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Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s second spring-quarter concert takes as its focal point George Gershwin’s Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess, arranged for band by Donald Hunsberger. Enjoy hits from Gershwin’s 1935 opera including “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
George Gershwin (arr. John Paynter), “Strike Up the Band”
George Gershwin (arr. John Krance), Second Prelude
George Gershwin (trans. Mark Rogers), Cuban Overture
George Gershwin (trans. Donald Hunsberger), Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite Based on Porgy and Bess
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Shawn Vondran, conductor
The centerpiece of the Symphonic Band’s first spring concert is Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Maurice Ravel and transcribed for band by Paul Lavender). The pictures the work depicts were created by Mussorgsky’s friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. Following Hartmann’s untimely death, the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg exhibited his work, and after touring the exhibition, Mussorgsky was inspired to compose the score.
Johan Halvorsen (arr. Frederick Fennell), Bojarernes intogsmarsch (Entry March of the Boyars)
Eric Whitacre, Lux Aurumque
Dennis Llinás, La Chancla
Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Maurice Ravel, trans. Paul Lavender), Pictures at an Exhibition
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Shawn D. Vondran, conductor; Michael Witt, graduate assistant conductor
The Symphonic Band’s second winter-quarter concert features five contemporary voices who are adding fresh perspectives to the wind band medium. Adam Schoenberg conceived his two-movement work Rise as a piece that could bookend an entire program, and the ensemble will honor this vision by separating the two movements. Omar Thomas’s setting of the well-known folk song “Shenandoah” is, in the words of the composer, “mysterious, somewhat ominous, constantly introspective, and deeply soulful.” Kevin Charoensri’s Rising Light is a powerful statement about anti-Asian hate and represents his non-apologetic celebration of the bicultural identity of Asian Americans. Kevin Day’s energetic Shimmering Sunshine opens the second half of the program, followed by Ryan George’s An Gé Fhiáin (The Wild Goose), a celebration of the Celtic people and their belief that the Holy Spirit was represented by this wild, untamed bird.
Adam Schoenberg, Rise, mvmt. I: “Beginnings”
Omar Thomas, Shenandoah
Kevin Charoensri, Rising Light
Kevin Day, Shimmering Sunshine
Ryan George, An Gé Fhiáin (The Wild Goose)
Adam Schoenberg, Rise, mvmt. II: “Farewell Song”
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Shawn D. Vondran, conductor; Rachel Stiles and Michael Witt, graduate assistant conductors; Oliver Stark, euphonium (Northwestern Concerto Competition winner)
The Symphonic Band’s first program of the winter quarter opens with Leonard Bernstein’s raucous tribute to his friend Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich. Zhou Tian’s Nocturne uses musical material from his first string quartet, the last piece he wrote before leaving his native China. The first half of the concert concludes with James Curnow’s Symphonic Variants, featuring Concerto Competition winner Oliver Stark, and the second half is devoted to David Del Tredici’s monumental symphony for band, In Wartime.
Leonard Bernstein, Slava!
Zhou Tian (arr. David Thornton and Zhou Tian), Nocturne
James Curnow, Symphonic Variants
David Del Tredici, In Wartime
Bienen Ensembles Bands Nature's Song /sites/default/files/styles/event_featured_image/public/2025-08/Dec5_SymphonicBand_WEB.jpg?itok=CNsd8rci
Shawn D. Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band's December concert is a celebration of our natural world, beginning with one of the simplest, often overlooked, creatures on our planet: the humble moth. Traditionally, moths symbolize many different things, from nature, wood, and soil, to love or connection with the spirit world. Nishimura's Wilderness takes the concert theme further, honoring wild spaces and the people who fight to protect them. Dello Joio’s Variants on a Medieval Tune is a rejoicing in the world around us. Concluding the concert is a unique work combining the sounds generated by humans (the players) with artificial sounds and effects generated by a computer. The composer describes the result as "W.B. Yeats meets Ray Kurzweil in The Matrix."
Viet Cuong, Moth
Cait Nishimura, Wilderness
Norman Dello Joio, Variants on a Medieval Tune
Steven Bryant, Ecstatic Waters
Bienen Ensembles Bands Places and Spaces /sites/default/files/styles/event_featured_image/public/2025-08/Oct17_SymphonicBand_web.jpg?itok=YnQ-R8nW
Shawn D. Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s first fall-quarter performance highlights the range of emotions evoked by places and spaces. The heights captured in Machu Picchu—City in the Sky inspire awe and wonder. The spiritual From the Delta is emblematic of the African American experience of enslavement in the South. George Washington Bridge, a work premiered 75 years ago, evokes a sense of urban grandeur and the wonder of modern engineering. Gabrieli’s “Sancta Maria” brings listeners into a divine space juxtaposed against darker outside forces, and Frank Ticheli’s Angels in the Architecture closes the concert depicting a battle between light and darkness.
