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Timothy Salzman directs the UW Wind Ensemble (Photo: Gary Louie).
The UW Wind Ensemble (Timothy Salzman, director) and Symphonic Band (Shaun Day, director) present their Autumn Quarter concert, performing music by Rimsky-Korsakov, David Maslanka, and others. With faculty oboist Mary Lynch VanderKolk, guest soloist on N. Rimsky-Korsakov: Variations on a Theme of Glinka.
Program
University of Washington Symphonic Band
Shaun Day, director
Toshiaki Minami: Dream City
Chase LaPlante, conductor
Steven Bryant: Nothing Gold Can Stay
Jess Langston Turner: A Lullaby for Leaving
Caitlin Sarwono, mezzo soprano
Johan de Mei: The Wind in the Willows
University of Washington Wind Ensemble
Timothy Salzman, director
N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Variations on a Theme of Glinka for Oboe and Military Band (1876-77)
(Mary Lynch VanderKolk, oboe)
David Maslanka (1943-2017): A Child's Garden of Dreams (1981)
I. There is a desert on the moon where the dreamer sinks so deeply into the ground that she reaches hell.
II. A drunken woman falls into the water and comes out renewed and sober.
III. A horde of small animals frightens the dreamer. The animals increase to a tremendous size, and one of them devours the little girl.
IV. A drop of water is seen as it appears when looked at through a microscope. The girl sees that the drop is full of tree branches. This portrays the origin of the world.
V. An ascent into heaven, where pagan dances are being celebrated; and a descent into hell, where angels are doing good deeds.
Program Notes
Minami Toshiaki composed Dream City in 2007 for the 55th All-Japan Band Competition. The quick and light hearted march tells the story of a young man setting off on a journey to a new city that he only ever thought of in his dreams. Memorable experiences are encountered along the way and sets the stage for an uplifting and enjoyable concert to any program.
Nothing Gold Can Stay was composed by Steven Bryant in 2016 as a special surprise gift to Kevin
Sedatole, honoring his first ten years at Michigan State University. Bryant says this about the piece, “The music is my deliberate attempt to write a chorale – something simple, beautiful, and familiar. The deceptive surface simplicity of Robert Frost’s poem seems to coincide with this music, particularly the paradoxical descending of dawn to day, all embodying the concept of felix culpa, or “lucky fall” – the idea that loss can bring greater good, and is in fact necessary.”
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost
Jess Langston Turner recently composed A Lullaby for Leaving in 2021, dedicated to his son, Kjell. It is
also dedicated to every parent who has experienced change and lives far from their children. The original
lyrics are enhanced by a dream-like orchestration and brought to life by a solo mezzo-soprano.
Angels before you,
Angels behind you
Angels surround you as you grow.
Lullaby
Angels before me,
Angeles behind me,
Angels surround me as I go.
Lullaby
As you grow
As I go
Lullaby
Wind in the Willows - “A book for those who keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine,
running water, woodlands; dusty roads, winter firesides” said author Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) about his children’s book The Wind in the Willows. Initially, he wrote the stories about Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad to read to his visually handicapped son Alistair, but after the publication in book form in 1908, it
became a worldwide success. It was later turned into a film and a television series. What appeals to me
most is the friendly, very cozy atmosphere that Grahame has managed to create with his optimistic
narrative style full of high spirits, an atmosphere that reminds me of my own carefree youth. It was
therefore a great pleasure to set this book to music!
The four movements successively describe:
I. The River - The river, which flows through the habitat of the animals like a lifeline, regularly is the
scene of pleasant boat trips and picnics. The animals lead their untroubled lives here. The
four-tone main motif (A-C-D-C) is extensively presented by the brass section, and returns in the following movements as a countermelody.
II. Ratty and Mole - The bright, energetic Rat and the melancholy doubter mole are inseparable friends and have many adventures. Their opposite characters are illustrated by separate musical themes.
III. Mister Toad - The wilful, haughty Mister Toad is indeed a unique case: time after time, he runs into tricky situations, and with his indomitable passion for fast - preferably stolen - cars he causes quite a lot of damage…
IV. The Return of Ulysses - After Toad Hall, the majestic residence of Mister Toad, is recovered from the weasels and stoats of the Wild Wood, who had captured the estate in a cowardly way, our friends get ready for a banquet. They celebrate the victory with a triumphant parade, and so both the book and the music conclude with a happy ending.
