National Winner of the Gertrude Fogelson Cultural and Creative Arts
Vocal Competition and has also been a national finalist in both the
National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition and the
National Opera Association Vocal Competition. In addition to her
teaching and performing experience, she has served as a consultant for
the Peoria Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic, assisting in the diagnosis and
treatment of voice disorders.
Andrew Willis performs in the United States and abroad on pianos of
every period. His recordings include the “Hammerklavier” and other
Beethoven sonatas for Claves, as part of the first Beethoven sonata
cycle on period instruments, a project directed by Malcolm Bilson and
presented in concert at New York, Utrecht, Florence, and Palermo. His
recordings of Schubert lieder and Rossini songs with soprano Julianne
Baird are available on Vox, Newport Classics, and Albany records, and
he has recorded music of Rochberg, Schickele, Ibert, and others with
flutist Sue Ann Kahn.
Willis appears frequently with period-instrument ensembles such as the Mozart Society of
Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Classical Symphony and the Apollo Ensemble, and he is a
past President of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society. At the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, where he is an Associate Professor, he performs on keyboard
instruments ranging from harpsichord to modern piano. He commissioned and premiered
the Sonata No. 7 of Martin Amlin, composed in 1999.
Before receiving the D.M.A. in Historical Performance from Cornell University, where he
studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson, Willis studied piano at The Curtis Institute of Music
with Mieczyslaw Horszowski and at Temple University with George Sementovsky and
Lambert Orkis. For many years, he participated in the musical life of Philadelphia, serving
as keyboardist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for several seasons. Before joining the
UNCG faculty in 1994, he had taught at Cornell, Syracuse, and Temple universities, and at
Swarthmore and Franklin & Marshall colleges.
Last fall Willis was a presenter at the conference Beyond Notation: The Performance and
Pedagogy of Improvisation in Mozart’s Time at the University of Michigan. In May 2003
he performed at the conference, "Four Centuries of Great Keyboard Instruments: What
They Tell Us," the first joint meeting of the Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, the
Midwestern Historical Society, and the Western Early Keyboard Association, at the
National Music Museum.
Brooks Whitehouse (BA, Harvard College, MMA and DMA, SUNY
Stony Brook) is UNCG’s new Cello Professor. He comes to Greensboro
from the University of Florida where he spent a year as Assistant
Professor of Cello and Chamber Music. From 1996-2001 he and his
wife, violinist Janet Orenstein, were artists in residence at the University
of Virginia in Charlottesville as members of The Guild Trio. In his
thirteen years as cellist of the Guild Trio Mr. Whitehouse has performed
and taught chamber music throughout the US and abroad, holding
Artists-in-Residence positions at SUNY Stony Brook, the Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY,
and The Tanglewood Music Center. This ensemble was a winner of both the "USIA Artistic
Ambassador" and "Chamber Music Yellow Springs" competitions, and with the group Mr.
Whitehouse has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in
Norway, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France
and Australia.
an evening of works by
Faculty Recital
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Faculty Composers
Program
Prayer from Winter Ashes (1995) Mark Engebretson
for soprano saxophone and digital media
Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone
The Great East River Bridge Eddie Bass
for solo marimba
Nathan Daughtrey, marimba
Swamp Song (1986) Michael Burns
for bassoon and digital media
Michael Burns, bassoon
intermission
Day Songs, Night Songs (2003) Gregory Carroll
Sunday Morning
Just Before Night
Treasured Moment
One Last Word
Carla LeFevre, soprano
Andrew Willis, piano
Events (1995) Mark Engebretson
for violoncello and digital media
Brooks Whitehouse, violoncello
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
Patrons are encouraged to take note of the exits located on all levels of
the auditorium. In an emergency, please use the nearest exit, which may
be behind you or different from the one through which you entered.
highlights include concerto performances with Vienna’s Ensemble Kontrapunkte, Western
New York’s Four Centuries Chamber Orchestra and the Amherst Chamber Ensembles,
the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and Sweden’s Malmö Philharmonic Orchestra and
Östgöta Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
Susan Fancher has recorded over 10 CDs available on the Philips, New World Records,
Lotus Records Salzburg, Extraplatte and Innova labels. The most recent additions to her
discography are a solo CD entitled Ponder Nothing on the Innova label, which features her
composer-approved arrangements of music by Steve Reich and Ben Johnston, and a
recording as soprano saxophonist with the Amherst Saxophone Quartet and the Arcata
String Quartet on New World Records of Forever Escher by Paul Chihara.
