Thursday, October 10, 2024 | 7:30 pm | Wentz Concert Hall | Naperville, Illinois
With Special Guests
The Plainfield Central H.S. Wind Ensemble, Christopher Vanderwall & Ryan Kazda, conductors
From the Music Director
Welcome to the fourth season of The Naperville Winds, an organization comprising musicians from across Chicagoland (and beyond) who share one common mission–to perform the finest wind band literature available at the highest level possible. This ensemble coalesced quickly; the energy and excitement at the first rehearsal on August 26, 2021 was palpable, and, immediately after rehearsal, it was clear that we were at the beginning of a truly special journey.
The road to today’s performance hasn’t been easy. In order for a major ensemble to establish itself in the time of COVID, it must overcome myriad challenges. We faced these head-on, knowing full-well the daunting challenges we’d face, and we overcame them all, together. The collective “brain trust” of the ensemble–through each member’s experience, outside-the-box thinking, and quick problem solving skills–has allowed us to deftly navigate around the detours and roadblocks and continue on our path, unwaveringly, toward our shared goal. Our fourth season is, therefore, not just a celebration of music, but a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
It has been an absolute joy to make music with the members of The Naperville Winds over the past four years. I am humbled by the collegiality, selflessness, energy, and of course, talent, that each member brings to the table. I strongly believe that The Naperville Winds will soon be a household name for lovers of wind band repertoire throughout the nation and the world. I sincerely hope you will support us throughout this incredible journey!
Sincerely,
Sean Kelley, D.M.A.
Music Director, The Naperville Winds
Repertoire
The Plainfield Central H.S. Wind Ensemble
Mr. Christopher Vanderwall & Mr. Ryan Kazda, conductors (Click for Biographies)
Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
arr. Robert Paynter (1928-1996)
This work was first written in 1963 for brass band under the title Little Suite for Brass. Paynter’s arrangement for wind bands includes woodwinds and additional percussion but retains the breezy effervescence of the original work. All three movements are written in short, clear, five-part song forms. The A-B-A-C-A is instantly apparent to the listener while giving the composer’s imaginative melodies a natural, almost folk-like, settings. The Prelude begins bombastically in a fanfare style but reaches a middle climax and winds down to a quiet return of the opening measures, which fade to silence. The liltingly expressive Siciliano is both slower and more expressive than the other movements, thus allowing solo instruments and smaller choirs of sound to be heard. It also ends quietly. The rollicking five-part Rondo provides a romping finale in which the technical facility of the modern wind band is set forth in boastful brilliance.
– Program note by “Program Notes for Band“
Shadow Rituals
Michael Markowski (b. 1986)
The piece begins with the percussion section, and shortly after we hear the first theme played by the clarinets. The first theme is later heard in the flutes and bells before returning to the clarinets. Most of Shadow Rituals is related to the opening section, and the majority of the motives heard throughout are related to the first theme.
The second theme is very syncopated and is first heard in the horns and is followed by a development section. The piece then has a brief moment of release as the flutes sustain a unison pitch. Then the third theme is played by a solo euphonium. The third theme is presented in canon in the bassoon, alto sax, and clarinets. The third theme is a perfect palindrome; if you played it backwards it would sound exactly the same. The first theme returns before a coda, but has been altered to fit a 6-beat pattern instead of a 5-beat pattern. This alteration is presented by the trumpets, over which an augmentation of theme one is expressed by the woodwinds. Shadow Rituals ends with a brief statement of the first theme by the woodwinds, and a brief statement of the second theme by the winds and brass.
