2016 WELS East Region Band Festival

Luminescence David Biedenbender Lux Aurumque Eric Whitacre First Suite in E flat Gustav Holst

FREE WILL OFFERING

Be Thou My Vision Arr. David Mancini The Highway Daniel Montoya, Jr.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & INTRODUCTIONS

They Led my Lord Away Adoniram Gordon, Arr. Fred J. Allen Mayflower Overture Ron Nelson Northern Pines John Philip Sousa

Participating Schools and Directors Mrs. Jodi Wosje Evergreen Lutheran High School

Mr. James Neujahr Fox Valley Lutheran High School

Mr. Steve Grosinske Huron Valley Lutheran High School

Mr. Josiah Willitz Illinois Lutheran High School

Mrs. Sarah Mayer Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School

Mrs. Linda Moeller Luther Preparatory School

Mr. Joel Ungemach Manitowoc Lutheran High School

Mr. Ryan Stangl Michigan Lutheran High School

Mr. James Groth Shoreland Lutheran High School

Appreciation & Thanks

Kwik Trip of Southeast Wisconsin Andrew & Heidi Willems

Acosta Foodservice Keith Wordell

Reinhart Foodservice Shoreland Music Department

Sealed Air YMCA of Racine Band Festival chapel presenters

Jelly Belly Corporation Shoreland faculty & staff

Days Inn of Racine/Sturtevant Host families

Pacetti’s Maestro of Music Chaperones & volunteers

Elite Embroidery

Festival Band

Flute/Piccolo Jayde Al-Angary ILHS Trumpet Hailey Dick MLHS Flute Abby Buege LPS Brett Henning ELHS

Amy Daley ML Aaron Hinz KML

Grace Fleming FVL Alyssa Leitzke KML

Jenna Keller FVL Courtney Ritter ML

Julia Kubath ML Jacob Roth ML

Samantha Pinchard SLHS Sawyer Thorne FVL

Laura Sanford KML

French Horn Harrison Krause FVL

Oboe Michaela Bessler ELHS Anna Lemke KML

Molly Sanford KML Cassandra Rose KML

Luke Willems SLHS

Bassoon Gabby Baker ELHS Josh Wordell SLHS

Emily Lillo FVL

Esther Teresinski MLHS Trombone Shane Griffin ILHS

Benjamin Hillmer LPS

Clarinet Alyssa Bergemann ELHS Zachary Pasbrig KML

Bryce Boughton FVL Emma Sill ML

Toni Capobianco SLHS Ben Thom MLHS

Alissa Dubiak SLHS

Emily Frey KML Euphonium Michael Flunker FVL

Hannah Hinz ILHS Noah Schaewe HVL

Katelyn Kitzinger KML Noah Ungemach MLHS

Julia Kjenstad ELHS

Quinna Koch ML Tuba Joseph Behm KML

Erin Krueger MLHS Nathan Brown ML

Aimee Olsen MLHS Karenna Lillo FVL

Freya Xu SLHS Joseph Raasch KML

Bass Clarinet Liesl Ragner FVL Percussion Jonathan Kelly SLHS

Jared Miller KML

Contrabass Clar. Collin Schwab KML Anneliese Robinson KML

Hannah Rubin ILHS

Alto Sax Ashlee Olsen MLHS Jeremiah Stockdale HVL

Evan Willis KML Sura-attha Umasangtongkul FVL

Kyle Wilson LPS

Mackenzie Zabel ML ELHS- Evergreen Lutheran HS

FVL- Fox Valley Lutheran HS

Tenor Sax Mark Sabit HVL HVL- Huron Valley Lutheran HS

ILHS- Illinois Lutheran HS

Bari Sax Alison Lowrey SLHS KML- Kettle Moraine Lutheran HS

LPS- Luther Prep School

MLHS- Manitowoc Lutheran HS

ML- Michigan Lutheran HS

SLHS- Shoreland Lutheran HS

Program Notes The United Nations proclaimed 2015 as the year of light; one of their website’s banners reads, “Why light matters.” This year’s WELS East Regional Band Festival program asks the same question, but the answer is one that lasts beyond 2015.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8

Luminescence David Biedenbender David Biedenbender is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Boise State University. Luminescence is a piece he wrote early in his career for a commission by the WELS Band Festival in 2009. He based the work on fragments from the melody, Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist (Rouse thyself, my weak spirit), which was written by Johann Schop and later harmonized in several settings by Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s commonly known as the Christian hymn, Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light. The verse we are most familiar with is the 9th verse of Johan von Rist’s original 12 verse poem in 1641:

Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light, and usher in the morning. O shepherds, shudder not with fright, but hear the angel's warning: this child, now weak in infancy, our confidence and joy shall be, the power of Satan breaking, our peace eternal making.

Lux Aurumque Eric Whitacre Lux Aurumque is Latin for “Light and Gold.” The work was originally composed for choir using the translated text: “Light, warm and heavy as pure gold, and the angels sing softly to the new born baby.” The piece presents an aural expression of the day the Light of the World was born. First Suite in E flat Gustav Holst Holst’s First Suite in E flat is in our program for its formal and compositional brilliance, especially in the first movement where the culminating E flat major chord is a favorite in the repertoire for many people. It is a moment of light, captured in sound. Holst steadily builds toward this moment of light using a chaconne, a melody in the bass that continuously repeats and is passed into other sections, 16 times in all. The following two movements draw on the first for melodic source material, tying the whole work together with considerable ingenuity. This work plays a central role in the development of the band as a concert ensemble. Before 1909, when this work was written, large ensembles of winds and percussion were perceived primarily as a function of the military. John Phillip Sousa and Patrick Gilmore before him, had professional bands, but they played mostly orchestral transcriptions and marches. Holst proved with this piece that a band had the artistic aptitude for more and paved the way for the flood of new repertoire that has been written in the last half of the 20th century up to today. Be Thou My Vision Arr. David Mancini A beautiful scoring of this well known Irish folksong/hymn featuring marimbas, orchestra bells, vibraphone, chimes, piano, and percussion instruments.

