Huldigungsmarsch Wagner Born: May, 22 1833, Leipzig, Germany Composed: 1864 Duration: 7 minutes On the same day that his father, King Maximilian II died, on March 10th 1864, Ludwig II was crowned as his successor, aged 18. Several years previously, in 1861, he had heard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” and “Lohengrin”, which was the beginning of an almost “addictive” affinity to his music. Immediately after acceding to the throne, Ludwig II supplied Wagner with 170,000 florins to enable

Kammerkonzert Berg, Alban Born: February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935, Vienna, Austria Composed: 1923-1925 Duration: 42 minutes On March 3rd, 2018, UMWO will perform, for the second time since the group's inception, Alban Berg's incredible Chamber Concerto, or Kammerkonzert. This piece is a great example of "Second Viennese" composition in its breadth and intricacy. The piece has a background and program (intrinsic and extrinsic) that is fascinating, and similar to today's mod

Galop Dmitri Shostakovich (trans. Donald Hunsburger) Born: September 25th, 1906, Saint Petersburg, Russia Died: August 9th, 1975, Moscow, Russia Composed: 1959 Duration: 2 minutes This light-hearted romp comes from a larger work by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Moscow, Cheryomushki is a satirical three-part operetta set in a housing project in southwest Moscow. It premiered on January 24, 1959. The libretto was written by notable Russian humorists Vladimir Mass and

Serenade for brass and percussion Willem van Otterloo Born: December 27th, 1907, Winterswijk, Netherlands Died: July 27th, 1978, Melbourne, Australia Composed: 1944 Duration: 18 minutes Conductor and composer, Willem van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Netherlands and died in Melbourne, Australia. After studying medicine for a time, he went to the Amsterdam Conservatory where he studied cello under Orobio da Castro and composition with Sem Dresden. He was a young cellist wi

Danse Funambulesque Jules Strens Born: December 5, 1893, Brussels, Belgium Died: March 19, 1971, Brussels, Belgium Instrumentation: Chamber Orchestra Duration: 11 minutes Composed: 1925 Jules Strens studied violin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and for a while he received advice from Paul Gilson in orchestration. In 1926 he became member of the “Synthétistes” group of young progressive composers of the twenties who were all pupils of Paul Gilson. During this period, h

Concerto for Winds and Percussion Christian Lindberg Born: February 15, 1958, Danderyd, Sweden Composed: 2003 Duration: 16 minutes Christian Lindberg is widely considered to be one of the finest trombone soloists to have ever lived. Born in Danderyd, Sweden (a suburb of Stockholm), he began playing the trumpet in his youth and later took up the trombone as a teenager in order to join a friend’s Dixieland band. His formal studies began in 1976 at the Swedish Royal Academy of M

Danzón No. 2 Arturo Márquez Born: December 20, 1950, Álamos, Mexico Composed: 1994 Arranged: Oliver Nickel Duration: 9 minutes The composer writes: The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón, which they were able to transmit to me from the beginning, and also during later trips to Veracruz and vis

Kammersymphonie No. 1, Op. 9 Arnold Schoenberg Born: September 13, 1874, Vienna, Austria Died: July 13, 1951, Los Angeles, California Composed: 1906 Duration: 20 minutes When Schoenberg completed the Kammersymphonie (Chamber Symphony) No. 1 in 1906, he told his friends: “Now I have established my style. Now I know how I have to compose.” He quickly realized this was not true: as he put it, he was “not destined” to continue in this post-Romantic manner. Looking back, he saw th

that secret from the river Joel Puckett Born: June 27, 1977, Atlanta, Georgia Composed: 2015 Duration: 22 minutes Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future? – Herman

Sinfonietta, Op. 188 I. Allegro II. Allegro molto III. Larghetto IV. Vivace Joachim Raff Born: May 27, 1822, Lachen, Switzerland Died: June 24, 1882, Frankfurt, Germany Composed: 1873 Duration: 25 minutes The lack of evidence to the contrary seems to indicate that Raff himself coined the word Sinfonietta for his op.188 in F. It has since been commonly used for works such as this - "little" or "light" symphonies and Raff's piece pre-dates the next work [with the same title] (b