What’s this program about?
Sammy Nestico. That name rings in the hearts of bandsmen, swing dancers, fans of movie and TV scores, and generations of music students. Who is this man with his broad smile and open heart, this man who has played with the best, arranged and composed for the best, and is still busy adding to his creative legacy?
Works discussed: Nestico, “Dark Orchid,” “88 Basie Street,” “Good Swing Wenceslas,” “Time Stream”
Igor Stravinsky’s fairy-tale ballet The Firebird is filled with magical themes, opulent color, and provocative special effects. This program tells the story of Firebird and the Ballets russes, the brilliant theatrical company headed by Sergei Diaghilev that created and staged the work in Paris in 1910. The United States Military Academy (West Point) Band joins forces with the Dallas Wind Symphony for this concert.
Words discussed: Stravinsky, The Firebird Suite
What happens when you take a wind ensemble and add the most overpowering wind instrument of all, the pipe organ? On Tuesday, November 17, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble, and organist
Titles are funny things, and Paul Richards knows how to grab your attention with titles like “A Butterfly Coughs in Africa” and “Falling on Lobsters in the Dark.” But he holds your attention with a rich palette of innovative and engaging sounds. The Dallas Wind Symphony will perform his concerto “Snake in the Garden” in its next concert, and you’ll be tempted to become a Richards fan.
Works discussed: Paul Richards, Snake in the Garden
What’s this program about?
Carl Orff selected vivid poems from a Medieval manuscript and super-charged them with color and energy to create the mega-hit “Carmina Burana” in 1937. An innovative music educator and proponent of Eurhythmics, Orff poured his understanding of natural melody and rhythm into this theatrical work, a spectacle for ear and eye.
Works discussed: Carl Orff, Carmina Burana
British conductor Timothy Reynish is a great promoter of wind bands and a commissioner of new music for wind bands. He has conducted many esteemed orchestras, and taught conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Maestro Reynish talks to Professor Carol about guest conducting the season finale of the Dallas Wind Symphony, the program of British wind music, his commitment to new music, and the always entertaining distinctions between the Americans and the Brits.
Works discussed: Adam Gorb, Dances from Crete; Kenneth Hesketh, Masque; Guy Woolfenden, Illyrian Dances; Daniel Basford, Arkendale; Percy Grainger, Marching Song of Democracy
What’s this program about?
“Marches in March” is full of traditional and unexpected music—marches from the ragtime era, marches for circuses, sultans, bullfights, and films, as well as a new march by David Lovrien and the wind-band premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute with soloist Melinda Wilson, Principal Flutist with the Dallas Wind Symphony.
Works discussed: John Philip Sousa, Semper Fidelis; Scott Joplin, Combination March; Gaetano Donizetti, March for the Sultan Abdul Medjid; Gioacchino Rossini, March for the Sultan Abdul Medjid; Johannes Hanssen, Valdres March; Lowell Liebermann, Concerto for Flute; John Williams, March from 1941 and Olympic Fanfare and Theme; Pascual Marquiña, Cielo Andaluz; David Lovrien, The Midwesterner; Karl King, Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite
What’s this program about?
Unless you’ve mastered time travel, it’s pretty hard nowadays to hear these big-band classics played as they were – back when Tommy Dorsey was swinging with the tune “Well, Git It.” But when top-notch players of the Dallas Wind Symphony take on these tunes, they’ve got the chops to swing to the max. Add in a few poodle skirts and spontaneous dancing in the aisles, and the stage is set for a terrific evening.
So what’s on this program?
As you might expect, traditional treasures by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Bennie Goodman, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, and . . . Sergei Prokofiev?
What’s this program about?
David Kehler will conduct the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony as it joins forces with the Dallas Wind Symphony on the upcoming side-by-side concert. Kehler discusses how the young people get involved with the professional ensemble, the differences in conducting youth and professional ensembles, and the music of David Maslanka and Eric Whitacre.
Works discussed: Eric Whitacre, Ghost Train Trilogy; David Maslanka, Give Us This Day – A Short Symphony for Band
What’s this program about?
The Dallas Wind Symphony performs a concert entirely of American music running the gamut from show music to patriotic tunes to new pieces from some of America’s leading wind-band composers.
Works discussed
Stephen Bryant, Stampede; Morton Gould, American Salute; John Gibson, American Anthem; Fisher Tull, Rhapsody for Trumpet and Symphonic Band; Ron Nelson, Passacaglia on B-A-C-H; Leonard Bernstein, Three Dance Episodes from On the Town.
This romp through music history (and many other historical topics) combines 13 hours of DVD video with a 3-disc listening set from Naxos and a 236-page course book.
From the birth of opera to the Leipzig coffeehouses frequented by Bach and Schumann, from the Orthodox cathedrals of Moscow to Tin Pan Alley, from scientific discoveries to bloody revolutions, spooky dramas and shoe styles, Carol chronicles it all with her unique commentary.