-Program note by the composer
Personnel
Click here to view the members of the Plainfield Central H.S. Wind Ensemble
Intermission (12 minutes)
The Naperville Winds
Dr. Sean Kelley, conductor
Ms. Alyssa Arkin, conductor
Gavorkna Fanfare
Jack Stamp (b. 1954)
Composer Jack Stamp stated, “I wish I had never named this work Gavorkna. I constantly receive calls inquiring as to the meaning of the title. It is a made-up word and a joke between Eugene Corporon and myself. Gene called me in October 1999, stating that his Cincinnati College Conservatory Wind Symphony would be performing at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in Kansas City in February. He asked me to suggest an opener. I said, ‘Let me write you one. If you like it, you can have it for free. If you don’t I won’t be upset.’ I wrote the piece in two days. I scored it and sent it to Gene. He called and said, ‘You can ignore me completely, but the fugue is boring.’ I said, ‘How can a four-part fugue be boring?’ But he was right! So, on Christmas Eve, I re-wrote the fugue by ornamenting each entrance. It made the work much stronger. To date, this is my most popular work and has launched some of the earlier works as well as provided numerous commissions. I owe Gene a lot, both as my teacher of conducting, and as a friend.”
– Program note from Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music
Chester
William Billings (1746-1800)
arr. William Schuman (1910-1992)
The tune on which this composition is based was born during the very time of the American Revolution, appearing in 1778 in a book of tunes and anthems composed by William Billings called The Singing Master’s Assistant. This book became known as Billings’ Best, as it followed his first book, called The New England Psalm Singer, which was published in 1770. Chester was so popular that it was sung throughout the colonies from Vermont to South Carolina. It became the song of the American Revolution, sung around the campfires of the Continental Army and played by fifers on the march. The music and words, both composed by Billings, expressed perfectly the burning desire for freedom which sustained the colonists through the difficult years of the Revolution.
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav’ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England’s God forever reigns.
The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet’rans flee before our Youth,
And Gen’rals yield to beardless Boys.
What grateful Off’ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev’ry Chord.
Schuman originally composed Chester as the third movement of his New England Triptych, where he interpreted William Billings’ hymn and marching song of the same name. He later developed and extended the work to become an overture for band; Chester, however, is often performed as the answer to Schuman’s second movement prelude of the Triptych, When Jesus Wept.
– Program note by Jennifer Daffinee for the 2016 Texas All-State 5A Symphonic Band concert program, 13 February 2016
American Hymnsong Suite
Dwayne Milburn (b. 1963)
American Hymnsong Suite is firmly rooted in my family history as church musicians. I grew up singing and playing many different hymns, including the four tunes featured in this work. The final impetus to compose this particular treatment came during the course of an organ concert in Atlanta, Georgia. One section of the program featured innovative settings of three hymns. With the gracious consent of composers Joe Utterback and Brooks Kuykendall, I adapted their settings to act as the inner movements of the suite, bracketed with my own original treatments of favorite hymns.
The first movement, Prelude on “Wonderous Love” (What Wondrous Love is This) opens with a chant-like statement of this Southern tune before proceeding to a more kinetic retelling. The second movement, Ballad on “Balm in Gilead,” features a rich jazz harmonization of this familiar spiritual. The third movement, “Schertzo on Nettleton” (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing), contains all the rhythmic playfulness inherent in the best orchestral third movements, and the fourth movement, March on “Wilson” (When We All Get to Heaven), calls to mind the wildest marching band ever heard.
While audience members will certainly make various connections to this piece, the ongoing goal is to introduce all listeners to the richness of our American musical heritage.
– Program note by the composer
From the Eye of the Storm
Ayatay Shabazz (b. 1971)
Mississippi composer Ayatey Shabazz is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. He lost both his home and the school where he taught to the storm. Soon after the storm was over, Shabazz composed this stimulating and descriptive composition that explores the wide range of events and emotions he experienced during the tragic hurricane.
