Catalog #: TROY1890
Release Date: April 1, 2022Wind EnsembleThis recording of music for piano, flute, and flute and piano offers a panorama of classically trained Peruvian composers and a Peruvian-American composer whose music was inspired by Andean Indigenous melodies, rhythms, and traditions. The compositions range in date from 1927 through 2002. The performers include pianist Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta and flutist Orlando Cela. Rodríguez-Peralta has appeared as piano soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Peru, and Mexico. A winner of the Artists International Young Musicians Auditions, Ms. Rodríguez-Peralta has performed in noted concert halls throughout the United States. A graduate of Temple University, Catholic University and The Juilliard School, she is chair of the music department of Middlesex Community College. Orlando Cela has premiered more than 200 works, both as a conductor and flutist. He is music director of the Lowell Chamber Orchestra and the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music and Middlesex Community College.
Catalog #: TROY0957
Release Date: August 1, 2007Wind EnsembleBorn in Prague and an American citizen since 1959, Karel Husa is one of our most important living composers and a winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize. He has shown a special interest in band music, and this definitive collection of his works for wind symphony includes Music for Prague 1968, one of the mainstays of the repertoire.
Catalog #: TROY1336
Release Date: February 1, 2012Wind EnsembleThe University of Western Ontario Wind Ensemble makes its debut on Albany Records with a program of contemporary works by composers from the U.S., Canada, England and Japan. The youngest composer, Newfoundland-born Jason Noble (b.1980) offers the most recent composition with Doppelpolitik, written in 2009, followed by Yo Goto's Lachrymae, completed in 2005 and Jim Territo's Fanfare: 1, written in 2004. Richard Rodney Bennett's Elegy for Miles Davis was completed in 1993, with Apparitions by Anthony Iannaccone dating from 1986. The oldest work dates from 1951, the Suite of English Folk-Dances by Ernest Tomlinson.
Catalog #: TROY1344
Release Date: April 1, 2012Wind EnsembleConductor Cynthia Turner Johnson and the Cornell University Wind Ensemble began a program in 2004 of commissioning DMA candidates in composition at Cornell to compose music that "pushes boundaries." Six of these works by these exceptional young composers are heard on this recording. These composers have produced significant contributions to the wind ensemble repertoire and no doubt, the musical world will be hearing more from them. Christopher Stark is a composer whose music is deeply rooted in the American West. He is a recipient of the coveted Underwood Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. Ryan Gallagher studied at Juilliard and Cornell and has received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and five ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Zachary Wadsworth's Out of the South Cometh the Whirlwind was winner of the King James Bible Composition Awards and was performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey. Born in the Ukraine, Catherine Likhuta's music has been performed in many venues in Ukraine, the U.S. and Canada. Takuma Itoh spent his early childhood in Japan before moving to northern California. He studied at the University of Michigan and Rice University prior to attending Cornell. He has been a fellow at the Pacific and Aspen Music Festivals. Composer, conductor and mandolinist Jesse Jones is an artist of wide-ranging tastes and influences whose music has been performed across North America, Europe, and Asia. His awards include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Catalog #: TROY1859
Release Date: April 1, 2021Wind EnsembleComposer Joseph Fennimore credits hearing Peter and the Wolf as a young child for instilling his lifelong love for wind instruments. He comments that "As with singing, their expression comes from the flow of breath itself; the player is the instrument." This recording (the 12th on Albany Records devoted to his music and piano playing) is a collection of unedited concert performances, recorded between 1973 and 1989, which give an overview of his delightful music for wind instruments.
