Blair School of MusicPRESENTS

With the presentation of the 2019–2020 Concert Series, the Blair School of Music gratefully

acknowledges the following individuals and organizations for their generous support.

Anonymous friend of the Blair SchoolAnonymous friend of the Blair School

Valere Blair Potter Charitable TrustThe parent of a Blair School graduate

Marianne and Andrew ByrdThe estate of Bobbi Jean Dedman

The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation, Inc.Martha McCrory Foundation Inc.

Robert McMullan, BA ’80, and Deborah Flanagan

Delphine and Ken RobertsThe Ryman Hospitality Properties Foundation

Professor Emeritus Christian TealBarbara Engelhardt Wilson and Justin Wilson

The Washington FoundationThe Blair KeyBoard

PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE BLAIR SCHOOLWays to make a gift:

ONLINE vu.edu/blairperformance

BY PHONE (615) 322-7650

BY MAIL Blair School of Musicc/o Gift ProcessingPMB 4077272301 Vanderbilt PlaceNashville, TN 37240-7727

THE BLAIR KEYBOARDLisa Aston • Lang Aston • Del Bryant Marianne M. Byrd • James H. Clarke

Ann N. Clarke • Emily N. Eberle James C. Gooch • Dawson Gray James H. Harris III • Bzur Haun

Stuart Chapman Hill • Martha Rivers Ingram Alexandra Tuza MacKay • Kevin P. McDermott

Alexander C. McLeod • Richard J. Miller, Jr. Robert M. Moses • Georgianna Diane Paul

Ellen Jones Pryor • Kenneth L. Roberts Jennie Smith • Judy Turner • Blair J. Wilson

UPCOMING EVENTS

Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. Vanderbilt® and the Vanderbilt logos are registered trademarks of The Vanderbilt University. © 2019 Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved. Produced by Vanderbilt University Marketing Solutions and Vanderbilt Printing Services. This publication is recyclable. Please recycle it.

blair.vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt Wind SymphonyThomas Verrier, conductor

with The Boston BrassFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 208:00 p.m., Ingram Hall

Presented with gratitude to the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation for its generous support of the Blair School

Vanderbilt Wind Symphony Thomas Verrier, conductor with The Boston Brass

Jeff Conner and Jose Sibaja, trumpets, Chris Castellanos, horn, Domingo Pagliuca, trombone, William Russell, tuba

Friday, September 20, 2019

8:00 p.m. Ingram Hall

Tunbridge Fair Walter Piston (1894 – 1976) Elegy John Barnes Chance (1932 – 1972) Symphony for Band Vincent Perischetti Adagio allegro (1915 – 1987) Adagio sostenuto Allegretto Vivace Pluto, The Last Planet Bruce Edward Miller

Boston Brass Fantasy for Film Rick DeJong

Boston Brass Slava! Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990)

Presented with gratitude to the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation for its generous support of the Blair School

Program Notes Tunbridge Fair Although Walter Piston is commonly acknowledged for his textbooks on harmony and counterpoint, his creative compositional skills are evident in Tunbridge Fair. Like Ralph Vaughan Williams, Piston disrupts the regularity of time by crafting melodies that are tied over the bar line and rely heavily upon syncopation. It is a brief piece that offers a high degree of technical and rhythmic challenges. Notably, there is significant exposure of the horn section. Elegy When a member of the West Genesee Senior High School Band died, Elegy was commissioned in his memory. It is a single-movement, solemn work based on a five-note motif stated initially in the low woodwinds. The piece builds to a bold statement in the horns, which grows to a dramatic climax. A brass fanfare played with the theme in the woodwinds again ends abruptly, after which the piece closes in a fragmented echo of the beginning. The music symbolizes the tragedy of a life cut short, seemingly unfinished, as a portion of the original motif is left hanging while each instrument dies away. Sadly, Chance wrote Elegy only months before his own sudden and tragic death. The piece stands as an emotional monument to this composer’s unfinished career. Symphony for Band The Symphony for Band was commissioned and premiered by Clark Mitze and the Washington University Band at the MENC Convention in St. Louis on April 16, 1956. According to the composer, it could have been titled Symphony for Winds, following, as it did, his Symphony No. 5 for Strings. Persichetti, however, did not wish to avoid the word “band,” which he felt no longer had the connotation of a poor quality of music. In the autumn 1964 Journal of Band Research, he wrote, “Band music is virtually the only kind of music in America today (outside of the ‘pop’ field) which can be introduced, accepted, put to immediate and wide use, and become a staple of the literature in a short time.” According to Jeffrey Renshaw, “The Symphony for Band ... was in many ways such a departure from the established concepts of band works that it influenced the attitudes of generations of composers.” The four movements (Adagio allegro, Adagio sostenuto, Allegretto, and Vivace) have forms with traditional implications. The opening horn call and a following scale-wise passage in the slow introduction become the two principal themes (in reverse order) in the subsequent Allegro. The standard exposition, development, and recapitulation of sonata form are the Allegro, although the traditional key relationships are not completely retained. The slow second movement is based on “Round Me Falls the Night,” from the

