The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Department of Music Presents

UCLA Wind Ensemble

Travis J. Cross Conductor

Amy Sanchez

Horn

D. Thomas Lee Guest Conductor

Wednesday, February 4, 2015 8:00 p.m.

Schoenberg Hall

PROGRAM

Rocky Point Holiday ......................................................................... Ron Nelson

And the grass sings in the meadows ............................................. Travis J. Cross

Groovy Loops ........................................................................ J. Scott McKenzie

Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble .......................................... Dana Wilson

Freely

Amy Sanchez, horn

Lux Aurumque .............................................................................. Eric Whitacre

D. Thomas Lee, conductor

The Frozen Cathedral ..................................................................... John Mackey

* * * * *

Please join the members of the UCLA Wind Ensemble for a reception in the

Schoenberg Hall lobby immediately following the concert.

The reception is sponsored by UCLA’s Epsilon Kappa chapter of

Tau Beta Sigma and the Psi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi,

national honorary band sorority and fraternity.

The UCLA Wind Ensemble would like to extend a special thank you

to Michele Eckart and her staff.

* * * * * * *

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

TRAVIS J. CROSS serves as associate professor of music and department

vice chair in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where he conducts the

Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and directs the graduate program in

wind conducting. As wind ensemble conductor for five years at Virginia Tech

in Blacksburg, Va., Cross led students in performances at the Virginia Music

Educators Association conference, Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall and

developed the Virginia Tech Band Directors Institute into a major summer

conducting workshop.

Cross earned doctor and master of music degrees in conducting from North-

western University in Evanston, Ill., and the bachelor of music degree cum

laude in vocal and instrumental music education from St. Olaf College in

Northfield, Minn. His principal teachers were Mallory Thompson and Timothy

Mahr. Prior to graduate study, he taught for four years at Edina (Minn.) High

School, where he conducted two concert bands and oversaw the marching band

program.

In 2004, Cross participated in the inaugural Young Conductor/Mentor Project

sponsored by the National Band Association. The same year, he received the

Distinguished Young Band Director Award from the American School Band

Directors Association of Minnesota. From 2001–2003, Cross served a two-year

term as the recent graduate on the St. Olaf College Board of Regents. In 2006,

he was named a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the United States Department of

Education. He currently serves as national vice president for professional

relations for Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity.

Cross contributed a chapter to volume four of Composers on Composing

for Band, available from GIA Publications. His original works and arrange-

ments for band, choir, and orchestra are published by Boosey & Hawkes,

Daehn Publications, and Theodore Music. He has appeared as a guest conduc-

tor, composer, and clinician in several states, internationally, and at the Mid-

west Clinic and leads honor bands and other ensembles in California, Illinois,

Indiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Canada, Korea, and Thailand during

the 2014–2015 season.

D. THOMAS LEE is professor of music and director of bands emeritus at

UCLA. He holds the doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Cin-

cinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as two degrees from Drake

University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was a student of Don Marcouiller.

Previous to his appointment at UCLA, Lee founded and conducted the Univer-

sity of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble and directed the graduate program in

band conducting. Before his appointment at Texas, Lee was founder and con-

ductor of the Ohio University Wind Ensemble, where he received a research

grant to develop an innovative approach to teaching conducting through non-

verbal communication.

Lee arrived at UCLA in 1985. Since then, the UCLA Wind Ensemble received

international acclaim and significant prominence for performances at national

and regional conferences and recordings of important composers. Lee is known

especially for musical performance, as well as creative programming, balanc-

ing both traditional and contemporary literature. In addition, he has a special

commitment to the commissioning of new music by American composers. Lee

created several new programs within the wind ensemble genre, including a

collaboration between the Society of Los Angeles Film Composers and the

UCLA Wind Ensemble, which resulted in an internship program for UCLA

students to work directly with the most acclaimed film composers. A large

number of his conducting students hold university, high school, and middle

school teaching positions throughout the United States. He is particularly

proud of these conductors and their achievement.

Lee has been invited to guest conduct all-state bands and music festivals in all

parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, and Asia. In addi-

tion, Lee has given innumerable workshops on all aspects of conducting and

interpretation of music, with special emphasis in the area of non-verbal com-

munication skills. Since his retirement from UCLA, Lee maintains a full

schedule of guest conducting and leading conducting workshops.

