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A salute to women composers |
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| Title | Composer |
| Proud Titania | Catherine McMichael |
| Reflections on "Wondrous Love" | Gay Holmes Spears |
| Nancy Bloomer Deussen | |
| Beneath the Shining Skies | Nancy H. Seward |
| Early Light | Carolyn Bremer |
| Civilian March | Nancy B. Reed |
| Celebration Fanfare from "Stepping Stones" |
Joan Tower Jack Stamp, Arr. |
| Concertino for Flute Solo and Band Accompaniment |
Cecile Chaminade |
| Testimonium | Anne McGinty |
| To Walk With Wings | Julie Giroux |
| Women of the Podium March | Virginia A. Allen |
This fanfare was originally one of four pieces in The Rose Quartet, a piano quartet for intermediate level students. It premiered in its arrangement for brass choir and percussion at the 1991 Northwood Summer Music Festival near Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan. The composer is a devoted rose lover and has selected the David Austin-bred Proud Titania, a sweetly fragrant, old-fashioned double bloom of creamy white, sometimes touched with pink, as symbolic of this piece. Titania was the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s telling of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” A British flavor is present in the work, together with the rich chords that represent the subtle colors and textures of the rose.
Catherine McMichael (b. 1954) is a pianist, composer, performer, arranger, and teacher. An alumna of the University of Michigan (B.M. piano performance, M.M. chamber music and accompanying), she is on the faculty of Michigan’s Saginaw Valley State University, directs the handbell choir at First United Methodist Church in Saginaw, and is a popular clinician at workshops and institutes in North America, England, and Australia. Presently on indefinite sabbatical from teaching, she’s finally able to devote time to completing the many commissions that have come to her. Some of her clients have included The Canadian Brass, Ithaca College, University of Massachusetts, and the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery and Museum. She is an avid reader, gardener, painter, and collector of cookbooks from all the interesting places she’s taught. She and her violinist husband, Rod Bieber, have two spirited children, Meredith and Nathan, and two fluffy cats.
Catherine McMichael's Home Page: http://catherinemcmichael.com/
What wondrous love is this, oh! my soul! oh! my soul!
What wondrous love is this, oh! my soul!
What wondrous love is this!
That caused the Lord of bliss,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
The hymn tune Wondrous Love was popular in Appalachia and the southern part of the United States. The tune was first published in 1853 in William Walker’s “Southern Harmony.” James Christopher is credited as the composer. This setting of the hymn tune is cast in several sections, utilizing the contrasting timbres of the ensemble’s sections. The initial presentation of the hymn is antiphonal, starting with the brass and moving into the woodwinds. The composition explores many solo wind colors over a repeating bass line. An alternation of simple and compound meters is used to restate the first part of the hymn. A rousing climax fades to a quiet resolution with the oboe and basses.
Gay Holmes Spears earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Master of Music at Arkansas State University, and Doctor of Musical Arts at Memphis State University. As the composer of numerous published and unpublished works for symphonic band, piano, chamber ensembles, and voices, she has earned several awards for her compositions. These include the 1997 Tennessee Composer of the Year Award, an Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship, and consecutive ASCAP awards. Spears resides in the St. Louis, Missouri area, where she is a free-lance composer/keyboardist, full-time mom, and an active part of her church's music program.
This tone poem depicts the historic voyage of Christopher Columbus’ fleet to find a westward route to India. His first landfall on October 11, 1492, was not in Asia, but in the Bahamas. His further sailings to Cuba and Hispaniola brought sovereignty rights to Spain that would exceed the riches of India. The journey from Spain begins with the rising wind, a filling of the sails, and the sounds of birds. The composition continues with the uncertainties of the currents and the search for the westward trade winds. A trumpet proclaims the voyage’s optimism. After a month at sea, land is sighted to stirring and triumphant conclusion. This composition is dedicated to Vernon Taranto and the Baton Rouge Concert Band.
