Virtual Event – OMEA Professional Conference – 2015

Continue to scroll down through entire page

Medina:  The Medina Community Band, under the baton of Marcus Neiman, was selected to perform as a featured ensemble at the 2015 Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) Professional Conference to be held in Cleveland on Friday, February 6, at 3:45p in the Cleveland Convention Center Ballroom “C.”

Mark Hensler, director of professional development for the OMEA conference said, Medina Community Band was selected to appear at the conference as our featured community band offering.  They were the only community band to perform at the conference from the state of Ohio. Over 130 CDs were submitted through “blind” audition by each of the sub-committees (band, choral, orchestra, and jazz).  Maestro Neiman said, We were honored and excited to be selected to perform at the OMEA conference.  

Wadsworth resident and a featured favorite vocal soloist with Medina Community Band, Denise Milner-Howell will be featured mezzo-soprano, singing Rossini’s Barber of Seville: Una Voce Poco Fa.  Flutist Amy Muhl, from Wadsworth, will be joined by clarinetist Mary Ann Grof-Neiman, from Medina, as featured instrumental ensemble performing Delibes Flower Song from Lakmé.  Guest conductors who will join Maestro Neiman will be Frank Cosenza, from Mentor, associate conductor of Medina Community Band, conducting Galante’s Cry of the Last Unicorn and Gene Milford, senior lecturer in music education at The University of Akron, conducting his own arrangement of the Karl King march The Huntress.  Neiman will conduct the Dale Grotenhuis arrangement of Franz von Suppé’s overture Tantalusqualen; clarinet feature Pie in the Face Polka by Mancini from the movie The Great Race; and Lovrien’s Minor Alterations, in addition to the Rossini and Delibes.

Former Medina County Commissioner and Ohio House of Representative The Honorable Steve Hambley commented: Medina County has every reason to be proud that the Medina Community Band has been selected to perform at the 2015 OMEA Professional Development Conference. Summers in Medina would not be the same without the band’s Friday night concerts in Medina’s Uptown Park Square.  The band’s hard work, patience and practice required to make such cultural contributions to the performing arts are of immeasurable importance to the very life in our community. The immense crowds that always form in attendance of their various concerts are indeed a testament to the talent and vision of the Medina Community Band and supporting association.

Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell said: When I was doing the welcome to guests for the summer concerts on our Square, I was stopped by a retired couple who lived in Pennsylvania, but stopped in Medina for dinner. They observed people bringing their lawn chairs and blankets to sit on the Square. They came over after dinner to see what the gathering was about. The man told me the two of them have travelled across the country and have never seen such a hometown event as the Friday night band concerts and were very complimentary of the community and band for continuing to promote and host such events. I have personally witnessed the dedication, commitment, and preparation the individual band members undertake weekly to prepare for their performances. I want to express my thanks, appreciation, and gratitude for all the events the band presents in our fine community, and especially thank Conductor Marcus Neiman for his leadership. We are truly blessed to have such a talented group of musicians among us.

Medina Community Band Association president and bass clarinet player in the community band, Dr. Thomas Kenat said: The Medina Community Band is living proof that there IS life after high school and college band!  As a 30+ year member of the band, Kenat continued; Our members come from a great variety of vocations, including quite a few music professionals, ranging from outstanding high school students to those of us seniors who have been playing for most of our lives.  We look forward to our weekly rehearsals, where we come together to rehearse a wide variety of challenging wind band music to perform before our very loyal and appreciative audience, who see us as their “home town band.”  We have weekly summer concerts on Medina’s Town Square, continuing a tradition that began in 1859, and also present indoor concerts through the rest of the year.

Medina Community Band is sponsored by the Medina Community Band Association composed of members of Medina Community Band proudly supports the community band.  The 2015 board of directors for the association consists of Dr. Thomas Kenat, president; Gail Sigmund, vice-president; Amy Muhl, treasurer; Sue McLaughlin, secretary; Lee Harper, financial secretary; directors Lu Ann Gresh, Alan Parkhurst, Paul Rocco, and, Kyle Snyder. 

