Members of the UW Wind Ensemble (Timothy Salzman, director) perform music arranged for small ensembles. Program includes music by Igor Stravinsky, Kevin Puts, Guy Woolfenden, Bobby Ge, and others. With graduate conductors Shaun Day, Roger Wu Fu, and David Stewart.
Program
Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920): Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Quatour pour Saxophones (1956): Pierre Max Dubois (1930-1995)
I. Ourverture
Saxophone Quartet
Second Suite in F: Gustav Holst, arr. Tim Olt
II: Song Without Words
III: Song of the Blacksmith
IV: Fantasia on the Dargason
Tuba/Euphonium Quartet
Rhosymedre (1920): Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), arr. Matt Johnston (2011)
Clarinet Choir
Elegy (2009): Kevin Puts (1972)
Brass Choir
David Stewart, conductor
Suite Française (1991): Guy Woolfenden (1937-2016)
1. Pastorale
2. Valse
3. Scène et marche
Shaun Day, conductor
– Brief Intermission –
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat Major, K. 452 (1784): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
I. Largo – Allegro Moderato
Mia HyeYeon Kim, piano
Achieved is the Glorious Work (1799): Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Adagio from Symphony No. 3 (1866): Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Trombone Quartet
Trumpet Peace Song (2017): Eddie Lewis (1964)
Trumpet Sextet
Rain Spell (1982): Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
Kelly Hou, harp
Cartoons and Kung Fu (2021): Bobby Ge (b. 1996)
Rose Martin, percussion
Roger Wu Fu, conductor
Program Notes
Did you ever know someone who treated a friend with warmth in person but trashed-talked him behind his back? Such appears to have been the case with Debussy's regard for the young Igor Stravinsky. Granted, Debussy was dying of cancer and in terrible pain during his last years, which coincided with the worst years of World War I. And in fact, it seems clear that he had great professional and personal respect for the young Russian, whom he had first met in Paris in 1910 after the first performance of The Firebird. Stravinsky likewise regarded Debussy as one of his most profound musical influences. He was deeply moved at the elder composer's death in 1918, and immediately agreed to contribute a piece for a special Tombeau issue of La Revue Musicale – a brief chorale for piano that would be reworked as the finale of his enigmatic Symphonies of Wind Instruments, dedicated to Debussy on its completion in 1920. But despite friendly correspondences through the years leading up to Debussy's death, there's evidence that the elder composer was envious of how Stravinsky's shocking early ballet scores had made him the toast of Paris – potentially eclipsing Debussy's fame in the process. In 1913, he beamed glowing praise in a letter to Stravinsky: "For someone like me, who is on his way down the other side of the hill but still in possession of an ardent passion for music, there is a special satisfaction in declaring how much you have enlarged the boundaries of the permissible in the Empire of Sound." On the other hand, in a 1916 letter to a friend, Debussy called Stravinsky "a spoiled child, a young man who wears flashy ties and treads on women's toes as he kisses their hands. As an old man he'll be insupportable." Fortunately, Stravinsky knew nothing of this at the time, otherwise we might not have this miniature masterpiece, which was at the same time the last work of what some have called Stravinsky's "Russian phase" and the beginning of his new neoclassical outlook of the 1920s.
The work is cast in four basic episodes, each containing tiny bits of material from the other three. The first contains two quirky Russian folk melodies, and the second is a flowing Pastorale. Sharp fortissimo chords mark the third, strongly rhythmic dance section, whose texture and harmonic language both remind us that we are only seven years beyond The Rite of Spring. Finally, the haunting Chorale for the Tombeau is for brass alone, joined by woodwinds at the end.
- Program Note from National Symphony Orchestra Performance on November 13th-15th, 2008 -
Pierre Max Dubois was a pupil of French composer Darius Milhaud. His compositions were primarily for woodwinds and many are for saxophone. Quatour pour Saxophones was initially written for four saxophones and string orchestra.
Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F did not receive a public performance until June 20, 1922, when it was played at Royal Albert Hall in London. The program note for the performance states that the piece had been “put aside and forgotten” after its composition in 1911. The opening march utilizes three tunes: a lively Morris dance, the lyrical melody of Swansea Town, and the lilting style of Claudy Banks. The second movement, Song without Words, is a slow tender setting of an English love song, I’ll Love My Love. It is a story of two lovers separated by their parents and the deep love they would always have for one another. Song of the Blacksmith demonstrates Holst’s inventive scoring with a lively rhythm imitating the sound of a blacksmith’s anvil. The final movement, Fantasia on the ‘Dargason,’ is based on an English country-dance and folk song dating from the sixteenth century.
- Program Note from University of North Texas IN/EX/CURSIONS, 2022 -
Perhaps more than any other English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams is inextricably connected to the rich folk song tradition of his country. After studying composition and organ at the Royal College of Music in London and Cambridge University, Vaughan Williams struggled to find his identity as a composer, not publishing his first work until age thirty. His career finally blossomed when he joined the English Folk Song Society, inspiring him to travel throughout the English countryside collecting tunes from native singers. He published the songs and incorporated them into his original compositions, creating a distinct style that helped to redefine English music. He originally composed this Prelude on a Welsh Hymn Tune for organ. The hymn melody, which appears in sustained notes after a flowing introduction, was written by nineteenth-century priest John David Edwards who named it after the Welsh town where he was vicar for more than forty years, Rhosymedre.Several versions of lyrics are used for the hymn, including this poignant verse: “May thy strong Spirit bind our hearts in unity, and help us each to find the love from self set free. In all our hearts such love increase, that ev’ry home, by this release, may be the dwelling place of peace.” Vaughan Williams’ organ setting of this work was performed at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Kevin Puts is a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy winning composer, acclaimed for his “plush, propulsive” music (The New York Times). Elegy was written in memory of Dr. Stanton Schwartz, a prominent neurologist based in California. Dr. Stanton Schwartz was not only a respected figure in the field of neurology but also a passionate supporter of the arts. He was an active benefactor and board member of the Walnut Creek-based California Symphony, and notably, played a crucial role in backing the Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence Program. Puts served as the symphony’s young composer in residence from 1996-1999, an opportunity that would not have been possible without the passionate support of Dr. Stanton Schwartz.
Guy Woolfenden was a British conductor and composer who studied at Westminster Abbey Choir School, Whitgift School, and Christ’s College in Cambridge. Founder of the Ariel Music publishing company and Music Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) for 37 years, Woolfenden is credited with over 150 compositions for the RSC with significant compositions for winds. Suite Française is deeply inspired by his compositional writing for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The wind octet has three movements, each replete with expressive textures and playful melodies. Pastorale depicts a scenic countryside pasture at the first light of the day and features eloquent solos from the flutes and oboes. Valse is based on N’aï pas léu de mio, a French folk song from the collection titled Chants D’Auvergne. The final playful movement, Scene et Marche, is based on the whimsical fictional character Monsieur and provides ample opportunities for each player to explore their instrument's lively and mischievous qualities.
W.A. Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds was premiered at the Imperial and Royal National Court Theater in Vienna. Shortly after the premiere, Mozart wrote to his father that "I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life." The first movement, in sonata form, opens with an introduction marked Largo. After the slow section cadences on a B♭dominant chord the movement's main theme appears featuring solo piano and is taken up by the winds few bars later.
The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at the peak of his artistic career. It is popularly known as the Organ Symphony, since, unusually for a late-Romantic symphony, two of the four sections utilize pipe organ. The Creation is an oratorio written between 1797 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn and considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as described in the Book of Genesis.
What began as an experiment in writing for piccolo trumpet and flugelhorn, Trumpet Peace Song is a reflective piece in 3/4 meter. Composed for six trumpets the work features piccolo and flugelhorn in octaves and beautiful inner parts for four Bb trumpets.
