#29 Suggested Repertoire from Around the World for Developing Bands

This 29th installment of suggested repertoire is proposed by Daniel Tembras serves as the Director of Instrumental Studies at the Purdue University School of Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Tembras is a frequent guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States, Europe, China, and Mexico and has been involved as a guest conductor and adjudicator with the Mid-Europe Festival for over a decade.

Grade 2

Aloft – 3’45" – Purchase at www.stevenbryant.com

Steven Bryant (USA, 1972)

Aloft evokes the relentless pursuit of powered flight by the Wright Brothers at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, as well as the broader sense of persistence and elation during any creative act. It represents a historic moment in aviation and is filled with wonderful opportunities to introduce or expand on knowledge of syncopation.

Aloft is meant to be truly accessible to a very wide range of musicians, conforming to the North Carolina Bandmasters Association MPA grade 2 guidelines, and thus playable by young and inexperienced musicians everywhere including limited instrumentation options.

Steven Bryant trained for one summer in the mid-1980s as a break-dancer (i.e. forced into lessons by his mother), was the 1987 1/10 scale radio-controlled car racing Arkansas state champion, has a Bacon Number of 1, and has played saxophone with Branford Marsalis on Sleigh Ride. Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, He resides in Durham, NC with his wife, , conductor Verena Moesenbichler-Bryant.

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Grade 4

Bandwidth Radio Hour – 18’(approx. 8' of music) – Purchase at https://www.erikasvanoe.com

Erika Svanoe (USA, 1979)

Bandwidth Radio Hour recreates an old-time radio show from the 1940s in a band concert setting. It is a musical work for wind band with multiple narrators/actors and a sound effect artist (or additional percussionist). Various theatrical elements can be incorporated into the performance. The piece is inspired by live radio show broadcasts popular in the 1940s. The actors are the radio voice talent, the Sound FX Artist creates live sound effects, the band acts as the “house band” and the attending audience acts as the “live studio audience.” It is a wonderful collaboration of various arts.

Dr. Erika Svanoe is a conductor and composer for wind band, known for her lyrical melodies, nods to classic literature, and musical deconstruction, humor, and pastiche. Her works have been performed internationally by school, university, community, and professional bands. Her first major work, The Haunted Carousel, won the 2014 NBA Young Band Composition Contest.

As a conductor, Dr. Svanoe has held residencies with the USAF Heritage of America Band, the Atlanta Freedom Bands, and numerous universities. She has held collegiate appointments at Augsburg University, Bemidji State University, and the University of New Hampshire. She is active as a guest conductor and clinician, appearing with high school, university, and festival ensembles across the United States. She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from The Ohio State University, a Master of Music in Wind Conducting from Oklahoma State University, and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. She currently lives in Menomonie, WI with her husband, designer and graphic novelist Erik Evensen.

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Grade 4

La Chancla – 7’45” – Purchase at https://www.dennisllinasmusic.com

Dennis Llinás (USA, 1980)

From the composer:

“La Chancla is Spanish for a slipper -- more accurately, a flip flop. While Cubans usually say "chancleta", Puerto Ricans refer to it as "chancla." It is a common meme or joke among Hispanics that a mother with a chancla in her hand could get an entire room of unruly kids in line or even chase away a bear (look it up on YouTube -- it happened!). It is the Excalibur of Hispanic mothers and grandmothers everywhere, and so I thought it would be a fun project to write a piece with this title and play between the mythical and merengue.

The mythical element to La Chancla is represented by a combination of whole tone and octatonic collections. The merengue stands in stark contrast to the mythical representing the culture through more conservative functional harmony but intense rhythmic vitality. The piece is not programmatic -- just a fun collection of these styles and the interplay between them.

This work was commissioned by a consortium of band programs led by Thomas Verrier and Vanderbilt University. Tom had the vision of creating a work that was to be donated to bands in the Latin Americas who had limited budgets to purchase music. For every participating institution of this consortium, a copy of La Chancla will be donated to a band in the Latin Americas.”

