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23^rd June - Two workshops and a spectacular concert.

Saturday 23^rd June was a very special day with three events of importance.

In the morning I conducted a workshop at Toho Gakuen, a private music school established in 1955, with a great tradition in conducting based on the teaching of Hideo Saito and numbering Seiji Ozawa among the alumni. Toho has for a long time been famed for the excellence of the symphony orchestra, and now they are moving seriously into the field of wind ensemble, under the expert guidance of conductor Hiroshi Uehara, 3^rd horn of the Kosei Wind Orchestra. This proved to be a superb ensemble, musical and very responsive. We worked on two favorites:

Gustav Holst Suite no 1 in Eb

Guy Woolfenden Gallimaufry

After an Irish Pub lunch lunch we were lucky enough to get to one of the Subscription concerts of the Tokyo Kosei:

23th June 2018 Saturday 14:00

TOKYO KOSEI WIND ORCHESTRA Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall

Conductor : Kimbo Ishii

Soloist: Yuta Maruta (Piccolo)

Court Music（Commissioned Work by TKWO, 2005）/ Donald Grantham

Concerto Op.50 for Piccolo and Orchestra / Lowell Liebermann arranged Keiichi Kurokawa

On the Town: 3 Dance episodes / Leonard Bernstein arranged Muarice Stith

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story / Leonard Bernstein arranged Paul Lavender.

This was a superb hall, and of course the orchestra was first class, with great performances of Grantham and Bernstein. The most interesting work was the Piccolo Concerto by Lowell Liebermann, arranged for band by the experienced composer Keiichi Kurokawa, a brilliant version of this wonderfully lyrical work. Here is a performance of the first movement with orchestra accompaniment from the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Caracas.

Evening workshop with

ENSEMBLE LIBERTE WIND ORCHESTRA

My evening was spent giving a workshop with one of the finest amateur wind bands of the world, a group which many colleagues will have heard at the Mid-West, rehearsing their entries for the All Japan Band Contest next October, pieces by Sakuma Takahiro and Chang-Su Koh. Both works have a lot to recommend them, the Takahiro with a teasing section in 5/8 and the Koh with some wonderful sonorities and rhythmic work.

Eleusinian Mysteries by Sakuma Takahiro

Written for the All Japan Band Association contest 2018

CHANG-SU KOH

Fantasia by Chang-Su Koh duration 9.30 free choice by Ensemble liberte

In my Conference review for Taiwan WASBE 2011, I wrote:

The quite splendid Osaka group played another excellent work by Koh, Lament for Wind Orchestra, one of those extremely rare wind works, a slow unsentimental piece, full of sentiment, first rate. This was also to my mind an object lesson in how to use a traditional musical language in a contemporary way. Some of this work was, dare I say it, beautiful, especially the development of a wind and then brass motif which reminded me of Shostakovich. This is a real piece of music, probably nearer Grade 5 then Grade 4 in its exposed writing and intensity.

Lament by Chang-Su Koh

Three works written for my birthday.

TIM – A BRITISH PASODOBLE by Luis Serrano Alarcon. Browse below for the premiere.

Written especially for Tim Reynish’s 80^th birthday concert given by the Banda Sinfonica of Villar del Arzobispo , Spain, the premiere of this work was conducted by Luis Serrano Alarcon on 28^th April. This work is a pasodoble of classic structure in two main sections. The ironic subtitle “A British pasodoble “ is due to the use of musical quotes of some of the most important works by composers such as Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger, for which Timothy Reynish feels a great appreciation . The intention of writing a pasodoble for this commemoration is due, first, to that in Spain it is common for composers to write pasodobles with the name of the dedicatee and for the special predilection of Tim Reynish in this genre since he knew the pasodobles of Luis Serrano Alarcon which he has conducted on various occasions.

CONE OF UNCERTAINTY – by Christopher Marshall, a musical view of a hurricane from the centre premiered by Unión Musical Santa Cecilia de Villar del Arzobispo February 28 2018. The programme note for this work can be found on my May website.

TIME-INTO-MUSIC by Yasuhide Ito premiered by Philharmonic Winds, Singapore, 17^th June 2018.

Japan premiere Green Tie Wind Ensemble of The Senzuko Gakuen College of Music, Tokyo 1^st July 2018.

Time-Into-Music by ITO Yasuhide was composed to celebrate the 80^th birthday of Tim Reynish.

The composer writes:

The age of 80 reminds me of Verdi who was still at his prime at that age and wrote his last opera Falstaff. Well there was an association I my mind of the stout title role with Tim. It was my intention to celebrate the occasion with this little lucid piece (like the opera) in C major. The eighth note phrases at the beginning get longer as they are repeated. It is to mimic the form of a verse by Emperor Yurvaku in Manyoshu in an 8^th century anthology of poetry: Komoyo Mikomochi Fukushimoyo Miukushimochi. In the verse, syllables are added one by one, in a manner that is said to symbolize auspice and bliss. Quoted in the middle is the beginning of the fugue at the closing of Falstaff Tutto nel mondo e burla (All the World’s a joke). This little piece is filled with gentle melodies and is slightly less than five minutes in duration. You may notice the name Tim hidden in the title. The world premiere was on 17^th June by Timothy Reynish conducting Philharmonic winds at the Esplanade Theatre, Singapore

TWO IMPORTANT CONFERENCES IN 2019

CBDNA

TEMPE, ARIZONA

February 20 - 23, 2019

Details on http://cbdna2019.org/#/

Ensembles from Texas State, Hartt School of Music, Arizona State, California State, CBDNA Small Band Programme Intercollegiate, Southern California, Southern Mississippi, Texas Christian, Louisiana State, Montclair State, West Chester and University of Illinois.