David Mancini is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he was also awarded the Performer's Certificate. In addition, he is an artist/clinician for the Yamaha Corporation of America, the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Company, and Vic Firth, Inc. As an artist/clinician, Mancini makes numerous appearances each year at colleges, high schools and junior high schools around the country where he performs as a guest soloist and presents hands-on workshops and master classes for the students. The Highway Daniel Montoya, Jr. From the interstate to the city freeway to the country highway, driving can conjure up all sorts of emotions. Daniel Montoya masterfully captures them in the highway. The Highway takes the listener on a wild ride beginning on a major interstate, where one can easily imagine the stress of highway driving, being surrounded by all sorts of vehicles. After a quick slam on the brakes and a short pause, the lanes open up with a more comfortable drive and the occasional passing car, only to be thrown back into the fray with a return of the opening lines. The music then exits the Interstate and finds peace on a less traveled stretch of highway. The listener can hear the music take you up to and past random drivers who join you on the road. The third theme in the music takes the listener one step further away from the stress of the busy highway to a more open country road, where one can imagine driving past a more peaceful landscape, with trees and birds and meadows. This peace is short lived as the listener is once again brought back to the chaos of the highway. Heart pounding and palms sweating, the trip ends with a rather abrupt stop. One can imagine the driver sitting for the moment dreading the return home. They Led my Lord Away Adoniram Gordon, Arr. Fred J. Allen They Led My Lord Away is based on a hymn credited to Adoniram J. Gordon’s (1836-1895) and it reminds us that the true light is not in the manger but in the empty tomb. The simple call and response form of the hymn suggests that the hymn may have been adapted from African American spirituals that were being disseminated around the same time. The recurring refrain of the original hymn asks the question from the shocked disciples on Easter morning, “can you tell me where to find Him?” Mayflower Overture Ron Nelson Ron Nelson’s, “Mayflower Overture,” tells the tale of the Pilgrims aboard the famed ship of the same name. He uses three well known hymns to carry us through a storm to our arrival at a new world. The story is a beautiful metaphor for everyone’s pilgrimage through this life, clinging to the promise of a light at the end of the tunnel. Upon the Pilgrim’s arrival we celebrate with “Old Hundreth,” a hymn that has expressed the joy of many Lutheran gatherings throughout the centuries. Northern Pines John Philip Sousa Our final piece is Sousa’s The Northern Pines March. It was written in 1931 for Interlochen’s National Music Camp and was to be his last march. While Sousa’s style was considered antiquated by 1931, being replaced with music of the swing and jazz era, this march shows the enduring charm and prowess of the master composer. There is a picture hanging in the lobby of Corson Auditorium on the Interlochen grounds of Sousa conducting in their outdoor amphitheater. He is performing for a capacity crowd who are all in their Sunday whites and some hanging from the trees for a better look.

Dr. Mathew Schlomer Conductor Matthew Schlomer is an artist whose creativity flourishes in unexpected genres. He is a groundbreaking collaborator, passionate educator, and a voracious explorer of artistic opportunities. He has performed internationally as a conductor and saxophonist, while also having experience as a dancer, actor, and an award-winning visual artist. He has arranged music for dance and large ensembles, choreographed modern dance, and produced film and musical theater. Currently Schlomer is a conductor and instructor of saxophone at the renowned Interlochen Arts Academy in Traverse City, Michigan. As an avid promoter of new music, he regularly premiers works that explore the intersection of different art forms. He is resident conductor of the Traverse City Dance Project and the experimental percussion group Clocks in Motion. Past positions have included the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Luther College, Edgewood College, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School, and worship coordinator at the WELS Chapel in Madison, WI. Dr. Schlomer holds a doctoral degree in instrumental conducting with a minor concentration in dance from the University of Wisconsin, a bachelors degree in music education from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a gold medal in saxophone from Bordeaux Regional Conservatory in France. While at UW-Madison he studied conducting with Scott Teeple and twice received the Richard Church Memorial Conducting Award. His studies in movement theory and dance with Kate Corby and Mary Brennan inspire his ongoing research into the synthesis of the body and artistic desire. Matthew Schlomer is an active guest conductor and clinician and has presented his innovative pedagogy to national and international audiences. His latest creative projects have been collaborating with an executive chef to examine the relationship between the culinary arts and the ingredients that make up a music composition, as well as writing a book about his theories and observations of music education.

Mr. Wesley Schmandt Wes Schmandt teaches percussion and German at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High school in Jackson, WI. He is also maintains a private studio and serves as coach for the Lutheran Vanguard Drum Line. At KML he is the director of the percussion ensemble and helps with the Jazz Ensemble. Mr. Schmandt keeps active in performance as a member of the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band. He has served as clinician for the WELS Band Festivals since 1992. Mr. Schmandt lives in West Bend, WI with his wife, Sarah and three children, Michaya, Dylan and Bryson.