Wind Ensemble

About the Program

Program notes by Mark Bilyeu except where noted.

Stephen Montague
Introit St John’s 
Born March 10, 1943, Syracuse, N.Y.
Composed 2016, 2023
Premiered March 16, 2023, Southbank Sinfonia, Augustina Kapoti, conductor, London, England
7 minutes

Composer and conductor Sptehen Montague has received commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Proms, London’s Southbank and Barbican Centres, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Paris, Singapore, and Hong Kong festivals. He writes “The word Introit comes from the Latin word, Introitus, meaning “entrance”, but over the years introit has also come to mean special music for the opening of an event. The progenitor of my “Introit St John’s” was a short brass quintet I wrote in 2016 for Exeter University’s 60th anniversary which since then has been used for the university’s commencement ceremonies. The original musical material has evolved several times since and morphed into music for further celebratory occasions including the Royal Opening of The Francis Crick Institute by Her Majesty The Queen. This version begins like the original but strays off the path for a walk on the wild side. The work is dedicated to Richard Heason, the former artistic director of St John’s, Smith Square, London.” The work received its premiere at the 80th birthday celebration for the composer. 
 

Morton Lauridsen
arr. Reynolds
O Magnum Mysterium
Born 1943, Colfax, WA
Composed 1994
Premiered 18 December 18, 1994, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Paul Salamunovich, conductor
7 minutes

Morten Lauridsen is one of the most frequently performed composers of choral music today. In his book Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple describes Lauridsen as "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered." His work “O Magnum Mysterium,” a setting of the Matins of Christmas depicting the miraculous birth of Christ, was written during his long tenure as the Composer-In-Residence of the L.A. Master Chorale. “In composing music to these inspirational words about Christ's birth and the veneration of the Virgin Mary,” Lauridsen explaied, “I sought to impart a transforming spiritual experience within what I call ‘a quiet song of profound inner joy.’ I wanted this piece to resonate immediately and deeply into the core of the listener, to illumine through sound.” At the preconcert talk before the premiere of the work,  Paul Salamunovich told the audience, “Until now, [Tomás Luis de] Vittoria’s [1571] “O Magnum Mysterium” has been the most beautiful and well-recognized setting of this text composed to date. I predict that will change after tonight.”  Thirty years later, Salamunovich’s prediction continues to hold fast. 
 

Sam Lipman
The World Will Open world premiere
Composed 2025
15 minutes

Sam Lipman is an award-winning multi-media composer in the Austin Area, where he teaches Film Scoring and Audio Production at the University of Texas. Most recently Sam composed and orchestrated score for Terrence Malick’s The Last Planet, co-scored Richard Linklater/Cate Blanchett’s Where’d You Go Bernadette, and composed the all-electronic score for Ramona Diaz' Sundance-Acclaimed documentary A Thousand Cuts featuring George and Amal Clooney. His score for 2017 documentary Southwest Of Salem was shortlisted for an Oscar© for Best Original Song In a Movie, and his score for theatrical play Matawan won the 2019 Austin Critics Table Award. He describes his work as music that “embraces bloom and rot, awe and grief, scale and memory. It does not simplify or sanitize. Instead, it listens back.” He writes that this work is woven with “strands of music that have haunted me for decades - wisps of things that stayed with me after hearing Mahler, Strauss, Weinberg—things that didn’t want to go silent with the age.”

Three songs.
A mother decorating a tree while her child sleeps.
A plea to be known.
A meditation on what hands can hold—and what they can’t.
The music is intimate, volatile, reverent.
It stretches between silence and eruption, restraint and exposure.
The text, by poet Carrie Fountain, speaks plainly—without ornament or explanation.
Together, voice and orchestra shape a sound-world that listens more than it insists.

Donald Grantham
All You Who Sleep Tonight
Born: November 9, 1947, Duncan, OK
Composed 2026
Premiered April 11, 2026, Frost Wind Ensemble, Michael Hancock, conductor, Hila Plitman, soprano

Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, first prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony's Awards to American Composers, alongside a Guggenheim Fellowship, and three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Grantham was the serves  the Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professor of Music at the Butler School of Music until his retirement in spring of 2026.  He writes:

Robert Carnochan, the gifted and beloved conductor of the Frost School of Music Wind Ensemble, died unexpectedly on September 18th, 2024. I was one of the many composers fortunate enough to have worked with him and to have benefited from his deep musicality and musical insights. His passing is an enormous loss not only to family and friends, but also to students of music, to the band world, and to the community of music educators and composers. I was touched and honored to be asked to compose a commemorative work for Rob. To do so I have chosen a gentle and comforting poem by Vikram Seth that speaks to all those affected by separation and loss.

