Congratulations to the Class of 2015!
T. Clark Saunders, Acting Dean
Hartt Community Division
Noah Blocker-Glynn, Director
Presents
Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble
Glen Adsit, Director
John T. Hart Jr., Manager and Assistant Conductor
Tamika Gorski, Percussion Advisor
Sunday, May 3, 2015
7:30 p.m.
Chester
Lincoln Theater
William Schuman
John Hart, conductor
Bali
Michael Colgrass
Kentucky Harmony
I. Rockbridge/Lenox
II. Hiding Place
III. Enfield/Dublin
Glen Adsit, conductor
Carmina Burana
1. O, Fortune, variable as the moon
2. I lament Fortune’s blows
3. Behold the Spring
4. Dance—On the lawn
6. Were the world all mine
7. The God of Love flies everywhere
8. I am the Abbot
9. When we are in the tavern
10. I am suspended between love and chastity
13. O, Fortune! Like the Moon ever changing,
rising first then declining
Donald Grantham
Student
Cole Adams
Grant Abelson
Jeremy Baouche
Future Plans
Brown University
University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
Major
English
Undecided
Engineering
Chemical
Kyle Brooks
Pepperdine University
Engineering
Professional Golf
William Burns
Coastal Carolina University
Management
Computer Science
Evan Cohen
University of Connecticut
and Engineering
Chemistry,
Economics, and
Taylor Coursey
Undecided
Nutritional Sciences
Justin Drisdelle
Undecided
Music
Jacob Greenwald
University of Connecticut
Pre-pharmacy
Christopher Grossack Carnegie Mellon
Physics and Math
Matthew Guevara
University of Hartford
Benjamin Harlee
Carl Orff
arr. John Krance
Eleanor Johnson
Emily Kopacz
Tiffany Liu
Patricia Maciolek
Jackie McDougall
Courtney Mollo
Brittany Nelson
Hannah Parrott
John Hart, conductor
Danzón No. 2
Arturo Márquez
arr. Oliver Nickel
Glen Adsit, conductor
Caleb Ryor
Dana Zareski
Temple University or
University of Chicago
University of Miami
Saint Michael’s College
Undecided
Trumpet
Performance and
Neuroscience
Horn Performance
Undecided
Science
Elementary and
Syracuse University
Special Education
University of Massachusetts Biology
International Affairs
Northeastern University
and English
Materials Science
University of Connecticut
and Engineering
Linguistics and
International
Carleton College
Relations
Siena College
Computer Science
Bassoon
Performance and
Boston University
Mathematics
Glen Adsit is the director of bands at The Hartt School where he
conducts the Wind Ensemble and the Foot in the Door ensemble and
guides all aspects of the graduate wind conducting degrees. Adsit was
appointed the director of bands at The Hartt School in the fall of 2000
and was awarded the 2014 Larsen Prize for outstanding teaching at the
University of Hartford.
Ensembles under his direction have performed at Hill Auditorium (Ann
Arbor, Michigan), the Musikverein (Vienna, Austria), Benroya Ilsley
Hall (Seattle, Washington), Carnegie Hall’s Stern Hall (New York,
New York), and the Central Conservatory (Beijing, China), among
others. Adsit’s performances have won praise from such notable
composers as John Corigliano, Joseph Schwanter, Bright Sheng, Susan
Botti, Joan Tower, Michael Colgrass, and William Bolcom.
The Hartt Wind Ensemble has recorded two compact discs for the
NAXOS label: Passaggi and Dragon Rhyme. In reviews, Gramophone
magazine describes The Hartt Wind Ensemble as “stellar” and Fanfare
magazine wrote “and on the evidence of his two Naxos CDs, Adsit is
simply one of the finest conductors leading a wind ensemble today.”
John T. Hart Jr. is a doctoral student of music education at The Hartt
School. He studies conducting with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming.
This is his second year as the associate conductor and manager of the
Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble. Prior to studying at the Ph.D.
level, John brought his talents for teaching and conducting to public
education. He was the director of bands at Mansfield Middle School in
Storrs, Connecticut from 2009 to 2013. John has worked with community
and professional musical organizations alike, from the Windham
Concert Band to the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. John has also been
the interim choir director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in West
Hartford, Connecticut, where he also directs the Handbell Choir. John
holds a master of music education degree from The Hartt School of
Music and a BA in music from Gettysburg College, where he studied
euphonium with Dr. Jack Ryan and conducting with Dr. Robert Natter
and Dr. Lewes Peddell.
The Hartt School Community Division (HCD) of the University of
Hartford is a comprehensive community arts school that annually
provides performing arts instruction to more than 2,700 students. HCD
offers a variety of lessons, classes, and performance opportunities in
music and dance for students of all ages, experience levels, and
abilities. For more information on The Hartt School Community
Division, visit www.hcd.hartford.edu.
Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble
Glen Adsit, Director
John T. Hart Jr., Manager
Tamika Gorski, Percussion Advisor
Flute
Christopher Grossack
Cathrina Kothman
Tiffany Liu
Jenna Creighton
Molly Desrochers
Sheryl Wang
Samantha Griswold
Emily Kopacz
Katie Gagnon
Elinor Cohen
Oboe
Taylor Coursey
Nicole Souza
Ashley Lam
Mandaline Lu
Clarinet
Kate Jessen
Cole Adams
Kara Friedman
Hannah Chua-Reyes
Courtney Mollo
Xinyu Zhang
Jason Wang
Emily Bernstein
Logan Kissane
Saxophone
Lauren Bagshaw
Nathan Suh
Annie Hetherington-Coy
Rahul Rajkumar
Brittany Nelson
Kyle Brooks
Benjamin Harlee
Peter Kelley
Bass Clarinet
Hannah Parrott
Caleb Ryor
Bassoon
Leila Ben-Mamoun
Dana Zareski
Jacob Greenwald
Patricia Maciolek
Trumpet
Sarah Jessen
Justin Drisdelle
Robert Ciaffaglione
Nathan Hellmuth
Colin Hiscox
Sophia Pratto
Jeremy Baouche
Talia Michaud
Matthew Guevara
Sam Houle
Horn
Eleanor Johnson
Josiah Blackwell-Lipkind
Grant Abelson
Daniela Zach
Noah Hawks-Ladds
Shannon Williams
Samuel Porcello
Makayla Gelinas
Trombone
Rachel Core
Matthew Vatteroni
Christopher Hauptfeld
David Sattler
Hannah Desrochers
Grace Amell
Marc O’Gorman
Euphonium
Tristan Watson
Tuba
Jackie McDougall
Alexander Geoffrey Russell
Alec Rich
Percussion
William Burns
Evan Cohen
Keith Sales
Eric Wang
Cameron Graves
Concert Etiquette:
Thank you for attending today’s performance. Out of respect for the performers
and other audience members, please turn off cell phones and refrain from
talking during the performance. Applause is customarily given at the conclusion
of complete compositions, but not after individual movements. Also, please
remember to enter the auditorium only during applause and to leave only at the
conclusion of the concert, except in the case of an emergency. Enjoy the concert!
Chester
“The tune on which this composition is based was born during the very time of
the American Revolution, appearing in 1778 in a book of tunes and anthems
composed by William Billings called The Singing Master's Assistant. This book
became known as "Billings' Best" following as it did his first book called "The
New England Psalm Singer," published in 1770. Chester was so popular that it
was sung throughout the colonies from Vermont to South Carolina. It became
the song of the American Revolution, sung around the campfires of the
Continental Army and played by fifers on the march. The music and words,
both composed by Billings, expressed perfectly the burning desire for freedom
which sustained the colonists through the difficult years of the Revolution,
Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And Slav'ry clank her galling chains, We fear
them not, we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns.
The Foe comes on with haughty Stride; Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet'rans flee before our Youth, And Gen'rals yield to beardless Boys.
What grateful Off'ring shall we bring? What shall we render to the Lord? Loud
Halleluiahs let us Sing, And praise his name on ev'ry Chord.”
~Program Note by William Schuman
Bali
On the island of Bali the most prominent indigenous music is played by the
gamelan orchestra, an instrumental group which includes mallet instruments,
drums, and gongs. This music features the use of a five note scale whereas some
gamelan music uses a seven note scale. In this work Colgrass uses dance
rhythms in the two outer sections while having a lament for the dead in the
middle section. He was inspired to compose the piece while living in Bali and
reflecting on the spirit of Balinese people. His piece features the use of nontraditional instruments in the percussion section including clay pots, ceramic
and aluminum bowls as well as bobby pins placed on the piano strings.
~Program Note from www.windrep.org
Kentucky Harmony
Donald Grantham serves on the composition faculty at the University of Texas
- Austin. He is a very prolific composer for wind ensemble, having won several
prizes for his compositions, most notable being the National Band Association’s
Composition Contest.
“Kentucky Harmony” utilizes five tunes from Ananias Davisson’s Kentucky
Harmony, which first appeared as vocal shape note tunes in 1816. Davisson’s
songs, in the prefacing notes to the score, were “one of the earliest sources of
what came to be known as ‘Southern folk hymnody,’ and exerted considerable
influence on the many similar collections that followed it, such as ‘The Sacred
Harp’ and ‘Missouri Harmony.’”
In “Kentucky Harmony,” Grantham utilizes five tunes in three movements. At
various points the tunes are presented in their original four-part harmonization.
The composer adds his own unique musical treatment to these tunes, all
designed to highlight the most striking aspects of each tune. The music is at
once free, uplifting, humorous, and complementary to the vast sound resources
of the wind ensemble.
Carmina Burana
Orff derived the inspiration and texts for his score from a 13th-century
anthology of songs and poems written in medieval Latin, German and French by
the “goliards” – the vagrant scholars, vagabond poets and wandering monks of
seven hundred years ago. The original manuscript collection was rediscovered in
the old monastery, Benediktbeuern, in the Bavarian Alps, by Johan Andreas
Schmeller who published it in 1847 under the name Carmina Burana (Songs of
Beuern). Containing approximately two hundred songs and poems – both sacred
and secular – the manuscript ranged in style and content from earthly simplicity
to sophisticated symbolism and mysticism, from devotional religious
contemplation to unabashed, almost cynical worldliness.
In arranging Carmina Burana for concert band, I have attempted to retain the
spirit, feeling and overall character of the original score, at the same time
modifying its length to a duration suitable for programming purposes. The work
begins and ends depicting the crushing anguish of the victims of fortune’s
ruthless wheel (O Fortuna; Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi); the remaining sections
are devoted to the joys of spring and nature, the pleasures of the tavern and the
gaming table, the delights of love, the irony of Fate.
~Program Note by John Krance
Danzón No. 2
“The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to
Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both
of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón, which
they were able to transmit to me from the beginning, and also during later trips
to Veracruz and visits to the Colonia Salon in Mexico City. From these
experiences onward, I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its
melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his
Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the
apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music
full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness, a genre which old Mexican people
continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their
own emotional world; we can fortunately still see this in the embrace between
music and dance that occurs in the state of Veracruz and in the dance parlors of
Mexico City.”
-Program Note by the composer