GENESEO HIGH SCHOOL HONORS BAND

John Versluis, conductor

ILLINOIS WIND SYMPHONY

Kevin Geraldi, conductor

Alex Mondragon, graduate conductor

Christopher Cerrone, guest composer

Lindsay Kesselman, soprano

Aaron Kavelman, drum set

Foellinger Great Hall

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

7:30 PM

Program Notes

James Curnow (b. 1943)

Fanfare Prelude on God of our Fathers (1983)

American composer James Curnow received a bachelor of music degree from Wayne State University and a master of music from Michigan State University. He has received numerous awards for teaching and composition, including the Outstanding Educator of America, the Citation of Excellence from the National Bandmasters Association, the North American Brass Band President’s Award, the Volkwein Composition Award (twice), the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award (twice), the International Competition for Original Compositions for Band, and the Coup de Vents Composition Competition of Le Havre, France.

Curnow has been commissioned to write over 400 works for concert band, brass band, orchestra, choir, and various vocal and instrumental ensembles. His total published works now number well over 800. As a conductor, composer, and clinician, he has traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe, where his music has received wide acclaim.

God of Our Fathers is a nineteenth-century American Christian hymn, written in 1876 to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. The hymn was written by Daniel C. Roberts, a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church serving, at the time, as rector of St. Thomas & Grace Episcopal churches in Brandon, Vermont. Roberts served in the 84th Ohio Infantry during the American Civil War.

—Program note from Windrep.org

Julie Giroux (b. 1961)

Symphony No. IV: Bookmarks from Japan (2013)

Julie Ann Giroux was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and graduated from Louisiana State University. Julie began composing commercially in 1984. She was hired by Oscar-winning composer Bill Conti as an orchestrator; her first project with Conti being North & South, the mini-series. With over one hundred film, television, and video game credits, Giroux collaborated with dozens of film composers, producers, and celebrities including Samuel Goldwyn, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Celene Dion, Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Paul Newman, Harry Connick Jr., and many others. Projects she has worked on have been nominated for Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Golden Globe awards. She has won individual Emmy Awards in the field of “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction.” When she won her first Emmy Award, she was the first woman and the youngest person to ever win that award. She has won it three times.

The composer writes the following about the work:

Molly and Ray Cramer gave me a set of six bookmarks they had purchased in Japan. Each paper bookmark had beautiful color sketches of scenes or places by famous Japanese artists. They gave them to me during a lunch outing we took together while at a convention. I did not eat much of my lunch because I could not stop looking at the bookmarks. My imagination was whirling with each scene painted on each bookmark. I knew right then and there that those six little bookmarks would be the subject of my next symphony.

And sure enough, those six little pieces of paper with their tiny little purple silk strings consumed the better part of six months of my life.

I. Mount Fuji "Fuji-san"—Based on the bookmark Fine Wind, Clear Morning by Hokusai Katsushika which is a woodblock sketch from Hokusai's collection, The 35 Views of Mt. Fuji.

The sketch Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Gaifu kaisei), also known as South Wind, Clear Sky or Red Fuji, is the inspiration for this work which is subtitled “Fuji-san.” In early autumn when, as the original sketch title specifies, the wind is southerly and the sky is clear, the rising sun can turn Mount Fuji red. Fuji-san has many different looks depending on the viewer's vantage point, time of year, weather and even time of day. Big, bold, and easily recognized, yet shrouded in mystery and lore, Mount Fuji offers a multitude of inspirational facets.

This piece is based on one view of Mt. Fuji covered in mist and low clouds which slowly burn off as the day progresses. Orchestration and composition techniques follow this scenario, starting off with mysterious, unfocused scoring. As the piece progresses, the scoring gets more focused and bold with the final statement representing Fuji-san in a totally clear view.

II. Nihonbashi “Market Bridge"—Based on the bookmark Nihonbashi by Hiroshige Ando, which is from the print series The 53 Stations of the Tokaido Highway.

