IN THIS CIRCLE
Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 7:30pm
Meyerson Symphony Center + Livestream
Jerry Junkin, Artistic Director & Conductor
In his 30th season as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Dallas Winds, Jerry Junkin is recognized as one of the world’s most highly regarded wind conductors. He has served as Music Director and Conductor of the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia since 2003, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music Wind Symphony in Tokyo since 2007. Additionally, 2021-2022 marks his 34th year on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Vincent R. and Jane D. DiNino Chair for the Director of Bands. There, he also holds the title of University Distinguished Teaching Professor. Previously, he served on the faculties of both the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida. In addition to his responsibilities as Professor of Music and Conductor of the Texas Wind Ensemble, he serves as Head of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles and teaches courses in conducting and wind band literature. He is a recipient of multiple teaching awards, and students of Mr. Junkin hold major positions throughout the world.
Performances under the direction of Mr. Junkin have won the praise of such notable musicians as John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Gunther Schuller, Karel Husa, William Kraft, Jacob Druckman and Michael Colgrass, among many others. Mr. Junkin has released over 30 compact disc recordings for the Reference, Klavier and Naxos labels. The New York Times named his release on the Reference Recordings label, Bells for Stokowski, one of the best classical CD’s of the year. His performance of Circus Maximus with The University of Texas Wind Ensemble was released on the world’s first Blu Ray audio disc in 5.1 surround sound by Naxos and was nominated for a GRAMMY. During the summer of 2014, he led The University of Texas Wind Ensemble on a four week tour around the world.
Mr. Junkin is an enthusiastic advocate of public school music education, having conducted All-State bands and festivals in forty-eight states and on five continents. He spends his summers in residence at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, as well as appearing at major music festivals throughout the world.
Mr. Junkin has served as President of the Big XII Band Director’s Association and is a member of the Board of Directors of The John Philip Sousa Foundation, is Past-President of the American Bandmasters Association, and is Past President of the College Band Directors National Association. Regularly making guest appearances with ensembles such as the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and the Taipei Symphonic Winds, he continues to conduct throughout the United States in addition to multiple appearances in Japan, China, and Europe. In 2005, he was presented the Grainger Medallion by the International Percy Grainger Society in recognition of his championing of Grainger’s works, and he has received numerous career awards from Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Beta Mu, and the Midwest Clinic, among others. Mr. Junkin is a Yamaha Master Educator.
Hila Plitmann, Guest Vocalist
Growing up in her native Jerusalem as the daughter of a Hebrew University botany professor and a musicologist mother, she was immersed in music from a young age and developed a love of all genres. In addition to her performances of traditional repertory, she has been called “a composer’s dream” (Star Tribune, MN), and is widely-recognized as one of today’s foremost interpreters of contemporary music. She has partnered with diverse array of composers, regularly premiering or featuring new works, such as the staged version of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels; Emmy Award-winner Jeff Beal’s The Paper Lined Shack, Andrea Clearfield’s The Long Bright, Pulitzer and Grammy Award-winner Aaron Jay Kernis’ Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing, numerous works by Grammy- and Oscar-winning John Corigliano, and music by Xiaogang YE, Paola Prestini, Danaë Vlasse, and dozens of others.
Only one year after graduating from Juilliard, she gave her first World Premiere – and on only two weeks’ notice – with the New York Philharmonic, in Pulitzer Prize-winner David Del Tredici’s The Spider and the Fly. Since then, her appearances as soloist traverse the globe, and have included the Los Angeles, New York, and Israel Philharmonics, Chicago, Boston, London, BBC, National, St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit, Hamburg, Stockholm, and Melbourne Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She collaborated with some of the world’s foremost conductors, such as Leonard Slatkin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Thomas Adès, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Robert Spano.
She can also be heard as the featured vocal soloist on the feature-film soundtracks for The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hail Caesar, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Her discography includes Oscar-winner John Corigliano’s song-cycle Mr. Tambourine Man (for which she won the Grammy for “Best Classical Vocal Performance”), Andrea Clearfield’s Women of Valor with Tovah Feldshuh, Richard Danielpour’s Toward a Season of Peace and the Grammy Award-winning Passion of Yeshua, Eric Whitacre’s Good Night Moon, and George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, among many others. MORE >>>
Quinn Mason, Guest Composer
Praised as “One of the most sought after young composers in the country” (Texas Monthly), composer and conductor Quinn Mason (b. 1996) has distinguished himself as an artist of national and international renown. He recently finished a successful tenure as Artist in Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for the 2022-2023 season. He also recently served as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Roots composer in residence in 2022 (the youngest composer appointed to that role) and as KMFA 89.5’s inaugural composer in residence.
His orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by over 160 professional, regional, community and youth orchestras in the US and Europe, including the San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of the United States and numerous others, including Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, UK’s Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra and Scotland’s Nevis Ensemble.
As a conductor, Quinn made his major orchestra debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center at age 27. He studied conducting at the National Orchestral Institute with Marin Alsop and James Ross, at the Eastern Music Festival with Gerard Schwarz, José-Luis Novo and Grant Cooper and with Christopher Zimmerman and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Quinn has guest conducted numerous orchestras around the country, including the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Inner City
Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, Harmonia Orchestra, MusicaNova Orchestra and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. He also recently served as the Houston Ballet Orchestra’s youngest ever guest conductor.
His music has also received significant radio play. He served as KMFA 89.5’s inaugural composer in residence and has had his music broadcast on NPR in the US, CBC in Canada, BBC in London, ORF in Vienna, RAI in Italy, in countries such as Switzerland, Hungary, Latvia and many others.
His chamber music has been presented by celebrated organizations such as Voices of Change, Midsummer’s Music, The Cliburn, One Found Sound, loadbang, MAKE trio, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Axiom Brass, and the Cézanne, Julius, Invoke and Baumer string quartets.
A multiple prize winner in composition, he has received numerous awards and honors from such organizations as the American Composers Forum, Voices of Change, Texas A&M University, ASCAP, the Dallas Foundation, Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, National Flute Association, the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Heartland Symphony Orchestra and the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, Quinn was honored by the Dallas Morning News as a finalist for “Texan of the Year.”
Fanfare
7:15pm, Meyerson lobby
To Usher in a New Era
Shawn Gurk
Dallas Winds Brass & Percussion
Jeremy Kondrat, conductor
Program
Quinn Mason
I. Running
II. Reflection
III. Renewal
In This Circle [23’00”]
Hila Plitmann, Composition & Lyrics
Drew Dickey, Setting & Orchestration
Hila Plitmann, soprano
1. Wave
2. The Art of Flying
3. Outbreath
— INTERMISSION —
Lola Flores [3’50”]
Alfred Sadel & Terig Tucci, arr. John Krance
Fiesta del Pacifico [8’45”]
Roger Nixon
Pineapple Poll [12’30”]
Sir Arthur Sullivan, arr. Duthois/Mackerras
1. Opening Number
2. Jasper’s Dance
3. Poll’s Dance
4. Finale
Dallas Winds Personnel
PICCOLO
Jennifer Wheeler
FLUTE
Abby Easterling, principal
Martin Godoy
OBOE
Nathan Ingrim, principal
Abigail Hawthorne
ENGLISH HORN
Aryn Mitchell
E♭ CLARINET
Bobby Lapinski
B♭ CLARINET
Sharon Knox Deuby, principal
Benjamin Quarles
Ricky Reeves
Andre Canabou
Chastine Hofmeister
Kristen Thompson
Mark Arritola
Jody Webb
Bobby Lapinski
BASS CLARINET
Mickey Owens
CONTRA CLARINET
Robin Owens
BASSOON
Marty Spake, principal
Spencer Wilson
CONTRABASSOON
Leslie Massenburg
SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
David Lovrien
ALTO SAXOPHONE
David Lovrien, principal
Chris Beaty
Robin Owens
TENOR SAXOPHONE
Roy E. Allen, Jr.
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
John Sweeden
HORN
Joseph Charlton, principal
Eric Hessel
Benjamin Ruiz
Tim Stevens
Sarrah-McCoy Black
TRUMPET
Tim Andersen, co-principal
James Sims, co-principal
Peter Stammer
Tyler Moore
Shaun Abraham
Jared Broussard
Brian Mendez
TROMBONE
Tyler Coffman, principal
Tony Bianchetta
BASS TROMBONE
Michael Lawson
EUPHONIUM
Grant Jameson, principal
Donald Bruce
TUBA
Jason Wallace, principal
Juan Alonso
STRING BASS
Andrew Goins
HARP
Naoko Nakamura
PIANO
Cameron Hofmann
TIMPANI
Joe Ferraro
PERCUSSION
Roland Muzquiz, principal
Michael McNicholas
Drew Lang
Steve McDonald
Bill Klymus
Andrew Eldridge
Staff
Michelle Hall – Executive Director
Kim Campbell – Founder/Director Emeritus
Gigi Sherrell Norwood – Director of Concert Operations/Personnel Manager
Chrystal Stevens – Music Librarian
Ramon Muzquiz – Technical Director
Grace Lovrien – Executive Assistant
Todd Toney – Director of Education
Lenore Ladwig Scott – Bookkeeper
Livestream
Scott Probst – Audio Engineer
Christopher Cook – Remote Cameras
Cameron Conyer – Technical Engineer
Adam Ellard – Director
Savannah Ekrut – Switcher, Camera
Lydia Amstutz – Titles, Camera
Ciara Negley – Camera
Todd Toney – Score Reader
David Lovrien – Title Design
Program Notes
A Joyous Trilogy
Quinn Mason
Composer Quinn Mason “wanted to create a composition that was the very embodiment of happiness and cheerfulness, an accessible work that would put any listener in a good mood.”
