University of Illinois
WIND SYMPHONY
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Kevin M. Geraldi, conductor
Alonza Lawrence, baritone
Ben Roidl-Ward, bassoon
Foellinger Great Hall
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, November 30, 2023
7:30 PM
Program Notes
CARLOS SIMON
Go Down Moses
Carlos Simon grew up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him. His music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism. Simon is the current composer-in-residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The 2023/24 season sees premiere performances with San Diego Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Chorus, and LA Master Chorale.
In September 2023, Simon released two albums on Decca. Together draws on Carlos’s personal experience to highlight the importance of heritage and identity, and the power of collaborative music-making. Simon also released the live premiere recording of brea(d)th, a landmark work commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra. “Arguably the most important commission of Simon’s career so far,” (The New York Times), brea(d)th was written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans. Simon was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his previous album, Requiem for the Enslaved.
Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan. He serves as assistant professor at Georgetown University. Acting as music director and keyboardist for GRAMMY award winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with Boston Pops, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. Simon was also a recipient of the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization to recognize extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians, and was named a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow for his work for film and moving image.
Go Down Moses: Let My People Go
The Jewish biblical story of the Plagues of Egypt resonated with the enslaved and they created songs that related to this story of bondage. While the horrific plagues that swept across Egypt are compelling in and of itself, the focus of this piece is recounted from the perspective of the stubborn Pharaoh who unwillingly loosens his grip on the enslaved people. Pharaoh's hardened heart is conveyed through two sharp, accented chords. The spirit of God, represented by light, heavenly, metallic sounds from the percussion, signal the beginning of each new plague. Frogs, pestilence, sickness and wild animals are not enough to break the Pharaoh's will. It is only with the "Angel of Death,” which takes the life of Pharaoh's first-born child, represented by dark, brooding harmonies, that he relents in despair. The orchestral texture grows thinner and thinner as Pharaoh loathes in emotional anguish. The once prideful Pharaoh is now broken down to a powerless whimper. I use the Negro Spiritual “Let My People Go (Go Down Moses)” as a musical framework throughout this movement.
Go down Moses
Way down in Egypt land
Tell ol’ Pharaoh to
Let my people go!
When Israel was in Egypt land
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go!
—Program note provided by Carlos Simon
J.S. BACH
arr. LUCIEN CAILLIET
How Fervent is My Longing
Johann Sebastian Bach enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.
Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, into a great musical family: his father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and exposed him to much contemporary music. Apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michael's School in Lüneburg for two years. After graduating, he held several musical posts across Germany: he served as Kapellmeister to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen; Cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig; and Royal Court Composer to August III. Bach's health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on July 28, 1750.
Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
How Fervent is My Longing
The melody Bach used in the organ chorale prelude Herzlich tut mich verlangen (loosely translated as “Fervent is My Longing”) is of ancient origin, but it is known to have been used at least as early as the sixteenth century by Hans Leo Hassler, who arranged it in sacred and secular choral settings. The best-known examples that survive today are found in the music of Bach, who included this melody in various chorales and in the St. Matthew Passion to the text “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” (O Sacred Head Now Wounded).
—Program note from Southern Music and Wind Repertory Project
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
Theme and Variations, op. 43a
Arnold Schoenberg began violin lessons when he was eight and almost immediately started composing, though he had no formal training until he was in his late teens, when Zemlinsky became his teacher and friend. His first acknowledged works date from the turn of the century and include the string sextet Verklärte Nacht as well as some songs, all showing influences from Brahms, Wagner, and Wolf. In 1901–03 he was in Berlin as a cabaret musician and teacher, and there he wrote the symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande. He returned to Vienna and began taking private pupils such as Berg and Webern. His compositional style moved in the direction of intensification of harmonic strangeness, formal complexity, and contrapuntal density, leading him further towards the evolution of the twelve-tone method. However, Schoenberg found it possible a quarter-century later to return to something like his tonal style in such works as the Suite in G for strings, the completion of the Chamber Symphony No. 2 and the Theme and Variations, Op 43a for band.
In 1943, Arnold Schoenberg composed Theme and Variations, op. 43a after numerous requests for a wind band composition by his dear friend and president of G. Schirmer Music, Carl Engel. While not written in the composer’s famed twelve-tone style, Schoenberg still believed Opus 43a to be of practical and artistic significance. In a 1944 letter to Fritz Reiner, the composer stated: "...this is not one of my main works, as everybody can see, because it is not a composition with twelve tones. It is one of those compositions which one writes in order to enjoy one’s own virtuosity and, on the other hand, to give a certain group of music lovers—here it is the bands—something better to play. I can assure you—and I think I can prove it—technically this piece is a masterwork."