– Program note from publisher
Click Here to Donate to the American Red Cross’
Hurricane Helene & Milton Relief Efforts
Overture to “Candide”
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
arr. Clare Grundman (1913-1996)
Candide was Leonard Bernstein’s third Broadway musical, following On the Town and Wonderful Town. Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Voltaire’s 18th-century satire on blind optimism, Bernstein’s Candide is an operetta set in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in the mythical European land of Westphalia. Within these walls live the Baron and Baroness; Cunégonde, their beautiful and innocent virgin daughter; Maximilian, their handsome son; Candide, their handsome bastard nephew; and Paquette, the Baroness’ buxom serving maid. They are taught by Dr. Pangloss, who preaches the philosophy that all is for the best in “The Best of All Possible Worlds.”
Candide and Cunégonde kiss, and Candide is banned from Westphalia. As he leaves, Bulgarians invade, kidnap him and slaughter everyone except for Cunégonde, who they prostitute out to a rich Jew and the Grand Inquisitor. Candide escapes and begins an optimistic, satirical journey, taking with him his sweetheart Cunégonde and Pangloss. Candide journeys to Lisbon, Paris, Buenos Aires, and even the legendary El Dorado, only to discover reality in the forms of crime, atrocity, and suffering. He returns to Venice with Cunégonde, stripped of his idealism. His ultimate emotional maturation concludes in the finale with “You’ve been a fool, and so have I, But come and be my wife, And let us try before we die, To make good sense of life. We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; We’ll do the best we know; We’ll build our house, and chop our wood, And make our garden grow.”
Opening on Broadway on December 1, 1956, Candide was perhaps a bit too intellectually weighty for its first audiences and closed after just 73 performances. Bernstein was less concerned over the money lost than the failure of a work he cared about deeply. The critics had rightly noted a marvelous score, and Bernstein and others kept tinkering with the show over the years. With each revival, Candide won bigger audiences. In 1989, the already-seriously-ill Bernstein spent his last ounces of vital energy recording a new concert version of the work. “There’s more of me in that piece than anything else I’ve done,” he said.
The sparkling overture captures the frenetic activity of the operetta, with its twists and turns, along with Candide’s simple honesty. From the very beginning, though, the overture was a hit and swiftly became one of the most popular of all concert curtain raisers. Brilliantly written and scored, flying at breakneck speed, it pumps up the adrenaline of players and listeners alike. It features two of the show’s big tunes: the sweeping romantic one is Candide’s and Cunégonde’s love duet “Oh Happy We,” while the wacky up-tempo music is from Cunégonde’s fabulous send-up of coloratura soprano arias, “Glitter and Be Gay.”
– Program note by San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra concert program, 12 May 2012
Sesquicentennial Exposition March
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
The Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 was held in Philadelphia, the occasion being the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of American independence. Sousa composed this march at the request of exposition officials and dedicated it to the mayor of Philadelphia, W. Freeland Kendrick.
–Program note from John Philip Sousa: A Descriptive Catalog of His Works
Personnel
Click to view members of The Naperville Winds
Thanks to Our Sponsors
Corporate Sponsor
Corporate Partner
Full Circle Creative & Media Services
Platinum Sponsor
$1000 or more
Michael & Caroline Kelley
Gold Sponsor
$500 to $1000
Sean Kelley
Silver Sponsor
$250 to $499
Bruce Spitzer
Bronze Sponsor
$100 to $249
Friends of The Naperville Winds
$1 to $99
Special Thanks To:
Pete Ellman, Ellman’s Music Center
Susan Chou, Chairperson, NCC Department of Music
Lawrence Van Oyen, NCC Director of Bands
Joe LaPalomento, NCC Instructor of Percussion
Stephen M. Caliendo, NCC Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Ethan Dunk (trumpet), Music Manager
Jennifer Wojcik (flute), Content & Copy Editor
Melissa Hickok (clarinet), Public Relations Chair
Barb Holland (flute), Secretary
Nate Dickman (Trumpet), Treasurer
Crystal Szewczyk (Flute), Fundraising Chair
Claudia Andrews (Horn), Melissa Hickok (Clarinet), Ken Kelly (Clarinet), Band Representatives
Rudi Schwerdle (trombone), Logistics Manager
Tim Chernobrov & James Cross, Setup Crew