A native of New York, Nancy Bloomer Deussen (b. 1931) attended Juilliard School of Music for two years and is a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music. She also holds a second bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Music with a major in Music Education. She has had extensive graduate work at USC School of Music, San Jose State University, University of California at Los Angeles, and Long Beach State University. Her teachers of composition were Vittorio Giannini, Ingolf Dahl, Lukas Foss and Wilson Coker. Now residing in Palo Alto, California, Bloomer Deussen is an associate faculty member of the music department at Mission College in Santa Clara, where she directs the chorus and teaches piano and music theory. She has composed for band, chorus, orchestra, chamber groups, and flute, clarinet, and violin solos. She has won or been a runner up in a number of national composition competitions.
Nancy Bloomer Deussen's Home Page: http://www.nancybloomerdeussen.com/
O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies,
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,
To keep thee steadfast through the years,
From East to Western Sea,
Our own beloved native land!
Our True North, strong and free!
This stanza from the Canadian National Anthem gave rise to the title and subject of this composition, which was commissioned in 1995 by Keith and Marilyn Mann of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and dedicated to their parents. The lively melody salutes the settlers of that great country and pays homage to their heritage with musical references to La Marseillaise and Rule Britannia. A chorus of O Canada brings this majestic work to a conclusion.
Nancy Heitman Seward was born in Oklahoma in August 1930 and grew up in Lincoln, Illinois. She earned her BME degree (cum laude) from Central Methodist College in 1952. She met her husband Ken while playing clarinet in the CMC Band. Seward taught music in the elementary and secondary schools in Kansas and Missouri and at her alma mater. She has taken graduate courses at the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri. Now retired from teaching, she remains active as a composer and adjudicator. Honored by Central Methodist College with their Distinguished Alumni Award, she has also received the Hall of Fame Award from the Missouri Bandmasters Association. While her works appeal to a wide variety of groups, her composition goal has been to improve the repertoire available to school bands.
Guest Conductor Linda Clements attended Humboldt State University where she received a BA in Music, as well as a Teaching Credential. She first taught K-6 music in the Garberville area of southern Humboldt County before coming to San Jose to teach 6-8 grade music (chorus, band, & orchestra) in the Oak Grove and Campbell school districts. For the past 3 years, she has been teaching at Fisher Middle School in Los Gatos, which has developed a strong band, orchestra, and jazz band program. Clements has served as music director for 10 middle school musicals. She performs regularly on french horn with the Winchester Community Orchestra, the Foothill College Band, and a Brass Quintet. In her spare time, she likes to read (science fiction and mysteries), ride her motorcycle (Triumph), and play with her 2 dogs (Golden Retriever and Springer Spaniel).
Early Light was written for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and received its premier performance in July 1995. The material is largely derived from The Star Spangled Banner. One need not attribute an excess of patriotic fervor in the composer as a source for this optimistic homage to our national anthem; Carolyn Bremer, a passionate baseball fan since childhood, drew upon her feelings of happy anticipation at hearing the anthem played before ball games when writing her piece. The slapstick heard near the end echoes the crack of the bat on a long home run.
Initially trained as an orchestra double bass player, Carolyn Bremer’s interest in music composition didn’t develop until she was 24. She studied at the Eastman School of Music and CalArts, before receiving her Ph.D. in composition from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her teachers include Edward Applebaum, Mel Powell, Joseph Schwantner, Emma Lou Diemer, and Buell Neidlinger. Bremer is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma, where she directs the New Century Ensemble and the New Improv! Century Ensemble. She composes in a wide variety of genres from electronic to music for chamber groups, band and orchestra. Lately, she has come to regard the questions raised in issue-oriented, experimental and political music, and aesthetics as central to her work as a composer, conductor, and educator. Her catalogue contains works based on the Clarence Thomas Confirmation Hearings (I Have a Nightmare), an AIDS-related death of a childhood friend (Not a Witness), feminism (She Who), feminist symbolism (The Four Faces of Eve), and The Theory of Evolution.
