A world premiere, a renowned band composer, and a 100th anniversary will all be part of a concert on Friday, Nov. 15, with the NMSU Wind Symphony. Frank Ticheli, a multi-award-winning composer of some 100 works, has been visiting NMSU for the whole week as part of a residency program that NMSU Band Director Michael Mapp started three years ago.
“Dr. Ticheli is definitely the most prestigious composer we’ve had to date, sharing the stage with us, sharing the classroom, he’s given conducting lessons, he’s talked to all the bands at the university, and he’ll be guest conducting at the concert,” Mapp told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in this interview. Ticheli will conduct his piece, “Accadiana,” based on Cajun folk songs from Louisiana, where he was born.
The concert will also feature the world premiere of “Streetlights and Silhouettes,” by Alec Schantz, this year’s winner of the Young Composer’s Initiative Competition, an international wind band competition started by NMSU. Schantz will be at the concert as well. The band will perform a second new work, “Rivers,” by Isabella Morrill, a consortium work funded by several partners, including the NMSU Music Department.
Finally, in this 100th anniversary year of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the band will be joined by NMSU piano professor Laura Spitzer to perform the work in a wind ensemble arrangement derived from the original jazz ensemble version. The free concert is at the Atkinson Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.
Ticheli was also part of the interview and talked about his compositions, how he got involved in music, his current goals, and he told an astonishing story about his first lesson with one of his professors, the Pulitzer-Prize and Grammy-winning composer William Bolcom. “In the first two minutes he taught me that if I’m going to call myself a composer, I better start composing. Because up to that point, I was just playing around,” he said, describing how Bolcom played Ticheli’s first composition for him by heart, after just looking at it for a minute or two. “It was a brilliant first lesson and I owe a lot to Bill Bolcom. He was a great teacher.”
Musical clips heard in the interview:
1) “Blue Shades,” by Frank Ticheli. North Texas Wind Symphony, conducted by Eugene Corporon (Klavier Records, cd #11091).
2) “Cajun Folk Songs II,” by Ticheli. Mesilla Valley Concert Band, conducted by William Clark (Master Tapes, cd #61027)
3) “There Will Be Rest,” by Ticheli. Conspirare Company of Voices, conducted by Craig Hella Johnson (Clarion Records, cd #915)
4) “Rhapsody in Blue,” by George Gershwin. Columbia Jazz Band, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (Sony, cd #61697)
