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Symphonic Band

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Program

Shawn Vondran, conductor
Schyler Adkins, doctoral assistant conductor
Gail Williams, horn

Ron Nelson, Rocky Point Holiday
Schyler Adkins, doctoral assistant conductor
Performed in memory of Ron Nelson

Joel Puckett, a proper goodbye
     a good rain
     a proper goodbye

Catherine Likhuta, Sure-fire
     The Spark
     Lament in the Ashes
     Firecracker
Gail Williams, horn

—Intermission—

Samuel Barber (trans. Frank Hudson), Medea's Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a

Personnel

Shawn Vondran, conductor
Schyler Adkins, doctoral assistant conductor

Flute
Sydney Feldman
Mara Goree
Emily Kim
Alice Oh
Julianna Wang

Oboe
Christopher Axline
Jordan Boymel
Ying Jiang

Clarinet
Imran Amarshi
Allen Beckwith 
Michael Jenz
Veronica Pavlovic
Nathan Soto
Nicholas Chesemore
Nathan Kock

Bassoon
Dhruva Balan 
Brian Fadel
Jack Pasacreta

Saxophone
Josephine Mascarenhas
Christopher Unumb
Carson Zhong 
Audrey Zhou

Horn
Emi Brady
Kyle Cho
Anton Fernandez
Jonathan Mandrell
Jordan Petan

Trumpet
Troy Archer
Brendan Breen
Braxton Leek
Will Lewis
Sam Van Loo
Oliver Zhan

Trombone
Kean Adair
Madi Bayaca
Harry Guan
Arlo Hollander
Liam Melvin
Adam Uliassi

Euphonium
Brandon Baade
Oliver Stark

Tuba
Avery Li
Alec Rich 

Percussion
Sydney Astle
Gabe Hsieh
Mark Li
Cameron Marquez
Simeon Lee
Charlize Yeh
Kyle Yuen

Harp
Marin Trendel

String Bass
Broner McCoy

Piano
Chan Lee

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Ron Nelson, Rocky Point Holiday

A native of Joliet, Illinois, Ron Nelson received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He also studied in France at the Ecole Normale de Musique and at the Paris Conservatory under a Fulbright Grant in 1955. Dr. Nelson joined the Brown University faculty the following year, and he taught there until his retirement in 1993. Nelson is perhaps best known for his Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H), which made history by winning all three major wind band competitions—the National Band Association Prize, the American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Prize, and the Sudler International Prize.

Rocky Point Holiday was written on commission from conductor Frank Bencriscutto and the University of Minnesota band in advance of their 1969 Russia tour. Bencriscutto, impressed by Nelson’s orchestral work Savannah River Holiday, asked for a virtuosic piece and claimed that the band had no technical considerations whatsoever. Nelson then warned the conductor that he was planning to write “a tremendously difficult piece,” to which Bencriscutto replied “That’s fine.” True to the composer’s word, Rocky Point Holiday is a technically demanding work. Inspired by the composer’s visit to the now defunct amusement park, Rocky Point, the work encapsulates all the thrills of the attraction in its rapidly shifting styles while setting the primary melody in countless creative ways. 

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Joel Puckett, a proper goodbye

On a proper goodbye, composer Joel Puckett writes the following:

"I have never been good at saying goodbye. I find it difficult to quickly sum up time shared with a pithy comment or words of gratitude. I usually prefer to simply vanish and remember the meaningful time spent together. Let me be clear: This is a terrible way to say goodbye.

"I recently said goodbye to a great friend and mentor who lost an epic battle with cancer. Fortunately, he did not share my fondness for ghosting. He demanded I come to his hospice bed to spend long afternoons sitting quietly together listening to a good hard rain, talking about music, family, and a life meaningfully lived. I am so grateful he did."

Hailed by the Washington Post as "visionary" and “an astonishingly original voice” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Joel Puckett has been recognized by organizations such as the American Composers Forum, Broadcast Music Inc., Chorus America, National Public Radio, and the American Bandmasters Association. He received a Grammy nomination in 2016 for the Naxos recording of his flute concerto, The Shadow of Sirius. In March 2019 the Minnesota Opera premiered Puckett’s first opera The Fix, which received critical acclaim. Puckett melds tradition with innovation to create a modern, yet broadly appealing musical language. He is currently on the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and he holds graduate degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty, William Bolcom, and Bright Sheng. 