Hiroshige Ando (1797–1858) traveled the Tokaido from Edo to Kyoto in 1832. The official party he was traveling with was transporting horses which were gifts to be offered to the imperial court. The journey greatly inspired Hiroshige, for he sketched many of its scenes during his round-trip travels. In all, Hiroshige produced fifty-five prints for the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido. Fifty-three of the prints represent each of the fifty-three post stations along the way. The two additional prints are of the starting and ending points. The post stations offered food, lodging and stables for travelers of the Tokaido Highway.

The Nihonbashi bridge was the central point of development, which is now a business district of Chuo, Tokyo, Japan, aptly named the Nihonbashi District. For centuries, it thrived as a mercantile district. The first department store ever developed in Japan was by the Mitsui family named Mitsukoshi. From its early days as a fish market to the current financial district of Tokyo (and Japan), this bridge spanning the Nihonbashi River is a true landmark in Tokyo. In fact, highway signs that state the distance to Tokyo actually state the distance to the Nihonbashi bridge. Up until shortly before 1964, you could see Mount Fuji from the bridge; however, the 1964 Summer Olympics put in a raised expressway over the Nihonbashi bridge, obscuring its view entirely. Petitions to relocate the expressway underground in order to regain view of Mount Fuji are continuous but so far have been futile due to the costs for such a project.

This movement is a melody of my own crafting. It is folk sounding in nature as I was trying to capture the spirit of the bridge going all the way back to 1603 when the first wooden bridge was built over Nihonbashi River. It started out as a fish market but quickly became a place for other merchants to gather. In this piece, the melody gets tossed from instrument to instrument representing the continuous street hawking and haggling that was…

—Program note from the composer

Johann Strauss (1804–1849), Arr. Reed

Radetzky March (1848/1993)

Johann Baptist Strauss, Sr. was the son of Franz Strauss, an innkeeper who lived in the Vienna suburb of Leopoldstadt, a settling place for Jews who came from the eastern provinces. Although he showed signs of musical ability at an early age, his father apprenticed him to a bookbinder. When he carried out his threat to run away, his parents agreed to let him try music.

Johann Strauss, Sr., is remembered chiefly for his Radetzky March, although some of his best waltzes are still played. Among 251 works edited by Johann, Jr. are 152 waltzes, thirty-two quadrilles, twenty-four galops, thirteen polkas, six potpourris, and six cotillions. He was also credited with eighteen marches, although some researchers now believe that he composed twice that number. With Josef Lanner, he was a pioneer in developing the waltz form—with its slow introduction, five sections with different melodies, and a coda—from the ländler, an Austrian peasant dance.

Radetzky March is generally acclaimed as among the greatest of all pieces in the march vein. Strauss wrote it a year before his death in 1848. It was named for Johann Joseph Count Radetzky de Radetz, a venerable Austrian Field Marshal. The title page of the first edition bore the dedications “In honor of the greatest Field Marshall'' and “Dedicated to the Imperial Royal Army.” It was commissioned to celebrate Radetzky’s victories, primarily the Battle of Custoza. The trio uses a popular Viennese folk tune of the time, Alter Tanz aus Wien or Tinerl-Lied, which was originally in 3/4 time. It is rumored that Strauss heard the returning soldiers singing the tune and decided to incorporate it into the work by converting it to 2/4 time.

After the first performance, conducted in Vienna by the composer on August 31, 1848, the piece became the unofficial Austrian anthem along with the Blue Danube waltz. When it was first played for Austrian officers, they spontaneously clapped and stomped their feet during the chorus. This tradition, with a light rhythmic clapping during the first iteration of the melody followed by thunderous clapping during the second, is kept alive today by audience members who know of the custom when the march is played. It has been a long-standing tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic to conclude every New Year’s Concert with the work.

—Program note from Windrep.org

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), Arr. Bach

The Courtly Dances from “Gloriana” (1953/1995)

Edward Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of twentieth-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral, and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), War Requiem (1962), and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).

With the premiere of Peter Grimes in 1945, Britten leapt to international fame. Over the next twenty years, he wrote fourteen more operas, establishing himself as one of the leading twentieth-century composers in the genre. In addition to large-scale operas for Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden, he wrote chamber operas for small forces, suitable for performance in venues of modest size. Among the best known of these is The Turn of the Screw (1954). Recurring themes in the operas are the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society, and the corruption of innocence.