Catalog #: TROY0913
Release Date: February 1, 2007Wind EnsembleAny serious collector of wind ensemble music will be excited by this disc that offers the opportunity to hear a set of works that are probably unfamiliar to most of you; no Lincolnshire Posey this time! It's hard to believe that the modern wind ensemble of the kind that commissions and performs contemporary works has been around for barely sixty years. The tradition was started with the famed Eastman Wind Ensemble and now every major Conservatory and University probably has a performing group. Here's another: primarily made up of freshman and sophomores, New England Conservatory's Jordan Winds performs woodwind, brass and percussion repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day for octet to full wind ensemble. World premieres and important works that are sometimes neglected because of unusual instrumentation form an integral part of the group's Jordan Hall concerts. Under William Drury, the ensemble has given compelling performances of sophisticated contemporary music including Varese, Messiaen, Sapieyevski, Foss, Druckman, Burke, Schoenberg and Frank Zappa. Albany Records has made an ongoing commitment to this kind of music and we feel that this release is a major contribution to the wind discography!
Catalog #: TROY0524
Release Date: January 1, 2003Wind EnsembleEric Whitacre received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied composition with John Corigliano. In 1996, Gary Green approached him about a possible commission for the University of Miami Wind Ensemble. The composer began work on the commission on July 1, 1997, but two years later, little progress had been made. "That is not to say I had not written anything. On the contrary, I had written about 100 pages of material for three different pieces, but I wanted to give Gary something special and just could not find the perfect spark." The spark finally did come and the piece was premiered in March, 2000. Ney Rosauro was born in Rio de Janeiro. He composed his Concerto for Marimba and Wind Ensemble during the winter of 1986 in Brazil and it was dedicated to his son. The music was originally written for marimba and string orchestra. The version heard on this recording was made several years later. Mark Camphouse is a product of the rich cultural life of Chicago. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, studied at Northwestern University, and his First Symphony was premiered by the Colorado Philharmonic when he was 17 years old. Mark Camphouse writes: "Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1954, Ivy Green (the birthplace of Helen Keller) is located on a lovely 642 acre tract in historic Tuscumbia, Alabama. Truly America's first lady of courage, Helen Keller's powerful and wonderfully lyrical writings (ideally suited to musical dramatization) are just as compelling now as they were when they first appeared over half a century ago." It is these words that are set to music by Mr. Camphouse for soprano and wind orchestra in his piece Symphony from Ivy Green.
Catalog #: TROY0403
Release Date: August 1, 2000Wind EnsembleKenneth Fuchs is currently Director of the School of Music at the University of Oklahoma. Christina's World was composed in New York City at the invitation of William Hipp, the Dean of the School of Music at the University of Miami. It was composed for the forces who perform it on this CD. Timothy Broege holds the position of Organist and Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Belmar, New Jersey and is a faculty member of the Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red Bank, New Jersey. Michael Daugherty's Niagara Falls is a kind of musical souvenir inspired by the composer's many trips to Niagara Falls. It is a ten minute musical ride over the Niagara River with an occasional stop at a haunted house or a wax museum along the way. Gordon Jacob's Concerto for Bassoon blends the style and sonority of a traditional 18th century concerto with the well-defined melodies that are the hallmark of Jacob's style. David Gillingham is Professor of Theory and Composition in the Department of Music at Central Michigan University. His Concertino was commissioned by the Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble.
Catalog #: TROY1252
Release Date: March 1, 2011Wind EnsembleThe SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble conducted by Paul Holcomb, presents its first recording that includes music commissioned for the Ensemble and superb soloists. The renowned bass trombone player, Randall Hawes, is featured on Hungarian composer Hidas Frigyes' Rhapsody and Alex Jokipii, principal trumpet of the Buffalo Philharmonic is the soloist for Jerzy Sapievevski's Concerto. There is also a Concerto for Percussion by Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi with soloists from the Wind Ensemble. Mark Engebretson's Symphony for Winds is a commissioned work and this as well as Karl Boelter's Mountains and Mesas receive their world premiere recordings.
Catalog #: TROY1919
Release Date: February 1, 2023Wind EnsembleHailed by Chamber Music America as an ensemble which “approaches the commissioning and performing of new works as a special mission,” the Ancia Quartet (Matthew Sintchak, David Milne, Joan Hutton, Angela Wyatt) has been dedicated to expanding the saxophone repertoire for more than 30 years. Ancia has been the recipient of numerous national, regional, and local grants and awards, and has collaborated with composers through Society of Composers, Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, and THE Commission Project. Individual Ancia members enjoy careers as soloists, chamber musicians, and professional saxophonists in a broad range of musical genres. This recording showcases their virtuosity with works by Astor Piazzolla, Libby Larsen, Chris Rutowski, Ramon Ricker, and Jerry Dodgion.
Catalog #: TROY1152
Release Date: December 1, 2009Wind EnsembleThis most recent recording from the ever-adventurous Illinois State University Wind Symphony includes a new work by David Maslanka using poems by Illinois native Carl Sandburg. The 11 poems tell both an American, and a very deep human story. Maslanka brought folk songs from the Ruth Crawford Seeger collection into the music enhancing the American spirit of the work. The other major work, Symphony No. 3, is by Kimberly Archer, a former student of Maslanka's and currently am assistant professor of composition at Southern Illinois University.
Catalog #: TROY1319
Release Date: January 1, 2012Wind EnsembleA world premiere recording of Liberation is paired with Maslanka's almost 45-minute saxophone concerto on this recording by the Illinois State University Wind Symphony. Commissioned by the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, Maslanka used the ancient Roman Catholic ritual chant as the basis for Liberation. He realized that the Japanese are the only people on earth to have suffered the devastation of nuclear bombs and from this place of greatest devastation, now rises a musical voice of love and peace. Born in 1943, David Maslanka studied at Oberlin, Michigan State University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His works for wind ensemble have become especially well known. They include seven symphonies, 12 concertos and numerous concert pieces.
Catalog #: TROY1132
Release Date: September 1, 2009Wind EnsembleOnce again, the enterprising Illinois State University Wind Symphony offers two world premiere recordings of the music of the distinguished American composer, David Maslanka. Written as a memorial for flutist Christine Capote, the orchestration for the Trombone Concerto contains one solo cello, representing Capote's cellist husband. Maslanka began the composition process for Symphony No. 8 with meditation and was shown scenes of widespread devastation, but the music is a celebration of life -- new life, continuity from the past to the future, hope, faith, joy, ecstatic vision and fierce determination.
Catalog #: TROY1130
Release Date: September 1, 2009Wind EnsembleThe major work on this recording of music for wind ensemble by David Maslanka is Unending Stream of Life. Inspired by the hymn tune, All Creatures of Our God and King, Unending Stream of Life consists of seven "songs" for wind ensemble, each embodying the original tune, or relating to it in some way. The title comes from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.
Catalog #: TROY1829
Release Date: July 1, 2020Wind EnsembleFlutist Erin Murphy and pianist Kirstin Ihde embarked on this recording project as doctoral candidates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They chose works by Grier and Galbraith because they are both living American composers and works by French composers Boulanger, Tailleferre and Bonis in order to expand the diversity in programming repertoire as well as introducing new audiences to this music. Short miniatures juxtapose lengthier sonatas; darker, more introspective moods contrast with brighter and more energetic offerings in these six compositions. Erin frequently performs with orchestras, in chamber music collaborations, and as a soloist throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Murphy is on the faculty at Oklahoma State University and her articles have been published in flute journals as well as the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Pianist Kirstin Ihde is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In addition to her extensive work as a collaborative pianist, she serves as pianist for the Interlochen Trumpet Institute.