Although Opus 43a establishes itself clearly as a tonal work in G minor, Schoenberg gives himself free reign to assert his mastery of the contrapuntal techniques developed in his prior twelve‐tone compositions by utilizing variation form. In order to achieve maximum diversity of character, Schoenberg clearly delineates each of the sections of the piece, giving these sections a specific melodic, orchestrational and formal framework. Not only is the melody of the theme, heard in the first twenty-one measures, developed over the course of the work’s seven variations, but background elements shift from structural scenery to predominance in the ensuing contrapuntal elaboration before the original theme reasserts itself in the climactic finale of the piece. By fracturing and passing around melody and other primary material, Schoenberg plays upon the coloristic strengths inherent in wind band instrumentation. Finally, over the course of Opus 43a the formal structure of contrapuntal development receives elaboration, so the listener hears in various sections an adagio, a waltz, a strict canon, and a fugato before the final variation [a “choral fantasy”] and finale, culminating in a subtle tip of the hat to George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
—Program note from Sonoma State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble concert program, March 21, 2018
AUGUSTA READ THOMAS
Carnival
The music of Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964 in New York) is nuanced, majestic, elegant, capricious, lyrical, and colorful—"It is boldly considered music that celebrates the sound of the instruments and reaffirms the vitality of orchestral music." (Philadelphia Inquirer).
A composer featured on a GRAMMY-winning CD by Chanticleer and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Thomas’s impressive body of works “embodies unbridled passion and fierce poetry.” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). The New Yorker magazine called her "a true virtuoso composer." Championed by such luminaries as Barenboim, Rostropovich, Boulez, Eschenbach, Salonen, Maazel, Ozawa, and Knussen, she rose early to the top of her profession. The American Academy of Arts and Letters described Thomas as “one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American music."
She is a University professor of composition in music and the college at the University of Chicago. Thomas was the longest-serving Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for conductors Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez (1997–2006). Thomas won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, among many other coveted awards. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thomas was named the 2016 Chicagoan of the Year.
In 2016, Augusta Read Thomas founded the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition, which is a dynamic, collaborative, and interdisciplinary environment for the creation, performance and study of new music and for the advancement of the careers of emerging and established composers, performers, and scholars. Distinguished by its formation within an uncompromising, relentlessly searching, and ceaselessly innovative scholarly environment, which celebrates excellence and presents new possibilities for intellectual dialogue, the center comprises ten integrated entities: annual concert series featuring the Grossman Ensemble, CHIME, visiting ensembles, distinguished guest composers, performances, recordings, research, student-led projects, workshops, and postdoctoral fellowships.
Carnival
In Carnival, Thomas takes her listener and her musicians on a journey. With a compelling organic self-propulsion and vibrant inner life, the music is colorful, clean, witty, and intentional.
Thomas played trumpet for fourteen years and grew up playing in the wind ensemble and band. Thus, she has an affinity for and understanding of the instrumentation from the inside out. You can hear that she heard every note and that every dynamic and articulation was sculpted.
Relatively speaking, bassoon concerti are rare. Carnival shows off different attributes of the instrument and soloist with inventive music that seamlessly embraces lyrical, jazzy, spirited, stately, expressive, and many other qualities. This music is fun to play because it is engaging to bring to life Thomas’s distinctive, personal, clever sonic-storytelling.
—Program note from the composer
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA
A Sousa Spectacular
John Philip 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). John Philip's father, Antonio, played trombone in the US Marine band, so young John grew up around military band music. Sousa started his music education, playing the violin, as a pupil of John Esputa and G. F. Benkert for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of thirteen, his father enlisted him in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice. Sousa served his apprenticeship for seven years, 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 theatre 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 from 1892–1931, performing 15,623 concerts.
“By the Light of the Polar Star” from Looking Upward Suite
Sousa's suites were prominently featured in his band concerts, but they do not enjoy great popularity today. One of the reasons for this neglect is because Sousa, like Victor Herbert, could interpret his own music far more effectively than any other conductor.
In general, Sousa's suites served admirably as a sort of middle ground between the classics and music for entertainment. Inasmuch as the Sousa-style concert was much different from concerts presented today, it is perhaps understandable that the suites have fallen into a class known as "period music." Some conductors who are champions of Sousa's music are quick to point out that in many cases this categorization is unjustified. The inspiration for “By the Light of the Polar Star,” the first movement of the Looking Upward suite, came on a crisp South Dakota night while Sousa was looking at the heavens from the window of his train. The original program notes for the piece include a reference to a familiar winter tune:
By the Light of the Polar Star
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.
—Old song
Tango: The Gliding Girl
The Gliding Girl (1912) dates from the time period when the tango was “all the rage” throughout Europe and the United States. Several Sousa bandsmen reported to biographer Paul E. Bierley that Sousa was inspired to compose the work after his daughter Priscilla danced the tango for him in their living room after a return from a holiday in Europe.