composer’s Hymns and Responses for the Church Year. The third movement, in trio form, serves as the traditional dance movement and is followed by a finale in free rondo form, which draws the thematic material from the preceding movements and concludes with a chord containing all 12 tones of the scale. Pluto, the Last Planet The Last Planet was commissioned by the Boston Brass and organist Robin Dinda, and the work is dedicated to them. The title gets its name from the suggestion of a friend's grandson. He was aware of the work The Planets, by Gustav Holst, and knew that it did not include Pluto. (The composition was finished in 1916, and Pluto was not discovered until 1930.) He suggested that I write the final planet — hence the title. The players wanted something heroic, uplifting, lively, and perhaps programmatic — hence the general tone of the work. The work was premiered in its original form (brass quintet and organ) on October 23, 1993, at the First Church of Nashua in New Hampshire by the above-named people. — Bruce Edward Miller Fantasy for Film Fantasy for Film was commissioned by the Boston Brass in February 2006. Film composer Rick DeJonge wrote the piece to illustrate the different styles of film music. The piece opens with a fanfare similar to that of Alfred Newman’s famous 20th Century Fox fanfare, demonstrating the adventure style utilizing the French horn with a large Hollywood-style orchestration, similar to that of James Newton Howard (Dinosaurs) and John Williams (Jurassic Park). The next section is the action/thriller style, which uses dissonant chords and ornamentation along with lower ostinatos in the same fashion as Christopher Young (Spider Man 3) and Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of the Apes). The final section is comedic, and here the composer evokes out the ideas of Carl Stalling (Warner Brothers cartoons) and DeJonge’s good friend J. Eric Schmidt (The Magic Ring). Slava! Leonard Bernstein met the cellist Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich on a State Department-sponsored tour with the New York Philharmonic to Russia in 1959. SLAVA! A Political Overture was premiered on October 11, 1977, as a part of Rostropovich’s inaugural concerts as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra. Jack Gottlieb wrote in the program note for the premiere performance, “The first theme of Slava! is a vaudevillian tune redolent of political campaign hijinks. Theme two, which prominently features the electric guitar, is a canonic tune in7/8 time (both themes based on songs from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). A very brief kind of development section

follows, after which the two themes recur in reverse order. Near the end they are combined with a quotation (proclaimed by the ubiquitous trombones) from the coronation scene of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, in which the chorus sings the Russian word “slava,” meaning “glory.” In this way, of course, the composer is paying an extra four-bar homage to his friend, Rostropovich. The original version includes a tape of election conventioneering. The recording session was held at a studio on the East Side of New York City, near the United Nations building, with Bernstein, Michael Wager, Adolph Green, and Patrick O’Neal acting as orators shout typical campaign cliches: “If I am elected to this high office…,” “The people of this nation are sick and tired…,” “Never again shall we submit to…,” “Permit me to quote the words of…,” “I give you the next president….” All of these slogans get lost amidst the roar and cheers of the crowd. Although the composer has called this piece an overture, it has been found to be equally effective as the conclusion of a program, or even, if the occasion warrants, as an encore. Dedicated to Rostropovich, the piece concludes with the musicians shouting “Slava!”

Thomas E. Verrier is Senior Band Conductor and Director of Wind Ensembles at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He serves as Conductor of the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony, Artistic Director of the Vanderbilt Music Academy in Berlin, Germany (a joint project with musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic), and was the Founding Director of the Conductors Lab in Aix-en-Provence, France. His teaching duties include undergraduate and graduate-level courses in conducting, pedagogy and education. In addition, Verrier is a clinician for Yamaha Music Latin America and served as the Program Director of the Sistema Nacional de Educación Musical Instituto de Desarrollo Musical, a collaborative project of the Blair School of Music and the Ministry of Culture of Costa Rica. Verrier has accepted invitations to conduct throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. He has presented and/or conducted performances at conferences of the Congreso Iberoamericano de Directores, Compositores, Arregladores e Instrumentistas de Bandas Sinfónicas (Tenerife, Canary Islands), the Asian Pacific Band Directors Association (Macau and Hong Kong), the Hong Kong International Band Fair, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago). Ensembles under his direction have been selected to perform for the International Society for Music Education (Tenerife, Canary Islands), The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) National In-Service Conference (Nashville), the North American Saxophone Alliance (Los Angeles), southern and western division conferences of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), as well as the CBDNA National Conference (hosted the Blair School in March 2015). In addition, Verrier has guest conducted the United States Army Field Band as well as professional ensembles in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, China, and Spain. He has served as Consultor Artístico with the Dirección General de Bandas of Costa Rica and he is the Artistic Advisor of the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble. Verrier is a member of the American Bandmasters Association and also serves on the Executive Board of the College Band Directors National Association as the organization’s National Executive Secretary.

