Visual & Performing Arts

Dr. Christopher M. Hathaway, conductor and singer, is Professor and Director of Choral Studies at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. His responsibilities at UWL include conducting the university’s premier choral ensemble, the UWL Concert Choir, and Choral Union. In addition to his responsibilities leading the choral ensembles, Dr. Hathaway is the Director of Choral Music Education where he teaches classes in choral conducting, choral techniques, and choral methods. He also serves as the supervisor for the undergraduate choral music education students in their field work and student teaching.

Before moving to La Crosse, Hathaway’s conducting engagements include leading the Women’s Chorus at the University of North Texas and serving as assistant to Dr. Richard Sparks and the internationally acclaimed UNT Collegium. While in Texas, Hathaway also served as Assistant Conductor to Dr. Jerry McCoy and the Fort Worth Chorale. During the 2013-2015 seasons, Dr. Hathaway served as the Assistant Conductor for The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay: the official symphony chorus for the Florida Orchestra. In this position, he assisted with the preparation for performances including Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Fauré's Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, and Orff's Carmina Burana. 

Prior to his graduate work, Hathaway served as a choir director in the school systems of Kalamazoo and Otsego, Michigan. Choirs under his direction consistently achieved the highest professional ratings at both the district and state levels.

Dr. Hathaway earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of North Texas and a dual Master’s of Music in Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance from The University of South Florida. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in Music Education where he studied with Dr. Joe Miller. 

Dr. Kourtney R. Austin is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and conducts the Treble Chorus. She earned her Ph.D. in Performing Arts Health at the University of North Texas, and also holds degrees in voice from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and music education from Northwest Missouri State University. Dr. Austin also studied Speech Pathology and Voice Science at the University of Iowa and is a Certified Vocologist. She previously used this expertise in her own business, Heartland Healthy Voices, providing vocal health seminars, voice rehabilitation, private voice lessons, and transgender voice training in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Austin was a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas and has held faculty positions at Midwestern State University, Grayson College, the Community Music School of Webster University, as well as serving as Artistic Director of CHARIS, The St. Louis Women’s Chorus. She is a frequent presenter of performing arts health research throughout the United States and in Australia. Her current research interests include using spectral analysis to quantify characteristics of the vocal onset as it applies to vocal efficiency and fatigue. She has presented on varying topics of performing arts health and voice science all over the world including The Voice Symposium in Shanghai, China; The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia; the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; The Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia; and The Performing Arts Medicine Association International Symposium. In June 2024, Dr. Austin will present her research at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in Knoxville, TN. She is a current member of PAMA, PAVA, The Voice Foundation, and NATS. 

Sonata da Chiesa by Adolphus Hailstork

Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He completed earlier studies at the Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and Howard University with Mark Fax.

Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. Among his early compositions are: Celebration, recorded by the Detroit Symphony in 1976; Out of the Depths (1977), and American Guernica (1983), are two band works which won national competitions. Consort Piece (1995) commissioned by the Norfolk (Va.) Chamber Ensemble, was awarded first prize by the University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary Music. Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been led by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, Jo Ann Falletta and David Lockington. This March, Thomas Wilkins conducted Hailstork's An American Port of Call with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The composer's second symphony (commissioned by the Detroit Symphony), and second opera,

Joshua's Boots (commissioned by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Kansas City Lyric Opera) were both premiered in 1999. Hailstork's second and third symphonies were recorded by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra (David Lockington) and were released by Naxos. Another Naxos recording, An American Port of Call (Virginia Symphony Orchestra) was released in spring 2012. Recent commissions include Rise for Freedom, an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered in the fall of 2007 by the Cincinnati Opera Company, Set Me On A Rock (re: Hurricane Katrina), for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008), and the choral ballet, The Gift of the Magi, for treble chorus and orchestra, (2009). In the fall of 2011, Zora, We're Calling You, a work for speaker and orchestra was premiered by the Orlando Symphony. I Speak of Peace, commissioned by the Bismarck Symphony (Beverly Everett, conductor) in honor of (and featuring the words of) President John F. Kennedy was premiered in November of 2013.

Hailstork's newest works include The World Called (based on Rita Dove's poem Testimonial), a work for soprano, chorus and orchestra commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Virginia (premiered in May 2018) and Still Holding On (February 2019) an orchestra work commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is currently working on his Fourth Symphony, and A Knee On A Neck (tribute to George Floyd) for chorus and orchestra. Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach Virginia, and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

The Sonata da Chiesa (Church Sonata) reflects the composer's fascination with cathedrals, particularly the one (the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York) in which he was a chorister as a child. The Latin titles of the movements reflect the mood of the music.

-Adolphus Hailstork

Transcendence by Am’re Ford

Am're Ford is a native of Oklahoma City, OK. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) and a Master of Music in Music Composition from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). While attending UCO, Am’re was a member of a number of large ensembles and chamber ensembles, all while being the director of the UCO Ebony Gospel Choir. It was at UCO that Am’re discovered his gift of writing music.

In March of 2014, Am’re debuted a song cycle, Freedom Suite, at the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music National Convention alongside faculty members of Langston University. In May of the same year, he debuted a string orchestra piece, Transcendence, written about the passing of his late grandfather.

In the fall of 2014, Am’re moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to study composition with Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty and Steven Bryant. For his master’s thesis, Am’re composed, Unrest. This chamber piece was written to honor the lives of innocent Black men killed due to police brutality. 

Am’re has an extensive history of being an organist and pianist for local churches and community events. He enjoys any opportunity to engage in meaningful experiences and is passionate about making a positive impact on the next generation of musicians.