Dennis Llinás is a Cuban-Colombian conductor and composer. He currently is the Director of Bands at The University of Oregon where he conducts the wind ensemble, teaches graduate & undergraduate conducting, and oversees the band area. A native of Hialeah, FL, Dennis studied at Florida International University & The University of Texas. He is an active clinician nationally and internationally conducting in Colombia, Austria, and throughout the US including the Dallas Winds and the West Point Band. He has presented sessions at The Midwest Clinic, WASBE, TMEA (Texas), FMEA, and CBDNA. His compositions and arrangements have been widely performed with recordings by Mark Hetzler and the University of Texas at El Paso Wind Ensemble. He has had performances by the Dallas Winds, The United States Air Force Band, The United States Navy Band, USAF Band of the Golden West, Cedar Park Winds, Brooklyn Wind Symphony, and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble to name a few. His works have been performed at prestigious venues such as The Midwest Clinic, Music for All National Concert Band Festival, Texas Music Educators Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association Conference.

In the world of the marching arts, Llinás arranges for many high school bands and universities throughout the US including Louisiana State University, The University of Texas, Penn State University, University of South Florida, The University of Arkansas, The University of Tennessee, and the University of Texas at El Paso.

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Grade 4

Skysplitter Fanfare – 1’45” – Purchase at https://www.connorwooley.com

Connor Wooley (USA, 2001)

Connor Wooley is a composer, educator, and performer based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has been prolific in his works for solo, chamber, strings, and wind ensemble. Wooley has been commissioned by numerous performers and ensembles in the Midwest region, with works being performed at professional development conferences and symposia such as the Indiana Music Educators Association (IMEA) and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) conferences. He has worked with and collaborated with performers and groups at the student, community, collegiate, and professional level.

An alumnus of an unsupported music program in Northeast Indiana, Wooley seeks to provide performers of all ages an opportunity to experience quality music that is exciting and enjoyable to perform. He enjoys being able to work with students to help them find their own connections within his music. Collaboration between the composer and the performers is something about which he is deeply passionate.

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Grade 5

Celebration – 8’40" – Purchase at World Music Professionals

Gao Hong (China, 1964)

Gao Hong, a master of the pear-shaped lute, also known as the pipa, began her career as a professional musician at age twelve. She graduated from China’s premier music school, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied with the great pipa master Lin Shicheng.

In both China and the United States Gao has received numerous top awards and honors, including first prize in the Hebei Professional Young Music Performers Competition and an International Art Cup in Beijing. Gao became the first traditional musician to be awarded the prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship in 2005, and in 2019 she became the first musician to win five McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music. She became the first Chinese musician to win a Sally Award from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in 2018. Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minn. proclaimed April 3, 2022, to be “Gao Hong Day” in honor of her milestone concert at the Ordway Center celebrating her “50 Years of Making Music with Friends.”

As a composer, she has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Forum, Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis, Zeitgeist, Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, and TPT-PBS.

Gao has lived in the United States since 1994. She performs traditional and modern Chinese music, with her groups Spirit of Nature and Beijing Trio (a different group from the Beijing Trio which includes Max Roach, Jon Jang, and Jiebing Chen). She has also participated in cross-cultural musical collaborations, performing with jazz musicians and musicians from other cultures, including James Newton, Issam Rafea and Shubhendra Rao. She serves as the professor of Chinese musical instruments at Carleton College.

From the composer:

“In China, we have many festivals that we celebrate each year. In this piece I use drum solos interspersed with instrumental passages to create joyful rhythms and melodies that depict the festive atmosphere of families gathering together in a festival. The slow middle section expresses the peoples’ yearning for peace, prosperity, and happiness.

Celebration was commissioned and premièred by the Minnesota Sinfonia, conducted by Jay Fishman on October 19, 2021, at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Minn. In 2022, the full orchestra version was performed by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. It has been my great honor to write this full band version of this piece for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and the world première performance at the American Bandmasters Association 2024 Conference.”

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