Symphonic Wind Ensemble Program Notes

04/26/2025, 7:30 PM, Wright Auditorium

William Staub, conductor

Georgia Kate Shelton, graduate conductor

Kwan Yi, piano

Apollo Unleashed from Symphony No. 2 (2004)

Frank Ticheli (b. 1958)

“Apollo Unleashed,” is perhaps the most wide-ranging movement of the symphony, and certainly the most difficult to convey in words. On the one hand, the image of Apollo, the powerful ancient god of the sun, inspired not only the movement’s title, but also its blazing energy. Bright sonorities, fast tempos, and galloping rhythms combine to give a sense of urgency that one often expects from a symphonic finale. On the other hand, its boisterous nature is also tempered and enriched by another, more sublime force, Bach’s Chorale BWV 433 (Wer Gott vertraut, hat wohl gebaut). This chorale – a favorite of the dedicatee (James E. Croft), and one he himself arranged for chorus and band – serves as a kind of spiritual anchor, giving a soul to the gregarious foreground events. The chorale is in ternary form (ABA’). In the first half of the movement, the chorale’s A and B sections are stated nobly underneath faster paced music, while the final A section is saved for the climactic ending, sounding against a flurry of 16th notes.

– Program Note from score

Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1924)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

1. Largo – Allegro
2. Largo
3. Allegro

Published in 1892, O Ye That Love the Lord was originally score for choir and organ. The piece is a short anthem based on Psalm 97:10, which exhorts the believer to hate what is evil. For me, transcribing this piece meant having the opportunity to give further voice to Coleridge-Taylor and both an influential human and genius musician. It is my hope that performers and listeners alike are inspired by this work and the legacy of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

– Program Note from score

Overture “The Barber of Seville” (1816)

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) arr. Wenzel Sedlak

The opera “The Barber of Seville” was first performed in the Teatro Argentina in Rome on February 20, 1816. It opened in Vienna on September 28, 1819. Wenzel Sedlak was recorded as paid for the transcription of the second half of the opera by the Viennese Hofmusikkapelle in June of 1822. No record exists of the payment of the first half.

Wenzel Sedlak was born in Jesborzitz on August 4, 1776 and died on November 20, 1851 probably in Vienna. He is first mentioned in around 1805 as a clarinettist in the employ of Prince Auersperg and in 1808 as a member of the Harmonie (wind band) of Prince Liechtenstein. In 1821 he is noted as belonging to the first Viennese wind quintet organized by Johann Sedlatzek, a flautist.

The customary size of the Harmonie in the Austrian Empire in the early 1800’s was a nonet consisting of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, bassoons, and a contrabassoon. It is for this Harmonie that Sedlak made his early transcriptions. Later, one or two trumpets and even a trombone were added to the Harmonie. Sedlak’s later transcriptions were for this ensemble of eleven or twelve. Sedlak is credited with making transcriptions of operas by Beethoven, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Herold, Mercadante, Meyerbeer, Rossini, and Weber.

Sedlak’s original transcription of “The Barber of Seville” encompassed numerous movements from the opera. Only the overture is presented here. The original manuscript appears in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The manuscript is unreliable and required numerous corrections indicated in the edited copy with brackets [] or a slash slur. Sedlak changed the original key from E major to C major. Dynamic shadings have been added to render the edited copy ready for performance. Some harmonies in the transcription differ from the original.

Sedlak scored his transcription for two oboes, two clarinets (each C and B flat), two horns (each C and E flat), two bassoons, contrabassoon, and two trumpets (each C and E flat). The edited copy is scored for two oboes, two clarinets in B flat, two horns in F, two bassoons, contrabassoon, and two trumpets in B flat.

– Program Note from the score

Divertimento for Winds and Percussion (1994)

Roger Cichy (b. 1956)

1. Exaltation
2. Follies
3. Remembrance
4. Salutation

The composer writes:

Divertimento for Winds and Percussion was written as a tribute to three American composers who shared a common interest: Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin were each intrigued with jazz, and each incorporated elements of the idiom into his own music. Roger Cichy became interested in Bernstein’s writings on the influence of African-American music and the effects of jazz on the works of Copland and Gershwin. He has used the musical notes C (Copland), B (Bernstein) and G (Gershwin) to form the nucleus for much of the thematic and harmonic material in Divertimento. These three notes are dominant in three of the work’s four movements.

The jazz idiom transfers well to Divertimento, including the use of syncopated rhythms and the flatted third, fifth and seventh intervals of the blues scale. Written meters are often altered by grouping notes in a manner that displaces the normal agogic accents. (Typical is the eighth note grouping of 3+3+2 in a 4/4 measure.) The interval of the seventh is derived from the C to B relationship, a prominent unifying element. “Remembrance,” the third movement, strays from the C, B, G note combinations, but continues the use of idiomatic blues elements to form a jazz ballad, a lovely contrast to the other movements.