Am’re’s accomplishments include being a recipient of the Next Gen Under 30 award and a Sphinx Connect Fellow for 2020. Am’re is a member of National Association for Music Educators, Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity Inc. and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America Inc.

On Transcendence: Not long after I began to take composition seriously, my grandfather fell ill. This was quite difficult for me to deal with since up to this point, I didn’t have much experience with a family member being this ill or worse, dying. I began to write a piece for string orchestra and the result was Transcendence. This piece displays quite beautifully my love of luscious harmonies and simple but memorable melodies. I’d tried my best to convey my feelings of joy, sorrow, and bitter sweetness while processing the life of my grandfather and what his future would be.

-Am’re Ford

Hymn for Everyone by Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery is a GRAMMY® Award-winning composer, violinist, and educator whose work interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry, and social consciousness, making her an acute interpreter of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profound works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life,” (The Washington Post) and are performed regularly by leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists around the world. In June 2024, Montgomery concluded a three-year appointment as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence. She was named Performance Today’s 2025 Classical Woman of the Year.

Montgomery’s music contains a breadth of musical depictions of the human experience—from statements on social justice themes, to the Black diasporic experience and its foundation in American music, to wistful adorations and playful spontaneity—reflective of her deeply rooted experience as a classical violinist and child of the radical New York City cultural scene of the 1980s and 90s. From choral-symphonic works such as I Have Something To Say (2019), to her more intimate solo instrumental works, she presents a fresh perspective on the contemporary concert music experience. In response to Montgomery’s GRAMMY®-winning work, Rounds (2021), San Francisco’s NPR station KQED stated: “this is what classical music needs in 2024.”

A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery is a frequent and highly engaged collaborator with performing musicians, composers, choreographers, playwrights, poets, and visual artists alike. Recent collaborations include a recording and touring project with Third Coast Percussion, including a newly-commissioned percussion quartet and an appearance with Montgomery as featured soloist in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra; a new work co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and the Sphinx Organization; and an ongoing collaboration with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, which has led to several of her concert works being choreographed with major dance companies across the US, including the Nashville Ballet and the Miami Ballet. Montgomery’s interest in improvisation and collective music-making has led to the development of The Everything Band, which comprises eight composer-performers of varied stylistic backgrounds, including her long-time collaborator, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, with whom she created the genre-bending improv duo, big dog little dog. Montgomery is also a founding member of the Blacknificent 7, a composer collective focused on presenting and supporting the works of Black composers through concert curation, scholarship, and mentorship.

At the heart of Montgomery’s work is a deep sense of community enrichment and a desire to create opportunities for young artists. During her tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she launched the Young Composers Initiative, which supports high school-aged youth in creating and presenting their works, including regular tutorials, reading sessions, and public performances. Her curatorial work engages a diverse community of concertgoers and aims to highlight the works of underrepresented composers in an effort to broaden audience experiences in classical music spaces.

Montgomery’s growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, as well as an opera in development with Lincoln Center Theater and The Metropolitan Opera, which explores family histories and the impact of her mother, playwright and actress Robbie McCauley, on the American historical narrative. Montgomery’s music has been heard on global stages across the US, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Asia, from the Hong Kong Cultural Center to the BBC Proms, Elbphilharmonie, Hollywood Bowl, and Carnegie Hall. Recent highlights include Song of Nzingha (2024), part of soprano Karen Slack’s evening-length recital African Queens alongside other composers from the Blacknificent 7; Procession (2024), a percussion concerto written for Cynthia Yeh, Principal Percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Space (2023), commissioned and performed by violinist Joshua Bell as part of his Elements project; Five Freedom Songs (2021), a song cycle conceived with and written for soprano Julia Bullock for the Sun Valley, Grand Teton, and Virginia Arts Music Festivals and San Francisco, Kansas City, Boston, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras; and I was waiting for the echo of a better day, a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape and Pam Tanowitz Dance (2021).

Montgomery has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year. Since 1999, she has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization in a variety of roles, including Composer-in-Residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, its professional touring ensemble. Montgomery holds degrees from The Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Princeton University. She serves on the Composition and Music Technology faculty at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

For more information visit www.jessiemontgomery.com

 Hymn for Everyone is based on a hymn that I wrote during the spring of 2021 that was a reflection on personal and collective challenges happening at the time. Up until that point, I had resisted composing “response pieces” to the pandemic and social-political upheaval and had been experiencing an intense writer’s block.

But one day, after a long hike, this hymn just came to me — a rare occurrence. The melody traverses through different orchestral “choirs” and is accompanied by the rest of the ensemble. It is a kind of meditation for orchestra, exploring various washes of color and timbre through each repetition of the melody.

-Jessie Montgomery

Fairy Doll by Rob Wiffin

Rob began his musical career in the Salvation Army, learning to play cornet and then trombone at Southall Citadel in London.  His music teacher at Drayton Manor Grammar School, Hanwell was an inspirational figure called William Herrera and although Rob originally had no intention of following a musical career the die was firmly cast by the end of his school years.  His interest in conducting was engendered at a very early stage as every musical ensemble at the Southall Salvation Army was conducted by a family member or close relative and Rob was only 17 when he became the deputy choir-master.  At the same age he played in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before entering the Royal College of Music where he studied trombone with Arthur Wilson.

On completion of his studies he joined the Royal Air Force Music Services and became the principal trombonist of the Central Band. After seven years as a player he decided to concentrate his energies on conducting and became a Director of Music for the RAF. He has directed the Band of the RAF Regiment, the Western Band of the RAF and the Central Band of the RAF. His promotion to Principal Director of Music, Royal Air Force, in January 1998, made him the twelfth in a line of distinguished musicians who have held this prestigious post and, on appointment, the youngest since Sir George Dyson in 1919.  He was awarded the OBE for services to Royal Air Force Music in 2002.