Carolyn Bremer's Home Page: http://www.ou.edu/music/CRB/home.html
Marches traditionally have had a military heritage. They were characterized by a steady beat and intended to efficiently move large groups. Nancy B. Reed’s Civilian March is a concert march of a different genre. It has a very modern flavor with a few musical twists and turns. Without direct quotations, the march gives happy illusions to the musicals and family TV shows of the 70’s.
Guest Conductor Valeska Lauderdale graduated from the Texas Technical University School of Music. After graduation, she taught band and elementary music in Lubbock, Texas. Last summer, she moved to California and has spent the past school year teaching elementary general music and beginning flute in the Palo Alto School District. Next year, she will be teaching band in the Cupertino School District. Her instrumental specialties are clarinet, saxophone, and flute.
The music for the ballet “Stepping Stones” (1993) was commissioned by choreographer Kathryn Posin for the Milwaukee Ballet. Joan Tower's rhythmically and harmonically muscular score was developed in close collaboration with Posin’s choreography. Tower commented: “As a composer, I've always thought of myself as a closet choreographer. Texture, space, speed, direction, all the words that apply to dance also apply to music.” Friend and fellow composer Jack Stamp suggested to Tower that the final movement, Celebration Fanfare, would transcribe well into an arrangement for wind band, not suspecting that she would give him the task. The rising tones of the Fanfare are fitting for the progressive stages of a woman’s development, which is the subject of the ballet.
Joan Tower was born in 1938 in New Rochelle, New York, but grew up in South America. She took courses in composition with Brant and Calabro and studied the piano at Bennington College, receiving her B.A. in 1961. Continuing studies at Columbia University, she earned her M.A. in 1964 and D.M.A. in 1978. She organized the DaCapo Players in 1969 and was their pianist when they won the Naumburg Award in 1973. In 1972, she began teaching at Bard College, NY, where she is still a professor. Tower currently serves as composer-in-residence for the Orchestra of St. Luke's with her term running to the 2002 season. She has been recognized with a 1976 Guggenheim fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1974, 1975, 1980, and 1984, and an Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters award in 1983.
The Concertino is a rhapsodic, romantic work for solo flute featuring two principal themes. It was written in 1902 as the annual awards competition piece for the flute students at the Paris Conservatory. The expressive and technical qualities of the flute are showcased. Originally written for piano accompaniment, Clayton Wilson arranged it for wind band in 1947.
Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944) was born in Paris, into an upper middle-class family of amateur musicians. She was tutored at the piano by her mother. At the age of eight, she began composing church music. She made extensive concert tours as a pianist, performing regularly in England, including a guest performance for Queen Victoria. Chaminade composed 400 works in a wide variety of genres: concerti, orchestral suites, a ballet, an opera, chamber music, a choral symphony, 135 songs, and over 200 piano pieces. Most of her works enjoyed popularity during her lifetime. Her music is tuneful and highly accessible, with clear textures and mildly chromatic harmonies, with a typically French wit and color. Shortly before her death, the French government awarded her the title of Chevaliere of the Legion of Honor.
Soloist Ginger Rombach-Adams received her Bachelor of Music degree from Stanford University, where she studied flute and piccolo with Alexandra Hawley and Frances Blaisdell. She has performed with many local chamber ensembles and orchestras, including the Fremont Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Jose Municipal Band, and continues to study privately with Ms. Blaisdell. Ginger also presents several solo recitals each year with piano accompanist Steven Lightburn. She has been a member of the Ohlone Wind Orchestra since its inception.
Testimonium is based on a three-note motif first heard from the solo trombone at the beginning of the composition. The introduction also sets the harmonic character of superimposed major chords. The trumpets expand the motif into a five-note figure as the tempo quickens. The middle section features a poignant trumpet solo and ends with solos for clarinet, flute, horns, and oboe. The five-note structure is recapitulated as the composition is propelled with constantly changing meters up to the exciting conclusion. Testimonium was commissioned by and dedicated to the 1985-86 Bath High School Bands (Lima, Ohio) and was premiered on March 3, 1986.
