Visual & Performing Arts

Othello by Alfred Reed 

Composer, arranger, conductor and editor, Alfred Reed’s life was intertwined with music almost from birth in New York City on January 25th, 1921. His parents loved good music and made it part of their daily lives; as a result, he was well acquainted with most of the standard symphonic and operatic repertoire while Mr. Reed was still in elementary school.

Beginning formal music training at the age of ten as a trumpet player, he was already playing professionally while still in high school, and shortly thereafter began the serious study of harmony and counterpoint as a prelude to composition, which had come to exercise a stronger hold on his interest and ambition than playing. After three years at the Radio Workshop in New York, he spent the next three in service during World War II, where, as a member of an Air Force Band, he became deeply interested in the concert band and its music. Following his release, he enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music to study under Vittorio Giannini, and from there, in 1948, became a staff composer and arranger with NBC and subsequently, with ABC, where he wrote and arranged music for radio, television, record albums and films. 

In 1953, Alfred Reed resumed his academic work (which had been interrupted by his leaving Juilliard for NBC) and became conductor of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra while at Baylor University in Texas. His Master's thesis was the Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra which was to win the Luria Prize. Two years later, in 1955, he accepted the post of editor in a major music publishing firm, and for the next 11 years became deeply concerned with the problems of educational music at all levels of performance. In 1966 he left this position to join the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Miami, where he developed the first four-year Music Industry program, and in 1980, following the retirement of his old friend and colleague, Dr. Frederick Fennell, was appointed music director and conductor of the University of Miami Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

With over 200 published works in all media, many of which have been on required performance lists for over 25 years, Dr. Reed is one of the nation’s most prolific and frequently performed composers. In addition to winning the Luria Prize in 1959, he has been awarded over 60 commissions. His work as a guest conductor has taken him to 49 states, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. He was the first “foreign” conductor to be invited to conduct and record with the world-famous Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and is today the most frequently performed foreign composer in Japan. 

Dr. Reed left New York for Miami, Florida, in 1960, where he made his home until his death on September 16, 2005. 

About Othello: 

The works of William Shakespeare, for nearly 500 years, undoubtedly have inspired more musical compositions than those of any other writer in the English language. Incidental music for the plays on stage, in film, and on television; settings of the songs, sonnets, and excerpts from the dramatic texts; overtures, tone poems, suites, and operas fashioned from the plays (sometimes just from the basic ideas or themes) and so on ... the list is endless, and new works appear almost yearly. Composers of every nationality, style and temperament have found themselves fascinated at one period of another with the wealth of creative material in the Bard’s pages. And there is every reason to believe that this will continue. 

Othello, A Symphonic Portrait for Wind Ensemble in Five Scenes (after Shakespeare), is a concert suite. Each movement characterizes musically the mood or feelings generated by a scene from the play and is prefaced by a quotation from the text itself. 

The first movement, Prelude (Venice), establishes at once the tense, military atmosphere that pervades so much of the play, and reveals itself in Othello’s statement to the Duke of Venice in Act I, Scene III: “The tyrant custom hath made the flinty and steel couch of war my thrice-driven bed...” The second movement, Aubade (Cyprus), is a morning song, or serenade, played by itinerant musicians under Othello and Desdemona’s window (Act III, Scene I), titled, appropriately, “Good morning, General.” The third, Othello and Desdemona, portrays the deep feeling between them, passionate yet tender, and is prefaced by a quotation from Othello’s famous speech to the Venetian Senate in Act I, telling of his wooing her: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed, and I loved her that she did pity them.” The fourth movement, Entrance of the Court, is an amalgam of Shakespeare’s Act IV, Scene I, and Boito’s handling of essentially the same action in his libretto for Verdi’s opera. Following the terrible scene in which Othello, driver half-mad with rage and jealousy, first upbraids, then strikes Desdemona in full view of the court come to hail him as hero, Iago mocks, “Behold the Lion of Venice!” The fifth and final movement, The Death of Desdemona, Epilogue, is a summation of the music and final resolution of the tensions heretofore generated, just as Act V, Scene II, sums up the play and resolves all the wrenching apart of human nature that has preceded it. The music here carries as its quotation Othello’s famous last lines, spoken to the dead body of Desdemona, “I kissed thee ere I killed thee. No way but this....” 