Away from the Royal Air Force he has built his reputation by conducting orchestras, wind ensembles and many of the country’s finest brass bands.  He has made a large number of commercial recordings and television and radio broadcasts and has premiered new works in concert and at international conferences.  

On leaving the RAF in 2003 he relocated to Spain where he spent much of his time composing and arranging music and playing the trombone. While maintaining his Iberian links, he is now spending most of his time in England. He is presently Professor of Conducting at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall and teaches postgraduate conducting, composition and arranging at the London College of Music.

On Fairy Doll: Having already made an arrangement of Bizet’s famous Farandole it occurred to me that I could produce a novel Christmas piece by re-writing it using appropriate tunes. I therefore used phrases from God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen and Joy to the World to form the main theme and countered it with Hark, the Herald Angels Sing. A few other favourites are hinted at, including Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and O Come, All Ye Faithful.

-Rob Wiffin

Dr. Martin I. Gaines proudly serves as the conductor of the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Band as well as teaching courses in Conducting, Clarinet, and Music Education. Prior to this posting he served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Morningside University and the Associate Director of Bands at McNeese State University. He holds degrees in conducting and music education from the University of Arizona (DMA), Middle Tennessee State University (MM), and the historic VanderCook College of Music (BMEd). 

As an active conductor, clinician, and music producer, Dr. Gaines’ most recent recording project David Maslanka: Music for Wind Ensemble was released in January 2021 on the Toccata Classics Label. He has also served as producer for an album featuring the wind orchestra music of Nigel Clarke. Prior to his academic appointments, he also served as the principal conductor for the Arts Express Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona and as the founding conductor of the UArizona chamber ensemble Solar Winds.

Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Gaines taught middle and high school bands and orchestras for fifteen years in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently in Florida. His bands have consistently received top marks from adjudicators and were often featured in clinic performance, e.g. the Southeastern Band Clinic at Troy University (2010) and the University of North Florida Invitational Festival (2010, 2014). He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2015 for Oakleaf High School (FL). Dr. Gaines holds professional memberships in CBDNA, College Music Society, College Orchestra Directors Association, International Conductor’s Guild, NAfME, National Band Association, Tau Beta Sigma, WASBE, and is a Life Member of Kappa Kappa Psi.

Bock Fanfares by Jess Langston Turner

Bock Fortress, or Bockfiels as it is called in the native dialect, has stood since at least 723 A.D. on a rocky promontory overlooking the present-day town of Luxembourg City. Over the centuries, the fortress was the site of many military conflicts as it was one of the most strategic strongholds in Northern Europe. Armies of Burgundy, Hapsburg, Spain, Prussia, and France fought for control of the fortress, resulting in repeated repairs and reinforcements to the fortress. Today, the ruins of Bock Fortress still stand overlooking the historic district of Luxembourg City, and its extensive network of passages and galleries are a popular tourist attraction.

Bock Fanfares was commissioned by Demosthenes Dimitrakoulakos for the Symphonic Band of the International School of Luxembourg in honor of the school’s 50th anniversary.

Dr. Jess Turner holds both the B.Mus degree and the M.Mus degree in trumpet performance from Bob Jones University, and the M.Mus degree in composition from the Hartt School in Hartford, Ct. He completed the D.Mus. degree in composition at Indiana University in Bloomington in 2015.

Jess was active in music making playing both trumpet and piano throughout his schooling. His interest in composition began in his high school years where his first attempts at scoring were Debussy preludes for his school orchestra. He began formal study of composition in his junior year of college, and though his graduate program was trumpet performance, Jess studied composition with Dwight Gustafson, Joan Pinkston, and Dan Forrest at Bob Jones University. At The Hartt School, his principal teachers were Robert Carl, Kenneth Steen, and Stephen Gryc. He has had masterclasses and lessons with Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom, Michael Colgrass, Jennifer Higdon, and Joseph Schwantner.

Jess Turner has won numerous honors for his music, including the 2005 National Winner of the Young Artist Composition Competition of the Music Teachers National Association for his Sonata for Trumpet Piano. He has won numerous prizes for his choral music, including the 2008 John Ness Beck Award and the 2009 first prize of the Roger Wagner International Choral-Composition Contest. In June, 2010, he was named to the National Band Association Young Composers Mentoring Project and was awarded the 2010 Walter Beeler Prize for Wind Composition for Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble. In 2012, his work for young band, The Exultant Heart, was awarded the Merrill Jones Composition Prize for Young Bands sponsored by the National Band Association.

Jess's music has been performed by the U. S. Navy Band, the U. S. Coast Guard Band, the band at U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and wind ensembles of the Hartt School, Yale University, Ithaca College, the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, West Chester State University, Bob Jones University, Furman University, Concordia University of Illinois, to name a few. Rumpelstilzchen has been recorded by the Wind Ensemble of the Hartt School and by the University of North Texas Wind Symphony. Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble had its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall in May, 2010.

-Jess Langston Turner

Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon by Percy Aldridge Grainger

Grainger’s arrangement of the Scottish song The Caledonian Hunt’s Delight became Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon. The river Doon flows gracefully between the Loch Doon and the Firth of Clyde in Stirlingshire, Scotland. It was inspired by Robert Burns poem, The Banks of Doon, written in 1783. The piece was originally scored in 1903 for a chorus of women’s unison voices, accompanied by men’s voices, whistlers, and harmonium or organ at will. This was one of Grainger’s earliest folk-music arrangements, and it was dedicated to his dear friend Sigurd Fornander. The setting for band was completed in 1932 (British Folk-Music Setting Nt. 31) and could be combined with the original choral arrangement.

