Quad City Wind Ensemble: May 2018

Growing up, I had a musical hero. Of course, for my generation, that person was Leonard Bernstein. He wrote one of the greatest musicals, conducted a premiere orchestra, and was on television a lot. This guy was akin to a rock star!

Bernstein himself said, "Life without music is unthinkable. Music without life is academic. That is why my contact with music is a total embrace. I can do things in the performance of music that if I did on an ordinary street would land me in jail. I can get rid of all kinds of tensions and hostilities. By the time I come to the end of Beethoven's Fifth, I'm a new man."

Bernstein was often viewed as a kind of musical Renaissance man. There was Bernstein the composer (most successful on Broadway), Bernstein the teacher, and, of course, Bernstein the renowned conductor. When he was appointed Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, he was the first U.S. born and educated conductor to lead one of the “Big Five.” (Philadelphia conducted by Hungarian Eugene Ormandy, Boston by Frenchman Charles Munch, Cleveland by Hungarian George Szell, and Chicago by another Hungarian, Fritz Reiner.) Today, there is not a single American-born conductor in what is now called the “Big Six,” which now includes the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel.

Bernstein was an idiosyncratic man, struggling with his musical roles, his sexuality, and so much more. But the man left such an amazing legacy, for which we will pay homage.

The Quad City Wind Ensemble presents:

Bernstein (and Friends): A Total Embrace of Music

Saturday, May 12, 7:30 PM

Allaert Auditorium, Galvin Fine Arts Center, St. Ambrose University

518 West Locust Street, Davenport, IA 52803

$10 for adults, $8 for seniors, free for students through 12th grade.

Overture to Candide (1955, ed. 1986) Leonard Bernstein, trans. Clare Grundman

The Red Pony – Film Suite for Band (1966) Aaron Copland
I a. Dream March
I b. Circus March
II. Walk to the Bunkhouse
III. Grandfather’s Story
IV. Happy Ending

The Wrong Note Rag, (1953, ed. 2005) Leonard Bernstein, arr. Ted Ricketts

From Wonderful Town

Chester – Overture for Band (1957) William Schuman

Four Dances from West Side Story (ed. 1980) Leonard Bernstein, arr. Ian Polster
1. Scherzo
2. Mambo
3. Cha-cha
4. Cool (Fugue)

“Country Band” March (ed. 1974) Charles Ives, arr. James B. Sinclair

Concertino for Marimba and Band (ed. 1975) Paul Creston
III. Lively

Caleb Engebrecht, Marimba

Winner, Charles B. DCamp Concerto Competition

The Great Call, from Symphony No. 2 Gustav Mahler, arr. J.R. Eastman

Bring your mothers. Make her day a long weekend.

Brian Hughes, D.M.A.

Winner of the 2015 and 2016 American Prize, Wind Conducting
(563) 599-7730
maestroblh1@gmail.com
www.brianlhughes.com

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein