[ Composer's Voice ]
Composer's Voice Concert

April 29, 2012
Jan Hus Church
351 East 74th Street
New York
,
New York
10021-3798
Featuring contrabass clarinetist Alex Sramek and the West Point Wind Quintet with 15 one-minute selections on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

Program:

Dedication for alto flute & electronics(Amy Shankland, vocals)
Chris Vaisvil

electronic playback
Trick
David Rhodes

Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
An Adolescent Composition's Brush with Death
Alex Sramek

Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
Lumbago
Roger Blanc

Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet
Vin Scialla, hand percussion
Improvisation
Alex Sramek

Alex Sramek, contrabass clarinet

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame - 15 one-minute selections on the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War for West Point Woodwind Quintet

1. Fragments of Johnny (When Johnny doesn't come marching home)
Audun G. Vassdal

2. If My Grandfather Fought in the Civil War...
Michael Pepper

3. The Dred Scott Decision (A Judicial Shrug for Woodwind Quintet)
Tim Labor

4. When Freedom Cried
Daniel J. Knaggs

5. From Manassas to Appomattox
Malcolm Dedman

6. Shimmer
Douglas Wagoner

7. Variant on "Battle Cry of Freedom"
Melody by George F. Root Arr. by Stanley M. Hoffman

8. General Grant's Whiskey Dance
Andy Francis

9. On a Wednesday in May
Francis Kayali

10. Hurrah
David Wolfson

11. Elegy for the Dead at Gettysburg
David A. Miller

12. Born Equal
Juan Maria Solare

13. Briefly
Peter Nickol

14. Field Notes (Three Volleys for Wind Quintet)
James Soe Nyun

15. Themes of Conflict
Pasquale Tassone

West Point Woodwind Quintet
MASTER SERGEANT GLENN WEST - BASSOON
SERGEANT FIRST CLASS SAM KAESTNER - CLARINET
STAFF SERGEANT NICOLE CALOURI - HORN
STAFF SERGEANT ANNA PENNINGTON - OBOE
STAFF SERGEANT MEGAN SZYMANSKI - FLUTE

Performers

The West Point Woodwind Quintet

The West Point Woodwind Quintet of the West Point Band is made up of members of the Concert Band. The quintet has entertained the United States Corps of Cadets and performed for many visiting dignitaries and heads of state. including annual receptions hosted by the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, Presidential receptions in New York City, and the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations.

Nicole Caluori

Staff Sargeant Nicole Caluori, a native of Coral Springs, Florida, began her undergraduate studies at Florida State University and completed her Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance at Southern Methodist University as a student of Gregory Hustis. She has spent summers at the National Repertory Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Sarasota Music Festival. As an orchestral player, Nicole has performed with the New World Symphony in Miami, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and currently plays 3rd horn with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Nicole was a semi-finalist at the 2005 International Horn Competition of America and won the Eastern Music Festival Concerto Competition the same year. Nicole joined the West Point Band in 2009 and was named Principal horn in 2010.

Sam Kaestner

Sergeant First Class Sam Kaestner has been a member of the West Point Band since 2002. Since joining the band, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, at the Dallas Symphony's Meyerson Symphony Hall, as well as at other venues throughout the country. He has participated in recitals at the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, the Potsdam Clarinet Summit, and at West Point. In 2009, he performed a recital with Toronto Symphony bassoonist Sam Banks at Butler University that commemorated the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn's birth. Prior to joining the band, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University.

Anna Pennington

Staff Sergeant Anna Pennington, oboe/English horn, joined the West Point Band in 2011. She was Assistant Professor of Oboe at University of Southern Mississippi School of Music. She performed as a member of the Mobile, Pensacola, and Gulf Coast Symphonies and toured extensively with Category 5, the faculty wind quintet. In addition to being a former member of the Planets, a classical fusion ensemble, Anna has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Florida West Coast Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, and Salzburger Festspiele. A Texas native, Anna holds a Doctor of Music from the Florida State University, a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas.

Megan Szymanski

Staff Sergeant Megan Szymanski joined the West Point Band in March of 2011. She lived in New York City as a Kenan Fellow at the Lincoln Center Institute. While in New York, she won second prize in the Alexander and Buono International Flute Competition. Staff Sgt. Szymanski earned her Bachelor of Music, magna cum laude, from The University of Central Florida as a Presser Scholar. She was also the 2008 winner of the Florida Flute Association Young Artist Competition. She graduated in 2010 with a Master of Music from UNC School of the Arts, where she won the concerto competition in 2009, as well as an award for excellence as a studio teaching assistant. Staff Sgt. Szymanski currently teaches flute lessons at SUNY Dutchess.

