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University of Miami
Wind Ensemble
Gary Green
conductor
James Syler
[Blue]
Maryann Kyle, lyric soprano
University of Miami Chorale
Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor
Michael Colgrass
[Dream Dancer]
Lynn Klock, alto saxophone
Thomas Sleeper
[Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble]
Yamilka Silvestrini, piano
James Syler (b. 1961)
James Syler was raised in New York and Florida and educated at Northern Illinois University, the University of Miami and the University of Texas at Austin. He is primarily a self-taught composer with brief studies with Alfred Reed, Karl Konte and Michael Colgrass. Awards include the 1993 National Band Association Competition Award, two grants from the American Music Center in New York, the 1993 Arnold Gabriel Composition Award, numerous guest composer residencies at universities and colleges, an Artist Residency at the Hambidge Center for the Arts in Georgia, and numerous commissions. He currently lives in San Antonio, Texas, and is the owner/editor of Ballerbach Music, a music publishing company.
Mr. Syler writes, “For many years I've wanted to write a large work that would combine my musical and literary interest. So much of twentieth-century fiction presents despairing characters who find their resolution in some form of self-destruction. In writing the text for this work I wanted to create a narrative that would resolve despair in a different way. This free verse lyrical narrative, titled Blue, is in the broadest sense about the loss of love and the process of reconnecting with love.
With a nod to Eliot's ideas I have gone my own way in building a text of despair and resolution through a mysterious transcendent grace. Just as Eliot gave a nod in the epigraph to his 1925 poem The Hollow Men with the line “Mistah Kurtz — he dead' referring to Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel The Heart of Darkness and then went on his way to describe the utter emptiness of modern man. In the end [of the novel], a man so empty, he became evil and devoid of any humanity.
The idea that God may choose to reveal himself at times in a quiet way is related to the intention of the Biblical command to `be still and know that I am God.' The notion of a still point comes from T.S. Eliot's line `The light is still at the still point of the turning world,' from Burnt Norton of Four Quartets (1943). These relationships of stillness, revealing, listening and ultimately knowing are the root foundations of the text.”
The music is in five movements held together through a chiastic descending arc form that further emphasizes the cyclic nature of the text and its epigraph. The music is continuously descending, harmonically and melodically, until it reaches its nadir and begins to ascend as a type of musical chiasmus. The firm establishment of tonality at the end symbolizes the conclusion of the narrative. The music ends where it began. Symphony No. 1 was commissioned by a consortium of 42 universities and college wind ensembles in cooperation with their choral departments. This work was completed in June of 1999.
Blue
“to make an end is to make a beginning”
… T.S. Eliot
by James Syler
I. Impending Blue
“Mistah Kurtz-he dead.”
Libera me, Domine(Deliver me, O Lord)
Libera nos, Domine(Deliver us, O Lord)
When night descends on a turning world
I hear the distant beat
of impending blue.
I sit staring, nervously
stirring coffee into a still point
waiting as one makes way for another.
I close my eyes, slowly
knowing what to expect
a quiet terror approaching out of time.
I inhale you, you consuming color
as you roll over me
a march of impending blue.
What keeps you from turning back?
Or blue from turning black?
Libera me, Domine(Deliver me, O Lord)
Libera nos, Domine(Deliver us, O Lord)
Sipping hot black coffee
on a night of blue pursuit
a stone cold sober
of the cruelest kind.
II. Dark Blue
As gentle rain begins
from ascended blue light
I turn, again.
Quietly fading from any well lit hope
I burn out of view
while my body remains.
What keeps me from turning back?
Or blue from turning black
My heart, my tired hungry heart
slowly descends into a
deep, dark blue.
III. Fading Blue
Hear my cry, Oh God:
listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I
For you have been my refuge,
a strong lover against the foe.
I long to dwell in your tent forever
And take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
(Psalm 61:1-4)
IV. Still Point Blue
The march is gone
the descent is made
and blue has finally turned black.
Thomas?
Is this my end?
The still point dance?
Thomas:Is the light still
Narrator:Thomas? Yes.
Thomas:Make an end in the still point
dance.