Susan Fancher is a regularly featured columnist for the nationally distributed Saxophone
Journal. She holds the prestigious Medaille d’Or from the Conservatoire of Bordeaux,
France, and the Doctor of Music degree in saxophone performance from Northwestern
University. Her principal teachers were classical saxophone masters Frederick Hemke,
Jean-Marie Londeix, and Michael Grammatico, and Chicago jazz legend Joe Daley.
Susan Fancher uses and endorses Selmer and Vandoren products.
Nathan Daughtrey has already achieved much success and acclaim
as a solo marimbist. Hailed as “one of the leading voices on marimba,”
he frequently appears as soloist and clinician in concert halls and
universities throughout the United States. Praised for his “virtuosic
facility and extraordinary musical sensitivity,” Mr. Daughtrey has
appeared as the featured soloist with several ensembles, including the
North Carolina Symphony and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
in Bratislava, Slovakia.
As a proponent of new music, Mr. Daughtrey has premiered several pieces, including
Gillingham’s "Gate to Heaven" for marimba and percussion ensemble, McCarthy’s
"WarHammer" for marimba and CD accompaniment and David J. Long’s “Concerto for
Marimba and Orchestra.” He has also made contributions with his own award-winning
compositions, such as “Episodes for Solo Piano,” which won 1st Place in the 2000
Southeastern Composers’ League Philip Slates Competition,“Strange Dreams” for alto
saxophone and marimba, and “Appalachian Air” for concert band.
In June 2002, Nathan Daughtrey became an international recording artist when he
traveled to Eastern Europe to record Emma Lou Diemer’s “Concerto in One Movement for
Marimba and Orchestra” with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. He released his
first solo marimba CD, “Spiral Passages,” in November 2001. One may also hear the
artistry of Mr. Daughtrey featured in “Bundles of Sticks” for bassoon and percussion on
Daniel McCarthy’s Anthology of his percussion works, “Song of Middle Earth.”
In addition to these accomplishments, Mr. Daughtrey has been a featured guest artist at
the 2003 Philidor Percussion Festival, the 2001 North Carolina Day of Percussion, the
2000 National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy and the 1999 Percussive Arts Society
International Convention “New Music Session” in Orlando, Florida. He continues to tour
throughout the United States. All of Nathan Daughtrey’s compositions and CDs are
available from C. Alan Publications.
Carla LeFevre holds the B.M.Ed. in voice and horn from Central Missouri State University
and M.A. and D.M.A. degrees in performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa.
She has performed extensively in oratorios and operas, including leading roles in The
Magic Flute, La Bohème, The Turn of the Screw, and Handel's Agrippina, which she
performed at the Festival di Musica Antica in Urbino, Italy, and the Classical Music
Seminar in Eisenstadt, Austria. An active recitalist, LeFevre was selected as the 1991
composed for a variety of media, including orchestra, wind ensemble,
chorus, vocal soloists, and chamber ensembles. His music has been
performed throughout the U.S., in Canada, Britain, Russia, and the Far
East. His Pas de Quatre for Trombone Quartet was awarded first prize in
the 1989 composition contest of the International Trombone Association.
His music is published by Seesaw (New York), BVD Press (Connecticut)
and Warwick (England). From 1968 to 1985 he was principal trumpet of
the Greensboro Symphony, and until 2000 a member of the Market Street
Brass. He has published articles on the music of Debussy, Berlioz, and
Mahler.