The Boston Brass Jeff Conner, trumpet, is the only original member of Boston Brass. He founded the group with some fellow Boston musicians while a student at Boston University and has engineered the meteoric rise of this ensemble’s fame in the world of popular chamber music. Conner received his M.Mus. from Boston University and his B.Mus. in music from Boston Conservatory. He has presented his entrepreneurial clinic, “The Portfolio Musician,” at The Yale School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston Conservatory of Music, Belmont School of Music, University of South Carolina, University of Las Vegas, University of Missouri, Syracuse University, Kansas State University, University of Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas City Conservatory and the Indiana Music Educators Conference. He is co-author of The Portfolio Musician, Case Studies in Success with Grammy-nominated musician John Laverty. Jose Sibaja, trumpet, brings an incredible level of artistry, humor and personality to Boston Brass. A native of Costa Rica, he studied at the New World School of the Arts and at the University of Miami in Gilbert Johnson’s studio. He held positions in the Miami Symphony, the Sinfonieta de Caracas and the Orquesta Sinfonica Venezuela and has performed as soloist with the Springfield Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica Venezuela, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Costa Rica. Sibaja is active in South Florida’s Latin music scene and toured the world extensively in Ricky Martin’s band for eight years. He appears in more than 150 commercial recordings with artists such as Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Alejandro Sanz. Sibaja has performed on Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live and the Grammys. He serves as Associate Professor of Trumpet at the Blair School of Music. A lifelong resident of Las Vegas, Chris Castellanos, horn, received his formal education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Castellanos is a former member of the Dallas Brass and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, with whom he has also been a soloist. In addition, he has shared the stage many times with the Utah Symphony, Miami Ballet, Rodney Marsalis Philidelphia Big Brass, Nevada Chamber Orchestra, Las Vegas Jazz Connection, and the TAD Wind Symphony of Japan. As a top-call freelancer, Castellanos has played more than 1,700 performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular and additional performances with Disney’s The Lion King and the Monty Python-inspired musical Spamalot. Castellanos has backed countless headliners on the Las Vegas Strip, most notably Frank Sinatra Jr., Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Peter Cetera, Peabo Bryson, Kenny G, Robert Goulet, Olivia Newton-John, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Michel Legrand, Mannheim Steamroller, Yes, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Charlotte Church, Ricky Martin at the

Latin Grammys and David Foster. He has also toured with Andrea Bocelli. As an educator, Castellanos has performed and conducted master classes and clinics in every state, as well as 30 countries. These include The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory of Music, The Sibelius Academy in Finland, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and Texas Bandmasters Association. A native of Venezuela, trombonist Domingo Pagliuca is an alumnus of the University of Miami, holding Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees. After finishing college, he moved back to Venezuela and served as co-principal trombonist of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra for 13 years. He was also a member of the Artistic Committee of the VSO. In 2008 he moved to the U.S., where he was appointed principal trombonist of the Miami Symphony for five years. Pagliuca is principal trombonist of the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra and Palm Beach Symphony. He was on faculty of EL SISTEMA in Venezuela for 12 years. In the U.S., prior to joining Boston Brass, he was faculty at Palm Beach Atlantic University for two years and at Florida International University for four years. He has received four Latin Grammys, and has performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli and Quincy Jones, among others. He appears on more than 100 albums. William Russell, tuba, is excited to be the newest member of Boston Brass. The band’s unique and entertaining blend of chamber music, jazz, and educational outreach is a perfect fit for a tuba player who is equally at home with Bach and bebop. Russell was a co-founder of Chicago-based quintet Alliance Brass, and is an alumnus of Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Principal teachers include Steven Layman, Kevin Stees, Sam Pilafian, Mike Roylance, Floyd Cooley, trumpeter John D’earth, and bassist Peter Spaar. As a classical, jazz, and pop instrumentalist, Russell has performed across the U.S. in venues from the Corn Palace to Carnegie Hall, and he has toured in Europe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He can be heard on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Grammy-winning 2008 recording of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, and if you look hard enough you might spot him as a background musician in the episode “Slave to Memory” of Fox TV series Empire. When not on the road with Boston Brass, Russell teaches tuba and euphonium at Northeastern Illinois University. He can also be heard performing with a number of jazz and pop groups around the Chicago area, including the New Orleans-inspired High Hat Second Line; funk/hip-hop brass band J-Livi & the Party; and ARCANA, a quartet that has been described as “Third Stream meets Second Line.”