WASBE

Buñol (Spain) will be the host for the next international WASBE Conference from

Buñol is a municipality in the province of Valencia

July 10-13, 2019

Details on https://wasbe.org/future-conferences

A NEW OPERA FOR VOICES AND WIND ENSEMBLE by

ADAM GORB and BEN KAYE

Manchester premiere as on June 21 at the RNCM, Manchester UK, 7.30pm – 9.15pm RNCM Concert Hall

THE PATH TO HEAVEN Adam Gorb composer Ben Kaye libretto - Stefan Janski director - Mark Heron conductor - Melvin Tay assistant conductor Musicians from Psappha and RNCM

A powerful tale of extremism, expedience, deceit and betrayal, The Path to Heaven dramatically exposes the disintegration of the loves, lives and hopes of an extended family struggling to survive amidst the horrors of The Holocaust.

Sara, Hanna, Dieter, Magda and Hans return home from a party to find that having ‘danced too long in the moonlight’, evil stalks them from the darkness.

The discovery that their adoptive parents have disappeared triggers a descent into a nightmare from which none will escape unchanged. A meticulously-researched series of individual real stories has been woven into a thrilling new opera for the 21st Century.

SCORING

Fl/Picc, Fl. Cl/Cl Eb, Cl/Bcl, Sop sax/Alto sax, Alto sax/Ten sax, Bsn/contra, 2 Tpts, 2 Tbns, Tba, 2 perc. Piano

DURATION 1 hour 48 minutes

CAST Esther – Magda – Sara - Hanna – Hans/Cobbler – Dieter – Kapo/Dr. Rudi

I have seen the video of this work, and it is extremely powerful, I warmly recommended for any Music department looking for a major work to combine voices and wind ensemble, and to put a message across about the Holocaust.

Another impressive work for wind ensemble and voices is by Yasuhide Ito , and I was lucky enough to conduct it in Singapore and then work with him in Tokyo with the Senzuko Gakuen Green Tie Wind Ensemble.

PREMIERE DOUBLE TRUMPET CONCERTO by Ito Yasuhide

Hong Kong Chamber Wind Philharmonia, conductor Victor Tam, soloists Paul Archibald and Christopher Moyse 19 February 2018

Browse below for part of rehearsal of the Double concerto:

PREMIERE TRUMPET CONCERTO by Ito Yasuhide

Here he is with Ottaviano Cristofoli preparing for the premiere of Ito’s Trumpet Concerto in Italy.

Ottaviano Cristofoli : Trumpet Fulvio Dose : Conductor Orchestra di Fiati Val Isonzo

Concerto for Trumpet and Band was given on 17^th March 2018 by Ottaviano Cristofoli , solo trumpet with the Japan Philharmonic Ortchestra, and the Orechestra of Fiati Val Isonzo conducted by Fulvio Dose.

Duration About 16minutes

Browse below for a recording of the premiere.

Yasuhide Ito writes:

The amazing performance of Mr Ottaviano Cristofoli inspired me to write a concerto full of melodies. He plays like a singer, and I feel as if I can hear lyrics through his performance. I didn’t write any typical trumpet passages such as fanfares or flourishes. The piece consists of one movement but you will find three traditional movements. The first part allegro vivo has sonata form which lacks recapitulation of the second theme, and is followed by the second part, andantino lento. The main theme is the second theme of the first part, it is in the G Verdi style, being an homage to the great composer and also to Italy, where this concerto has its premiere. The third part is Le Danze. You will find a lot of dance characters from western and eastern countries. Through these dances we hope to spread the message of peace on the earth.

AS TIME IS PASSING ON by Yasuhide Ito

Movt 1

Movt 2

Movt3

Movt 4

As Time is Passing On: Symphonic Poem for Band commissioned by Graf Wind Orchestra for their tenth anniversary, premiered 8^th July 2000, conducted by Seiji Sagawa.

Yasuhide Ito writes:

Shortly before I started composing this work, my mother-in-law had passed away and it affected me to write this, unexpectedly to some extent, in the style of a requiem. Preceding several years from that, I received from Mr. Nozomu Hayashi a set of verses named Twelve Requiems, on the first of which I composed an unaccompanied choral work, As Time is Passing On. It is quoted in the last part of the current work, which consists of four parts.Lamento, Marcia, Dies Irae and As Time is Passing On. The chorus part can be sung either by the members of the band or by a seperarate choral group. There are some solo Alto passages.

As I was asked for something which would have Mr Sagawa in tears, I deliberately introduced some elements that are reminiscent of Wagner, his favorite composer.

Part 1: Lamento; written in a way as a sequel to the choral part, and the motif derived from it appears symbolically throughout

Part 2: Marcia; also based on the same motif as the part and partially in the style of Liszt’s symphonic prelude Les Preludes.

Part 3: Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) It is possible as an option to continue tpo sing the remaining six stanzas in Latin

Part 4: As Time is Passing On: this begins with mixed chorus for four voices. This section can also be performed solely by wind band with optional organ.

Close to the ending, the chorus sing requiem aeternam (eternal rest) pm the C sharp tonic chordplayed very softly. This closing also implies the opening on theb piece so that it forms a circle with no beginning or ending.

As Time is Passing On by Nozumni Hayashi

The morning light on my cheeks

Turns into twilight in no time

As Time is Passing On

So swiftly and silently I find myself wondered

Being alive now and All the things I saw

Are for once and only

The fresh young leaves of spring

Turns into summer foliage in no time

As Time is Passing On

So swiftly and only

So swiftly and drastically I find myself bewildered

Having been alive and

All the things I saw

Are for once and only

(This translation is only to show the outline of the original poem in Japanese.)