REPERTOIRE SESSIONS Session 6: Saturday, July 18 Amador Valley High School Jonathan Grantham, Director Pleasanton, California Champ de Mars Par Jour de Lumere - Eric Champagne Fanfarria - Javier Perez Garrido On This Bright Morning - David Maslanka Persian Dances No. 2&3 - Amir Molookpour Arcana - Kevin Houben
Champ-de-Mars, Par Jour de Lumiere (2004) 20 Grade 5.5 Editions GAM, Canada The symphonic band work Champ-de-Mars, Par Jour de Lumiere (Champ-de-Mars, By Day of Light) was inspired by a large, abstract stained-glass design that was integrated into the station above Montreal's Champ-de-Mars metro stop in the 1960s. The composition won the Michael Hennigan Memorial Composition Prize at Oklahoma State University. Written in 12 continually connecting tableaux, Champagne's colorfully orchestrated composition captures the impressions of light refracted by Marcelle Ferron's fresco. Eric Champagne (b. 1980) Born in Montreal, Eric Champagne began his musical training in 1992, studying both the clarinet and the bass clarinet. As an instrumentalist, he played primarily in wind ensembles including Grande Fanfare Classique and Harmonie Laval. He studied composition with Michel Tétrault at CÉGEP de Saint-Laurent and then with Michel Longtin, Hugues Leclerc and Robert Normandeau at the University of Montreal. He completed his Baccalaureate in 2002 and his Masters in 2003 under the supervision of Hugues Leclair. As part of his graduate level studies, Eric composed his first opera, Miss Julie, based on the work of August Strindberg. His compositions focus mainly on instrumental music, with an interest also for the human voice and wind instruments.
Fanfaria (2013) 3 30 Grade 4 Molenaar Editions, The Netherlands Fanfarria is a short fanfare commissioned by the Municipal Symphonic Band of Alicante for the centenary of their founding. The main epic theme is introduced by the trumpets in a style reminiscent of Copland s Fanfare for the Common Man. The theme is developed through the appearance of the different band sections in counterpoint. Finally, a brilliant coda that builds to a final apotheosis ends the composition, which was also written to celebrate the completion of fifty compositions in Perez Garrido s opus collection. Javier Perez Garrido (b. 1986) Composer, conductor, clarinetist and teacher, Javier Pérez Garrido has studied with many renown musicians in Spain and other countries, and holds an Advanced Degree in Clarinet Performance and Composition from the Conservatory of Murcia, Spain. He has been given performance and composition awards in several national and international music competitions. Pérez Garrido has played as soloist with many of the most important youth wind and symphonic orchestras around Europe. Since 1998, he has composed nearly 80 works including solo, chamber music, ensemble, choir, concert band and orchestra pieces. He has both conducted and performed as a solo clarinetist with numerous bands and orchestras across the country. Currently he continues composing, conducting, playing and teaching master classes in various music schools and conservatories in Cartagena, Spain.
On This Bright Morning (2013) 10 Grade 4 Maslanka Music Press, United States There are times of stability in life, and times of significant transition. Transitions can be upsetting, often provoked or accompanied by physical or emotional troubles. They are times of uncertainty and unknowing, but also the times of greatest creative change. On This Bright Morning acknowledges the struggle, and the feelings of pain and loss in times of transition, but embodies the pure joy of realizing the bigger life. On this bright morning, life is new, life is possible. David Maslanka (b. 1943) David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood. He spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and did masters and doctoral study in composition at Michigan State University where his principal teacher was H. Owen Reed. Maslanka s music for winds has become especially well known. Among his more than 130 works are forty pieces for wind ensemble, including seven symphonies, fifteen concertos, a Mass, and many concert pieces. His chamber music includes four wind quintets, five saxophone quartets, and many works for solo instrument and piano. In addition, he has written a variety of orchestral and choral pieces.
Persian Dances Nos. 2 & 3 (2014) 3 (each movement) Grade 3.5 Hafabra Music, Belgium In these four Persia Dances commissioned by Louis Martinus, the Iranian composer uses some of the peculiarities of the Persian traditional and folkloristic music with a mixture of various rhythmic and structural approaches. Each of the dances is written in a different traditional Persian scale and there is a very strong tendency towards the creation of the melodies almost in the same way used by the Iranian composers of the traditional music in the past centuries. Furthermore, Molookpour on the one hand tries to create these dances with this kind of intention toward the melody structures, and on the other hand, he uses the western musical techniques of composition in a very simple manner to bring these two cultural diversities more close. The four dances are each published separately. Amir Molookpour Amir Molookpour began to study the traditional Persian music at the age of nine. After some years he began to study the Western music as an autodidact and since 1994 followed specialization classes with Hassan Riahi, the composer of the last Iranian National Anthem. In 1995 he began to collaborate with the symphony orchestra of the Iranian radio and television as a composer and arranger, writing several pieces for symphonic and chamber orchestra, including a Fantasy for Tar and Orchestra and the Short Suite for small orchestra, which was elected as one of the best composition of the Iranian National Radio in 1999. He was one of the first members and co-founders of the Association of Young Iranians Composers who has had a considerable success at national level. In 2001 Molookpour moved to Italy to study Musicology at the University of Pavia (in Cremona) continuing to work with the Symphony Orchestra of the Iranian Radio as a composer. He did researches on the role and functions of music in the religious rituals of the Zoroastrians of Iran, which later became the subject of his thesis in the Faculty of Musicology in Cremona.
Arcana(2004) 10 Grade 5 Dehaske Publications, The Netherlands Arcana is the plural of the Latin word arcanum, meaning secret. In the title, it is used in the sense of unraveling the rich past of the Royal Fanfare Sint-Jozefsgilde Mol-Sluis (Belgium) and opening up perspectives for its future. During the misterioso beginning of the work, a historic atmosphere is created to reflect the founding of the society. Then follows a bustling middle part, which provides a challenge for each musician because of the difficult rhythms and combined play. After this energetic passage, a very melodious part follows that makes people overlook earlier problems, and that offers new possibilities by means of the musical reflection of a consequent youth policy, which determines the future of each society. Finally, there is a broad build-up to the festive finale, once more symbolizing the strength and energy of youth. Kevin Houben (b. 1977) Kevin Houben was born in Peer (Belgium) in 1977. From young age, Kevin had a strong fascination for music. After high school in Peer, he studied at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. He obtained a master in Concert Band conducting (with Jan Van der Roost), Symphonic Band conducting (with Edmond Saveniers), composition and orchestration (with Jan Van der Roost), chamber music and solfege. Kevin Houben's oeuvre, from 2001 composed only on commission, comprises works for solo instrument, brass quintet, brass ensemble, percussion ensemble, wind orchestra, fanfare orchestra, brass band and symphonic orchestra. Kevin is also conductor of the Youth Wind Band of the Koninklijke Harmonie van Peer and the Fanfare Orchestra St. Jozefsgilde Mol-Sluis. He is assistant conductor at the Koninklijke Harmonie van Peer. With the Youth Wind Band of the Koninklijke Harmonie van Peer, he won first prize at the International Competition for Youth Wind Bands of the Mid Europe festival in Schladming (Austria) in July 2010. a
All works on today s reading session are available for sale from: Midwest Sheet Music 2616 Metro Blvd Maryland Heights, MO 63043 Ph. 314-942-1522 Instrumental@MidwestSheetMusic.com