November 30, 2022
Wind Ensemble
Dr. Frank Tracz, Conductor
Dr. Jay Gilbert, Guest Conductor
Dr. Dan Hinman , Guest Performer
Wind Ensemble
Dr. Frank Tracz, Conductor
Fanfare for Full Fathom Five (2015)……………………………………….…John Mackey (b. 1973)
Featuring Assisting Musicians
Dr. Jackie Kerstetter, French Horn
Dr. John Kilgore, Trumpet
Dr. Steven Maxwell, Tuba
Cara Dister, French Horn
Fantasia on Silent Night (2011)…………………………………...……………..James Syler (b. 1961)
Red Sky (2013)………………………………………….…………….…….Anthony Barfield (b. 1983)
Dr. Hinman, Solo Trombone
Danzon No. 2 (1998/2009) ………………………………..……...………... Arturo Marquez (b. 1950)
Dr. Gilbert, Guest Conductor
Wind Ensemble Program Notes
Fanfare for Full Fathom Five (2015)……………………………………….…John Mackey (b. 1973)
"Fanfare for Full Fathom Five" takes its title from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," where Shakespeare's text refers to a drowning during a storm and shipwreck in water about five fathoms (30 feet) deep: Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. – William Shakespeare, The Tempest: I.2.396-401. In The Tempest, this rather foreboding and gloomy text is sung by the tormented spirit Ariel to the young prince of Naples, Ferdinand, who has just escaped a shipwreck caused by the eponymous storm and is unaware of whether his father — the King, Alonso — has survived. In reality, Ariel’s dire taunt proves to be somewhat inaccurate, but his song has a place in the English lexicon partly due to two phrases which have entered common usage: “full fathom five,” a nautical reference that indicates a placement under a depth of thirty feet of water but is used metaphorically to imply an impossible and unavoidable doom; and “sea-change,” which describes an unexpected and profound transformation. Both of these images, along with the backdrop of a tumultuous squall, paint the musical language of John Mackey’s Fanfare for Full Fathom Five. The fanfare is scored for an athletic array of brass and percussion: six trumpets (deliberately split into two quasi-antiphonal trios), six horns, three tenor trombones, three bass trombones, two tubas, and four percussion, with an ad libitum organ and the possible substitution of contrabass trombone. The orchestration and architecture of the piece is designed to be analogous to Richard Strauss’ Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare, but where Strauss’ fanfare is emotionally straightforward with bounds of unstoppable heroism, Mackey’s is more complex, taking the traditional fanfare rhythms and motifs and blurring them with a whirlwind of dissonance through chromaticism and murky glissandi that present the whole in a darker and more sinister context. All of the typical hallmarks of the fanfare genre are present: vibrantly articulated triplets in the trumpets, soaring horn lines, and brash pedal points in the low brass (doubled colorfully by the organ). The harmonic language is one of abrupt shift; the blustery opening seems to clearly establish B-flat major as the home key, but each time it seems to reaffirm this notion, it veers wildly into unexpected territory. The piece ends triumphantly in E-flat, but along the way it also takes detouring ventures through D-flat, G-flat, and perhaps most strangely, E major during the work’s contrastingly delicate midpoint. In the end, despite a journey that is continuously rich and strange, the heroes win the day and, as in The Tempest, all comes to a happy and victorious conclusion.
- Program Note by Composer
Fantasia on Silent Night (2011)…………………………………...……………..James Syler (b. 1961)
A re-interpretation of the classic Christmas carol Silent Night. All the elements of the original music have been altered through elongation of the melody, changing the key to minor, changing the meter to 6/8, re-harmonization, and a more polyphonic texture. The result is a dreamy music that extends the wonder and beauty of the original carol. Completed in 2011 and commissioned by a consortium of 11 community bands.
Red Sky (2013)………………………………………….…………….…….Anthony Barfield (b. 1983)
Dr. Hinman, Solo Trombone
Red Sky is a 14-minute work based upon the Big Bang Theory. Commissioned by Professor Brad Kerns and The University of Kentucky Wind Symphony, this work was premiered in October of 2012 and recorded in November of the same year.
According to the theories of physics, if we were to look at the universe one second after the Big Bang, the scientific explanation of how our universe started, what we would see is a 10-billion degree sea of neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons (positrons), photons, and neutrinos.
Red Sky paints a picture of the Big Bang Theory and space, matter and energy, but it also has a deeper meaning: that we are all the same as human beings, and to realize that wherever we are in the world, in this large universe, that we're all connected.
- Program Note by composer
Danzon No. 2 (1998/2009) ………………………………..……...………... Arturo Marquez (b. 1950)
Dr. Gilbert, Guest Conductor
The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón, which they were able to transmit to me from the beginning, and also during later trips to Veracruz and visits to the Colonia Salon in Mexico City. From these experiences onward, I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness, a genre which old Mexican people continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their own emotional world; we can fortunately still see this in the embrace between music and dance that occurs in the state of Veracruz and in the dance parlors of Mexico City.
The Danzón No. 2 is a tribute to the environment that nourishes the genre. It endeavors to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and although it violates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic language, it is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No. 2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.