Narrator:An end to what?
Thomas:Your beginning is so close.
Narrator:How?
Thomas:Listen.
Narrator:To what?
Thomas:The still small voice, so faint.
Narrator:Where?
Thomas:Hope is that voice undeserved
Narrator:A voice from where?
Thomas:Listen.
Narrator:A voice from where?
Thomas:Listen.
Narrator:Thomas?
Thomas:Listen.
Narrator:There is no voice.
With a barrel staring
into my heart's mind
I inhale the last hue
of still point blue.
I hear nothing and pull
frozen before the snap of flint
I give up my self.
Libera me.(Deliver me)
ex nihilo(out of nothing.)
“Mistah Kurtz - he dead.”
V. True Blue
One redeemed snap.
Sounding sparks without sight
I listen, another and another
like wild fire into brimstone light
growing louder, faster and faster
army of flint from one ransom snap.
Frozen in terror, is this me refining fire?
I feel my heart ascending back to flesh
by no muscle of my own I stand
my eyes are lifted up
to a distant sight.
Luminous river, dotted light.
Sparks of unknown blue
swirling down in liquid fire
I watch it descend as my terror gives way.
Pouring over me, through me
in still born disbelief
the river foams around my neck.
And for once, knowing is not seeing.
I cover my face, embraced by a mantle of true blue.
Good-bye, Thomas.
In a quiet tone
from the red hot altar
of a tired hungry heart
I listen to a still small voice
“The blueness of a wound
cleanseth away evil.” (Proverbs 20:30)
I do not know why
my eyes are opening
to a warm yellow light
from a distant rising Son
that quietly reaches out
with the fire of a new day.
12/2/97 to 4/2/99
Boca Raton
Jo-Michael Scheibe
Jo-Michael Scheibe is Professor and Program Director of Choral Studies at the University of Miami where he conducts the University Chorale, coordinates the choral program, and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Ensembles under his leadership have sung at state, regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), and have sung with various artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Marvis Martin, and Kenny Loggins. Dr. Scheibe is active in the development of contemporary choral literature, music and the commissioning of young composers. He is also in frequent demand nationally and internationally as a clinician, conductor and adjudicator. He was appointed in 1997 as the Music and Artistic Director of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, which serves as the principal chorus for the Florida Orchestra. He was the founder of the Long Beach Master Chorale as well as the founding conductor of the Los Angeles-based semi professional ensemble Abend Kammer Choir. Scheibe has prepared choruses for James Judd, Jahja Ling, Murray Silin, Irwin Hoffman, Paul Salamunovich, Thomas Sanderling, and Alain Lombard. Dr. Scheibe also serves as Director of Music Ministries at Coral Gables Congregational Church serving as the Director of the Chancel Choir and Vocal Ensemble. Walton, Plymouth and Colla Voice Music internationally distribute the Choral Series and his ensembles are recorded on the Albany, Cane and ANS labels.
Maryann Kyle, lyric soprano
Maryann Kyle, a native Mississippian, has sung leading roles with Chattanooga Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, LSU Opera, the Southern Festival Opera, the University of Illinois and the Opera U.S.M. She has toured extensively with the John Wustman Studio in the Songs of Franz Schubert Recital Series, performing throughout the United States. Dr. Kyle appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the Meridian Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Rome Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony, and the Illinois and Louisiana State University Orchestras. She has been engaged on many occasions as a soloist with the Louisiana State University and East Tennessee State University Wind Ensembles. She recently sang Miss Coleman in the world premiere of the opera Good Friday, a role written for Miss Kyle, and continues to perform and record the music of Luigi Zaninelli. Other major opera roles have included Fiordiligi in Mozart's Casi Fan Tutte, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, the Countess and Susannah in Le Nozze di Figaro, Micaela in Carmen, Musetta in La Boheme, the title role in Floyd's Susannah, and the Evil Queen in the world-premiere performances of Zaninielli's Snow White. Miss Kyle was the winner of the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition in 1992, a semi-finalist in the Naumberg Competition in 1994, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Finalist, and a finalist of the Stewart and Friedrich Schorr awards. She is the first recipient of the Baton Rouge Opera Guild Career Grant for 19998-2000. Miss Kyle maintains an active performance schedule and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. She has been named Executive Director of Vocal Traditions in Italian Opera, a program for young singers of the Pontlevoy Opera Festival, held in France in the summer of 2003.
