Illinois State University
College of Fine Arts
School of Music
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Symphonic Winds Martin H. Seggelke, Conductor
Joseph Manfredo, Conductor
Amy Mikalauskas, Graduate Conductor
Bill Heinze, Student Composer
Alex Pantazi, Saxophone, Band Concerto Competition Winner
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Center for the Performing Arts
Monday Evening
March 23, 2015
8:00 p.m.
This is the one hundred and fortieth program of the 2014-2015 season.
Program
Please silence all electronic devices for the duration of the concert. Thank you.
Variants on a Medieval Tune (1963)
Norman Dello Joio
(1913-2008)
12:00
Joseph Manfredo, Conductor
On Winged Flight (1989)
I. Prelude
II. Pastorale
III. Nocturne
IV. Scherzo
V. Parody
Amy Mikalauskas, Graduate Conductor
7:30 AM Ruins Everything (2014)
Gunther Schuller
(born 1925)
13:00
Bill Heinze
(born 1991)
5:00
World Premiere
~Brief Intermission~
Diversion (1943)
Bernhard Heiden
(1910-2000)
8:00
Alex Pantazi, saxophone - Band Concerto Competition Winner
Al Fresco (1974)
Karel Husa
(born 1921)
12:00
Program Notes
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008) began his distinguished
musical career at age fourteen when he became a church organist and
choir director of the Star of the Sea Church on City Island, New York. His
father was an organist, pianist, singer, and vocal coach. Dello Joio
recalled his father working with singers from the Metropolitan Opera, and
that his childhood was filled with musicians and music in the home. Dello
Joio’s father taught him the piano at age four, and in his teens, he began
studying organ with his godfather, Pietro Yon, organist at Saint Patrick’s
Cathedral. In 1939, Dello Joio was accepted as a scholarship student at the
Juilliard School and studied composition with Bernard Wagenaar.
In 1941, he began studies with Paul Hindemith, the man who profoundly
influenced his compositional style, at the Tanglewood Music Center and
Yale University. In the latter part of the 1940s, Dello Joio was considered
one of America’s leading composers, and by the fifties, had gained
international recognition. He received numerous awards and grants,
including the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award, the Town Hall
Composition Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He won the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award in 1948, and 1962. In 1957, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his
piece, Meditations on Ecclesiastes, for string orchestra, and an Emmy Award for his music in the television
special, Scenes from the Louvre. CBS also featured him in a one-hour television special, "Profile of a Composer,”
in 1958. Dello Joio taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Mannes College of Music, and was Professor of Music
and Dean of the Fine and Applied Arts School of Boston University. From 1959 until 1973, he directed the Ford
Foundation’s Contemporary Music Project. Dello Joio remained active as a composer until his death in 2008 at the
age of ninety-five.
A prolific composer, the partial list of Dello Joio’s compositions include over forty-five choral works, close to
thirty works for orchestra and ten for band, approximately twenty-five pieces for solo voice, twenty chamber
works, concertos and solo works for piano, flute, harp, a concertante for clarinet, and a concertino for harmonica.
His stage works include three operas and eight ballets. Additionally, he has written nine television scores and three
compositions for organ.
–Biography courtesy of DelloJoio.com
Variants on a Medieval Tune (1963) is a piece for wind band based on the melody, In dulci jubilo. This
melody is often associated with the Christmas carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” but it has been dated back to
the early 16th century and Martin Luther, who more than likely borrowed it from older, non-liturgical music. In
dulci jubilo has been used by many composers, among them J. S. Bach, as the subject for a variety of musical
works. Dello Joio was inspired to compose a set of variations on this melody.
The variations consist of a bold introduction, led by a cornet fanfare. The theme is then introduced, which is the
basis for the five variants that send the medieval melody through metamorphoses, strongly contrasting in tempo
and character, and utilizing the possibilities of the band to the highest degree. The first variation (Allegro deciso)
rushes by with such speed that it is hard to recognize that it is based on notes two through five of the melody. The
trumpets announce the peasant style of the next variation (Lento, pesante), with the theme in the woodwinds and
low brass. The rapidly articulated notes of the clarinets hide the theme in the third variation (Allegro spumante).