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Catherine Likhuta, Sure-fire

Catherine Likhuta is a Ukrainian-Australian composer, pianist, and recording artist. Her music exhibits high emotional charge, a programmatic nature, rhythmic complexity, and Ukrainian folk elements. Likhuta’s pieces have been played extensively around the world, at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne Opera House, and Meyerson Symphony Center. Her works have been commissioned and performed by prominent symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles (such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, Atlantic Brass Quintet, and U.S. Army Field Band Horns), and soloists. She is a two-time winner of the International Horn Society Composition Contest (virtuoso division) and a recipient of several awards, including two grants from the Australia Council for the Arts. Her music can be heard on Albany, Cala, Common Tone, Equilibrium, Mark, and Summit Records. Horn virtuosa Denise Tryon’s album Hope Springs Eternal ,featuring Likhuta’s piece Vivid Dreams, was awarded the 2022 American Prize in Instrumental Performance.

Likhuta holds a bachelor's degree in jazz piano from Kyiv Glière Music College, a five-year post-graduate degree in composition from the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory), and a PhD in composition from the University of Queensland. She is a recipient of the Vice-Chancellor's Alumni Excellence Award from the University of Queensland.

The composer writes the following regarding Sure-fire:

"This was my 10th piece for band and 25th piece featuring horn. I have learnt so much about both horn and band through my previous compositional experiences and have made hundreds of dear friends among horn soloists and band directors. This piece is the celebration of my love and admiration for horn and band, and what they can do together. I had known for a while that I wanted the piece to be centered round the theme of fire, in one way or another. Ever since Australia’s 2019–20 bushfires, where we lost over one billion local animals, I wanted to write a lament through which listeners and musicians could grieve over those horrific events. When I told my husband about the overall idea of fire, he proposed the title Sure-fire.

"While appropriately difficult and virtuosic, the writing in this piece is meant to instill confidence in the soloists and let them shine through as the spectacular musicians that they are."

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Samuel Barber, Medea's Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a

Samuel Barber, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania on March 9, 1910, displayed a prodigious musical talent from an early age. Beginning formal piano studies at age 9, Barber wrote his first opera only a year later, titled The Rose Tree. He was part of the inaugural class at the Curtis Institute of Music, enrolling at the age of 14. He would spend a decade at Curtis, studying piano, vocal performance, and composition, excelling at all three. In 1938, perhaps his best-known work, Adagio for Strings, premiered to much acclaim under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. Over the course of his career, Barber would collect many awards and honors, including the Prix de Rome and the distinction of being one of only four composers to win the Pulitzer Prize multiple times for his opera Vanessa (1958) and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962).

In a mythology rich in horror and atrocious acts of vengeance, Medea’s revenge was far from the most ghastly. But to modern sensibilities it is gruesome enough that she could murder her own children merely to punish their father, when he deserted her for another woman.

Horrified as we are, we are strangely drawn to this personification of destructive hate in the many plays and operas based on her story, from Euripides to Darius Milhaud. Samuel Barber’s version took form originally as a ballet, which premiered in 1946. Two years later, a seven-movement orchestral adaptation of the original score was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The version performed this evening is based on a further rescoring of the orchestral suite, which is in one continuous movement. 

The work depicts the conflicted and troubled Medea as she considers her tender feelings toward her children against her anguish and anger at her husband's betrayal. The work concludes by setting the sorceress' Dance of Vengeance. It becomes more intense and fenzied while Medea exacts her final revenge against her unfaithful betrothed.

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Artists

Shawn Vondran

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Shawn Vondran

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DMA, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

Associate director of bands. Conductor of the Northwestern University Symphonic Band, Shawn D. Vondran teaches conducting, wind repertoire, and other courses in the music performance and education curricula. Prior to his appointment at Northwestern, he served as the assistant director of bands at Ball State University. Recognized for his excellence in teaching and dedication to students while at Ball State, Vondran received the College of Fine Arts Dean's Teaching Award in 2013. In addition, the Ball State University Symphony Band was selected to perform at the 2012 and 2014 Indiana Music Education Association Conference. Vondran also served on the faculties at Western Illinois University and Youngstown State University, respectively. He began his professional teaching career at Mentor High School in Ohio, where his concert, jazz, and marching bands consistently received superior ratings and accolades for their outstanding performances during his four-year tenure.

Vondran maintains an active schedule with engagements throughout the United States as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. In addition to performance engagements, he is an ongoing contributor to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series published by GIA and has appeared in the National Band Association journal. During his career as a conductor, Vondran has worked with a number of notable composers in the preparation, performance, and/or recording of their works for the wind band medium. Recent artistic collaborations include John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, David Maslanka, Michael Daugherty, Steven Bryant, and Joel Puckett. His professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Vondran received his doctor of musical arts degree in instrumental conducting, with an emphasis in music education, from the University of Miami (FL). Vondran completed a master of music degree in instrumental conducting at Youngstown State University and earned a bachelor of music education degree (magna cum laude) at The Ohio State University.

