PROGRAM NOTES WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016 | 7:30 P.M. | LIED CENTER OF KANSAS

KU WIND ENSEMBLE - PAUL W. POPIEL, CONDUCTOR

Amparita Roca (1935) Jaime Texidor (1884-1957) arr. Winters Cheryl Lee, guest conductor

Vientos y (2001) Michael Gandolfi (b. 1956) Anthony Messina, guest conductor

Concerto Gaucho (2007) Kevin Walczyk (b. 1964) Joey Tartell, soloist

INTERMISSION

La ville d’en-haut (1987) Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) Han Wang, soloist

American Jazz Suite (1992) Allen Vizzutti (1952) Joey Tartell, soloist AMPARITO ROCA (1935) Jaime Texidor (1884–1957) arr. Winter (1870–1955)

Jaime Texidor was a composer, conductor and publisher who lived most of his life in Northern Spain. In 1927, he became the conductor of the Baracaldo Municipal band, a position that he retained until 1936. Over this period he composed so much band music that he decided to establish his own publishing company. In addition to his enormous contribution to band music, Texidor wrote many pieces in the Paso Doble style, which are lively march-like dances. Texidor is credited with the composition of Amparito Roco, which is one of the most well-known Paso Dobles in the band repertoire. There is, however, some mystery attached to the composition of this piece, which was reportedly written by British Bandmaster Reginald Ridewood (1907-1942). Texidor arranged for the publication in Madrid, but the piece had already been performed in England prior to the copyright date. It is assumed that Ridewood wrote the music, but failed to apply for copyright before Texidor rearranged it and had it published as his own. Nevertheless, it is still one of the most well-known Paso Dobles in modern band literature.

VIENTOS Y TANGOS (2001) Michael Gandolfi (b. 1956)

The sensuality and expressivity of the Argentine has fascinated people around the world for many years. This dance has been celebrated everywhere from dance halls to television, and is evocative of the inner-most desires of its performers. Finding its roots in the outskirts of , , the instrumental tango has gone through many evolutions over the years, each leaving its own distinct fingerprint on the genre. Most notable are the distinct styles of band leaders Juan D’Arienzo, who re-energized the tango around 1935 and Astor Piazzolla, who blended the tango with classical art-music and jazz. Today, the tango still endures, not only on ballroom floors, but also in the music of groups such as Tango Club, an electro-tango collective. It is from these influences that Michael Gandolfi chose to base his workVientos y Tangos (Winds and Tangos). Commissioned as one of four works for the Frank L. Battisti 70th Birthday Commission Project, this is the only piece that still receives regular performance. Gandolfi, who chairs the composition department at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts was approached by Mr. Battisti, who served as the Director of Wind Ensemble Activities at the same institution, in 2001 to write a tango for band. Using the styles of Juan D’Arienzo, Astor Piazzolla and disco/techno tango, the work is set in three main parts, representing influences from each of these three styles. Following a brief introduction, we are immersed in the world of D’Arienzo’s tango, represented by contrasts of staccato melodies with silence and the four-beat pattern first introduced in the clarinet and followed by the horn. Following a foreboding and highly chromatic interlude we are lead into the syncopated style of Astor Piazzolla. The elements of Piazzolla’s jazz influence (having grown up in New York City) and the modernist chromaticism and angular melodies, elements he honed during his studies with Nadia Boulanger, can clearly be heard throughout this section. The final section of the piece bears the driving rhythm and beat of the technotango, heard through the driving bass line and interplay with the middle winds. The work closes just as it began, with a quiet, reflective moment that makes us long for our next dance of the tango.

ANTHONY MESSINA, graduate conductor

Anthony Messina, a native of Warren, Michigan, is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting. He served as a middle and high school band director in the Detroit and Boston areas, where he also continued to perform on trumpet with the Metropolitan Wind Symphony. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Wayne State University, and a Master of Music in Wind Conducting from Indiana University.

