University of Illinois

HINDSLEY SYMPHONIC BAND

AND

WIND ORCHESTRA

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ILLINOIS WIND ORCHESTRA

Barry L. Houser, conductor

Alex Mondragon, graduate conductor

Amy Gilreath, trumpet

HINDSLEY SYMPHONIC BAND

Kimberly Fleming, conductor

Michelle Bell, graduate conductor

UI Graduate Brass Quintet, guest soloists

Foellinger Great Hall

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Friday, April 19, 2024

7:30 PM

Program Notes

Vittorio Giannini (1903–1966)

Dedication Overture (1965)

American composer Vittorio Giannini attended the Milan Conservatory from 1913 to 1917. He studied violin with Hans Letz and composition with Rubin Goldmark at the Juilliard School in New York for his graduate degrees. Giannini taught at Juilliard from 1939 to 1941, New York’s Manhattan School of Music from 1941 to 1956, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1956 to 1965. Giannini was also the first director of the North Carolina School for the Arts in Winston–Salem, North Carolina, beginning in 1965. As a composer, Giannini won three consecutive Prix de Rome. His style is known for blending neo-romantic techniques with an Italianate vocal style. In the late 1940s, he moved toward a lighter neo-classical style and his later years were characterized by more intense romanticism marked by greater dissonance and tonal freedom. His students include David Amram, John Corigliano, Nicolas Flagello, Adolphus Hailstork, and Alfred Reed.

Dedication Overture is one of five compositions the late Vittorio Giannini wrote for the symphonic band, with his Symphony No. 3 perhaps being his best-known work in the band medium. The overture begins with a dynamic allegro employing the full sonorities of the band. A poco meno mosso in the center section features the cantabile style which contrasts nicely with the dynamic beginning and recapitulation of the first theme. A development section, which first uses material from the second theme and then thematic material from the first section, brings the piece to a majestic close.

—Program note from WindRep.org

Roger Zare (b. 1985)

Mare Tranquillitatis (2012)

Roger Zare has been praised for his “enviable grasp of orchestration” (The New York Times) and for writing music with “formal clarity and an alluringly mercurial surface.” He was born in Sarasota, Florida, and has written for a wide variety of ensembles, from solo instruments to full orchestra. Often inspired by science, mathematics, literature, and mythology, his colorfully descriptive and energetic works have been performed on six continents by such ensembles as the American Composers Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Donald Sinta Quartet, and the New York Youth Symphony. An award-winning composer, Zare has received the ASCAP Nissim Prize, three BMI Student Composer Awards, an ASCAP Morton Gould award, a 2010 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Copland House Residency Award, Grand Prize in the inaugural China-US Emerging Composers Competition, and many other honors. Zare holds a DMA from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty, Paul Schoenfield, Bright Sheng, and Kristin Kuster. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory (MM ’09) and the University of Southern California (BM ’07), and his previous teachers include Christopher Theofanidis, Derek Bermel, David Smooke, Donald Crockett, Tamar Diesendruck, Fredrick Lesemann, and Morten Lauridsen. Zare currently serves as assistant professor of music at Appalachian State University and previously taught composition at Illinois State University.

Mare Tranquillitatis translates to “Sea of Tranquility,” and is the famous location on the moon where Apollo 11 landed and the first man set foot on the lunar surface. The music seeks to capture a dichotomy of emotions—tranquil beauty and restless isolation. All of the musical material is derived from only two ideas—the descending fourth heard in the opening bar, and the flowing and surging melody heard not long after. These two ideas trade back and forth within a contrapuntal texture, swelling and flowing as they interact with each other. The music recedes into a quieter realm and a quartet of soloists emerges, juxtaposing the lush full textures with a delicate and intimate passage. After many peaks and dips, the emotional arc of the piece culminates in the long-awaited return of the second theme. It grows and transforms into a sweeping gesture, bringing closure to the pent-up tension from before. What follows is an epilogue, and the piece ends with one final tender moment with the solo quartet.

