The Eastern Division of CBDNA kicked off its biennial meeting this morning at Yale University’s beautiful new arts complex. This is actually a delayed opening: the plan was to get started yesterday with a tour of some Charles Ives manuscripts and some research presentations, but Winter Storm Quinn had other ideas, forcing the closure of the Yale campus on Wednesday afternoon and delaying many of our members. This was driven home during the first two sessions of the day, both planned as panels, in which most of the panelists were participating via Google Hangouts (with varying degrees of success). Undaunted, we continued as best we could.
So, what was supposed to be day 2 now gets rebranded as day 1. The first session was a Small Band Program showcase, featuring the following schools, all very successful band programs at small schools in our division, showcasing the following repertoire:
Keene State College (Keene, NH)
Jump Start – Eric Nathan
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Heather Gilligan
The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY)
Impressionist Prints – Aldo Forte
The University of Maine (Orono, ME)
Summer Dances – Adam Gorb
Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA)
Instinctive Travels – Michael Markowski
Symphonies of Gaia – Jayce Ogren
Marywood University (Scranton, PA)
Carnival – Paul Basler
Two more panels followed: a discussion of best recruiting practices, and a fascinating diversity panel. The latter was the most fully realized diversity discussion I have attended at CBDNA, with the entire 75 minutes devoted exclusively to the topic. Even so, it was clear at the end that there is energy in our division (and likely in the national organization) to continue having productive discussions around this topic in the future. That is, the session ran over, and there were still plenty of hands up when time had to be called.
After lunch, we returned to a repertoire reading session of music largely geared towards smaller bands, all played by the Hartt Wind Ensemble. I had the privilege of leading one of these, as you’ll see below.
Tango – Victoriano Valencia (led by Sixto Montesinos of Rutgers University)
Pastorale – Anthony O’Toole (Jordan Kinsey, Wesley College)
Luminescence – David Biedenbender (Lauren Reynolds, University of Delaware)
Brooklyn Air – Michael Markowski (Andy Pease, Hartwick College)
Fugue in C – Charles Ives (Trish Cornett, Temple University)
Serenade du Troubador – Alexander Glazunov (Joe Higgins, Rowan University)
Soarin’ – Jim Colonna (Jim Colonna, Messiah College)
Thanks to some creative rescheduling by division president Mike Votta and conference host Tom Duffy, those of us scheduled for Wednesday’s cancelled Research Potpourri were able to present our research on Thursday afternoon (today) instead. These included a look at the intersection of band and baseball by Brian Coffill, a look at the early connection of Italian bands with US bands by Jordan Kinsey, and my own look at the Wind Band Symphony Archive. Despite a Powerpoint malfunction (note to self: bring your presentation on a thumb drive next time) I was quite pleased to be able to share this resource with my colleagues in a public forum for the first time.
The evening brought two concerts. These were in the magnificent Woolsey Hall, a cathedral-like space complete with a boomy acoustic and an enormous organ behind the stage.
Nazareth College Wind Ensemble, Jared Chase, conductor, Steven Zugelder, guest conductor
Here’s to Good Old Yale – Charles Ives
Cathedrals – Kathryn Salfelder
A set of Der Tambourg’sell and Um Mitternacht – Gustav Mahler, featuring soprano Katie Hannigan
Into the Silent Land – Steve Danyew (world premiere)
Of War and Peace – Michael Daugherty
The Salfelder used the space particularly well, with antiphonal brass groups (a nod to Gabrieli) in each loft. It was interesting hearing these two Mahler songs back to back. The first is less “famous” in our repertoire, but both conveyed a general haunted gloom typical of Mahler. I had been anticipating the Danyew for months. Its inspiration is the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school. Steve Danyew attended that school as a child, so I was optimistic (as someone with family connections to that area) that he would treat this topic as well as any composer possibly could. The result was a funeral march and lament that started with child-like sounds in the percussion and grew into a convincing portrayal of real grief. This was affecting enough – what sent me over the edge was the narration, a short poem that began with “Remember me when I am gone away.” I could easily see these words coming out of my own almost 3-year-old son’s mouth, and so the direct connection to the parental grief of losing a child became real. I dare say that Danyew has done justice to this awful topic. The Daugherty was a good choice to follow such an emotional piece. In two movements, the first gave an aggressive portrait of war, while the second, heralded by bassoons, presented a dynamic and ever-changing version of peace.
After dinner came the Yale Band:
Yale Concert Band, Thomas Duffy, conductor
Three Places in New Haven – Thomas Duffy
Ask the Sky and the Earth – Tony Fok, libretto by Wei Su, transcribed by Thomas Duffy
These two pieces added up to nearly 90 minutes of music! The Yale Band sounded at home in this hall. The Duffy piece featured marimba soloist Sam Um. It was in three movements, each dedicated to something that Rollo, Charles Ives’s fictional everyman, might do in New Haven. One highlight came in the second movement, when four Yale Band percussionists joined Um at the marimba. The Fok was a giant Mandarin-language oratorio complete with the 100+ member SYGQ Chorus, directed by Charles Lu, and 5 vocal soloists. Its 8 movements told the story of the “Sent Down Youth,” urban teenagers who were sent to do manual labor in country villages during Mao Ze Dong’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. It was moving to see several choir and audience members raise their hands when Duffy and Lu asked those Sent Down Youth, who are now in their 60s and 70s, to identify themselves. While I appreciated the cultural significance of the event, I was surprised by its hopeful and fairly nationalistic ending, despite themes of displacement and even death in the oratorio itself. Is official China still controlling the narrative of this experience, even as it is told in the United States?
We’re off to a great start, and there’s so much more to come!