Wisconsin native Erika Svanoe (b. 1976) is a conductor and composer with several engaging and eclectic works to her name. Her piece The Haunted Carousel won the NBA Young Band Composition Contest in 2014, and her Steampunk Suite for band has appeared everywhere from Wisconsin Public Radio to the American Bandmasters Association conference. After undergraduate studies in Music Education and clarinet at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she studied conducting at Oklahoma State University and The Ohio State University. After a spell conducting the Augsburg University Wind Symphony in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she is now a full-time comoposer. She is also an avid gamer and game designer. Learn more about her at her website and Board Game Geek. She has also been interviewed by her alma mater.

Svanoe wrote A Journey in Time in 2020 for the Patrick Marsh Middle School Bands, directed by Chris Gleason, in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. It is essentially a “Choose Your Own Adventure” for band! She elaborates:

A Journey in Time is a an “interactive musical adventure” for band. The piece includes a powerpoint presentation that takes the audience through a narrative adventure where they must vote to decide which path the story and the music will go next during the performance. Inspired by choose your own adventure novels, text-based computer games, and time-traveling tropes, the piece gives audiences and students a unique interactive performance experience.

Or, put more adventurously (also by the composer):

Adventurers! We need your help! The key to music has been stolen by a time traveling villain named Kronos and we need to return it to save music for all time! You’ll need to pursue him in our time machine called M0Z4R+ to save the day. You pick up the following signals: the Jurassic Period, the Industrial Revolution and the Mesolithic Era. What time will you choose to pursue Kronos and find the key? The choice is up to you!

Here is her reference recording, with a live narrator, from the University of New Hampshire Wind Symphony:

See more about the piece at Svanoe’s website, Mark Custom recordings, and the Wind Repertory Project.