Gail Williams

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Gail Williams

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MM, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Gail Williams '76 MMus is an internationally recognized hornist and brass pedagogue. She has presented concerts, master classes, recitals and lectures throughout North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. Ms. Williams joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in December 1978, and was appointed associate principal horn in 1984, a position she held until her retirement from the orchestra in 1998. She has been a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra and is currently principal horn of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. As featured horn soloist, Professor Williams has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Sinfonia da Camera, New World Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony, Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and a number of regional orchestras. Professor Williams has also performed in 2004 as principal horn with the Saito Kenin Orchestra with Maestro Ozawa in Matsumoto, Japan. Professor Williams has performed with the World Orchestra for Peace (WOP), as principal horn, under Maestro Gergiev and Donald Runnicles in concerts in London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Beijing, Budapest, Rotterdam, Brussels, Jerusalem, Krakow, Stockholm, Salzburg, Abu Dhabi, New York City and Chicago. In the summer of 2010, Professor Williams performed Mahler's 5th symphony with WOP live on the BBC in London, on YouTube .

Professor Williams is dedicated to performing and promoting chamber music. She has performed with the Vermeer Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Skaneateles Music Festival, Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Olympic Peninsula Chamber Festival. She was the featured artist on a chamber music series in Ottawa, Canada, with the National Arts Orchestra of Canada. She was a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians (CCM), a critically acclaimed chamber music ensemble which has commissioned and performed works for their Millennium concert series and the CCM’s concert series during the years 1996-2020. A recording of all-Mozart works, including the Horn quintet, was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.

Professor Williams is also an original member of the Summit Brass, with whom she has made eight recordings. In addition to her recordings with Summit Brass, Professor Williams can be heard on her solo recordings: 20th Century Settings and Deep Remembering, which are available on Summit Records. An additional solo recording has been released by Northwestern University: Goddess Trilogy, featuring compositions by John McCabe and two works for horn percussion by Charles Taylor and Eric Wilder. In the spring of 2011, Professor Williams released a recording of four commissioned works, available on CD Baby.

Professor Williams has played an active role in commissioning projects and performing contemporary solo works for the horn. In 1995, she premiered Dana Wilson's Deep Remembering and Anthony Plog’s Postcards at the International Horn Society Workshop in Yamagata, Japan. In 1997, she premiered Dana Wilson’s Horn Concerto with the Syracuse Symphony. A year later, Professor Williams performed the Oliver Knussen Horn Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Knussen. She helped commission Yehudi Wyner’s Horn Trio and was involved in the orchestration of Dragons in the Sky by Mark Schultz. Professor Williams premiered another horn and piano work by Dana Wilson, Musings, in 2003 and performed both this work and his concerto at the 2005 International Horn Society Workshop. She performed the U.S. premiere of a Concerto for Horn and Orchestra by Collins Matthews at Northwestern University in June of 2005. In June 2012, Professor Williams premiered a commissioned concerto by James Stephenson at the IHS Symposium in Denton, Texas.

Professor Williams has given master classes and recitals around the world, working with musicians at Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, the New World Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Illinois, Sam Houston University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the NAC Orchestra (Ottawa), and Music Hochschule (Frankfurt, Germany). As a member of Summit Brass, she has been coaching young brass musicians since 1986. Since 1980, Professor Williams has been a featured recitalist and lecturer at the International Horn Society Workshops in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Germany. In 2001, 2005, and 2009, she served as one the judges for the Horn Solo Competition in Porcia, Italy.

Gail Williams has been on the Bienen School faculty since 1989. In May of 2005, she received the Charles Deering McCormick Teaching Professorship. With the award, she has commissioned and performed three new chamber works for horn and mixed instruments by Douglas Hill, Dana Wilson, and Augusta Read Thomas. Professor Williams studied with John Covert at Ithaca College. Her awards from Ithaca College include the Ithaca College’s Young Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary doctorate of music and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.

Shawn Vondran

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DMA, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

Associate director of bands. Conductor of the Northwestern University Symphonic Band, Shawn D. Vondran teaches conducting, wind repertoire, and other courses in the music performance and education curricula. Prior to his appointment at Northwestern, he served as the assistant director of bands at Ball State University. Recognized for his excellence in teaching and dedication to students while at Ball State, Vondran received the College of Fine Arts Dean's Teaching Award in 2013. In addition, the Ball State University Symphony Band was selected to perform at the 2012 and 2014 Indiana Music Education Association Conference. Vondran also served on the faculties at Western Illinois University and Youngstown State University, respectively. He began his professional teaching career at Mentor High School in Ohio, where his concert, jazz, and marching bands consistently received superior ratings and accolades for their outstanding performances during his four-year tenure.