Michael Burns, Bassoonist and Composer, is Associate Professor of
bassoon at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is a
Yamaha Performing Artist. He holds the B.M. degree from the Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand, the M.M. from the New England
Conservatory, and the D.M.A. from the University of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music. Burns has performed in numerous professional
orchestras including the Cincinnati and the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestras and played Principal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and
Abilene Symphonies, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently he is in demand as
a performer with the North Carolina, Charleston, Greensboro, and Charlotte Symphony
Orchestras. He is also bassoonist in the Eastwind Ensemble and the Cascade Quintet. In
addition he remains active as a solo and chamber performer with numerous performances
at International Double Reed Society conventions, recitals and masterclasses throughout
North America and the South Pacific, and at several leading Universities and
Conservatories internationally. He is an active and award winning composer with many of
his pieces being published by BOCAL Music and frequently performed throughout the
country. His bassoon mentors include William Winstead, Sherman Walt, Leonard Sharrow,
and Colin Hemmingsen. His primary composition teachers were: Jack Body, Ross Harris,
David Farquhar, and William Waite. He is archivist for the International Double Reed
Society and was co-host for the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro, NC. Swamp Song
appears on a compact disc New Works for Bassoon [MJSD 144 Kaaden Digital Recording]
by Dr. William Dietz of the University of Arizona.
Gregory Carroll holds a B.A. in music from St. John's University (MN),
and earned the M.M. and Ph.D. in Composition/Theory from the
University of Iowa, where he studied under Donald Jenni, William
Hibbard and Richard Hervig. Carroll has also taught at Indiana State
University, the College of St. Teresa, and the University of Iowa. His
compositions have been performed in Canada, Europe, Australia and the
United States. He has served as finalist judge for numerous state and
national composition contests, and is frequently sought after nationally as
a guest lecturer and clinician. He is on the Board of Advisors to the Monroe Institute, a
professional organization that explores the effects of sound on the brain.
Susan Fancher’s career has featured hundreds of concerts
internationally as a soloist and as the member of chamber music
ensembles, with performances in many of the world’s leading concert
venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Amphitheater at
the Chautauqua Institution, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Vienna’s
Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Filharmonia Hall in Warsaw, Orchestra
Hall in Malmö, Sweden, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and
at ISCM festivals in Albania and Bulgaria, the Gaida Festival in Lithuania,
Hörgänge and Wien Modern Festivals in Vienna, and on CBS Sunday Morning. Tours
have taken her to Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,
Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and throughout the US. Concert
Mark Engebretson:
Prayer from Winter Ashes, for soprano saxophone and digital media
Prayer is an excerpt from a larger work entitled Winter Ashes, a forty-minute work scored
for SSTB saxophones and prerecorded sounds. Although it is not meant to be
programmatic, the form of Winter Ashes is based on an intensity curve that follows major
events, or a kind of imaginary dynamical flow, of twentieth-century history. Prayer is a
short moment of calm and repose for a single instrument and synthesized sounds that
occurs within this framework.
—Mark Engebretson
Eddie Bass:
The Great East River Bridge
“The Great East River Bridge” is probably better known, at least to New Yorkers, as the
Brooklyn Bridge. It is, to me, one of the most distinctive and graceful pieces of architecture
in the City, and certainly one of the most beautiful bridges ever built. It recently made a
prominent appearance in photographs of New Yorkers filling its pedestrian walkway and
traffic lanes on their way home during the great August 2003 blackout!
In composing The Great East River Bridge I have tried not so much to describe the bridge
as to create a musical impression of a walk across it, an experience I have had many
times. The musical structure does, however, correspond in a general way to symmetry of
the the bridge itself.
The opening, quiet and somewhat improvisatory in style, suggests the stately approach to
the bridge from the Brooklyn side. There follows a fast, agitated passage that tries to
convey the energy and movement of walkers, bikers, and autos flowing across the
walkway and the roadbeds below it. That passage leads directly to a broad, diatonic
maestoso section that tries to evoke the first of the two magnificent stone Gothic towers.
