Featuring contrabass clarinetist Alex Sramek and the West Point Wind Quintet with 15 one-minute selections on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.
Program:
Dedication for alto flute & electronics(Amy Shankland, vocals)
Chris Vaisvil
electronic playback
Trick
David Rhodes
Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
An Adolescent Composition's Brush with Death
Alex Sramek
Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
Lumbago
Roger Blanc
Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
Vin Scialla, hand percussion
Improvisation
Alex Sramek
Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame - 15 one-minute selections on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War for West Point Woodwind Quintet
1. Fragments of Johnny (When Johnny doesn't come marching home)
Audun G. Vassdal
2. If My Grandfather Fought in the Civil War...
Michael Pepper
3. The Dred Scott Decision (A Judicial Shrug for Woodwind Quintet)
Tim Labor
4. When Freedom Cried
Daniel J. Knaggs
5. From Manassas to Appomattox
Malcolm Dedman
6. Shimmer
Douglas Wagoner
7. Variant on "Battle Cry of Freedom"
Melody by George F. Root Arr. by Stanley M. Hoffman
8. General Grant's Whiskey Dance
Andy Francis
9. On a Wednesday in May
Francis Kayali
10. Hurrah
David Wolfson
11. Elegy for the Dead at Gettysburg
David A. Miller
12. Born Equal
Juan Maria Solare
13. Briefly
Peter Nickol
14. Field Notes (Three Volleys for Wind Quintet)
James Soe Nyun
15. Themes of Conflict
Pasquale Tassone
West Point Woodwind Quintet
MASTER SERGEANT GLENN WEST - BASSOON
SERGEANT FIRST CLASS SAM KAESTNER - CLARINET
STAFF SERGEANT NICOLE CALOURI - HORN
STAFF SERGEANT ANNA PENNINGTON - OBOE
STAFF SERGEANT MEGAN SZYMANSKI - FLUTE
Performers
The West Point Woodwind Quintet
The West Point Woodwind Quintet of the West Point Band is
made up of members of the Concert Band. The quintet has
entertained the United States Corps of Cadets and performed for
many visiting dignitaries and heads of state. including annual
receptions hosted by the Superintendent of the United States
Military Academy, Presidential receptions in New York City, and
the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations.
Nicole Caluori
Staff Sargeant Nicole Caluori, a native of Coral Springs,
Florida, began her undergraduate studies at Florida State
University and completed her Bachelor of Music in Horn
Performance at Southern Methodist University as a student of
Gregory Hustis. She has spent summers at the National
Repertory Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center and the
Sarasota Music Festival. As an orchestral player, Nicole has
performed with the New World Symphony in Miami, the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra and currently plays 3rd horn with the
Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Nicole was a semi-finalist at the
2005 International Horn Competition of America and won the
Eastern Music Festival Concerto Competition the same year.
Nicole joined the West Point Band in 2009 and was named
Principal horn in 2010.
Sam Kaestner
Sergeant First Class Sam Kaestner has been a member of the
West Point Band since 2002. Since joining the band, he has
performed with the New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center's
Avery Fisher Hall, at the Dallas Symphony's Meyerson
Symphony Hall, as well as at other venues throughout the
country. He has participated in recitals at the Juilliard School, the
University of Southern California, the Oklahoma Clarinet
Symposium, the Potsdam Clarinet Summit, and at West Point. In
2009, he performed a recital with Toronto Symphony bassoonist
Sam Banks at Butler University that commemorated the 200th
anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn's birth. Prior to joining the
band, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns
Hopkins University.
Anna Pennington
Staff Sergeant Anna Pennington, oboe/English horn, joined the
West Point Band in 2011. She was Assistant Professor of Oboe
at University of Southern Mississippi School of Music. She
performed as a member of the Mobile, Pensacola, and Gulf
Coast Symphonies and toured extensively with Category 5, the
faculty wind quintet. In addition to being a former member of the
Planets, a classical fusion ensemble, Anna has performed with
the New York Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, Florida
Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, Aspen Music Festival,
Victoria Bach Festival, and Salzburger Festspiele. A Texas
native, Anna holds a Doctor of Music from the Florida State
University, a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of
Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas.
