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#225– November 13, 2023 https://youtu.be/zlEIbkchGrw?si=_bEuvD6GLdVdX_7N Variations for Wind Band by British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is our Composition of the Week. We also commemorate this famous version scored for large wind ensemble in memory of Donald Hunsberger, who passed away on Sunday, November 5, 2023, at the age of 91. His immense contribution to the wind ensemble world is invaluable. Among the large number of works orchestrated and arranged for this medium, the Vaughan Williams’ Variations are emblematic. The version heard here is the first studio recording made by Don Hunsberger and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, which he conducted from 1965 [...]

#220– October 09, 2023 https://on.soundcloud.com/CWypu On the occasion of the upcoming 80th birthday of English composer, scholar and writer Robin Holloway, Entrance: Carousing: Embarkation, is our Composition of the Week. Entrance:Carousing:Embarkation was premiered on May 11, 1992 at the Opperman Music Hall, Tallahassee, Florida, United States, by the Florida State University Wind Orchestra under James Croft. Finished in 1990, the work is structured in three sections played without interruption. It has a duration of around 22’ minutes and it is scored for: 4(picc).2. EHrn. 8.Ebcl.altocl.2bcl.dbcl.ssax(sopraninosax).asax(ssax).tsax. barsax.2.dbn /4.4.4.2euph.2/ timp-percussion (6) double bass The music is on rental at Boosey and Hawkes “This [...]

#186– February 13, 2023 https://youtu.be/yTo6InIQS8Y Portraits of Composers, Suite Nr. 1 by Ukrainian composer, conductor, accordionist, and contemporary music advocate Volodymyr Runchak is our Composition of the Week. Portraits of Composers was first written as a suite for accordion between 1979 and 1988. The band version was finalized in 2018, and premiered on October 1, 2019, at the National Music Academy of Ukraine, by the National Academic Symphony Band of Ukraine, under the composer himself. The work is dedicated to the general director of the orchestra Oleksandr Pirozhenko, as well as its chief conductor Mykhailo Moroz and the band. The suite [...]

#90– April 12, 2021 ARMANDO BAYOLO (1973) LAST BREATHS for Baritone and Wind Ensemble https://soundcloud.com/user-642642570-907922214/sets/wasbe-composition-of-the-2 Last Breaths, by Puerto Rican-American composer Armando Bayolo is our Composition of the Week. “Last Breaths set the last words of six young men killed by police in the last ten years. I hope it honors their memories in some small way, and it is to those memories, along with countless others’, that this work is dedicated.” Last Breaths has a duration of approximately 10 minutes, and it is composed of seven very short movements. Those last words form the text and musical inspiration for each [...]