Listed in reverse chronological order. Does not include regular features like "The President's Corner" or the WASBE Newsletter.
Richard K. Hansen of St. Cloud, MN, USA won a one year free membership to WASBE in the contest held in conjunction with the WASBE 2003 Conference Survey. Richard has generously designated that the prize should go to a new WASBE member in a developing country. Some fifty members responded to the survey, providing the planners of the WASBE 2005 Conference with some very valuable information. Many thanks to all who participated in the survey and to Richard for his generosity.
WASBE Scholarship recepient Susan Campos from Costa Rica travelled to Canford, UK to study this past August and writes about her "mind opening" experience. The article is available in both English and Spanish/Español.
WASBE is pleased to announce the availabliity of one conducting scholarship for the sixth annual "Wind Conductors' Symposium" at Southeast Missouri State University on the 13th and 14th of February 2004. This year's clinicians are Allan McMurray (University of Colorado), James Cochran (Shattinger Music), and Robert M. Gifford (Southeast Missouri State University). The scholarship, which is available to a young conductor from any country except the United States, includes registration fees, free housing and the opportunity to spend one week (9-14 February 2004) at the University working with Dr. Gifford and the Southeast Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
[The November 30 deadline for application has passed.]
On October 16, the University of Calgary (Canada) paid tribute to the late Dr. Vondis Miller, President of WASBE from 1989–1991 and the founder of both the U of Calgary Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble in a concert that kicked off the 22nd season for both groups. In tribute, the Symphonic Band performed from chaos to the birth of a dancing star, a composition that Vondis asked Calgary composer Allan Bell to write as part of a commissioning project, which premièred 20 years ago this month. Since then, the work has become a staple in the Canadian wind band repertoire, being performed frequently by university, community, and high school groups. Both composer Bell and current Wind Ensemble director Dr. Glenn Price spoke in tribute to Vondis.
We also have these articles from September in tribute to Vondis:
The Schwob School of Music 7th Annual Conductor’s Workshop will be held at Columbus State University River Center for the Performing Arts, Columbus, Georgia on the 21st and 22nd of November 2003. Clinicians this year are Craig Kirchhoff, Gary Hill, and Robert W. Rumbelow. The workshop is open to conductors of all levels. For information contact:
Eric Purser
2003 Conductors Workshop
Schwob School of Music
Columbia State University
4225 University Avenue
Columbus, GA 31907-5645 USA
Tel: +1 / 706 / 649-7225
Email: purser_eric @ colstate.edu
The International Seminar of Bands Yamaha - Bansbach Costa Rica 2003 will be held in the city of San José in the School of Musical Arts, University of Costa Rica October 15-17, 2003.
The International Seminar of Bands Yamaha - Bansbach, Costa Rica 2003, strives to promote the unification and artistic musical development of the Central American bands, its directors and musicians.
Principal presenters will be Dr. John Stanley (USA), Larry Clark (Carl Fischer Publishers, USA), and Rosa Briceña (Venezuela).
The seminar will provide participants with training that will result in a discriminating ability to perform the works at a higher musical and technical level and to select the maximum quality wind band literature. More than 30 international works will be performed with opportunity to discuss the merits of each.
The three-day event further aims to create opportunities for the new Costa Rican and international works to be performed as well as a venue for both established and developing wind ensembles to be heard. Exhibits of national and international music materials by publishers, universities, instrument and supply manufacturers. Lastly, participants will be familiar with the aims, structure and importance of WASBE as a result of a multi-media presentation and the distribution of membership materials.
Since the 19th century, the bands have been the main cultural and musical foundation of the Central American communities and, now that we begin a new millennium, the Seminar desires to be a means through which cooperation among these artistic institutions is realized, and strengthen the communities they represent.
