Cleveland Winds

Cleveland Winds and Friends – November 18, 2013

The Cleveland Winds, under the direction of Birch Browning, begins its fifth year on Monday, November 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM in Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University. 

Our “Friends” of the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony II – Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Conductor Melissa Lichtler and Assistant Conductor Darren Allen, will perform on the first portion of the concert. Their repertoire will include Stephen Hazo’s Exultate, Steven Reineke’s Heaven’s Light, John Philip Sousa’s Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, David Holsinger’s Havendance, and selections from Stephen Schwartz’ Wicked.

Other “Friends” of the Cleveland Winds on this concert will be Griffin Campbell, Julian R & Sidney Nicolle Carruth Professor of Saxophone at Lousiana State University, Dr. John Perrine, Associate Professor of Saxophone at Cleveland State University, and Steven Davis, Director of Bands at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Professor Campbell and Dr. Perrine will be featured on Steven Engebretson’s Duo Concertante for two alto saxophones and wind orchestra. Professor Davis will guest conduct Samuel Barber’s Commando March with the Cleveland Winds. The Cleveland Winds will also perform Andrew Rindfleisch’s American Scripture and Ron Nelson’s Sonoran Desert Holiday.

Parking is free in the central garage if you tell them that you are here for the CSU concert.

Our Friends

The Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony (CYWS) was founded in 1989 by Dr. Gary M. Ciepluch and Robert McAllister and is now in its 25th season. 1995 – 96 marked the initial season for the CYWS II, and a second group II was added in 2009. Sponsored by the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, the program was established to provide a musical venue for the most outstanding high school woodwind, brass, and percussion musicians throughout Northeast Ohio. Rehearsals run from mid-September through early May each Saturday morning in Kulas Hall at CIM and in Denison/Wade Hall at CWRU.

The mission of the group is twofold: to perform the most significant symphonic band repertoire, and to provide the opportunity for outstanding young musicians to rehearse and perform together on a weekly basis. Selection in the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony is through auditions held each May for the following fall. Each spring, approximately 500 students audition for selection into one of the three ensembles. In addition to the concerts they perform each season in Severance Hall, the groups have performed numerous times at conventions and festivals, and in concert halls throughout the United States and abroad. In 1992, the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the Music Educators National Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana. CYWS I has performed 8 times at the OMEA State Convention. In June 1994, the group began a series of international concert tours. They have performed in Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Australia (two times), New Zealand, Scotland, England, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary. This summer, they will participate in their 11th international concert tour to Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Melissa Lichtler has been the director of the Cleveland Youth Symphony (CYWS) Group II since its inception in 1995. She is employed by the Chardon Local Schools where her duties include Chair of the Music Department, Marching Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Fifth Grade Band, Pit Orchestra, and History of Rock and Roll. As the Conductor of CYWS II, Mrs. Lichtler has had the experience in traveling and performing with the group in numerous international venues including: Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Scotland, England, and Spain. She would like to thank Dr. Gary Ciepluch for all of his support and the offering of endless opportunities.

A native of Minerva, Ohio, Mrs. Lichtler received her Bachelor of Science in Music Education in 1994 from Case Western Reserve University. She graduated magna cum laude in 2002 with a Master’s Degree in Music Education from CWRU. As a trombonist, her teachers have included James DeSano and Paul Ferguson. Mrs. Lichtler has done post-graduate work at Vandercook College of Music in Chicago, Capital University in Columbus, and The University of Akron.  Mrs. Lichtler’s professional affiliations include the Ohio Music Education Association, Music Educator’s National Conference, and the Ohio Education Association.

Darren Allen was born and raised in the Cleveland area.  This is his ninth year working in the Bay Village School District, where the music program has been voted a Top Music Community in the United States since 2003.  He has been recognized as one of the “Superintendent’s Best” educators in the district.  This is his eighth year as band director at Bay High School, and his duties in the district include marching band, jazz ensemble, symphonic band, concert band, and 5th and 6th grade bands at the Middle School.  Mr. Allen received his master’s degree in music education from Case Western Reserve University.  As a percussion coach and conductor, he works with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, which performs regularly at Severance Hall.

A graduate of Rocky River High School, Mr. Allen completed his undergraduate work at Youngstown State University.  During his time at YSU, he was featured on both wind ensemble and jazz ensemble recordings.  Mr. Allen has performed extensively throughout the Cleveland area with many local jazz groups including the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Ernie Krivda’s Fat Tuesday Big Band, the Dukes of Wail, Neo Dixie, and the Dan Zola Orchestra.  Mr. Allen also performs with the Cleveland Winds.  He and his wife Alice, a harpist, perform together in the Parma Symphony Orchestra.

Griffin Campbell, saxophonist, has appeared to critical acclaim as a performer throughout the United States and in Slovenia, China, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan. Conference performances include solo appearances at meetings of the World Saxophone Congress, North American Saxophone Alliance, the Society of Composers, Inc., the Percussive Arts Society, National Flute Association, the College Music Society, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, and the International Computer Music Conference. World premieres include concerti, chamber music, electro-acoustic works, and smaller pieces both in America and in Europe. His recordings can be found on the Capstone, Cat Crisis, Centaur, Electronic Music Foundation, Innova, SEAMUS, Vestige, and WorldWinds labels. He has conducted seminars and master classes in saxophone performance at universities, conservatories, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad, including in Italy at the Faenza International Saxophone Festival (2004, 2006), and in China at the Xian International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival (2005). His musical explorations have included recitals, concerti, orchestral performance, group improvisation, free jazz, improvised movie scores, pop/rock, and big band section playing.

Dr. Campbell holds degrees from Michigan State University (PhD, MM; saxophone studies with James Forger) and Pfeiffer College (BA; saxophone studies with Donald Grant and Michael Price). He is the Regional Director for the Southeastern US and Puerto Rico and web-master for the North American Saxophone Alliance, and is Professor of Saxophone and Chair of the Instrumental Performance Division at the Louisiana State University School of Music, where he has been on faculty since 1984.

Griffin Campbell performs on Selmer saxophones and Vandoren mouthpieces and reeds.

Dr. John Perrine is Associate Professor of Saxophone and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Cleveland State University. He has premiered works by Kari Juusela, Aaron Johnson and William Price. Perrine holds a doctorate from Louisiana State University, a masters from Northwestern University, and a BME from Stetson University. His teachers include James Bishop, Fred Hemke, Jonathon Helton and Griffin Campbell. He has studied jazz with Harold Blanchard, Don Owens, Tony Garcia and Michael Koucour.

Recently, Perrine has performed the Bolcom Concert Suite with the Volga Band (Saratov, Russia). Perrine also gave master classes at the Saratov Conservatory and the Rostov On-Don Conservatory and well as at Moscow State University for Culture and Arts. He has also performed at world saxophone congresses is Montreal, Minnesota and St. Andrew’s, Scotland. In addition to work abroad Perrine has also recently given live broadcast recitals with the CSU faculty jazz septet on WCLV in Cleveland, Ohio and performed with his own jazz quartet at Night Town (Cleveland Heights) and The Bop Stop (Cleveland, Ohio).

He is a founding member of the Red Stick Saxophone Quartet as well as the Neo-Tessares Saxophone Quartet. He is also principal saxophone of the Cleveland Winds wind ensemble. Red Stick has won national prizes in the MTNA and Fischoff chamber music competitions. Perrine’s composition Vonnegut:Suite for Saxophone Quartet was premiered at the North American Saxophone Alliance International Convention in Columbia, South Carolina by the Red Stick Saxophone Quartet. Perrine also leads his own jazz quartet and has released Dance of the Pampanzi. available on Apple i-tunes, CD Baby and Amazon.

John is a Conn-Selmer artist/clinician.

Steven D. Davis is Director of Bands and Wind Ensembles, associate professor of conducting, Conservatory large-ensembles chair, and conductor of the Conservatory Wind Symphony at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. He coordinates the graduate program in wind ensemble conducting and guides all aspects of the UMKC band program. Davis is the founding director of the UMKC Wind Band Teaching Symposium, one of the largest summer conducting symposiums of its type in the country. He is conductor of the Kansas City Youth Symphony’s Symphony Orchestra and newEar (Kansas City’s professional contemporary chamber ensemble), and regularly conducts the Kansas City Symphony Brass. Davis has served as a guest conductor at the Midwest Clinic, MENC National Convention, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, CBDNA National Convention, the Festival of New American Music, alongside David Robertson of the St. Louis Symphony, and at numerous state music conferences as well as the most significant conservatories in Bangkok and Chang Mai, Thailand; Lisbon, Portugal; and Beijing, China. Most recently, Professor Davis served as the clinician for the OMEA Districts 4 & 7 Honors Band at Cleveland State University.