Megan Szymanski
Staff Sergeant Megan Szymanski joined the West Point Band
in March of 2011. She lived in New York City as a Kenan Fellow
at the Lincoln Center Institute. While in New York, she won
second prize in the Alexander and Buono International Flute
Competition. Staff Sgt. Szymanski earned her Bachelor of Music,
magna cum laude, from The University of Central Florida as a
Presser Scholar. She was also the 2008 winner of the Florida
Flute Association Young Artist Competition. She graduated in
2010 with a Master of Music from UNC School of the Arts, where
she won the concerto competition in 2009, as well as an award
for excellence as a studio teaching assistant. Staff Sgt.
Szymanski currently teaches flute lessons at SUNY Dutchess.
Glenn West
Master Sergeant Glenn West, of Spokane, WA, joined the West
Point Band in September of 2004 with previous military service
with the 323rd Army Band in San Antonio, TX, the USARUER
Band & Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany and the Air National
Guard Band of the Northwest. A graduate of the University of
Minnesota with a Master of Music degree, Glenn studied
bassoon with Dr. Wendal Jones, Charles Ullery, and Sharon
Kuster. He has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, La
Orquesta Sinfonica De La Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico,
the Spokane Symphony, the Winter's Chamber Orchestra, the
Mozart Octet, and the Faculty Woodwind Quintets at the
University of Texas, and Washington State University.
Ray Blue
Saxophonist Ray Blue regularly performs on numerous world
stages with musicians from many different cultures, throughout
Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. As a leader, he has
conducted U.S. State Department tours to Zambia, Tanzania,
Zanzibar and Gabon. His festival performances as leader and
featured artist include: Zanzibar International Film Festival,
Zanzibar, Tanzania; North Sea Jazz Festival-Cape Town, South
Africa; Macufe Festival-Bloemfontain, South Africa; European
Union Annex Festival-Dublin, Ireland; Audi Jazz Festival-
Brussels, Belgium; Macao Jazz Festival, China; The Newport in
New York Festival, New York, NY; New York State Black Arts,
Festival-Albany, New York; Koepenick Jazz Festival-Berlin,
Germany; Midi Music Festival-Beijing, China; Pori Jazz Festival,
Finland; Foix Jazz Festival, France; and many others.
Vincent Scialla
Vincent Scialla teaches drums/percussion at Teachers College
and at LREI. US Department of Defense entertainment tours
have taken him to the Middle East, Caribbean, Asia and Egypt.
Scialla is best known for his innovative fusion of Middle Eastern,
Mediterranean, Indian and American musical traditions.
His recording history includes tracks for producers Miles
Copeland, Rick Rubin, Mophonics music, and DJ FS to name a
few, including producing full length albums for Mission: on Mars
and Snehasish Mozumder (Random Chance Records). Vin
recently performed at Lincoln Center out-of-doors, the Jazz
Gallery, and Blue Note New York. Vin received his B.M. at the
Hartt School of Music, and Masters at the Conservatory at
Brooklyn College.
Alex Sramek
Alex Sramek is a Los Angeles-based clarinetist, composer, and
purveyor of shenanigans. MFA from CalArts in hand, this
refugee from software engineering has recently made a playful
nuisance of himself playing in a klezmer/rock band, guesting with
a drone/doom tuba duo, leading improv sessions across Europe,
teaching a room full of Clarinetfest attendees grotesque
extended techniques, writing minimalist songs for obsessivecompulsive
children, and thrilling unsuspecting guests with
impromptu restroom concerts. More on his shenanigans can be
found at mostlydifferent.com.
Composers
Roger Blanc
Roger Blanc, M.M., studied Composition with David Diamond
and was assistant teacher in Ear Training and Theory at Juilliard
for five years. His music has been performed at Alice Tully Hall,
The Whitney Museum Sculpture Court, CAMI Hall, Citigroup St.
Peter's, SymphonySpace Thalia, The New School, the Juilliard
School, and at various locations overseas. He has worked
variously in music for television (Tonight Show, Saturday Night
Live, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien), film (Frida,Untouchables,
Wag The Dog, Fargo), recording (Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono,
Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen), and live
performance (Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison
Square Garden, the Kennedy Center; events including the 2004
David Rhodes
David Rhodes is a composer and performer in Los
and is completing his MFA at California Institute
their Performer-Composer program. David teaches
composes music for film, theater and concert halls
composing music for large, unwieldy instruments.
Chris Vaisvil
Chris Vaisvil is a 12 tet and microtonal composer who works
with acoustic and electronic instruments.
Chris says "My art is about now and is a response to the
inspiration I feel from the visual, musical, poetic, and literary art
of 20th and 21st centuries as well as world events.