In February 1974, Dr. Delmar E. Solem, of the University of Miami Ring Theatre, mounted a new production of Othello as part of its Great Plays series, and invited the composer to write incidental music for it. Originally scored for 16 brasses and 3 percussion, the music represented 14 sequences, ranging from extensive textures such as preludes, entr’actes and curtains down to short fanfares. The present score utilizes some portions of this music in a completely re-composed setting, greatly expanded as to the textures and forms, for the full resources of the modern, integrated Wind Ensemble. 

This work is also the fourth in the series of commissions extended by Ithaca College in memory of Walter Beeler and known as the Walter Beeler Memorial Band Series. It was first performed at Ithaca on October 12, 1977, by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble of Ithaca College under the direction of the composer. 

-Alfred Reed  

I Can’t Repair Something I Don’t Know The Shape Of by Brooks Clarke 

The infamous Roman emperor Nero has been the subject of documentaries, articles, and numerous colloquial examples of depravity, negativity, tyranny, debauchery, etc. Roman historians proceeded to cast him in this way despite his original celebration on his rise to emperor.

After the murder of his second wife, Poppaea Sabina, Nero was on his tour of Greece when he encountered a young slave boy that became known in history as Sporus. Infatuated with the resemblance of the young Sporus to his former beloved, Nero castrated him, gave him her clothes, and married her; even referring to her as “Poppaea” and treating her as empress throughout the rest of his life. It is said that Nero spent a great deal of time “creating” Sporus, as Nero often saw himself as an artist as well as an emperor.

Little is known of Sporus; even her actual given name before she was forcibly transitioned into Poppaea Sabina is lost to time. Ancient historians use this, among other examples, as evidence of Nero’s depravity. This work does not examine Nero or Sporus, but of obsession, death, and love; in all of its faults.  

Sporus lived the rest of her life as an empress and as a roman woman, she was the opposite of Nero in every way. What if they were in love? What if Sporus ended up wanting this? Additionally, what was to become of her if she never met Nero? Could she have been Emperor, or just another footnote in history? What does this act by Nero say about love as a whole? Are we supposed to go crazy? Is it love if I can live without them or if they are an object to me? What about missing someone to the extent that you take another life and mold it and create it in their memory to convince yourself that they aren’t dead? Or, that you are so much more powerful that you can corrupt life into reversing death itself by erasing another, an apotheosis of power only available to the emperor of Rome themself.

There are stories that are revered about what one sacrifices for love. Why does one need the stories if one already knows the feeling? To love someone is a catastrophe, but it is never as painful as it is to not know when they return to you, or to experience the limbo of losing them forever. Why put ourselves through this; all of this? Is it worth another life? 

-Brooks Clarke 

Medusa by Jocelyn Hagen 

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). She is a pioneer in the field of composition, pushing the expectations of musicians and audiences with large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, and opera. Her first forays into composition were via songwriting, still very evident in her work. The majority of her compositions are for the voice: solo, chamber, and choral. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and texturally complex, rich in color and deeply heartfelt.

In 2019 she celebrated the premiere of her multimedia symphony The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, which includes video projections created by a team of visual artists, highlighting da Vinci’s spectacular drawings, inventions, and texts. The work has already been performed over fifty times across the United States, including Canada, Sweden, Croatia, and England.  Hagen describes her process of composing for choir, orchestra and film simultaneously in a Tedx Talk given at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, available on YouTube. Her dance opera collaboration with choreographer Penelope Freeh, Test Pilot, received the 2017 American Prize in the musical theater/opera division as well as a Sage Award for “Outstanding Design.” The panel declared the work “a tour de force of originality.” Her second opera The Song Poet, the first Hmong story brought to the operatic stage, was commissioned and premiered by Minnesota Opera in 2023, selling out its run six months prior to the premiere date. 