Program Notes

Samuel Barber established himself as an accomplished composer early in his career by winning the prestigious American Prix de Rome while studying at the Curtis Institute. Born in West Chester, Penn., Barber enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943. His compositional approach may be best described in the words of famed conductor Arturo Toscanini: “… simple and beautiful.” Such qualities are exemplified in his most famous work, Adagio for Strings. While on active duty, Barber composed notable pieces for the war effort including his second symphony, the Flight Symphony, as well as his only composition for wind band, Commando March. The work was premiered on May 23, 1943, by the Army Air Forces Tactical Training Command Band in Convention Hall, Atlantic City, N.J. The work received many performances in the final years of the war, solidifying its place as a classic centerpiece in wind band literature. (Program note by Technical Sgts. David Balandrin and Ricky Parrell.)

Duo Concertante was written for Frederick L. Hemke and Frederic J.B. Hemke. The father and son duo premiered the work in the spring of 2003 with the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Mariusz Smolij.

In the original form, the piece is scored for two solo alto saxophones and a small orchestra. The Duo is a one-movement work that pits a soaring lyrical theme performed by one soloist against a driving, rhythmic, “jazzy” theme played by the other. The two soloists are then matched against the orchestra. As the music progresses, elements of one theme can be heard to invade the other: the fun is in listening to see which idea (if any!) ultimately emerges as the “winner.” The listener will note a limited number of “special effects” are employed in the saxophone parts, most notably tone color changes and quarter-tones (those beautiful, “between the notes” pitches). Though the piece projects a rather classically oriented structure, the overall impression is one of high-octane energy and over-the-top expressivity.

Saxophonists may well ask about the quotation from Ingolf Dahl’s saxophone concerto. I included this in part as a tribute to my mentor Frederick Hemke, who has been a great proponent of the work. Also, in listening to the Dahl, I always had the feeling I wanted to hear more of this lick (it appears in that piece infrequently). So now, I do! Frederick Hemke created the arrangement for wind ensemble and Adam C. Murphy adapted the original orchestration for performance with piano. The wind ensemble version was pren1iered Feb. 24,2012 by saxophonists James Romain and Susan Fancher with conductor Robert Meunier and the Drake University Wind Symphony at the NorthCentral CBDNA Conference at Central Michigan University.

Mark Engebretson (b. 1964) is Associate Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the recipient of the 2011 North Carolina Artist Fellowship in Composition, and has received major commissions from Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation and the Thomas S. Kenan Center for the Arts.

He is the founder of the UNCG New Music Festival, with performances at SEAMUS, ICMC, Wien Modern, Third Practice, Festival of New American Music, ISCM, BGSU Festival of New Music and Art, Carnegie Hall, Sala São Paulo, Argentina, Albania, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, China, across America, and throughout Europe. Recordings of his compositions are available on the Albany, Innova, Lotus, and Capstone labels.

Engebretson taught composition at the University of Florida, music theory at the SUNY Fredonia and 20th-century music history at the Eastman School of Music. He studied at the University of Minnesota (graduating Summa cum Laude), the Conservatoire de Bordeaux (as a Fulbright Scholar), and Northwestern University, where he received the Doctor of Music degree. At Northwestern he studied composition with M. William Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim and saxophone with Frederick Hemke. His teachers in France were Michel Fuste-Lambezat and Jean-Marie Londeix. (Program Note and bio by Mark Engebretson.)

American Scripture is a work composed as a reverent, timbrel ballad of sorts, to the early American sacred hymn. As a basis for the work’s construction, three well-known sacred hymns (of significant popularity in 19th-Century America) are used, combined and manipulated throughout: I) Be Thou My Vision, 2) Abide With Me, and 3) Now the Day is Over. Explicit quotations within the work, however, are few. Rather, materials from the known hymns are both fragrnented and dissected. often placed in a kind of hybrid hymn-like musical context. The result, I hoped, would be a very slowly unfolding work of shifting colors, static motion, and quiet reverence.