The art of our period has so much to say about who we are,
where we have been, and what we will, or will not be as a world
village - a unity of souls divided by the gulf of physical being and
monetary inequity but united in spirit, desires, hopes and
dreams. My goal is to communicate with you and if what
15 Minutes of Fame Composers
Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame - 15 one-minute selections on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War for West Point Woodwind Quintet
From Manassas to Appomattox
Malcolm Dedman
Born in London in 1948, Malcolm Dedman was initially self-taught, having started to compose when he was 12. He had formal composition lessons with Patric Standford at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1974-75, and he gained a Masters Degree in Composing Concert Music in 2005.
"From Manassas to Appomattox" is a commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, the first battle being that of Manassas and the last being Appomattox. The five instruments initially play independent themes, suggesting the conflict, alternating with slow music, suggesting surrender of the various battles, and eventual resolution.
General Grant's Whiskey Dance
Andy Francis
Andy Francis (b. 1986) is currently a working on his DMA in composition at Michigan State University. He has done many interesting thing, some of which might be deemed impressive.
For more information, please visit www.andyfrancismusic.com.
"Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals." - Abraham Lincoln
Battle Cry of Freedom
Stanley M. Hoffman
Stanley M. Hoffman (b. 1959, Cleveland, Ohio) holds degrees in Music Composition from Brandeis University (Ph.D.), New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Boston Conservatory (B.M.). His music is published by ECS Publishing, Oxford University Press, Wehr's Music House and Fatrock Ink. He is currently Chief Editor at ECS Publishing.
I chose the tune "Battle Cry of Freedom" by George Root as the basis for this composition because, not only is it of the Civil War era, but it is also included in the song "They Are There" by Charles Ives, to whom I pay homage with an alternative ending.
On a Wednesday in May
Francis Kayali
Francis Kayali is a Franco-American composer currently living in the San Francisco Bay area. Recently performed works include the pocket quartet "That's a New Dog" (Choreodography No. 1) and Astronomies of the Mind, for symphony orchestra.
"On a Wednesday in May" is based on two irreconcilable songs from the end of the American Civil War: a Union song mocking Jefferson Davis and a Confederate song bitterly cursing the Yankees and what they stood for.
When Freedom Cried
Daniel J. Knaggs
Daniel J. Knaggs's music is heard in concert halls, churches, and radio broadcasts throughout Europe and the Americas. He is currently a full-time Spanish teacher at Fr. Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
"When Freedom Cried" portrays a snapshot of battle and the death of General James S. Wadsworth at the Battle of the Wilderness (1864) for whom the song Sleep Sweetly was written (by M.B. Ladd)... a fragment of this song is used to close this brief episode.
The Dred Scott Decision
Tim Labor
Tim Labor is an award winning LA-based composer and sound designer whose classical music credits include "Blomidon: tone poem with sound design" for the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and "Olivia" for the Mira Costa Symphony. Tim is a faculty member in the Music Department at the University of California, Riverside.
The Dred Scott Decision was a Supreme Court ruling in which a black slave sued for freedom on a variety of grounds and was denied because of legal paradox. This reification of the institutionalization of slavery ignited the Panic of 1857 and proved the futility of peaceful legal racial debate.
Elegy for the Dead at Gettysburg
David Miller
I was born in Princeton, West Virginia and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I graduated from Long Island University with a Communications degree. My compositions have been performed by music students and professionals. My career as a professional writer includes working as a New York Post reporter and a speech writer.
"Elegy for the Dead at Gettysburg" was inspired by Timothy O'Sullivan's photograph "The Harvest of Death" which depicts dead soldiers on the battlefield at Gettysburg. The quintet's theme is played immediately by the flute, but the quintet incorporates the songs "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" representing both sides for this tribute.
Brief
Peter Nickol
Peter Nickol was born in 1946. He studied originally at York University, later at Exeter and Manchester, with a PhD in Composition awarded in 2008. He is based in Exeter, Devon (UK). Recent successes include Ultramarine, chosen by Texas-based Madera Wind Quintet as one of their featured pieces for 2012.
English people don't generally know that much about the American Civil War, beyond a general concept of North against South. But we know some of the songs - great tunes! - and my one-minute piece maps one of these through a texture that gradually builds in density.
If My Grandfather Fought in the Civil War...
Michael Pepper
Michael Pepper resides in New Orleans, LA as a Music Composition and Mathematics major at Tulane University. He has been composing over two years and has received MTNA distinction as best in Louisiana two years in a row as well as a national finalist. He also composes independent film scores.