George Percy Grainger was an Australian-born composer, pianist and champion of the saxophone and the concert band, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger. Grainger was an innovative musician who anticipated many forms of twentieth century music well before they became established by other composers. As early as 1899 he was working with "beatless music", using metric successions (including such sequences as 2/4, 2½/4, 3/4, 2½/4).

In December 1929, Grainger developed a style of orchestration that he called "Elastic Scoring". He outlined this concept in an essay that he called, "To Conductors, and those forming, or in charge of, Amateur Orchestras, High School, College and Music School Orchestras and Chamber-Music Bodies".

In 1932, he became Dean of Music at New York University, and underscored his reputation as an experimenter by putting jazz on the syllabus and inviting Duke Ellington as a guest lecturer. Twice he was offered honorary doctorates of music, but turned them down, explaining, "I feel that my music must be regarded as a product of non-education."

-Marcellus Brown and Nikk Pilato

Chant and Jubilo by Francis McBeth

Chant and Jubilo was commissioned by Jerry Loveall for the Four States Bandmasters Convention in Texarkana, Texas, and was first performed by the Four States Bandmasters Band in January of 1962 with the composer conducting. It is a work in two connected contrasting movements. The melodic material in the Chant is derived from a ninth century Greek hymn of rogation. It is a modal movement reminiscent of the early church organum and should be done in a very sensitive manner, with the Jubilo contrasting with its explosive lower brass and percussion. The composer also used this source material in his Hymn for Band, a piece written two years earlier.

An American composer and educator who wrote for piano, choir, symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, and over thirty works for wind band, McBeth was professor of music and resident composer at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In 1962, McBeth conducted the Arkansas All-State Band, with future president Bill Clinton playing in the tenor saxophone section. He served as the third conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra from 1970 until 1973 and was appointed Composer Laureate of the state of Arkansas by Governor Bob C. Riley in 1975, the first such honor in the United States.

His musical influences included Clifton Williams, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson, Kent Kennan, Wayne Barlow, and Macon Summerlin. The popularity of his works in the United States during the last half of the twentieth century led to many invitations and appearances as a guest conductor where he often conducted the premiere performances of his compositions, the majority of which were commissioned. His international reputation as a conductor and clinician had taken him to forty-eight states, three Canadian provinces, Japan, Europe, and Australia. At one time, his "Double Pyramid Balance System" was a widely used pedagogical tool in the concert band world.

-Francis McBeth

Charm by Kevin Puts

The idea for Charm came to me immediately after I first met the Scarsdale (N.Y.) Middle School Band and its talented director, Nicholas Lieto. The school is only a fifteen-minute drive from my house, and on the trip home, I imagined a sort of mystical harmonic palette with triangles ringing over a pentatonic melody as if a spell had been cast. I realized when I got to my piano and began playing it that it would have to be written in the irregular (and difficult) meter of 7/8.

I decided to call it Charm because the music conjures up magic, good-luck charms, and such, and I was also thinking of the other meaning of the word, that intangible quality possessed by certain people places that truly can cast a spell.

Charm was commissioned by BandQuest® for the Scarsdale Middle School Band, Nicholas Lieto, conductor. It premiered at Scarsdale Middle School on May 9, 2012. While my inexperience with this genre lead me to compose a more difficult piece than I had intended, the students in Scarsdale rose to the challenge brilliantly.

Dr. Puts received his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, his master’s degree from Yale University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music.

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Silent Night, Puts has been hailed as one of the most important composers of his generation. His work has been commissioned and performed by leading orchestras in the United States and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestër (Zurich), the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta, Colorado, Houston, Fort Worth, Utah, St. Louis, the Boston Pops, and the Minnesota Orchestra which commissioned his Sinfonia Concertante, and by leading chamber ensembles such as the Mirò Quartet, the Eroica Trio, eighth blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Puts’ orchestral catalog includes four symphonies as well as several concertos written for some of today’s top soloists. In 2005, Mr. Puts received the tremendous honor of a commission in celebration of David Zinman’s 70th birthday, and the result was Vision, a cello concerto premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra. During the same year, his Percussion Concerto was premiered by Evelyn Glennie with the Pacific and Utah Symphonies. He has also written concertos for marimbist Makoto Nakura, violinist Michael Shih, clarinetist Bil Jackson, and a piano concerto commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and premiered in 2008 by pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane. In March 2022, Puts’ fourth opera, The Hours, had its world premiere on the concert stage by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Puts has received awards and grants from the American Academy in Rome, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI and ASCAP. He has served as composer-in-residence of Young Concerts Artists, the California Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.

Since 2006, he has been a member of the composition department at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

-Kevin Puts

Friends for Life by Catherine Likhuta

One quiet evening, during a walk with my daughter, we found ourselves laughing over the mischief of our guinea pigs, Kuchie and Lyla. They’re her first pets, and already, they’ve carved a special place in her world. As we talked, she suddenly turned to me and asked, “Mama, did you have your first pet when you were a kid, too?” Her question pulled me gently into the past—to when I was five, and my parents brought home a tiny beige hamster. We named him Hammie. He was soft, delicate, perfect. I adored him the moment I saw him. I remember trying to hold him that first day, only for him to bite me out of fear. I cried, feeling rejected by the very creature I already loved so much. But my mother sat beside me and taught me how to be gentle, how to earn trust, how to care. And

slowly, Hammie became my everything—my secret keeper, my reason to race home from kindergarten, my quiet companion in the lonely spaces of childhood. When he died, it shattered something in me. It was my first heartbreak, my first experience of something precious being here one day and gone the next. I didn’t have the words for grief then—I just knew he’d taken a part of me with him. And yet, all these years later, speaking his name to my daughter, he didn’t feel so far away. I could still see him curled up in sleep, still hear the tiny rustle of him running through shredded paper, still smile at the memory of his cheeks stuffed full of spaghetti.