---

Overture, Tantalusqualen (Tantalus’ Torment) (1868/2002) (Franz von Suppé/Dale Grotenhuis)

Franz von Suppé was the father of the Austrian operetta which was to reach its summit with Johann Strauss II.  Like so many of his German compatriots, Suppé was a profound admirer of Offenbach.  His aim was to carry the techniques of opera-bouffe in Germany and Austria.  Actually, what he did was to create his own genre, the operetta, which placed more stress on humor and less on satire; more on tenderness and sentimentality and less on burlesque; and in which the waltz became the favorite dance form.

His 1866 operetta Tantalusqualen (Tantalus’ Torment) is a spirited version of a Greek myth portraying the trials of Tantalus, a son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto. This transcription, by Dale Grotenhuis, captures the lighthearted melodies, playful rhythms, and vivacious flurries that make Suppé’s overtures perennial concert favorites of audiences everywhere!

 

 

---

March, The Huntress (1916/2014) (Karl L. King/Gene Milford)

Karl Lawrence King, one of the most popular march composers of all time, had a distinguished career as a euphonium player and conductor with community and circus bands. He began composing at the age of fourteen and two years later had his first compositions accepted for publication. Today he is best known by the very difficult marches he composed for circus bands, for instance, Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite and Robinson’s Grand Entree. As well as these famous circus marches, King also composed marches for professional caliber community bands (including Carrollton and The Melody Shop) and university bands (Michigan On Parade and Hawkeye Glory, among others). In addition, he wrote three collections of marches (composed in the 1940s and ’50s) for the emerging school band movement. These marches, such as Lexington, Aces of the Air, Alamo, and 45 more, were written in the recognizable King style but avoid many of the technical difficulties of his “heavy” grade marches.

The Huntress.  Karl King spent nine seasons touring with circus bands, first as a baritone horn player and then as conductor and musical director. He spent one season each with the Robinson Famous Shows (1910), Yankee Robinson Circus (1911), Sells-Floto Circus (1912) and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus (1913, 1917, 1918). For the 1914 season he was offered the leadership of the Sells-Floto Circus band and remained in that position for three years. During the 1914 and 1915 touring seasons, Sells-Floto was combined with the “Buffalo Bill” Wild West Show, and King, whose duties included distributing mail each day, became well-acquainted with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who he considered a great gentleman and master showman. King composed music especially for the show’s specialty acts, including Passing of the Red Man (dedicated “to my esteemed friend, Co. W F. ‘Wild Bill’ Cody”), On the Warpath, Wyoming Days, for the cowboys and Gallant Zouaves (Zouaves were French North African Infantry noted for their colorful uniforms). In the Buffalo Bill Show, they performed on horseback and played bugles.

Whether or not The Huntress was composed for the Wild West Show or another act is a matter of speculation as the work contains no dedication, which is unusual for his professional grade compositions. When asked by band historian Robert Hoe about the title, he replied in a 1970 letter, “no special story.” The work was copyrighted on September 25, 1916, which would indicate that it had been composed during the 1916 season, after the Buffalo Bill Show separated from the circus. One of his most popular marches, The Huntress has the expected melodic interest and rhythmic vitality. Unique to this march is the “ragtime” woodwind obbligato for the flutes and clarinets in the trio. Ragtime was a popular style at this time and King had composed characteristic pieces or “Two-Steps” in this style; Ragged Rozey (1913), Georgia Girl (1914), Broadway One-Step, Kentucky Sunrise, and The Walking Frog (all from 1919). (Gene Milford)

Gene F. Milford, guest conductor, a native of Canton, Ohio, served on the faculty Music Education at The University of Akron School of Music; as well at Kent State University and Hiram College. He holds degrees from Kent State University including a Masters of Arts in Music History and a PhD in Music Education.
A public school instrumental music educator with 30 years of experience, his ensembles consistently received superior ratings at adjudicated events and performed at state and national professional conferences. Dr. Milford has served as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator and presented clinic sessions at regional and national conferences. His articles on music education have appeared in Triad, The Instrumentalist, Dialogues in Instrumental Music Education and Contributions to Music Education. As a composer and arranger he has received numerous commissions, grants and awards and has more than 90 published works for band, orchestra, choir and small ensembles. A number of his compositions appear on state required lists for bands and ensembles.  His professional affiliations include the Ohio Music Education Association, where he has served as a district president and on numerous committees at both the district and state level; American School Band Directors Association (ASBDA), having served as state chair, National Band Association, Phi Beta Mu, Phi Kappa Lambda, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), having annually received the ASCAP Plus Award. He was the 2006 inductee to the Ohio Band Directors Hall of Fame.

