The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Department of Music Presents

UCLA Symphonic Band

Travis J. Cross

Conductor

Kevin LeBoeuf Graduate Assistant Conductor

Ian Richard Graduate Assistant Conductor

UCLA Wind Ensemble

Travis J. Cross Conductor

“A Little Night Music”

Wednesday, March 2, 2016 8:00 p.m.

Schoenberg Hall

— PROGRAM —

Sea Songs .................................................................... Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ian Richard, conductor

Pastime with Good Company .................................................... King Henry VIII

arranged by Philip Sparke

Kevin LeBoeuf, conductor

Shine ................................................................................... Michael Markowski

Kevin LeBoeuf, conductor

Be Thou My Vision ...................................................................... Travis J. Cross

Ian Richard, conductor

Puszta ..................................................................................... Jan Van der Roost

Andante moderato

Tranquillo

Allegro molto

Presto

Ian Richard, conductor

INTERMISSION

Serenade, Op. 7 ...........................................................................Richard Strauss

Sparrows................................................................................ Joseph Schwantner

Terri Richter, soprano

La création du monde ..................................................................Darius Milhaud

* * * * *

Please join the members of the UCLA Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble for

a reception in the Schoenberg Hall lobby immediately following the concert.

The reception is sponsored by UCLA’s Epsilon Kappa chapter of

Tau Beta Sigma and the Psi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi,

national honorary band sorority and fraternity.

The UCLA Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble extends a special thank

you to Michele Eckart, Corey Frey, Kathleen Moon, and the rest of the

Schoenberg theater staff. Thanks also to Luis Heñao and Loren Nerell for

their assistance recording and webcasting.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

TRAVIS J. CROSS serves as associate professor of music and department

vice chair at the Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California,

Los Angeles, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and

directs the graduate program in wind conducting. As wind ensemble conductor

for five years at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Cross led students in per-

formances at the Virginia Music Educators Association conference, Kennedy

Center, and Carnegie Hall and developed the Virginia Tech Band Directors

Institute into a major summer conducting workshop.

Cross earned doctor and master of music degrees in conducting from North-

western University in Evanston, Ill., and the bachelor of music degree cum

laude in vocal and instrumental music education from St. Olaf College in

Northfield, Minn. His principal teachers were Mallory Thompson and Timothy

Mahr. Prior to graduate study, he taught for four years at Edina (Minn.) High

School, where he conducted two concert bands and led the marching band pro-

gram.

In 2004, Cross participated in the inaugural Young Conductor/Mentor Project

sponsored by the National Band Association. The same year, he received the

Distinguished Young Band Director Award from the American School Band

Directors Association of Minnesota. From 2001–2003, Cross served a two-year

term as the recent graduate on the St. Olaf College Board of Regents. In 2006,

he was named a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the United States Department of

Education. From 2011-2015, he served two terms as national vice president

for professional relations for Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band

fraternity.

Cross contributed a chapter to volume four of Composers on Composing

for Band, available from GIA Publications. His more than 20 original composi-

tions and arrangements are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Daehn Publica-

tions, and Theodore Music. He has appeared as a guest conductor, composer,

and clinician in several states, Canada, China, Korea, Thailand, and at the Mid-

west Clinic and leads honor bands and other ensembles in Alabama, California,

Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Da-

kota, South Carolina, and Virginia during the 2015–2016 season.

KEVIN LeBOEUF is pursuing a master of music degree in conducting at the

University of California, Los Angeles. He is a traveling clinician of the march-

ing arts, having taught across the United States and Japan, and he currently

teaches the hornline of the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, an interna-

tionally renowned, touring music ensemble. LeBoeuf earned a bachelor of mu-

sic degree in music education from Rutgers University in New Brunswick,

N.J., where he studied euphonium with Stephen Arthur Allen and was a charter

member of the school’s brass band. Aside from music, Kevin is a small busi-

ness owner in New Jersey, providing commercial live sound services and con-

sultation. He hopes to one day combine his love of live sound and music edu-

cation.

IAN RICHARD is pursuing a master of music degree in conducting at the

University of California, Los Angeles. He previously taught for four years at

Harrisonburg and Rappahannock County high schools in Virginia. He cur-

rently directs the Open Academy Orchestra, which serves middle and high

school students in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. Richard earned a

bachelor of music degree in music education from James Madison University

in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he played tuba in the wind symphony, sym-

phony orchestra, and brass band and served as drum major of the Marching

Royal Dukes. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Lauren.

