EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC

EASTMAN HORN CHOIR W. Peter Kurau, director

Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre (livestream) 7:30 PM

PROGRAM American Overture (1953) Joseph Willcox Jenkins (1928-2014) arr. Nathan Wood

Senior and Senior-plus Horns

Take Nine Fanfare Kerry Turner (b. 1960)

French Suite Václav Nelhýbel (1919-1996)

First-year and Sophomore Horns

La fille aux cheveux de lin Claude Debussy (1862-1918) arr. C. Stewart

Toccata and Fugue in D minor arr. Kerry Turner

Spencer Bay, Emily Houston, Rebecca Salo, William Sands, Abby Davidson, Brianna Garcon, horn

Suite for Horn * (2020) Wayne Lu Precipice Passage Apogee

Symphony Fantastique** Hector Berlioz IV. March to the Scaffold (1803-1869) arr. Jack Finlay

“Greatest Hits” of Horn in D*** arr. Thomas Singletary

*world premiere performance ** premiere performance of this arrangement *** Rochester premiere performance of this arrangement

PERSONNEL Spencer Bay Gretchen Berendt Alana Clayton Abigail Davidson Jack Finlay Amanda Friedman Brianna Garcon Kira Goya Emily Houston Grace Kim Dylan Kingdom Alana Knowles Hannah Lewis James Odermatt Katherine Perrine Aziel Ressler Rebecca Salo William Sands Tasha Schapiro Miles Teague Elena Varon Cristina Vieytez

PROGRAM NOTES Suite for Horn Octet Wayne Lu For more than ten years I had the privilege of working at the Kendall Betts Horn Camp where Professor Peter Kurau served as Faculty. At KBHC, Professor Kurau always impressed everyone with his supreme playing, wise teaching, and the success of his numerous students that participated and served on staff. Professor Kurau often performed with his students, most notably a truly wonderful performance of the Richard Strauss First Horn Concerto where Professor Kurau was the soloist and his former students were the horn quartet accompaniment.

The first movement entitled “Precipice” refers to the raw talent that is often associated with the Eastman horn students. For many of tem, they are on the cusp of becoming great musicians. The second movement, “Passage,” is about the process of learning form a great master. The time and hard work needed to learn to bring out one’s potential is something that all great musicians have to experience. The third movement, “Apogee,” is defined as the highest point of the development of something. After studying with a master teacher, the hope is that each student will be able to reach their own personal apogee. These three movements together outline the journey of any student that has the opportunity to learn from a caring and wise teacher.

It is with deep admiration and respect that I offer this work dedicated to Professor Peter Kurau and the Eastman Horn Choir.

Wayne Lu is a composer/music educator/hornist/arranger/private teacher currently living in central Iowa. Wayne is in his sixteenth year as the Instrumental Music Director at the Eldora-New Providence Community School District where he conducts the 5th grade band and the High School Marching Band, Pep Band, Jazz Band, and Concert Band. The South Hardin High School Concert Band has received numerous awards including the best overall band at the Valleyfair Music in the Park national competition in May 2018 and the Sweepstakes Trophy at the Worlds of Fun 2014 Festival of Bands national competition in Kansas City, MO along with earning Division I ratings at the Iowa High School Music Association’s Solo/Ensemble Contest for Woodwind Choir, Brass Choir, and Percussion Choir.

Wayne’s compositions have been performed at some of the most recognized music schools in the country including Juilliard, Peabody Conservatory, Eastman School, Cincinnati Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, University of Illinois, University of Southern California,

PROGRAM NOTES University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, University of Kentucky, University of New Hampshire, George Mason University, West Virginia University, and Denver University, to name a few.

Wayne also spent eleven years working at the prestigious Kendall Betts Horn Camp where he served as Substitute Faculty/Staff teaching fundamentals, ear training, and orchestral excerpt classes along with performing in the Faculty/Staff Horn Ensemble and on Staff/Faculty Recitals. He is has a BM in horn performance frm the university of Illinois, an MM in horn performance from the University of Minnesota, and has all coursework and comprehensive exms completed for his DMA from the University of Illinois.

Wayne is also the founder and president of Veritas Musica Publishing, a classical chamber music publishing company based in Eldora, Iowa.

“Greatest Hits” of Horn in D Thomas Singletary As a young person in the 1980s, I enjoyed listening to musical medleys such as and Hooked on Classics. Despite the constant beat in the background, I found something irresistible about the way one piece “dovetailed” nicely with the next. The music featured the more melodic sections of the representative selections and did not always reflect the texture or tonality of the original musical setting. Truth be told, I learned a lot of music by listening to the Hooked on Classics and the Stars on 45 medleys.

When Heather Test asked me to arrange a piece for five horn quartets for the annual HornFest at TCU, I thought it would be fun to write a greatest- hits-style medley consisting o famous horn excerpts. In order to retain the original keys and limit the use of musical transitions, I chose only music that was originally written in the key of D. Therefore, the constant musical element in this medley is tonality rather than tempo like the disco-esque medleys mentioned above.

Dr. Thomas Singletary is an active conductor, composer, clinician, and music educator. A rising composer and transcriber for winds, he is highly regarded for his custom music arrangements for concert and marching bands around the nation. A Georgia native, Singletary holds degrees in music education from Florida State University and the University of Illinois. Following a 20-year career in the high school and middle school band classroom, he earned a Ph.D. in Music Education and Wind Conduciting from Florida State University. Dr. Singletary currently serves as a music education instructor at the Texas Christian University School of Music. PROGRAM NOTES The Eastman Horn Choir was founded in 1968 by Verne Reynolds, Professor Emeritus of Horn at the Eastman School of Music, who served as its director until his retirement in 1995. From its inception, the Choir’s mission has been threefold: to provide an expanded ensemble experience for the horn students; to acquaint them (through transcriptions) of the breadth of quality repertoire (with a particular emphasis on the glorious vocal music of the German and Italian Renaissance) within our musical culture; and to encourage contemporary composers to create original works for multiple horns. In addition to compositions and commissions by such notable composers as Samuel Adler, Jeff Tyzik, John Cheetham, David Diamond, and James Willey, the Choir’s repertoire in recent years has expanded to include transcriptions from the classical, romantic, and modern eras.

The Choir has been featured on the “Eastman at Washington Square” series, on “Live from Hochstein” in its annual holiday concert (broadcast live on WXXI-FM 91.5, a National Public Radio affiliate), in its biennial tribute to St. Hubert (patron saint of the hunt, from which the horn derives much of its repertoire), in concerts at the Eastman Theatre, Kilbourn Hall, and Hatch Recital Hall, and on the “Music at St. Andrew’s” and “Music at St. John’s” series.

In 2002, the Choir was a featured ensemble (the only collegiate choir in the world so honored) at the 34th International Horn Symposium held in Lahti, Finland, where it presented three performances to critical and popular acclaim. As a result of its successes there, the Choir was invited to present three performances at the 36th International Horn Symposium, held in July 2004 in Valencia, Spain.

PROGRAM NOTES

UPCOMING EVENTS AT EASTMAN Thursday, November 21, 2019 TICKETS ONLINE: www.EastmanTheatre.org PHONE: (585) 274-3000 IN PERSON: 433 East Main Street | 9:30 AM—2:30 PM

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