The UCF Wind Ensemble, conducted by UCF Director of Bands, Scott Lubaroff, and Symphonic Band, conducted by Associate Director of Bands, Tremon Kizer, will present an exciting and colorful program of music by composers representing the great diversity of our community and nation. The program will include Danse Moods, by Daniel Montoya, Jr., Three Afro-Hispanic Movements, by William Pagán-Perez and featuring UCF Associate Professor of Trombone, Luis Fred, Havana, by Kevin Day, Shoutout, by Roshanne Etezady, Suite, by Cristina Spinei, and Come Sunday, an incredible tribute to the Hammond organ’s central role in the Black worship service.

Patrons should plan on arriving 45 minutes early to experience Artful Moments: Creative Highlights from the School of Visual Arts and Design. Features including curated clips, interviews, photos, exhibitions, events and more will premiere before each live performance.

Program

SYMPHONIC BAND, conducted by Dr. Tremon Kizer

 Danse Moods (2002), by Daniel Montoya, Jr. (b. 1978)
     Dave Schreier, Guest Conductor

Daniel Montoya Jr. has been commissioned to write for numerous ensembles across the country. His music has been performed by most of the most notable wind band and drum corp organizations in the country such as the United States Army Field Band and the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corp. Hailing from Austin, TX, Montoya is an Artist/Educator for Innovative Percussion, serves on the broadcast team for the UIL Texas State Marching Band Contest, and is the founder of Underwater Theme Productions/Montoya Music.

Danse Moods, written in 2002, reflects the many dance styles that exist in today’s society. Elements of the waltz and hip-hop dance is incorporated throughout the work in various meters (mainly 7/8 and 5/8) and styles. This work is a tribute to the composers who have influenced Montoya such as David Gillingham, James Syler, Alfred Reed, and Michael Daugherty. This piece is Montoya’s first work for symphonic winds and was written and dedicated to the Southwest Texas State University Wind Ensemble (now known as the Texas State University Wind Ensemble).

Three Afro Hispanic Movements for Trombone & Band (2020), by William Pagán- Pérez (b. 1976)
Luis Fred, Solo Trombone
World Premiere

Mvt. 1- The Queen’s Parade
Mvt. 2- Black Majesty
Mvt. 3- The Queen’s Dance Party

William Pagán- Pérez is a former trombone instructor and history of music professor for the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. In addition, he taught trombone, euphonium, and music history at the Preparatory School of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Pérez has commited to write and publish solo works and chamber music for various instruments. He believes that is it a duty to “provide academic, educative, and entertaining music that includes the classical traditions with a touch of his Afro-Hispano-American heritage in many performing levels.” Currently, while writing, Pérez is a public-school music teacher in New York.

According to the composer, this work was inspired by the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show and the celebration of Black History Month. While teaching an Afro-Puerto Rician Poem Majestad Negra by Luis Palés-Matos to his students, his students were required to improvise and play specific rhythms on their drums. These rhythms were a reminder and celebration of Jennifer Lopez’s exotic movements during the Super Bowl halftime show.

Written in 3 movements, Three Afro Hispanic Movements reflects the many styles associated with the Afro-Puerto Rican culture, from rhythmic derivations such as the clave and bomba. Characteristics of the Concerto Grosso, this piece emulates an Afro-Puerto Rican dance party where the soloist imitates the dancer’s movement through flutter tongue, glissandos, reciting the poem, and even rhythmic patterns. The soloist for this world premiere is Dr. Luis Fred, Associate Professor of Trombone at the University of Central Florida.

Havana (2018), by Kevin Day (b. 1996)

A winner of the BMI Student Composer Award, Day has composed over 150 works for winds, orchestra, etc. In addition, he was the 3^rd Prize winner of the 2020 New Classics International Young Composer Contest of the Moscow Conservatory. His works have been performed in Russia, Austria, Taiwan, South Africa, Japan, and here in the United States. This fall, Day will be starting his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Composition at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.

Winning piece of the 2019 BMI Student Composer Award and finalist for the 2019 National Band Association Revelli Composition Contest, Havana is heavily influenced on Cuban music, rhythms, and percussion. While the composer painted a mental picture of Havana, Cuba, Day incorporated different dance genres in the piece such as the salsa, mambo, and cha-cha. As meant to celebrate the city of Havana, Day’s strong love for Latin music is expressed through the melodies and lyricism written in the middle of the work.

WIND ENSEMBLE, conducted by Dr. Scott Lubaroff

 Shoutout! (2009), by Roshanne Etezady (b. 1973) 

Roshanne Etezady is emerging as one of the most dynamic musical voices of our time. Her music explores tremendous range – thoughtful, exciting, and engaging for performers and audiences, alike. She described a great turning point in her life being in 1986 when she saw Philip Glass and his ensemble perform as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live. It was that performance that she says sparked her interest in contemporary classical music and in becoming a composer, herself.

According to Etezady, Shoutout! Is a rich, vibrant opening fanfare, meant to signal good things to come. The prominent rhythmic motive of the work, a quick pair of staccato notes, mimics the word, “shoutout.” The piece is organized in three main sections: an opening that features the main motive above a constant background of excited chatter, a calmer middle section with conversing solo lines and rolling figures in the piano and marimba, and an energetic “dance” section with a hard groove, finally coming to an end with an exuberant call of the “shoutout” motive.

Suite for Wind Ensemble (2020), by Cristina Spinei (b. 1984)
Florida Premiere

1. Allemande
2. Passacaglia
3. Corrente
4. Sarabande

Composer and performer, Cristina Spinei, has written for numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles, but she is best known for her works for ballet. Growing up with dreams of becoming a ballerina herself, Spineii has channeled her love for dance into a devotion too musical movement that has resulted in a musical style infused with lyricism and rhythmic vitality. She has been commissioned by the Nashville Ballet, The New York Choreographic institute, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and others.

Spinei’s Suite for Wind Ensemble is her second project for wind band and her first original composition for the medium. Its four-movement structure is inspired by the classic Baroque dance suite. The opening Allemande is set in an A-B-A form, exploiting meandering meters and beautiful colors, and developing the constant eighth-note that hovers beneath. The Passacaglia movement, while the simplest and most brief of the four, serves as a bridge between larger movements by exploring some of the colors and textures possible in the wind ensemble through differing groupings of its instruments. The Corrente brilliantly creates a palpable sense of buoyancy through its juxtaposition of duple and triple note groupings. Finally, the Sarabande, lushly expressive and most melodic of the movements, while absent some of the motion innate to rhythm, flows and rolls forward through an organic harmonic evolution in ways that makes it perhaps the most memorable of the entire suite.

Come Sunday (2018), by Omar Thomas (b. 1984) 

1. Testimony
2. Shout!

Omar Thomas is one of the wind ban world’s most authentic new composers. His music has been described as “elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent,” and the powerful points of view that he conveys through his art move performers and audiences alike, everywhere.

Come Sunday was commissioned by a consortium of seventeen professional and university ensembles. It is a two-movement tribute to the Hammond Organ’s central role in the black worship service. The first movement, Testimony, follows the Hammond organ as it readies the congregation’s hearts, minds, and spirits to receive The Word via a magical union of Bach, blues, jazz, and R&B. The second movement, Shout!, is a virtuosic celebration – the frenzied and joyous climactic moments when The Spirit has taken over the service. The title is a direct nod to Duke Ellington, who held an inspired love for classical music and allowed it to influence his own work in a multitude of ways. Thomas says in his own program note for Come Sunday, “To all the black musicians in wind ensemble who were given opportunity after opportunity to celebrate everyone else’s music but our own – I see you and I am you. This one’s for the culture!”