As a fierce advocate for gender equality and inclusivity, Hagen’s Compose Like A Girl initiative amplifies female-identifying composers, helps conductors diversify their concerts, and works toward more equality in music programming and commissioning. Through her podcast, she engages in discussions with renowned composers like Reena Esmail, Chen Yi, and Rosephanye Powell. These conversations delve into the dynamics of opportunity, power, and privilege within the arts, advocating for female-identifying composers to embrace their unique artistic expression with confidence. The initiative also provides mentorship to emerging women composers and highlights excellent work through her newly developed Compose Like A Girl Choral Series.  

In 2013 Hagen released an EP entitled MASHUP, in which she performs Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” while singing Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team.” She is also one half of the band Nation, an a cappella duo with composer/performer Timothy C. Takach, and together they perform and serve as clinicians for choirs from all over the world. 

Hagen’s commissions include Voces8, Conspirare, the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, the International Federation of Choral Music, the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut and Texas, the North Dakota Music Teachers Association, Cantus, the Boston Brass, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band, among many others. Her work is independently published through JH Music, as well as through Graphite Publishing, G. Schirmer, ECS Publishing, Fred Bock Music Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Boosey and Hawkes. 

About Medusa: 

I've always been fascinated with Medusa, and I know I'm not alone. As a mythological creature and goddess, she evokes so many different emotions: terror, anger, vengeance, desire. She is powerful, viciously wild, and misunderstood. In researching the history of her mythology, I learned why her story remains so captivating.

Medusa was more than a monster. She held power as both a Goddess of Death and Goddess of Life. After her murder, the blood from the left side of her body was deadly poisonous, and the blood of her right side was used to cure and raise the dead. The establishment of the Greek patriarchal world (approximately 8000 to 3000 BC) shifted culture dramatically, and the suppression of women led to the demonization of goddesses.

Throughout the centuries, artists like me have found inspiration in her myth, shown as the manifestation of evil, or the danger of uncontrolled female powers, and eventually as a victim. In the Romantic era, many artists believed she represented "the ecstatic discord between pain and pleasure, beauty and horror, and divinely forbidden sexuality.

Today, Medusa steps on this stage representing the untold stories of many women. She is powerful and full of rage, and she commands your attention. Like so many powerful women, the people surrounding her will tell lies and spread falsehoods in an effort to diminish her power. Sher is terrifying and beautiful – but did she seduce Poseidon? Or was she a victim of his desire for her? If we want to know the truth, we will have to listen to her.

The members of the wind ensemble play an important theatrical role in this work. They represent our culture at its worst and at its best. They begin by talking behind Medusa's back, reveling in their own conjecture. Slowly, they begin to listen. After they listen, they begin to start a dialogue. Dialogue leads to understanding. Understanding leads to acceptance. By the end, they are allies.

Women are still held to so many double standards, and we cannot control how the world sees us. All over the world, over and over again, we are silenced. We continue to fight for our freedoms. Many of us are angry. Does that make us monsters? 

-Jocelyn Hagen 

Kathryn Skemp Moran teaches musical theater voice and serves as the UWL musical theater music director, conducting the pit orchestras and preparing the singers for production.

As a solo performer, Kathryn most recently appeared as Janine in A Handmaid's Tale with the Boston Lyric Opera. Other roles at BLO include Frasquita in Carmen, Bubikopf in The Emporer of Atlantis,  and Flora in The Turn of the Screw. She performed with Madison Opera singing Laurie in Copland’s The Tender Land, and has been featured with Glimmerglass Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Aspen Music Festival, and the Florida Orchestra. Under the baton of Keith Lockhart, she appeared with the Boston Pops on their Holiday Tour and with Faith Prince and Alice Ripley in The Best of Sondheim, with the Utah Symphony. She also performed off-broadway in The New Group's The Music Teacher.