American Scripture was commissioned by Dr. Damon Talley, the Shenandoah Symphonic Winds, and a consortium of 21 American collegiate wind ensembles.

Andrew Rindfleisch (b. 1963) is an internationally active composer, conductor, and pianist whose work continues to gain consistent critical and popular acclaim. A leading composer of his generation, he has produced dozens of works for the concert hall, including solo, chamber, vocal, choral, orchestral, and wind music. His committed interest in other forms of music-making have also led him to the composition and performance of jazz and related forms of improvisation. As a composer, Mr. Rindfleisch has been awarded many prestigious honors in recognition of his work. He is the 1997-98 recipient of the coveted Rome Prize and in 1996 received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Most recently, he received the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Aaron Copland Award, and the Koussevitzky Foundation Commission from the Library of Congress. He has also been the recipient of over thirty-five other prizes and awards, including those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Foundation, ASCAP, and the League of Composers-ISCM. He has participated in dozens of renowned music festivals and has received residency fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), the Charles Ives Center for American Music, the Czech-American Music Institute in Prague, the June in Buffalo Contemporary Music Festival, the MacDowell Colony, and the Pierre Boulez Workshop at Carnegie Hall, among others. Mr. Rindfleisch holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Bachelor of Music), the New England Conservatory of Music (Master of Music), and Harvard University (PhD).

An active conductor and producer, Mr. Rindfleisch’s commitment to contemporary music culture has brought into performance over 500 works by living composers over the past 15 years. He has founded several contemporary music ensembles and is currently the Music Director of both the Cleveland Contemporary Players Artist in Residence Series and the Utah Arts Festival Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble — both committed to the performance, presentation, and commissioning of new works. Mr. Rindfleisch regularly makes guest conducting appearances throughout the United States and abroad with many diverse musical organizations; from opera and musical theatre, to orchestral, jazz, improvisational, and contemporary avant-garde ensembles.

Mr. Rindfleisch is currently a Professor of Music and Head of Music Composition Studies at Cleveland State University. Here, he has built one of the most unique and supportive programs of composition study in the country that includes the Cleveland Contemporary Players and an unprecedented Music Composition Resource Center. (Program note and bio by Andrew Rindfleisch.)

 Sonoran Desert Holiday is a quasi-programmatic piece, the final in a series of eight overtures which began in 1953 with Savannah River Holiday. Although no specific program is intended, there are gestures and allusions to night, to sunrise, to Native American and Hispanic influences, to wide open southwestern expanses, and to the remarkable variety of holiday experiences available in this diverse and beautiful part of our country. The form of the overture is ABA with an atmosphere introduction and a short coda.

A native of Joliet, Illinois, Ron Nelson was born December 14, 1929. He received his bachelor of music degree in 1952, the master’s degree in 1953, and the doctor of musical arts degree in 1957, all from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He studied in France at the Ecole Normale de Musique and at the Paris Conservatory under a Fulbright Grant in 1955. Dr. Nelson joined the Brown University faculty the following year, and taught there until his retirement in 1993.

In 1991, Dr. Nelson was awarded the Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts, the first musician to hold the chair. In 1993, his Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H) made history by winning all three major wind band compositions – the National Association Prize, the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Prize, and the Sudler International Prize. (Program note and bio by Ron Nelson.)

Lights and Legends – March 4, 2013

The Cleveland Winds, under the direction of Birch Browning, concludes its fourth season on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 7:30 PM in Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University. 

The Bay High School Symphonic Band, under the direction of Darren Allen, will perform on the first portion of the concert. Their repertoire will include Vaughn Williams’ English Folk Song Suite, Albert Davis’ El Camino Real and Mark Williams’ Variants On A Nautical Hymn.

The “Legends” portion of the Cleveland Winds’ concert repertoire will include Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Toccata Marziale and Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-Flat. The “Lights” portion will include John Mackey’s Aurora Awakes and Frank Ticheli’s Symphony No. 2. (The movements in the symphony are “Shooting Stars,” “Dreams Under a New Moon,” and “Apollo Unleashed.”)