Catalog #: TROY0435
Release Date: June 1, 2001Wind EnsembleThe last 50 years has seen an amazing explosion in both the quantity and quality of composition for wind band and ensembles. In a frenetic effort to create new music for the medium, conductors and performers have sponsored, commissioned, and performed a staggering number of new works. It is now, after so much work has been done, that we must take time to rediscover and preserve some of the fine music this period of activity has produced. It would be truly a shame to neglect such a significant body of excellent work. It is in this spirit of preservation that we offer these "old," sometimes forgotten, but interesting works. Also, please note that the flute soloist in the Henk Badings Concerto is Donald Peck, the recently retired principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Catalog #: TROY0501
Release Date: July 1, 2002Wind EnsembleTuba and bass trombone soloists who wish to perform with wind groups do not have a large, established repertoire from which to choose. In addition, there are not many recordings of that repertoire that can serve as models for aspiring soloists. This CD helps to solve that problem. Eric Ewazen writes: "The Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Ensemble began life as a sonata for tuba and piano. On the suggestion of Warren Deck of the New York Philharmonic, I turned it into a concerto for tuba or bass trombone and orchestra, for the Low Brass Competition at The Juilliard School in 1997. It was subsequently arranged for wind ensemble by a colleague at The Juilliard School. I have had the genuine pleasure of working with Charles Vernon over the years, and his wonderful musicality and amazing virtuosity are inspirations to me as a composer. Having heard an extraordinary performance of this work by Charlie and the DePaul University Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Donald DeRoche, I am delighted that their interpretation of the Concerto is now recorded for posterity." Edward Gregson is one of Britain's most versatile composers, whose music has been performed, broadcast, and recorded worldwide. He was a prize winning composition student at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963-67. A noted conductor of contemporary music, he has also held numerous academic posts, including Professor of Music at Goldsmith's College, University of London, visiting teacher and conductor at the Royal Academy of Music, and Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music.
Catalog #: TROY0334
Release Date: September 1, 1999Wind EnsembleThe 20th century has seen the role of the American wind band expand from being primarily ceremonial or functional, to one including both indoor and outdoor entertainment, utilizing a wide variety of music from light to serious. Bands conducted by such "superstars" as Sousa and the Goldmans performed serious music through transcriptions and some original band compositions, but it was Frederick Fennell who really defined the notion of original concert music for winds. By encouraging the finest composers to write for winds, and by giving those composers the freedom to define the instrumentation of the groups for which they wrote, he paved the way for composers to take wind groups seriously as a medium for concert performance. Donald DeRoche writes: "Since 1952, when Fennell's vision began to take shape, thousands of new pieces have been composed for winds. In that time, those of us who conduct wind groups have frantically sought to perform the latest new works in hopes of developing a new repertoire. To paraphrase the outstanding wind conductor Frank Battisti, we hoped to find an audience that would listen to our music rather than just to our players. While we play a good deal of new music, I don't believe we are doing as well at finding and preserving that body of music that will, or should, find its way into the permanent repertoire. It is with this repertoire-building function in mind that I assembled the works for this recording." And it is with this in mind that Albany Records is pleased to bring this disc to you.
Catalog #: TROY0999
Release Date: February 1, 2008Wind EnsembleThe University of Calgary Wind Ensemble is widely recognized as Canada's leading wind orchestra. It is made up of the most advanced performers of wind and percussion instruments at the University and has earned a substantial international reputation. Under the direction of Dr. Glenn D. Price, the Ensemble has received great critical acclaim for its performances, recordings and broadcasts. Dr. Price is also a renowned percussionist and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. This recording, featuring music by European, Asian and American composers (including one of the most recent works by the popular Michael Torke), is the ninth in their series and the first to be released on Albany. The works represent a wonderful range of colors, styles and compositional techniques.
Catalog #: TROY1010
Release Date: April 1, 2008Wind EnsembleBorn in Massachusetts in 1943, a pupil of Joseph Wood and H. Owen Reed, David Maslanka has become especially well known for his works for winds in many combinations -- solo sonatas, chamber works and substantial works for wind ensemble -- including five Symphonies. Of these two recent works, he writes "The title Desert Roads suggests an interior journey, a time of inner searching, of not knowing, of creative incubation. I have chosen to call these four movements "songs" for clarinet and wind ensemble. This connects them directly to the romantic idea of Ôsongs without words'...because of my longtime and persistent use of chorale melodies, it has been suggested that I am somehow proselytizing for the Christian faith. This is not the case. My attraction to these melodies is that they are the product of countless generations of human seeking, and have about them an aura of depth and power. The word "book" gives the feeling of a larger collection of material, something extensive and varied, and something that may have a story to tell."