With a dynamic personality as a performer and educator, horn player AMY

SANCHEZ has developed a diverse career in Los Angeles that places her at

the front of a new generation of multifaceted instrumentalists. She joined the

faculty at UCLA as lecturer of horn in Spring 2014. A member of the Fresno

Philharmonic, Riverside County Philharmonic, and the Pageant of the Masters

Orchestra in Laguna Beach, Amy also performs with the Pacific Symphony;

Pasadena, Santa Barbara, New West, Long Beach, and Redlands symphonies;

Los Angeles Opera; Los Angeles Master Chorale; and many others throughout

Northern and Southern California.

Along with her active symphonic career, Sanchez was a featured soloist with

the international touring show Blast and regularly collaborates on creative en-

deavors with Los Angeles jazz, hip-hop, and rock musicians. Her brass trio,

3brass, released their first album, An Offering, in 2012 and are currently in

production for their second album, to be released this fall. Sanchez is an active

studio musician, recording for motion pictures and television (including Life of

Pi) and for performing artists on albums such as Michael Bublé’s To Be Loved.

She has also had the opportunity to perform live with artists such as Danny

Elfman, Andrea Bocelli, Kanye West, Rhianna, Edward Sharpe and the Mag-

netic Zeroes, and Inara George of the Bird and the Bees. Sanchez has per-

formed internationally in Europe, Japan, Israel, and India.

As an educator, Sanchez served as sabbatical-replacement horn professor at

Ithaca College in New York and taught at the world-renowned Interlochen Arts

Camp in Michigan. She is a Los Angeles Philharmonic teaching artist, partner-

ing with public school music programs throughout the Los Angeles area. San-

chez also enjoys her work as the horn teaching artist for Harmony Project/

Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, supported by Gustavo Dudamel, and she

maintains a private teaching studio as well. Sanchez received her bachelor’s

degree from Ithaca College in New York and her master’s degree from the

University of Southern California.

NOTES

Ron Nelson: Rocky Point Holiday

Ron Nelson has composed for nearly every genre, including opera, chorus,

film, television, orchestra, and wind ensemble. He received all his degrees

from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of Howard Han-

son. He also studied in France with Arthur Honegger at the Paris Conservatory

and with famed teacher Nadia Boulanger. Nelson served on the faculty of

Brown University for 37 years, until his retirement in 1993. That same year,

his Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H) made history by winning all three ma-

jor wind band composition prizes – the National Band Association William D.

Revelli Composition Contest, the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald

Award, and the Sudler International Prize.

In 1969, the University of Minnesota Concert Band embarked on a highly am-

bitious seven-week tour of the Soviet Union. Frank Bencriscutto, then director

of bands at Minesota, had heard Nelson’s orchestral work Savannah River

Holiday and asked for a piece of similar virtuosity and bold American flavor

for the band to take on the historic tour. When Bencriscutto told Nelson the

band had no technical limitations, the composer warned, “I’m going to write a

tremendously difficult piece.” Nelson set to work at a small seaside resort in

Rhode Island with a nearby amusement park called Rocky Point. The resulting

composition, Rocky Point Holiday, established Nelson as an exciting new

voice in band music and remains popular among audiences today.

Travis J. Cross: And the grass sings in the meadows

And the grass sings in the meadows was commissioned by the City of Fairfax

(Va.) Band, Robert Pouliot, music director and conductor. They gave the pre-

miere performance at Fairfax High School on April 16, 2011. The title of the

work comes from the final stanza of the “Spring Carol” by Scottish poet

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894):

So when the earth is alive with gods,

And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,

And the grass sings in the meadows,

And the flowers smile in the shadows,

Sits my heart at ease,

Hearing the song of the leas,

Singing the songs of the meadows.

J. Scott McKenzie: Groovy Loops

Major J. Scott McKenzie was assigned as associate bandmaster of The United

States Army Field Band and officer-in-charge of the Concert Band in August

2012. Previously he was Commander of the United States Army Training and

Doctrine Command Band at Fort Eustis, Va. McKenzie holds the master of

music degree in composition from George Mason University and a bachelor of

arts degree in music from Virginia Tech. He provides the following notes:

I wrote the original Groovy Loops for saxophone quartet just a few

years after college. After writing a piece, I usually move on to

other projects and try to leave older ones alone, even if I later think

of some things I could’ve done differently or better. I have also

shied away from rearranging pieces for instrumentation that differs

from the original, since I typically consider the orchestration or

color of a new piece as inseparable from other musical elements

like melody, harmony, or texture. But for some reason, Groovy

Loops is a piece I’ve revisited a couple of times. A few years ago, I

arranged it for string orchestra so I could devote more time to ex-

plore the unfamiliar territory of string sounds and less on writing

new material. Once that was done, I once again put the piece aside.

