Recordings
PRELUDES AND RECITATIONS
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In the summer of 2015, thirteen musicians came together from different corners of the world to try and create something special together. In the six years since that first artistic experiment, Maryland Chamber Winds has endeavored to bring professional wind music and high-quality educational programming to western Maryland and the surrounding region.
‘Preludes and Recitations’, our freshman album, embodies the heart and soul of our ensemble and organization. The recorded works presented here represent a mixture of old music reimagined and contemporary music newly championed. The tracks include sound landscapes that range from simple and beautiful to thorny and challenging. These disparate soundworlds encompass Maryland Chamber Winds’ ideals of cultivating accessibility while simultaneously advocating for innovation in the field of wind music. In another light, the ‘preludes’ inspiration of the album notes this project as serving to begin our path forward, while we hope the ‘recitations’ will quite literally speak to our listeners!
We are incredibly thankful to Tonsehen Records for working with us to bring this music to our musical family, and to the many members of our Maryland Chamber Winds friends and family who have all contributed in large and small ways to our first and future successes.
Track Listing:
(1) Kyrie (for Machaut and Pärt) | David Biedenbender (arr. Tyler Austin) 5:05
Preludes and Recitations | Theo Chandler
(2) I. Proclamation 3:44
(3) II. Scherzo 3:15
(4) III. Lament 3:58
(5) If Ye Love Me | Thomas Tallis (arr. John Slick) 1:44
(6) Inside | Cassie Wieland 6:39
(7) Trailing Wings | Theo Chandler 10:18
Jeffrey Leung, Alto Saxophone
(8) O Lord in Thee is All My Trust | Thomas Tallis (arr. John Slick) 2:24
(9) Chorale: ‘Dem wir das Heilig jetzt’ from Cantata 129 | J.S. Bach (arr. Danielle Fisher) 1:32
Producer: Tyler Austin, Evan Harger
Assistant Producers: Theo Chandler, Brian Do, Danielle Fisher, E. Yuji Jones/
Recording Engineers: Ben Schwartz, Kevin Bourassa
Recorded June 22-23, 2019 in the Mercersburg Academy Burgin Center for the Arts | Mercersburg, PA
Album Design: Shelley Goldstein | rosewonderstudio.com
Performers
TYLER AUSTIN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR
Dr. Tyler Austin works to redefine the role of the 21st-century wind conductor. Austin serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of Maryland Chamber Winds (MCW), an international ensemble of performers who come together to present an annual concert series and educational outreach program. MCW is ensemble-in-residence for the Maryland Wind Festival, a two-week festival of wind chamber music and outreach based in Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland, and the surrounding communities.
A committed advocate of new music, Austin has commissioned and premiered over 30 works for winds. He founded the annual MCW Composer Commission Project in the Summer of 2016 to produce original works for chamber winds and has headed recording projects to provide composers with professional recordings of their works. He studied orchestration with Zhou Tian at Michigan State University and has been mentored by David Biedenbender and Adam Schoenberg.
Dr. Austin maintains an active career in academia and currently serves as Assistant Director of Bands at Oklahoma State University where he conducts the OSU Concert Band and Frontiers New Music Ensemble. He teaches courses in the Music Education area and holds an additional appointment as Instructor of Bassoon. Austin completed a D.M.A. in Wind Conducting at Michigan State University under Dr. Kevin Sedatole. Prior to his study at MSU, he served as Director of Bands at St. John’s Catholic Prep in Frederick, MD and actively freelanced as a bassoonist with wind bands and orchestras throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He holds an M.M. in Bassoon Performance from the University of North Texas under Professor Kathleen Reynolds, and a B.M. in Music Education from Susquehanna University.
EVAN HARGER, PRODUCER AND ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Evan Harger is Director of Orchestral Activities and Instructor of Music at Marywood University where he teaches courses in music history, world music, conducting, and other subjects. An active guest conductor, Harger has collaborated with the Oregon Mozart Players, the St. Petersburg State Symphony, the Maryland Chamber Winds, and the Riverside Chamber Symphony. Harger is currently completing his Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University where he is a student of Kevin Noe.