—Program note by the composer

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990),

Arr. Sweeney

Suite from MASS (1971/2009)

Among the participants in the diverse and celebrated history of American music, there are few figures who are as commanding a force as Leonard Bernstein. His long and productive life of composing, conducting, performing, and teaching has influenced millions worldwide. Given his tremendously varied background, it should be no surprise that his 1971 MASS (stylized in all capital letters) is a grand pastiche of styles and influences spanning centuries of Western classical music. The original work was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. An evening’s entertainment (clocking in at nearly two hours in length), the work is a spectacle incorporating orchestra, multiple choruses, actors, dancers, rock combo, and marching band. Texts utilized are not just from the traditional Latin mass and the composer himself, but also from collaborations with acclaimed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and (to a much smaller extent) American singer/songwriter Paul Simon.

The dramatic arc of the work as a whole is a look into the celebration of a mass. The primary character, known as the Celebrant, immediately discards the unnecessarily complex counterpoint of the introductory Kyrie, instead encouraging a more direct and personal faith through “A Simple Song,” the work’s de facto thesis statement. Over the course of the celebration, the congregation (represented by the choirs) moves slowly from a position of acceptance to one of questioning faith in the face of trial. At the moment of greatest crisis, the Communion is interrupted by the growing dissent of the performers and the ensuing frustration of the Celebrant. At this moment when all seems lost, a sign appears in the form of a single altar boy who echoes the opening sentiment with “Secret Songs.” This brings the Celebrant and congregation back into harmony with each other for the final reprise of “Almighty Father,” as the Celebrant instructs the congregation (and, by extension, the audience) to “go in peace.”

The work was met with some controversy leading to its premiere due to beliefs that anti-war sentiments present throughout the text were a political indictment of the presidential administration —a notion that is summarily dismissed by Nina Bernstein Simmons in her notes on MASS: “While the work is certainly anti-war and calls on ‘you people of power’ to do what is right, it is not overtly political. It is unquestionably religious.”

Suite from MASS, arranged by Michael Sweeney for the Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, takes particularly memorable selections from throughout the course of MASS and sets them for featured brass quintet and full ensemble. The brass quintet most frequently takes on the role of the solo singers from the stage production. The arrangements themselves are remarkably true to the original work, though ordered differently. For instance, in the suite, “A Simple Song” is the middle movement and acts as the gentle centerpiece between the more virtuosic expressions of the exterior sections, as opposed to its early presentation within the full version. Part One, in contrast, sets some of the more aggressive moments of the original. While the Alleluia is jubilant, the “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” (which come from near the end of MASS at the moment when the congregation’s furor is at its highest) blare with sizzling cacophony. The finale sets the Offertory and Almighty Father with the beautiful sonorities of the hymn cadencing with an "Amen” sung by the ensemble. Though the medium has shifted, Sweeney’s conscientious work lets Bernstein’s voice sing through unabashedly, as always passionate and profound.

—Program note by Jacob Wallace for the Baylor Wind Ensemble concert program, December 19, 2014

Helen May Butler (1867–1957)

Arr. Lamb

Cosmopolitan America (1904/2014)

Helen May Butler, a native of New Hampshire, was musically inclined at an early age and became proficient on both the cornet and the violin. She studied violin with Bernard Listerman, concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her first conducting experience came in 1891 with the Talma Ladies Orchestra. This small orchestra was reorganized as the US Talma Ladies Military Band, and soon the name was changed to Helen May Butler’s Ladies Military Band. Butler’s band made several lengthy transcontinental tours between 1900 to 1912, distinguishing itself as the first professional band made up entirely of women. The group performed at a tireless pace, putting on a concert a day for thirteen months in 1903–1904. The band often championed the works of American composers. Butler was referred to as the “female Sousa,” and Sousa was indeed among her personal friends. Once at a Sousa Band concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sousa called her out of the audience to guest-conduct his band.

After touring, she performed as a cornet soloist. She settled in the Cincinnati area circa 1912 and lived the remainder of her life in Covington, Kentucky. Her activities were not restricted to music; she had an interest in public service and ran (unsuccessfully) for the United States Senate in 1936. In 1995, she was inducted into the Women Band Directors Hall of Fame. Butler’s band uniforms, photographs, programs, sheet music, and other memorabilia are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Composed for the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, commonly known as the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Cosmopolitan America is Helen May Butler’s best-known composition. The march includes quotes from “O Tannenbaum,” “Serenata Nocturna—Minueto” by Mozart, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Butler composed very little, but her Cosmopolitan America became the official Republican party campaign march during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential campaign of 1904.