- Program Note by composer
Kansas State University Wind Ensemble
Dr. Frank Tracz, Director
* Principal/section leader
**Co-principal/co-section leaders
FLUTE Laura Bogner Sarah Baden Laura Holden Jessica Minnich* Kristen Schrag
CLARINET Angel Amaro Audry Farrell* Taton Bennett Sabrina Gary Betty Withers
Eb/ALTO CLARINET Olivia Bazanos
BASS CLARINET Corrine Bergstrom Bre Ledbetter
OBOE Colby Stevens Lily Linville Briele Vollmuth*
BASSOON Rachel Woodbury Ethan Karnes
CONTRA BASSOON Hannah Sullivan | ALTO SAX Katie Anderson Nosara Vargas Gamboa** Hannah Mancini** Brenden Vining
TENOR SAX Mason Ringer
BARITONE SAX Craig Brinkman
TRUMPET Ann Barker Kiersten Glass Kyle Grimes* Shelton Lauderbaugh Bryce Schreiber Jessica Vanstory Kate Washburn
HORN Josie Anderson** Braedon Jones** Joseph Salas Sharyn Worcester |
| TROMBONES Blake Davis Tyler Lee** Tyler Long Will Osorio (bass) Daniel Smith Travis Turner**
EUPHONIUM Austin Perr Trey Switzer* Michael Walker
TUBA Lloyd Dodson Chris Hovis* Chase Keesling
PERCUSSION Taylor Clark Gaby Fluke Jacob Morgan Jack Johnson* Preston Thomas Nathan Smith Jake Wall Brandon Wells
STRING BASS Stephen Mitchell
PIANO Andrew Wilson |
* Principal/section leader
**Co-principal/co-section leaders
Wind Ensemble Conductor
FRANK TRACZ is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Kansas State University. He earned his B.M.E. from The Ohio State University, M.M. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He has public school teaching experience in Wisconsin and Ohio and has also served as Assistant Director of bands at Syracuse University and Director of bands at Morehead State University. Dr. Tracz has served as an adjudicator, clinician, speaker in various schools and conferences and has conducted All-State and Honor bands across the United States as well as in Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand.
At Kansas State, he directs the Wind Ensemble and the Marching Band, teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting, acts as an advisor to the Band Ambassadors, and administers and guides all aspects of a large BIG XII comprehensive band program. Ensembles under his direction have been invited to perform at numerous State conferences, MENC, two CBDNA regional conferences, The Larry Sutherland Wind band Festival at Fresno State, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. The marching band was awarded the prestigious Sudler Trophy in 2015. The Wind Ensemble also performed at the International Convention of the American Bandmasters Association in 2019 in Loveland, CO.
Dr. Tracz is on the faculty of the Conn-Selmer Institute, on the adjunct faculty of the American Band College, is a past member of the Music Education Journal Editorial Board, is a contributor to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, and was appointed Chair of the Sudler Trophy Project of the John Philip Sousa Foundation in 2017. His honors include the Stamey Award for outstanding teaching, Kansas Bandmasters Outstanding Director award, Wildcat Pride Alumni Association award, the Tau Beta Sigma Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director award, being named a Lowell Mason Fellow, and membership in the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Fraternity. He has also received the Conn- Selmer Institute Hall of Fame award, the Kansas State Professorial Performance award, and was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. Dr. Tracz was awarded an honorary doctorate from Doane University in May 2021. Dr. Tracz also led a very successful fundraising campaign raising over five million dollars for a new hall for the athletics band program. The “Tracz Family Band Hall” is scheduled to open early spring 2023.
Dr. Tracz is married to Geralyn, and has three daughters, Jessica Tracz Kelly, Kelley Tracz, and Carly Tracz Morris, and one grandson, Caden Tracz Kelly!
JAY W. GILBERT retired from Doane University as Director of Instrumental Music after 40 years of teaching. During his 29 year career at Doane he lead the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Concert Band, the Tiger Pep Band and for 12 years directed the Blue River Community Band. He also served as chair of Doane’s Music department for 24 years. Active in the music education organizations in Nebraska, Jay is currently chair of the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association’s Recommended Music List committee. He is also a past-president of the Nebraska chapter of Phi Beta Mu. He has been guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and Canada and has enjoyed international recognition as a composer. Jay is also a contributing author to The Art of the Interpretation of Band Music.
Dr. Gilbert has received recognition from Doane including the Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the Student Congress and the Zenon Hansen Leadership Award for his outstanding contributions to the institution. He has also received a several distinguished service awards from the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association, the Nebraska Music Educators Association, and from the Kansas State University Band Program. In 2019 he received an Ardis Butler James Fellowship to examine the Wind Music of Nebraska composer Lumir Havlicek. He lives in Crete, Nebraska with his wife Laura, and has two adult sons and a daughter in law.
Guest Performer
DAN HINMAN (he/him) is Instructor of Trombone at Kansas State University where he teaches applied trombone, the KSU Trombone Choir, and other academic music courses. Prior to this appointment he served as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Studies in Music at University of Mary (ND). As a performer, his experience spans a diverse spectrum. He is currently a member of the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley and Thundering Cats Big Band. In high demand as a performer, he has also performed with the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony, BisMan Little Big Band, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, Opera Fayetteville Orchestra (AR), Lone Star Wind Orchestra, and Basically Basie Big Band (TX). He can be heard with the North Texas Wind Symphony on the albums Taylor Made, Contact!, Discoveries, Inventions, and Composer Collections of John Mackey and Michael Daugherty. Hinman holds degrees from North Dakota State University (Music Ed.), the University of Minnesota (M.M.), and a Doctor of Musical Arts in trombone performance from the University of North Texas. His former teachers include Natalie Mannix, Tony Baker, Thomas, Ashworth, Kyle Mack, and Nathaniel Dickey. When not playing or teaching trombone he enjoys time spent with is wife, Amy, and toddler, Firth.