Among the characteristic features of many of Britten’s compositions is the combining of old and new, and, in his operatic works, the use of orchestral interludes which not only serve to link the dramatic action but also function well as independent orchestral pieces. The Courtly Dances from Gloriana are one such example.

Gloriana was commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The opera is in three acts, and the text by William Plomer was based upon Elizabeth and Essex (1928) by Lytton Strachey. It was dedicated “by gracious permission to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in honour of whose coronation it was composed,” and was premiered at Covent Garden on June 8, 1953.

The Courtly Dances are drawn from throughout the opera, primarily Act II. Author Arnold Whittall wrote, “Britten’s imaginative use of allusions to Elizabethan dances and lute songs create not only local colour but also a sense of ironic distance from the twentieth century.” The prominent use of wind instruments in the orchestral suite, Opus 53a, is reminiscent of the predominance of winds and percussion in the original Elizabethan dance music, and makes this an effective subject for the band transcription prepared by Jan Bach.

—Program note by the US Marine Band

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)

Darkening, Then Brightening (2024)

Christopher Cerrone is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations.

Cerrone’s recent opera, In a Grove (libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann), jointly produced by LA Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, was called “stunning” (Opera News) and “outstanding” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) in its sold-out premiere run in March 2022. Other recent projects include The Year of Silence, based on the story of the same name by Kevin Brockmeier, for the Louisville Symphony and baritone Dashon Burton; A Body, Moving, a brass concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony; Breaks and Breaks, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony; The Insects Became Magnetic, an orchestral work with electronics for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; The Air Suspended, a piano concerto for Shai Wosner; and Meander, Spiral, Explode, a percussion quartet concerto co-commissioned by Third Coast Percussion, the Chicago Civic Orchestra of the Chicago Symphony, and the Britt Festival.

Cerrone’s first opera, Invisible Cities, was a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Invisible Cities received its fully-staged world premiere in a wildly popular production by The Industry, directed by Yuval Sharon, in Los Angeles’ Union Station. Both the film and opera are available as CDs, DVDs, and digital downloads. In July 2019, New Amsterdam Records released his GRAMMY-nominated sophomore effort, The Pieces that Fall to Earth, a collaboration with the LA-based chamber orchestra, Wild Up, to widespread acclaim. His most recent release, The Arching Path, released on In a Circle Records, was nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY. Cerrone is the winner of the 2015–2016 Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition and was a resident at the Laurenz Haus Foundation in Basel, Switzerland from 2022–2023.

Christopher Cerrone holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He is published by Schott NY and Project Schott, and in 2021 he joined the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music. He lives in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City with his wife.

From the composer:

Darkening, Then Brightening is my first composition for wind ensemble. When approached about the project, I knew I would be in unfamiliar territory, so I suggested that the work also feature a soprano soloist, a voice type for which I have written regularly. I also suggested the soloist be—in the case of the premiere—Lindsay Kesselman, a long-time collaborator and a dear friend.

It was Lindsay who inspired me to adapt the poems of Kim Addonizio, whose complex, emotionally layered poems of love, loss, and motherhood mirror Lindsay’s own life. Once I suggested the opening poem, “Here,” Lindsay was instrumental in choosing many of the other poems in the cycle. Her unique and indelible personality inspired me to reach outside of my familiar experience and try to empathize with an author’s life that has been quite different from my own.

Darkening, Then Brightening is structured as a five-part arch form where the first and fifth, and second and fourth, movements mirror one another, all surrounding a gentle “night music.” The godfather of this kind of structure is the great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, though many composers have used it since.

Compositionally, the outer movements seek to invert the traditional hierarchy of the wind ensemble, where percussion often acts as a punctuation to wind and brass instruments. In these gentle, spacious movements, the winds serve as a kind of unearthly sustain on the struck metal instruments of glockenspiel, vibraphone, crotales, and other bells.

The second and fourth movements reverse the inversion (if you’ll pardon the phrase). The outer movements are all decay, while the inner fast movements are all swell—starting from a single clarinet, each musical surge grows bigger and more intense until the entire ensemble is wailing at top volume—and the soprano sings a high D at the top of her range.