Catalog #: TROY1844
Release Date: November 1, 2020Wind EnsembleVanessa Sielert and Catherine Anderson formed Duality to commission and perform new works for saxophone and piano as well as to challenge the listener and the performer. This recording contains some of those commissions as well as arrangements of popular compositions that are treated in a new and interesting manner. Saxophonist Vanessa Sielert is on the faculty at the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. She studied at the University of Idaho, Baylor University, and the University of Illinois. She has performed with a wide range of performing groups jazz ensembles, orchestras, and chamber ensembles. Pianist Catherine Anderson, a former faculty member at the Lionel Hampton School of Music, is in demand as an independent collaborative artist throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Catalog #: TROY1807
Release Date: February 1, 2020Wind EnsembleScott Sandberg performs a concert of works for tenor saxophone and piano ranging from new works by Catherine McMichael, to music by French and American composers written in the 1970s and 1980s. Sandberg is on the faculty at the University of North Dakota and maintains an active schedule as a performer, clinician, and adjudicator. He has toured China three times, including performing as a featured soloist with the East China Normal University Orchestra and is a regular performer at the North American Saxophone Alliance Conferences and International Saxophone Symposiums. He is a graduate of the University of North Dakota and the University of Iowa. He has presented clinics at the North Dakota Music Educators Association, the Northeast Texas Saxophone Symposium, and numerous universities and high schools.
Catalog #: TROY1891
Release Date: April 1, 2022Wind EnsembleThe University of Baltimore County Wind Ensemble (UMBC) has a history of pioneering new works for wind ensemble. They regularly commission and perform works by living composers and this recording reflects their commitment. With works by Brad Ellis, Samuel Winnie, Anna Rubin, Janice Macaulay, and Daniel Bernard Roumain, the ensemble gives life to a diverse group of composers' compositions. Conductor Brian Kaufman also is a tubist, educator, social entrepreneur, and publicly engaged scholar. He is a co-founder, artistic director, and conductor of The Sounding Board, an organization that creates productions that integrate music, multimedia, spoken word, and commentary from noted public figures to inspire new perspectives and cultivate dialogue on today's most pressing social issues.
Catalog #: TROY0628
Release Date: April 1, 2004Wind EnsembleCasterede's fanfare is a tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette. In it Casterede has chosen the style of an 18th century military band in his fanfare for brass and percussion. In 1924, while in Paris, Martinu wrote the first of several pieces for solo cello. This Concertino was written with a wind/percussion accompaniment. In 1965, Robert Boudreau, conductor of the American Wind Symphony, visited Europe to search for new music for his ensemble. During a discussion about significant composers of the 20th century, the name of Georges Auric came up. At the time, Auric was directing the Paris Opera and the Opera Comique, but was doing little composing. Boudreau knew that Auric had stopped actively composing, but visited the composer in any case and presented his case for expanding the repertoire for winds. After hearing what Boudreau had to say about his ensemble, Auric agreed to write a piece, and presented it within a few weeks. As the title suggests, Divertimento is an entertaining work, but as Boudreau says, "a virtuosic one, full of sprightly and sometimes exotic wind figuration and peppered with sparkling contributions from pitched and unpitched percussion." Once again, the Dutch composer Henk Badings (1907-1987) was also commissioned by Boudreau to write his piece for the American Wind Symphony. Between 1963 and 1985, Boudreau commissioned a large number of works from Mr. Badings. The Double Concerto for Bassoon and Contrabassoon is one of the earlier works, having been written in 1964. It is subtitled "In Memoriam Paul Hindemith". The Dutch composer/conductor Willem van Otterloo wrote his Little Symphony for Wind Instruments in 1943. It is written in a post-romantic style and is accessible, running the gamut from charming, to brilliant to reflective.