Toru Takemitsu was a self-taught musician from Tokyo, Japan who dedicated his life to music after hearing the famous French song “Parlez Moi D’Amour” while serving in the student relief force in Japan. He was drawn to the music of composers such as Claude Debussy and Oliver Messiaen who utilized traditional Japanese and East Asian music in their works, and he later formed a musical group with his contemporaries who introduced him to more traditional Japanese music that focused on mixed-media works. Takemitsu was especially fascinated with sounds of water and incorporated this into many of his works, one of which was Rain Spell, written for the Sound Space Ark in Toyko. Indeed, Rain Spell creates a space for sound to fill it, with extended techniques among all the instruments in the ensemble helping to depict the sound of water. The disjunct notes heard across the ensemble mimic individual water droplets falling to the ground, while the murmuring of the harp and vibraphone evoke the sound of flowing water. A sudden loud rush of notes is reminiscent of splashing water, and muted pizzicatos from the piano are akin to droplets of water being cushioned as they fall into grass and softer ground. The harp is deliberately tuned out of tune, thus rendering the piece an imperfect yet beautiful quality, much like nature itself.
Of Cartoons and Kung Fu composer Bobby Ge writes: When I think about the kinds of art that inspire me, I always find myself drawn to the idea of committing. From The Eric Andre Show to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, The Garden of Earthly Delights to The ArchAndroid,Adventure Time to Enter the Dragon: these works in their disparate media are united (at least in my mind) by their utter commitment to their frequently ridiculous, whiz-bang visions. Despite their often-over-the-top nature, such art feels no need to apologize for its ideas, and that kind of manic creativity always appeals to me in the strongest way. Two media that best capture this kind of headstrong idiosyncrasy for me include the antics of children’s cartoons and old-fashioned Chinese martial arts films. They might not always be especially insightful (or indeed, even good), but what they might lack in substance they make up for in spades with their unabashed enthusiasm and pulpy style. I have long wanted to write something capturing that same kind of frenetic kitschiness - so when my friend Nonoka Mizukami asked me to write her a percussion and tape piece for her doctoral recital, I jumped at the chance. Cartoons and Kung Fu is built out of a few simple ideas: a running sixteenth-sextuplet rhythm for wood slats, an EDM-like rising bassline, and a complementary, syncopated downward gliss. The three intermingle in increasingly silly ways as the piece builds in fury and energy, dipping erratically into mixed meters as it goes. Eventually, the percussionist switches from wood slats/blocks to metals, joining in the wild downward glissandi toward a series of Shepard tones that ultimately herald the piece’s end. Written in about a week during one of the busiest periods of my creative life, the piece inadvertently captured some of my own desperation as I sought to meet deadline after deadline. Many thanks to Nonoka for asking for the piece, and for her excitement in bringing it to life.
- Program Note from the composer -
University of Washington Wind EnsembleFLUTE OBOE BASSOON CLARINET BASS CLARINET SAXOPHONE TRUMPET HORN TROMBONE EUPHONIUM TUBA BASS PERCUSSION PIANO HARP *principal |
Biographies
Mia HyeHeon Kim
Pianist, harpsichordist, and educator Mia HyeYeon Kim began her piano studies at age seven. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Washington under Craig Sheppard. She received her Bachelor of Music from Yonsei University in South Korea, her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston under Victor Rosenbaum, and her Artist Diploma at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music under Soyeon Kate Lee. Her accomplishments include prizes in the Frances Walton Competition, the Metropolitan International Piano Competition, Texas State International Piano Competition, Memphis International Piano Competition, and Seoul Philharmonic Competition. In 2023, she performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 with the Texas central Philharmonic Orchestra. Recently, she won the University of Washington’s concerto competition and performed with the UW Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Rahbee. She has performed at venues such as Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Youngsan Art Hall in Seoul, and the Palazzo del Vignola with the Napolinova Orchestra in Todi, Italy. She also played in masterclasses for world-class pianists including Richard Goode, John Perry, Julian Martin, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Enrico Elisi, Boris Slutsky, Dmitry Rachmanov, Jason Kwak, Hieyon Choi, and Gary Graffman. As an active performer in her community, she has performed at local venues such as University House Wallingford, Bayview Retirement Community, and Empress Senior Living in Seattle, Washington. As an active chamber musician, she has performed extensively with both vocalists and instrumentalists. She won the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Chamber Music Competition as a piano trio member. She was the collaborative pianist for the University of Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and Cabaret Singers. She has performed in the Lowbrow Opera Collective's highly successful production of Dana Kaufman’s opera, ‘Diary of a Madman’. Kim is also an experienced teacher. She was recently appointed an adjunct instructor in the Master of Arts in Music program at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. She has been the Teaching Assistant for the Modern Music Ensemble and Secondary Piano courses at the University of Washington. Outside of music, she loves coffee, watching movies, climbing, and yoga. Recently, she acquired her vinyasa yoga teacher certificate and is exploring incorporating yoga into her musical endeavors.
