MetWinds Spring 2025 Concert: "Scenes"

Pre-Concert Lecture by Conductor Richard Wyman at 2:30 pm

* On the day of the concert, tickets can be purchased at the door.

About the Concert

Be transported through music to a variety of places and scenarios! In a nod to the afternoon’s young guest artists, the concert opens with the recently composed Fanfare for a New Era. Scenes from Boston, New York, and Minnesota are depicted in Peter Schickele’s wonderful Metropolitan Wind Serenade, written for and first premiered/recorded by the MetWinds in 1995. Another highlight is the musical experience of an African American Pentecostal church service re-created in AMEN! by GRAMMY-nominated composer Carlos Simon, recently named Composer Chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Local middle school and high school students join the MetWinds for Cajun Folk Songs by Frank Ticheli and Norman Dello Joio’s soundtrack for a TV documentary on France’s famous art museum, music which has now become a classic work for band, Scenes from “The Louvre.”

PROGRAM

Fanfare for a New Era - Pinkzebra

Metropolitan Wind Serenade - Peter Schickele

AMEN! - Carlos Simon

Cajun Folk Songs - Frank Ticheli

- Mark Olson, Assistant Conductor

Charm - Kevin Puts

Jack Tar March - John Philip Sousa / ed. U.S. Marine Band

- Mark Olson, Assistant Conductor

Scenes from “The Louvre” - Norman Dello Joio

About the Conductor

Dr. Richard E. Wyman is the former Assistant Director of the United States Coast Guard Band, where he regularly conducted throughout the United States and abroad in concert tours of Japan and Taiwan, and led the Band’s educational initiatives. He also served as the Band’s producer for ten CDs and two White House “Pageant of Peace” PBS specials.

Dr. Wyman is currently the Executive Director of the Community Music School in Centerbrook, CT and Music Director of the MetWinds (Metropolitan Wind Symphony) of Boston. He enjoys working with musicians of all ages, regularly appearing as clinician and guest conductor with a variety of school and honor festival ensembles. Wyman’s work as a saxophonist earned two year-long residency grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, four performance visits to the White House, an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and employment at Disneyworld and Busch Gardens (FL). He holds degrees from the University of Connecticut, University of Illinois, and Eastman School of Music.

About the Assistant Conductor

Mark Olson, Director of Harvard Band and Wind Ensemble, conducts the Harvard Wind Ensemble, serves as an advisor to the Harvard University Band, and administers all aspects of the band program at Harvard. Under his direction, the Harvard Wind Ensemble has commissioned and premiered works by Libby Larsen, Tania León, and David Amram. Olson also is the Director of the Middlesex Concert Band and the New England Brass Band. Olson received degrees from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and the University of Minnesota. An active trumpet performer and soloist, he plays trumpet in the MetWinds, The Tarnished Brass, and has been a member of the New Sousa Band as well as the symphony orchestras in Austin and Rochester, Minnesota.

About MetWinds

The Metropolitan Wind Symphony was Founded by Jerry Gardner in 1971, and was awarded the prestigious 2015 Sudler Silver Scroll Award for Community Concert Bands by the John Philip Sousa Foundation. Currently celebrating its 54th anniversary, MetWinds comprises over 60 talented woodwind, brass, and percussion instrumentalists who audition for membership and seating. It makes a significant contribution to the cultural life of the Greater Boston community by providing its audiences with high quality concerts and its members with opportunities for musical growth.

MetWinds presents formal performances of traditional and contemporary wind band literature, as well as more informal pops concerts throughout the metropolitan Boston area. Members rehearse Wednesdays from September through June, traveling from more than 30 communities in Massachusetts and neighboring states. All volunteers, they also pursue careers as varied as education, engineering, computer science, medicine, law, music, and public health.

Host or Publisher The Metropolitan Wind Symphony (MetWinds)