CONCERTO GAUCHO (1987) Kevin Walczyk (b. 1964)

Joey Tartell, trumpet

A native of Portland Oregon, Kevin Walczyk received a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Pacific Lutheran University in 1987 and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas where he was the recipient of the Hexter Prize for outstanding graduate student. Walczyk is currently Professor of music at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon where he teaches composition, orchestration, jazz arranging, film scoring, media production, and serves as the Graduate Music Coordinator. Walczyk’s recent composition honors include nominations for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music composition (2011) and the Grawemeyer Award (2012). His recent prizes include the 9th annual Raymond & Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize (2012) and the 2012 Big East Conference Band Director’s Association Composition Contest. He has received grants from Meet the Composer, Argosy Foundation, American Music Center, and Western Oregon University. The composer says of the piece: Concerto Gaucho was composed for Oregon native and trumpet virtuoso Tim Morrison. The work’s central building blocks stem from the African-influenced music of , which is the birthplace of Oregon Symphony Music Director Carlos Kalmar, to whom the work is dedicated. The gaucho was traditionally known as a horseman who freely traversed and lived off of the unclaimed lands of Uruguay’s Rio de la Plata region. The gaucho symbolized freedom and mobility during the first half of the Nineteenth Century and came to represent a national heroic archetype in Uruguay and throughout the southern cone of South America. Typically equipped with a guitar, the gaucho was a wandering minstrel of sorts, performing music that described the vagabond’s life. The trumpet soloist is the protagonist of Concerto Gaucho, which features two distinctive musical identities indigenous to the Rio de la Plata region - the milonga and the . The slow, lyrical second movement of the concerto is based on the milonga, a song form that was a hallmark of the payadores (folk singers of improvised verse) who, by the end of the Nineteenth Century, played a vital part in preserving the vanishing image of the world of the gaucho. The lyrics of the milonga often featured political, historical, and patriotic themes that helped chronicle real historical events and pay tribute to local heroes, especially the gauchos. The first and third movements of Concerto Gaucho are created from the energetic candombe - an African-derived rhythm that has been an important influence on Uruguay’s musical culture for more than two centuries. The Candombe’s unique rhythmic structure is achieved by layering three separate drum patterns, each named for the specific drum that performs that pattern - the piano drum, chico drum, and the repique drum. The three short, repetitive drum patterns that comprise the candombe, along with the madera - the rhythmic ‘key’ to the candombe - provide nearly all of the rhythmic elements for the outset movements of the concerto. As with the formal construct found in the concerto’s milonga section, the decima plays a vital role in structuring the two candombe movements. Concerto Gaucho pays tribute to the wealth of historically-enriched music indigenous to Uruguay, which is rarely heard outside of its region.

LA VILLE D’EN HAUT (1987) Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Han Wang, Piano

Olivier Messiaen was a French organist, ornithologist [the study of birds], and one of the major composers of the 20th century. Messiaen’s music is known for its rhythmic complexity, melodic improvisation and its harmonic use of modes which he abstracted from his early composition and improvisations. Messiaen also drew on his Roman Catholic faith for inspiration in many of his compositions. La Ville d’en haut depicts Messiaen’s ideal heaven, the whiteness that in the Bible symbolizes purity or perfection is not an absence of color-what’s left when all the sins are washed away-but rather, the combination of all colors in perfect proportion. Messiaen’s passion for ornithology figures prominently throughoutLa Ville as well, which features thick chorale material contrasted with lyrical and lighthearted birdcalls. After several opening chords stated by the brass and woodwinds signifying the combination of all colors, or whiteness, Messiaen writes a birdsong played by a xylophone trio, with a cymbal roll providing a heaven-like backdrop. As if the birdsong is without meter or beat, the symbolic ‘white’ chords return in exact repetition of the opening. The pianist enters replacing the xylophone trio as the birdcall and is contrasted with thick and thin chords from the brass and woodwinds, thus combining the birdcalls and the divine into one. Perhaps in Messiaen’s mind, the song of birds – “our little servants of immaterial joy” as he described them-is the language of heaven.

