Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director.

• “Afro-American Symphony” by William Grant Still is the first full orchestral symphony composed by an African American and premiered for a US audience by a leading orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. This 4-movement wind band transcription retains the blues progressions, rhythms, and folk elements that reflect Still’s 1930s musical style.

• “New England Triptych” (William Schuman) is based on the choral music of William Billings, an early-American New England composer. Written in three sections, Be Glad Then, America, is noble and majestic; When Jesus Wept is a sensitive framing of the sacred verse; and Chester is the American Revolutionary hymn and marching song that served as the de facto colonial national anthem. David Mills (Director of Bands [emeritus], University of Connecticut), guest conductor.

• “In Between” (Aaron Israel Levin) takes its inspiration from movies about making movies (like Federico Fellini's 8½ or David Lynch's Mulholland Drive), where the lives of fictitious filmmakers “off-set” often become intermingled with the film they’re attempting to make. The title refers to what happens in between “takes,” and the inevitable merging of off- and on-set. (Premiere of wind band version).

• Ron Nelson’s “Medieval Suite” is an homage to three great master choral composers of the Middle Ages: Leonin (middle 12^th century), Perotin (c. 1155-1200), and Machaut (c. 1300-1377).