As a graduate of Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, TERRI RICHTER

went on to perform many roles with Seattle Opera, earning national acclaim for

her portrayals of Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Oscar in Verdi’s The Masked Ball,

and Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Most recently, Richter appeared in

the role of Susanna for the West Coast premiere performance of Mercadante’s

I Due Figaro and presented a multi-media concert of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre

with the Contempo Flux Ensemble at L.A.’s Hammer Museum. Richter regu-

larly performs as a soloist with orchestras, opera companies, and contemporary

and early music ensembles throughout the United States. In 2013, she relocated

to Los Angeles to begin full-time work on a doctor of musical arts degree at

UCLA, where she is a teaching associate in the voice and opera program.

NOTES

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Sea Songs

Ralph Vaughan Williams is widely regarded as one of the most important Brit-

ish composers of the twentieth century. It seems fitting that his first major suc-

cess was the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, as he and contemporaries

like Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and William Walton created the most signifi-

cant British music since Elizabethan times. Vaughan Williams studied at Trin-

ity College, Cambridge, and later at the Royal College of Music, where his

teachers included C. Hubert Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford. His remark-

able musical output includes nine symphonies, five operas, several film scores,

church music, and large-scale works for chorus and orchestra. Vaughan Wil-

liams served as professor of composition at the Royal College of Music and

continued to write for his entire life; his last symphony was completed about a

year before his death.

A friendship that would last nearly 40 years began in 1895, when Vaughan Wil-

liams met Gustav Holst. The two men spent many “field-days” together, sharing

their works-in-progress with each other and offering advice and criticism. Both

composers realized the importance of native folk songs in any creative revival of

British music, and both wrote significant early works for the modern wind band.

Contributions by Vaughan Williams include the English Folk Song Suite, Flour-

ish for Wind Band, and Toccata Marziale.

Sea Songs was the second movement of the English Folk Song Suite when it

premiered at Kneller Hall on October 3, 1923. The circumstances of its recon-

stitution as a standalone march remain unclear, but the piece was likely heard

the next year at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, London. Sea Songs

includes settings of three folk tunes with nautical themes: Princess Royal, Ad-

miral Benbow, and, in the trio section, Portsmouth.

King Henry VIII: Pastime with Good Company

Although most often associated with his six wives and a disagreement with the

Pope that resulted in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman

Catholic Church, King Henry VIII was also, like any good Renaissance man,

an author and composer. His best-known surviving tune, Pastime with Good

Company, was written shortly after his 1509 coronation, possibly for his first

wife, Catherine of Aragon. The text reflects the young king’s love for hunting,

singing, dancing, and other merriments.

Born in London, Philip Sparke began composing as a child, completing a sym-

phony by age 14. He later studied composition, trumpet, and piano at the Royal

College of Music. While there, Sparke played in the wind orchestra, formed a

student brass band, and wrote several works for both ensembles. He has since

become one of the leading composers of music for brass bands, contributing

championship and test pieces for competitions in New Zealand, Switzerland,

Holland, Australia, and the United Kingdom. A three-time winner of the EBU

new Music for Band competition sponsored by the British Broadcasting Com-

pany, Sparke has written or arranged more than 100 works for concert band,

and his Dance Movements was awarded the 1997 Sudler Prize for Wind Band

Composition. He currently works full-time as a composer and runs his own

music publishing company.

Michael Markowski: Shine

Michael Markowski graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor

of arts degree in film. He studied composition privately and through several

classical and film music workshops and has written pop songs and music for

film and theater. In 2006, his Shadow Rituals won the inaugural Frank Ticheli

Composition Contest sponsored by Manhattan Beach Music, and he has since

written more than 20 works for bands at all levels, becoming one of the most

frequently performed composers for the medium. He currently lives in Brook-

lyn, N.Y.

Shine was commissioned and premiered by the Rhodes Junior High School

Band in Mesa, Arizona, where Markowski himself had been a student more

than 10 years earlier. He provides the following notes:

Shine is an exploration of brighter instrumental colors within

a world of softer, more muted textures. For me, the imagery

of light becomes all the more striking when rationed against

these darkly romantic landscapes. You can hear this sort of

rationing throughout the piece. For example, the piece begins

with a tight, sustained, three-note cluster that is meant to

induce a kind of quiet, harmonic friction. The saxophones

enter first, flickering, and are soon joined by the French

horns, whose flutter-tonguing intensifies the aural electricity.

The rhythmic and melodic energy builds to several short,

brighter moments, but these joyful moments don’t stay for

long as we quickly submerge back into more meditative

tones.