The manuscript full score for band is interesting insofar as the subtitle of the work was originally called A Dance. The manuscript paper changes at the start of the trio. It is possible that Sousa began composing the piece as a slow foxtrot which was composed from the introduction to the end of the second strain. The remaining strains are certainly more in the style of a tango, particularly with the inclusion of Latin percussion instruments and ostinato rhythm.
March: The Gallant Seventh
It is amazing that this march, regarded as one of Sousa’s finest and certainly one of his most vigorous, was composed while he was recuperating from a broken neck. The march takes its title from the 7th Regiment, 107th Infantry, of the New York National Guard, whose history may be traced back to the Civil War. The conductor of the famous 7th Regiment Band was Major Francis Sutherland, a former Sousa Band cornetist.
Upon America’s entry into World War I, Sutherland left his position with Sousa to enlist in the army; he was made a bandmaster in the US Field Artillery. Several other Sousa men then secured their release to enlist, some for service with Sutherland’s band.
Sutherland did not return to the Sousa Band at the war’s end; he accepted the position of bandmaster of the 7th Regiment. The regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Wade H. Hayes, made a formal request of Sousa for a march. Sousa obliged, paying tribute to the organizational ability and professional standing of one of his band’s alumni. For the official send-off of the new march at the New York Hippodrome on November 5, 1922, Sutherland’s 7th Regiment Band augmented the Sousa Band on stage.
—Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 54. Used by permission.
BEN ROIDL-WARD
bassoon
Recently named one of twenty-three artists who are “changing the sound of classical music” by The Washington Post, Ben Roidl-Ward was appointed assistant professor of bassoon at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in the fall of 2023. He also holds positions as principal bassoonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta, co-principal bassoonist of Sinfonia Da Camera, and second bassoonist of the Illinois Symphony. A leading performer of contemporary music, Ben is solo bassoonist of Chicago’s Ensemble Dal Niente and serves as a contemporary leader for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, where he performs throughout Europe with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, co-curates the annual Lucerne Forward! Festival, and teaches in the Lucerne Festival Academy.
Ben has performed with leading ensembles around the country, including the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Grossman Ensemble, and the Oregon, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Hawai’i, and Richmond Symphonies. In 2021, he performed as guest principal bassoonist of the Arctic Philharmonic in Bodø, Norway. As a soloist, Ben has performed concertos by composers from Antonio Vivaldi to Sofia Gubaidulina with ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble, and the Northwestern University Contemporary Ensemble, among others.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Illinois, Ben held teaching positions as assistant professor of bassoon at the University of Northern Iowa, guest faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and instructor of bassoon at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He currently serves as a mentor for the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, a program that prepares students from underrepresented backgrounds for admission to top music schools.
Last year, Ben released his debut solo album, Axis Mundi, which was featured on Bandcamp Daily’s “Best Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp: November 2022,” as well as “Moonhead,” an interdisciplinary album of original solo works developed in collaboration with visual artist Ben Llewellyn. Ben Roidl-Ward is an alum of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He received his DMA from Northwestern University, where he studied with David McGill and researched methods of notating the bassoon’s multiphonics. His previous teachers include Ben Kamins at Rice University, George Sakakeeny at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Francine Peterson in the Seattle area.
ALONZA LAWRENCE
baritone
Alonza Lawrence has extensive experience as a vocal performer and studio teacher and has led several school, community, and church choruses. Past teaching experiences include serving as the associate instructor for the African American Choral Ensemble of Indiana University; vocal coach, rhythm coach, accompanist, and soloist for the Emmy award-winning “Amen, Music of the Black Church!” PBS concert documentary; music educator and chorus director in the Virginia public schools; artistic director of the Boys Choir of Hampton Roads (Virginia), and the Minister of Music for several churches in Virginia and Indiana. He has also performed with the Virginia Symphony, the I. Sherman Greene Chorale, and the Virginia Opera.
Dr. Lawrence’s work and research bridges the gap between Eurocentric and Afrocentric music practices. Areas of special interest include classical voice, musical theater, opera and Afrocentric voice and piano performance (Gospel, R&B, Soul, Pop, etc.). Since joining the voice faculty at the University of Illinois as a postdoc, he serves as a professor of voice, contemporary vocal performance, Gospel studies, and a vocal coach for the Lyric Theater.
Dr. Alonza Lawrence earned both his doctorate of music and his master of music from the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University, and he holds a bachelor of music education from Norfolk State University.
KEVIN M. GERALDI
Director of Bands
KEVIN M. GERALDI begins his appointment as director of bands and associate professor of conducting at the University of Illinois 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, SC, and in the public schools of Westchester, IL.
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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