-program note by composer
Although published in the United States as Variations on a Theme of Glinka for Oboe and Military Band, the work’s true title by the composer is Variations for Oboe and Wind Orchestra. This concertante, the second of three written by Rimsky-Korsakov for the Russian Navy bands, is a set of twelve variations on the melody of What, Beautiful Maiden by Glinka. It was first performed in March 1878 with Rimsky-Korsakov conducting and Russian Navy NCO Ranishevsky as the oboe soloist. In his autobiography, Chronicle of My Musical Life, the composer writes: "The three compositions for solo instrument and wind orchestra were written, firstly, with the goal of providing concert solo works for instruments not often afforded such roles, and secondly, for me to master the virtuosic concerto/concertante compositional style, with its solo, tutti, cadenzas, etc."
Among David Maslanka’s more than 150 works are over 50 pieces for wind ensemble, including eight symphonies, seventeen concertos, a Mass, and many concert pieces. His chamber music includes four wind quintets, five saxophone quartets, and many works for solo instrument and piano. In addition, he has written a variety of orchestral and choral pieces. His works have been recorded on Albany, Reference Recordings, BIS (Sweden), Naxos, Cambria, CRI, Mark, Novisse, AUR, Cafua (Japan), Brain Music (Japan), Barking Dog, and Klavier labels.
The following is from Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung: “A very important case came to me from a man who was himself a psychiatrist. One day he brought me a handwritten booklet he had received as a Christmas present from his 10-year-old daughter. It contained a whole series of dreams she had had when she was 8. They made up the weirdest series of dreams I have ever seen, and I could well understand why her father was more than just puzzled by them. Though childlike, they were uncanny, and they contained images whose origin was wholly incomprehensible to the father...In the unabridged German original, each dream begins with the words of the old fairy tale: ‘Once upon a time.’ By these words the little dreamer suggests that she feels as if each dream were a sort of fairy tale, which she wants to tell her father as a Christmas present.
The father tried to explain the dreams in terms of their context. But he could not do so because there appeared to be no personal associations to them...The little girl died of an infectious disease about a year after that Christmas... The dreams were a preparation for death, expressed through short stories, like the tales told at primitive initiations... The little girl was approaching puberty, and at the same time, the end of her life. Little or nothing in the symbolism of her dreams points to the beginning of a normal adult life. When I first read her dreams, I had the uncanny feeling that they suggested impending disaster. These dreams open up a new and rather terrifying aspect of life and death. One would expect to find such images in an aging person who looks back on life, rather than to be given them by a child. Their atmosphere recalls the old Roman saying, 'Life is a short dream,' rather than the joy and exuberance of its springtime. Experience shows that the unknown approach of death casts an ‘adumbratio’ (an anticipatory shadow) over the life and dreams of the victim. Even the altar in Christian churches represents, on one hand, a tomb and, on the other, a place of resurrection –- the transformation of death into eternal life.”
—program note by composer
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON WIND ENSEMBLE
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Biographies
Caitlin Sarwono is a senior Music Education major at the University of Washington. She is currently a member of UW Chamber Singers and UW StageNotes. She is also in a Motown vocal group called The Jewel Tones and teaches voice class at the Redmond Academy of Theatre Arts.
Wind Ensemble
The University of Washington Wind Ensemble has performed at many prestigious music conventions, has presented several world premiere performances of outstanding new music for wind band and in 2004, undertook a highly acclaimed nine-day concert tour of the Kansai region of Japan, returning for more extensive tours of that country in 2007 and 2010. The UW Wind Ensemble presented several concerts in the main concert venues of Beijing, China in March of 2013, including a sold-out concert in the National Center for the Performing Arts in Tiananmen Square that was broadcast nationwide on China Central Television. The ensemble returned to China in both 2016 and 2019, playing before large crowds in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Chengdu. In the spring of 2006, the ensemble was invited by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra to present a concert at Benaroya Hall as a part of the Symphony’s Made in AmericaFestival. The London Financial Times review of the concert applauded “music of surprising sophistication…Cindy McTee’s Finish Line pulsated energetically, and William Bolcom’s Song was simply gorgeous.” Following the 2006 performance the ensemble was invited for return appearances on Seattle Symphony concert series in 2007, 2008 and, most recently in 2011 when Maestro Gerard Schwarz conducted the ensemble. The UW Wind Ensemble has collaborated with internationally renowned guest artists, conductors and composers including Eddie Daniels, Steve Houghton, Allen Vizzutti, Jeffery Fair, Chris Olka, James Walker, Douglas Yeo, Leigh Howard Stevens, David Maslanka, Michael Colgrass, Bonnie Whiting, Cindy McTee, Eric Ewazen, Satoshi Yagisawa, David Stanhope, John DiCesare, David Gordon, Mary Lynch, Seth Krimsky, Michael Brockman and Huck Hodge. Nihon Pals, a music education resource company based in Osaka, Japan, released a set of instructional DVDs regarding ensemble musicality featuring the UW Wind Ensemble.