The innermost movement, the eponymous Darkening, Then Brightening creates imperfect intonation (out-of-tuneness) for an imperfect world. The solo flute, clarinet, and saxophones play gentle multiphonics (utilizing the “wrong” fingering to get two notes from an instrument that can normally only play one) that can never truly be in tune, against which the rest of the ensemble, along with the soprano, have to navigate. They have to try, much like the protagonist of the songs, to find beauty in a world that cannot be perfected.

Darkening, Then Brightening is dedicated to Lindsay Kesselman, with enormous thanks to Kevin Geraldi for his generous time and efforts to help shape and craft this work, and with further thanks to Michael Haithcock for organizing this commission.

—Program note by the composer

Here

Kim Addonizio (b. 1954)

After it ended badly it got so much better

which took a while of course but still

he grew so tender & I so grateful

which maybe tells you something about how it was

I’m trying to tell you I know you

have staggered wept spiraled through a long room

banging your head against it holding crushed

bird skulls in your hands your many hearts unstrung

unable to play a note their wood still beautiful

& carved so elaborately maybe a collector would want them

stupid collectors always preserving & never breaking open

the jars so everyone starves while admiring the view

you don’t own anyone everything will be taken from you

go ahead & eat this poem please it will help

My Heart

Kim Addonizio

That Mississippi chicken shack.

That initial-scarred tabletop,

that tiny little dance floor to the left of the band.

That kiosk at the mall selling caramels and kitsch.

That tollbooth with its white-plastic-gloved worker

handing you your change.

That phone booth with the receiver ripped out.

That dressing room in the fetish boutique,

those curtains and mirrors.

That funhouse, that horror, that soundtrack of screams.

That putti-filled heaven raining gilt from the ceiling.

That haven for truckers, that bottomless cup.

That biome. That wilderness preserve.

That landing strip with no runway lights

where you are aiming your plane,

imagining a voice in the tower,

imagining a tower.

Darkening, Then Brightening

Kim Addonizio

The sky keeps lying to the farmhouse,

lining up its heavy clouds

above the blue table umbrella,

then launching them over the river.

And the day feels hopeless

until it notices a few trees

dropping delicately their white petals

on the grass beside the birdhouse

perched on its wooden post,

the blinking fledglings stuffed inside

like clothes in a tiny suitcase. At first

you wandered lonely through the yard

and it was no help knowing Wordsworth

felt the same, but then Whitman

comforted you a little, and you saw

the grass as uncut hair, yearning

for the product to make it shine.

Now you lie on the couch beneath the skylight,

the sky starting to come clean,

mixing its cocktail of sadness and dazzle,

a deluge and then a digging out

and then enough time for one more

dance or kiss before it starts again,

darkening, then brightening.

You listen to the tall wooden clock

in the kitchen: its pendulum clicks

back and forth all day, and it chimes

with a pure sound, every hour on the hour,

though it always mistakes the hour.

“What Do Women Want?”

Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.

I want it flimsy and cheap,

I want it too tight, I want to wear it

until someone tears it off me.

I want it sleeveless and backless,

this dress, so no one has to guess

what’s underneath. I want to walk down

the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store

with all those keys glittering in the window,

past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old

donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers

slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,

hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.

I want to walk like I’m the only

woman on earth and I can have my pick.

I want that red dress bad.

I want it to confirm

your worst fears about me,

to show you how little I care about you

or anything except what

I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment

from its hanger like I’m choosing a body

to carry me into this world, through

the birth-cries and the love-cries too,

and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin,

it’ll be the goddamned

dress they bury me in.

Mermaid Song

Kim Addonizio

for Aya at fifteen

Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself

upside down across the sofa, reading,

one hand idly sunk into a bowl

of crackers, goldfish with smiles stamped on.

I think they are growing gills, swimming

up the sweet air to reach you. Small girl,

my slim miracle, they multiply.

In the black hours when I lie sleepless,

near drowning, dread-heavy, your face

is the bright lure I look for, love's hook

piercing me, hauling me cleanly up.