This contrasts with the rich, dark quality of the bassoons and bass clarinets in the next variation (Andante). An
increase in dynamic level gives the brass a turn with the theme until it slowly fades away. The final variation
(Allegro glorioso) is a spirited proclamation of the theme and conclusion of the work.
Variants on a Medieval Tune was commissioned by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation for the Duke University
Band and Paul Bryan, conductor. The piece was first performed on April 10, 1963.
–Program notes courtesy of composer and WindBand.org
Gunther Schuller
(b. 1925) is an American
composer, conductor, and performer. He began his professional life
as a horn player in both the jazz and classical worlds, working as
readily with Miles Davis and Gil Evans as with Toscanini; he was
principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony from age sixteen and
later of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra until 1959. In the 1950s,
he began a conducting career focusing largely on contemporary
music, and thereafter conducted most of the major orchestras of the
world in a wide range of works, including his own. He was central
in precipitating a new, stylistic marriage between progressive
factions of jazz and classical, coining the term "Third Stream," and
collaborating in the development of the style with John Lewis, the
Modern Jazz Quartet, and others.
An educator of extraordinary influence, he has been on the faculties
of the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University; for many
years, he was head of contemporary music activities, as well as a director at the Tanglewood Music Center. He
also served as President of the New England Conservatory. He has published several books and recently embarked
on the writing of his memoirs.
Composition has had a continual, central presence in Schuller's musical life: he has written more than one hundred
eighty works dating back to the beginning of his career when, at age nineteen, he was the soloist in his Horn
Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Goosens. His works range from solo works to
concertos, symphonies, an opera, and many fall outside of any genre. One of his first works performed by a major
orchestra was his Symphony for Brass and Percussion, played in 1949 by Mitropoulos and the New York
Philharmonic. Schuller's advocacy of other composers through performance, publishing, recording, teaching and
administration has been as unflagging in its energy and scope as his pursuit of his own musical expression as
performer, conductor, and composer.
-Biography courtesy of Wind Repertory Project
On Winged Flight (1989), a divertimento for band, was composed on a commission from the United States
Air Force Band and dedicated to their conductor, Lt. Col. James Michael Bankhead. The premiere took place on
April 3, 1989 at the Annual American Bandmasters Association Conference at Florida State University in
Tallahassee. The following are the composer’s own program notes:
In contrast to some of my other band or wind ensemble works, my Divertimento is - as the name implies - a
more light-hearted work, although, just as in Mozart's Divertimenti, it has its "serious" moments, even
"serious" movements.
The five-movement composition begins with a sprightly Vivace introductory movement, entitled "Prelude",
setting the overall lively tone of the work with its cascading woodwind figures, brassy syncopations, and
unexpected contrasts.
The second movement, "Pastorale," sets a solo alto saxophone in reiterative lyric phrases against a delicate
pointillistic web-like woodwind, muted brass, and light percussion background. Jackson Pollack's
pointillistic "drip method,” setting off foreground objects against multi-colored fragmented backgrounds,
comes to mind as an analogy of the visual arts.
The mood becomes more serious in the third movement, "Nocturne," a somber rather dark-colored piece,
featuring instruments such as bass and contrabass clarinets, contrabassoon, and low brass. Here, too, I was
able to use the three cellos that are an unusual feature of the Air Force Band's instrumentation.
The fourth movement, "Scherzo," exploits the virtuosic capacities of the wind ensemble, additionally
bringing in the colors of the piano and harp. There is a lively rhythmic and harmonic interplay between the
different choirs of the ensemble. The scherzo’s light, agitated, mercurial discourse ends quite abruptly in a
quiet sustained chord.
