IU Marching Hundred News
High School Band Day on September 11, 2021
After the 2020 hiatus from High School Band Day, we were thrilled to welcome the following schools and their directors to the IU Memorial Stadium on September 11, 2021 for the IU vs. Idaho game:
- Bellmont High School, Jeffery Blackburn
- Bloomfield High School, Katelyn Helms
- Brownstown Central High School, Richard Branaman
- Churubusco High School, Mark Cheshier
- Clinton Prairie Jr/Sr High School, Michael Villano
- Danville Community High School, Lee Davidson
- Greencastle High School, Annette Munoz
- Griffith High School, Virginia Hernandez
- Jennings County High School, Paige Chadwick
- Loogootee High School, Amy Hamm
- Mitchell High School, Michelle Zehr
- North Daviess Jr/Sr High School, Jeff VanderMel
- North Knox Jr/Sr High School, Debbie VanderMel
- Perry Central Jr. Sr. High School, Andrea Clark
- Rushville Consolidated High School, T.R. Campbell
- Seymour High School, Kevin Cottrill
- Shelbyville High School, Allison Anderson
- Shoals High School, Joel Weitkamp
- South Knox Middle/High School, Jennifer Bollero Erickson
- Wapahani High School , Kevin Van Note
Maybe you, too, have found your students to be especially enthusiastic to be back making music together in real time this fall. Enjoy these photos of the 2021 Marching Hundred back in action, courtesy of Johnny Gilbert and Malik Davis. Some changes we have made include using all digital music and drill, and communicating announcements via the Band app.
Building the Band: goal is instruments for ALL members
by Dr. Eric Smedley
The Marching Hundred Instrument Fund has been an outstanding success to date. We just completed the purchase of 53 Silver Yamaha Xeno trumpets. All have been received and made their debut at the Homecoming game on October 15, 2021. With the acquisition of trumpets, we have completed our original goal of outfitting the Marching Hundred with an all-silver brass line. We now turn our attention to replacing our old sousaphones, which require a lot of repair each year. We purchased 4 new sousaphones in the Spring of 2021, and hope to buy 4 new instruments over the next 3 years.
We also hope to purchase woodwind instruments! We would love to have an all-silver line of saxophones and a line of quality instruments for the clarinets and piccolos. We are concerned that not having instruments available for these members makes joining the Marching Hundred prohibitive for some and we want to dissolve as many barriers to joining the band as we can. We owe many thanks to the Marching Hundred Alumni Council, who strongly supports us in our project.
To donate, go to “Donate” in the Menu, and click or tap on the “Give Now” button. Thank you so much for your support—and Go Hoosiers!
Fall 2021 Concert Previews
SUNDAY OCT. 31: SYMPHONIC BAND, AUER HALL, 4:00 pm
Eric M. Smedley, conductor
Dan Perantoni, tuba
Transylania Fanfare – Warren Benson
Portraits of Ecstatic Flight – Neil Clifton Cain
Shatter – Jung-Woong Oh
Autumn Walk – Julian Work
(Tim Loman, graduate conductor)
Breathe – Alex Shapiro
Deep, Dark Night – Drew Bonner
(Dan Perantoni, tuba; Tiffany J. Galus, conductor)
Tam O’Shanter – Malcom Arnold
TUESDAY NOV. 2: WIND ENSEMBLE, MUSICAL ARTS CENTER, 8:00 pm
Rodney Dorsey, conductor
Petals of Fire – Zhou Tian
(Eric Smedley, conductor)
that secret from the river – Joel Puckett
Symphony No. 8 – David Maslanka
We welcome composer Joel Puckett, faculty member of the Peabody Institute of Music (MD), to the IUB campus to lead a conducting seminar, give composition lessons, and work with the Wind Ensemble on his piece, “that secret from the river.”