Michael Colgrass (b. 1932)
Michael Colgrass' first musical experiences were as a jazz drummer in the Chicago area (1944-49). In 1954 he graduated from the University of Illinois in music performance and composition, studying percussion with Paul Price and composition with Eugene Weigel, Darius Milhaud (Aspen) and Lukas Foss (Tanglewood). His compositions have been commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, The Boston Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and The Toronto Symphony, among numerous others. He won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Music for “Déjà vu,” commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic, and an Emmy Award in 1982 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the Public Broadcasting System documentary called “Soundings: The Music of Michael Colgrass.” Other prizes include two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, A Fromm Award and Ford Foundation award, First Prize in the Barlow and Sudler International Wind Ensemble Competitions, and the 1988 Jules Leger Prize for New Chamber Music.
Of Dream Dancer, Mr. Colgrass writes, “The musical cultures of the world are opening up as never before. Dream Dancer is a fantasy about a musical instrument that feels attracted to various styles of music, trying to decide which one to play.
One theme is presented at the beginning, which the saxophone uses throughout to exploit the musical styles of three cultures - Mideastern, Asian and American, the latter represented by jazz. These cultures each have their own scale - the Arabic harmonic minor, the Asian pentatonic and the Western diatonic. I imagined the saxophone attracted to all these musical styles and struggling to reconcile them into one kind of music. The almost impossible goal is the central idea of Dream Dancer.
In the early stages of the piece, the saxophone seems satisfied to respond alternately to these musics and enjoy what each has to offer. But soon a sequence occurs where the soloist feels called upon to make a decision between styles, even moving to different locations onstage to interact with groups that represent each of these musics.
As the conflict increases, the soloist no longer knows which style to respond to and howls in frustration. The piece ends with the saxophone trying to merge these divergent styles into one.
I like to think of Dream Dancer as a kind of musical play with the soloist and the other instruments being actors who respond to each other dramatically. I have been developing this idea for some years and have often found that novels, theatre and world events add to my inspiration in shaping musical ideas. The concept of mixing cultures in music is natural to me living in Toronto, perhaps the world's most cosmopolitan city, which offers a rich palette of authentic folk music from around the world.”
Lynn Klock, alto saxophone
Lynn Klock is in demand as a soloist and Selmer clinician throughout the United States and abroad. Of his New York debut in Carnegie's Recital Hall, Peter G. Davis of the New York Times wrote, “Mr. Klock performed in the most skillful fashion….What impressed one most was how expertly Mr. Klock demonstrated the versatility of the instrument, its potential for weaving smooth legato lines, its flexible dynamic range from delicately whispered pianissimo to forceful dramatic statements without any loss of tonal quality, and its virtuoso ability to clearly articulate even the most rapid figures…Lynn Klock assembled a program that had a considerable amount of expressive variety and sheer musical charm.” As a recitalist, Mr. Klock has appeared in England, the British and American Virgin Islands, and Warsaw, Poland, where he has the distinction of being the first saxophonist to be presented on the Warsaw Philharmonic Recital Series. He has premiered works by Pulitzer Price composers Gunther Schuller, John Harbison, Michael Colgrass and Lew Spratlin. Mr. Klock is currently Professor of Saxophone at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the saxophonist and bass clarinetist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the Interlochen Arts Academy, he is a student of Larry Teal, Donald Sinta, Jack Kripl, and William D. Revelli. Mr. Klock has recorded 3 solo CDs with pianist Nadine Shank for Open loop Recordings, and can also be heard on the CRI, Mark, and Orion labels.
