Chamber Winds #1

Join the Southland Wind Ensemble as they embark on their Chamber Winds Music Series, starting with Chamber Winds #1. This concert will take us on a journey of both “traditional” and newly-composed music for the chamber wind ensemble. As a special treat, this performance will also serve as our Music Director's Masters Recital in Conducting from Claremont Graduate School's Music Department!

Our musical journey begins with a newly-composed piece by Tyler Mazone, whose To Be Free was premiered back in March of 2024. Tyler composed Nighttide, intending it to function as a prelude to the Stravinsky Octet for Winds as they employ the exact instrumentation. The second selection is Behind Barbed Wire, composed by Deon Nielsen Price. Behind Barbed Wire was composed at the request of Mary Au to be performed at the CSU Dominguez Hills Commemoration of the 75th anniversary since the signing of Executive Order 9066. Incorporated throughout the piece are Haiku and Tanka poems composed by internees in the camps. The original version was composed for piano and alto saxophone and was re-orchestrated for chamber winds. Mary Au, Piano, and Chika Inoue, Alto Saxophone, join us as the featured soloists in the first half of the program. Ending the first portion of the concert is a classic chamber wind ensemble piece, Petite Symphonie by Charles Gounod. The instrumentation is unusual, calling for a 9-piece ensemble: 1 Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, and 2 Horns. The Flute was added for Paul Taffanel, the leader of the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent. The four movements in the work remind one of a symphony, although a miniature version of it.

Beginning the second of the program is Percy Grainger's Hill-Song II, which was derived from Hill-Song I, taking the fast and energetic elements of the latter, resulting in multiple instrumental arrangements of the work. In typical Grainger form, This version of Hill-Song II has a smaller set of instruments performing and includes 2 keyboard parts assisting the ensemble throughout. Following this is David Maslanka's Variants on a Hymn Tune, featuring Isaac Gonzalez as the Guest Conductor and George Osorio as the solo Euphonium! To close this concert, the Chamber Winds will perform a woodwind ensemble transcription of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21.

Host or Publisher Southland Wind Ensemble