as well as for his fi rst composition, a wind quintet. Additionally, he associated with many of Paris’s the University of Miami School of Music, through its Abraham Frost Commission leading musical forerunners, forming the “Triton” group for new music with contemporaries Sergei series. This was the fi rst work in a perpetual series of biennial commissions made Prokofi ev and Darius Milhaud. In 1927, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome. possible by the Abraham Frost Endowment. Established by Dr. Phillip Frost in memory of his father, the endowment seeks to support the creation of major works Tomasi’s compositions are picturesque, drawing inspiration from his parents’ birthplace of Corsica, for a variety of mediums that will encourage contributions to the orchestral, wind, and more exotic locales including Cambodia, Laos, and Brazil. Keeping with the 20th-century French choral, and jazz repertoire. tradition, his music is highly colorful, with many exotic touches from various adopted folk traditions. A requiem is a dedication to the souls of the dead. Urban Requiem might be described In 1935, Tomasi wrote music for a radio adaptation of O.V. de Milosz’s 1912 play Miguel Mañara, a as an urban tale, inspired by a diversity of random impression. I thought of our urban retelling of the Don Juan legend in which the great seducer mends his ways. Tomasi later converted areas, where the saxophone was spawned, and of the tragedies and struggles that this piece into an opera in the early 1940s, during a time when his own failing marriage and doomed occur in this environment daily. But I also was inspired by the energy and power love aff air pushed him into a life of seclusion in religious retreat, paralleling the theme of the opera. of our cities and the humor inherent in their confl icts. I feel that the saxophone is He considered taking religious orders, but he eventually reconciled with his wife. After becoming particularly well suited to express the variety of emotions required for this idea, aware of some of the inhuman atrocities of World War II, he became disenchanted with religion. In because it can be not only highly personal and poignant in character but also 1945 he “re-entered the world,” taking up a position as conductor of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. While powerful and commanding. It can howl like a banshee or purr like a kitt en. In short, in Monte Carlo, Tomasi excerpted four Fanfares concertantes, later to be called Fanfares liturgiques, the saxophone is perhaps more like the human voice than any other instrument. from the score to his opera Don Juan de Mañara. The opera, which premiered in 1956, is considered In my mind I heard four saxophones singing like a vocal quartet, a music that was Tomasi’s most signifi cant and characteristic score. The premiere of the Fanfares as a concert work liturgical in nature but with a bluesy overtone, a kind of ‘after hours’ requiem. occurred in 1947, nine years prior to the premiere opera’s premiere. “Annonciation” is the fi rst of the four fanfares in the set, calling for a chamber brass ensemble of three trumpets, four horns, four The size of the wind ensemble for Urban Requiem matches the non-string trombones, and tuba, omitt ing the timpani and batt ery percussion used in the later fanfares. instrumentation of a symphony orchestra (triple winds and brasses, tuba, four horns, harp, synthesizer, timpani, and four percussion). The players are divided Urban Requiem into four groups surrounded by the larger wind ensemble, with each sax having its Michael Colgrass began his musical career in Chicago, where his fi rst professional experiences were as own litt le ‘neighborhood.’ The soloists interact in virtuoso display and play duets a jazz drummer from 1944-1949. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and trios with principal players in their bands. The sax players are called upon to in 1954 with a degree in performance and composition. Additional studies included training with improvise occasionally over basic material in sometimes jazz, sometimes ethnic Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival and Lukas Foss at Tanglewood. He served for two years as musical traditions. timpanist in the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Stutt gart, Germany, and then spent eleven years supporting his composing as a free-lance percussionist in New York City. During this time, Urban Requiem is respectfully dedicated to Gary Green, whose boundless enthusiasm Colgrass performed with a wide range of artists such as the New York Philharmonic, American for its creation was a constant inspiration to me. It is writt en for all urban souls, living Ballet Theater, Dizzy Gillespie, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the original West Side Story orchestra and dead, who, like myself, love our cities and continue to be inspired by them. on Broadway, the Columbia Recording Orchestra’s “Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky” series, and numerous other ballet, opera and jazz ensembles. Affi rmation Wayne Oquin has composed a body of work highly regarded for its craft and power to communicate Colgrass won 1978 Pulitz er Prize for Music for Déjà vu, which was commissioned and premiered a wide range of musical expression. The music’s acclaim is testament to its dramatic capacity: by the New York Philharmonic. Additionally, he received an Emmy Award in 1982 for the PBS “dreamlike spirit,” “tremendously exciting,” “unaff ected simplicity,” “beautiful complexity,”