—Program note from WindRep.org

Karl L. King (1891–1971)

The Pride of the Illini (1928)

Karl L. King was born in Paintersville, Ohio in 1891, then his family moved to Canton, Ohio in 1902. At age twelve, Karl used earnings from his newspaper route to purchase a cornet and pay for music lessons. He later switched to baritone and began playing in local bands. After appearing as a baritone player in several towns and circus bands, he became bandmaster for Sells Floto–Buffalo Bill (1914–1916) and Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth (1917–1918). In 1920, he became leader of the Fort Dodge Military Band and held that position for thirty-eight years. The band operated in the manner of the earlier Sousa, Gilmore, and Pryor bands, touring, playing at fairs, and training musicians. King was one of the founders of the American Bandmasters Association (1930), of which he was named honorary life president in 1967.

King wrote The Pride of the Illini in 1928 for A. A. Harding and the University of Illinois Bands. Harding was born in Georgetown, Illinois, in 1880. He learned to play cornet, trombone, euphonium, piccolo, and drums before finishing high school. After performing with professional groups for a time, he entered the University of Illinois as a band member majoring in engineering when he was twenty-two. He became director of the university band during his senior year in 1905 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1948.

In a memorial tribute during the centennial of Harding's birth in December 1980, The Instrumentalist quoted tributes from several of his former students and associates. Frederick Fennell summarized many of their comments when he wrote, “The contemporary American bandmasters’ heritage was established through the environment that Harding created on the Illinois campus where the modern concert band, gridiron marching band, band clinic, and pursuit of the colorful and sensitive symphonic transcriptions were among his outstanding contributions; they did not exist before him.”

—Program note from March Music Notes

Scott Boerma (b. 1964)

Zoom (2021)

Scott Boerma is an American composer, arranger, educator and conductor.

Dr. Boerma earned his doctor of musical arts degree in wind conducting at Michigan State University and his master of music degree in music education at the University of Michigan, where he also studied composition with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer William Bolcom. He received his bachelor of music degree in music education at Western Michigan University, where he also studied composition with Ramon Zupko. Boerma has also studied composition with Anthony Iannaccone at Eastern Michigan University.

Scott Boerma is the director of bands and professor of music at Western Michigan University, where he conducts the University Symphonic Band and Western Winds. Prior to this appointment, he was the associate director of bands, director of the Michigan Marching Band, and the Donald R. Shepherd Associate Professor of Conducting at the University of Michigan. Before those positions, Boerma was the director of bands at Eastern Michigan University, and he began his career teaching music in the Michigan public schools at Novi and Lamphere High Schools.

An active composer, Boerma’s concert band works have been performed by many outstanding ensembles, including “The President’s Own” Marine Band, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, the University of Illinois Wind Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphony and Concert Bands, the Interlochen Arts Camp High School Symphonic Band, and the BOA Honor Band of America, to name just a few. His music has been heard in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Hill Auditorium, the Myerson Symphony Center, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and at the Chicago Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Boerma’s works have been featured in the popular GIA series, Teaching Music through Performance in Band. He is commissioned each year by high school, university, and community bands to write new works for the repertoire.

From the composer:

The word “zoom” took on a new meaning during the pandemic (that started in 2020). Meetings, classes, social gatherings, and holiday celebrations took the form of online video conferences and were generically called “zooms.” Those of us in the musical profession often had to resort to makeshift, substitute forms of ensemble performances that often resembled these gatherings.

One upside for me was a weekly Zoom hang that developed with four of my closest friends (all university band conductors) from across the country. One of those friends is Jamie Nix, for whom I was commissioned by his former graduate students to write this piece, in celebration of his tenth year as director of wind ensembles at Columbus State University. A common theme in our weekly chats was our unbridled enthusiasm (and impatience) to get back to what we love: making live music with our students. All of us have felt like we’ve been feverishly revving our engines behind the starting line, breathlessly waiting to see the green flag fly, knowing that the checkered flag awaits on the other side. Well, start your engines…because here we go…full speed ahead!

—Program note by the composer

Kevin McKee (b. 1980)

Centennial Horizons (2017)

Kevin McKee is an American composer and trumpeter.