Vondran maintains an active schedule with engagements throughout the United States as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. In addition to performance engagements, he is an ongoing contributor to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series published by GIA and has appeared in the National Band Association journal. During his career as a conductor, Vondran has worked with a number of notable composers in the preparation, performance, and/or recording of their works for the wind band medium. Recent artistic collaborations include John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, David Maslanka, Michael Daugherty, Steven Bryant, and Joel Puckett. His professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Vondran received his doctor of musical arts degree in instrumental conducting, with an emphasis in music education, from the University of Miami (FL). Vondran completed a master of music degree in instrumental conducting at Youngstown State University and earned a bachelor of music education degree (magna cum laude) at The Ohio State University.

Gail Williams

Close

MM, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Gail Williams '76 MMus is an internationally recognized hornist and brass pedagogue. She has presented concerts, master classes, recitals and lectures throughout North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. Ms. Williams joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in December 1978, and was appointed associate principal horn in 1984, a position she held until her retirement from the orchestra in 1998. She has been a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra and is currently principal horn of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. As featured horn soloist, Professor Williams has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Sinfonia da Camera, New World Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony, Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and a number of regional orchestras. Professor Williams has also performed in 2004 as principal horn with the Saito Kenin Orchestra with Maestro Ozawa in Matsumoto, Japan. Professor Williams has performed with the World Orchestra for Peace (WOP), as principal horn, under Maestro Gergiev and Donald Runnicles in concerts in London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Beijing, Budapest, Rotterdam, Brussels, Jerusalem, Krakow, Stockholm, Salzburg, Abu Dhabi, New York City and Chicago. In the summer of 2010, Professor Williams performed Mahler's 5th symphony with WOP live on the BBC in London, on YouTube .

Professor Williams is dedicated to performing and promoting chamber music. She has performed with the Vermeer Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Skaneateles Music Festival, Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Olympic Peninsula Chamber Festival. She was the featured artist on a chamber music series in Ottawa, Canada, with the National Arts Orchestra of Canada. She was a founding member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians (CCM), a critically acclaimed chamber music ensemble which has commissioned and performed works for their Millennium concert series and the CCM’s concert series during the years 1996-2020. A recording of all-Mozart works, including the Horn quintet, was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.

Professor Williams is also an original member of the Summit Brass, with whom she has made eight recordings. In addition to her recordings with Summit Brass, Professor Williams can be heard on her solo recordings: 20th Century Settings and Deep Remembering, which are available on Summit Records. An additional solo recording has been released by Northwestern University: Goddess Trilogy, featuring compositions by John McCabe and two works for horn percussion by Charles Taylor and Eric Wilder. In the spring of 2011, Professor Williams released a recording of four commissioned works, available on CD Baby.

Professor Williams has played an active role in commissioning projects and performing contemporary solo works for the horn. In 1995, she premiered Dana Wilson's Deep Remembering and Anthony Plog’s Postcards at the International Horn Society Workshop in Yamagata, Japan. In 1997, she premiered Dana Wilson’s Horn Concerto with the Syracuse Symphony. A year later, Professor Williams performed the Oliver Knussen Horn Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Knussen. She helped commission Yehudi Wyner’s Horn Trio and was involved in the orchestration of Dragons in the Sky by Mark Schultz. Professor Williams premiered another horn and piano work by Dana Wilson, Musings, in 2003 and performed both this work and his concerto at the 2005 International Horn Society Workshop. She performed the U.S. premiere of a Concerto for Horn and Orchestra by Collins Matthews at Northwestern University in June of 2005. In June 2012, Professor Williams premiered a commissioned concerto by James Stephenson at the IHS Symposium in Denton, Texas.

Professor Williams has given master classes and recitals around the world, working with musicians at Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, the New World Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Illinois, Sam Houston University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the NAC Orchestra (Ottawa), and Music Hochschule (Frankfurt, Germany). As a member of Summit Brass, she has been coaching young brass musicians since 1986. Since 1980, Professor Williams has been a featured recitalist and lecturer at the International Horn Society Workshops in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Germany. In 2001, 2005, and 2009, she served as one the judges for the Horn Solo Competition in Porcia, Italy.

Gail Williams has been on the Bienen School faculty since 1989. In May of 2005, she received the Charles Deering McCormick Teaching Professorship. With the award, she has commissioned and performed three new chamber works for horn and mixed instruments by Douglas Hill, Dana Wilson, and Augusta Read Thomas. Professor Williams studied with John Covert at Ithaca College. Her awards from Ithaca College include the Ithaca College’s Young Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary doctorate of music and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.