(gentle music) (audience applauding) (bright music) (dramatic music) (quiet thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (quiet thoughtful music) (quiet tense music) (quiet tense music) (quiet dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Thank you so much for being here.

This is the symphonic bands of Florida Gulf Coast University here at the Bower School of Music.

And we are very, very excited, as usual, to be able to perform in front of anyone.

It's a pleasure to have actual people in an audience.

And I would also imagine being in an audience and hearing music live.

So that's always a plus.

This has been for lack of a better term a very interesting year, but what has been so constant throughout is the determination and the kind of creativity that we've come to expect from our profession that has enabled us to be here tonight.

There were a lot of very interesting moments within music education in general, and determining whether or not we're gonna be able to do this thing anymore.

How we were gonna do it?

So we have moved throughout this year, from the start of last academic term to now, we've been moving from, you know, the third floor of a garage outside.

We've done a lot of different things to make, to take precautions for students to be able to perform together.

And we've been doing a lot of things, rehearsals where students have had to be quarantined and just a number of challenges.

So I really want it to just say right up front how very proud I am of these students and how they've been able to endure what they've endured and to still be able to create wonderful music, I think, at a pretty good quality.

So with that, I applaud them for being able to do this tonight.

So, thank you.

The first selection was a powerhouse.

It's called "Burn."

And our objective or the focus of this evening's concert is momentum.

And I've thought about this some time ago as I was doing my selections of literature and there's always a need for momentum and more so now in terms of being able to move from one place to another or from one kind of thing to something that might be new.

And I've used that as a standard throughout.

The literature will be having something to do with forward motion or movement or in some instances, not a lot of fast movement.

So that's where we get our thoughts.

And this is sort of the thoughts and the plans behind the planning of tonight's performance.

Throughout you have your program.

And I'm hoping that you will read the program notes.

I won't talk through all of the different selections like I normally do just for the sake of time and also just for safety purposes and all of that, make sure everything's out and all that good stuff.

But our first was "Burn."

Our next one will be a very popular piece in the wind band idiom called "Polly Oliver" by the great Thomas Root.

(dramatic music) (gentle music) (pensive music) (thoughtful gentle music) (dramatic thoughtful music) (sweet gentle music) (pensive music) (dramatic thoughtful music) (light thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (deep thoughtful music) (thoughtful music) (gentle music) (pensive music) (dramatic music) (thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (gentle thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (pensive music) (sweet gentle music) (audience applauding) (gentle chiming music) (gentle music) (pensive music) (gentle pensive music) (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle pensive music) (mysterious thoughtful music) (gentle mysterious music) (gentle music) (sweet gentle music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle thoughtful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle chiming music) (thoughtful music) (audience applauding) (bright cheerful music) (bright dramatic music) (bright dramatic music) (dark dramatic music) (light bright music) (dramatic music) (bright gentle music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (bright cheerful music) (dramatic music) (quiet gentle music) (light thoughtful music) (light thoughtful music) (gentle thoughtful music) (light gentle music) (gentle thoughtful music) (light gentle music) (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle mysterious music) (dramatic music) (tense dramatic music) (light bright music) (dramatic music) (light bright music) (dramatic music) (gentle music) (dramatic music) (light bright music) (dramatic music) (tense dramatic music) (dramatic music) (light bright music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (audience applauding) Well thank you.

This is our first part of the concert for our Blue Band.

What I decided to divide the bands, this was to, again, of course, to be able to adhere to CDC standards, but it's really worked out pretty well for us to actually be able to perform in here for the longest we have not.

And so, me and my colleague actually thought about that and said, well we have never done it before because we never tried it.

And so we did and we think it's actually working out pretty well.

Again, this is, I would be remiss in saying how proud I am of these students in particular.

And of course also all of the wonderful support that has been given to us.

As we change for the next band, we will have just a brief intermission so that we can make that change.

And then we'll be starting with our next portion of our concert with the Green Band.

This last selection is one of Mackey's popular work.

And it's a fun tune as your program notes states.

It's sort of an anti-march.

So it's mean and nasty.