Anne McGinty (b. 1945) became interested in music as a flute student in her home town of Findlay, Ohio. She entered Ohio State University, where she studied flute under Donald McGinnis. She left to pursue a career in flute performance with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Returning to college, she received her B.M. (summa cum laude) and M.M from Duquesne University. Active as a composer, flute instructor, guest conductor, and clinician, she also co-owns Queenwood Publications with her husband, John Edmondson. Besides music, her interests include weight lifting, reading murder mysteries, learning to play the bagpipes and nurturing her two cats, Starz and Stripes.
Guest Conductor Roberta “Bobbie” Howe has been teaching elementary school bands in the Cupertino Unified School District for the past three years. She holds a B.A. in English and a Multiple-Subject Education Credential from San Jose State University. Howe has studied clarinet with Robert Borbeck and woodwinds with Victor Morosco. She has been a member of the Foothill Symphonic Winds for the past six years. She also performs in orchestras and has recently begun conducting for various local community theater organizations.
This work was commissioned by The United States Air Force Band of the Rockies, Colonel H. Bruce Gilkes, Commander and Conductor. It is dedicated “With grateful appreciation to my friend and mentor, Bill Conti”, who assisted Giroux in 1985 in starting a career in Hollywood as a composer and orchestrator. She provided the following program notes:
To Walk With Wings, Fanfare & Overture, is a musical epic of man’s quest for flight. From the early beginnings of cloth and wooden wings through the exploration of space, this highly programmatic piece takes the listener on a musical tour through aeronautic history.It captures mental images of men jumping off cliffs with fabric wings, the first true flight, trials and errors, the comical age of contraptions, the cold, brutal strength of fabricated metal machines, the whirring of the computer age, the tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and the overall spirit of man and his desire to travel through space and beyond.
Though the piece tells the tale of the mastering of flight, the real driving force behind the music is found in the questions: “Who are we?” and “What is out there?”
Julie Ann Giroux was born in 1961 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and Monroe, Louisiana. She received her formal education from Louisiana State University and Boston University. She has studied composition with John Williams, Bill Conti and Jerry Goldsmith, to name a few. Although an accomplished performer on piano and horn, her first love is composition. She began playing the piano at the age of three and published her first piece at the age of ten. In 1985, she began composing, orchestrating, and conducting music for television and films and now has over 100 film and television credits. She has received three Emmy Awards. Giroux currently resides in Jackson, MS, coexisting with 3 chihuahuas, 1 pomeranian, 1 chow, 1 slobber-hound-gas machine (mutt), 7 cats of varying colors and temperament, 17 birds in an aviary and too many fish to count. An avid animal rescue member who ends up keeping more than she should, Julie composes in between feedings! Her hobbies include: gardening, model building, cooking, and collecting.
Julie Giroux's Home Page: http://juliegiroux.www2.50megs.com/
Women of the Podium is the official march of the Women Band Directors National Association (WBDNA). It was premiered by The United States Army Band on July 8, 1986 during the WBDNA’s Summer Meeting in Washington, D.C. The march is in the classic form and contains rich harmonies and a catchy melody.
Virginia Allen currently resides in New York City, where she is a member of the conducting faculty at the Juilliard School and a Conductor of the Juilliard Trombone Choir. She studied French Horn and conducting and earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and Master of Music degree in Performance from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and a Diploma in Wind Conducting from the University of Calgary. Allen was a pioneer for women in military bands. She was the first woman to command and conduct an active duty military band that included women, when she was appointed Principal Conductor of the Army’s band in Atlanta. As the Associate Conductor of The United States Military Academy Band at West Point, she was the first woman conductor of that historic organization. She also conducted the Army’s premier touring ensembles on stages from the Hollywood Bowl to Europe. Her military career included an assignment as the Department of the Army Staff Bands Officer in Washington, D.C., where she managed over 100 Army bands and band activities worldwide. Allen frequently guest conducts, adjudicates, and teaches masterclasses in the U.S. and internationally. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild.
Virginia Allen's Home Page: http://www.virginiaallen.com/music.html
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