TUESDAY NOV. 9: CONCERT BAND, AUER HALL, 8:00 pm
Jason H. Nam, conductor
Early Light – Carolyn Bremer
The Promise of Living – Aaron Copland, arr. Singleton
Southern Harmony – Donald Grantham
Rivers of Air – Jake Runestad (Chris Nelson, graduate conductor)
Twelve Gallon Hat – Julie Giroux (Rodney Dorsey, conductor)
Variations on the Porazzi Theme of Wagner – Alfred Reed
Wedding Dance – Jacques Press
TUESDAY NOV. 16: FALL SHOWCASE, MUSICAL ARTS CENTER, 8:00 pm
CONCERT BAND:
The Ringmaster’s March – John Mackey (Luis Espinosa, graduate conductor)
Rhapsody for Band – Graeme Culpepper
SYMPHONIC BAND:
Shoutout – Roshanne Etezady (Esther Tupper, graduate conductor)
Of Our New Day Begun – Omar Thomas
WIND ENSEMBLE
from Sinfonia No. 3: Tumbao – Roberto Sierra (Chris Nelson, graduate conductor)
Slavische Fantasie – Carl Hohne (Troy Moeller, euphonium)
Candide Suite – Leonard Bernstein, tr. Grundman
MARCHING HUNDRED – featuring classic IU
songs and greatest hits from the 2021 Fall season.
IDEAS FROM THE PODIUM
The Importance of “The Hang”
By Dr. Tiffany Galus, Assistant Professor of Music (Bands)
It’s that time of year: the leaves are changing, the balancing (or sometimes not so balancing) art of marching band, concert band, jazz band, concerts, solo and ensemble preparation, college applications, mask protocols, pep rallies, fundraisers, fall musicals, the list goes on and on. It is officially Band-tober. In all the hustle and bustle, now is the time, more than ever, to make room for “The Hang.”
The Hang (definition): An opportunity to relax and let loose, free from the bounds of the daily school/work responsibilities—the opportunity to be seen for who you are beyond what it is that you do.
These irreplaceable moments for you, your students, and your staff are what build and sustain relationships and what recharge your personal batteries as you navigate through the (albeit often wonderful) daily grind. I can hear you from Bloomington: “With all that we have to do, there simply is no time.” To this retort, I call baloney. Below are ideas of how you can create space for “hangs” within a busy schedule.
For You:
On airplanes, they recommend putting on your mask before assisting others. The same is true in filling your cup so that you can best assist others.
IDEA: Build your “Team”
Create a group text with 3-5 friends (inside or outside of your organization). Celebrate the small and large victories each week with each other, share the bumps in the road, send funny photos, videos and stories, brainstorm through ideas, form collaborations, and build a safe space where you can talk freely with those that you trust.
IDEA: Hangout with Yourself
Find something each week that you can do solely for and by yourself. I leave myself extra time in the morning to make myself a vanilla latte, just the way I like it, and then I enjoy it, free of email, texts, calls, and distractions. When the rest of the day is a mad dash, building in that moment of calmness gives me the fuel to make it through the day.
For Your Staff:
Find ways to connect beyond setting and abiding by rehearsal schedules. This includes co-workers, marching band techs, color guard and percussion staff, and anyone in a leadership role in your program.
IDEA: Celebrate the little (and large!) victories
Post-Game or Post-Concert, find a place nearby that will still be open for you to grab a bite to eat (or order in!). Allow them to invite their significant others and friends and celebrate together. Without these checkpoints, everything can begin to blur and by the end of the season or by the end of the year, it’s easy to lose sight of the humans you’re working alongside. (These opportunities are also excellent for the performers too!)
IDEA: Connect at the Start/End of Rehearsals
Especially in the thick of things, the impulse is to immediately get to the task at hand. By taking the 1 or 2 minutes to assemble the team before everyone breaks off to handle what they need to at the start of rehearsal and by checking in with each other at the end of the rehearsal, you can build a sense of togetherness.
For Your Students:
Connecting the students to each other as well as you and the staff helps create the ‘family’ that we often refer to our programs as.
IDEA: Build Relationships by Asking Questions
While a simple “How are you doing,” can be a solid greeting, ask (and have students ask each other) questions designed to inspire conversation. These can happen during a water break, piece transition, start/end of rehearsal, or any ‘down’ moment.
“What’s your favorite/hardest/most helpful class this semester? Why is that?”
“I’m hungry – what’s your favorite post-rehearsal snack?”
“What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you so far this week?”
“I could use a pick-me-up: what are some of your best jokes?”
“What has been your favorite piece we’ve worked on this year?”