x

---

Duet, Flower Song from Lakmé (1883/1995) (Léo Delibes/James Curnow)

Léo Delibes – In full, Clément-Philibert-Léo Delibes, French opera and ballet composer who was the first to write music of high quality for the ballet. His pioneering symphonic work for the ballet opened up a field for serious composers, and his influence can be traced in the work of Tchaikovsky and others who wrote for the dance. His own music—light, graceful, elegant, with a tendency toward exoticism—reflects the spirit of the Second Empire in France.

Delibes studied at the Paris Conservatoire under the influential opera composer Adolphe Adam and in 1853 became accompanist at the Théâtre-Lyrique. He became accompanist at the Paris Opéra in 1863, professor of composition at the Conservatoire in 1881, and a member of the French Institute in 1884. His first produced works were a series of amusing operettas, parodies, and farces in which Delibes was associated with Jacques Offenbach and other light-opera composers. He collaborated with Ludwig Minkus in the ballet La Source (1866), and its success led to commissions to write his large-scale ballets, Coppélia (1870), based on a story of E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Sylvia (1876), which is based on a mythological theme. In the meantime, he developed his gifts for opera. The opéra comique Le Roi l’a dit (1873; The King Said So) was followed by the serious operas Jean de Nivelle (1880) and Lakmé (1883), his masterpiece. Known for its coloratura aria “Bell Song,” Lakmé contains “Oriental” scenes illustrated with music of a novel, exotic character. Delibes also wrote church music (he had worked as a church organist) and some picturesque songs, among which “Les Filles de Cadiz” (“The Girls of Cadiz”) suggests the style of Georges Bizet.

Flower Song from Lakmé (French: Duo des fleurs / Sous le dôme épais) is a famous duet for sopranos from Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé, first performed in Paris in 1883. The duet takes place in act 1 of the three-act opera, between characters Lakmé, the daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river.

 

Amy Muhl, flute, has been a member of Medina Community Band since 1998.  Originally from Lyme, Connecticut, moved to Ohio to study music education at Oberlin Conservatory in 1991.  She graduated in 1995 and taught orchestra for two years in the Willard City Schools.  Amy received her masters of music education from Kent State University on a scholarship, in 1998.  She then taught instrumental music at Buckeye High School, in Medina (OH) and in the fall of 1999, became the elementary band teacher for Buckeye Local Schools.  In the fall of 2001, she began teaching elementary instrumental music at Central Intermediate School in the Wadsworth City Schools.  Amy also plays flute/piccolo and piano and teaches private lessons, in addition to being a member of Medina Community Band and Sounds of Sousa Band.  She is also treasurer of the Medina Community Band Association.  Amy resides in Wadsworth with her husband Frank, and three children Kenneth, Eva and Simon.

Mary Ann Grof-Neiman, clarinet, received her bachelor of science in music education degree from the Bowling Green State University. Ms. Grof-Neiman has served as principal clarinetist with the Sounds of Sousa Band and as clarinetist for the Blossom Festival Band, the Cleveland Winds, Lakeland Civic Band, Lakeside Symphony Orchestra, Youngstown Symphony, Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra and Erie Philharmonic. She currently performs with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Lakewood Home Town Band, Akron Symphonic Winds and Medina Community Band, where she serves as band librarian. She maintains private studios at Baldwin Wallace University Community Music School as well as her home in Medina. She has served the Ohio Music Education Association as a Woodwind Adjudicator for over 30 years and is a member of AFM Local 4. She resides in Medina with her husband Marcus and their cat Dmitri.