McKee began playing the trumpet in grade school at the urging of his father, who was a high school music teacher. He went on to earn two degrees in trumpet performance, a BM from Sacramento State, where he studied with Gary Dilworth, and an MM from the University of Maryland, with Chris Gekker.

Mr. McKee's music draws inspiration from movie scoring and the sweeping views in the state of Colorado, and serves as an homage to his grandmother. He was inspired to try his hand at composition after spending a month working with the incredible composer/trumpeter Anthony DiLorenzo at the 2006 MMCK summer music festival in Japan. Since this time, McKee's catalog has grown to about fifteen pieces. His music has been performed on every continent and can be heard on over twenty recordings. He has contributed to the International Trumpet Guild Journal and is a member of ASCAP.

In addition to composing, McKee is an active trumpet performer and teacher in the Washington, DC area.

From the composer:

Centennial Horizon was commissioned by Albany trumpeter Catherine Sheridan. With two contrasting movements (“Aspen Grove” and “Roaring Gunnison”) connected by an interlude (“Alpenglow”), I have attempted to capture some of the beauty and adventure of what truly is an amazing place: Colorado (the Centennial State). Inspired by my late grandmother's love of that state, the first movement is an homage to her.

When Catherine Sheridan wrote to me about composing a piece for trumpet and piano, my first thoughts were of my late grandmother, Gertrude, who was always suggesting that I write a piece with Colorado as the subject. She loved that state. And while she lived most of her life in California, she always longed to go back to Colorado amongst the quaking aspens, the mountains, the rivers, and the vibrant colors. I have at last taken her up on her suggestion referencing the Centennial State, a nickname given to Colorado for being inducted into the Union one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The trumpet and concert band adaptation was commissioned by a consortium of fourteen groups and individuals.

—Program note by the composer

David Maslanka (1943–2017)

Give Us This Day (2005)

David Maslanka, an American composer, attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood, and spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He also did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed.

David Maslanka served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough College of the City University of New York. He was a member of ASCAP.

Over the past four decades, David Maslanka has become one of America’s most original and celebrated musical voices. He has published dozens of works for wind ensemble, orchestra, choir, percussion ensembles, chamber ensembles, solo instrument, and solo voice. However, he is especially well-known for his wind ensemble works. Of his nine symphonies, seven are written for wind ensemble; an additional forty-one works include among them the profound “short symphony” Give Us This Day, and the amusing Rollo Takes a Walk. Year after year, Maslanka’s music is programmed by professional, collegiate, and secondary school wind ensembles around the world.

When Maslanka wrote A Child’s Garden of Dreams, he was living in New York City and teaching music composition at Sarah Lawrence College and New York University. He was rapidly becoming interested in psychology, psychotherapy, and meditation, and was particularly captivated by the writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Maslanka began to incorporate self-hypnosis and lucid dreaming into his meditative exercises, which heavily influenced his musical thought. He began to notice specific symbols in his “mental landscape” that he translated into music. Today, Maslanka’s unique compositional technique is known for its emphasis on meditation, psychoanalysis, self-discovery, and the accession of one’s own subconscious energies. His search for spiritual and metaphysical discovery ultimately spurred him to leave New York City in 1990, and move to Missoula, Montana, where he lived and worked until his death.

From the composer:

Give Us This Day was commissioned by Eric Weirather, director of bands at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Oceanside, California, which is in the greater San Diego area. Weirather put together a consortium to support the commission. The score was finished in October of 2005, and the premiere performance was done at Weirather’s school in the spring of 2006. Since then, with publication of the piece, and a lot of word of mouth, Give Us This Day has literally taken off. It continues to be performed all over the US, and many places around the world.

The words "give us this day" are, of course, from the Lord's Prayer, but the inspiration for this music is Buddhist. I have recently read a book by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced "Tick Not Hahn") entitled For a Future to be Possible. His premise is that a future for the planet is only possible if individuals become deeply mindful of themselves, deeply connected to who they really are. While this is not a new idea, and something that is an ongoing struggle for everyone, in my estimation it is the issue for world peace. For me, writing music, and working with people to perform music, are two of those points of deep mindfulness.

Music makes the connection to reality, and by reality I mean a true awakeness and awareness. Give Us This Day gives us this very moment of awakeness and aware aliveness so that we can build a future in the face of a most dangerous and difficult time.