I figured I was done tinkering with it. Deep down, however, I al-

ways thought it would work well in a full band setting. I got the

chance when Dave McKee wrote me and asked if I had a short

piece for the Virginia Tech Symphonic Wind Ensemble’s upcom-

ing performance at Carnegie Hall. I didn’t feel like I had anything

in my catalogue that would appropriately fill the spot, but offered

up the suggestion to arrange an older piece. It seemed appropriate

for a number of reasons: the ensemble was looking for a piece to

buffer a slow piece from a full symphony, there were only a few

minutes to spare before the program became too long, and since I

had only a month to meet deadline, the option of writing something

completely new was dangerous to say the least.

In adapting a saxophone quartet for wind ensemble, I obviously

expanded the color palette, but also added a few moving lines, per-

cussive effects, and richer harmonies that were unavailable to the

smaller ensemble. I also added a couple of modulations to accom-

modate some specific instrumental range issues. Finally, I length-

ened opening and closing sections and incorporated silences that

“bookend” the piece a little more substantively than the original.

This arrangement is dedicated to my mentor, teacher, and friend

David McKee.

Dana Wilson: Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble

American composer Dana Wilson has received commissions from ensembles

ranging from the Buffalo Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Mem-

phis and Syracuse to the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Detroit Chamber Winds

and Strings, and Netherlands Wind Ensemble. He has written solo works for

such renowned artists as hornist Gail Williams, clarinetist Larry Combs, trum-

peters James Thompson and Rex Richardson, and oboist David Weiss. Cur-

rently Charles A. Dana Professor of Music at Ithaca College, Wilson earned

degrees from Bowdoin College, the University of Connecticut, and the East-

man School of Music. He has composed several notable works for band and

wind ensemble, including Piece of Mind, which won both the Ostwald Award

and the Sudler Prize, two of the three major international awards for wind band

composition.

The Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble results from the longstanding mu-

sical relationship between Wilson and Gail Williams, former associate princi-

pal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and professor of at Northwestern

University, that began when Williams commissioned Wilson to write a piece

for solo horn and piano in 1994. The three-movement concerto followed, first

in an orchestral version premiered by the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in

1997 and subsequently in a wind ensemble version premiered in 2002 with the

Ithaca College Wind Ensemble at the Eastman Wind Ensemble 50th anniver-

sary celebration. According to the score:

The concerto is one of Wilson’s few works without some

programmatic reference in the title. It is, nonetheless, a heart-

felt work, inspired as much by Ms. Williams’s nature as by

her beautiful horn sound. All of the work’s material is stated

clearly in the opening horn call. The first movement focuses

on the first three notes—a dramatic ascent encompassing the

interval of a minor ninth—and culminates in a solo cadenza.

Eric Whitacre: Lux Aurumque

One of the most performed composers of his generation, Eric Whitacre earned

degrees from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the Juilliard School,

where he studied with John Corigliano. After initial success as a choral com-

poser, Whitacre and his music have been embraced by the band world; Ghost

Train, his first work for wind symphony, was a finalist for the ABA/Ostwald

Award, leading to eight additional pieces for winds. Whitacre continues to de-

velop Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, an ambitious stage work that fuses

techno and electronica with the operatic tradition. His “virtual choir” video of

Lux Aurumque became a cultural sensation, receiving more than a million hits

on YouTube within two months of its March 2010 release; virtual recordings

of Sleep, Water Night, and Fly to Paradise have followed.

Whitacre first wrote Lux Aurumque in fall 2000 for a cappella mixed chorus.

He chose a poem by Edward Esch, “struck by its genuine, elegant simplicity,”

and then asked his friend and collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri to trans-

late the text into Latin.

Light,

warm and heavy as pure gold

and angels sing softly

to the new-born babe.