Travis J. Cross: Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou My Vision incorporates a traditional Irish melody found in the 1909

edition of Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. In 1927, the tune was harmonized

and matched with the ancient Irish hymn text with which it has come to be so

closely associated today:

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;

Thou my best thought by day and by night,

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

This arrangement for wind band seeks to capture the humble simplicity and

deep faith represented by the hymn text. The hymn tune is heard three times in

the piece—once with light accompaniment, once with traditional harmoniza-

tion, and finally in a rich and powerful statement of victory and joy.

Be Thou My Vision was commissioned by the St. Olaf Band, Northfield, Minn.,

Dr. Timothy Mahr, conductor. The piece was premiered on the band’s 1999

winter concert tour with the composer conducting.

Jan van der Roost: Puszta

A native of Duffel, Belgium, Jan Van der Roost is one of the leading European

composers of music for brass band and wind ensemble. He studied trombone,

music history, and music education at the Lemmensinstitut in Leuven before

graduate study in composition and conducting at the royal conservatories of

Ghent and Antwerp. He currently teaches at the Lemmensinstitut and also

serves as a visiting professor at music schools in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kawa-

saki, Japan. In addition to his many contributions to the band repertoire, Van

der Roost has has written several works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensem-

bles, solo instruments, and theater, and his music has been performed by or-

chestras around the world.

Subtitled “Four Gypsy Dances,” Puszta takes its name from a vast Hungarian

plain in the Eurasian Steppe; the word comes from Slavic roots and translates

as “bare” or “barren.” Despite the referential title, Puszta is an original work,

written in the style of Eastern European folk tunes, rather than settings of exist-

ing tunes. The music varies broadly and alternates frequently between dramatic

gestures and animated dances with ever-changing tempos.

Richard Strauss: Serenade, Op. 7

Son of the acclaimed principal horn player in the Munich court orchestra,

Richard Strauss started composing music as early as age six and was a serious

student of composition and orchestration by age 11. He became conductor of

the Munich Hofoper in 1886 and later assumed similar posts in Weimar and

Berlin. In addition to his operas, Strauss contributed monumental tone poems

for orchestra, concertos, and four important chamber works for winds, begin-

ning with the Serenade in E-flat, Op. 7, and Suite in B-flat, Op. 4, in 1882 and

1883. He also wrote nearly 140 art songs, culminating with the breathtaking

Vier letze Lieder (Four Last Songs), composed during the final year of his life.

Strauss was just 17 years old when he composed his single-movement wind

serenade for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons; four horns; and

contrabassoon or bass tuba — exactly the same number of players as the Mo-

zart “Gran Partita,” replacing basset horns with flutes. His prominent scoring

of the horns, especially at the recapitulation of the sonata form, resulted at least

somewhat from years spent hearing his father play. The serenade premiered in

Dresden on November 27, 1882, and conductor Hans von Bülow quickly

championed the piece, calling Strauss “by far the most striking personality

since Brahms” and launching the young composer’s professional career. While

the form and instrumentation of the work reflect the late Classical tradition in

which Strauss was raised, the juxtaposition of lyrical melodies and almost mis-

chievous rhythmic motives provides a glimpse at the dramatic and eclectic

nature of his mature works.

Joseph Schwantner: Sparrows

Chicago native Joseph Schwantner graduated from the American Conservatory

of Music and subsequently earned master’s and doctoral degrees in composi-

tion from Northwestern University. He served for 30 years on the faculty of the

Eastman School of Music; since his retirement in 2000, he has taught select

graduate composition students at Yale University. Schwantner won the 1979

Pulitzer Prize in Music for Aftertones of Infinity, a work commissioned and

premiered by (former UCLA music professor) Lukas Foss and the American

Composers Orchestra. Just a few years later, he was named the first-ever com-

poser in residence for the St. Louis Symphony. In 2007, Schwantner was

awarded the second Ford “Made in America” commission by the American

Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer; his new work will be

premiered first by regional and community orchestras in all 50 states. Although

he employs serial techniques in most of his compositions, Schwantner has ac-

knowledged a transformation “to a music that engages a broader range of tech-

niques and which attempts to incorporate a more diverse stylistic landscape.”

His output reveals an emphasis on timbre, extended instrumental techniques,

and poetry as a primary source of inspiration.

