Queensland Wind Orchestra | Musician/band

Queensland Wind Orchestra

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25.01.2022 A few weeks ago, another of our local composers, Catherine Likhuta, joined us in rehearsal to hear our progress with her work ‘Home Away from Home.’ Premiering ‘Home Away from Home’ in Queensland, and in December, is fitting as the Christmas and New Year period is the time when you yearn to be with friends, family and loved ones. In her words: I was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, and then lived in the United States for eight years before moving permanently to Australia in... 2012. As a result, all three countries became home to me, and I always miss them and my friends in each of them when I am away. I feel equally at home in all three. It so happened that the commission for ‘Home Away from Home’ came just before my family and I went on sabbatical to Ithaca, NY (our home in 20052009), from Australia for six months, also stopping by Ukraine on our way there. It was a very special time, filled with somewhat forgotten youthful thrill, wonderful reunions and nostalgic experiences. It made me realise that, in a way, each of these three places is my home away from home. I reflected on that thought, and also started thinking about the university freshmen students for whom I was writing the piece, who just left their parents’ nest and were finding their home away from home and their new life and community on campus. It is an exciting yet emotional time for them, and I wanted to reflect that in the piece. You can be among the first to hear Likhuta’s ‘Home Away form Home’ this Saturday night, 7pm, at the Old Museum Building. Tickets on sale now at qwo.org.au.

19.01.2022 Russian Christmas Music - Alfred Reed Alfred Reed (1921-2005) was born in New York and began his formal music training at the age of ten. During World War II, he served in the 529th Army Air Force Band after which he attended the Juilliard School of Music, studying under Vittorio Giannini, after which he was staff composer and arranger first for NBC, then for ABC. In 1953, he became the conductor of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra at Baylor University, where he received his B.M.... in 1955 and his M.M. in 1956. He was a prolific composer and travelled extensively as a guest artist and lecturer throughout his career. Reed was commissioned to write a piece of "Russian music" for a concert in Denver, Colorado in 1944. The concert's aim was to improve Soviet-American relations; as such, it was to include premieres of new Soviet and American works. Prokofiev's March, Op. 99 was supposed to be the Russian work, but it was discovered that the work had already been performed in the United States, so Reed was assigned to write a new piece a mere sixteen days before the concert. The piece was first performed on December 12, 1944, on nationally broadcast NBC radio. Since then it has become a frequently performed staple of the wind band repertoire. Although Russian Christmas Music consists of only one movement, it can be readily divided into four sections: 1. The opening section, Carol of the Little Russian Children, is based on a 16th-century Russian Christmas carol that is cast in a slow tempo throughout. 2. The Antiphonal Chant is faster and louder, with the melody initially carried by the trombones, horns, trumpets, and cornets. The woodwinds join in, and the music becomes more and more frenzied until the section ends with a massive cymbal and tam-tam crash, suddenly dropping into calmness by the trombones, low clarinets and bassoons. 3. The Village Song is much gentler by comparison; the cor anglais has two solos, with soli in the flutes, piccolos, and oboes and a solo in the horns at the end of each. The band plays a series of cantabile two-bar phrases back and forth between the woodwinds and brass. The song becomes quieter again, and the section ends with another co

16.01.2022 It wouldn't be 'Favourites' if we didn't include Viet Cuong's Moth. Commissioned by the Brooklyn Wind Symphony and premiered at the Midwest Clinic, Chicago in 2013, Moth seeks inspiration from the dualities between light and dark, beautiful and grotesque, reality and fantasy, and the ultimate decision to sacrifice sensibility for grace. In 2015, the Queensland Wind Orchestra premiered Moth to Australian audiences in 'Something New', and in 2018 we brought it out again for the... Gala evening at ABODA QLD's ANBOC in 2018. We'll be including that performance in our livestream on Saturday night, 4 April, starting 7pm AEST on our YouTube channel. No tickets needed, just jump on and enjoy an evening of recordings from some standout Queensland Wind Orchestra performances, presented by David Law.

16.01.2022 Discover with the Queensland Wind Orchestra in 2021. This video was presented as part of our online only concert: Together, which you can rewatch at any time on our Facebook page. Our Artistic Director David Law takes you through our exciting season for 2021. Keep an eye out for the dates!

15.01.2022 If you missed our livestream tonight, we'll keep it online for 48 hours. Re-listen to it here. Thanks to everyone who joined us.

13.01.2022 Thank you for joining us! We hope you have a fantastic holiday season, and look forward to performing for you, in person, in 2021.

10.01.2022 On Monday 16 March, the players of The Queensland Wind Orchestra discussed our approach to our upcoming concert PLAY!, to be held on 4 April at The Old Museum, in light of the current health crisis. The players voted to postpone PLAY! to the first concert of 2021. So, instead of holding our concert at The Old Museum building, we’ll be hosting an online-only event at the same time, on the same evening: Favourites.... Presented by David Law, this event will highlight some of our stand-out performances, and will be your first opportunity to re-listen to these performances outside of the concert hall, all of which were recorded thanks to our long-standing partnership with SAE Institute Australia giving students real-life experiences in orchestral recording. Our stream will be held on our YouTube channel. Make sure you put this event in your diaries, share with your friends and family, and join us online as we re-listen to an hour of outstanding works performed by the Queensland Wind Orchestra. If you’d like to read more about how this decision was made from the perspective of one of our Tuba players, James Harvey has written a fantastic blog post describing it which we'll link in the comments below. Take care, and we hope to see you online.

08.01.2022 We're really excited to share the recording of our performance in the A-Grade Concert Band section at the 2019 Yamaha National Band Championships at Easter last year. Filmed and recorded by the team at Brassbanned, with their permission we'll be sharing our performance of Frank Ticheli's arrangement of Amazing Grace, Claudio Grafulla's Washington Grays, Peter Graham's Metropolis 1927, and Julie Giroux's Symphony No IV: Bookmarks from Japan. You can access the stream via our w...ebsite at qwo.org.au (on the concert page), or right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM9ZB7p2JW0&feature=youtu.be. We hope you'll jump online and join us this Saturday night at 7pm AEST. No tickets, just jump on and let the Queensland Wind Orchestra fill your home with fantastic favourites from our previous performances.

07.01.2022 It’s considered to be Grainger’s band masterwork, and one of the key major works in the whole wind band repertoire: Lincolnshire Posy is a perfect addition to our list of ‘Favourites’ that you’ll hear on Saturday night, where we are livestreaming recordings of previous performances on our YouTube channel. You’ll hear a collection of folk songs that Grainger and Lucy Broadwood collected in Lincolnshire in 1905-06. It’s a favourite for many of our audience members (and players), and you’ll hear the performance by the Queensland Wind Orchestra, recorded in 2019’s ‘Tributes’ concert, conducted by Prof. Rob McWilliams. Join us this Saturday night at 7pm AEST. No tickets, just jump on and let the Queensland Wind Orchestra fill your home with fantastic favourites. We'll be online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM9ZB7p2JW0

07.01.2022 Colours - Roger Cichy I. Amber II. Dark Jade III. Blue Sapphire... IV. Mauve V. Dark Ivy VI. Burgundy Red Roger Cichy (b. 1956, Columbus, Ohio) has a diverse background as both a composer/arranger and a music educator. Roger holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts in Music Education degrees from The Ohio State University. Although both are in the area of music education, he studied composition and arranging as a second area of concentration during both degree programs. As a freelance composer and arranger, Roger writes for high school and college bands, professional orchestras, and the commercial music industry. He has over 275 compositions and arrangements accredited to his name. Colours is an impressionistic work with each of the six movements of the piece representing a particular colour. Composed in early 1997, Colours was commissioned by the Kansas State University Bands and premiered on May 10, 1997, with the composer conducting. The music of each movement is not based so much on the outward appearance of its colour, but rather the pigments that are combined to produce the particular colour. Taken one step further, the colour of each pigment is translated into its symbolic meaning, which is then represented through the music (i.e., green: warm, organic, middling qualities, immortality, neutrality). The musical "pigments" are blended into the composition of each movement to create the impression of the colour. Therefore, the work represents the association of colour symbolism as interpreted through music as opposed to "orchestra colours," or timbres. Obviously, the whole matter of colour symbolism is highly subjective. The particular colours that each movement represents were chosen by the composer because of their contrast to one another.

06.01.2022 Meet Tuska, the most bombastic, yet adoring orange beagle ever to live. Tuska the orange beagle is local composer Frankie Dyson Reilly’s dog, who exudes a rambunctious enthusiasm which belies his eight years of age. The highlight of Tuska’s day is taking a thrilling romp around the block, munching on flowers, hunting for cats, and experincing fresh delights at every turn. Tuska (the music) is a light-hearted slice of life through Tuska’s (the beagle) eyes. Frankie Dyson Rei...lly was recently the winner of the Australian Women’s Wind Band Competition, and as such, Tuska is receiving it’s world premiere this Saturday night at Discoveries. We think it’s a heart-warming work and couldn’t be happier to be the first to perform it. In Frankie’s words: I am incredibly excited to receive a premiere by a major Australian wind ensemble such as QWO. For a young composer like myself, this opportunity to work with brilliant musicians on such a scale is a rarity and a delight. I can’t thank them enough for welcoming my work into the stellar (and remarkably Australian!) program for the evening. Hear Tuska (the music!) for yourself this Saturday night at Discoveries, at The Old Museum. Tickets on sale now at qwo.org.au.

