- 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 clapping] [audience chattering] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [inspirational upbeat classical music] [gentle classical music] [gentle classical music] [gentle classical music] [gentle classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [audience clapping] [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] [light classical music] [light classical music] [light classical music] [light classical music] [light classical music] [light classical music] [light classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [gloomy classical music] [audience clapping] [audience clapping] [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] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] [energetic classical music] - Orchestra: Slava!

[audience clapping] [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] [light classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [inspiring classical music] [audience clapping] [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".

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