Glenn West

Master Sergeant Glenn West, of Spokane, WA, joined the West Point Band in September of 2004 with previous military service with the 323rd Army Band in San Antonio, TX, the USARUER Band & Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany and the Air National Guard Band of the Northwest. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Master of Music degree, Glenn studied bassoon with Dr. Wendal Jones, Charles Ullery, and Sharon Kuster. He has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, La Orquesta Sinfonica De La Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico, the Spokane Symphony, the Winter's Chamber Orchestra, the Mozart Octet, and the Faculty Woodwind Quintets at the University of Texas, and Washington State University.

Ray Blue

Saxophonist Ray Blue regularly performs on numerous world stages with musicians from many different cultures, throughout Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. As a leader, he has conducted U.S. State Department tours to Zambia, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Gabon. His festival performances as leader and featured artist include: Zanzibar International Film Festival, Zanzibar, Tanzania; North Sea Jazz Festival-Cape Town, South Africa; Macufe Festival-Bloemfontain, South Africa; European Union Annex Festival-Dublin, Ireland; Audi Jazz Festival- Brussels, Belgium; Macao Jazz Festival, China; The Newport in New York Festival, New York, NY; New York State Black Arts, Festival-Albany, New York; Koepenick Jazz Festival-Berlin, Germany; Midi Music Festival-Beijing, China; Pori Jazz Festival, Finland; Foix Jazz Festival, France; and many others.

Vincent Scialla

Vincent Scialla teaches drums/percussion at Teachers College and at LREI. US Department of Defense entertainment tours have taken him to the Middle East, Caribbean, Asia and Egypt. Scialla is best known for his innovative fusion of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Indian and American musical traditions. His recording history includes tracks for producers Miles Copeland, Rick Rubin, Mophonics music, and DJ FS to name a few, including producing full length albums for Mission: on Mars and Snehasish Mozumder (Random Chance Records). Vin recently performed at Lincoln Center out-of-doors, the Jazz Gallery, and Blue Note New York. Vin received his B.M. at the Hartt School of Music, and Masters at the Conservatory at Brooklyn College.

Alex Sramek

Alex Sramek is a Los Angeles-based clarinetist, composer, and purveyor of shenanigans. MFA from CalArts in hand, this refugee from software engineering has recently made a playful nuisance of himself playing in a klezmer/rock band, guesting with a drone/doom tuba duo, leading improv sessions across Europe, teaching a room full of Clarinetfest attendees grotesque extended techniques, writing minimalist songs for obsessivecompulsive children, and thrilling unsuspecting guests with impromptu restroom concerts. More on his shenanigans can be found at mostlydifferent.com.

Composers

Roger Blanc

Roger Blanc, M.M., studied Composition with David Diamond and was assistant teacher in Ear Training and Theory at Juilliard for five years. His music has been performed at Alice Tully Hall, The Whitney Museum Sculpture Court, CAMI Hall, Citigroup St. Peter's, SymphonySpace Thalia, The New School, the Juilliard School, and at various locations overseas. He has worked variously in music for television (Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien), film (Frida,Untouchables, Wag The Dog, Fargo), recording (Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen), and live performance (Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center; events including the 2004

David Rhodes

David Rhodes is a composer and performer in Los and is completing his MFA at California Institute their Performer-Composer program. David teaches composes music for film, theater and concert halls composing music for large, unwieldy instruments.

Chris Vaisvil

Chris Vaisvil is a 12 tet and microtonal composer who works with acoustic and electronic instruments. Chris says "My art is about now and is a response to the inspiration I feel from the visual, musical, poetic, and literary art of 20th and 21st centuries as well as world events. The art of our period has so much to say about who we are, where we have been, and what we will, or will not be as a world village - a unity of souls divided by the gulf of physical being and monetary inequity but united in spirit, desires, hopes and dreams. My goal is to communicate with you and if what

15 Minutes of Fame Composers

Program Notes

Support from the Puffin Foundation "...continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people."

Vox Novus is a collective of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts collaborating together to create, produce, promote, and enjoy the new music of today. Our members are from a variety of composers committed to the creation and dissemination of new music. Their music is of a variety of styles, aesthetics, and ideologies. Vox Novus produces and promotes new music. They are dedicated to contemporary music, the musicians who perform, and the composers that write the music of today. Their mission is to cultivate a music community and make their work available to the greater public.

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Presenters:

Remarkable Theater Brigade

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts. Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

Jan Hus Church

This is the place you were welcome, long before you arrived!
www.janhus.org

Vox Novus

Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts, recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity. Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.

Funding by

Puffin Foundation

Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people."