Kathryn Skemp Moran earned a Bachelor of Music and Musical Theater degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Music degree from Boston University. 

Dr. Rebekah Fowler is an Associate Professor of English at UWL with specialization in Medieval Studies, which she applies to reading and researching Arthurian literature, Chaucer, medieval mysticism, and virtue ethics. With a secondary specialization in Early Modern literature, she also has the good fortune to read and teach Shakespeare! This is her fifteenth year at UWL and her first appearance on a UWL stage as a performer, though she is well practiced at writing things and reading in front of an audience. 

Brooks Clarke (1991) is a guitarist, composer, and music educator from Jacksonville, Florida. A prolific and dynamic performer, Brooks is well known for the variety of styles and instruments he can be seen performing in musical pits throughout the United States.

Brooks is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, earning a M.M. in Composition with a minor in Music Theory, with a concentration in Studies in Contemporary Music. As a music theorist, his work is focused on the analysis of works of composed theatre, and the music of Mark Applebaum, Jani Christou, and Pierre Boulez. His research and lectures have been presented at the ROCC at the University of North Georgia, Darmstäder Ferienkurse, Divertimento Ensemble Young Composers Festival, and the Nief/Norf Festival of New Music.

Brooks a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Jacksonville University and holds a B.M. in Composition. At Jacksonville University, he was also a recipient of the 2017 Delius Composition Award and the 2017 Jacksonville University College of Fine Arts Deans Interdisciplinary Award. Brooks was a quarterfinalist for the 2019 and 2020 GRAMMY Award for Music Education, and the FMEA Enrollment Award.

As a performer, Brooks has performed with Pamela Z, Tony Steve, the Nick Brennan Band, the Noctambulant, Mark Zaleski, and Anthony Coleman. Brooks toured nationally as Guitar 1 on the 2nd national tour of TINA: The Tina Turner Musical. Brooks has contributed to multiple upcoming Off Broadway musicals and tours.

Brooks has had music premiered various festivals including the Longy School of Music Divergent Studio Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Charlotte New Music Festival, The Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and The São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival. Other compositions have been performed by the Arizona Wind Symphony, the Jacksonville University Orchestra, and the MOCA Jacksonville Silent Film Collective.

Brooks has collaborated with ensembles such as Hypercube, loadbang, Transient Canvas, the MIVOS Quartet, Heartland Marimba, and the Julius Quartet. Awards that Brooks has won for his compositions include Mu Phi Epsilon Awards for Musicological Research, the Ellen Jane Lorenz Porter Grant for Graduate Studies, the Original Composition Award Division II, National Finalist for the American Prize in Chamber Music Composition, Short-List for Red Jasper Award, NEC NOVA Fellowship, NEC CPP Teaching Fellowship, and the META Fellowship as part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Brooks studied music theory and composition with Jianjun He, Tony Steve, Bob Moore, Katarina Miljkovic, and Stratis Minakakis. Brooks has studied guitar with James Hogan, Gary Starling, and Tony Smotherman. 

Brooks was a member of the Jacksonville based black metal group, The Noctambulant, and is featured on the albums "Advocatis Diaboli", as well as The Cold and Formless Deep.” Brooks is a proud member of Mu Phi Epsilon, and Brooks proudly plays on and endorses Curt Mangan guitar and bass strings. 

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.

Dashon Burton

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has built a vibrant career, performing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Burton’s 2024/25 season began with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, led by Gustavo Dudamel. Highlights of the season included returns to the Milwaukee Symphony for his second season as Artist-in-Residence, featuring Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and later Bach’s Ich habe genug, both conducted by Ken-David Masur. He made his Boston Symphony subscription debut with Michael Tilson Thomas’ Walt Whitman Songs, conducted by Teddy Abrams, and his Toronto Symphony debut in Mozart’s Requiem under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. Additional performances included Brahms/Glanert’s Serious Songs and Mozart’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève; Mozart’s Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård; and Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony, led by Masaaki Suzuki.