I chose the subtitle Short Symphony for Wind Ensemble because the music really isn't programmatic in nature. It has a full-blown symphonic character, even though there are only two movements. The music of the slower first movement is deeply searching, while that of the highly energized second movement is at times both joyful and sternly sober. The piece ends with a modal setting of the chorale melody Vater Unser in Himmelreich ("Our Father in Heaven"), #110 from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J. S. Bach.

—Program note by the composer

John Philip Sousa (1854–1932)

Hands Across the Sea (1899)

John Philip Sousa was America's best-known composer and conductor during his lifetime. Highly regarded for his military band marches, Sousa is often called the “The March King” or “American March King.”

Sousa was born the third of ten children of John Antonio Sousa (born in Spain of Portuguese parents) and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus (born in Bavaria). His father played trombone in the US Marine band, so young John grew up around military band music. Sousa started his music education at the age of six playing the violin as a pupil of John Esputa, Jr. and G. F. Benkert. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of thirteen, his father enlisted him as an apprentice of the United States Marine Corps. Sousa served his apprenticeship for seven years, until 1875, and apparently learned to play all the wind instruments while also continuing with the violin.

Several years later, Sousa left his apprenticeship to join a theatrical (pit) orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the US Marine Band as its head in 1880, and remained as its conductor until 1892. He organized his own band the year he left the Marine Band. The Sousa Band toured 1892–1931, performing 15,623 concerts in America and abroad. In 1900, his band represented the United States at the Paris Exposition before touring Europe. In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets including the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe—one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years. Sousa died at the age of seventy-seven on March 6, 1932 after conducting a rehearsal of the Ringgold Band in Reading, Pennsylvania. The last piece he conducted was "The Stars and Stripes Forever," his most famous work and the US’s national march.

Sousa wrote 136 independent marches, while a host of other marches and dances have been adapted from his stage works. Despite the genre’s relatively limited structure, Sousa’s marches are highly varied in character. The vast majority are in the quickstep dance style and a third of their titles bear military designations. His earlier marches are best suited for actual marching, while later works are increasingly complex. He also wrote school songs for several American universities, including Kansas State University, Marquette University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota.

Hands Across the Sea, composed in 1899, might well be considered as Sousa’s farewell to the nineteenth century that had been so crucial to the evolution of the United States of America. The two final decades of that century had also been very good to Sousa, for in those years he emerged as a world-famous music personality. His magnificent band was one of the first American success stories in music, for it captured audiences wherever it played. Sousa, his band, and his thrilling marches spoke for all of us. Together they just might possibly have been the best ambassadors for the Republic since Benjamin Franklin. Hands Across the Sea could also have been Sousa’s sincerely confident and patriotic view of the years ahead at the dawn of what he hoped might be a bright new era for mankind.

The title of the march has the ring of history in it. Since Sousa was almost as fascinated by words as he was by music, this happy combination finds him joining one of his most mature and compelling marches with words to match, for the prophetic title was original with him.

There are, of course, as many ways to play Sousa marches as there are conductors to lead them, and no official “system” of performance was either provided or approved by him. Those many admirers among his players who subsequently conducted provided viable options, but Sousa’s approval on proofs for publication make them all that is ultimately correct.

—Program note by Frederick Fennell

Conductors

Michelle Bell

Michelle Bell recently completed her DMA in wind band conducting and serves as a graduate teaching assistant with the University of Illinois Bands Departmentis. Michelle earned her master of music in wind band conducting from the University of Minnesota where she studied with Dr. Emily Threinen. While at UMN, she assisted with the marching band, university band, symphonic band, and wind ensemble.

In 2018, Michelle was appointed visiting assistant professor of music at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia where she assisted with the marching band and concert band, and directed the pep band and various chamber woodwind ensembles. She also taught courses in theory, conducting, instrumental methods, and woodwind methods. Prior to her time at E&H, Michelle taught at St. Cloud State University, where she directed the sports band.

Michelle graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011, earning her bachelor of music education degree as well as a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army National Guard. Since then, she has served in the Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota Army National Guards. Currently, she holds the rank of captain and recently returned from a deployment as a company commander in support of the Southwest Border Mission, where she led a company of over one hundred soldiers.