06.01.2022 At our 'Spirits' concert in September 2018, Prof. Rob McWilliams paired together O Magnum Mysterium and Divinum Mysterium into a "Mysterium" Pairing. We re-shared this pairing at the ANBOC Gala concert, of which you'll hear again on Saturday night for the first time. Conducted by Prof. Rob McWilliams, Morton Lauridsen's setting of O Magnum Mysterium (arranged by H. Robert Reynolds) resonates deeply into the core of the listener, followed immediately by Tom Wallace's arrangeme...nt of Divinum Mysterium, filling the core with joy. It's perfect for these times we find ourselves in, and we can't wait to revisit it this Saturday evening, 7pm AEST on our YouTube channel. We hope you'll join us online.

03.01.2022 Recently, local composer Alexander Voltz visited the Queensland Wind Orchestra during rehearsal to hear us play his new work, The Misrule of Henry VI. Voltz’ work, 'The Misrule of Henry VI' was written with the mantra ‘over before it starts.’ While King Henry VI founded some long-standing institutions like Eton College and King’s College in Cambridge, he was described as a peace-loving, indecisive, easily-led, as well as being severely mentally unstable in his later life. He ...was a decent man, but he was completely unsuitable to kingship at the time. Unfortunately, his reign was ineffective, and saw the gradual loss of the English lands in France. After losing the crown to his rival Edward of York, Henry's supporters returned him to the throne. Starting in 1453, Henry had a series of mental breakdowns, and tensions mounted between his wife, Margaret of Anjou and Richard of York over who would control the incapacitated king’s government. Civil war broke out, the Wars of the Roses began, and Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London on 21 May 1471. You’ll be able to hear this in action in the world premiere of Voltz’ 'The Misrule of Henry VI' at Discoveries, Saturday 7 December, 7pm. Tickets available now at qwo.org.au.

03.01.2022 Stille Nacht - Franz Grüber arr. Chip Davis, band setting by Robert Longfield Considered one of the world's most popular Christmas carols, Stille Nacht was first sung in Austria on Christmas Eve 1818. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Grüber (1787-1863). The words came from the pen of pastor Joseph Franz Mohr (1792-1848). The first known performance of Stille Nacht in the United States took place near New York City's Trinity Church. In 1839 the Rainer family singers of ...Austria included the German version in their repertoire during an appearance at the Alexander Hamilton Monument near the church, some 24 years before an English version of the carol would be published. Chip Davis, from contemporary popular group Mannheim Steamroller, created this particularly subtle and nuanced setting and Robert Longfield has faithfully adapted this arrangement for the modern wind band.

02.01.2022 Adam Schoenberg’s Picture Studies was commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony and Nelson-Atkins Museum. The idea was both intriguing and ambitious: write a 21st-century Pictures at an Exhibition, based on the art on display at the Nelson-Atkins Museum. The result brings eight seemingly disparate works of art to musical life across ten movements over 27 minutes. Based on four paintings, three photographs, and one sculpture, Picture Studies has been widely praised, and receive...d a nomination under the 60th GRAMMY awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. On Saturday night, the Queensland Wind Orchestra will bring Schoenberg’s fantastic achievement to Queensland for the first time, performing Don Patterson’s brilliant and faithful wind band transcription of the work. Hear it for yourself this Saturday night at Discoveries with David Law and the Queensland Wind Orchestra. Tickets available at qwo.org.au.

02.01.2022 The link to our stream tonight is here. We'll see you shortly! #qwofavourites

02.01.2022 Enjoy the great outdoors and spend quality time with family and friends with Outdoor Cinema in the Suburbs this Saturday 7 March. From 5:30pm, we'll be performing a selection of movie favourites, followed by a screening of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure starting at 6:30pm. Pack a blanket, get together with family and friends, and listen to some fantastic music! No need to purchase tickets, just grab your family and friends and turn up! For more information: https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au//bill-teds-excellent-adven

01.01.2022 INTERMISSION If you’re struggling to access the stream on our website, you can catch the stream over on our Facebook page - search Queensland Wind Orchestra