Satoshi Yagisawa, Machu Picchu—City in the Sky
William Grant Still, "Spiritual" from From the Delta
William Schuman, George Washington Bridge
Giovanni Gabrieli, "Sancta Maria" from Sacrae Symphoniae
Frank Ticheli, Angels in the Architecture
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Shawn D. Vondran, conductor; Imran Amarshi, doctoral assistant conductor; Rachel Stiles, graduate assistant conductor
The Symphonic Band’s performance includes Vincent Persichetti’s high-energy Symphony No. 6; unique in its daring harmonies and use of pitched and unpitched percussion, it is widely recognized as a masterwork of the wind band repertoire. Also on the program is David Biedenbender’s Enigma, in which the musical theme is gradually revealed and cycles kaleidoscopically through 21 variations.
Giovanni Gabrieli (ed. Eric Crees), Canzon quarti toni à 15
J. S. Bach (trans. Donald Hunsberger), Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor
David Biedenbender, Enigma
Gordon Jacob, “Early One Morning” from Old Wine in New Bottles
Vincent Persichetti, Symphony No. 6 for Band
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Shawn D. Vondran, conductor; Rachel Stiles, graduate assistant conductor
The centerpiece of the Symphonic Band’s first winter-quarter concert—focused on tributes—is Kevin Day’s exuberant Concerto for Wind Ensemble. Day’s concerto is a fusion of the musical influences and culture of his youth: his father was a hip-hop producer and his mother a gospel singer, while Day himself was studying jazz, gospel, and classical music for piano, euphonium, and tuba. The work’s five movements—Flow, Riff, Vibe, Soul, and Jam—pay tribute to Day’s parents, the culture in which he grew up, and the wind band world. Also on the program is Ron Nelson’s homage to medieval composer Pérotin; an Aaron Perrine work written in memory of a life lost too soon; and Joel Puckett’s fanfares dedicated to conductor and teacher Gary Green, and Major League Baseball star “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
Ron Nelson, Homage to Pérotin
Aaron Perrine, And Sings the Tune Without the Words
Joel Puckett, Fanfares for Friends
Kevin Day, Concerto for Wind Ensemble
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Shawn D. Vondran, conductor
As the winter quarter comes to a close, the Symphonic Band offers a program looking to both the heavens and the earth, opening with Steven Bryant’s fanfare In This Broad Earth, inspired by his experience hiking in the Austrian Alps. Written after the death of the composer’s father, Viet Cuong’s Deciduous speaks to a healing and cyclical journey of renewal in the wake of grief and loss. Roshanne Etezady’s Anahita draws inspiration from both a Persian poem about the ancient Iranian goddess of the night and a 19th-century mural by William Morris Hunt depicting the goddess in her chariot. David Gillingham’s Waking Angels commemorates the lives lost to the AIDS epidemic, and the program closes with Omar Thomas’s uplifting Of Our New Day Begun—a work taking its title from the Black National Anthem, which opens with the phrase “Lift every voice and sing, ‘til earth and heaven ring.”
Steven Bryant, In This Broad Earth
Viet Cuong, Deciduous
Roshanne Etezady, Anahita
David Gillingham, Waking Angels
Omar Thomas, Of Our New Day Begun
Off https://ci.ovationtix.com/36542/performance/11550102?performanceId=11550102 Yes No Off 1219029 Sunday, March 16, 2025 at 3:00pm CDT Pick-Staiger Concert Hall On https://www.music.northwestern.edu/live/pick
Bienen Ensembles Bands /sites/default/files/styles/event_featured_image/public/2024-08/dec6_sym_band_web.jpg?itok=0-Vpr5FA
Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s second fall-quarter concert opens with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s monumental Toccata Marziale, which turned 100 this year. Joel Love’s Musica Dei, donum optimi is based on the music of Orlando di Lasso. Continuing the program is the wind band staple Suite française by Darius Milhaud. The performance concludes with Nicole Piunno’s Sunflower Studies, a symphony inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s fascination with sunflowers.
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Toccata Marziale
Joel Love, Musica Dei, donum optimi
Darius Milhaud, Suite française
Nicole Piunno, Sunflower Studies
Bienen Ensembles Bands /sites/default/files/styles/event_featured_image/public/2024-08/oct27_symband_web.jpg?itok=1104V6KB
Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s performance opens with Jennifer Jolley’s Lichtweg (Lightway), inspired by a neon light installation at the Munich Airport, followed by Frank Ticheli’s An American Elegy, written in memory of the lives lost at Columbine High School in 1999. The first half of the concert concludes with a staple of the wind band repertoire, Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat. The program continues with Joaquín Turina’s colorful Five Miniatures and comes to a close with Ryan George’s Riff Raff, a musical homage to the “urban rebel” figure so prominent in mid-century American pop culture.