The “traffic” music resumes, and leads to a second maestoso “tower” passage, richer and
more virtuosic than the first. A third “traffic” section broadens out into a varied return of the
opening “approach” music, as the walker descends into Manhattan.
The Great East River Bridge is the result of a commission from Nathan Daughtrey, whose
superb musicianship and virtuosity were both an inspiration and a challenge, and who
taught me much about how to write effectively for the marimba.
— Eddie Bass
Michael Burns:
Swamp Song for bassoon and digital media
Swamp Song was written at the Electronic Music Studios at Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand, in 1986. All of the sounds on the tape were originally produced
in some way on the bassoon and then manipulated electronically. One of the aims was to
blur the lines of distinction between electronic and acoustic sounds. The live bassoon plays
some effects which sound somewhat electronic, and the tape plays some barely
transformed acoustic sounds. This, I hope, leads to places where the listener may not be
sure of what is on the tape and what is being played live. The title Swamp Song, while not
meant to be programmatic, seems appropriate for a piece intended to be lighthearted and
fun and is derived from the evocative nature of the sounds that emerged on the tape part.
My thanks and appreciation go to Dr. Peter Simpson of the University of Kentucky for his
hard work entering Swamp Song into Finale; and to Dr. William Dietz of the University of
Arizona for his many suggestions for improving the manuscript. Also thanks to William
Winstead for his inspiration as a teacher, and for his support.
— Michael Burns
Greg Carroll:
Day Songs, Night Songs
The first three songs of Day Songs, Night Songs were performed at UNCG in February
2002. The last song in the cycle was "in gestation" at that time. Now that the family of
songs is complete, I wish to present all four "children" to you this evening.
The poet is Klaus Luthardt, a native Austrian, who has lived the majority of his life in the
state of Virginia. This is the second song cycle I have composed using his poems for texts.
The beauty, imagery, and lyricism of the poetry demand the same kind of music. Night
follows day in the arrangement of poems.
— Greg Carroll
Sunday Morning
The light green and yellow
Glows among the leaves,
Dances with a silver sheen
On blood red tufts of oak.
Branches wave, leaves tremble,
Hiss at hurried gusts of fitful air.
A rush and rustle fills the brilliant spaces
In the morning light,
Instruments of wind.
But we may draw a breath and speak
in our own time, making seasons.
Misty, man-made, mind-made images,
Formed and clarified, are borne
On a rush of air, emerge from a living reed,
Words, yours and mine,
Notes in the song of Earth.
Just Before Night
Just before night the delicate blue
At the edge of the sky
And the outlines of the houses
And pines before it
Gathered into beauty
Such as the masters of the Renaissance
Spoke of
Where every line combined to point
To the central theme.
Into that momentary passage
From day to night
All that had shaped this day seemed drawn,
Distilled,
Then given back with quiet eloquence
Until the image deepened into indigo,
And the light of the stars
Drew our attention skyward.
Treasured Moment
Morning glories
in translucent purple
cathedral colors
fashioned from water and earth
Poised on waves of air.
A blossom sways and bows,
Blushes like a dancer
before her suitor’s gaze.
Trembles on measures of light,
Turns with ineffable promise
To embrace
The alchemy of longing.
One Last Word
The red round sun
Has touched the mountain ridge,
Edge of the Earth.
Day’s death is near.
The bright light breaks, and fades,
A ruddy glow suffuses,
Warm orange too.
The sun, a semi-circle soon,
Dips more swiftly downward, disappears.
Though vanished,
It yet reaches up with rays,
Resplendent fingers.
A mighty hand in space gives benediction.
We who watch the temple of light
Witness the language of the universe
Where there is no fear of night.
