Celebration!
December 14th, 2025
Holiday Hallelujah
Holiday Hallelujah is a grade 3 mashup of the Hallelujah Chorus and other familiar winter melodies—complete with horse whinny and all! Melodies quoted include Hallelujah Chorus, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlepeople, Frosty the Snowhuman, Angels We Have Heard on High, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and a hat tip to Sleigh Ride. Happy Holidays! -Erin Keeton-Howard
For a concert about celebration, joy, life, and holidays, I felt this the most appropriate way to start! A nod to almost every carol stuck in our heads during this month as well as the most traditional encore for wind band—Sleigh Ride! I hope you enjoy my little bit of foreshadowing at the start of the concert.
Sheltering Sky
Written for a friend, Sheltering Sky captures the sound scape of nostalgia by incorporating hints of folks songs past. Encapsulating the feeling of something familiar yet unclear, as if through the haze of time, Mackey takes the outline of folk songs and creates an entirely new melody and harmonic structure similar to the works of Percy Grainger. This lends a feeling of familiarity lost through time to the piece that most can relate to around this time of year. I hope you can all think of and remember a dear friend or family member from years’ past and hold them positively in your heart during our performance of Sheltering Sky.
Yiddish Dances (Mvmts 1, 4 & 5)
Yiddish Dances was commissioned by Timothy Reynish for his 60th birthday. It is very much a party piece and brings together two of my abiding musical passions: the symphonic wind ensemble and klezmer — the folk music of the Yiddish speaking people. The piece is about fourteen minutes long and is in five movements, all based on set klezmer dances:
I. Khosidl – a medium tempo 2/4 in which the music moves between satire, sentimentality, and pathos.
IV. Hora – slow 3/8 time with a characteristic rocking rhythm.
V. Freylachs – very fast 2/4 time in which themes from the previous movements are recalled, ending in a riotous “booze-up” for all concerned.
Le Chaim! – to Life!
– Adam Gorb
Snow on Snow
Snow on Snow is a reflection of the beauty of winter and the serene stillness of gently falling snow. Haunting and tender original melodies weave intricately together with Gustav Holst’s In The Bleak Midwinter. With rich harmonic progression and delicate textures, this piece captures the quiet, introspective mood of gazing out at snow-covered landscapes.
Snow on Snow invites listeners to pause and enjoy a calm, peaceful moment in the midst of what can be a chaotic season. In The Bleak Midwinter has always been one of my favorite melodies and the lyric ‘snow on snow on snow’ makes me think of days with no obligations, cozied up on the couch with a cup of hot cocoa and looking out the window at the snowfall. I hope this piece invokes the same feelings for you and your audience. – Megan Vinther
And The Mountains Echoed: Gloria!
This musical work is inspired by the Biblical narrative of the appearance of the angels to the shepherds the field, telling them of the birth of Jesus and praising God saying “Gloria in excess Deo!”.
The opening section is a brilliant fanfare in which trumpets and trombones are echoed by the French horns and saxophones on the “Gloria” motif. In the second section, the French Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High is quoted, interspersed with fragments from the opening section. The opening material returns in a short fugue followed by a reprise of the carol, this time “con tutta forza”, over an obstinate taken from the opening fanfare. A brief restatement of the fanfare closes the piece with a flourish. – Robert Longfield
Toboggan
A toboggan is a long narrow sled used to slide downhill over snow or ice. The music tells the tale of an epic race down the biggest hill in the neighborhood. As the day begins, the first few snowflakes begin to fall, depicted by the solo bells that start the piece. As the flurries continue to fall, the snow builds and the tempo picks up, kids begin pouring out of their homes to prepare for the race. While outside, they witness several snowball fights emerge around the neighborhood. The race begins atop a snow covered hill as the children speed toward the finish line. French horns pave the way through the middle section by illustrating the gorgeous landscape as the racers smoothly slide through the soft snow — a beautiful clear sky on the horizon. As the finish line pops into view, the racers frantically fly through the course, dodging stray snowballs overhead in an exciting finish. – JaRood Hall
La Fiera Asturiana
In my mid 20’s (30+ years ago while still a new high school band teacher), I promised my father, Jorge, that I would someday write a piece for his mother who succumbed to cancer at age 34 (when he was only six years old). Our grandmother, Armanda Martinez Pajares, was a flamenco dancer in Asturias, Spain, and mother to three young children. She had a generous, loving, yet fiery personality, and struggled quite valiantly to stay. The whole family traveled from Spain to Cuba to secure her surgery with a renowned specialist, even with bare financial means.
After finally retiring and devoting my all professional efforts to composing, I decided it was finally time to keep that promise and share part of our family’s story of devotion and resilience through a passionate 3/4 Spanish march with a flamenco flavor and a paso doble spirit: (1) The opening depicts a joyous street festival/flamenco dance scene. (2) M. 53 finds a tiny boy looking dreamily, smiling in wonder at his mom dancing (hence the childlike tone and flourishes of her dress heard in suspended cymbal rolls). (3) M. 85 heralds the desperation of the struggle and anguish at the inevitable. (4) M. 101 Depicts my grandfather’s voice in the melody’s return (this time in the low brass) as he encourages the kids to carry on (little voices respond in the high winds). (5) M. 113 The feeling of triumph symbolizes the children up to be the jovial, loving adults (and wonderful parents themselves) she fought so hard to stay and raise. (6) The last few bars, to me, actually symbolize my own relief in finally keeping this promise. I hope this work can bring joy to both players and audiences, and especially our students. In that way, a grandmother I never met, and who did not get the chance to stay and raise her own children — might still be able to contribute smiles to someone else’s kids. It’s never too late to keep your word. – Michele Fernández