Sparrows was commissioned by the Washington, D.C.-based Twentieth Cen-

tury Consort under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Ameri-

can soprano Lucy Shelton sang the premiere performance, which was con-

ducted by Christopher Kendall. Schwantner has described the work as a series

of “dream states” and a “sympathetic response to the strength and simplicity of

its text,” which comprises 15 haiku selected from The Autumn Wind by Issa

Kobayashi (1763–1828), widely regarded as one of four great masters of the

Japanese poetic art and the one most closely identified with Buddhist philoso-

phy. The order of the haiku represents the cyclic pattern of nature, moving

from day to night and ultimately to a new day:

Come then, come hither;

Play your games and bide with me,

Motherless Sparrow.

The plum tree blossoms;

The nightingale sings;

But I am alone.

The autumn wind!

Even the mountain’s shadow

Trembles before it.

Through this world of ours

The butterfly’s existence—

Such a hastening!

Wild Geese, hush your cry!

Wherever you go it is the same—

The floating world!

A note from the bell—

A cry from the waterfowl—

And the night darkens!

Heedless that the tolling bell

Marks our own closing day—

We take this evening cool.

The night is dim.

But over the fall that ran with wine

Stands the moon.

What loveliness!

Seen through a crack in the wall

The River of Heaven!

By night sacred music

And into the flare of the torches

Float crimson leaves!

Radiant moon!

Tonight, must you too

Hasten thither?

And, when I die,

Be thou guardian of my tomb,

Grasshopper.

Cry not, insects,

For that is a way

We all must go—

A glimpse of the Moon—

A note from the Nightingale

And the night’s over!

Greet the new sky

With consonance of harmonies—

Right to the Sparrows!

—translated by Lewis Mackenzie

Darius Milhaud: La création du monde

Born in Marseilles and raised in Aix-en-Provence, Darius Milhaud began play-

ing the violin at age seven. He decided to focus on composition by the time he

enrolled in the Paris Conservatory in 1909, where his teachers included such

leading figures as Dukas, Widor, and Gédalge. Although he respected and even

once met Debussy, Milhaud departed from the Impressionism prevalent in

France at the turn of the twentieth century; as a proponent of new music, he

became associated with a group known as Les Six. During World War I, Mil-

haud served as an attaché in Rio de Janiero; he traveled through New York on

his return in 1918–1919, and also journeyed to London, Vienna, twice more to

the United States, and the Soviet Union during the next decade. His music re-

flects the diverse cultures he encountered, from the Brazilian-flavored Le boeuf

sur le toit (The Cow on the Roof) to the jazz-influenced and African folk-

inspired La création du monde (The Creation of the World).

During his 1920 trip to London, Milhaud heard the Billy Arnold Jazz Band, an

American touring ensemble. Two years later, he returned to New York and

experienced the Harlem jazz scene: “Against the beat of the drums, the me-

lodic lines criss-crossed in a breathless pattern of broken and twisted rhythms.”

When Milhaud received a commission from the Ballets suédois, a Swedish

counterpart of sorts to Diaghilev’s acclaimed Ballets russes, he turned to jazz

influences and African folk mythology and wrote La création du monde, a bal-

let in six continuous scenes.

The work opens with an overture in which a plaintive saxophone melody floats

above planing thirds in the piano and strings. The first movement, “The Chaos

Before Creation,” features a jazz fugue played by double bass, trombone, saxo-

phone, and trumpet. After a brief reprise of material from the overture, “The

Birth of Plants and Animals” introduces a blues tune played by the oboe. The

third movement, “The Birth of Man and Woman,” is a cakewalk, with an ac-

cent on the syncopated off-beat. The fourth movement portrays “The Desire [of

Man and Woman]” with a Latin-flavored clarinet solo and an ever-increasing

groove (based on material from the jazz fugue), before a short coda (“Spring or

Healing”) brings the work to a close.

Program notes compiled by Travis J. Cross.

* * * * * * *

UCLA Symphonic Band Travis J. Cross, conductor

Kevin LeBoeuf and Ian Richard, graduate assistant conductors

Flute Claire Buzzelli, Porterville Millie Chang, Burlingame Annie Cheng, Castro Valley Yejin Cho, Northridge Allison Daniel, Visalia Matthew Faustgen, Manhattan Beach Ariana Forohar, Saint James, NY Sojeong Jun, Huntington Beach Julia Karstens, Spring Valley Jaimme Lee, San Francisco Vanessa Lopez, Modesto Hannah Markovic, Pleasanton