Katahj Copley (b. 1998)

DOPE (2021)

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 one hundred 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.

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

The composer writes the following about Dope:

The first semester of my masters, I was in a different headspace. I had finished writing Where the Sky Has No Stars and at the moment I felt renewed. I didn’t know what else to write, so I began to write music that felt disingenuous to my spirit (music that will never see the light of day). I was going on autopilot and I had lost my voice. During one of my lessons at UT Austin, my professor Omar Thomas and I began listening to a piece I had mocked up a couple of days before. We both weren’t feeling it, and finally I asked him to turn off the piece and I told him it didn’t sound like me. I felt lost creatively. He then asked me what music I listen to. I began to name only band music composers. He asked me again, and I told him outside of wind band music I’m in love with Rap, R & B, Jazz, and Soul.

Then he asked an important question: “Why do you make a barrier between those ideals?”

I didn’t have an answer. It was a wake-up call for me. Why was I compartmentalizing my musical inspirations?

He continued, “If you create something that is a celebration of who you are, the music you grew up with, and the music that inspires you now… then that would be dope…”

​

And with that, this piece was born. With that realization, I began to create a piece that celebrated all the music that had inspired me throughout my life. From Thundercat to Kendrick Lamar, Miles Davis to Hiatus Kaiyote, I wanted to bring all of these influences together into one cohesive work...one dope work. DOPE is a gumbo of all the music that inspires and influences me—this piece is in essence a deep look into my musical world.

​

The piece can be broken up into three parts. Since this work is dedicated to the trail black music has created, inspired, and the new horizons it’s reaching, each part is named after a part of the black identity.

​

UNDENIABLY (which is the partial score) is the opening of the piece. It's gritty, intense with moments of color and undeniable energy. It is carried by a bass line heavily influenced by Thundercat's playing on Kendrick Lamar's Untitled 05 along with Miles Davis's Nardis.

​

UNAPOLOGETICALLY (the middle section) is a world-building vibe and examines just how beautiful the music can be. I explore the colors and stretch them to their limits, but in doing so found new hues within myself and my writings. With this act, I gained heavy inspiration from John Coltrane, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, and Hiatus Kaiyote (to name a few).

​

UNDISPUTEDLY (the finale) is an intense, groove-filled statement. Every color explored is here and is in its full potential. It's bold and—like undeniably and unapologetically—is undisputedly black. Guided by my love for Tyler, the Creator's Hot Wind Blows, Marvin Gaye's I Want You (due to Kendrick's The Heart series), and Kamasi Washington's Street Fighter Mas along with Askem.

​

I hope that DOPE will serve as a tribute to the black musicians who have paved the way and inspired me to create music that is authentic to who I am. I also hope that this piece will inspire others to break down the barriers between their musical influences and create something truly unique and personal.”

—Program note by the composer

Lindsay Kesselman soprano

Lindsay Kesselman is a two-time GRAMMY-nominated soprano known for her warm, collaborative spirit and investment in personal, intimate communication with audiences. She regularly collaborates with orchestras, wind symphonies, chamber ensembles, opera/theater companies, and new music ensembles across the United States, often premiering, touring and recording new works written for her by living composers. She is a passionate advocate for contemporary music, and has commissioned/premiered over one hundred works to date.

Recent and upcoming highlights include the premiere of Darkening, then Brightening by Christopher Cerrone with the University of Illinois Wind Symphony, the premiere of the wind transcription of Caroline Shaw’s Is a Rose, Energy in All Directions by Kenneth Frazelle with Sandbox Percussion at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the role of Anna in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins with the Charlotte Symphony, the role of Ada Lovelace in a new opera, Galaxies in Her Eyes by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy Punt, Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space with Voices of Ascension, ongoing performances of two works written for Kesselman by John Mackey with orchestras and wind symphonies across the country, the John Corigliano eightieth birthday celebration at National Sawdust (2018), Quixote (Amy Beth Kirsten and Mark DeChiazza) with Peak Performances at Montclair State University (2017), a leading role in Louis Andriessen’s opera Theatre of the World with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dutch National Opera and an international tour of Einstein on the Beach with the Philip Glass Ensemble (2012–2015).