Parking is free in the central garage if you tell them that you are here for the CSU concert.

Program Notes

Toccata Marziale, written in 1924, was Vaughan Williams’s second work for military and is one of the most significant contributions to the wind band literature. The word “toccata” comes from the Italian “toccare,” meaning “to touch,” hence its association with the early Baroque virtuouso keyboard pieces written by Frescobaldi and others. Toccata Marziale is a contrapunctal masterpiece for wind ensemble, in which textures are juxtaposed in massed effects with large sectoins of winds and brasses. A rhythmic vigor, as suggested by the title, permeates the piece and Vaughan Williams’s brilliant scoring reveals the fundamental properties of the band’s sonority and its instrumental virtuosity and color. (Notes by Frederick Fennell.)

2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the First Suite in E-flat by Gustav Holst, now considered one of the masterworks and cornerstones of the band literature. Although completed in 1909, the suite didn’t receive its official premiere until 11 years later on June 23rd, 1920, by an ensemble of 165 musicians at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. However, the work was originally conceived to be performed by ensembles significantly smaller than the one at Kneller Hall. There are three movements in the suite: Chaconne, Intermezzo, and March. Holst writes, “As each movement is founded on the same phrase, it is requested that the suite be played right through without a break.” The Chaconne begins with a ground bass reminiscent of those written by Henry Purcell or William Byrd. The Intermezzo is light and brisk and features soloistic passages for the cornet, oboe and clarinet. Holst prominently displays the agility and sensitivity of the wind band through transparent textures and passages where the melody and accompaniment are woven into a variety of instrumental settings. The March begins suddenly. It consists of two themes, the first of which, performed by brass choir and percussion, is a march light in character. The second theme is dominated by the woodwinds and is composed of a long, lyrical line reminiscent of the original Chaconne melody. The movement concludes with both themes intertwining as the band crescendos to a climax. (Program Note by Esmail Khalili.)

Aurora – the Roman goddess of the dawn – is a mythological figure frequently associated with beauty and light. Also known as Eos (her Greek analogue), Aurora would rise each morning and stream across the sky, heralding the coming of her brother Sol, the sun. Though she is herself among the lesser deities of Roman and Greek mythologies, her cultural influence has persevered, most notably in the naming of the vibrant flashes of light that occur in Arctic and Antarctic regions – the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis. John Mackey’s Aurora Awakes is, thus, a piece about the heralding of the coming of light. (Program note by Jake Wallace, used with permission.)

The three movements of Symphony No. 2 refer to celestial light—Shooting Stars, the Moon, and the Sun. Although the title tor the first movement, ‘’Shooting Stars,” came after its completion, I was imagining such quick flashes of color throughout the creative process. The second movement, “Dreams Under a New Moon,’’ depicts a kind of journey of the soul as represented by a series of dreams. The finale, “Apollo Unleashed,” is perhaps the most wide-ranging movement of the symphony, and certainly the most difficult to convey in words. On the one hand, the image of Apollo, the powerful ancient god of the sun, inspired not only the movement’s title, but also its blazing energy. On the other hand, its boisterous nature is also tempered and enriched by another, more sublime force, Bach’s Chorale BWV 433. This chorale —a favorite of the dedicatee—serves as a kind of spiritual anchor, giving a soul to the gregarious foreground events.

My second symphony is dedicated to James E. Croft upon his retirement as Director of Bands at Florida State University in 2003. (Note by Frank Ticheli.)

No Strings Attached – November 19, 2012

The Cleveland Winds, under the direction of Birch Browning, kicks off its fourth season on Monday, November 19, 2012 at 7 PM in Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University. (Notice the early start time!) This concert will feature music originally written for other performance ensembles–orchestra, brass band, and piano–that has been transcribed for wind band.

The Mercyhurst University Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Scott Meier, will perform on the first portion of the concert. Their repertoire will include Graham Lloyd’s Fanfare for Freedom, Mark Camphouse’s A Movement for Rosa, and John Phillip Sousa’s The Liberty Bell March.

The Cleveland Winds’ concert repertoire will include transcriptions of Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture, Vaughan Williams’ Variations for Wind Band, Ives’ The Alcotts, and the Finale from Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich.

Parking is free in the central garage if you tell them that you are here for the CSU concert.