This morning began with a deep dive in to Charles Ives’s Decoration Day, featuring Matthew Westgate and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Wind Ensemble with clinician and Ives scholar John Heiss from New England Conservatory. Heiss guided through the many rich, colorful, and often persnickety details of this bizarrely wonderful piece. It was both an enriching musical experience and an exhausting mental exercise.

The morning was rounded out with a session about conducting education and a general meeting of our division, which yielded some interesting discussions which I will not go into here. The first afternoon concert was the Cornell University Wind Symphony, directed by James Spinazzola.

Variations on “America” – Charles Ives, trans. William Rhodes

Variations on America by Charles Ives as Heard on the Jingle Jangle Morning in Emerson Playground by You and the Signers of the United States Constitution (and who knows, maybe the FBI) – David Borden, ed. James Spinazzola

Breath & Hammers – Mark Winges (mvts. 2 and 3 only)

Acknowledgement from A Love Supreme – John Coltrane, arr. Wynton Marsalis, trans. James Spinazzola

Prologue from West Side Story – Leonard Bernstein, arr. Dave Grusin, trans. James Spinazzola

Overture to Candide – Leonard Bernstein, trans. Clare Grundman

This program was unusual, to say the least. While the Ives was a rousing and familiar start, Borden’s follow up, a sort of meta-Ives with electro-acoustic elements, struck me as scattershot and hard to listen to. It reminded me strongly of the Beatles’ Revolution 9, and traces itself to the same year. The Winges was a piano concerto that professed to be inspired by Thelonious Monk, but the musical language was again hard to latch onto. The Coltrane and first Bernstein pieces were essentially jazz combo pieces with very incidental band accompaniment. In more than one instance Cornell Wind Symphony players sat silent at length while the jazz combo wailed away, with Spinazzola taking a lengthy tenor saxophone solo at one point. The Overture to Candide came as something of a relief, and as a chance for the Cornell players to claim a moment in the spotlight. While I appreciate all of Spinazzola’s excellent work and musicianship, he should consider what it looks like when his name appears five times on the program (were there really no original band works that would have served this program just as well, if not better?) and his players sit in silence while he plays a saxophone solo.

The students were squarely in the spotlight for the Intercollegiate Band, led by Cynthia Johnston-Turner.

Landscapes – Rossano Galante

Dream of Oenghus, Part One – Rolf Rudin

High Water Rising – Sally McCune

Alleluia Laudamus Te – Alfred Reed

The Galante put all of the lyricism and musicianship of this excellent group on full display immediately. The Rudin was by turns ominous and romantic, with language reminiscent of Johan de Meij’s Lord of the Rings symphony. The McCune, in only its second performance, evoked for me tropical birds and uncontrolled rising waters. It was superbly effective in this space, and I hope to take a look at it myself once the score becomes available. The Reed was a fitting closer, again lyrical with ample opportunity for every section to shine. Johnston-Turner and her young players from all over the Northeast delivered an excellent, musical performance – that they did it only two days is all the more impressive.

The conference came to a close with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Wind Ensemble, led by Matthew Westgate.

A Glimpse of the Eternal – Aaron Perrine

Decoration Day – Charles Ives, arr. Elkus

Schism – David Biedenbender

Concerto no. 3 for Piano & Wind Ensemble – David Maslanka

Music for Prage 1968 – Karel Husa

The Perrine sparkled in this hall, and I detected an extra emphasis on instrument color in this performance that served it well. The final Ives piece of the conference was the same one that was examined in such detail at this morning’s clinic. It was by turns atmospheric and martial, evoking a sort of New England stream of consciousness that is a hallmark of Ives’s style. The Biedenbender, which featured a smaller ensemble, had its roots firmly in popular music, particularly some mix of funk and rock. It would not sound unfamiliar to fans of his Melodious Thunk. Typical to the composer’s style, the Maslanka was alternately meditative and aggressive, both to extreme degrees. The effect of vibraphone motor with piano and subdued ensemble singing at the end was particularly magical. Music for Prague was epic and a little scary as always, played with precision and feeling by this very fine ensemble.

And so we end another regional session. This felt like a homecoming for me, not just because it was close to where I grew up, but because I began my career in the Eastern Division. I look forward to many more of these over the years to come.