She is featured on several recent recordings: David Biedenbender’s all we are given we cannot hold (2023, Blue Griffin), Chris Cerrone’s opera In a Grove (2023, In a Circle Records), Caroline Shaw’s Is a Rose (2023, Blue Griffin), Chris Cerrone’s The Arching Path (2021, In a Circle Records), Russell Hartenberger’s Requiem for Percussion and Voices (2019, Nexus Records), Chris Cerrone’s The Pieces That Fall to Earth with Wild Up (2019, New Amsterdam Records), Mathew Rosenblum’s Lament/Witches’ Sabbath with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (2018, New Focus Recordings), Louis Andriessen’s Theatre of the World with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2017, Nonesuch), and Jon Magnussen’s Twinge with HAVEN (2016, Blue Griffin).

Kesselman has been the resident soprano of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for twelve seasons, and Haven, Kesselman’s trio with Kimberly Cole Luevano, clarinet, and Midori Koga, piano, ( www.haventrio.com ) actively commissions and tours throughout North America. Haven is the recipient of a 2021 Barlow Endowment for Music Composition award with composer David Biedenbender and a 2021 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant with composer Ivette Herryman Rodriguez.

She is a dedicated teacher, currently serving as visiting assistant professor of voice at UNC Greensboro. A frequent guest clinician at colleges and universities across the United States, Kesselman specializes in voice teaching, leadership, entrepreneurship, musicianship, young composer mentoring, chamber music, audience development, programming, interdisciplinary collaboration, harnessing vulnerability in performance, and community engagement. This season she is an adjudicator for student composer competitions through North Star Music, LLC and Connecticut Summerfest, and she co-teaches the Heretic’s Guide to Score Study and Interpretation with Kevin Noe.

​

Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance and music education from Rice University and Michigan State University. She is represented by Trudy Chan at Black Tea Music and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband Kevin and son Rowan. More information can be found at: www.lindsaykesselman.com

Aaron Kavelman

drum set

Aaron Kavelman is a percussion educator, clinician, performer and composer who grew up listening and performing jazz alongside his father, an accomplished jazz pianist. Growing up in a musical family, Aaron watched his four older sisters in the high school band program. Inspired by the local marching bands, Aaron would tape a set of bongos onto a chair and choreograph drill in the backyard, thus the beginning for his love with the marching arts.

With twenty-two years’ experience teaching private lessons and twenty years teaching drumlines throughout Illinois, Aaron brings a wealth of experience and passion to whomever he teaches. Regardless if it is on a competitive field or in support of athletics, he demands top effort from each group. Aaron also has numerous compositional and arranging credits throughout the Midwest from a variety of percussion programs.

Aaron has a bachelor of music and a master of music in percussion performance from Illinois State University where he studied with Dr. Tom Marko, director of jazz, and served as the teaching assistant to Dr. David Collier, head of percussion. Aaron is currently working on his doctor of musical arts in jazz performance with professor Joel Spencer, along with a cognate in North Indian classical music under Dr. Christopher Macklin at the University of Illinois. He currently serves as the drumline instructor for the Marching Illini and continues an active writing, playing and independent clinician schedule.

John Versluis

conductor

John Versluis received his bachelor of arts in music education from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. He also holds a master’s in teaching and leadership from St. Xavier University in Chicago. While at Western, he studied conducting under Dr. Mike Fansler and Dr. Jon Dugle and French horn with Dr. Randall Faust.

Mr. Versluis is in his nineteenth year of teaching. He spent his first sixteen years as the seventh and eighth grade director of bands at Geneseo Middle School. In the fall of 2021, he became the director of bands at Geneseo High School in Geneseo, Illinois. Under his direction, the middle school bands consistently performed at a high level, achieving Excellent and Superior ratings at the Illinois Grade School Music Association (IGSMA) District Contest and State Festival. The eighth grade Symphonic Band has been invited several times to perform at the University of Illinois Superstate Band Festival and also performed at the Illinois Music Education Conference in Peoria, Illinois in 2014. From 2014 to 2019, over forty of his students performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, through the Honors Performance Series Junior Honors Band under the direction of Jeffrey Grogan, Dr. Ken Ozzello, Curt Ebersole, and Rob Taylor.