Vanderbilt Wind Symphony Piccolo Grace Kim Elise Park Flute Helen Cho* Grace Kim Maya Koteshwar Elise Park Steven Wu Katherine Xie Oboe Julia Culp Becca Keith Rachel Miles* English horn Julia Culp Eb clarinet Sung Jin Lee Bb clarinet Ryan Breen Desiree Hagg Olivia Harrison Patrick Hu Kaylee Nielsen* Christina Rogers Bass clarinet Thomas Desrosiers Bassoon Tom Klink Haley Mitchell

Beck Rusley Contrabassoon Haley Mitchell Saxophone Jack Allen Adam DeLoach John Di Fatta* Andrew Gaffey* Nick Heilborn* Kevin Shinskie Horn Zach Bobbitt* Nathan Halberstadt Harrison Lam Ellie Repp Ben Shively Trumpet Jess Abbattista* Olivia Achcet Josh Camper Peter Gair Jeffrey Huddleston Eliza Pastore Jonathan Quiros Trombone Riley Borklund Jeremiah Kamtman* Jonathan Salcedo Robert Wake Euphonium Nathan Keene*

Ryan Smith* Tuba Stephen Adcock* Daniel Dardon Percussion Patrick Brennan Courtney Ellis Matthew Enfinger Sachin Nuguru Kenny Swartout* Nupur Thakkar* Eric Whitmer Double bass JJ Butler *Denotes principal player

Manager: Julia Culp

Assistant Manager: Zach Bobbitt

Librarian: Daniel Meza

Set Up Crew: Olivia Harrison Nick Heilborn

Adair Kelley Daniel Meza

Krishna Palanivel Megan Walters

Blair School of MusicPRESENTS

With the presentation of the 2019–2020 Concert Series, the Blair School of Music gratefully

acknowledges the following individuals and organizations for their generous support.

Anonymous friend of the Blair SchoolAnonymous friend of the Blair School

Valere Blair Potter Charitable TrustThe parent of a Blair School graduate

Marianne and Andrew ByrdThe estate of Bobbi Jean Dedman

The Sartain Lanier Family Foundation, Inc.Martha McCrory Foundation Inc.

Robert McMullan, BA ’80, and Deborah Flanagan

Delphine and Ken RobertsThe Ryman Hospitality Properties Foundation

Professor Emeritus Christian TealBarbara Engelhardt Wilson and Justin Wilson

The Washington FoundationThe Blair KeyBoard

PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE BLAIR SCHOOLWays to make a gift:

ONLINE vu.edu/blairperformance

BY PHONE (615) 322-7650

BY MAIL Blair School of Musicc/o Gift ProcessingPMB 4077272301 Vanderbilt PlaceNashville, TN 37240-7727

THE BLAIR KEYBOARDLisa Aston • Lang Aston • Del Bryant Marianne M. Byrd • James H. Clarke

Ann N. Clarke • Emily N. Eberle James C. Gooch • Dawson Gray James H. Harris III • Bzur Haun

Stuart Chapman Hill • Martha Rivers Ingram Alexandra Tuza MacKay • Kevin P. McDermott

Alexander C. McLeod • Richard J. Miller, Jr. Robert M. Moses • Georgianna Diane Paul

Ellen Jones Pryor • Kenneth L. Roberts Jennie Smith • Judy Turner • Blair J. Wilson

UPCOMING EVENTS

Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. Vanderbilt® and the Vanderbilt logos are registered trademarks of The Vanderbilt University. © 2019 Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved. Produced by Vanderbilt University Marketing Solutions and Vanderbilt Printing Services. This publication is recyclable. Please recycle it.

blair.vanderbilt.edu

Blair Academy Festival of MusicSUNDAY SEPTEMBER 221-5 p.m., Ingram PlazaBlair’s program for young children, teens and adults is now The Blair Academy. In celebration of our new name (which was the original name of the school when it opened 55 years ago), we are hosting an afternoon of musical fun, including performances, activities, crafts, stories, backstage tours and more!Presented with gratitude to the Valere Blair Potter Trust for its generous support of the Blair School

SEPTEMBERThe Boston BrassJeff Conner and Jose Sibaja, trumpets, Chris Castellanos, horn, Domingo Pagliuca, trombone, William Russell, tubaSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 218:00 p.m., Ingram HallThe Boston Brass, which features Blair’s own Jose Sibaja on trumpet, treats audiences to a unique brand of entertainment captivating all ages. The ensemble’s lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, attempts to bridge the ocean of classical formality to delight audiences in an evening of great music and boisterous fun. The program will include music by Alberto Ginastera, Manuel De Falla, J.S. Bach, Astor Piazzolla and classic jazz standards. Come be part of what promises to be an unforgettable evening! Presented with gratitude to the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation for its generous support of the Blair School