Kaitlyn McCain, Chicago, IL *

Gabrielle Najera, Azusa

Jazlyn Ocasio, New Haven, CT

Samantha Ono, Woodland Hills

Grant Schulte, Hillsborough Kaitlyn Watkins, Carlsbad

Yuye Zhang, Louisville, KY Oboe/English Horn Emma Goodwin, Vacaville §

Eric Vanderhelm, Visalia

Dillon Zhi, Irvine Clarinet

Jordan Coe, Pleasant Hill

Nicholas Duff, Morristown, NJ Kanishk Jain, Chantilly *

Melissa Kosty, San Marcos

Marco Pares, Mission Viejo Anycia Reyes, Bakersfield

Jazareth Valencia, Ceres

Sida Yue, Beijing, China Annie Zeng, Torrance Bass Clarinet

Alex Issa, San Diego Willa Kang, Irvine Bassoon

Kay Niu, Redlands Austin Sugai, San Jose Alto Saxophone

Daniel Fong, El Dorado Hills Carrie Hsu, Fremont

Nishi Intwala, San Dimas

Frankie Masi, San Diego Richard Millers, Redding

Bailee Murphy, Wrightwood Jordan Tinker, Rancho Cucamonga

Tabetha Van Heest, Hesperia

Ellis Wong, Hong Kong Laura Yee, Penang, Malaysia

Robert Yuan, Wayland, MA

Tenor Saxophone Gabriel Esmailian, Los Angeles

Mark Tai, Fremont Baritone Saxophone Adam Gilberti, Walnut Creek † Horn

Nick DiNiro, Manhattan Beach Mandavi Oberoi, Ventura

Christina Martin, Plano, TX

Lake Mossman, San Diego Trumpet

Kelly Flood, Lincoln

Connor Jennison, Healdsburg Max Lewin, San Francisco

Thomas Lindblom, Yorba Linda §

Kevin Hudson, Huntington Beach Brendan James, Doylestown, PA

Tim Marcum, San Diego

Laila Sathe, Los Gatos Trombone

Alexis Korb, Irvine

Joey Levin, Encinitas Markus Min, San Francisco

Virginia Pettis, San Diego

Robert Segura, La Puente Ben Thompson, Campbell

Hai Tran, Fillmore Euphonium Rudy Diaz, Corona

Nicole Jewell, Lake Arrowhead

Daven Lagman, Milpitas Scott Miketa, Manahttan Beach

Edson Smith, Los Angeles † Tuba Adan Gonzalez, Inglewood

Christopher Torres, Los Angeles Percussion Tanya Alam, Lancaster

Emily Chois, Sacramento

Randy Chow, Fremont Ethan Ely, Martinez

Xitlali Guardado, Sacramento

Emma Suchard, Placentia * Graduate Student § Alumni

Flute Rie Aoyama, Agoura Hills Emily Tsai, Honolulu, HI Anastasia Petanova, Las Vegas, NV * Oboe/English Horn Meredith Burns, Lexington, KY * Jisoo Sydney Lee, Tustin Briana Vigil, San Diego Clarinet Kenji Bellavigna, Corte Madera Dawn Hamilton, McLean, VA * Nicholas Lie, Saratoga Bassoon Alex Chay, Tustin * Ryan Yamashiro, Chino Hills Saxophone Edgar Melendez, West Covina * Horn

Kelsi Nelson, Manhattan Beach Rachel O’Connor, Toronto, Canada * Abigail McCallum, Frisco, TX Andrew Pickett, Tulare * Alana Yee, San Diego Trumpet

Jon Bhatia, Long Beach * Alex Darouie, San Marcos

Trombone Josiah Morales, Valencia * Tuba

Seth Shaffer, Southlake, TX * Violin Stephanie Nagler, Santa Fe, NM * Stephanie Spencer, Manhattan Beach Viola Stephanie Nagler, Santa Fe, NM * Cello

Niall Ferguson, Santa Monica Double Bass Mark Gutierrez, Santa Clarita Piano

Thomas Feng, Fremont Harp Vivian Hsu, San Jose Percussion Kyle Dombrowski, Springfield, IL *

David Riccobono, Huntington Beach * Graduate Student † Faculty/Staff

UCLA Wind Ensemble Travis J. Cross, conductor

Kevin LeBoeuf and Ian Richard, graduate assistant conductors

Meredith Burns and Anastasia Petanova, teaching assistants

The UCLA Band Program

Gordon Henderson

Director of Bands, Director of the Bruin Marching Band

Travis J. Cross

Wind Ensemble Conductor

Ken Fisher

Assistant Director of the Bruin Marching Band

Paul Addleman

Assistant to the Director of Bands

Luis Cárdenas Casillas, Kevin LeBoeuf, and Aidan Ritchie

Marching Band Teaching Assistants

Meredith Burns, Anastasia Petanova, and Ian Richard

Wind Ensemble Teaching Assistants

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