 

---

Tone poem, Cry of the Last Unicorn (2012) (Rossano Galante)

A native of New York, Rossano Galante studied trumpet performance at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He went on to study film scoring at the University of Southern California, where he studied with composer Jerry Goldsmith (known for soundtracks to Alien, Gladiator, and the Star Trek movies). Galante’s film credits as composer or orchestrator include Big Fat Liar, Scary Movie 2, and Tuesdays with Morrie. He has received commissions from the Amherst Chamber Orchestra, the Hofstra University Symphonic Band, the Nebraska Wind Symphony, and the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Cry of the Last Unicorn – Fairytales are not for children. Every culture has stories, or collected tales, that have been inspired by romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of that country and its culture. These tales are used to teach children, and perhaps adults, how we view our society and how we live within that society. The tale of the last unicorn, from which Galante draws his programmatic musical offering, The Cry of the Last Unicorn, is the tale of a the journey we all take from childhood to adulthood. Along the road we meet many travelers and companions. Some of them will be our friends and some will not. And, we find that the world is not always the friendly, safe place our parents have led us to believe! Our search for the last unicorn must be viewed as our search for natural truth and all that is pure. And that search is not without danger and possible loss. The haunting beauty of Galante’s tone poem captures the beauty of the unicorn, our journey to find her, and the reflections we need to make along the journey.

 

Trumpet player, band director, and educator. Frank Cosenza has been heavily involved in music since the age of eight when he began studying the trumpet. He received a talent scholarship to Bowling Green State University where his performance opportunities took off. From recitals, top 40s bands, orchestras, shows and backing up entertainers, he is at home to any style of music. His teachers included: Joe Hruby, Bernard Adelstein, Edwin Betts, James Stamp and Scott Johnston.  A native of South Euclid, Ohio, Frank has performed in many, many varied venues, including Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center (home of the Cleveland Orchestra), The Cleveland Palace and State Theaters, Nautica Stage and a host of churches. He has taken his talents to Europe performing concerts in many different countries as well as numerous big bands, pit bands, orchestras and concert bands in Northeast Ohio. He has had the opportunity to play under several noted conductors including Leonard B. Smith, Frederick Fennell and Loras Schissel.

Equally at home in education, Frank spent many years as a band director with great success while performing regularly on trumpet. His bands have received many superior awards including performances at State Conventions for the American School Band Directors Association and the Ohio Music Education Association. Additionally, his groups have performed in numerous venues including Canada, Europe and throughout the United States. His musicianship has even extended to the vocal spectrum as he has conducted choirs on several occasions. He has served the Ohio Music Education Association as State Trustee, All-State Coordinator, past District President, member of music selection committees, and adjudicator. He is a former Interim Director of Athletic Bands/Concert Band at Kent State University and previous Associate Conductor of the Medina Community Band.  Frank is currently a conductor with Lakeland Civic Band (Mentor, Ohio)

---

Movie Music, Pie in the Face Polka from the Great Race (1965) (Henry Mancini/Jonnie Vinson)

The Great Race was a 1965 slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Dorothy Provine, Arthur O’Connell and Vivian Vance. The movie cost $12 million, making it the most expensive comedy film at the time. 

Pie in the Face Polka. The movie was noted for one scene that was promoted as “the greatest pie fight ever.” The Technicolor pie fight scene in the royal bakery was filmed over five days. The first pastry thrown was part of a large cake decorated for the king’s coronation. Following this was the throwing of 4,000 pies, the most pies ever filmed in a pie fight. The scene lasts four minutes and twenty seconds and cost $200,000 to shoot; $18,000 just for the pastry. The pie fight scene paid homage to the early Mack Sennett practice of using a single thrown pie as comedic punctuation, but to a greater degree it was a celebration of classic movie pie fights such as Charlie Chaplin’s Behind the Screen (1916), The Battle of the Century (1927) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and The Three Stooges’ In the Sweet Pie and Pie from 1941. In his script for The Great Race Edwards called for a “Battle of the Century-style pie fight.” Though Edwards used 4,000 pies over five days, many of these were used as set dressing for continuity. Laurel and Hardy used 3,000 pies in only one day of shooting, so more are seen flying through the air.

 

---

Cavatina, Barber of Seville: Una Voce Poco Fa (1816) (Gioachino Rossini/Edgar L. Barrow)

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was the son of a trumpet player.  He studied in Bologna (Italy) and spent most of this creative life in Vienna and Milan.  Among his most popular opera offers were: The Italian in Algiers, The Barber of Seville, and of course, William Tell. What would Saturday morning cartoon music be without his opera offerings? Rossini composed at a terrific speed, completing 38 operas in 23 years.  He suddenly and mysteriously quit writing operas at the age of 37 and spent ten years completing his Stabat Mater. He ultimately settled in Paris and was the witty leader of the artistic world until his death.  He was highly regarded as a cook and his dinner parties were renowned.  He invented a number of recipes, including Tournedos Rossini, which has become a perennial favorite.