Catalog #: TROY1260
Release Date: May 1, 2011Wind EnsembleFor their first commercial recording, the Alabama Wind Ensemble offers three concertos by American composers. James Beckel's The Glass Bead Game is a horn concerto loosely based on the Hermann Hesse novel of the same name. Scott McAllister's Black Dog is a rhapsody for solo clarinet and wind ensemble, inspired by Led Zeppelin's rhapsodic-style song Black Dog. David Maslanka's Trombone Concerto is a memorial to Christine Capote, a flutist and teacher who was a dear friend. The performers and conductor Kenneth Ozzello are all faculty members at the University of Alabama.
Catalog #: TROY0309
Release Date: December 1, 1998Wind EnsembleThe music of David Maslanka is one of the consistent best sellers on Albany Records. About the music on this disc, the composer writes: "My Symphony No. 2 was commissioned by the Big Ten Band Directors Association and was dedicated to my teacher and friend, H. Owen Reed, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. It premiered in 1987 at the College Band Directors National Association convention at Northwestern University with John P. Paynter conducting. The symphony is in three movements. Laudamus Te was written for and dedicated to the Mount St. Charles Academy Symphonic Band of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Marc Blanchette, conductor. The words "laudamus te" (we praise you) are form the Gloria of the Latin Mass. The idea has been brought forward over time that the true function of the human race is to sing praise. Laudamus Te is a piece in which the voice of praise arises out of darkness. Hell's Gate (1996) was commissioned by the Hellgate High School Symphony Band, John H. Combs, conductor. The title "Hell's Gate" started as a simple twist on the name "Hellgate." "Hellgate" is the name given to a section of Missoula, Montana where the Clark Fork River flows through a mountain pass (Maslanka lives on a ranch in Montana). Local Indians suffered many surprise attacks by rival tribes at this place, leading French settlers to give it the name "Hells Gate." Thus the title for my piece."
Catalog #: TROY1815
Release Date: May 1, 2020Wind EnsembleThis is Lynn Klock's third recording for Albany Records with music on all three discs written for him. Klock's commitment to enriching the repertoire for saxophone is unparalleled, having premiered more than 100 works. For this recording composers Clifton J. Noble, Jr., Emanuel Rubin, Paul Kinsman, Salvatore Macchia, and Catherine McMichael have written compositions for saxophone ranging from saxophone alone to a chamber work for saxophone, horn, percussion, violin, and contrabass. Retired from the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Professor Emeritus Lynn Klock continues to appear as a soloist, clinician, and teacher throughout the U.S. and abroad. His colleagues on this recording include composer/pianists Clifton J. Noble, Jr.; Paul Kinsman; and Catherine McMichael; as well as Laura Klock, horn; Elizabeth Chang, violin; Salvatore Macchia, contrabass; Michael Compitello, percussion; and Scott Bailey, piano.
Catalog #: TROY1006
Release Date: March 1, 2008Wind EnsembleTwo British composers and one American -- and all three are of great distinction. Alwyn was equally at home writing some of the most memorable film scores for the British cinema (particularly "Odd Man Out," [1946]) and composing a series of beautiful Symphonies along with chamber music. Constant Lambert, in his short life, gained renown as one of the most gifted British conductors, but composed a wealth of colorful music, including the Suite featured here drawn from one of his last ballets. Gunther Schuller is not only famed for his musicology but his ability to cross over from jazz to classical and back. He helped create the jazz-classical hybrid known as "third stream" over 50 years ago. This collection is another outstanding example of the imagination and musicianship of the DePaul University Winds and their ongoing series for Albany.
