Atlantic Chamber Winds
Russell G. McCutcheon, Conductor
Cochran Chamber Winds
Commissioning Series,
JIM COCHRAN
James Cochran is regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on wind band and wind chamber music literature. Cochran has presented repertoire sessions at many symposia and festivals in the United States, England, South Africa, Singapore, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Taiwan and Israel. In 2004, he was invited to be a member of the Artistic Planning Committee for WASBE and coordinator of the conference repertoire sessions. In 2005, he was elected to the board of WASBE. Jim Cochran’s awards include the Distinguished Service to Music Award (2001), presented by Kappa Kappa Psi in recognition of, and appreciation for, the invaluable
contributions to the growth and development of modern college and university bands in the field of Industrial Research, and the Russell and Dorothy Chambers Award (2004) for outstanding and distinguished service to Music
Education in Missouri. In December of 2009, Cochran was awarded the distinguished
Music Industry award for exemplary service from the Board of the Midwest Band Clinic.
RUSSELL G. MCCUTCHEON, CONDUCTOR Russell McCutcheon is Director of Bands in the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At Gettysburg, he conducts the Wind Symphony, Sunderman Conservatory Symphony Band, and the Sunderman Chamber Winds. Dr. McCutcheon received his Ph.D. in Music Education with a concentration in Wind Conducting from the University of Florida.
Dr. McCutcheon is the founding conductor of the Atlantic Chamber Winds, whose previous recording, Volume 1 of The Cochran Chamber Winds Commissioning Series, was released in 2012 on the Mark Masters Label. Of this recording, composer
Adam Gorb noted: “I loved your perfor-mance of French Dances Revisited…your ensemble plays the work so sensitively and with such spirit.”
He is a regular contributor to the best-sell-ing book series, “Teachbest-sell-ing Music through Performance in Bands,” and is an active
Atlantic Chamber Winds
Russell G. McCutcheon, Conductor
The Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project
Inspired by Jim Cochran, the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project was formed to introduce, inspire and educate young musicians as to the joys of chamber music through shared music making and commissioning. The driving force behind the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project is the strong desire to contribute significant new repertoire to the chamber wind medium, particularly for schools and institutions whose ensembles are
challenged not so much by any limits to their collective level of experience and ability, but by their numbers and instrumentation.
Works in the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Series 1999 Clark McAlister Woodscapes
2000 Michael Weinstein Serenade for Fifteen Instruments 2001 Scott McAllister Three Preludes
2002 Clark McAlister A Quilting Bee
2003 Daniel Kallman An American Tapestry
2004 Adam Gorb French Dances Revisited
2007 Rolf Rudin Sech Tänze
2008 Shelley Hanson Dances with Winds
2009 Daniel Bukvich Inferno
RECORDING
INFORMATION
Recording & Mastering Engineer: Fred Betschen
Recording Producer:
Bradley Genevro
Assistant Recording Producer: Ian Steege
Editing:
Russell G. McCutcheon
Cover Design and Graphics:
Denise Johnson, MarkArt
Recorded in the Majestic Theatre, Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College
Masters • 10815 Bodine Road • Clarence, NY 14031-0406
Sechs Tänze, Op. 71 (2006)
Rolf Rudin (1961)
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes – Oboe – 2 Bb Clarinets – Bb Bass Clarinet –
Bassoon – Alto Saxophone – Tenor Saxophone – 2 Bb Trumpets – Horn – Trombone – Tuba – 2 Percussion: Bells, Vibraphone, Xylophone, 3 Suspended Cymbals, 3 Triangles, Tam-tam, 4 Temple blocks, 5 wood blocks, 2 bongos, 2 congas, tom-tom, tambourine, snare drum, bass drum
Rolf Rudin is one of those composers who lives in two time frames at once. He is firmly rooted in the German legacy of the past but writes music that presents traditional values wrapped in modernity. His work is epic yet approachable. He is what I like to think of as a broad stroke painter of sound. Rolf’s music is engaging and never fails to enhance the soul while elevating the spirit. He is a truly unique voice and his writing for winds broadens the repertoire in a most important way.
-Note by Eugene Corporon (from A Composer’s Insight, Vol 5, ed. Timothy Salzman, Meredith Music 2012)
Rolf Rudin was born in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) in 1961 and there, as well as in Würzburg, he studied music education, composition, and music theory. Apart from his extensive compositions for all genres of music, Rudin has concentrated on composition for symphonic wind orchestra. Many of his compositions for chamber music, choir, and orchestra have won prizes at German and international competitions and can be found on concert programs around the world.