During the 2023/24 season, Burton collaborated frequently with Michael Tilson Thomas, including performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. He also sang Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with both the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed the title role in Sweeney Todd at Vanderbilt University. With the Cleveland Orchestra, he appeared in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As the Milwaukee Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence, Burton joined Ken-David Masur for three subscription weeks.

A multiple award-winning artist, Burton earned his second Grammy Award in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his role in Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). He won his first Grammy in 2013 as an original member of the groundbreaking ensemble Roomful of Teeth for their debut album of new commissions. In 2024, he earned his third Grammy for their latest recording, Rough Magic, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.

Burton’s discography also includes Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis); the Grammy-nominated recording of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos); Holocaust, 1944 by Lori Laitman (Acis); and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals received critical acclaim, with The New York Times calling it “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”

Burton holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is currently an assistant professor of voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Dr. Lindsay Garritson

Dr. Lindsay Garritson has performed throughout the United States and abroad since the age of four. She has appeared on stages such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Place des Arts (Montreal), and has been featured as soloist with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica Barra Mansa (Brazil), the Yale Philharmonic Orchestra, and the European Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

An award-winning performer, Lindsay has received top prizes at the Montreal International Piano Competition, USASU Bösendorfer International Piano Competition, and the Mozarteum International Chopin Competition (Salzburg). In addition, she has competed in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and has been a finalist for the German Piano Award in Frankfurt, Germany. This past season, Lindsay completed a successful five-city solo recital tour in China and was also named a Centennial Medalist of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

An avid chamber musician, Lindsay has performed with Ani Kavafian, Elmar Oliveira, Carter Brey, Ettore Causa, and Ian Rosenbaum, among many others. She is currently a member of the Bergonzi Piano Trio with violinist Scott Flavin and cellist Ross Harbaugh, and they have released an album featuring Beethoven and Brahms trios. From 2018-2025, she was a collaborative pianist for the prestigious Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival.

Lindsay is a passionate advocate for new music, and her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut featured the world premiere of Carl Vine's Piano Sonata No. 4, a work written for her. Concurrently, her second solo album titled “Aphorisms: Piano Music of Carl Vine” was released. She has also recorded the complete works for flute and piano by Samuel Zyman (Albany Records), and premiered works by composers David Ludwig, Nick Omiccioli, and Polina Nazaykinskaya.

Lindsay holds degrees from Principia College (B.A. in Music), Yale School of Music (M.M. and Artist Diploma), and the University of Miami (D.M.A.). Her piano teachers include Santiago Rodriguez, Boris Berman, Luiz de Moura Castro, Choong-Mo Kang, Zena Ilyashov, Emilio Del Rosario, the late Jane Allen, and Jennifer Lim Judd. Lindsay is currently a visiting assistant professor of piano at the University of Central Florida.

Sonata for Oboe and Piano in F minor, op. 3, no. 1 by Nathan Olson (b. 2005)
I. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro non trappo
Nathan Olson, digital media

Arabesque no. 1 from Deux Arabesques, L. 66 by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Toccata Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Joseph Louis, piano

Oboe Concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
I. Rondo Pastorale
II. Minuet and Musette
Sasha Forbes, oboe
Nathan Olson, piano

The Lads in Their Hundreds by George Butterworth (1885-1916)
Après un rêve by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Colin Miller, baritone
Joseph Louis, piano

Trumpet Concerto by Alexander Arutunian (1920-2012)
Neil Clyne, trumpet
Sarah Tellier, piano

“Gefrorne Tränen” from Winterreise, D. 911 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
“I’m Allergic to Cats” from The Theory of Relativity by Neil Bartram (b. 1993)
Joshua Smith, bass
Joseph Louis, piano

Fantaisie by Georges Hüe (1858-1948)
Brookelyn Hohl, flute
Mary Tollefson, piano

Si mes vers avaient des ailes by Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
“I Just Want to Be a Star” from Nunsense by Dan Goggin (b. 1943)
Danica Lee, soprano
Mary Tollefson, piano