School of Music
Amount Awarded: $8,137.00
Awarded for 2017-18
Title: David Maslanka’s Commission Consortium, Guest Lecture and CD Recording of Symphony No. 10
The U of Utah Wind ensemble and director Scott Hagen are co-heading a commissioning consortium to have David Maslanka compose his Symphony No. 10 for Wind Ensemble (45 min.). Maslanka has agreed to compose his Symphony No. 10, which we will be premiering in April 2018 in Gardner Hall on the U of Utah Campus. The composer will be in residence and will attend all of the rehearsals, recording sessions and give a guest lecture for students. Maslanka is among the most sought after composers that write for Wind Band medium. In order to pay the composer for his composition, a consortium is being formed by myself and Dr. Stephen Steele, retired Dir. of Bands at Illinois State. The piece will be premiered and recorded by the students in the University of Utah Wind Ensemble.
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Pre-Concert Lecture
Prior to the performance on April 3, 2018 Matthew Maslanka, the co-composer of Symphony No. 10 presented a “Pre-Concert Talk” on the compositional process of Symphony No. 10 and David Maslanka. This “Pre-Concert Talk” was well attended by patrons in person and on live stream. Unfortunately, David Maslanka passed away in August of 2018 and had some of the Symphony but not all of it. He did however leave sketches of music for Matthew to finish his intentions.
Concert Recap
Prior to the performance of Symphony No. 10 on April 3, 2018, the students of the University of Utah Wind Ensemble had nine rehearsals in preparation for the concert. Students not only prepared Symphony No. 10 but also prepared First Light and The Seeker, two other works composed by David Maslanka.
One week prior to the performance, Matthew Maslanka, composer David Maslanka’s son, came to Utah to be our “resident composer” to help the students understand the music from his viewpoint. This performance was unique as there were many junior high and high school students in attendance A few directors from local schools actually made an event out of it for their students, bussing their students from Tooele High/Jr. High, Viewmont High School and Frontier Middle School. This shows not only the impact of David Maslanka’s music at the event, but how his music is alive in the school’s programs as well. The concert was very well attended, with nearly 400 patrons in the audience.
Web Streaming Recap
Faculty member Mike Cottle and Director of the School of Music Miguel Chauqui arranged to have the performance live streamed on the University’s “Live @ Libby” site. To date there have been well over 2,500 views of the performance, and over 250 attendees via the internet the evening of the performance. This was one of the most viewed “Live @ Libby” streams yet at the School of Music. The committee can view the archived link of the live stream using the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTSXzmafSWA
Recording Session Recap
Following the performance on April 3 the wind ensemble and guest composer had three days of recording sessions to produce a Compact Disc. In residence was Mark Morette, president of Mark Custom Recording which is based out of Clarence, New York. This was an invaluable experience for the students to witness and to participate in a recording session of this magnitude. From the recording sessions the University of Utah Wind Ensemble will produce a CD that will be distributed world-wide and on the internet.
WIND AND RHYTHM
Wind and Rhythm is a one-hour weekly radio program devoted to the music of wind bands hosted by Doug Brown that is made available to 17 million people over the airwaves. Wind and Rhythm brought a production crew of video and sound engineers to the world premiere of Symphony No. 10 and will produce a video of the concert from various camera angles. Also included in this video are interviews with myself, the composer and recording engineer. This video is currently in production.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS