This spring was very full indeed! Among my home groups (each of which has its own page), the Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble presented a USA 250 concert on April 26 and had a Pops concert on January 25 cancelled. And the Hartwick College Wind Ensemble performed at Carnegie Hall on March 23!! We previewed that music and more at home on March 10, then presented a tribute to our seniors on April 30. More to come on all of that.
I showed up on plenty of other podiums in the meantime. I started in the Wappingers Central School District for their WindFest on February 18 and 19. The district has two high schools, each with their own band, both of which I conducted, and they also combined for the final concert. Here’s what we played:
John Jay High School Symphonic Band (Ryan Banda, director)
Drawing Mars – Michael Markowski
First Suite in E-flat – Gustav Holst
Roy C. Ketcham High School Wind Ensemble (James Trainor, director)
Folk Dances – Dmitri Shostakovich
Hymn for the Innocent – Julie Giroux
Let Me Be Frank With You – John Mackey
Combined bands:
Wishes and Wantings – Kelijah Dunton
On February 27 and 28, I was with the Broome County (NY) All County Band. They played:
Fanfare on Row Your Boat – Andrew Pease
Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo – Malcolm Arnold
I was at the NYSBDA Sympsium on March 6-8, where I interviewed my mentor, Gary Hill, as part of our Living Legend series.
I traveled to Rhode Island to conduct their Junior All State band on March 13-15. We played:
American Riversongs – Pierre La Plante
I’ll attend the CBDNA Eastern Division conference in Amherst, MA on March 19-21, where I’ll present on my amazing experience with Afro-Peruvian music.
Back home, this semester was a Very Big Deal for the Hartwick Wind Ensemble. We played three concerts (two at home, one away) and appeared at the College’s Commencement ceremony. Most importantly, we played at CARNEGIE HALL (!!!) on Monday, March 23 at 9am. The program looked like this:
Rings – Andrew Pease (world premiere)
Splitting Light – Joni Greene (world premiere)
Shepherd’s Hey – Percy Grainger
We previewed all of this at home in the Anderson Theater on March 10 at 7:30pm, with some additional music:
We also put together a concert in honor of our seniors on Thursday, April 30:
March to the Scaffold – Hector Berlioz (for Bryn Haas)
Fandango – Frank Perkins, arr. Floyd Werle (for Rheana Cameron, featuring student conductor Sebastian Quarella)
Stillwater – Kelijah Dunton (for Benny Pauli and Nahal Sarvestani)
Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion – PDQ Bach (for Robin Brown)
Piano Concerto no. 2 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, arr. Scott Oaks, movement 3 (for Patrick Close, who was also our piano soloist)
His Honor – Henry Fillmore (for outgoing president Jim Mullen)
The Catskill Valley Wind Ensemble was hard at work as well. This spring, on April 26, we returned to Foothills for a concert we called “New Variations on America,” celebrating the 250th birthday of the USA. The program will look something like this:
Amy Hoxie’s half:
Amazing Grace – John Newton, arr. Robert Thurston (Michelle Fritts, guest conductor)
George Washington Bicentennial – John Philip Sousa (Philip Wade, guest conductor)
George Washington Bridge – William Schuman
Elegy for the U. S. S. Arizona – Larry MacTaggart
American Overture – Joseph Wilcox Jenkins
My half:
Fanfare Politeia – Kimberly Archer
76 Trombones – Meredith Wilson, arr. Leroy Anderson
Brooklyn Air – Michael Markowski
Variations on “America” – Charles Ives, arr. William Schuman and William Rhoads
Of Our New Day Begun – Omar Thomas
Encore: America the Beautiful, arr. Carmen Dragon
We also tried to have our annual Pops concert, scheduled to take place on Sunday, January 25 at 3pm at the Foothills Center, but it was cancelled due to terrible weather! (Incidentally, I wasn’t even in the country when this happened, which I thought would help bad weather stay away, but I was wrong!) We featured several band members as conductors. Here is what they chose:
Into the Unknown from “Frozen 2” – Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, arr. Paul Murtha (James Behret)
Symphonic Suite from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Howard Shore, arr. Victor Lopez (Daniel Stevens)
Bond… James Bond – multiple composers, arr. Stephen Bulla (Maximillian Jackson)
Friend Like Me – Alan Menken (Luke Payne)
George Washington Bicentennial – John Philip Sousa (Phil Wade)
Young Person’s Guide to John Williams – John Williams, arr. Jay Bocook (Gregg Norris)
The Great Locomotive Chase – Robert W. Smith (Nina Savasta)
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell, arr. Sean O’Loughlin (Danny Reynolds)
Amazing Grace – John Newton, arr. Robert Thurston (Michelle Fritts)