Kim Fleming

Kim Fleming is the assistant director of bands at the University of Illinois where her responsibilities include conducting the Hindsley Symphonic Band as well as teaching courses in the undergraduate conducting sequence. Before joining the faculty at Illinois, she completed her DMA at the University of Michigan where served as a graduate student instructor for the undergraduate conducting courses, conducted the women’s basketball and volleyball bands, directed the Michigan Alumni Concert Band, and conducted the Michigan Youth Symphonic Band.

Dr. Fleming has nine years of public school teaching experience including positions at Wauconda High School in Illinois and Woodcliff Middle School in New Jersey. In these roles, she directed curricular concert bands, conducted musical pit orchestras, and co-directed athletic band programs. In 2019, the Illinois Directors of Student Activities recognized her as an outstanding activity advisor for her work with students in the Wauconda High School band program. In addition to teaching, she is an active guest conductor and clinician. Her research on diverse programming practice in instrumental music teacher education has led to presentations at state and national conferences, including the Society for Music Teacher Education Symposium and the Instrumental Music Teacher Educators Colloquium.

Dr. Fleming earned her master of music in wind conducting from Northwestern University and her bachelor of music in music education from Ithaca College. Her professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the National Band Association.

Amy Gilreath

Amy Gilreath is a lecturer in trumpet in the School of Music at the University of Illinois.

She has won the respect and praise of musicians and audiences the world over for her beautiful sound and expressive interpretations. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to perform in Cuba, Italy, Mexico, Russia, England and has given multiple other performances throughout Europe as well as appearances at International Trumpet Guild Conferences and International Women’s Brass Conferences. Amy is also a member of Monarch Brass Ensemble, the Consortium Brass Quintet and a past member of the Monarch Brass Quintet, Dallas Brass, Velvet Brass, Battle Creek Brass Band and Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band. She has performed with many renowned musicians including Doc Severinsen, former band leader of the Tonight Show Band with Johnny Carson; Italian jazz trumpet artist Andrea Tofanelli; Ron Romm, founding member of the Canadian Brass; and jazz trumpet artist Marvin Stamm. Serving as principal trumpet of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra since 1999, Amy also holds the co-principal trumpet position with Sinfonia da Camera. In addition, she has performed as an extra and a sub with the St. Louis Symphony. Amy can also be heard on her solo CD Enjoying Life and on various Sinfonia da Camera recordings released by Albany Records. She has also been a featured artist in the highly acclaimed international brass magazine The Brass Herald.

As a founding member and trumpeter of Stiletto Brass Quintet, Amy and the group have given performances at the Festival de Música de Cámara de Aguascalientes Mexico, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Northeast Regional Tuba Euphonium Conference, and toured throughout the United States. Stiletto has also been guest artist with the Bradenton-Sarasota Pops Orchestra as well as the Heartland Festival Orchestra and released two recordings: “Stiletto Brass Quintet” with Doc Severinsen and “Scarpe!”

In demand as a pedagogue, Amy has taught masterclasses at Penn State University, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee, and throughout the United States, and at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Conservatoire of Bordeaux in France. Currently, she is a long-standing faculty member of Orvieto Musica, a chamber music festival held in Orvieto Italy and the director of the festival’s Trumpet Fest. Amy has published articles in The Brass Herald and the International Trumpet Guild Journal. Her doctoral research paper, A Descriptive Study of Selected Trumpet Concertos of the Soviet Union, included a lengthy bibliography of trumpet concertos from there and introduced these concertos to the trumpet community at large. Amy currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Women’s Brass Conference and has served twice on the Board of Directors for the International Trumpet Guild.

After receiving her doctor of musical arts and a masters in performance from the University of Illinois, Amy was one of the few women to hold a full time university trumpet professor position in the 1990s, and the first woman trumpet professor at Illinois State University. Then in 2019, Dr. Gilreath retired as professor emeritus of trumpet at Illinois State University after serving on the faculty since 1990. During her time there she was the first faculty member to be awarded the Illinois State University Outstanding Creative Arts Award for her numerous national and international performances as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral musician, and many publications in international journals. She was also a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the School of Music. Her teachers include Ray Sasaki, Michael Tunnell, Vincent DiMartino, Rich Illman, Arnold Jacobs and Susan Slaughter.