The last movement, "Parody," carries the following legend: "with a respectful bow to Messrs. Charles Ives,
James Reese Europe, and Henry Fillmore." "Parody" is a wild mélange of these early band manifestations including many of their most endearing clichés treated in an Ivesian "take-off" fashion, thereby bringing the
whole work to an engaging, dazzling conventional "fun" climax.
–Program notes courtesy of composer and Wind Repertory Project
Bill Heinze (b. 1991) is a Chicago-based composer born in
West Chicago, Illinois in 1991. He completed his undergraduate degree in
2013 at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he studied with Sarah
Kraaz and Kyle Szabo. His compositions span many genres from chamber
to symphonic. He is currently working on his Master of Music at Illinois
State University where he studies with Martha Horst and Roy Magnuson.
His works have been performed throughout the Midwest. Bill lives and
works in Normal, Illinois.
-Biography courtesy of the composer
7:30 AM Ruins Everything (2014)
The following are program notes from the composer:
7:30 AM Ruins Everything is a piece that explores my relationship
with my alarm clock. It always disturbs my sleep. As an avid sleeper, I frequently dream. These dreams,
though usually mundane, offer me a glimpse of insight into my work, relationships, and life. However, they
often end abruptly every morning once my alarm clock goes off. The piece captures the frustration of
missing out on some of our best ideas, but also reflect on the possibility of remembering these false
memories, in the hopes that we may one day recreate them.
"Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not."
-Ursula K. Le Guin
Bernhard Heiden (1910-2000), a prominent composer throughout
the twentieth century, was born in Frankfurt, Germany on August 24, 1910. His
mother, an active amateur violinist and pianist, contributed significantly to his early
musical experiences. She rehearsed regularly in their home with a string quartet
that included Paul Hindemith's brother, Rudolph, and often played from opera
scores at the piano. Heiden's formal musical training began at age five with the
Dalcroze method, which included ear training, dictation, and rhythmic exercises.
He began piano lessons soon afterward and was composing short piano pieces by
age six. At age fifteen, Heiden began studying theory and harmony with Bernhard
Sekles, who had been a teacher of Paul Hindemith and was director of the Hoch's
Conservatory, an important music school in Frankfurt. Heiden furthered his musical
studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin from 1929 to 1933, majoring in
conducting after one year as a clarinet major. His primary teachers were Paul
Hindemith (composition), Julius Priiwer (conducting), Max Trapp (piano), and
George Szell and Alexander von Zemlinsky (score reading). Upon leaving the Hochschule in 1933, Heiden gained
a position in the Jewish Kulturbund-Orchester playing clarinet, led by Joseph Rosenstock. In 1934, this group
premiered Heiden’s Prelude for Orchestra. As life in Germany was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for
Jews, Heiden immigrated to the United States in 1935, settling in Detroit.
When he was in Detroit, from 1935 to 1943, Heiden was active as a composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, and
performer on piano, harpsichord and organ. He taught at the Art Center Music School and was an active participant
in the Detroit Music Guild, ultimately becoming its president. His most successful venture came in 1942 and 1943
when he organized and conducted a series of concerts with the Detroit Chamber Orchestra, a group of musicians
from the recently disbanded Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In the spring of 1943, Heiden was drafted by the United
States Army and was stationed at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, where he served as assistant band director with the
445th Army. In 1945, Heiden enrolled at Cornell University to pursue a Master's degree in musicology, with
Donald J. Grout as his major professor. Heiden completed his degree in 1946 and was immediately appointed to
the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. At Indiana University, Heiden
taught composition, counterpoint, score- reading, and twentieth-century analytical techniques, serving as chairman
of the composition department for several years. He remained at Indiana University until his retirement in 1981.
In addition to the Mendelssohn Prize of 1933, Heiden received a number of other awards, including the 1951 Fine
Arts Quartet Composition Award for his String Quartet No. 2, a 1955 commission from the Fromrn Musical
Foundation for an orchestral piece, two commissions from the National Association of Wind and Percussion
Instructors, and a 1976 National Endowment for the Arts grant for a tuba concerto written for Harvey Phillips.