Thomas Sleeper (b. 1956)
Thomas Sleeper, conductor of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra, has been hailed as “a conductor of persuasive fluency and fiery conviction,” and enjoys an active professional career as a member of Fermata, a group of composers-performers who presented an annual series of interdisciplinary concerts throughout the state of Texas. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe, Asia and South America. Recent performances of his work include the Shanghai Broadcast Symphony, ShenZhen Symphony Orchestra (China), Ruse State Philharmonic (Bulgaria), and the San Juan Symphony Orchestra (Argentina). His second opera, River of Shifting Sands, was premiered by the Rose City Chamber Orchestra in Portland, Oregon, this past summer. Awards include a Fellowship at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the annual ASCAP awards and various grants for composition. Sleeper has been honored with the Philip Frost Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship at the University of Miami.
Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble was completed in 1986 and premiered in April of 1987. The three movement work, while not programmatic, attempts to capture the general essence of three characters from Goethe's Faust. The first movement deals with Faust, the second (which is scored only for percussion and solo piano) Gretchen, and the finale (a set of sardonic variations on materials gleaned from the first two movements) with Mephistopheles who can not create but only destroy (hence no new material in the third movement). The dramatic relationship between piano and winds evolves over the course of the composition and requires virtuosic skills not only of the soloist, but also the conductor and wind ensemble. The Concerto was revised in 1997 and this is the second performance of that revision.
Mr. Sleeper writes, “My first encounter with Justin Blasdale was doing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 together in 1980. I found in him an inextinguishable energy and passion for the music which was almost supernatural. Soon afterwards, our work turned towards collaboration as composer and performer. From that point forward, all of my works for piano were written with his formidable technique and profound depth of interpretation in mind. Justin, having performed the concerto with Gary Green and the UM Wind Ensemble in 1998, was scheduled to record the work but was taken ill and passed away before that could be accomplished. The concerto and this recording are dedicated to the memory of Justin Blasdale and his unique gifts which he so generously shared with all of us.”
Yamilka Silvestrini, piano
Yamilka Silvestrini, an Amerindian from the island of Cuba, began studying piano at the age of four. She was accepted at the Manuel Saumell Music Conservatory in Havana where she studied with Leyda Rodriguez. At the age of thirteen Ms. Silvestrini won the National Junior Piano Competition and was granted a scholarship to study at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia.
In the United States she studied jazz with Randy Tomasello and classical piano with Lynda Fowler. Ms. Silvestrini recently graduated with honors from the University of Miami where she studied with Rosalina Sackstein. She has performed as a soloist and with various ensembles throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. Also a composer, Ms. Silvestrini is known for her performances of contemporary works for piano.
The University of Miami
Wind Ensemble
The Wind Ensemble consists of the finest wind and percussion players at the University of Miami, and performs for numerous concerts, conferences and festivals throughout the season. Actively commissioning new music for the repertoire, the ensemble has offered world premieres for such composers as Charles Campbell, Clarke McCallister, Michael Colgrass and James Wiley. One of the guiding principles of the Wind Ensemble is contact with leading musical minds of this time, resulting in recent residences by such notable musicians as James Syler, Eric Whitacre and David Maslanka. Former members of the University of Miami Wind Ensemble hold positions in symphony orchestras and military bands and serve as teachers and conductors throughout the world.
Gary D. Green
Gary Green is Professor of Music, Conductor of the University Wind Ensemble, Chairman of Instrumental Performance and Director of Bands at the University of Miami. Appointed conductor of the University of Miami Wind Ensemble in 1993, Mr. Green also teaches graduate courses in conducting and wind band repertoire.
Performances by the University of Miami Wind Ensemble have been heard nationally, indeed internationally, via Albany Records.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Miami, Mr. Green was Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut for 10 years. Prior to that appointment he taught in the public schools of the Pacific Northwest including 10 years at University High School in Spokane, Washington.
While in Connecticut his ensembles received numberous invitations for appearances nationally and internationally.
Performances under the direction of Mr. Green have won the praise of such notable composers as Michael Colgrass, David Maslanka, David Gillingham, William Penn as well as others. Mr. Green is an active guest conductor and clinician and has conducted honor bands and all-state bands in most of the 50 states and has appeared overseas as well.
