Grade 3.5 Wind Band Piece, Forward/Still, April 2024, Omar Thomas

10 Adaptable Works for Band Consortium, Traughber JHS Bands-Member

10 Adaptable Works for Band, Haley Woodrow (2021)

https://haleywoodrow.com/

Haley Woodrow (b. 1984) has always been curious about music. A native Texan, she began her performance career as a trumpet player, graduating from Grapevine High School in 2003 and attending the University of Texas at Arlington from 2003-2008. At UTA, she spent ten consecutive semesters as the jazz trumpet chair in the Jazz Orchestra and is where she met her husband, Jonathan Woodrow. After seven years of employment as the Orchestra Director and Arranger at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, she went back to school in 2014 and earned her Master’s in Music Composition at Texas Christian University.

Today she is a freelancing composer and arranger, and publishes her music through her company, Woodrow Music. Haley also currently teaches piano at the King’s University and leads a Chamber Music and Composition program for Tarrant County College. Her husband and her co-direct a newly formed Dallas/Fort Worth based Jazz Orchestra as volunteers in the Texas State Guard.

A Darkening Twilight Sky, Kent Baker (2020)

https://www.kentbakermusic.net/

Commissioned by the Traughber JHS Bands

This work, composed in 2020 for concert band, exhibits the particular concepts of syncopation, chromaticism, and part independence. While the ranges are not taxing, the systemic use of accidentals and key regions will make this challenging for students who are used to a single key region. The step-wise and scalar patterns help reinforce the scales they are learning. The percussion parts are relatively independent. The liberal use of unison and rhythmic cohesion in the wind parts in the main melodic fragment (A-C) repeats near the end, and reduces the teaching time needed for this 3:00 minute work. I am grateful to Rachel Maxwell, not only for this commission during the Covid-19 pandemic, but for our friendship which spans over thirty years.

Kent Baker is the Program Coordinator, Arranger, and Wind Caption Head for the James Madison High School Marching Band, a 20-time Bands of America Regional and Super-Regional Finalist, a 5-time Bands of America Regional Class Champion, and a Bands of America Grand Nationals Semi-Finalist. He was the Executive Director of Music City Drum and Bugle Corps from Nashville, TN, DCI's newest World Class corps, and Flomarching's 2018 unanimous fan favorite. Until recently, he was a composer, Assistant Drum Major, and hornist for The United States Air Force Band, at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, DC for 23 years. Kent's works have been featured fifteen times on NBC's The Today Show, Fox & Friends, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Twilight Tattoos, The USAF Band 75th Anniversary Concert, Kennedy Center Honors, and recently performed by the Dallas Winds (TX), Oklahoma City University Wind Philharmonic (OK), Quintessential Brass Quintet (VA), and Barclay Brass (MD). He has received recent commissions from members of The McLean Orchestra, euphoniumist Brandon Jones, trumpeter Michael Brest, and tubist Dr. Ryan Robinson.

Kent performed for 23 years with The USAF Band (DC). He has also performed with the Fairfax Wind Symphony (VA), Peoria Symphony Orchestra (IL), Prince George's Symphony Orchestra (MD), The Arlington Players (VA), and currently performs with the Quintessential Brass Quintet (VA), the Beltway Brass (VA), and the Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra (VA).

Kent's works have won numerous awards, including recent winners The Eternity Gate, The Tannhauser Gate, and Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, winners of the 2016, 2017, and 2019 Dallas Winds (TX) Fanfare Composition Competition, The Common Good, winner of Bay Colony Brass' (MA)  Composition Competition, Wichita Falls, After the Rain, winner in the Musica Merida (Mexico) Composition Competition, Symphony #1 "Seneca Falls" winner in the Grand Valley State University (MI) Composition Competition, and 75.29.30, a winner in the United States Air Force Media Contest (DC), Large Ensemble Category. Kent has written for Barclay Brass (DC), Oklahoma City University (OK), George Mason University (VA), and Mississippi State University (MI). His works God Bless America for brass and percussion ensemble and In Pursuit for solo oboe and wind ensemble have been included on USAF Band CD Projects Home of the Brave and Breaking Barriers. He is in residence at the Westben Composer/Performer Residency in Ontario, Canada in 2020, and he is a finalist in the North State Symphony "Beethoven Idol" Composition Contest for 2020. Kent is a member of the American Composer's Forum, Tau Sigma Honors Society and is represented  by ASCAP.