First pets never really leave us. They teach us how to love, how to let go, and how to remember. Even decades later, we carry them with us—in the quiet places of our hearts, where childhood still lives. They truly are our guaranteed friends for life.

Dr. Likhuta holds a bachelor's degree in jazz piano from Kyiv Glière Music College and a five-year post-graduate degree in composition from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). She also received her Ph.D. in composition at the University of Queensland.

Her music exhibits high emotional charge, programmatic nature and rhythmic complexity. Catherine's works have been performed throughout North America, Europe and Australia by many prominent soloists and ensembles, such as Paul Dean, Peter Luff, The Australian Voices, U.S. Army Field Band Horns, Cornell University Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony, Queensland Conservatorium Wind Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the National Radio of Ukraine. Her pieces have been played at several international events, including two international horn symposia and the World Saxophone Congress. Her concertino for five horns entitled Hard to Argue became the winner of the International Horn Society Composition Contest, virtuoso division.

-Catherine Likhuta

Frequency by Minoo Dixon

Minoo grew up in Suwanee, Georgia, where he not only developed an aspiration to become a composer but also a conductor and clarinet performer. In 2018, Minoo began attending Berklee College of Music, where he was able to absorb and develop his contemporary music skills, but realized his passions in composition aligned more closely with the concert hall and transferred to New England Conservatory in 2020 to study composition under the tutelage of Michael Gandolfi. He is currently [2023] pursuing his graduate studies at University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music with Omar Thomas.

Mr. Dixon is an Asian-American composer who has been recognized by ASCAP and National Federation of Music Clubs. Throughout his years of composing, he has been awarded Senior Composition Competition Winner by MTNA, the Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition, two NEC Honors Ensemble Composition Competitions, and a finalist of the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards Competition. Minoo’s pieces also have been performed at locations such as Carnegie Hall, Busan Cultural Center, Midwest Clinic, and Jordan Hall.

About the piece, the composer simply writes: “When it feels right, nod your head to the beat.”

-Minoo Dixon

The Hippodrome by Will Huff

Most marches written by “Will Huff” were composed by Henry Fillmore writing under the pen name, Will Huff. The Hippodrome, though published by Fillmore, was composed by a staff composer named William L. Huff. It was not until after Mr. Huff left Fillmore’s employ that Fillmore took on the “Will Huff” pseudonym. More than a century later, these implications (among several others) do not exactly paint Fillmore as a particularly nice guy, but it certainly cemented his legacy as a prolific composer of marches and rags.

The REAL William L. Huff was born in Ohio and learned to play the alto horn and later the cornet. He served with the Ohio Seventeenth Regiment Band during the Spanish-American War though he retained his civilian status. After the war, Huff earned his living at first as a photographer and later as an interior decorator. He also traveled through mining towns selling instruments, giving lessons, and organizing bands. After World War I, he settled down in Chillicothe, Ohio and began a band sponsored by the “International Order of Odd Fellows” (this fraternal organization still exists today). Huff composed nearly ninety works, thirty-eight were published by Fillmore’s company.

-Norman E. Smith and Martin Gaines

God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen, Traditional, arranged by Ed Huckeby

The origin of God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen dates to the fifteenth century, but it was first published in 1760. Today’s concert band setting was arranged by Ed Huckeby. The traditional hymn is set in a Brubeck-style, jazz waltz reminiscent of Paul Desmond’s composition, Take Five.

Ed Huckeby is currently a Professor of Music and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Northeastern State University-Broken Arrow where he serves as the chief academic administrator for the campus. Prior to this appointment, he was an arts administrator for Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Inc, directing the general operations of Oklahoma's premier international ballet company. He also holds the title of emeritus professor of music at Northwestern Oklahoma State University where he served for over two decades as Music Department Chairman and Dean of the Graduate School.

Prior to his appointment at Northwestern in 1976, Huckeby spent eight years teaching instrumental music in the public schools of Oklahoma where his marching, concert and jazz bands won state and regional acclaim. His success in the public schools led him into the college teaching ranks where he became internationally recognized as an outstanding music educator and composer of over 160 published works for concert and marching band. Ed's ability to write interesting and accessible instrumental music can be attributed to his experience at a variety of musical levels.

Huckeby's performance background and experience is very eclectic, having been a member of a symphony orchestra (horn), a jazz band (trumpet), and a contemporary Christian quintet (bass guitar and vocals), as well as having served regularly as a church organist and pianist. His outstanding contributions to the concert and marching band literature have played an important role in the development of contemporary band repertoire.

Ed holds a bachelor's degree in music education from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, a master's degree in music education from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in administration from Oklahoma State University with additional study at the University of North Texas. He has written music education articles for The Instrumentalist, The American Music Teacher, and The Journal of the International Horn Society, and has held memberships in Music Educators National Conference, Oklahoma Music Educators Association, Oklahoma Bandmasters Association, ASCAP, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Phi Beta Mu, where he served as a member of the national board of directors and state chapter president. Huckeby was selected as an "Outstanding Young Man in America," is listed in the "International Who's Who in Music," and was inducted into the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association "Hall of Fame" in 1996. He has created over 45 commissioned works and regularly serves as a clinician, adjudicator and conductor for instrumental ensembles around the world.