Heiden was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966, which allowed him to spend a year composing and
living in Greece.
-Biography courtesy of Thomas Walsh, author of A Performer’s Guide to the Saxophone Music of Bernhard
Heiden
Diversion (1943)
While in the United States Army at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin from 1943 to 1945, Heiden composed a piece for
alto saxophone and band called Solo for Alto Saxophone and Band, which the Army band performed with Heiden
conducting on several concerts between 1943 and 1945. This piece was written to feature Martin Rifkin, an alto
saxophonist in the band at Camp McCoy.
Heiden sent Solo for Alto Saxophone and Band to Associated Music Publishers, who agreed to publish it. After
five years, however, Associated had not published his piece. Heiden asked them that it be returned to him;
however, Associated claimed to have already returned it. He concluded that the piece was lost, with the exception
of the pencil score that Heiden kept. Oddly, Heiden later learned of performances of Solo for Alto Saxophone and
Band by the University of Michigan band. Heiden speculated that William Revelli, director of the University of
Michigan band, might have taken the score and parts for Solo for Alto Saxophone and Band when he stopped
editing for Associated. In 1984, the piece was finally published. Since Heiden had written another piece entitled
Solo for Alto Saxophone and Piano in 1969, his Solo for Alto Saxophone and Band was renamed Diversion.
Diversion, like several other pieces by Heiden, is a staple in the saxophone repertoire. The piece goes through
many different style changes and is technically challenging for the performer. Eugene Rousseau, one of the giants
in saxophone performance and pedagogy, worked with Heiden to create an alternate cadenza that is more
technically challenging, as it moves much more into the altissimo register. Although the piece was lost for many
years, Heiden’s Diversion is a standard piece within the saxophone repertoire.
-Program notes courtesy of Thomas Walsh and Amy Mikalauskas
Karel Husa (b. 1921)
Perhaps no other composer has had such an impact on the
development of the contemporary wind band than has Karel Husa. It
is clear that Husa’s music has profoundly influenced composers,
conductors, performers and audiences. Born in Prague on August 7,
1921, Husa was headed for a career in engineering. The Nazi
occupation of Czechoslovakia, however, forced him into seeking a
position in the Prague Conservatory of Music in 1941, where he
studied composition with Jaroslav Ridky. In 1946, he traveled to
Paris under a fellowship by the French Government where he studied
composition with Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger, and Darius
Milhaud, as well as conducting with Andre Cluytens. He joined the
music faculty at Cornell University in 1954, where he taught
composition and theory and conducted the university orchestra. In
1959, Husa became an American citizen. His association with Ithaca College began in 1967, where he was a
lecturer in composition until his retirement in 1986. He retired from Cornell in 1992 after thirty-eight years of
distinguished teaching, which included his being named a Kappa Alpha professor.
Among numerous honors, Husa has received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation; awards from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, UNESCO, and the National Endowment for the Arts; Koussevitzky
Foundation commissions; the Czech Academy for the Arts and Sciences Prize; the Czech Medal of Merit, First
Class, from President Vaclav Havel; and the Lili Boulanger award. Recordings of his music have been issued on
CBS Masterworks, Vox, Everest, Louisville, CRI, Orion, Grenadilla, and Phoenix Records, among others. Husa's
String Quartet No. 3 received the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, and his Cello Concerto the 1993 Grawemeyer Award. Music
for Prague 1968, with more than seven thousand performances worldwide, has become part of the modern
repertory. Among other works, Husa has composed The Trojan Women, a ballet commissioned by the Louisville
Ballet and Orchestra; Recollections for Wind Quintet and Piano, commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary
of friendly relations between the United States and Holland and premiered in October 1982 at the Library of
Congress in Washington DC; and Concerto for Wind Ensemble, performed in December 1982 and recipient of the
first Sudler prize in 1983.