Kelly Hou
Kelly Hou started playing the piano when she was 6 and began the harp 9 years ago. She studied the harp with Alison Austin when she was 13, and later went on to study with Valerie Muzzolini at the University of Washington in 2020. Prior to college, Kelly played in the Seattle Youth Symphony for 4 years and placed 3rd in the WMEA State Solo and Ensemble contest in 2019. In 2022, she was one of three winners of the Anne Adams Award. Currently, she is pursuing both a degree in Informatics and Music Performance and is a part of the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra as well as the University of Washington Wind Ensemble. She has also played with the Washington Wind Ensemble, Philharmonia Northwest, The Sound Ensemble, and Eastside Symphony.
Rose Martin
Rose Martin (b. 1992) is a sound artist and educator centered in percussion and voice. With her band, Irisanna, Martin explores themes of courtship, grief, and love through song and texture. In summer of 2023, she created and installed a sound component at MadArt Gallery in Seattle, WA, alongside a sculptural installation by Nate Clark. As an educator, Martin grounds her teaching in empathy, creativity, compassion, and empowerment, nurturing a deeper understanding of sound, silence, and listening. She is on track to complete a Doctorate of Musical Arts at University of Washington 2025. www.rosemartinsound.com
University of Washington 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 America Festival. 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, Ben Lulich, 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.
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.
M.M Wind Conducting, Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, 2020
M.Ed. Education, Concordia University Irvine, 2018
B.A. Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles, 2014
Recent works include producing and music directing his original musical “Yappie: The Musical” and its concept album premiere, music directing chamber operas exploring the relationship between growth and suffering in Baltimore’s contemporary opera scene, and presenting research on instrument pedagogy, choice, and personality at Ohio State University. At the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Roger worked as a conductor, performer, teaching assistant and faculty substitute. Through summer conducting workshops, Roger has worked with conductors including Dr. Travis Cross, Dr. Mallory Thompson, Professor Charles Peltz, Dr. Cynthia Johnston Turner, Dr. Mark Scatterday, Professor Kevin McKeown and Dr. Mitchell Fennell. Drawing from his own varied background studying anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Wind Conducting at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Roger seeks to combine a high standard of musical performance with a rigorous academic approach, always seeking to explore and present music in a new and different light.
Outside of music, Roger works with the mental health foundation Healthy Gamer by providing peer-delivered recovery support services as a group and personal coach. In his offtime, Roger enjoys being a mediocre cook, catching up on popular shows from half a decade ago, and biking. Roger is extremely excited to join the Husky family at UW, and get to know the PNW at large - Go Dawgs!
David Stewart is a Graduate Assistant at the University of Washington, where he is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) in conducting. David holds degrees in music performance and music education from Central Washington University and received a Master of Music from the University of Montana. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he attended Mercer Island High School and spent his weekends playing in the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. His early experiences working with influential music educators shaped his ambition to become a band director himself. After realizing this dream and teaching at Graham-Kapowsin High School for four years, he decided to further his education and focus on conducting. As a performer, David has achieved notable success. He won his university's concerto competition as a freshman and received the National Band Association's Outstanding Musician Award. In 2018, he was featured as a soloist at the Western/Northwestern CBDNA Conference, where he delivered a standing-ovation performance of Scott McAllister's "Black Dog" for solo clarinet and wind ensemble.
Most evenings and Saturdays, you'll find David working with the Husky Marching Band, where he not only conducts but also plays a role in crafting the band’s dynamic game-day performances. He embraces the vibrant culture, community, and traditions of the Husky Marching Band and works to create memorable experiences for both participants and audiences. Beyond his musical pursuits, David enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing, and chess. He is also a trained mindfulness teacher, reflecting his well-rounded approach to music and life.