In three years of teaching at the high school, “The Sound of Geneseo” has earned numerous awards and recognition at marching band competitions in Iowa and Illinois. Mr. Versluis also conducts the Honors Band and Fall Symphonic Band at Geneseo High School.

Mr. Versluis’s professional affiliations include Illinois Music Education Association, National Band Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Mr. Versluis has also served as guest clinician, conductor, and adjudicator.

Mr. Versluis resides in Geneseo, Illinois with his wife, Lisa, and children, Joseph (sixteen, clarinet), and Ella (thirteen, French horn). In the summer of 2023, Mr. Versluis along with his family and twenty-four Geneseo music students traveled around Europe as part of the Illinois Ambassadors of Music European tour.

KEVIN M. GERALDI

conductor

Kevin M. Geraldi began his appointment as director of bands and associate professor of conducting at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in the fall of 2022. His responsibilities include conducting the internationally renowned Illinois Wind Symphony, guiding the graduate program in wind conducting, and providing administrative leadership for the university’s comprehensive and historic band program. Previously, Dr. Geraldi served as director of instrumental ensembles and professor of conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he joined the faculty in 2005. At UNCG, he conducted the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Casella Sinfonietta, led the graduate program in instrumental conducting, taught undergraduate conducting, and guided the instrumental ensemble program. He has held additional faculty positions at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina, and in the public schools of Westchester, Illinois.

Ensembles under Dr. Geraldi’s guidance have presented acclaimed performances in significant venues in the United States and Europe, at national and state conventions, and through recordings on the Equilibrium, Centaur Records, and JustinTime labels. He maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator with high school bands, orchestras, and honor ensembles, including appearances with the Greensboro Symphony, Xinghai Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (China), the Union Musicale de Roquetas de Mar (Spain), and numerous university ensembles. Dr. Geraldi is a leader in commissioning and premiering new works for band and chamber ensemble and has earned praise for his collaborations with numerous significant composers and soloists.

Dr. Geraldi is a co-author of The Elements of Expressive Conducting, a textbook for undergraduate conducting courses that is widely used around the United States. A dedicated proponent of music education, his articles for music educators on concert programming and effective rehearsal strategies have been published by The Instrumentalist and the Music Educators Journal, and he has contributed numerous conductor’s guides for the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. He is a frequent presenter at international, national, and state conferences. His articles in The Journal of Band Research and the WASBE Journal address topics that reflect his interest in the history and performance practice of chamber music for winds, brass, and strings.

A native of Elmhurst, Illinois, Dr. Geraldi holds the doctor of musical arts and master of music degrees in conducting from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Haithcock and H. Robert Reynolds, and the bachelor of music education degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, where he studied conducting with Steven Eggleston. Additionally, he studied with teachers including Gustav Meier and Kenneth Kiesler and participated in conducting workshops with Pierre Boulez, Frederick Fennell, and Paul Vermel.

Dr. Geraldi is a recipient of the Conductors Guild’s Thelma A. Robinson Award and the Outstanding Teaching Award in the UNCG School of Music. He is a National Arts Associate of Sigma Alpha Iota and a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the National Association for Music Education, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Alex Mondragon

graduate conductor

Alex Mondragon, a doctoral student in instrumental conducting at the University of Illinois, grew up in the Denver metro area in Colorado and earned his bachelor’s of music education from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Alex served as the assistant director of bands at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, taught beginning band at various Boulder elementary schools, and assisted with several Boulder middle school bands. In addition to teaching in the public schools, Alex maintained a private studio of trombone and euphonium students ranging from grades 5–12.

Mondragon earned his master of music degree in wind conducting from The Ohio State University where he served as a graduate teaching associate and assisted in all facets of the band program. While at Ohio State, Alex served as a guest conductor with all bands and worked extensively with The Ohio State University Marching Band. He wrote drill for both the athletic band and the marching band that was performed as part of both pregame and halftime.