Symphonic Band
The Symphonic Band (Shaun Day, director) is the second auditioned wind group at the University of Washington, performing a repertoire of classic and contemporary wind music. Membership is open to students from all schools and departments of the University of Washington. The Symphonic Band performs at least one on-campus concert per quarter with occasional off-campus performances.
Mary Lynch VanderKolk joined the Seattle Symphony as Principal Oboe in 2014. She previously held the position of Second Oboe with The Cleveland Orchestra and has performed as Guest Principal Oboe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, among others. Since 2014, she has performed many times as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, including the world premiere recording of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Oboe Concerto (Seattle Symphony Media). Her growing list of solo recordings also includes two albums of music by Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel (Avie Records) as well as Dutilleux’s Les Citations (Seattle Symphony Media). An avid chamber musician, she regularly performs at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Newport Music Festival (RI) and the Philadelphia and Seattle Chamber Music Societies. Ms. Lynch VanderKolk studied at New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Interlochen Arts Academy, and her teachers include John Ferrillo, Elaine Douvas, Nathan Hughes, and Daniel Stolper. Now a devoted teacher herself, she serves on faculty at the University of Washington.
Timothy Salzman is in his 38th year at the University of Washington where he serves as Professor of Music/Director of Concert Bands, is conductor of the University Wind Ensemble and teaches students enrolled in the graduate instrumental conducting program. Former graduate wind conducting students of Professor Salzman have obtained positions at 72 universities and colleges throughout the United States and include past presidents of the American Bandmasters Association and the College Band Directors National Association. Prior to his UW appointment he served as Director of Bands at Montana State University where he founded the MSU Wind Ensemble. From 1978 to 1983 he was band director in the Herscher, Illinois, public school system where the band program received regional and national awards in solo/ensemble, concert and marching band competition. Professor Salzman holds degrees from Wheaton (IL) College, and Northern Illinois University, and studied privately with world-renown wind instrument pedagogue Arnold Jacobs former tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has numerous publications for bands with the C. L. Barnhouse, Arranger's Publications, Columbia Pictures, Hal Leonard Publishing and Nihon Pals publishing companies, and has served on the staff of new music reviews for The Instrumentalist magazine. Professor Salzman has been a conductor, adjudicator, arranger, or consultant for bands throughout the United States and in Canada, England, France, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, China, and Japan, a country he has visited twenty-one times. Recently he has frequently traveled to China where he served as visiting professor at the China Conservatory, given master classes for numerous wind bands, and conducted several ensembles including the Shanghai Wind Orchestra, the People's Liberation Army Band, the Beijing Wind Orchestra, and the Tsinghua University Band in concerts in 2016/2017/2018. He also served on three occasions as an adjudicator for the Singapore Youth Festival National Concert Band Championships. He has also conducted several of the major military bands in the United States including a 2019 world premiere with 'The President's Own' United States Marine Band. He is compiling editor and co-author (with several current and former UW graduate students) of A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band, a five-volume series of books on contemporary wind band composers. He is a contributing author to a new book (2022) about his former teacher Arnold Jacobs: His Artistic and Pedagogical Legacies in the 21st Century. He is also an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and is a past president of the Northwest Division of the College Band Directors National Association.
As a conductor, trumpet player, and educator, Shaun Day enjoys sharing his passion by working with a variety of music ensembles and creating a positive community through music. Shaun is completing his DMA in Instrumental Conducting at the University of Washington where he is the director and conductor for the UW Symphonic Band, and the associate conductor for the UW Wind Ensemble. He is also serving as the Conductor and Artistic Director for the Mukilteo Community Orchestra and enjoys connecting with local music educators in the Seattle area. Shaun continues to work as an ensemble clinician, guest conductor, and as a presenter at music education conferences, including the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) State Conference.
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Shaun earned his BM in Music Education with a concentration in trumpet performance, and his MM in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). During that time, he was the manager of the CCM Wind Symphony, CCM Brass Choir, the University Commencement Band, and a Graduate Assistant of the University of Cincinnati Bearcat Band. Shaun also served as the Associate Conductor of the University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Guest Conductor for the Fillmore Philharmonic Brass (OH).
Before completing his MM, Shaun was the assistant band director at Turpin High School in Cincinnati. His duties included directing the high school concert bands, directing the high school jazz program, the musical theatre pit orchestra, assisting and directing the high school marching band program, and directing the 5th-12th concert bands. His professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA), and the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) where he served as the District XIV Secretary and Treasurer from 2016-2018.