An advocate for teaching applied philosophy to music majors, he has presented at the Oxford Conducting Studies Institute on John Dewey’s Philosophy of Mind and how it can inform our rehearsal culture. Additionally, he has presented on the pedagogy of contemporary music and early music for music students.
Evan is delighted to have been a part of this recording process as Assistant Conductor and Producer, and hopes that the listener experiences as much joy as the musicians did in performing this wonderful music. He would like to thank Music Director Tyler Austin for being such a strong advocate for wind music in the state of Maryland and for being a close friend and colleague.
JEFFREY LEUNG, SOLOIST
Hailed as “a powerhouse in classical saxophone” (University of Toronto), Jeffrey Leung (b. 1991) is an active performer, improviser, and educator. In addition to his work with collaborative artists, Jeffrey is on the Artist Faculty roster with the Maryland Chamber Winds and serves as the Vice President of Novus New Music, Inc. His performance accolades have received numerous honours and awards – most notably from the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra and Montreal Symphony Orchestra – and has been described as: “A truly modern virtuoso, Jeffrey effortlessly navigates the most demanding scores for saxophone without losing his trademark warmth, sensitivity, and lyricism” (Roydon Tse, composer).
Curating musical programs spanning traditional to contemporary repertoire, Jeffrey has presented recitals and concerts throughout North America including concerto performances at the Maryland Wind Festival, appearances with the New World Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, and has attended workshops at the Banff Centre, American Saxophone Academy, Toronto Creative Music Lab, and Université Européenne de Saxophone. Several of Jeffrey’s performances can be found on albums and recording projects by Michigan State University, people|places|records (PPR), Arts Laureate, and Sly Pup Productions.
Dedicated to the expansion of the saxophone repertoire, Jeffrey has premiered and commissioned over thirty new works for the saxophone including music by Theo Chandler, Spencer Arias, Annika Socolofsky, Keaton Garrett, Alexis Bacon, Timothy Peterson, Roydon Tse, Baldwin Giang, Matthew Browne, Joe Krycia, and Gregory Wanamaker. Since joining Novus New Music Inc. in 2016, Jeffrey has helped organize consortiums for new music by David Biedenbender as well as Novus’ Women in Music Campaign and Novus Spark projects.
Holding degrees from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and University of Toronto, Jeffrey is pursuing dual degrees at Michigan State University (Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone Performance; Master of Music in Music Theory) at Michigan State University where he is a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Jeffrey’s mentors include Professor Joseph Lulloff, Dr. Timothy McAllister, and Dr. Wallace Halladay.
Maryland Chamber Winds
Flute
Matthew Angelo
Mary Matthews
Oboe
Matthew Hudgens
Austin Smith
Alex Hayashi
Clarinet
Jeffrey Boehmer
Brian Do
Danny Mui
Brian Tracey
Saxophone
Jeffrey Leung
Bassoon
Mason Adams
Georgeanne Banker
Christopher Pawlowski
Horn
Danielle Fisher
Rachel Hockenberry
Scott Ullman
Composers & Arrangers
THEO CHANDLER (b. 1992)
Theo Chandler is a Houston-based composer, currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music. Chandler is the recipient of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation, and a Morton Gould Award from ASCAP. He was selected as a winner of Juilliard’s Orchestra Competition, Juilliard’s Gena Raps Competition, the New Juilliard Ensemble Competition, the Maryland Wind Festival Call for Scores, and was runner up for the RED NOTE New Music Festival Chamber Music Competition. Chandler has received commissions from the New York Youth Symphony First Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Utah Arts Festival, Les Délices, Golden West Winds, and others.
Chandler has been a fellow at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Mizzou International Composers Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Copland House CULTIVATE, and Aspen Music Festival. He has been the Composer in Residence for the Maryland Wind Festival, Young Artist Composer for Da Camera, Emerging Composer Fellow for Musiqa, Composer in Residence for Les Délices, Young Composer in Residence for the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, and participated in the I-Park Composer + Musicians Collaborative Residency with Akropolis Reed Quintet.