Unspoken Consortium, Traughber JHS Band-Member

Unspoken, Katahj Copley (2020)

https://sites.google.com/bu.edu/unspoken/home

Carrollton, Georgia native, Katahj Copley (he/him/his) premiered his first work, Spectra, in 2017 and hasn’t stopped composing since. As of 2017, Katahj has written over 100 works, including pieces for chamber ensembles, large ensembles, wind ensembles, and orchestra. His compositions have been performed and commissioned by universities, organizations, and professional ensembles, including the Cavaliers Brass, Carroll Symphony Orchestra, California Band Director Association, Admiral Launch Duo, and the Atlanta Wind Symphony. Katahj has also received critical acclaim internationally with pieces being performed in Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Australia. 

Katahj received two Bachelor of Music degrees from the University of West Georgia in Music Education and Composition in 2021. He is currently studying composition with Omar Thomas at the University of Texas at Austin.

Aside from composing, Katahj is an excited educator who teaches young musicians the joy of discovering music and why music is a phenomenal language.

“Music for me has always been this impactful thing in my life. It can soothe, it can enrage, it can quiet, and it can evoke emotions that are beyond me and this world we live in. I believe that music is the ultimate source of freedom and imagination. The most freedom I have had as a musician was through composing. Composition is like me opening my heart and showing the world my drive, my passion, and my soul.”

Love and Light Consortium, Traughber JHS Band-Member

Love and Light, Brian Balmages (2020) Winner of the 2020 NBA Revelli Composition Contest

"for Madison Elliott, all little angels and their parents"

​After losing a child at birth in November 2018, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Elliott turned to music to grieve and begin the healing process. In January 2019, she contacted composer Brian Balmages to write a piece of music to help her family, and others, find strength. Lt. Elliott describes her experience with the work, "I know that this piece will help so many families now and into the future. "Love and Light" is for my daughter Madison, but it is also for all the babies in heaven that we lost... Nothing can take away the pain of losing a child, but... time reveals, there is Love and Light on the other side."

​Listeners can read the program notes in the score, but it is important to know that "Love and Light" seeks to answer three impossible questions:

1. What does unconditional love sound like?

2. What does it sound like when that love is shattered?

3. What does it sound like when a child first sees the face of God?

World premiere by the United States Army Band with Lt. Elliott conducting.

L'Inglesina , Adapted for Young Band by Andrew Hunter (2019)

Commissioned by the Traughber JHS Bands

Andrew Hunter is both a professional freelance performer and music educator. He holds his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Western Illinois University and Master’s of Music Education from VanderCook College of Music. Andrew has taught for ten years at Wauconda Middle School in Wauconda, Illinois, where he is responsible for 6th, 7th and 8th grade bands as well as a multigrade jazz ensemble and small group lessons.

In addition to teaching, Andrew can be heard performing regularly with the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble and the renowned Chicago Brass Band where his playing has been reviewed as “truly outstanding, handling difficult, pianissimo high entries easily, and time and again delivering flawless, gorgeous sound and great musicality.” In addition to his work with the CBB and CGBO, Andrew finds time to perform with the Big Top Circus Band and with his wife in the Palatine Concert Band, as well as many other ensembles throughout the Chicago area.