AMERICAN JAZZ SUITE (1994) Allen Vizzutti (b. 1952)

Joey Tartell, trumpet

Allen Vizzutti is an American trumpet player, composer, and music educator. He began learning trumpet from his father at a young age and eventually attended the Eastman School of Music on a full scholarship. Today, Vizzutti has performed in 60 countries with a variety of artists and ensembles including Chick Corea, Doc Severinsen, The NBC Tonight Show Band, the Airmen of Note, the Army Blues, Chuck Mangione, and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Vizzutti lives in Seattle, Washington and spends much of his time performing, recording, and composing. His continued commitment to music education and the value of music in everyday life results in an extensive schedule of guest appearances at universities all over the world. The composer says of the piece, “The American Jazz Suite is a two-movement, blues-influenced symphonic jazz work conceived as a showcase for the trumpet soloist’s written melodies and jazz improvisations. The soloist is called upon to play half valves, to bend notes, and to characteristically change timbres – all of which are second nature to jazz artists. The American Jazz Suite contains jazz- style soli writing for sections within the ensemble as well. The ‘jazziness’ of the performance lies solely in the hands and hearts of the ensemble and soloist, not on the written page. Academic analysis of the piece is unimportant because each interpretation, particularly in the case of the trumpet soloist, will be different. Spontaneity and fun are the overriding qualities that transcend the written notes of the American Jazz Suite.”

JOEY TARTELL, trumpet

Joey Tartell is an Associate Professor of Trumpet and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Before joining the faculty, he enjoyed a career as an in-demand lead and free lance trumpet player. Joey was the lead player for Maynard Ferguson, touring the United States, Australia, Asia, and Europe, and can be heard on the recording “These Cats Can Swing.” He also played lead for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, including a State Department tour of Egypt; the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, including a State Department tour of India and appearances at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals; and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Joey has also toured with Boston Brass and Canadian Brass. Although teaching full time, Mr. Tartell remains an active performer. He is a regular guest lead trumpet/soloist with several orchestras for Pops concerts, including serving as the Guest Principal for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s entire 2014-15 Pops season. Joey has also played with the St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, Detroit, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. Also active in the recording studios, he has recorded for the Bob and Tom Show, Hal Leonard Publications, Shawnee Press, Cedar Point Amusement Park, Williams Gaming, and many others. Mr. Tartell is also active as a soloist and clinician. Recently, he has been a featured soloist and clinician at both the International Trumpet Guild conference and the National Trumpet Competition. He maintains an active calendar as a clinician nationally, presenting clinics from Boise, Idaho to Tallahassee, Florida last year. Joey has a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Miami, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded a Performer’s Certificate. He had the great fortune to study with Barbara Butler, Mel Broiles, Gil Johnson, and Vince DiMartino.

HAN WANG, piano

As an active classical pianist, Han Wang has performed throughout the United States, Europe and China. Her performance footprints include Pennsylvania International Music Festival, Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, Musikschule Bayreuth (Germany), theater Vredenburg (Netherlands), Grottammare theatre (Italy) as well as sixteen cities of China. Han has recently made her debut at the Kennedy Center, been invited to play at the American Liszt Festival in Los Angeles, and will be featured in an upcoming performance at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City. Han received high praise from the media and music critics after her success in a series of competitions and concerts, such as New York epochtimes news, Washington Kennedy Center news, Washington Chinese Daily News, Oriental Morning newspaper, China Xinhuanet and China Guiyang daily newspaper. Hong Kong “PTHK-4” broadcasting station had an interview with her and invited her to record a Liszt program. Han’s technical virtuosity, beautiful sound, rich emotional expression and magical imagination have brought her great assessments: Paul Badura-Skoda evaluates “Han Wang really puts her ideas into her performance and she is quite a personality”. Arie Vardi comments: “Han Wang is a pianist who performs with true heart”. Leslie Howard said: “Ms. Han Wang performs with delicate skills and her fingers are full of intensive power”. Alexander Shtarkman comments: “Han’s performance is very enthusiastic and glorious”, and Susan Starr said “Han is very talented and she is a mature pianist”. Han has won prestigious prizes in both international and national piano competitions, including The 17th San Jose International Piano Competition Special prize & scholarship for Int’l Piano Festival; the 1st prize along with the special prize of the 30th Washington D.C International Young Artist Piano competition; the 1st prize of Gold Era Romantic Music International Piano competition; the 2nd prize of American International piano competition; a prizewinner of the US Midwest International Piano Competition; the sole winner of the Netherland International Franz Liszt Competition Asia Pacific Division; the finalist prize of the “SEILER” International Piano Competition; the third prize of “STERNLEY” national Piano Competition; the fourth prize of “TOYAMA” Asian International Piano Competition; the third prize of “PARSON” National Piano Competition; the third prize of “Xing Hai” National Piano Competition. Han was born into an artistic family, with her father as a composer and her mother as a dancer. She started learning piano at the age of three, and her first public performance was at the age of five. Han attended Sichuan Conservatory of Music and received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in piano performance from China Conservatory of Music. Han won several awards when she studied there, including “Excellent New Student” fellowship, “Excellent Talent student” scholarship, “Best Performance” scholarship, “Xiaowei Tan” fellowship and “Outstanding Student” scholarship. Han earned an Artist Diploma degree from the School of Music at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she was awarded the “LANGFORD fellowship”. Han is pursuing Doctoral of Music and Arts degree at University of Kansas, studying with Steinway Artist Steven Spooner.