-Ed Huckeby and Martin Gaines

Dr. Martin I. Gaines proudly serves as the conductor of the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Band as well as teaching courses in Conducting, Clarinet, and Music Education. Prior to this posting he served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Morningside University and the Associate Director of Bands at McNeese State University. He holds degrees in conducting and music education from the University of Arizona (DMA), Middle Tennessee State University (MM), and the historic VanderCook College of Music (BMEd). 

As an active conductor, clinician, and music producer, Dr. Gaines’ most recent recording project David Maslanka: Music for Wind Ensemble was released in January 2021 on the Toccata Classics Label. He has also served as producer for an album featuring the wind orchestra music of Nigel Clarke. Prior to his academic appointments, he also served as the principal conductor for the Arts Express Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona and as the founding conductor of the UArizona chamber ensemble Solar Winds.

Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Gaines taught middle and high school bands and orchestras for fifteen years in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently in Florida. His bands have consistently received top marks from adjudicators and were often featured in clinic performance, e.g. the Southeastern Band Clinic at Troy University (2010) and the University of North Florida Invitational Festival (2010, 2014). He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2015 for Oakleaf High School (FL). Dr. Gaines holds professional memberships in CBDNA, College Music Society, College Orchestra Directors Association, International Conductor’s Guild, NAfME, National Band Association, Tau Beta Sigma, WASBE, and is a Life Member of Kappa Kappa Psi.

McKenna Sherrod, student conductor

Ms. Sherrod is a senior Music Education major at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. Throughout her college career, she has performed in numerous ensembles, including four years with the Wind Ensemble, two of which she served as Principal Saxophonist. She has also been a dedicated member of the Screaming Eagles Marching Band for five years, serving as a Drum Major for the past two seasons.

In spring 2026, Ms. Sherrod will complete her student teaching and is on track to graduate in May. After graduation, she plans to pursue a position as a band director at the middle or high school level. She looks forward to contributing to a comprehensive instrumental music program and hopes to continue her involvement in all areas of instrumental education.

Dancefares by Jess Langston Turner

Dancefares is a piece about “earworms,” little musical fragments that get stuck in our heads and won’t dislodge themselves no matter what. Most of the musical material in Dancefares is based on the infectious little opening motive which pervades the piece from beginning to end. Throughout the piece, you may hear references to well-known popular songs (well, one in particular).

Dr. Jess Turner holds both the B.Mus degree and the M.Mus degree in trumpet performance from Bob Jones University, and the M.Mus degree in composition from the Hartt School in Hartford, Ct. He completed the D.Mus. degree in composition at Indiana University in Bloomington in 2015.

Jess was active in music making playing both trumpet and piano throughout his schooling. His interest in composition began in his high school years where his first attempts at scoring were Debussy preludes for his school orchestra. He began formal study of composition in his junior year of college, and though his graduate program was trumpet performance, Jess studied composition with Dwight Gustafson, Joan Pinkston, and Dan Forrest at Bob Jones University. At The Hartt School, his principal teachers were Robert Carl, Kenneth Steen, and Stephen Gryc. He has had masterclasses and lessons with Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom, Michael Colgrass, Jennifer Higdon, and Joseph Schwantner.

Turner has won numerous honors for his music, including the 2005 National Winner of the Young Artist Composition Competition of the Music Teachers National Association for his Sonata for Trumpet Piano. He has won numerous prizes for his choral music, including the 2008 John Ness Beck Award and the 2009 first prize of the Roger Wagner International Choral-Composition Contest. In June, 2010, he was named to the National Band Association Young Composers Mentoring Project and was awarded the 2010 Walter Beeler Prize for Wind Composition for Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble. In 2012, his work for young band, The Exultant Heart, was awarded the Merrill Jones Composition Prize for Young Bands sponsored by the National Band Association.

Jess's music has been performed by the U. S. Navy Band, the U. S. Coast Guard Band, the band at U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and wind ensembles of the Hartt School, Yale University, Ithaca College, the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, West Chester State University, Bob Jones University, Furman University, Concordia University of Illinois, to name a few. Rumpelstilzchen has been recorded by the Wind Ensemble of the Hartt School and by the University of North Texas Wind Symphony. Rumpelstilzchen: A Fairy Tale for Wind Ensemble had its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall in May, 2010.

Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger

(George) Percy Aldrige Grainger was an Australian-born composer, pianist and champion of the saxophone and the concert band. Grainger was an innovative musician who anticipated many forms of twentieth century music well before they became established by other composers. As early as 1899 he was working with "beatless music", using metric successions (including such sequences as 2/4, 2½/4, 3/4, 2½/4).

In December 1929, Grainger developed a style of orchestration that he called "Elastic Scoring". He outlined this concept in an essay that he called, "To Conductors, and those forming, or in charge of, Amateur Orchestras, High School, College and Music School Orchestras and Chamber-Music Bodies." In 1932, he became Dean of Music at New York University and underscored his reputation as an experimenter by putting jazz on the syllabus and inviting Duke Ellington as a guest lecturer.

Lincolnshire Posy was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and premiered at their convention in Milwaukee with the composer conducting. It is in six movements, all based on folk songs from Lincolnshire, England. Grainger's settings are not only true to the verse structure of the folk songs but attempt to depict the singers from whom Grainger collected the songs. Since its premiere, it has been recognized as a cornerstone of the wind band repertoire. About the piece, Grainger states:

Lincolnshire Posy, as a whole work, was conceived and scored by me direct for wind band early in 1937. Five, out of the six, movements of which it is made up existed in no other finished form, though most of these movements (as is the case with almost all my compositions and settings, for whatever medium) were indebted, more or less, to unfinished sketches for a variety of mediums covering many years (in this case, the sketches date from 1905 to 1937). These indebtednesses are stated in the score.

