From the composer: 

The Third Symphony was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. The conductor of the band at the time, Col. Alan Bonner, told me that he wanted a major work for wind band. I was given complete freedom to write whatever I wanted to. I began to work on it in earnest at a very difficult time in my life, right after our baby daughter, Natalie, died. This symphony is the most emotionally draining work that I have ever composed. If it were to be given a nickname, I believe that "Tragic" would be appropriate. The work progresses from the deepest darkness of despair all the way to the brightness of fulfillment and joy. 

The first movement is a work of much frustration, bitterness, despair, and despondency -- all my own personal feelings after losing my daughter. The scherzo (second movement) has a sarcasm and bitter sweetness about it, because it has to do with the pomposity and conceit of certain people in the world. The third movement is a fantasia about what my world would have been like if Natalie had lived. It is a farewell to her. The finale (fourth movement) represents a rebirth of spirit, a reconciliation for us all. The second theme of the last movement is based on an old Lutheran children's hymn called I am Jesus' Little Lamb. This hymn was sung at Natalie's funeral. The last stanza of the song reads:

    Who so happy as I am
    Even now the Shepherd's lamb?
    And when my short life is ended,
    By His angel host attended,
    He shall fold me to His breast,
    There within His arms to rest. 

Three days after I completed this symphony, on June 25, 1994, our son Billy Barnes was born. If the third movement is for Natalie, then the finale is really for Billy, and our joy in being blessed with him after the tragic death of his sister. 

James Charles Barnes (b. 1949, Hobart, Okla.) is an American composer, conductor, and educator. 

Barnes studied composition and music theory at the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1974 and a Master of Music degree in 1975. He studied conducting privately with Zuohuang Chen. 

Professor Barnes was a member of both the history and theory-composition faculties at the University of Kansas until his retirement in 2015, where he taught orchestration, arranging, and composition courses, and wind band history and repertoire courses. He also served as the assistant and associate director of bands at KU for 27 years. 

His numerous publications for concert band and orchestra are extensively performed at Tanglewood, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. 

Barnes has twice received the coveted American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award for outstanding contemporary wind band music. He has been the recipient of numerous ASCAP Awards for composers of serious music, the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music Medal, the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Conductors, along with numerous other honors and grants. He has recorded three commercial compact discs of his music with the world-famous Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. More recently, he completed a CD of his works with the Koninklijke Militaire Kapel (The Queen’s Royal Military Band) in Holland. He has also been commissioned to compose works for all five of the major military bands in Washington, DC.

Mr. Barnes has traveled extensively as a guest composer, conductor, and lecturer throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Bandmasters Association, and numerous other professional organizations and societies.

From the composer: 

An original work, it explores the theater overture style as one of the important musical styles to emerge in the 20th century. Written for the Wheaton, Illinois, Municipal Band's 60th anniversary, this single-movement work includes six sections: Opening Fanfare, Bright Two-Step, Romantic Ballad, Soft Shoe Novelty, Latin Production Number, and Finale. 

Alfred Reed (25 January 1921, Manhattan, N.Y. – 17 September 2005, Miami, Fla.) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and educator. 

Born into a family of Austrian descent that cherished music, Alfred Reed began his musical studies at age ten on trumpet, and by high school age he was performing professionally in the Catskills at resort hotels. He served as musician and arranger during World War II in the 529th Army Air Force Band, for which he created more than 100 works, and following the war was a student of Vittorio Giannini at Juilliard. 

He was staff composer and arranger for both the National Broadcasting Corporation and the American Broadcasting Corporation. In 1953, Mr. Reed became conductor of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, at the same time completing his academic work; he received his B.M. in 1955 and his M.M. in 1956. His master's thesis was the Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra, which later was to win the Luria Prize. It received its first performance in 1959 and was subsequently published in 1966. During his two years at Baylor, he also became interested in the problems of educational music at all levels, especially in the development of repertoire materials for school bands, orchestras, and choruses. This led, in 1955, to his accepting the post of editor at Hansen Publishing in New York. 

In 1966, he left this post to join the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Miami, holding a joint appointment in the Theory-Composition and Music Education departments, and to develop the unique (at the time) Music Industry degree program at that institution, of which he became director. 

With over 250 published works for concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra, chorus, and various smaller chamber music groups, many of which have been on the required performance lists in this country for the past 20 years, Mr. Reed was one of the nation’s most prolific and frequently performed composers. 

