Ticheli: Wild Nights!; Dzubay, Bryant, Etezady, Mackey University of Kansas Wind Ensemble & Scott Weiss

• Wild Nights!
• 1 Wild Nights! 07:14
• Shadow Dance
• 2 Shadow Dance 09:09
• Dusk
• 3 Dusk 04:22
• Anahita
• 4 I. The Flight of Night 04:15
• 5 II. Night Mares 03:30
• 6 III. Sleep and Repose / The Coming of Light 07:20
• John Mackey: Soprano Saxophone Concerto
• 7 I. Prelude 01:57
• 8 II. Felt 05:47
• 9 III. Metal 07:29
• 10 IV. Wood 04:03
• 11 V. Finale 05:16
• Total Runtime 01:00:22

Info for Ticheli: Wild Nights!; Dzubay, Bryant, Etezady, Mackey

The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble offers musically enriching and artistically outstanding performances of the finest wind band repertoire. Following Redline Tango, the Ensemble here presents a diverse selection of 21st-century music which takes its name from multi-award-winning Ticheli`s exuberant Wild Nights! Mackey`s Soprano Saxophone Concerto pays tribute to his teacher Corigliano`s Clarinet Concerto, the instrumentation of its inner movements matching their titles: ‘Felt’, ‘Metal’ and ‘Wood’. Etezady`s Anahita was inspired by William Morris Hunt`s depiction of the beautiful and terrifying Zoroastrian night goddess, Dzubay`s Shadow Dance elaborates on Pérotin’s famous medieval organum Viderunt Omnes, while Bryant’s chorale-like Dusk is illuminated by the fiery hues of sunset.

Yet another fine entry in Naxos’s Wind Band Classics series. The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble under director Scott Weiss gives us a nice program of very colorful and enchanting music that is guaranteed to brighten any dark day. Wild Nights! is a piece by Frank Ticheli based on Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name, though I dare say that Ms Dickinson would find her flaps a-flutter hearing this delightful roller-coaster of a piece. Likewise another great band writer, David Dzubay, whose topsy-turvy emotive piece Shadow Dance cleverly disguises the organum that the work is based on.

From the shadows Steven Bryant takes us to Dusk, a short and effective chorale-like piece of shifting colors and couched intensity. Roshanne Etezady’s Anahita was inspired by photographs of a large mural in the Assembly Chamber of the State Capitol Building in Albany New York by painter William Morris Hunt depicting the Zoroastrian goddess of the night Anahita in “The Flight of Night”. The original mural was destroyed, but we can have an effective substitute in Etezady’s pictorial and highly provocative music in this three-movement work.

The longest and best piece on this disc is John Mackey’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble. This is a major work by a composer whose star is definitely on the ascent, recently winning the prestigious Ostwald Award from the American Bandmaster’s Association for his Redline Tango (on Naxos 8.570074 with this same ensemble). The three inner movements of this five-movement work are titled “Felt”, “Metal”, and “Wood” based on the physical elements that make up a modern saxophone, and scored according to the composer’s sense of the keys of the instrument (virtuosity), its sound, and lyricism. The outside movements are scored for the full ensemble. This work is a devil to negotiate, and Mr Gnojek—Professor of the instrument at the U of K—does a great job. I can’t think of a better work for the saxophone—and the soprano at that—that I have heard in the last few years, tonal, brilliant, beautiful, and engaging. Thanks to all for bringing this one to light.

The sound is very good and exceptionally clear, the Kansas-kids on top of the multiplicity of challenges. There’s no reason not to buy this one, and about a hundred to get it. Enjoy. (Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition)

University of Kansas Wind Ensemble
Scott Weiss, Conductor
Vince Gnojek, Saxophone

The University of Kansas Wind Ensemble
offers musically enriching and artistically outstanding performances of the finest wind band repertoire. Following Redline Tango (8.570074), the Ensemble here presents a diverse selection of 21st-century music which takes its name from multi-award-winning Ticheli`s exuberant Wild Nights! Mackey`s Soprano Saxophone Concerto pays tribute to his teacher Corigliano`s Clarinet Concerto, the instrumentation of its inner movements matching their titles: ‘Felt’, ‘Metal’ and ‘Wood’. Etezady`s Anahita was inspired by William Morris Hunt`s depiction of the beautiful and terrifying Zoroastrian night goddess, Dzubay`s Shadow Dance elaborates on Pérotin’s famous medieval organum Viderunt Omnes, while Bryant’s chorale-like Dusk is illuminated by the fiery hues of sunset.

Scott Weiss
is the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Kansas where he conducts the KU Wind Ensemble and guides all aspects of the band and graduate wind conducting programs. He was previously on the conducting faculties at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Lamar University and Emory University. The national recipient of the UMI Award for outstanding conducting and teaching, in 2005 Scott Weiss also received the University Merit Award from Lamar University. Ensembles under his direction have performed throughout North America and Asia and at prestigious conferences such as the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinics and the Western International Band Conference. A champion of original music for winds—both new and old—he has commissioned and premièred numerous works, and he has presented research on wind band history and literature in both Austria and Luxembourg. Scott Weiss holds an undergraduate degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and both a master’s and a doctoral degree from the University of Illinois.

John Mackey
holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald Erb, respectively. His works have been performed at the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and throughout Italy, Chile, Japan, China, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, Germany, England, Norway, and the United States. Mr. Mackey has received numerous commissions from the Parsons Dance Company, as well as commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, New York City Ballet, the Dallas Theater Center, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the New York Youth Symphony, the Juilliard School, Concert Artists Guild, and many others, including several college wind ensembles. As a frequent collaborator, he has worked with a diverse range of artists, from Doug Varone to David Parsons, from Robert Battle to the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. (The team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics performing to Mackey's music.)

Vince Gnojek
As a performer of both classical and jazz styles on all of the saxophones, Vince Gnojek has performed in almost every conceivable musical setting. As a classical saxophone soloist he has appeared with orchestras and concert bands, and has been a solo recitalist in Singapore, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and throughout the United States. Gnojek has performed in forty-two states and toured internationally as the alto saxophonist with the highly acclaimed Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet. As the saxophonist with the Kansas Woodwinds, a faculty chamber music ensemble in residence at the University of Kansas, he has performed nationally. He has also been a member of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. A versatile musician, Gnojek has been a free-lance musician in New York, Denver, and Kansas City, and has appeared with a variety of artists and entertainers. He has recorded compact discs on Mark Custom Recording with the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet, on the ECM label as a member of Steve Reich's Contemporary Music Ensemble, as the alto saxophonist with the Kansas Woodwinds, and on the Sea Breeze label as the lead alto saxophonist with the Kansas City Boulevard Big Band. As a clinician for the Selmer Company, Gnojek appears frequently at colleges and high schools throughout the United States. A dedicated educator, he has enjoyed serving as an adjudicator at jazz festivals and solo and ensemble contests in several states. His educational affiliations have included the University of Colorado, Boulder; Metropolitan State College, Denver; the University of Colorado, Denver; and Mannes College of Music in New York. He is currently Professor of Saxophone and Woodwind Division Director at the University of Kansas.

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