Barber of Seville – Una Voce Poco Fa (1816). Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction, and often more humorous.  The opening of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville could have made a great comic open for any composer.  At the premiere performance, one of the singers fell on his face, causing a huge nose bleed, while coming on-stage.  Next, a cat got onstage and terrorized the cast with its claws.  Finally, the tenor added a recital of Spanish guitar songs to his scene.  By this time, the house was in an uproar.  Rossini left at intermission, claiming to be sick!  By the second night, things went more to plan and the opera was proclaimed a success (without nose bleeds or cats).

In Act 1, Scene 2 – In keeping with the musical taste of his day, Rossini created many heavily ornamented melodies that give the singers in The Barber of Seville ample occasion to display their vocal skills. The opera’s arias are elaborate showpieces for vocal virtuosity in the style known as bel canto, or “beautiful song.” This singing is characterized by smooth tone, beautiful timbre and elegant phrasing. Rosina’s Una voce poco fa (“a voice just now”) is a dazzling expression of a young woman’s intent to marry according to her own desires, not those of her tyrannical guardian.  This aria is as dramatically meaningful as it is lovely.  I am soft, I am gentle, Rosina sings, but everyone must learn that I will have my way! The quick tempo and florid trills and runs of the finale give the leading lady more than enough opportunity for vocal acrobatics while also suggesting the wily side of Rosina’s character.

 

Denise Milner Howell, mezzo-soprano, is a versatile performer of opera, concerts, and recitals, whose singing has been called “superb” (Cleveland Classical).  Ms. Howell’s solo engagements include performances with Cleveland Opera Theater, Opera Cleveland, Chautauqua Opera,  Kent/Blossom Festival, Nightingale Opera Theatre, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Akron Lyric Opera Theatre, Akron Baroque, Tanglewood Festival, Carousel Dinner Theatre, and Buffalo Philharmonic. Recent performances include leading roles in Little Women (Meg), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mother), Carmen (Mercédès), La cambiale di matrimonio (Clara), Robert Ward’s The Crucible (Rebecca Nurse), and Iolanthe (Celia). A frequent concert soloist, Ms. Howell has performed the alto solos in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Bach Magnificat, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Verdi Requiem, Vivaldi Gloria and Duruflé Requiem. Additionally, Ms. Howell is committed to the performance of new works by living composers, and has been heard at Cleveland Ingenuity Festival and New to New York Concert Series. In addition to performing, Ms. Howell is an active voice teacher.  She currently teaches at Cleveland Institute of Music/Case Western Reserve University, and Kent State University Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. She lives in Sharon Township, Ohio with her husband, Gregg, and their three children.

 

 

---

Seasonal, Minor Alterations (2007) (David Lovrien) – Christmas Through the Looking Glass

Minor Alterations (2007). With the subtitle Christmas Through the Looking Glass, Lovrien has created a unique offering of traditional secular Christmas tunes always heard in the major mode; however, this time “not” – but rather in the minor mode.  The offerings are disguised, layered, morphed, and lots more. OK, so you didn’t catch them all, there’s what you heard: Deck the Halls; Up on the Rooftop; Santa Claus is Coming to Town; Jolly Old St. Nicholas; Here Comes Santa Claus; We Wish You a Merry Christmas; Silver Bells; Jingle Bells; Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer; Sleigh Ride; Here We Come a Caroling; and, the finale from The Nutcracker.

David Lovrien has been a member of the saxophone section of Dallas Wind Symphony for over 15 years, performing on ten of the group’s 13 compact discs and appearing several times as featured soloist.  He is also a founding member of the renowned Texas Saxophone Quartet, the first saxophone ensemble to win the prestigious Fischoff Competition in 1988.  His compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the world, and his website celebrating the life and work of John Philip Sousa is recognized as the best Sousa authority on the Internet.

 

 

 

 

---