Garden Suite Consortium, Traughber JHS Bands-Member

Frogs, Randall Standridge (2018)

Randall Standridge (b.1976) received his Bachelor's of Music Education from Arkansas State University.  During this time, he studied composition with Dr. Tom O'Connor, before returning to Arkansas State University to earn his Master's in Music Composition, studying with Dr. Tom O'Connor and Dr. Tim Crist. In 2001, he began his tenure as Director of Bands at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Arkansas.  He left this post in 2013 to pursue a career as a full-time composer and marching band editor for Grand Mesa Music Publishers. 

Mr. Standridge is currently published by Grand Mesa Music, Alfred Music, FJH Music, Wingert-Jones Music, Band Works Publications, Twin Towers Music, and Northeastern Music Publications.  Mr. Standridge's music is performed internationally.  He has had thirty-four works selected to the J.W. Pepper's editor's choice. His composition Snake Charmer,published by Grand Mesa Music, was included in Teaching Music through Performance in Band Vol. 8, and his work Gently Blows the Summer Wind is included in Teaching Music Through Performance in Middle School Band.  His works Steel, Gadget, Snake Charmer, The Rowan Tree, Still Still Still, That Old Hound Dog Rag, Danse Bohémien, Aggressivo, When the Spring Rain Begins to Fall, Danse Carnivale, Ruckus, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Angelic Celebrations, and In the Court of the King have been performed at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.  His work Art(isms) was premiered by the Arkansas State University Wind Ensemble at the 2010 CBDNA conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Mr. Standridge is also a contributing composer for Alfred Music's Sound Innovations: Ensemble Development series.

In addition to his career as a composer, Mr. Standridge is active as a clinician.  He is also in demand as a drill designer, music arranger, and colorguard designer for the marching arts, as well as a freelance artist/photographer and writer.  He lives in Jonesboro, Arkansas with his family.

Our Cast Aways, Dedicated to those who rescue, those that get rescued, and to those whose day never comes. - Julie Giroux (2018)

Commissioned by the junior high school bands of Oswego School District #308.

Julie Ann Giroux was born in Fairhaven, Mass on Dec. 12, 1961 and began playing the piano a few years later. By the age of 8, she began composing. Several years and family relocations later, Julie attended Jack Hayes Junior High School. She composed her first Concert Band Work in the 8th grade at the age of 13. She attended Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe, Louisiana graduating in 1979. She played the French Horn in the school bands and played piano for the Choir all the while composing various types of music, including piano works, band works, solo instrumental works and vocal works.

Julie attended college at Louisiana State University receiving her bachelors degree in music performance, all the while continuing to compose band and orchestra works. At this time, she also began composing commercially. In 1981 she published her first band work. Literally days after college graduation, Julie had the opportunity to arrange & conduct several arrangements for a live ESPN broadcast for the National Sportsfest held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Composer Bill Conti had also been hired to compose and conduct music for the same event. Shortly after that, Mr. Conti invited Julie out to Hollywood to work on the mini-series "North and South." 

 Julie went on to compose & orchestrate music for many Television and Films and received her first of three Emmy nominations in 1989-1990. In 1991-1992, Julie won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction" for the 64th Annual Academy Awards, ABC." When she won her first Emmy Award, she was the first woman and the youngest person ever to win the award in that category. A member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), her credits include White Men Can't Jump, Masters of the Universe, North & South & North & South II, Broadcast News, Blaze, Dynasty and multiple Academy &  Emmy Awards shows.  During her career Julie has had the honor of scoring for Celene Dion, Paula Abdul, Jerry Orbach, Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli, Bryan Adams, Peabo Bryson, Angela Lansbury, Jon Bon Jovi, Madonna, Reba McIntyre, Little Richard, Billy Crystal, Michael Jackson and many, many others. 

Ms. Giroux is an extremely well rounded composer with works for Symphony Orchestras (including chorus), Chamber music, Wind Ensembles, Soloists, Brass and Woodwind Quintets and many other serious and commercial formats. Her first published work "Mystery on Mena Mountain" with Southern Music Company  was composed while still in college. Since that time, she has composed and published numerous works for professional wind ensembles, military bands, colleges, public schools and professional orchestras.