Jennifer Jolley, Lichtweg (Lightway)
Frank Ticheli, An American Elegy
Gustav Holst, First Suite in E-flat for Military Band
Joaquín Turina, Five Miniatures from Miniaturas, Op. 52
Ryan George, Riff Raff
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Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s second spring-quarter performance highlights music celebrating the innocence and imagination of children. The program includes Percy Grainger’s joyous Children’s March, as well as the John Williams work Adventures on Earth—inspired by his score to the 1982 film E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.
Dana Wilson, Piece of Mind
Percy Grainger (rev. R. Mark Rogers), Children’s March: Over the Hills and Far Away
Eric Whitacre (arr. Jeffrey D. Gershman), Sleep, My Child from Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings
John Williams (trans. Paul Lavender), Adventures on Earth from E. T. the Extra Terrestrial
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Shawn Vondran, conductor; Schyler Adkins, doctoral assistant conductor; Gail Williams, horn
The Symphonic Band’s first performance of the spring quarter includes Sure-fire, a new concerto by Australian composer Catherine Likhuta, featuring faculty soloist Gail Williams. The concerto was written as a lament to the loss of native animal life on the Australian continent during the brushfires of 2019 and 2020. Also on the program is Samuel Barber’s Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, derived from the composer’s ballet suite based on the ancient Greek play by Euripedes.
Ron Nelson, Rocky Point Holiday
Joel Puckett, a proper goodbye
Catherine Likhuta, Sure-fire
Samuel Barber (trans. Frank Hudson), Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, Op. 23a
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Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band's second winter-quarter performance opens with Charles Ives's Variations on "America"—a witty work infusing the patriotic tune with barbershop quartet harmonies, an irreverent polonaise, and ultra-fast playing. Roshanne Etezady's poignant Against the Rain, based on the Edna St. Vincent Millay poem Love Is Not All, is a contemplation of the ways we suffer and sacrifice for love. David Maslanka's Traveler concludes the first half of the program—moving from high energy to quiet contemplation, the piece reflects on one's adventures over the course of a lifetime. The second half of the program is devoted to Zhou Tian's 2022 Sinfonia, inspired by cultural influences close to the composer's heart: 1940s and '50s noir films, the New York City subway, Shanghai's Mid-Autumn Festival, and the 1869 completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the US.
Charles Ives, Variations on “America”
Roshanne Etezady, Against the Rain
David Maslanka, Traveler
Zhou Tian, Sinfonia
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Shawn Vondran, conductor
Mason Bates, Bootlegger’s Break
Lili Boulanger, D’un soir triste
Norman Dello Joio, Scenes from “The Louvre”
Frank Ticheli, Symphony No. 2
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Shawn Vondran, conductor
The Symphonic Band’s second fall-quarter concert opens with Andrew Boss’s á la Machaut, lending a modern touch to thematic material from the works of medieval composer Guillaume de Machaut. Moving forward in music history to the Renaissance, the program continues with Gordon Jacob’s stately, and sprightly, William Byrd Suite. Following Leonard Bernstein’s ode to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, “The BSO Forever,” the performance concludes with Katahj Copley’s bold and brilliant 2022 work DOPE—in the composer’s words, “a gumbo of all the music that inspires and influences me from Thundercat to Kendrick Lamar to Miles Davis to Hiatus Kaiyote and more.”
Andrew Boss, à la Machaut
Gordon Jacob, William Byrd Suite
Leonard Bernstein, “The BSO Forever” from Divertimento for Orchestra
Katahj Copley, DOPE
Symphonic Band selected to perform at CBDNA divisional conference
/sites/default/files/2020-02/20200217_sym_band.jpgThe Northwestern University Symphonic Band will perform at the North Central Division Conference of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) on Saturday, February 22.
Percussion Ensemble performs showcase concert
/sites/default/files/2017-12/20171201_pasic.jpgThe Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble, led by associate professor She-e Wu, recently performed in a showcase concert at the 2017 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis.
Shawn D. Vondran is associate director of bands and conductor of the Northwestern University Symphonic Band.
Learn MoreNorthwestern University Music in November
/sites/default/files/2018-01/20161026_november_concerts.jpgA performance by classical guitarist Marcin Dylla and a vocal master class led by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard will open two year-long concert series as part of a busy November events calendar from the Bienen School of Music.