Chandler received his previous degrees from The Juilliard School and Oberlin Conservatory. His composition teachers include Shih-Hui Chen, Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Melinda Wagner, Samuel Adler, Steven Stucky, Lewis Nielson, and Dan Tacke.
CASSIE WIELAND (b. 1994)
Cassie Wieland is an Illinois-born and Brooklyn-based composer. Throughout her wide range of work for instruments and electronics she delves into intimate subject matters of human connection, interaction, and expression in various ways, ranging from exploration of found text to forming connections between natural phenomena and everyday life. Praised by The New York Times as “sweetly shimmering,” Wieland masterfully experiments with timbre and texture by exploring intimate and fragile sounds to achieve the “hand-made” sound she is often looking for: imperfect, but intentional.
Cassie has been commissioned and performed by line upon line percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, ~Nois, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Liminal Space Ensemble, clarinetist Ken Thomson, percussionist Adam Groh, and Illinois Modern Ensemble, among others. Her music has been featured at events such as the Bang on a Can Marathon, Hot Air Music Festival, MKE Unplugged, the Red Note New Music Festival, and the Maryland Wind Festival. Cassie has also been twice recognized as an ASCAP Morton Gould finalist and as the 2018 composer in residence for the Maryland Wind Festival. She has recently been named a 2020 Roulette Commissioned Artist and an inaugural Bouman Fellow for the 2019-2020 Kinds of Kings season. Her music has been featured on New Sounds, The New York Times, Financial Times, Musical America, I Care if You Listen, AnEarful, and The Road to Sound.
Cassie is currently working in Brooklyn as a freelance composer, a label assistant for Cantaloupe Music, and an audio apprentice for Roulette Intermedium. She holds a BM degree in Composition from Illinois State University and an MM degree in Composition from the University of Illinois.
Recent/upcoming projects include ANATOMY, a series of solo works for various instruments each focusing on a different part of the human body, as well as new works for Isabelle O’Connell and Vicky Chow.
She enjoys string lights, cooking in her tiny kitchen, and going for a run about once a month.
DAVID BIEDENBENDER (b. 1984)
David Biedenbender (b. 1984, Waukesha, Wisconsin) is a composer, conductor, performer, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator. David’s music has been described as “simply beautiful” [twincities.com], “striking” and “brilliantly crafted” [Times Argus] and is noted for its “rhythmic intensity” [NewMusicBox] and “stirring harmonies” [Boston Classical Review]. “Modern, venturesome, and inexorable…The excitement, intensity, and freshness that characterizes Biedenbender’s music hung in the [air] long after the last note was played” [Examiner.com]. He has written music for the concert stage as well as for dance and multimedia collaborations, and his work is often influenced by his diverse musical experiences in rock and jazz bands as an electric bassist, in wind, jazz, and New Orleans-style brass bands as a euphonium, bass trombone, and tuba player, and by his study of Indian Carnatic music. His present creative interests include working with everyone from classically trained musicians to improvisers, acoustic chamber music to large ensembles, and interactive electronic interfaces to live brain data.
David has had the privilege of collaborating with many renowned performers and ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the Stenhammar String Quartet (Sweden), the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the United States Navy Band, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden (Germany), VocalEssence, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Music from Copland House Ensemble, Detroit Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist Randall Hawes and pianist Kathryn Goodson, the Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Washington Kantorei, the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, the Boston New Music Initiative, Ann Arbor Dance Works, Composer’s Inc. (San Francisco), and the Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble.