The original form of the work, Divertimento for Strings, Winds, and Percussion, was commissioned by the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra and premiered in September 1993. Later transcribed and renamed by the composer, Divertimento was premiered by the Iowa State University Band at the College Band Directors North Central Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, in February 1994.

– Program Note by the composer

Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral from “Lohengrin” (1848)

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) arr. Lucien Cailliet

“Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral,” with its medieval color and pageantry, prefaces her betrothal to Lohengrin, mystic Knight of the Holy Grail, who comes to deliver the people of Brabant (Antwerp) from the Hungarian invaders.

In the operatic presentation, a large double chorus (representing the people of Antwerp) adds its song of solemn praise to that of the orchestra. It is in this music, mystic yet powerful, that we find Wagner striking out with those new and intense musical thoughts that were to culminate in Tristan, The Ring, and Parsifal. Not quite emancipated from the musical speech of his operatic contemporaries, one finds in the Lohengrin score those unmistakable flights into musico-dramatic magnificence transcending all that preceded it in idiom and musical adventure.

In this transcription of “Elsa’s Procession” for symphony band, Lucien Cailliet, with his great talent for instrumentation, has succeeded in building into the instrumental framework of the modern band a true and delicate representation of all that Wagner so eloquently describes with orchestra chorus.

In the present score, the instrumental solo voices of the original score are paralleled, the choral voices deftly absorbed in the rich instrumental texture and all the luxuriant Wagnerian color re-created in terms of the instrumentation for the band.

– Program Note from the score

Soloist Bio

Pianist Kwan Yi has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kimmel Center, Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Center, Mann Performing Arts Center, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, Library of Congress, Metropolitan and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums, Großer Sendesaal des Hessischen Rundfunks, Auditorium du Louvre, Teatro Gayarre, Suntory Hall, and Seoul Arts Center.
Yi has appeared as a soloist with the Russian National Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Festival Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony under the batons of Hans Graf, Julian Kuerti, and Mikhail Tartanikov. As a recitalist and masterclass instructor, he has completed residencies at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Bowling Green State University, University of Georgia, Michigan State University, and University of South Carolina. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, and Roberto Diaz on national tours and was invited to perform at the Kronberg, Ravinia, Trondheim, and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern festivals and Carnegie Hall Presents, Curtis Presents, CIM Mixon Hall Masters, and Peoples’ Symphony Concert series. He has recorded for FHR and Hänssler labels with violinist Itamar Zorman.
A recipient of many honors and prizes, Yi’s awards include Mieczyslaw Munz Prize, National Federation of Music Clubs Award, and prizes at the Fourth Sendai International Piano Competition.
Yi is a graduate of the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School and the Peabody Institute where he worked with Leon Fleisher and Robert McDonald. He currently serves as associate professor of piano at the ECU School of Music

Kwan Yi

Director Bio

William Staub is in his thirteenth year at East Carolina University and fifth year as Director of Bands. He oversees the band programs at ECU, conducts and directs the ECU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and teaches conducting and music education courses. Since arriving at ECU, Staub has conducted multiple world premieres including works by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Melinda Wagner and Grawemeyer winning composer Lei Liang. Dr. Staub and the ECU Symphonic Wind Ensemble performed at the NCMEA convention in 2022.

Prior to becoming director of bands, Staub served as the Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands at ECU. Under his direction, the ECU Marching Pirates performed at a Carolina Panthers football game, the Superdome and Tropicana Field in addition to many exhibitions throughout North Carolina.

Dr. Staub came to ECU from Iowa State University where he served as Assistant Director of Bands with duties including assisting with the Cyclone Marching Band and conducting the Symphonic and Concert Bands. Staub has also taught public school in Austin, Texas at Grisham Middle School. While there, he co-conducted the Grisham Middle School Symphony Orchestra at their performance at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention.

In addition to his formal teaching positions, Dr. Staub is highly in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor. His residencies have included the University of Akron, Eastern Kentucky University, Michigan State University, New Mexico State University, UNC-Wilmington, Duke University, the University of Georgia, Western Washington University, and the University of Puget Sound. In 2010, he participated in the West Point Conducting Workshop where he guest conducted the West Point Band in concert. In 2017, Staub served as one of the conductors for the World Youth Wind Orchestra Project in Schladming, Austria. From 2015-2024, Dr. Staub served as conductor of the Symphonic Band at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine.

Staub received his Doctor of Musical Arts from Northwestern University, where he was a conducting student of Mallory Thompson; his master’s degree in conducting from Michigan State University, where he was a student of Kevin Sedatole; and his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, where he studied euphonium with Sam Pilafian and conducting with Gary Hill. In 2018, Dr. Staub received the ECU Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award. In 2019, he received the East Carolina Creed faculty award for Integrity. Staub is a member of NCMEA, CBDNA, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Kappa Phi and is an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Dr. William Staub

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