Current Season

The internationally acclaimed United States Coast Guard Band, Adam R. Williamson, conductor, will appear in a joint concert with the Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director, at Woolsey Hall. This will be the fifth time the two bands have shared the stage at Yale. In keeping with this year’s Celebration of Women at Yale, the Yale Concert Band will perform “Dragon Rhyme” by Koussevitsky fellow Chen Yi and “Fanfare Ritmico” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon. The Coast Guard Band will perform “Early Light” (Carolyn Bremer), “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” (Samuel Barber) [MU1 Megan Weikleenget, soprano], “Gallant Seventh March” (J.P. Sousa), and “Armed Forces Medley” (arr. MUC Sean Nelson). The bands will combine for the second half to perform James Barnes’ poignant and tragic “Symphony No. 3,” inspired his personal emotional journey following the death of his infant daughter.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. In 1944, while stationed at Yale University, Captain Glenn Miller and his Army Air Force Band made six live broadcasts from Yale’s Woolsey Hall. Titled “I Sustain the Wings,” these coast-to-coast broadcasts were twenty-five minutes in length and included radio skits, vocal numbers, and swinging music by the military version of Glenn Miller’s popular big band. In the spring of 1994, the Yale Bands joined a national commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing by recreating portions of these broadcasts, complete with radio skits, vocalists, and performances of the Miller classics “In the Mood,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Moonlight Serenade,” and more. As World War II progressed, women stepped in to fill jobs vacated by men called away by the war. This included positions in bands – hundreds of women’s big bands operated during this time, with the most famous, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, traveling to Europe to entertain the troops. Commemorating the year-long celebration of 50 years of women in Yale College and 150 years of women at Yale, this re-enactment includes the debut of “Rosie’s Riveters Big Band,” an all-women band performing an old-fashioned 1940s holiday concert, just as it would have been during WWII.
The Yale Bands presented this re-enactment for veterans in France and England in 1994 as part of the ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing, which resulted in acclaim from journalists and patrons: “transporting, uplifting, riveting, a special gift.” Now, twenty-five years later, the Yale Bands present this program to commemorate three significant landmarks: the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing, the 50th year of women in Yale College, and the 150th year of women at Yale.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director
● “Guignol: Concerto for Bassoon and Small Wind Orchestra” (Stephen Gryc)
The character of Guignol was created at the beginning of the 19th century by a dentist in Lyon, France who attracted customers to his chair by presenting puppet shows. The satirical music of this piece will be performed by Frank Morelli, bassoon, and epitomizes the witty banter and frenetic action of a puppet show with the soloist playing the part of the comic hero.
● “From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific” (Herbert L. Clarke)
This solo cornet piece by American cornet virtuoso Herbert L. Clarke has been described as a “Rondo Caprice.” He recorded it with the Sousa Band. Tonight’s arrangement, adapted for bassoon, will feature Professor Morelli.
● Composed in 1937 for the American Bandmasters Association, Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy” remains one of the composer’s most well-known and regarded works. The six movements inflect the vocal styles and timbres of folk singers in Lincolnshire, England who Grainger spent two years recording across 1905 – 1906. The piece is stunningly lyrical yet at the same time light, airy, and brash.
● Excerpted as the second movement from his “Symphonia Serena,” Paul Hindemith’s “Geschwindmarsch by Beethoven” draws heavily on Beethoven’s “March in F,” also featured in the concert. Though composed for orchestra, this second movement was composed entirely for winds and percussion and will be performed as originally written.
● “Vientos y Tangos” (Michael Gandolfi) is a fantasy of tangos, drawing from early Juan D’arienzo, Astor Piazolla’s “Tango Nuevo,” and Disco/Techno tango. An inventive array of harmonies and instrumental combinations recalls the traditional sound of the tango while exploring the coloristic possibilities of the wind ensemble.
Other music: “Audible Images” (Nancy Galbraith); “The Liberty Bell” (John Philip Sousa)

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Music by Thad Jones (Big Dipper, Ahunk Ahunk, Us), Bob Brookmeyer (Hello and Goodbye), Sonny Rollins, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, and the world premiere of “Living Pictures” by Yale Jazz Ensemble trombonist Michael Gancz MY ‘21. Admission is free and no tickets are required. Public info: 203-432-4111 or www.yale.edu/yaleband.
The Yale Jazz Ensemble (YJE) is a seventeen-piece big band that performs a wide variety of music, from Yale’s Benny Goodman archive to the newest and most progressive jazz compositions. The Ensemble has performed extensively in the United States and internationally at such noted venues as New York’s Village Vanguard and Iridium jazz clubs, and London’s Ronnie Scott’s. The YJE has performed with or opened for The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, the World Saxophone Quartet, Jane Ira Bloom, Jimmy Owens, and Branford Marsalis.

Yale Concert Band and Yale Glee Club Chamber Singers share an afternoon free concert of new music

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Featuring “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber” (Paul Hindemith/arr. Keith Wilson); “Profanation, Symphony No. 2” (Leonard Bernstein); “High Water Rising” (Sally Lamb McCune); “5523 Luminet 1991 PH8” (Therese Brenet); “I Sit Alone in Martin’s Church” (Thomas C. Duffy)
● In his “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber,” Paul Hindemith pays homage to the important German early Romantic composer by adapting some of his music as an orchestral suite. Hindemith adapts each of the extracts from Weber to serve as the theme for one of the movements, beginning the process of transformation that continues throughout each. The band arrangement comes from Keith L. Wilson, director of the Yale Bands from 1946 – 1972 and colleague of Hindemith, who taught at Yale from 1940 – 1953.
● Excerpted from a symphony in three movements, “Profanation” is a deeply expressive piece that offers a powerful testament of Leonard Bernstein’s Hebraic faith. As for the programmatic meaning, the intention is not one of literalness but of emotional quality. Thus, Profanation gives the general sense of the destruction and chaos brought on by the pagan corruption within the priesthood and the people. It is a quick movement full of disturbing metrical dislocations.
● “High Water Rising” (Sally Lamb McCune) was originally inspired by David Shumate’s poem ‘High Water Mark’ (2004), the depiction of a great flood, the water rising to record heights, all manner of things being carried away with the current, and the indelible impression such an event leaves on those who live through it. Though she had been thinking about the piece for some time, McCune began it in 2017, shortly after the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement.
● Jean-Pierre Luminet works as one of the most famous astrophysicists in the world, most well-known for his role in creating the first photo of a black hole as well as his success as a visual artist and musician. The asteroid 5523 Luminet, discovered in 1991, was named after him. Composer Thérèse Brenet wrote “(5523) Luminet 1991 PH8” in his honor, developing the beauty of the Cosmos through music.
● “I Sit Alone in Martin’s Church” seeks to synthesize the revolutionary spirit of two of the most well-known reformers in world history: Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thomas C. Duffy does this by juxtaposing a hymn in the accessible vernacular languages that Luther popularized against grunts and blues harmonies inspired from African-American music of the 19th and 20th centuries born of the anti-Blackness that MLK is so well known for fighting.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Celebratory music on the eve of Yale’s Commencement. Outside on the Old Campus (chairs provided).