“Where is your favorite place to study or do homework?”
“Who have been some of your favorite teachers?”
IDEA: Collaborate outside of your organization
Finding opportunities to collaborate with programs outside of your own (orchestra, dance, theater, athletics, english, etc.) waters the seeds of both programs and provides a fresh perspective, a fresh set of eyes, and connections for a whole new set of opportunities for ‘hangs’ by leadership and members alike.
The concerts, rehearsals, and events are immensely important; but finding moments during the process to connect (or re-connect) with those around you will make each of those experiences more meaningful and will keep everyone from feeling isolated in their own personal “busy.”
Recent Band Collaborations:
Composer David Biedenbender, Organist Janette Fishell, Soprano Lindsay Kesselman
It was a busy time in the Department of Bands/Wind Conducting during the week of October 4, 2021!
On October 4th and 5th, we welcomed composer David Biedenbender to campus for a two-day residency in the Jacobs School of Music, where he taught private lessons to IU Jacobs composition students, guest lectured our wind conducting graduate students, and worked with the students of the IU Concert Band and Wind Ensemble on two of his pieces being performed on concerts that week. The IU Concert Band presented Biedenbender’s 2019 ABA Ostwald Award-winning piece, Unquiet Hours, and the IU Wind Ensemble chamber winds performed his Kyrie (for Machaut and Pärt) on October 5 and 7, respectively. David Biedenbender is a composer, conductor, performer, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator. He is Associate Professor of Composition in the College of Music at Michigan State University.
The October 7 Wind Ensemble chamber concert also featured IU Jacobs faculty organ soloist Dr. Janette Fishell on Michael Daugherty’s powerful The Gospel According to Sister Aimee for Organ, Brass, and Percussion. Janette Fishell is professor of music in organ and chair of the Organ Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches applied organ and organ pedagogy.
Earlier in September, the IU Wind Ensemble (with conductor Rodney Dorsey) presented the IU premiere of John Mackey’s Places We Can No Longer Go with guest soprano soloist Lindsay Kesselman. The IU Department of Bands was a member of the consortium commission of this piece, which portrays the struggle of early onset dementia and is dedicated to John Mackey’s mother, Elizabeth.
Many thanks to our guest artists and congratulations to the outstanding musicians of our IU Bands!
Alumni Notes
Christopher P. Heidenreich (D.M. 2006) was appointed Director of Bands at Louisiana Tech University in 2021.
Brett A. Richardson (D.M. 2014) will present clinics on conducting and music education post-COVID for the Alabama, Iowa, and Texas Music Education Associations during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Alan Lourens (D.M. 1999) and Paul De Cinque (M.M. 2014) of the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music presented at the recent ABODA National Conference (Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association) and conducted ensembles formed from the UWA Orchestra, UWA Wind Orchestra, the WA Academy of Performing Arts and a local High School, formed especially for the conference.
Aaron Burkhart (B.M.E. 2006, M.M. 2012) will co-present with Indian Creek High School Director of Bands Amy Heavilin at the 75th annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. Their session, “The Rural and Urban Venn Diagram”, will explore the rewarding opportunities within rural and urban districts, and what we can learn from each other. All students, regardless of background, deserve the highest quality of music education. Through collaboration, creativity, and advocacy, teachers from all communities can create a program that uses your school’s uniqueness to foster success.
Danh Pham (M.M. 2001) was most recently announced as The American Prize 2nd Place winner in the Wind Ensemble Category (Professional Division) for 2021. The announcement can be found HERE. He will also present at the upcoming Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. Post-pandemic conducting appearances include return trips to China and Korea, as well as debut performances with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan) and the Calgary Wind Symphony (Canada). Pham continues in his role as Director of Bands and Symphony Orchestra conductor at Washington State University, in addition to being Music Director of the Washington Idaho Symphony Orchestra.
John Franklin (D.M. 2007) is the Interim Assistant Director of Bands at Northwestern State University of Louisiana (Natchitoches).
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Mystery Tune, Fall 2021:
Can you name this tune?
Spring 2021 Indiana Band Notes Mystery Tune Revealed…
The Mystery Tune in the Spring 2021 Indiana Band Notes (Vol. 36.2) was: Canzona, by Peter Mennin.
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