Julie Giroux is also an accomplished conductor. Her conducting credits include music for films, television, professional orchestras, wind bands and various clinics both here and abroad.  Both her clinician and composition skills are highly sought after with commissions booked out to 2036.  

WASBE Composition Consortia Series, Traughber JHS Bands-Member

Shubuduba-Dana Wilson (2017)

Award-winning composer Dana Wilson has agreed to inaugurate the WASBE Composition Consortia Series with a new work for intermediate level wind band.  The new work will be similar in concept to Sang! – one of his most often performed works throughout the world. 

The works of Dana Wilson have been commissioned and performed by such diverse ensembles as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Formosa String Quartet, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Buffalo Philharmonic, Xaimen Symphony, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Syracuse Symphony, and Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Solo works have been written for such renowned artists as hornists Gail Williams and Adam Unsworth, clarinetist Larry Combs, trumpeters James Thompson and Rex Richardson, and oboist David Weiss.

He has received grants from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Meet the Composer. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and East Asia. They have received several prizes, including the Sudler International Composition Prize and the Ostwald Composition Prize, as well as awards from the International Trumpet Guild and the International Horn Society; are published by Boosey and Hawkes, Alfred Music Publishers, the American Composers Forum, and Ludwig Music Publishers; and can be heard on over twenty recording labels. Over the past year, there have been over 30 performances of his trombone concerto, a CD of his music for flute has been released by Wendy Mehne, a CD of his music for saxophone has been released by Steven Mauk, and his flute concerto "The Conjurer" has been awarded the "Best New Work for Flute" by the Flute New Music Consortium.

Dana Wilson holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music and is Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus at the Ithaca College School of Music. He is co-author of Contemporary Choral Arranging, published by Prentice Hall/Simon and Schuster, and has written articles on diverse musical subjects. He has been a Yaddo Fellow (at Yaddo, the artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York), a Wye Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Charles A. Dana Fellow, and a Fellow at the Society for Humanities, Cornell University.

N-BEAM Consortium, Traughber JHS Bands-Member

https://mobleyj.wixsite.com/nbeam (2017-2018)

Every day, we hear and experience music that has incorporated music technology, through electronic components and instruments, to positively contribute to the listeners overall musical experience.  Electro-Acoustic (EA) music is now widely accepted in music - in both production and performance - from scores created for screen and stage, to popular music, and even the professional classical orchestra stage.

As technology becomes a more important part in the daily life of our students, and can create new palates of sound in our music, educators must embrace technology as part of our sound and our curriculum - much the same way as it already has been in most other areas of music.  The New Band Electro-Acoustic Music (N-BEAM) consortium aims to add three new pieces of EA music to the school concert band repertoire.​

Beginning in early 2018, N-BEAM consortium members will receive the first of three new pieces of concert band literature, graded between 2 and 2.5, each including an audio component.  Those components may be live or interactive, using an electronic instrument or computer/tablet to create sounds; or may be fixed, like an accompaniment audio track that is played throughout the composition. Each of these compositions will be created in a way that will allow any school (and their director), the "plug and play" ability to perform each composition easily and effectively, regardless of their experience with technology, their level of access to sound reinforcement equipment, or their technology/instrument budget.​

At least 30 schools will have an opportunity to join a consortium that funds the creation of those three pieces.  And each consortium member will receive performance benefits for being part of this project. 

Atmospheres-Scott McAllister (2016)

Commissioned by the junior high school bands of Oswego School District #308.