Professor Green is active n the commissioning of new music for winds and percussion. Recent commissions include works by Carolyn Bremmer, Cindy McTee, David Maslanka, David Gillingham, Michael Colgrass, Eric Whitacre, James Syler, Mark Camphouse and Ken Fuchs, among others. Recent recordings include Uconn Premiers on the Novice label and Urban Requiem, Christina's World, Blue and Ivy Green on Albany Records.
Mr. Green is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the Florida Bandmasters Association.
Wind Ensemble Personnel
Flute/Piccolo
Yoo-Jin Hong
Rachel Kaplan
Kanae Komugi
Terri Mitchell
Angela Lindroth
Amanda Patterson
Erica Peel
Diana Siwiak
Oboe
Youkyung Koh
Jessica Lemes da Silva
Jennifer Manche
Doug Mead
Nancy Marencin
Lisa Nishioka
Jennifer Potochnic
Jeff Smith
Clarinet
Eric Bean
Alejandro Caballero
Steve Castro
Lesley Hastings
Emily Katz
Susie Lalama
Dawn McConkie
Iliana Morejon
Ryan Ng
Jeremy Rogers
Elizabeth Spataro
Bassoon
Erin Brockway
Sam Bergstrom
Matt Corey
Melissa DeBartolomeo
Margarita Gomez
Christina Oppelt
Drew Shafer
Koula Zambounis
Alto Saxophone
Scott Hoefling
Angela Space
Tenor Saxophone
Bradley Burkett
Alan Durst
Baritone Saxophone
Matthew Mulvaney
Steve Ollek
Trumpet
Brian Balmages
Ben Fairfield
Andrei Moiseyev
Christopher O'Farrill
Justin P. Strauss
Joshua Tetreault
C.Brad Whitfield
Horn
Elizabeth Behrman
Amy Bookspan
Jeff Cook
Josephine Giamporcaro
Susan Kirschbaum
Amie Margoles
Lisa Marino
David Peel
Trombone
Wade Eisinger
Peter Fielding
Chris Hallman
Karen Jantsch
Anthony McFarlane
Jason Zimmerman
Bass Trombone
Craig Gosnell
Euphonium
Manuel Camacho
Emily Campbell
Christopher Shull
Tuba
Dino Antonuccio
Nate Rinnert
Percussion
Jesse Abraham
Steve Aho
Jared Bachrach
Nathan Bisco
Deborah Welsh Ibanez
Ross Kleiner
Jennifer Miller
Kristen Weaver
String Bass
Eduardo Bennett
Magdalena Zagorska
Adriana Barbe Vila
Harp
Lee-Fei Chen
Anaïs Mailloux
Piano
Yoonah Oh
Angela Space
Blue recorded October 13, 2000 at St. Richard Catholic Church, Miami, Florida
Dream Dancer and Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble recorded November 26-27, 2001, in Gusman Hall at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.
Engineer: Peter McGrath (Syler); Bruce Leek (Colgrass and Sleeper)
Producers: Margaret Donaghue-Flavin, Lorrie Crochet, and Clifton Smith
Equipment: Ramsa WRS 4412 recording console )modified by John Windt); Sennhyeiser MKH 20 microphones; MIT CVT cables; Millenia Media microphone preams; Lexicon 20/20 AD processor; Panasonic SV 3700 DAT recorders; PS Audio Ultralink II Da converter; ATC SCM 20 monitors; AVI S2000 monoblock amplifiers; Sonic Solutions editing.
Cover Photograph: Sunbeams and Blue Skies © Guy Motil/CORBIS
Cover Design:Bates Miyamoto Design
University of Miami Wind Ensemble
Gary Green, conductor
Thomas Sleeper
Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble
1Faust [9:53]
2Gretchen [7:59]
3Mephistopheles [4:24]
Yamilka Silvestrini, piano
Michael Colgrass
4Dream Dancer [16:49]
Lynn Klock, alto saxophone
James Syler
Blue
5Impending Blue [7:44]
6Dark Blue [3:49]
7Fading Blue [4:25]
8Still Point Blue [5:06]
9True Blue [9:25]
Maryann Kyle, lyric soprano
University of Miami Chorale
Jo-Michael Scheibe, conductor
Total Time = 69:45
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