-Biography by Rolf Rudin
Inferno (2009)
Daniel Bukvich (1954)
Instrumentation, with scored substitutions (in the form of three quintets):
Flute – Oboe (also scored for soprano saxophone, clarinet, or alto saxophone) – Bb Clarinet – Horn (WW quintet; also scored for alto saxophone) – Bassoon (also scored for Bass Clarinet) – 2 Bb Trumpets – Horn (Brass quintet, also scored for alto saxophone) – Trombone – Tuba – Percussion Quintet: Bells/ Tenor Drum, Vibraphone/Suspended Cymbal, 2 Marimbas, Percussion (can be split among 2 players): Spring Drum, Gong, Bass Drum, Sleigh Bells, Triangle
Inferno is based on Dante’s “Inferno” taken from his work, “The Divine Comedy.” The text served as a guidepost for the composition’s formal structure. The English translation and the original Italian provided the basis for the interesting rhythms and time signatures. The percussion plays a primary role in the work and is often the most important voice. Inferno shifts constantly between Ab aeolian, Ab dorian, Eb aeolian, and Eb dorian modes for each of the three quintets: woodwind quintet, brass quintet, and percussion quintet.
Daniel Bukvich was born and raised in Montana (USA), and has taught at the University of Idaho since 1976. He travels throughout the United States and Canada as a guest composer, conductor, and percussionist in concerts with professional, college, and grade school bands, orchestras, choirs, honor and all-state groups and has been known to appear at similar events in Europe and East Asia.
A Quilting Bee: Four Diversions on American Songs (2002)
Clark McAlister (1946)
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes (2nd doubles picc in movement IV) – 2 Oboes – 2 Bb Clarinets – 2 Horns – 2 Bassoons
In days gone by it was usual for respectable, good-hearted ladies in the community to gather in each other’s homes to make clothes, blankets, and the like for their needy neighbors, exchange news, and take a glass or two of cordial. These sewing or quilting bees as they were called, sprang up everywhere and were a great item on the social round. The ladies entertained themselves with stories and music, singing together or in turn; not art songs so much as traditional airs and ballads.
I chose four from different regions and present them the way I think of them, not in an academic, respectful, or overly sophisticated style, but affectionately. They are: He’s Gone Away, an expressive Appalachian song, resigned and wistful rather than sad; Sweet Betsy from Pike, a popular song in ¾ time from the California Gold Rush, given suitably manic treatment with the tune tossed playfully from section to section; Shortnin’ Bread, which originates from slave times in the deep south as it might be sung by a mother to her baby; and She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain, another well-known Appalachian tune, energetic with many metrical changes.
-Note by Clark McAlister
The American music editor and arranger, Clark McAlister, came to Miami in 1977 to further his studies under Frederick Fennell at the University of Miami. He joined the Florida Philharmonic as Assistant Conductor, Librarian, and Personnel Manager. In 1981, Clark McAlister began to work part-time at Kalmus Music Publishers, becoming full-time a year later. In 1998, Clark McAlister was named Vice-President.
-Biography by Aryeh Oron (from bach-cantatas.com)
Serenade for Fifteen Instruments, Movement II: Andante (2000)
Michael H. Weinstein (1960)
Instrumentation: 2 Flutes – Oboe – 3 Bb Clarinets – Bass Clarinet – Bassoon – 2 Bb Trumpets – 2 Horns – 2 Trombones – Double Bass
Weinstein's music and compositional style is difficult to categorize. He has the ability to create beautiful music in any number of styles based on the commission. His music is demanding, and requires a quality ensemble to perform. His use of chromatics to color his tonalities helps to create a sense of tension and builds up to a climax that is always rewarding. It has been said that Weinstein's compositional style is
The Atlantic Chamber Winds
FLUTE Teresa Bowers FLUTE/PICCOLO Emily Wakschal OBOE Mary Pearce Ed Stanley CLARINET Sue Kerr Emma Raver Elisabeth Stimpert Evan Zimmerman BASS CLARINET Evan Zimmerman BASSOON Beth Ann Clare Jasper Leavitt ALTO SAXOPHONE Amanda Heim TENOR SAXOPHONE Paul Lessard TRUMPET Christopher Heffner John Pursell HORN Kenneth Bell Jennifer Yealy TROMBONE David Dalton John McGinness TUBA Hudson Gillot DOUBLE BASS Scott Kaliszak PERCUSSION Frank Arbogast Thomas Bennett Connelly Doan Brian Gould David Thompson Katherine TrautzMichael Weinstein was born in 1960 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is a composer, theorist, hornist, and educator. He studied at the Conservatory of the State University of New York College at Purchase (B.F.A.), the New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.), and received his Ph.D in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University in 1991. A BMI registered composer, Michael H. Weinstein has written over fifty works in the concert
music field and his catalogue includes pieces for symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, brass ensemble, choral and solo vocal works, chamber works, and solo instrumental pieces. He is particularly committed to writing music for wind instruments and has received some of his most important commissions and performances in that genre.