This bunch of "musical wildflowers" (hence the title) is based on folksongs collected in Lincolnshire, England (one notated by Miss Lucy E. Broadwood; the other five noted by me, mainly in the years 1905-1906, and with the help of the phonograph), and the work is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me. Indeed, each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody -- a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song -- his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone.

-Program Note by Percy Aldridge Grainger

Arietta for Wind Ensemble by Yasuhide Ito

Yasuhide Ito is a Japanese composer and educator. Ito began studying piano as a child, and completed graduate work at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986 where he studied composition with Professor Teruyuki Noda.

Prof. Ito has composed more than 1000 works, more than 90 for wind band. His Gloriosa is one of the most frequently performed masterworks in the world, having the distinction of appearing in a standard Japanese high school music textbook. Ito won 3rd prize in the 51st Music Competition of Japan with a work for orchestra, and in 1986, he won the 1st prize of the competition for the Composition for Saxophone. As a pianist, Ito won 1st prize in the 5th Music Competition of Shizuoka in 1980. Ito is a member of the Japanese Society for Contemporary Music and the JBA.

Ito's lectures about Japanese band music at WASBE in 1995 (Hamamatsu) and 1997 (Austria) have had a great influence on the band world. Besides his composition career, Ito is well-known as an author and translator. He has written "Kangakki no Meikyoku Meienso" ("The Masterpieces and Great Performances of Wind Instruments") and translated Frank Erickson's "Arranging for the Concert Band." He teaches at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, Sakuyo Music College and Tokyo Conservatoire Shobi. In addition, he is the regular conductor of the Tsukuba University Band.

Arietta for Wind Ensemble premiered on 3rd December 2024 by the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Green-Tie Wind Ensemble, conducted by Luis Serrano Alarcón. The composition emphasizes awareness of harmony and non-harmonic notes, phrasing which incorporates anacruses, natural agogics derived from these elements, beautiful soft playing, delicate dynamic shifts, percussion that enhances tonal colour, musical structure, and attentive listening to other voices.

In contrast to increasingly technique-focused pieces that dominate today’s wind ensemble repertoire, Arietta invites listeners to enjoy a gentler, more introspective kind of music. As the introductory motif unfolds, one may catch glimpses of familiar melodies. I hope it conveys both my affection for and a homage to wind music.

The instrumentation follows the formation recommended by the All-Japan Band Association for wind band competition test pieces, allowing for performances by both smaller ensembles and full-sized wind bands.

-Yasuhide Ito

The National Game by John Philip Sousa

Known as the “March King,” John Philip Sousa composed The National Game on the fiftieth anniversary of the National League. Sousa and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (his real name), then major league baseball’s high commissioner, met earlier in Havana and bonded over their love of baseball. No doubt Sousa told him of his enthusiasm for the game and of the Sousa Band’s own team.  

John Philip Sousa was born Nov. 6, 1854, at 636 G Street, SE, Washington, D.C., near the Marine Barracks where his father, Antonio, was a musician in the Marine Band. He received his grammar school education in Washington and for several of his school years enrolled in a private conservatory of music operated by John Esputa, Jr. There he studied piano and most of the orchestral instruments, but his first love was the violin. He gained great proficiency on the violin, and at the age of 13 he was almost persuaded to join a circus band. However, his father intervened and enlisted him as an apprentice musician in the Marine Band. Except for a period of six months, Sousa remained in the band until he was 20. In addition to his musical training in the Marine Band, he studied music theory and composition with George Felix Benkert, a noted Washington orchestra leader and teacher.  

After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Sousa remained in Washington for a time, conducting and playing the violin. He toured with several traveling theater orchestras and moved to Philadelphia in 1876. There he worked as a composer, arranger, and proofreader for publishing houses. Sousa was fascinated by the operetta form and toured with a company producing the musical Our Flirtation, for which he wrote the incidental music and the march. While on tour in St. Louis, he received a telegram offering him the leadership of the Marine Band in Washington. He accepted and reported for duty on Oct. 1, 1880, becoming the band’s 17th Leader.  

The Marine Band was Sousa’s first experience conducting a military band, and he approached musical matters unlike most of his predecessors. He replaced much of the music in the library with symphonic transcriptions and changed the instrumentation to meet his needs. Rehearsals became exceptionally strict, and he shaped his musicians into the country’s premier military band. Marine Band concerts began to attract discriminating audiences, and the band’s reputation began to spread widely.  

Sousa first received acclaim in military band circles with the writing of his march “The Gladiator” in 1886. From that time on he received ever-increasing attention and respect as a composer. In 1888, he wrote “Semper Fidelis.” Dedicated to “the officers and men of the Marine Corps,” it is traditionally known as the “official” march of the Marine Corps.  

In 1889, Sousa wrote the “Washington Post” march to promote an essay contest sponsored by the newspaper; the march was soon adapted and identified with the new dance called the two-step. The “Washington Post” became the most popular tune in America and Europe, and critical response was overwhelming. A British band journalist remarked that since Johann Strauss, Jr., was called the “Waltz King” that American bandmaster Sousa should be called the “March King.” With this, Sousa’s regal title was coined and has remained ever since. Under Sousa the Marine Band also made its first recordings. The phonograph was a relatively new invention, and the Columbia Phonograph Company sought an ensemble to record. The Marine Band was chosen, and 60 cylinders were released in the fall of 1890. By 1897, more than 400 different titles were available for sale, placing Sousa’s marches among the first and most popular pieces ever recorded, and the Marine Band one of the world’s first “recording stars.”  