Program notes compiled by Brooke Humfeld, Anthony Messina, and Nicholas Waldron.

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS WIND ENSEMBLE

Described by the New York Times as “one of America’s most esteemed concert bands,” the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble is the premier wind band at the University of Kansas and is led by Paul W. Popiel, Director of Bands. Their Carnegie Hall debut in 2013 was described by Feast of Music as “showing amazing chops in their transitions and an impressive range of dynamics” and by the New York Times as “performing with polish, assurance and copious spirit, eliciting a rousing ovation.”

The band enjoys a long history of excellence and musical leadership in the State of Kansas, across the nation, and around the world. Former conductors include Russell Wiley, Kenneth Bloomquist, Robert E. Foster, John Lynch, and Scott Weiss. The ensemble is at the forefront of commercial wind band recordings, and can be heard on the Klavier, Naxos Wind Band Classics, Ecstatic, and Mark Custom labels. Their most recent release, In the Shadow of No Towers, was described in Gramophone Magazine as “...eloquent, disciplined performances that come across with stunning dynamic range and almost dimensional transparency.” Of Shadow and Light, their latest recording project, is slated for worldwide release on the Klavier label later this year.

The band has hosted numerous composers in recent years, including Frank Ticheli, Steven Bryant, Kevin Walczyk, Joni Greene, Aaron Perrine, Michael Torke, Joel Puckett, John Mackey, Mohammed Fairouz, and Eric Ewazen; as well as guest conductors Michelle Rakers, John Whitwell, H. Robert Reynolds, and Mallory Thompson. Guest soloists performing with the Wind Ensemble include Gail Williams, Jeff Nelsen, Jon Lewis, Joey Tartell, the Boston Brass, and Chris Vadala. PAUL W. POPIEL, CONDUCTOR Paul W. Popiel is the Director of Bands at the University of Kansas, only the seventh person to hold this position in the band’s storied 125-year history. Dr. Popiel conducts the KU Wind Ensemble, directs the graduate program in wind conducting, and guides all aspects of the comprehensive university band program.

His Carnegie Hall debut in 2013 was heralded by the New York Times: “The ensemble, conducted by Paul W. Popiel, performed with polish, assurance and copious spirit, eliciting a rousing ovation;” while New York’s Feast of Music said, “Give credit to Popiel, a strong advocate for new music, who went for broke, succeeding in showing us that there is, in fact, real, adventurous music being made over on the other side of the rainbow.”

Popiel has lectured and performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. A proponent of distinctive new music, Popiel has commissioned and premiered numerous new works for winds, including pieces by composers Joel Puckett, Mohammed Fairouz, Michael Torke, Kevin Walczyk, James Barnes, David Dzubay, Joni Greene, and others. He has several highly acclaimed performance and production credits for CDs on the Klavier, Naxos, Ecstatic, Summit, and Mark Custom labels. His latest recording project will feature the premiere recordings of works by Joel Puckett, Aaron Perrine, John Mackey, James Barnes, and Joni Greene. In 2013, Popiel was elected to the membership of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, known for the Grammy Awards.