Karel Husa has conducted many major orchestras including those in Paris, London, Prague, Zurich, Hong Kong,
Singapore, New York, Boston, and Washington. Among numerous recordings including his own works, he made
the first European disc of Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin with the Centi Soli Orchestra in Paris. Every year, Husa
visited university campuses to guest-conduct and lecture on his music. He has conducted in all 50 American states.
-Biography courtesy of the Music Sales Classical
Al Fresco (1974)
When Ithaca College decided to begin a commissioning series of original band compositions, they turned to their
own faculty member, Karel Husa, to write the first work. The Walter Beeler Memorial Commission Series, as it
was to be called, was designed to create works of a serious nature in honor of the man who came to symbolize
bands at Ithaca College for more than forty years. The work received its first performance at the MENC
Convention in Philadelphia on April 19, 1975, by the Ithaca College Concert Band with the composer as guest
conductor.
Husa was approached with this commission only one year prior to the concert, which left him very little time to
compose an original work of quality. Because of the time constraints of the commission, Al Fresco is a revision of
Husa’s earlier composition Fresques for Orchestra, Op. 7, which he wrote in 1947. The composer has supplied the
following notes: “Al Fresco has no programmatic content. However, the title indicates my admiration for the art of
painting, especially mural painting on wet plaster. And I have always been greatly moved by the forceful, even
grandiose and rough, mysterious pictures dealing with primitive life, war and pageantry.” Husa intended this
composition to be performed by “young, high school musicians”, but like Schoenberg before him, the work has not
found a regular place within its intended repertoire level. The technical demands of the piece are challenging for
performers of all levels.
- Program notes courtesy of Ithaca College Wind Ensemble
Alex Pantazi, a native of Park Ridge, Illinois, is currently pursuing a
bachelor’s degree in Saxophone Performance and Music Education at Illinois State
University. As a saxophonist, Alex has performed in masterclasses led by Dr. Otis
Murphy, Dr. Drew Whiting, and the Iridium Quartet. Currently Alex performs with
ISU’s premiere ensembles, including the Wind Symphony and the Sonder
Saxophone Quartet. Through his dedicated performance with his high school band,
Alex received many awards, including the Music Department Award and the John
Philip Sousa Award. Alex’s primary saxophone teachers include Paul Nolen and
Aaron McEvers.
As a future music educator, Alex has become a leader in the Illinois State University
School of Music. He is the president of the National Band Association Student
Chapter, a visual-team leader of the Big Red Marching Machine, and a member of
National Association for Music Education.
Symphonic Winds Personnel
Martin H. Seggelke, conductor
Joseph Manfredo, conductor
Amy Mikalauskas, graduate conductor
Flute
Heather Elfline
Kalie Grable*
Jennifer Jones
Cassie Metz*
Carly Piland
Trumpet
Alyson Bauman
Shauna Bracken
Tristan Burgmann*
Katie Harris
Casey Laughlin
Oboe/English Horn
Linnea Couture*
Samantha Dosek
Bridget Gondek
Trombone
Michael Genson
Chris Gumban
Jonathan Sabin*
Danny Tedeschi
Clarinet
Alex Armellino*
Lisa Frustaci
Meredith Galloway
Chris Odom
Tim Recio
Elizabeth Rennwanz
Nicha Sukkittiyanon
Bass Clarinets
Beth Hildenbrand
Andy Lucas
Bassoon
Courtney Baltzer
Katelyn Fix*
Bill Heinze
Saxophone
Mike Basile*
Devin Cano
Riley Carter*
Christine Ewald
Samantha Kubil
Adam Unnerstall
Euphonium
Derek Carter*
Andrew McGowan
Sara Sneyd
Tuba
Alex Finley*
Mitchell Jones
String Bass
Laura Bass*
Patrick Casner
Percussion
Lauren Bobarsky
Matt James*
Katie Klipstein
Rei Shorten
Katie Tollakson
Hillary Ulman
Piano
Amanda Lewis*
Horn
Maddy Bolz
Conner Bowman
Justin Johnson
Meagan Vasel
Emily Wolski*
Acknowledging the important contributions of all ensemble members, this list is in alphabetical order.