Recent recognition for his work includes two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2011, 2012) and the 2012 Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award. His music has been heard in many diverse venues, including Carnegie Hall, Gaudeamus Muziekweek/TivoliVredenberg (Netherlands), Symphony Space (New YorkCity), the Smithsonian Museum, the German Embassy (Washington, DC), the Antonín Dvořák Museum (Prague), the Old First Church (San Francisco), Harris Hall (Aspen Music Festival), the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Hill Auditorium (Ann Arbor, MI), the University of Michigan Museum of Art, as well as at numerous universities and conservatories, and it has been broadcast on NPR stations around the country, including on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer and on Center Stage from Wolf Trap. David’s music can also be heard on many commercially available recordings, including recent albums by the U.S. Navy Band, Akropolis Reed Quintet, H2 Saxophone Quartet, Khemia Ensemble, PUBLIQuartet, and the North Texas Wind Symphony. Recent and upcoming commissions and projects include works for yMusic, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, San Francisco Symphony principal trombonist Tim Higgins, the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, the Edge Ensemble, the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet, the Akropolis Reed Quintet, Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, and pianist Jeannette Fang.
In addition to composing, David is a dedicated teacher. He is Assistant Professor of Composition in the College of Music at Michigan State University, and he previously taught composition and theory at Boise State University, Eastern Michigan University, Oakland University, Madonna University, the Music in the Mountains Conservatory, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. He has also taught an interdisciplinary course in creativity and collaboration in the Living Arts program at the University of Michigan. His composition students have achieved regional and national recognition for their creative work, including numerous awards and acceptance into renowned summer music festivals and undergraduate and graduate composition programs.
He received the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the Bachelor of Music degree in composition and theory from Central Michigan University. He has also studied at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden with Anders Hillborg and Steven Stucky, the Aspen Music Festival and School with Syd Hodkinson, and in Mysore, India where he studied South Indian Carnatic music. His primary musical mentors include Stephen Rush, Evan Chambers, Kristin Kuster, Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, Erik Santos, Christopher Lees, David R. Gillingham, José Luis-Maurtúa, John Williamson, and Mark Cox.
DANIELLE FISHER (b. 1986)
Danielle Fisher is an educator, composer, and performer living in Fort Worth, TX. Danielle is currently an Assistant Band Director in Alvarado Independent School District, where she teaches 5th Grade general music and beginning, middle, and high school band. She spends much of her time composing and arranging for her own students in the Alvarado band program. Danielle enjoys composing and arranging for her colleagues and their young ensembles throughout the country. In addition to her work in the public schools, Danielle currently serves as Staff Arranger for Maryland Chamber Winds, and has produced over fifteen original compositions, transcriptions, and arrangements for MCW since 2016.
Danielle received a B.M.E. in Music Education and a B.M. in Music Theory/Composition from Illinois State University where she studied composition with David Maslanka, Martha Horst, and David Feurzeig. After her undergraduate work, Danielle freelanced and managed large studios of trumpet and french horn students, first in central Illinois and then in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex while she completed her M.M. in Music Education at the University of North Texas. Her Master’s thesis led her to develop her ‘Little Band Big Impact’ body of repertoire, which makes standards of the wind literature available to small programs through a 4-Part + Optional Percussion orchestration model.
More information about Danielle and her music is available at: www.daniellefisher.net
JOHN SLICK (b. 1990)
John Slick is a composer, arranger, and teacher from Western Maryland. He is currently the Assistant Band Director of the Boonsboro High School Band and the Artistic Director of the Williamsport Community Band. John holds a degree in Music Education from Shenandoah University, where he studied composition and arranging with Mark Marion, William Averitt, and Matthew Herman.
John lives in Hagerstown, Maryland with his wife, Nicole.
Program Notes
TRAILING WINGS (2019)
For Trailing Wings, I imagined a concertino in which the ensemble behaves like a flock of birds. The leader of this flock is the saxophone, which constantly inspires activity in the rest of the instruments. In the first movement, “Waking Music”, the saxophone gradually convinces the ensemble to wake from slumber. In the second movement, “Flight”, the saxophone darts about, with the other instruments always slightly behind. The saxophone is the perfect instrument to guide the rest of the winds – it is as agile as the flutes, as sweet as the clarinets, and as powerful as the horns.