If you know anything about Xerxes, when you think of him, you don't necessarily think of a cute fuzzy bunny.

You know, I don't think that would be his pet.

So he was just an absolute fiend of a ruler.

And I think this depicts it very well.

So thank you again for this portion and we'll be getting ready for green band.

Here's "Xerxes" by John Mackey.

(dramatic tense music) (dramatic tense music) (dramatic music) (quiet tense music) (quiet mysterious music) (quiet mysterious music) (quiet mysterious music) (quite tense music) (dramatic music) (dramatic suspenseful music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic suspenseful music) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (dramatic music) (mysterious music) (bright dramatic music) (dark tense music) (mysterious music) (mysterious music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dark tense music) (mysterious music) (dramatic music) (mysterious music) (dramatic music) (gentle mysterious music) (dramatic music) (bright music) (mysterious music) (bright mysterious music) (dramatic music) (audience applauding) All right.

Thank you.

This is our Green Band, and we opened up with a wonderful piece by Sean O'Loughlin, rather recent piece.

And Sean O'Loughlin has had a lot of experience, mainly with orchestras and writing film music as your program notes states.

And what's been really great is how he's turned his attention, and in fact, it's becoming sort of a trip where these folks who would normally relegate themselves to these, you know, the darker side of orchestra and strings and film and all of these wonderful things, are really appreciating the qualities and the possibilities of winds and how to orchestrate and make those things sound beautiful.

I actually was introduced to him as a middle school band director.

I spent the majority of my career and when I first started looking at his works I was really shocked to see someone who was, I've heard his film music and everything, which is really quite, it's really creative and elaborate.

That he can scale things down to such a degree.

And I was really pretty taken by that and saw this piece was relatively new, which is staying true to some of his more Irish traits.

And I thought was just a really pretty neat composition from that perspective.

And again, being able to perform some of his works.

As I will with the first band, I'll let the program notes do the talking for me and we'll now move on to our next selection, which is another person who's done some more things with film, Mr. Rossano Galante.

And this is one of his more newer works for band.

And I hope you enjoy it.

(dramatic music) (gentle music) (gentle swelling music) (quiet dramatic music) (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle mysterious music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (gentle thoughtful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle music) (dramatic music) (gentle thoughtful music) (gentle music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle thoughtful music) (dramatic music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle triumphant music) (dramatic music) (gentle music) (sweet gentle music) (dramatic music) (gentle music) (audience applauding) (gentle mournful music) (sweet gentle music) (sweet pensive music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle mournful music) (gentle mournful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle mournful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle mournful music) (sweet gentle music) (gentle mournful music) (gentle triumphant music) (gentle mournful music) (gentle triumphant music) (gentle mournful music) (audience applauding) (gentle upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle happy music) (quiet bright music) (light upbeat music) (bright music) (gentle music) (bright upbeat music) (mournful music) (gentle pensive music) (gentle pensive music) (mournful music) (gentle mournful music) (gentle pensive music) (mournful music) (gentle pensive music) (gentle music) (gentle pensive music) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (gentle pensive music) (bright pensive music) (gentle pensive music) (light playful music) (gentle playful music) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (upbeat music) (audience applauding) Well, thank you for hanging on to the very end here.

We will be concluding actually for the term for this ensemble.

And again, it has been quite a year and again I'm a believer in this and giving my true gracious appreciation of the students and how they've been troopers and following suit with a variety of different things and so many changes.

And we're very, very excited that, well we're hopeful that we will have something that resembles normalcy, something that might look like it starting in the fall.

But it has been just an absolute honor and pleasure to work with them.

For our final selection we will be performing a work by Mr. Ryan Nowlin.

And for this work, it was just, it was actually a commemoration for a new music building not that I'm hinting or anything like that but it's one of those wonderful pieces from his pen that works really well for bands.

It's a lot of fun and it's pretty much a depiction of what they went through to get this new structure up and also the excitement and the motivation of new musicians who are learning and making music.

And we'd like to end our concert on that particular note.

Again, thank you for being here this evening and we'll be ending things with "Synergy Rising" by Mr. Ryan Nowlin.

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