Mondragon’s primary conducting teachers include Dr. Kevin Geraldi, Dr. Russel Mikkelson, Dr. Donald McKinney, Dr. Matthew Roeder, and Dr. Matthew Dockendorf. He has studied euphonium with J. Michael Dunn and Scott Tegge. Alex’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, the Colorado Bandmasters Association, the Colorado Music Educators Association, and the National Band Association.

The University of Illinois Bands Staff

Kevin M. Geraldi, director of bands

Barry L. Houser, associate director of bands | director of athletic bands

Kimberly Fleming, assistant director of bands

Hannah Rudy, assistant director of athletic bands

Aaron Kavelman, percussion instructor | properties manager

Joy McClaugherty, business administrative associate

Jacob Arche, graduate assistant

Michelle Bell, graduate assistant

Nathan Maher, graduate assistant

Andrew McGowan, graduate assistant

Alex Mondragon, graduate assistant

Lorraine Montana, graduate assistant

Rebecca Mulligan, graduate assistant

Luke Yoakam, graduate assistant

Bands at the University of Illinois

The historic University of Illinois Bands program is among the most influential and comprehensive college band programs in the world, offering students the highest quality musical experiences in a variety of band ensembles. These ensembles include several concert bands led by the Illinois Wind Symphony, the Marching Illini “The Nation’s Premier College Marching Band,” two Basketball Bands, Volleyball Band, the Orange & Blues Pep Bands, and the community Summer Band. Students from every college on campus participate in the many ensembles, and the impact on the campus is substantial. Illinois Bands are a critical part of the fabric of the University of Illinois, and their influence on students—past, present, and future—is truly unique.

School of Music Administration

Linda R. Moorhouse, Director

Gayle Magee, Associate Director and Director of Faculty/Staff Development

Reynold Tharp, Director of Graduate Studies

Megan Eagan-Jones, Director of Undergraduate Studies

David Allen, Director of Advancement

Thereza Lituma, Interim Director of Admissions

Terri Daniels, Director of Public Engagement

School of Music Faculty

Composition-Theory

Armando Bayolo

Carlos Carrillo

Eli Fieldsteel

Kerry Hagan

Lamont Holden

Stephen Taylor

Reynold Tharp

Alex Zhang

Conducting

Barrington Coleman

Ollie Watts Davis

Kimberly Fleming

Kevin M. Geraldi

Barry L. Houser

Linda R. Moorhouse

Hannah Rudy

Andrea Solya

Carolyn Watson

Jazz

Ronald Bridgewater

Barrington Coleman

Larry Gray

Pat Harbison

Joan Hickey

Charles “Chip” McNeill

Jim Pugh

Joel Spencer

John “Chip” Stephens

Keyboard

Timothy Ehlen

Julie Gunn

Joan Hickey

Ieng Ieng Kevina Lam

Charlotte Mattax Moersch

Casey Robards

Dana Robinson

Rochelle Sennet

John “Chip” Stephens

Michael Tilley

Christos Tsitsaros

Chi-Chen Wu

Lyric Theatre

Julie Gunn

Nathan Gunn

Dawn Harris

Michael Tilley

Sarah Wigley

Music Education

Stephen Fairbanks

Donna Gallo

Adam Kruse

Peter Shungu

Bridget Sweet

Mike Vecchio

Musicology

Christina Bashford

Donna Buchanan

Megan Eagen-Jones

Gayle Magee

Jeffrey Magee

Carlos Ramírez

Michael Silvers

Jonathon Smith

Jeffrey Sposato

Makoto Takao

Nolan Vallier

Strings

Denise Djokic

Liz Freivogel

Megan Freivogel

Rudolf Haken

Salley Koo

Nelson Lee

Daniel McDonough

Kris Saebo

Guido Sánchez-Portuguez

Ann Yeung

Voice

Ollie Watts Davis

Nathan Gunn

Dawn Harris

Ricardo Herrera

Yvonne Redman

Jerold Siena

Sylvia Stone

Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion

Charles Daval

Iura de Rezende

John Dee

Ricardo Flores

Amy Gilreath

Jonathan Keeble

Janice Minor

William Moersch

Debra Richtmeyer

Ben Roidl-Ward

Bernhard Scully

Scott Tegge

Douglas Yeo

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