Website: http://lydmusic.com/Lydmusic/About_Me.html_

SCOTT MCALLISTER was born in Vero Beach, Florida, in 1969, and completed his doctorate in composition at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. McAllister has received numerous commissions, performances, and awards throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also been featured at the Aspen, Chautauqua, and The Prague/American Institute Summer Festivals. McAllister has received awards, performances, and/or commissions from ASCAP, The American Composers Orchestra, The Rascher Quartet, I Musici de Montreal, Charles Neidich, The Verdehr Trio, Jacksonville Symphony, Da Camera, The Ladislav Kubik Competition, The United States New Music Ensemble, The President's Own Marine Band, The Florida Arts Council, and The Florida Bandmaster's Association. Scott McAllister's music is recorded on Summit Records, Naxos, ITunes and Centaur labels and his music can be found at Lydmusic.com. Scott McAllister is Professor of Composition at Baylor University.

Sol y Sombra- Donald Grantham (2014) 

Recording: Sol y sombra (North Texas State University)

Commissioned by the junior high school bands of Oswego School District #308.

Website: http://www.donaldgrantham.com/

Bio: http://www.donaldgrantham.com/biography/

Program Note: In Spain, tickets for the bullfight ring are sold in three categories: sol, sombra, and sol y sombra. This determines whether the ticket holder sits entirely in the sun, entirely in the shade, or sometimes in sun and sometimes in shade. It has been 25 years since I attended bullfights in Barcelona and Madrid, but, for some reason, this title occurred to me in regard to this piece. It begins and ends with a bright and crisp "sunny" character, but moves to a darker, moodier place in the middle. - Donald Grantham 

Sheltering Sky- John Mackey (2012) Recording:  Sheltering Sky (Texas State University), Score Study

Website: http://www.ostimusic.com/

Bio: http://www.ostimusic.com/Bio.php

Commissioned by Traughber Junior High School Band (Rachel Maxwell, director), and Thompson Junior High School Band (Daniel Harrison, director). World premiere April 21, 2012. 

The wind band medium has, in the twenty-first century, a host of disparate styles that dominate its texture. At the core of its contemporary development exist a group of composers who dazzle with scintillating and frightening virtuosity. As such, at first listening one might experience John Mackey's Sheltering Sky as a striking departure. Its serene and simple presentation is a throwback of sorts – a nostalgic portrait of time suspended.

The work itself has a folksong-like quality – intended by the composer – and through this an immediate sense of familiarity emerges. Certainly the repertoire has a long and proud tradition of weaving folk songs into its identity, from the days of Holst and Vaughan Williams to modern treatments by such figures as Donald Grantham and Frank Ticheli. Whereas these composers incorporated extant melodies into their works, however, Mackey takes a play from Percy Grainger. Grainger's Colonial Song seemingly sets a beautiful folksong melody in an enchanting way (so enchanting, in fact, that he reworked the tune into two other pieces: Australian Up-Country Tune and The Gum-Suckers March). In reality, however, Grainger's melody was entirely original – his own concoction to express how he felt about his native Australia. Likewise, although the melodies of Sheltering Sky have a recognizable quality (hints of the contours and colors of Danny Boy and Shenandoah are perceptible), the tunes themselves are original to the work, imparting a sense of hazy distance as though they were from a half-remembered dream.

The work unfolds in a sweeping arch structure, with cascading phrases that elide effortlessly. The introduction presents softly articulated harmonies stacking through a surrounding placidity. From there emerge statements of each of the two folksong-like melodies – the call as a sighing descent in solo oboe, and its answer as a hopeful rising line in trumpet. Though the composer's trademark virtuosity is absent, his harmonic language remains. Mackey avoids traditional triadic sonorities almost exclusively, instead choosing more indistinct chords with diatonic extensions (particularly seventh and ninth chords) that facilitate the hazy sonic world that the piece inhabits. Near cadences, chromatic dissonances fill the narrow spaces in these harmonies, creating an even greater pull toward wistful nostalgia. Each new phrase begins over the resolution of the previous one, creating a sense of motion that never completely stops. The melodies themselves unfold and eventually dissipate until at last the serene introductory material returns – the opening chords finally coming to rest.

Program note by Jake Wallace

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