Five years later, a consortium led by the Texas Music Educators Association

commissioned Whitacre to adapt the Lux Aurumque for band. He rewrote the

climax to include the “Bliss” theme from Paradise Lost; Whitacre recently

incorporated the changes into a revised choral work called Lux Nova. The band

version received its premiere at the 2005 Texas Music Educators Association

conference under the baton of its dedicatee, longtime University of Miami di-

rector of bands Gary Green.

John Mackey: The Frozen Cathedral

John Mackey is one of the most performed composers of his generation. He

earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School,

where he studied composition with Donald Erb and John Corigliano, respec-

tively. Significant dance collaborations include the Alvin Ailey Dance Com-

pany, Ailey 2, Peridance Ensemble, Jeanne Ruddy Dance, and Parsons Dance

Company, which he also served as music director from 1999–2003. The U.S.

Olympic synchronized swimming team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Ath-

ens Olympics performing to his chamber work Damn for clarinet and four per-

cussionists. Mackey has gained great acclaim as a composer of works for wind

ensemble, becoming the youngest recipient of the American Bandmasters As-

sociation/Ostwald Award in 2005 for Redline Tango and winning both the

ABA/Ostwald and National Band Association William D. Revelli awards in

2009 for Aurora Awakes. He recently completed his first symphony for band,

Wine-Dark Sea.

The Frozen Cathedral was commissioned by a consortium of 11 university

wind ensembles under the leadership of John Locke, director of bands at the

University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where the work premiered in March

2013. The work honors the memory of Locke’s son J.P., who had been fasci-

nated by Alaska and Denali National Park, home of the tallest mountain in

North America and, when measured from base to peak, the tallest land moun-

tain in the world. Mackey explains how he overcame the challenge of connect-

ing his composition to such a specific place, especially when he had never been

there:

My wife, who titles all of my pieces, said I should focus on

what it is that draws people to these places. People go to the

mountains—these monumental, remote, ethereal, and awe-

some parts of the world—as a kind of pilgrimage. It’s a

search for the sublime, for transcendence. A great mountain

is like a church. “Call it The Frozen Cathedral,” she said.

Jacob Wallace, director of bands at Southeastern Oklahoma State University

and frequent program annotator for John Mackey, provides the following

notes:

The most immediately distinct aural feature of the work is

the quality (and geographic location) of intriguing instru-

mental colors. The stark, glacial opening is colored almost

exclusively by a crystalline twinkling of metallic percussion

that surrounds the audience. Although the percussion orches-

tration carries a number of traditional sounds, there are a host

of unconventional timbres as well, such as crystal glasses,

crotales on timpani, tam-tam resonated with superball mal-

lets, and the waterphone, an instrument used by Mackey to

great effect on his earlier work Turning. The initial sonic

environment is an icy and alien one, a cold and distant land-

scape whose mystery is only heightened by a longing, modal

solo for bass flute—made dissonant by a contrasting key and

more insistent by the eventual addition of alto flute, English

horn, and bassoon. This collection expands to encompass

more of the winds, slowly and surely, with their chorale

building in intensity and rage. Just as it seems their wailing

despair can drive no further, however, it shatters like glass,

dissipating once again into the timbres of the introductory

percussion.

The second half of the piece begins in a manner that sounds

remarkably similar to the first. In reality, it has been trans-

posed into a new key, and this time, when the bass flute takes

up the long solo again, it resonates with far more compatible

consonance. The only momentary clash is a Lydian influence

in the melody, which brings a brightness to the tune that will

remain until the end. Now, instead of anger and bitter con-

flict, the melody projects an aura of warmth, nostalgia, and

even joy. This bright spirit pervades the ensemble, and the

twinkling colors of the metallic percussion inspire a similar

percolation through the upper woodwinds as the remaining

winds and brass present various fragmented motives based

on the bass flute’s melody. This new chorale, led in particu-

lar by the trombones, is a statement of catharsis, at once ban-

ishing the earlier darkness in a moment of spiritual transcen-

dence and celebrating the grandeur of the surroundings. A

triumphant conclusion in E-flat major is made all the more

jubilant by the ecstatic clattering of the antiphonal percus-

sion, which ring into the silence like voices across the ice.

Program notes compiled by Travis J. Cross.

