- And now it is my distinct privilege
to introduce the 2023 WSMA High School State Honors Band
and their distinguished conductor Peter Haberman.
[audience clapping]
[audience chattering]
[inspirational upbeat classical music]
[gentle classical music]
[energetic classical music]
[audience clapping]
- Welcome, thank you for all being here.
What a privilege it has been for me in the last couple days,
as well as June to be back in the great state of Wisconsin,
helping celebrate all
that's good about music education here.
It's been wonderful to be back
and you have a lot to be proud of here.
I have to, I'm not gonna take a long time,
but the percussionists are moving anyway.
I just wanna say thank you to everybody at WSMA,
Tim and the team and everybody that,
the section leaders that have been helping us.
It's just an amazing system that allows these students
to grow and flourish.
And I'm really, really proud of what they're able to do
in the time we have.
The first piece, "First Suite Fanfare"
by Wisconsin's own Dr. Erika Svanoe.
It's wonderful work to open, kind of based off of ideas
of one of her favorite pieces for wind band.
The next piece we're gonna play is also
by a Wisconsin based composer, Dr. Jack Stamp.
You can read in the program why he wrote the piece,
and we've been exploring some of those reasons
with the students as well.
But ultimately it's a very good piece for this time.
So here's "Prayers".
[light classical music]
[gloomy classical music]
[audience clapping]
I know they've been thanked,
but the teachers that you have here are wonderful.
Private teachers, all of the teachers that are working
with these great students.
When they show up in June,
they don't get the music ahead of time.
So we start sight-reading and two and a half days later
we do a little mini informance
and then we come back for a about 24 hours
of rehearsal minus the sleeping and eating.
And so we're about three and a half days
from the very beginning of when
they read all of these pieces.
And they can only do that
because of all of the musical tools that they come with.
And my quirkiness only goes so far.
So they really have to have those skills
to do all these high level music making things.
The creativity, the expression is just phenomenal.
And they would not have that without these
great teachers and private teachers.
So I just wanted to give my special thanks to them
as well as you parents.
'Cause I'm one, and I know the insurance premiums,
the late nights, the early pickups,
the breakups, the, you know, eye rolls,
all the things that happen, the lessons, all that stuff,
rehearsals, practice, you name it.
And I just thank you because these students get to shine
and find a new level of performance as a group
because of your work as well.
So thank you for that.
The next piece we're about to play
for you is by Leonard Bernstein.
He's not here today. [audience laughing]
Leonard Bernstein wrote this piece.
It's a fun parody, it's cheeky,
it's cute, it's precious, it's difficult.
It's called "Slava!"
He wrote it for his friend
and that was his friend's nickname.
Here is Bernstein's "Slava!"
[audience chattering]
[mobile phone ringing]
[audience chattering]
[energetic classical music]
- Orchestra: Slava!
[audience clapping]
Our next piece is a world premiere.
At the informance we had a little hint
of the world premiere,
but this is the real world premiere.
The great WSMA and Concordia College
in Moorhead, Minnesota, where I teach,
collaborated combined to collaborate
to have this composition written for this moment.
I have done pieces by Kelijah Dunton
and really enjoy his writing
and thought this would be great.
And then a friend of mine last December
was also commissioning Kelijah
and said, "You know, [indistinct] wants to write
a more difficult piece kind of on the same idea."
He's like, "Well, I want that piece."
So that's how this all started.
And by May, we had a piece.
June, we read it, and today we get to play it for you.
There's a wonderful program note about the inspiration
of the leadership of Nelson Mandela
and why he wrote this piece.
I'd love for you to read that.
It just tells you why and why this is so important.
And I loved that idea
because things can be a mess right now.
But the beautiful thing is this is what's our future
and this is how we move forward and have great moving paths.
So hope you enjoy Kelijah Dunton's "Moving Paths".
[audience chattering]
[light classical music]
[inspiring classical music]
[audience clapping]
[audience chattering]
The last piece we'll play for you is "Aurora Awakes"
by John Mackey.
Aurora Borealis, the goddess of the color and the light.
The piece itself moves from
dark to light,
and you'll hear all these beautiful moments
of colors and streams, but it starts lonely
and dark, right, in lost isolation, if you will.
Before I play the last piece,
I want to thank the most important group,
and that's these fine students behind me.
They have been wonderful examples of young people.
They have worked very hard, they've been very polite.
I know it's hard to believe, but it's true.
They've been polite when they're not around you,
it's amazing, kind, they ask great questions.
We've had an opportunity to work with many composers.
They've had wonderful questions to ask about their process
and creativity and inspiration,
and we've had a really wonderful collaboration
with all parts of this music making
and why we're making it and the goal for the sound.
And they've been with me every step of the way,
and I just wanted to thank them for all their hard work.
It's been wonderful and I will miss you all,
and it's been a great experience to have
and to see you a second time to come back
after leaving you in June.
So thank you very much.
Can you help me thank them for all
of their hard work one more time?
[audience clapping]
Here's "Aurora Awakes".
[audience chattering]
[somber classical music]
[light airy classical music]
[uplifting classical music]
[audience clapping]
[audience cheering]