The first movement, ‘Running’ has an always-moving and never-waning energy that keeps going and going. The second, ‘Reflection,’ is a gentle and introspective meditation featuring solo trombone. The third, ’Renewal,’ picks the energy back up, a little more spirited and zestful this time, and keeps it going to the very end, complete with dynamic and vibrant interplay between all the orchestral sections.
Quinn Mason dedicated this work to “Will White, a friend and mentor for many years now, and one of the most joyous people I know!”
– Jeff Eldridge (Principal Bassoon, Harmonia Orchestra)
This transcription was created especially for and dedicated to Prof. Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble.
In This Circle
Hila Plitmann, orch. Drew Dickey
1. WAVE
Even though these things all seem
so lost for time
Even though your eyes would kiss me
once and last
Even though our moments
run so fast and melt
with past and past and past
I will not stop
I will not stop
I will not stop
I will not stop and look on frightened
I will not stop
I will not stop
Even though the hint of Autumn
creeps through lashes
Even though my hips are
wider than before
Even though sweet childhood
sheds onto the floor
The kids’ still listening
Every minute
Ears glued to your backyard door
So I will not stop
I will not stop,
not stop
I will not stop
until God’s wave pulls me under
I will not stop
Ah…
Even though attachment
Is so unforgiving
Even though each breath
Ponders the next
And although
I truly know
the heaviness of living
I’ll rip open my soul
Force it through
And make it confess
That I cannot stop
I cannot stop
As my heart is drowned
In beauty’s ocean
That will not stop
Ah…
2. THE ART OF FLYING
There is the heart
of a bird
inside this girl
There is the heart
of a bird
inside this girl
It goes –
Frrr frrrr FFFRRRRRRRRR!!!!
For years, for years and years,
For years and years and years
and years and years
A million billion trillion years and years
And oh so many years
She wouldn’t accept it
NO!!!!!
She couldn’t accept it!
OH!!!!!
Oh, oh, oh, NO!!!!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, OH NO!!!
She tried to be
A BEAR
She tried to be
AN ELEPHANT
and act like
She doesn’t really care!
But –
there is
the heart of
a bird inside this girl
Oh!
heart of bird inside this
She has the heart of a bird,
YES, YES, YES, YES!!!!!
I accept it
I accept it
I accept it!
I put it on display
And suddenly, one day
Oh!
These dragonfly wings
Will also be ok
Frrrfrrfrrfrrr
3. OUTBREATH
Closing my eyes
Closing my eyes
Closing my eyes to see
Loosening the grip
Loosening the grip
between you and me
Songs of my heart
Finding release
in the deep blue sky
Oh tender Earth,
In your sweetness
Losing my sense of ‘I’
All you are is
Love love love love love
Opening my arms
To the embrace
past all goodbye
Oh light filled life
I cannot deny
In this circle
I sit.
I am alone alone alone.
No ground to hold me
Listening listening
to Darkness
Emptiness
Unknown
And then
A hand
Not timid
And another
And another
A mother
And my father
A friend
A Someone Other
The shape of my son beyond shape
The shape of my son
He asks me
To stay
To help free him
From these earthquakes
we have put him through
Ah
All of this is going away,
he says to me
All of this is going away
So I gather all the ages
of his hand inside my hand
And then
A sister
And brothers
All held together
All of us
together
All we are is
Love love love love love
Letting you change into kindness
Nothing here to defend
Closing my eyes
Sending this breath
Wider and wider
Outside
in Surrender
to the
No End
Lola Flores (Paso Doble)
Alfred Sadel and Terig Tucci, arr. John Krance
In Spanish-speaking countries, the popularity of the Paso Doble (“double-step”) as a dance is inherent and perennial. The especial spirit and melodic appeal of the Argentine composer, Terig Tucci, have captured the imagination of international audiences. One of Tucci’s most famous Paso Dobles is Lola Flores. Here can be found all the color and excitement of the bullring. One can instantlyh visualize the eager anticipation of the crowd and the pride and pageantry of the matadors majestically entering the ring. In arrangeing Lol Flores for Concert Band I have attempted to capture, expand and project all of these dramatic qualities embodying today’s television, recirding, and film “sound”.
– John Krance