* * * * * * *

The UCLA Band Program

Gordon Henderson

Director of Bands

Director of the Bruin Marching Band

Travis J. Cross

Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band Conductor

Flute Rie Aoyama, Agoura Hills Irwin Hui, Santa Clara Amaris Hurtado, Moreno Valley Emily Tsai, Baldwin Park William Yeh, Sunnyvale Oboe/English Horn Sydney Chou, La Habra Heights Amina Soliman, Irvine Zachary Thoennes, Bakersfield Clarinet Stephen Ahn, San Diego Nicholas Alexander, San Jose D’Lainey Forrester, Carlsbad Nicole Galisatus, Redwood City Ellyn King, San Diego Sarah Min, Sylmar Nick Lie, Saratoga Ziyuan (Eric) Qu, Orlando, FL Jiwoo Park, Irvine Dalton Tran, Irvine Bass Clarinet Joshua Garcia, San Diego Maya Nag, Saratoga Contrabass Clarinet Adam Gilberti, Walnut Creek † Bassoon Mack Dimler, Danville Zachary Freeman, South Pasadena Saxophone Rachael Klavir, Thousand Oaks Christina Kosters, Edina, MN

Edgar Melendez, West Covina *

Tyler Onodera, Union City Horn Alex Crosthwaite, San Diego

Sunghyan Lee, Pleasanton

Rachel O’Connor, Toronto, ON *

Andrew Pickett, Tulare *

Taylor Quimby, Wildomar

Yasmeen Richards, North Hollywood Trumpet

Jon Bhatia, Long Beach *

Luis Cárdenas Casillas, Sioux Falls, SD *

Alex Darouie, San Marcos

Justin Klotzle, Simi Valley

Jackson Levin, Elk Grove

Robin Seitz, Portland, OR

Aaron Woolley, San Diego Trombone Rebecca Buringrud, Porterville

Matt Koutney, Sacramento

May Zeng, Sunnyvale Bass Trombone Cameron Rahmani, San Diego Euphonium Sal Hernandez, Whittier Josiah Morales, Valencia * Tuba

Seth Shaffer, Southlake, TX *

Luke Storm, Eugene, OR * Double Bass Ramin Abrams, New York Keyboard Ian Richard, Purcellville, VA * Harp Amy Ahn, Palo Alto Percussion Thameenah Alam, Lancaster

Chris Ewy, San Ramon

Mariam Kaddoura, Santa Monica Δ *

Dante Luna, Los Angeles Δ

Noel Medrano, Van Nuys

Mika Nakamura, Simi Valley

Andreia Postlewaite, Tulare

Jessie So, Irvine

Kevin Tran, Hanford Δ

Austin Zwickel, Simi Valley

UCLA Wind Ensemble Travis J. Cross, conductor

Ian Richard, graduate assistant conductor

Rachel O’Connor and Seth Shaffer, teaching assistants

Δ Extra Musician * Graduate Student † Faculty/Staff

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FUTURE CONCERTS

Feb. 12 chambermusic@ucla

“It’s a Woodwind World IX”

____________________________

February 13, 15, 20 , 22, at Freud Playhouse …

An Opera UCLA production presented in collaboration with the UCLA

Department of Theater, with UCLA Philharmonia

I DUE FIGARO

Music by Saverio Mercadante, Libretto by Felice Romani

Critical edition by Paolo Casio and Víctor Sánchez Sánchez (presented by

agreement with UT Orpheus)

Joseph Colaneri, conductor, Peter Kazaras, director

A rollicking sequel to the Figaro story, this West Coast premiere traces the

further adventures of the roguish servant and his intrigues and eventual come

-uppance at the hands of several extremely intelligent and clever women.

I DUE FIGARO will be a part of the LA Opera's "Figaro Unbound" festival,

celebrating the revolutionary spirit of this timeless character created by

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.

____________________________

Mar. 1 UCLA Percussion Ensemble

Theresa Dimond, director

Mar. 5 chambermusic@ucla

Peter Yates, guitar

Mar. 10 UCLA Wind Ensemble & Symphonic Band

Travis J. Cross, conductor

Mar. 11 UCLA Symphony

Gary Smith, marimba

Dean Anderson, Geoffrey Page, Ian Richard, conductors

Mar. 14 Verdi’s Requiem

UCLA Choral Union & Philharmonia Neal Stulberg, conductor

Mar. 15 Contempo Flux

Gloria Cheng, director

* * * * *