Catalog #: TROY0560
Release Date: March 1, 2003Wind EnsembleTippett's Praeludium was commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the BBC, in 1962. It was first performed on November 14 that year, at a concert in the Royal Festival Hall, given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Antal Dorati. This work was composed during the time Tippett composed his opera King Priam. Tippett's work Triumph has the full title Triumph: A Paraphrase of "The Mask of Time" and was composed in conjunction with The Mask of Time. Its 6th movement is titled "The Triumph of Life," a grotesque vision of the "triumphal" progress of a chariot throwing bodies off in all directions: this is complemented by the depiction of Shelley's own death, drowning at sea in an attempted defiance of a storm; and the movement ends with the burning of the body of the poet (a legal requirement of the period) though legend has it, the heart would not burn. Triumph evokes this episode. The Concerto for Two Continents for Synthesizer and Wind Orchestra is Ivan Tcherepnin's fourth commissioned work for the American Wind Symphony. It was premiered in Vaasa, Finland with the composer as soloist on the synthesizer. The concerto can be heard as a joyful celebration of the power of music to cross borders and bring peoples together through a commonly shared world of tones and rhythms. Michael Colgrass' the Winds of Nagual is based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda about his 14-year apprenticeship with Juan Mattise, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer from northwestern Mexico.. Castaneda met Don Juan while researching hallucinogenic plants for his master's thesis in anthropology at UCLA. Juan becomes Castaneda's mentor and trains him in Pre-Columbian techniques of sorcery, the overall purpose of which is to find the creative self- what Juan calls the "Nagual."
Catalog #: TROY1203
Release Date: August 1, 2010Wind EnsembleThe ever-enterprising Illinois State University Wind Symphony offers world premiere recordings of three works, the oldest of which (David Maslanka's Symphony No. 3) being written in 1991. David Gillingham's Concerto for Euphonium and Band (Summer of 2008) features Jason Ham, who is a member of the West Point Band and on the faculty at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and Montclair State University.
Catalog #: TROY0424
Release Date: December 1, 2000Wind EnsembleDavid Maslanka writes about his Saxophone Concerto: "This concerto turned out to be a good deal longer than I would reasonably want. As I got into the composing, the ideas became insistent: none of them would be left out!" About his Marimba Concerto, here is what Mr. Maslanka has to say: "This concerto could easily be subtitled 'rhapsody' or 'fantasy' because of its meditative or free-flowing quality. It is easy to describe the overall shape an extended slow to moderate opening section, an explosive fast section, a quiet closing section but less easy to describe the internal working of the piece." Here the listener will have to use his or her imagination. David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, MA. He attended the Oberlin Conservatory, and studied for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He did master's and doctoral work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed. He is now a free-lance composer and lives in Missoula, Montana.
Catalog #: TROY0500
Release Date: February 1, 2002Wind EnsemblePersichetti composed his Parable IX, Op. 121 in 1972 as the ninth in a series of 25 parables written for various solo instruments and ensembles. Parable IX dramatically embodies its definition; "short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle." In this work Persichetti explores the duality of lyrical as well as angular; amiable as well as angry; and, at its most basic level, portrays the conflict that continues between good and evil. James Syler was raised in New York and Florida. His interests and education have been divided between classical and jazz forms. About his work Minton's Playhouse he writes: "In the early 1940's there was a nightclub in New York called Minton's Playhouse. The weekly jam sessions and after hours experimenting that went on there, and other clubs, played an important part in the development of bebop, and consequently marks the beginning of modern jazz. In honor of the 50 year mark of this form of jazz this work looks to the past, and at the same time, to the present." Luigi Zaninelli was brought to the Curtis Institute by Gian-Carlo Menotti. At 19, he was sent back to Italy to study with Rosario Scalero (the teacher of both Samuel Barber and Menotti). During his career, Mr. Zaninelli has served as composer-in-residence at the University of Calgary and the Banff School of Fine Arts. Since 1973, he has been composer in residence at the University of Southern Mississippi. About his Symphony No. 5 David Maslanka writes: "My Symphony No. 5 has been composed around three well-known Chorale melodies: 'Through Adam's Fall', 'O Lamb of God' and ' Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death'. Much of the music of this symphony is urgent and insistent. I have used the words 'aggravated', 'angry' and 'overwhelming' by way of description. But for all its blunt and assertive force, the Symphony is not tragic. It is filled with a bright and hopeful energy."