The immense popularity of the Marine Band made Sousa anxious to take his Marine Band on tour, and in 1891 President Benjamin Harrison gave official sanction for the first Marine Band tour, a tradition which has continued annually since that time, except in times of war and global pandemic. After the second Marine Band tour in 1892, Sousa was approached by his manager, David Blakely, to organize his own civilian concert band, and on July 30 of that year, John Philip Sousa resigned as Director of the Marine Band. At his farewell concert on the White House lawn, Sousa was presented with a handsome engraved baton by members of the Marine Band as a token of their respect and esteem. This baton was returned to the Marine Band by Sousa’s daughters, Jane Priscilla Sousa and Helen Sousa Abert, in 1953. The Sousa baton is now traditionally passed to the new Director of the Marine Band during change of command ceremonies.  

In his 12 years as Leader of the Marine Band, he served under five Presidents, and the experience he gained with the Marine Band would be applied to his civilian band for the next 39 years. With his own band, Sousa’s fame and reputation would grow to even greater heights.  

Sousa’s last appearance before “The President’s Own” was on the occasion of the Carabao Wallow of 1932 in Washington. Sousa, as a distinguished guest, rose from the speaker’s table, took the baton from Director Captain Taylor Branson, and led the orchestra through the stirring strains of “Hands Across the Sea.” John Philip Sousa died on March 6, 1932, at Reading, Pa., where he was scheduled to conduct the Ringgold Band. His body was brought to his native Washington to lie in state in the Band Hall at Marine Barracks. Four days later, two companies of Marines and Sailors, the Marine Band, and honorary pall-bearers from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps headed the funeral cortege from the Marine Barracks to Congressional Cemetery.  

His music was not the only memorial to John Philip Sousa. In his native city on Dec. 9, 1939, the new Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge across the Anacostia River was dedicated to the memory of the great American composer and bandmaster. More recently, Sousa was enshrined in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1976.

In a fitting tribute to its 17th Leader, in 1974 the Marine Band rededicated its historic band hall at Marine Barracks as “John Philip Sousa Band Hall.” The bell from the S.S. John Philip Sousa, a World War II Liberty ship, is there. On Nov. 6, 2004, “The March King’s” 150th birthday, “The President’s Own” and 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps General Michael W. Hagee dedicated the new band hall at Marine Barracks Annex John Philip Sousa Hall. “The President’s Own” concluded his sesquicentennial year on Nov. 5, 2005, by unveiling an eight-foot bronze statue of Sousa outside the band hall. The statue, funded by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, private donor Mickey Gordon, and the John Philip Sousa Foundation, is the only one of its kind. Sculpted by artist Terry Jones, the statue is an enduring testament to the composer’s contributions to the Marine Band.   

Unequalled by his predecessors, John Philip Sousa is responsible for bringing the United States Marine Band to an unprecedented level of excellence: a standard upheld by every Marine Band Director since. But perhaps the most significant tribute to Sousa’s influence on American culture, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was designated as the national march of the United States on Dec. 11, 1987. A White House memorandum states the march has become “an integral part of the celebration of American life.” 

-Paul E. Bierley and the U.S. Marine Band 

Carnival de São Paulo by James Barnes

James Charles Barnes is an American composer, conductor and educator from Oklahoma. Barnes studied composition and music theory at the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1974, and Master of Music degree in 1975. He studied conducting privately with Zuohuang Chen. Professor Barnes is member of both the history and theory-composition faculties at the University of Kansas, where he teaches orchestration, arranging and composition courses, and wind band history and repertoire courses. At KU, he served as an assistant, and later, as associate director of bands for 27 years.

His numerous publications for concert band and orchestra are extensively performed at Tanglewood, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Barnes has twice received the coveted American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award for outstanding contemporary wind band music. He has been the recipient of numerous ASCAP Awards for composers of serious music, the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music Medal, the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Conductors, along with numerous other honors and grants. He has recorded three commercial compact discs of his music with the world-famous Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. More recently, he completed a CD of his works with the Koninklijke Militaire Kapel (The Queen’s Royal Military Band) in Holland. He has also been commissioned to compose works for all five of the major military bands in Washington, DC.

Mr. Barnes has traveled extensively as a guest composer, conductor, and lecturer throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Bandmasters Association and numerous other professional organizations and societies.

Carnival de São Paulo was one in a series of encores for symphonic bands composed for his residencies with notable Japanese bands, Senzoku Gakuen Symphonic Winds and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. It is a delightfully fun samba that celebrates the Rio de Janeiro Carnaval. It highlights the talents of each section in the band.

Dr. Martin I. Gaines proudly serves as the conductor of the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Band as well as teaching courses in Conducting, Clarinet, and Music Education. Prior to this posting he served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Morningside University and the Associate Director of Bands at McNeese State University. He holds degrees in conducting and music education from the University of Arizona (DMA), Middle Tennessee State University (MM), and the historic VanderCook College of Music (BMEd). 

As an active conductor, clinician, and music producer, Dr. Gaines’ most recent recording project David Maslanka: Music for Wind Ensemble was released in January 2021 on the Toccata Classics Label. He has also served as producer for an album featuring the wind orchestra music of Nigel Clarke. Prior to his academic appointments, he also served as the principal conductor for the Arts Express Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona and as the founding conductor of the UArizona chamber ensemble Solar Winds.

Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Gaines taught middle and high school bands and orchestras for fifteen years in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently in Florida. His bands have consistently received top marks from adjudicators and were often featured in clinic performance, e.g. the Southeastern Band Clinic at Troy University (2010) and the University of North Florida Invitational Festival (2010, 2014). He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2015 for Oakleaf High School (FL). Dr. Gaines holds professional memberships in CBDNA, College Music Society, College Orchestra Directors Association, International Conductor’s Guild, NAfME, National Band Association, Tau Beta Sigma, WASBE, and is a Life Member of Kappa Kappa Psi.