Barry L. Houser

Barry L. Houser is the Associate Director of Bands, Director of the Marching Illini, Conductor of the Wind Orchestra, Director of the Fighting Illini Athletic Bands, Clinical Associate Professor, and Chair of the Conducting Area. Houser’s responsibilities have included conducting each concert ensemble in the Illinois Bands program, the Athletic Bands, and the 400-member Marching Illini. Houser also teaches undergraduate conducting, marching band procedures and other courses in the School of Music. Houser’s teaching experience encompasses both extensive public school and university experiences.

Before Illinois, Houser served as the Director of Bands, Associate Director of Bands, and Director of Athletic Bands at Eastern Illinois University. A native of Indiana, Houser served as Director of Bands and Performing Arts Director at Northwood High School in Nappanee, Indiana, where his bands developed a reputation for excellent musicianship, earning the program state and national recognition. Before Houser’s position at NorthWood, Houser was the Assistant Director of Bands at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida.

Bands under Houser’s leadership have performed at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the NBC Today Show, ISSMA State Marching Finals, and the Indiana Music Educators State Convention. Other performances include the Indianapolis 500 Parade, Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade, Outback Bowl Parade and Halftime Show, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the Washington DC National Memorial Parade, multiple Chicago Bears Halftime shows, exhibition performances at Music for All – Bands of America events, multiple tours of Ireland with parades in Kilkenny and the St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, and performances with Maynard Ferguson, the Dallas Brass, Canadian Brass, Boston Brass, Gregg Potter of the Buddy Rich Band, Douglas Yeo and many other performing artists.

Houser is active nationally as a guest conductor and clinician in both the marching and concert band mediums. Houser has served as a guest conductor for numerous All-State, District, and honor bands and a clinician for events with the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. Houser is the Artistic Director for the BRT Thanksgiving Parade of Bands which takes place annual at the Walt Disney World Resort. Houser has served on the staff of the Macy’s Great American Marching Band and the National Events Mass Band, which performs annually at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia. Houser is a contributing author to the popular marching band textbook The System by Gary Smith and has numerous chapters in the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series.

Houser has served as Governor of the North Central District of Kappa Kappa Psi (KKPsi) and is currently chapter advisor for the Nu Xi Chapter of KKPsi and Faculty Advisor for Phi Mu Alpha (PMA). Houser has served as the North Central Division Chair for the National Band Association (NBA) and Chair of the Athletic Band Committee for the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). Houser currently serves on the national board of CBDNA and is the Chair of the Athletic Bands for the Big Ten Band Directors Association. Houser is a MFA Educational Advisory Team member providing input to MFA leadership on philosophy, vision, planning, and guidance related to the organization’s educational programming. Professor Houser is the Director and President of the renowned Smith Walbridge Clinics, one of the largest marching band–leadership camps in the country, impacting 1000+ students each year.

Houser holds professional memberships in the CBDNA, NBA, NAfME, Golden Key National Honor Society, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, KKPsi International Band Fraternity, Honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma, PMA Sinfonia, and has been honored by the Indiana General Assembly and the US House of Representatives. He received the Indianapolis Star Academic All-Star Award, the WNDU Channel 16 Excellence in Education Award, Quinlan & Fabish Chicagoland Outstanding Music Educator, Illinois Leadership Center Jeffrey Moss Leadership Coach of the Year, and other recognitions.

Professor Houser is a Yamaha Master Educator.

Alex Mondragon

Alex Mondragon, a doctoral candidate in instrumental conducting at the University of Illinois, grew up in the Denver metro area in Colorado and earned his bachelor 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.

Alex 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.

Alex’s primary conducting teachers include Dr. Russel Mikkelson, Dr. Donald McKinney, Dr. Matthew Roeder, and Dr. Matthew Dockendorf. He studied euphonium with J. Michael Dunn. Alex’s professional affiliations include the Colorado Bandmaster’s Association, the Colorado Music Educator’s 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

SUPPORT THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

GIVING TO THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Private funding is the critical factor in continuing the standard of excellence for our students, faculty, programs, and facilities.

HONOR ROLL

Private funding is the critical factor in continuing the standard of excellence for our students, faculty, programs, and facilities.

ILLINOIS MUSIC ADVANCEMENT COUNCIL

THE IMAC plays a critical role in guiding the advancement goals of the School of Music