His work as a guest conductor and clinician took him to 49 states, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, and South America, and for many years, at least eight of his works have been on the required list of music for all concert bands in Japan, where he was the most frequently performed foreign composer today. He left New York for Miami, Florida, in 1960, where he made his home until his death.

The Haunted Carousel is inspired by old science fiction and horror movies that utilize a theremin. It won the 2014 NBA Young Band Composition Contest and is a piece we believe to be perfect for anticipating the Halloween season!

Erika Svanoe (b. 1976, Whitewater, WI) is an American conductor, composer, and educator. Svanoe earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from The Ohio State University under Russel C. Mikkelson. She also holds a Master of Music degree in wind conducting from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. 

Dr. Svanoe maintains an active schedule as a composer, writing music for band and chamber ensembles. Her first published work, The Haunted Carousel, won the 2014 NBA Young Band Composition Contest and was featured at the Midwest Clinic and the CBDNA Southern Division Conference. Her piece Steampunk Suite was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio, at the 2017 American Bandmasters Association National Conference, and performed by “The President's Own” United States Marine Band at the U.S. Capitol Building. Her DMA dissertation included a critical edition of Aaron Copland's El Salón México for wind ensemble, with related research published in the WASBE Journal and presented at the CBDNA national conference. She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). 

She is also the creator of Marrying Mr. Darcy, the Pride & Prejudice card game, and occasionally advocates/speaks on the topics of crowdfunding, game design, and arts entrepreneurship, with past appearances at a variety of gaming-related events and media. 

Dr. Svanoe is currently an independent conductor, composer, and educator living near Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has previously served as the conductor of the Augsburg Concert Band at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota, director of bands at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn., and director of athletic bands at 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. 

Irish Tune from County Derry is based on earlier settings that date back as early as October 1902, with an essentially identical setting of this melody for wordless mixed chorus. Later versions for solo piano (1911) and string orchestra with two optional horns (1912) followed. The wind band setting is cataloged as British Folk Music Setting Nr. 20, and like all his settings of British folk music, is “lovingly dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg.” The composer’s brief program note states, “This tune was collected by Miss J. Ross, of New Town, Limavady, Co. Derry, Ireland, and published in The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Dublin, 1855.” 

George Percy Grainger (8 July 1882, Brighton, Victoria, Australia – 20 February 1961, White Plains, N.Y.) was an Australian-born composer, pianist, and champion of the saxophone and the concert band who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger. 

Grainger was an innovative musician who anticipated many forms of twentieth-century music well before they became established by other composers. As early as 1899, he was working with "beatless music," using metric successions (including such sequences as 2/4, 2½/4, 3/4, 2½/4).

In December 1929, Grainger developed a style of orchestration that he called "Elastic Scoring." He outlined this concept in an essay that he called "To Conductors, and those forming, or in charge of, Amateur Orchestras, High School, College and Music School Orchestras and Chamber-Music Bodies".

In 1932, he became Dean of Music at New York University and underscored his reputation as an experimenter by putting jazz on the syllabus and inviting Duke Ellington as a guest lecturer. Twice, he was offered honorary doctorates of music but turned them down, explaining, "I feel that my music must be regarded as a product of non-education."

The Wrong Note Rag is from the 1953 Broadway musical Wonderful Town with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein. The musical, set in 1935, tells the story of two sisters from Ohio, Ruth and Eileen Sherwood, who come to New York City aspiring to become a writer and an actress, respectively. Wrong Note Rag is a production number sung by Ruth and Eileen and is the climax of the musical.

Leonard Bernstein (25 August 1918 in Lawrence, Mass. - 14 October 1990, New York, N.Y.) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. 

Bernstein was born to Russian immigrants and attended Boston Latin School, Harvard University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He studied with composers Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston as well as conducting with Fritz Reiner. In the summers of 1940 and 1941, he studied conducting at Tanglewood with Serge Koussevitzky along with Frederick Fennell, Lukas Foss, and Walter Hendl. He became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1943, and it was in this role that he became famous by filling in last-minute for Bruno Walter for a national broadcast on 14 November 1943. 

His Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah," was premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony in January 1944, followed by Fancy Free and On the Town by the end of the year. These successes led to numerous opportunities overseas, including being the first American to conduct at La Scala. In 1951 he became the head of conducting at Tanglewood and seven years later became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969). In this position, he promoted new music, developed a series of Young People's Concerts, and recorded the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, but was limited in his time to compose. 

Bernstein was able to compose more in the 1970s. His achievements included the Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime of Contributions to American Culture Through the Performing Arts, 11 Emmy Awards, election to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.