Mark Engebretson:
Events for violoncello and digital media
Events was commissioned by Ingrid Wagner-Kraft with funds from the Austrian
Bundesminesterium für Kunst (Austrian Ministry of Culture) and premiered by Ms. Wagner-
Kraft at a “Composer Portrait” in a place called “Alte Schmiede” (Old Blacksmith) in Vienna,
Austria as part of the Wien Modern Festival of 1995. The “Alte Schmiede” is a location that
functions as a cultural center where literary and musical events are presented. The
“Composer Portrait” series allows composers to present an entire evening of works, and
discuss his or her work with the public. Wien Modern is the main festival of modern music
in Vienna, one of the most important European new music festivals.
The recorded portion of the work was realized in my home studio using a Korg synthesizer
and a DigiTech Studio Quad effects unit, powered by a Cubase sequencer. The notation
used implements a mixture of traditional and quasi-spatial notation that I have used in
many of my pieces, in an attempt to encourage natural phrasing and flexibility from the
performer. Events is in three large sections, the third being a reorganization of the first.
The first section presents music that proposes an opposition between “events” and “non-events.”
In the third section, the more static “non-events” are omitted in favor of forward
moving “events.” The middle section is in a contrasting lyrical tone, and is itself in three
parts, creating an overall symmetrical arch. This middle part is more static (a large-scale
“non-event”) compared to the first and third sections.
—Mark Engebretson
_____
Mark Engebretson attended the University of Minnesota, graduating
Summa cum Laude in 1986. He pursued composition and saxophone
studies in Bordeaux, France on a Fulbright Fellowship and then pursued
Masters studies at Northwestern University. He subsequently lived as a
freelance musician in Stockholm, Sweden and spent three years living in
Vienna, Austria, where he performed with the Vienna Saxophone Quartet
and received commissions from the Austrian Ministry of Culture.
Returning to Northwestern in 1995, Engebretson received the Doctor of
Music degree in 2000. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the University of
Florida and at SUNY Fredonia. He joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro in the fall of 2003 as Assistant Professor of Composition.
Dr. Engebretson’s works have been performed in concerts, festivals and venues around
the world, including Wien Modern (Vienna), Gaida Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania), Hörgänge
Festival (Vienna), Filharmonia Hall (Bialystock, Poland), Ny Musikk (Bergen, Norway),
Théâtre la Chapelle, (Montreal), Indiana State University New Music Festival (Terre Haute,
IN), ISCM Festivals (Tirana, Albania and Baku, Azerbaijan), World Saxophone Congresses
(Pesaro, Italy, Montreal) and Stockholm Radio. He has received numerous commissions
from the Austrian Ministry of Culture as well as from STIM (Sweden) and the American
Composers Forum Composers Commissioning Program.
Dr. Engebretson’s teachers in France were Jean-Marie Londeix (saxophone) and Michel
Fuste-Lambezat (composition). At Northwestern University he studied composition with M.
William Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and
Jay Alan Yim and saxophone with Frederick Hemke.
Eddie Bass is Professor emeritus in the School of Music at UNCG. He earned the A.B.,
M.M., and Ph. D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Until 992 he
was chair of the Composition/History/Theory division of the School of Music at UNCG.
From 1992 until his retirement in 2003 he served as coordinator of composition. He has
an evening of works by
Faculty Recital
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
Prayer from Winter Ashes (1995) Mark Engebretson
for soprano saxophone and digital media
Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone
The Great East River Bridge Eddie Bass
for solo marimba
Nathan Daughtrey, marimba
Swamp Song (1986) Michael Burns
for bassoon and digital media
Michael Burns, bassoon
intermission
Day Songs, Night Songs (2003) Gregory Carroll
Sunday Morning
Just Before Night
Treasured Moment
One Last Word
Carla LeFevre, soprano
Andrew Willis, piano
Events (1995) Mark Engebretson
for violoncello and digital media
Brooks Whitehouse, violoncello
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
Patrons are encouraged to take note of the exits located on all levels of
the auditorium. In an emergency, please use the nearest exit, which may
be behind you or different from the one through which you entered.
Faculty Composers