My grandfather, Col. Fred Riggle, fought in the Vietnam War as a pilot in the Air Force. In this piece, I explore the scenario of him fighting in a different war, the bloodiest in American history, and the almost inevitable fate he and my family would have experienced.
Field Notes
James Soe Nyun
James SOE NYUN did graduate composition studies at the University of
California, San Diego. For two decades after leaving school he moved
towards working in the visual arts. Recent explorations in video have
seen him moving towards time-based work, and a re-exploration of his
musical roots.
This little suite opens with the 1861 Overture, and next visits
Gettysburg. It ends with the Sherman's March, which quotes from
Stephen Foster, a Northern-sympathizer who nonetheless has been criticized
for writing songs that romanticized slave life, suggesting that while
the Civil War ended slavery, it left much unresolved.
Born Equal
Juan Maria Solare
Juan Maria Solare, born 1966 in Argentina, works currently in Germany as composer, pianist (contemporary & tango) and teaching at the University of Bremen and at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen. His music has been performed in five continents. Nine CDs of different performers include at least one piece of him.
I associate the Civil War mainly with elimination of slavery. Even if we are really born equal, other people and the world make us unequal. Only through commitment (and law) we can regain a certain equality. Much can still be done to improve the social weakness of "second class citizens".
Themes of Conflict
Pasquale Tassone
Pasquale Tassone was a resident at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, where he worked with the composer, Olly Wilson. In June 2004, some of Tassone's choral music was performed at the Artama Choral Festival in the Czech Republic Currently Tassone is working on his first opera.
"Themes of Conflict" is made up of themes from songs popular during the Civil War The melodies utilized are: The Vacant Chair (Flute), Just Before the Battle Mother (Oboe), Brother Tell Me of the Battle (Clarinet), When this Cruel War is Over ( F Horn), The Bonnie Blue Flag (Bassoon).
Fragments of Johnny
Audun G. Vassdal
My name is Audun G. Vassdal.
I am 26 years old.
I am born and raised in Oslo, Norway.
I started playing the piano at the age of 8,
being very fascinated by music.
My fascination grew, and I studied music through "High School"
and at the University of Oslo,
where I achieved a Bachelors degree in musicology.
I started composing at the age of 16,
and decided already then that composer was what I wanted to be.
Ever since I have pursued my goal through education and work,
and currently I work for the Norwegian Music Publisher ("Norsk Musikkforlag AS")
and Oslo Concert House, while composing on the side.
This work is based on my favorite song from the civil war; When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
The idea behind the composition is to only use motives from the song,
trying to keep the same rhythmical energy of the song,
perhaps even exaggerate it a bit.
I try to separate the different parts of the melody,
only using small fragments here and there,
sometimes two different at the same time.
Hence the title "Fragments of Johnny".
Sadly, this Johnny didn't come marching home...
Shimmer
Douglas Wagoner
Douglas Wagoner is a composer and conductor based in Newton,
Massachusetts. His formal education was at Berklee College of Music,
Boston University and New England Conservatory in composition,
film-scoring and conducting. More of his work and contact information
can be found at http://www.douglaswagoner.com
"Shimmer" is invokes the hazy buzz of a lazy summer afternoon in a
wheat field at Gettysburg as if two armies were not about to hurl
themselves upon each other with devastating consequences.
Hurrah
David Wolfson
David Wolfson is an eclectic, versatile composer of songs, concert music and music for theatre. Please visit his website, www.davidwolfsonmusic.net.
"Hurrah" takes the Civil War-era tune "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" for a starting point. I imagined what coming home from the Civil War might actually have felt like.
Program Notes
Support from the Puffin Foundation "...continuing the dialogue
between art and the lives of ordinary people."
Vox Novus is a collective of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts collaborating together to create, produce, promote, and enjoy the new music of today. Our members are from a variety of composers committed to the creation and dissemination of new music. Their music is of a variety of styles, aesthetics, and ideologies.
Vox Novus produces and promotes new music. They are dedicated to contemporary music, the musicians who perform, and the composers that write the music of today. Their mission is to cultivate a music community and make their work available to the greater public.
Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.
Presenters:
Remarkable Theater Brigade
Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan
Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and
musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk
children free of charge.
Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including
operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and
co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts.
Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer,
Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.
Jan Hus Church
This is the place you were welcome,
long before you arrived!
www.janhus.org
Vox Novus
Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts,
recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity.
Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music,
recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to
keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and
audience, providing greater exposure to new music.
Funding by
Puffin Foundation
Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people."
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