You could be forgiven for mistaking a piccolo solo for birdsong. And similarly, a flute echo in Christopher Tucker’s “Twilight in the Wilderness.”
That’s how the Fort Lewis College Symphonic Band will open the main concert season next Sunday in the Community Concert Hall. At the beginning of “Fall Sentiments,” you’ll hear birdsong then a sweeping musical evocation of twilight that will not soon be forgotten.
If you go
WHAT: “Fall Sentiments,” Fort Lewis College Symphonic Band Concert.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Community Concert Hall at FLC, 1000 Rim Drive.
TICKETS: $10, FLC students free. Available at the door, online at www.durangoconcerts.com or call 247-7167.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.fortlewis.edu/music or call 247-7087.
Conductor Justin Hubbard and his musicians begin the fall concert by paying tribute to the American wilderness. By treating Tucker’s 8-minute work as an overture in a program shaped by a seasonal idea of spectacular endings and winter approaching, the ensemble invites music to give us meaning.
“Tucker’s ‘‘Twilight in the Wilderness’ is gorgeous,” Hubbard said. “He based the work on a 19th -century painting by Frederic Edwin Church, and we open with Amber Kagley’s simple piccolo solo. In performance, she will be followed by Teegan DeWeese for an off-stage echo.”
Tucker, 48, is a well-regarded American composer whose works for orchestra, concert band, chorus and chamber ensembles have been performed around the world. You can listen to “Twilight” on YouTube or through Tucker Music Works. It’s 8 minutes of sheer beauty.
Last week at a regular Monday night rehearsal, Hubbard described the “Twilight” staging with low lighting at the beginning for the piccolo entrance, then a flute imitating at a lower pitch, then the ensemble beginning Tucker’s marvelous work.
After the overture, the Symphonic Band will spool through “the crispness of fall with Eric Whitacre’s “October,” Hubbard said. Then Gordon Jacob’s “An Original Suite,” “is the most challenging piece.
“It’s a stretch for musicians everywhere in the general band repertoire,” he said.
After intermission, Hubbard will conduct Percy Grainger’s jaunty “Shepherds Hey,” followed by an unusual setting of “Simple gifts,” the classic American Shaker tune that celebrates simplicity and acceptance.
“This is a feel-good concert,” Hubbard said. “‘Simple Gifts’ is a good way to let the winter season set in,” Hubbard said.
To close the program, the ensemble will play “Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral,” a highly energetic work from Richard Wagner’s opera “Lohengrin.” It’s likely to propel music lovers out into brisk October air.
In 2020, Hubbard earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Arizona State University. He also holds a Master’s from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a Bachelor’s in Music Education from Central Michigan University. It was between degrees that he taught music in public schools and established an understanding of what it takes to recruit students into college music programs. In September 2020, he joined the faculty of FLC and found himself in the midst of the pandemic.
“It was only five years ago, and it was stressful for everyone,” he said. “I met Mark Walters, who had been professor of music for more than 20 years and was ill. It was a very stressful time for FLC and for my profession in general.”
Through COVID-19, the college persevered, and so did the performing arts.
“We do a lot of recruiting,” Hubbard said. “Our faculty goes to local schools and we host an honor band day here at the college.”
Post-COVID-19, the Symphonic Band now numbers 45, he said, “with equal instrumentation in all sections. Although, we do need a few more trumpets. It’s markedly different from when I started. Not all the players are music majors; maybe we are 50/50 with non-majors. We’ve developed a mentorship program, and in the last five years, we’ve built up both our numbers and the quality of performance.”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