-Note by the composer
Chorale: ‘Dem wir das Heilig jetzt’ from Cantata 129 (1726)
Cantata BWV 129 was written for Trinity Sunday of 1725. It was subsequently performed for the October Reformation Festival in 1726. This is one of only nine cantatas in which Bach set the work’s text with no accompanying readings. Every verse but the very last begins with the words “Gelobet sei der Herr” (the Lord be praised). The title of the final chorale, Dem wir das Heilig jetzt, is often translated in English as ‘Praise be to God’; it more literally presenting as ‘To Whom is Holy’. The chorale is extroverted and celebratory. In this setting, arranger Danielle Fisher has used the horns to represent the choir; they are supported and given accompanying ornamentation by the woodwinds.
-Note by Tyler Austin
INSIDE (2018)
Inside began with a sound sample of a sigh. When you take a recording of a person sighing and slow it down about 400 times, a really beautiful thing happens: you can no longer hear a gradual descent so much as different pitches and overtones of the human voice slowly melting into one another. You don’t really perceive the change you are experiencing until it has already happened. I drew inspiration from this phenomena for Inside by slowly crossfading moments into one another, and by branching multiple layers from a single voice until the piece is enveloped in its own texture. I learned that by zooming in on a single human expression like this, you get to see a whole new perspective on a person’s ability to express emotion.
-Note by the composer
KYRIE (FOR MACHAUT AND PÄRT) (2017 | arr. 2019)
Refraction was commissioned by the Akropolis Reed Quintet. Refraction is split into three distinct movements, each inspired by different musical sources that have been bent and distorted by time, space, and my imagination, much like light is bent as it enters a medium of different density. The second movement is called “Kyrie” and is dedicated to Guillaume de Machaut and Arvo Pärt.
-Note by the composer
With the composer’s permission, Tyler Austin has expanded the orchestration to include flutes and horns, utilizing thirteen voices in stereo effect to accentuate the echoing figures which pervade this music.
PRELUDES AND RECITATIONS (2019)
Preludes and Recitations is a set of three character pieces for wind dectet. In the first movement, titled “Proclamation”, the ensemble performs dramatic composite gestures with an uneven flow, sometimes pausing and sometimes lurching forward. The second movement is a “Scherzo” with wicked, twisting lines incessantly traded off between the pairs of winds. The final movement, “Lament” takes its name from its downward trajectory, with slow-moving descending voice leading from the highest register of the ensemble to the lowest. The unifying feature of three preludes is a structural element of interruption: within each movement, the two oboes interject with a duet, briefly transforming the chamber music into a concerto.
-Note by the composer
TWO ANTHEMS BY THOMAS TALLIS
In these new settings for thirteen wind instruments, John Slick has expanded upon the anthems through the addition of written dynamics, octave doublings, and occasional additional scoring to accentuate Tallis’s lush textures.
-Note by Tyler Austin
‘IF YE LOVE ME’ (c.1547-1548 | arr. 2018)
If Ye Love Me demonstrates Tallis’s masterful use of imitation. It is among his most often-performed works and occupies a central position in the canon of Renaissance choral repertoire.
If ye love me,
keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may bide with you forever,
e’en the spirit of truth.
John 14: 15-17
‘O LORD IN THEE IS ALL MY TRUST’ (1565 | arr. 2019)
O Lord in Thee is All My Trust was published in John Day’s certaine notes set forth in foure and three partes.
O Lord, in thee is all my trust.
Give ear unto my woeful cries.
Refuse me not, that am unjust,
but bowing down thy heav’nly eyes,
behold how I do still lament
my sins wherein I thee offend.
O Lord, for them shall I be shent,
sith thee to please I do intend?
No, no, not so! Thy will is bent
to deal with sinners in thine ire:
but when in heart they shall repent
thou grant’st with speed their just desire.
To thee therefore still shall I cry,
to wash away my sinful crime.
Thy blood, O Lord, is not yet dry,
but that it may help me in time.
Haste now, O Lord, haste now, I say,
to pour on me the gifts of grace
that when this life must flit away
in heav’n with thee I may have place
where thou dost reign eternally
with God which once did down thee send,
where angels sing continually.
To thee be praise, world without end. Amen.