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,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” 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 an all-women big band playing 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 Bassoon Concerto” feat. Frank Morelli, bassoon; “Audible Images” (Nancy Gailbraith); “Fanfare Ritmico” (Jennifer Higden), “Lincolnshire Posy” (Percy Grainger); “Of Our New Day Begun” (Omar Thomas), Ryan Lindveit YSM ‘20, guest conductor; and more.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Yale’s “big band” performs a variety of standard and progressive charts. Program TBA.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. “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); Vientos y Tangos (Michael Gandolfi).