Further information may be obtained (in Spanish):
http://www.bansbach-cr.com/seminarios.htm
The International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days is one of the most significant festivals for contemporary music worldwide. This year’s festival, being held in Ljubljana, Slovenia from the 30th of September to the 3rd of October, included a concert of wind band music performed by the Slovenian Armed Forces Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Milivoj Šurbek, in the Linhard Hall on 30 September 2003. The four compositions to performed were: Concerto grosso by André Laporte (Belgium), Mount Carmel: Fire of the Living God by Jesse Ayers (USA), Flash by WASBE member Richard Heller (Austria/Germany), and Concerto for Piano and Winds by Edward Gregson (Great Britain) with Nina Mole as soloist.
The Heart of It All by WASBE member Thomas P. Rohrer is one of seven fanfares selected for performance by the Dallas Wind Symphony during its 2003-2004 season. Cimarron Music & Productions of Dallas will publish the seven fanfares as part of a two-volume set, including the fanfares from the 2002-2003 season.
The results from our 2003 Schools Network Repertoire Survey are now posted on the WSN portion of this web site. The results are available to everyone (not just WASBE members), and are sorted by grade, title, and composer. Thanks to all those who submitted repertoire. You can still download the 2001 and 2002 surveys from the same part of the web site.
At the General Meeting on Saturday, July 5, we had an excellent presentation from the local organising committee of the 12th WASBE Conference in Singapore. They already have much in place, including a web site: www.wasbe2005.com.
It was also announced that the 13th WASBE Conference (in 2007) has been awarded to Killarney, Ireland. Congratulations to all.
At the second General Meeting at the recent WASBE Conference, it was announced that a new Publications Model was going to be implemented. This model should make it easier for submitters and publishers alike. If you want to submit material to be published in the WASBE Newsletter and/or on the WASBE Web Site and/or in an e-mailout to members or even the WASBE Journal, "send it to Leon." That's right, just send your materials to our Executive Director Leon Bly. As long as it meets our publications policies, Leon will forward it to an appropriate member of our new Editorial Panel. At that point, it will be decided where the item should be published (it could be published in more than one place).
This new structure will eliminate duplication of effort (e.g., the same article being edited more than once for more than one publication) and will help provide more current information to all of our publications. Also, special thanks to Keith Kinder (Canada) for volunteering to join our Editorial Panel.
Note: Items that are for the Journal only can still go directly to William Berz, but if you are unsure, send it to Leon and he will send it to Bill as appropriate.
On Thursday, May 22, 2003 at its annual Honors and Awards presentation, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) presented an award of appreciation to the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) for its service to American music and composers. In making the award, ASCAP noted "that since 1941 CBDNA has made the wind band a performance medium of excellence, worthy of the best players, the finest conductors, and led in the development of a great repertory created by our most gifted composers." Michael Haithcock and Gary Hill represented CBDNA at the presentation.
WASBE extends a hearty "bravo" to CBDNA for this well-deserved honour
Andy McMahan, founder and operator of the BandChat website, reports that the band-chat.org web site is down. "It will probably be down until I have time to repair it (requires hardware work), which will most likely be during the summer of this year. The mailing list, however, is housed on another computer and will not be affected." If you wish to subscribe to the BandChat mailing list, you can still do so by sending an e-mail message to listserv@band-chat.org with the following line in the body of the e-mail message:
subscribe bandchat firstname lastname
Substitute your own first name and last name, of course! Also, do not put in comments; these messages are automatically processed by the server, so extraneous information may cause an error.
If you wish to unsubscribe, send a message to the same e-mail address with "unsubscribe BandChat" as the body of the message.
[The site came back online in mid-2003.]
The first bi-annual ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize, named for living legend Frederick Fennell, ASCAP member and founder of the CBDNA, was established earlier this year to encourage gifted American composers to create new works for Concert Band. The winning work in this competition was selected via a juried national competition, which attracted submissions from eligible composers (between the ages of 18 and 30) from across the United States. The $5000 Prize was awarded to Michael Djupstrom, age 22, of Ann Arbor, Michigan for Homages, an 11-minute work for large wind ensemble. Mr. Djupstroms winning work will be performed March 28, 2003 at the National CBDNA Conference at the University of Minnesota.
Full Story (ASCAP/CBDNA Press Release)
©2003 WASBE