*Denotes Section Leader
THANK YOU
Illinois State University College of Fine Arts
James Major, Dean
John Walker, Executive Associate Dean
Sherri Zeck,Associate Dean
Pete Guither, Assistant Dean
Laurie Merriman, Assistant Dean
Janet Tulley, Assistant Dean
Illinois State University School of Music
A. Oforiwaa Aduonum, ethnomusicology
Allison Alcorn, music history
Debra Austin, voice
Mark Babbitt, trombone
Daniel Belongia, associate director of bands
Glenn Block, orchestra & conducting
Connie Bryant, bands administrative clerk
Karyl K. Carlson, director of choral activities
Renee Chernick, piano
David Collier, percussion & associate director
Andrea Crimmins, music therapy
Peggy Dehaven, office support specialist
Judith Dicker, oboe
Michael Dicker, bassoon
Geoffrey Duce, pano
Tom Faux, ethnomusicology
Angelo Favis, graduate coordinator & guitar
Sarah Gentry, violin
Amy Gilreath, trumpet
David Gresham, clarinet
Mark Grizzard, men’s glee club
Christine Hansen, academic advisor
Kevin Hart, jazz studies & theory
Martha Horst, theory & composition
Mona Hubbard, office manager
Joshua Keeling, theory & composition
John Michael Koch, vocal arts coordinator
Shela Bondurant Koehler, music education
William Koehler, string bass & music education
Adriana La Rosa Ransom, cello
Marie Labonville, musicology
Katherine J. Lewis, viola
Roy D. Magnuson, theory
Joseph Manfredo, music education
Leslie A. Manfredo, choir, music education
Tom Marko, director of jazz studies
Rose Marshack, music business & arts technology
Joe Matson, musicology & music history
Kimberly McCord, music education
Carren Moham, voice
Carlyn Morenus, piano
Joe Neisler, horn
Paul Nolen, saxophone
Maureen Parker, administrative clerk
Stephen B. Parsons, director
Frank R. Payton, Jr., music education
Kim Risinger, flute
Cindy Ropp, music therapy
Andy Rummel, euphonium & tuba
Tim Schachtschneider, facilities manager
Carl Schimmel, composition
Daniel Peter Schuetz, voice
Martin H. Seggelke, director of bands
Matthew Smith, arts technology
David Snyder, music education
Ben Stiers, percussion & assistant director of bands
Tuyen Tonnu, piano & accompanying
Rick Valentin, arts technology
Justin Vickers, voice & musicology
Michelle Vought, voice
Sharon Walsh, advisor
Band Graduate Teaching Assistants
Aaron Gradberg, Josh Hernday,
Beth Hildenbrand, Amy Mikalauskas,
Nelson Ruiz, Shannon Shaffer
Upcoming Illinois State University Large Instrumental Ensemble Performances
Details and links to tickets at www.bands.ilstu.edu
April 6, 2015
8:00pm-CPA
Wind Symphony Concert
April 8, 2015
8:00pm-Kemp Recital Hall
Jazz Combos Concert
April 15, 2015
8:00pm-CPA
Wind Symphony Concert
April 16, 2015
8:00pm-CPA
Jazz Ensembles I & II Concert
April 17-18, 2015
All day-CPA
State of Illinois Invitational Junior High
Concert Band Festival
April 19, 2015
3:00pm-CPA
Symphonic Winds Concert
April 23, 2015
8:00pm-CPA
University Band and Symphonic Band
Concert
April 24-25, 2015
All day-CPA
State of Illinois Invitational High School
Concert Band Festival
April 26, 2015
5:00pm-CPA
Wind Symphony Concert