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right,
And emptiness above—
Know that you aren’t alone.
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

Benjamin Horne
Spiritual Symphony
Born February 9, 1995, Baltimore, MD
Composed 2025, 2026
Premiered March 20, 2025, Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Benjamin Horne, conductor
20 minutes
 
Spiritual Symphony is a collection of settings of African American spirituals for wind band. Together, this compilation synthesizes into a large work that engages with symphonic form. The first movement is primarily based on "Follow the Drinking Gourd". Filled with many inferences and descriptions, there is belief that the song may have been used as directions for slaves escaping along the Underground Railroad. The lore around this song also includes Peg Leg Joe as the “old man” referenced in the lyrics “comin’ just to carry you to freedom”. Joe was believed to have been a figure who would travel to plantations to deliver the “instructions”. This work uses the melody from the chorus of the song as a strophic theme that gradually intensifies and recedes like Peg Leg Joe coming to teach you how to escape and then disappearing in the dead of night. "Wade in the Water", another spiritual believed to be used for a similar purpose, is also interwoven throughout this movement.

"Motherless Child" is the musical bedrock for the second movement. Shrouded in anguish and desperation, the song’s lyrics suggest a state of worthlessness and a sense of one feeling lost—having squandered their sense of identity and humanity.

"Deep River" was previously a standalone setting written for my friend Anthony Morris. This edited version makes up the third movement. The setting pays homage to Henry Burleigh whose published versions in the 1910s helped popularize the song as well as the recordings of Paul Robeson. In contrast to the earlier movements, Deep River expresses a sense of hope and a longing desire to “cross over” to a land of freedom and peace.

The final movement opens with "My Lord, What a Morning" as a chorale before progressing into an exuberant rendition of "Go Tell It on the Mountain". Both songs contain references to biblical events in their lyrics, but the connecting idea of a “new life” or a “new age” resonates throughout.

– Benjamin Horne

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About the Artists

HilA Plitmann

Two-time GRAMMY Award-winning soprano, songwriter, and actress Hila Plitmann is known for opera, concert, film, and theater performances filled with emotionally-charged fearlessness, unique expressivity, and mesmerizing drama. She rose to prominence after premiering a work by Del Tredici with the New York Philharmonic just one year after graduating from Juilliard — on only two weeks’ notice — and has since become a frequent soloist on major stages across the world. Widely-recognized as one of today’s foremost interpreters of contemporary music, she regularly performs new works by a diverse array of composers, as well as traditional repertoire, and boundary-pushing projects in non-classical genres. With jazz guitarist Shea Welsh and tabla virtuoso Aditya Kalyanpur, she co-founded global music project Renaissance Heart. Her tour-de-force role in Eric Whitacre’s groundbreaking electro-musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wingsat Pasadena’s Boston Court Theatre, involving singing, acting, dancing, and martial arts, won her a nomination as “Best Actress in a Musical” from the Los Angeles Ovation Awards and L.A. Ticketholder Awards. She leads innovative residencies and workshops at campuses across the U.S., bringing diverse pedagogical methods combining technical focus, tools and approaches for connecting, and a sense of inner confidence, mindfulness, centering, and presence.

Jerry Junkin

Serving since 1988 on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Vincent R. and Jane D. DiNino Chair for the Director of Bands, in addition to serving as a University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Jerry Junkin is recognized as one of the world’s most highly regarded wind conductors. Previously, he served on the faculties of both the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida. In addition to his responsibilities as professor of music and conductor of the Texas Wind Ensemble, he serves as head of the conducting division and teaches courses in conducting and wind band literature. He has served as music director and conductor of the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia since 2003, and as artistic director and conductor of the Dallas Winds since 1993. He also serves as visiting professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music Wind Ensemble in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Junkin has conducted All-State bands and festivals in forty-eight states and five continents, and is a Yamaha master educator.

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Wind Ensemble

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Upcoming Events

WIND SYMPHONY
Free Admission
Sunday, September 27, 4:00 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

SYMPHONY BAND
Fantasy of Colors
Free Admission
Sunday, October 4, 4:00 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

JAZZ ORCHESTRAS 
Miles Ahead: Celebrating 100 Years of Miles Davis
Friday, October 9, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

WIND ENSEMBLE
with the Mariachi Paredes de Tejastitlán
Wednesday, October 21, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Halloween “Pops” Concert
Free Admission
Wednesday, October 28, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall
 

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