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The Brooklyn Wind Symphony (BKWS) is a community band based in Brooklyn, New York.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2016) |
The Brooklyn Wind Symphony (BKWS) is a community band based in Brooklyn, New York.
Founded in 2008 as the Grand Street Community Band (GSCB), the band is a select, all-volunteer ensemble accepted by open auditions. The group split into two in 2011 to allow for more members by reinstating the Grand Street Community Band as an all-volunteer ensemble that rehearses and performs standard wind band repertoire.
The mission of BKWS is to promote lifelong participation in music while increasing public awareness of wind bands and the literature written for them. Advanced instrumentalists, regardless of profession, have the opportunity to play the most esteemed repertoire for wind bands. The ensemble continues to add new repertoire by commissioning new works by talented composers, such as David Maslanka, [1] Michael Markowski, [2] [3] and Viet Cuong. [4]
The ensemble traditionally performs two concerts in the fall, two concerts in the spring, and summer concerts outside in the parks of New York City. BWKS and GSCB are governed by the Metropolitan Music Community (MMC) Board of Directors. The MMC is a New York State 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The Brooklyn Wind Symphony performed at the 67th and 76th Midwest Clinic in December 2013 and December 2022 held in Chicago, Illinois. [5] BKWS was the first New York City ensemble to be invited to participate as a performing band in the prestigious annual event's history, which attracts top musicians and music educators from all over the world. In July 2015, the ensemble was invited to perform at the 16th International World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Conference in San Jose, California. [6]
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts.
A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments, and occasionally including the harp, double bass, or bass guitar. On rare occasions, additional, non-traditional instruments may be added to such ensembles such as piano, synthesizer, or electric guitar.
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993), Jackie O (1997), Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band (1997), UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999) and for Symphonic Band (2000), Bells for Stokowski from Philadelphia Stories for Orchestra (2001) and for Symphonic Band (2002), Fire and Blood for Solo Violin and Orchestra (2003) inspired by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003), Ghost Ranch for Orchestra (2005), Deus ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra (2007), Labyrinth of Love for Soprano and Chamber Winds (2012), American Gothic for Orchestra (2013), and Tales of Hemingway for Cello and Orchestra (2015). Daugherty has been described by The Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear."
The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference is the world's largest instrumental music education conference, annually drawing approximately 17,000 attendees to Chicago from all 50 states and as many as forty countries. It is held every December in downtown Chicago. A non-profit organization, the Midwest Clinic exists exclusively for educational purposes: to raise the standards of music education; to improve the methods employed in music education; to develop new teaching techniques; to disseminate to school music teachers, directors, supervisors, and others interested in music education information to assist in their professional work; to examine, analyze and appraise literature dealing with music; to hold clinics, lectures and demonstrations for the betterment of music education; and in general, to assist teachers and others interested in music education in better pursuing their profession.
The Eastman Wind Ensemble was founded by conductor Frederick Fennell at the Eastman School of Music in 1952. The ensemble is often credited with helping redefine the performance of wind band music. Considered one of America's leading wind ensembles, its core personnel of 50 players consists of undergraduate and graduate students at the Eastman School of Music.
David Maslanka was an American composer of Polish descent who wrote for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music, and symphony orchestra.
Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra and for Symphonic Band by American composer Michael Daugherty, is a 14-minute, single-movement tribute to one of the most prominent 20th century conductors, Leopold Stokowski. Bells for Stokowski for Orchestra (2001) stands alone as a concert piece, however, it is also the last movement of the three-movement work, Philadelphia Stories. Philadelphia Stories was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra in celebration of the Orchestra's centennial under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch. The premiere was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, under the direction of David Zinman, in November 2001.
Birmingham Symphonic Winds (BSW) is a UK-based amateur wind orchestra in the style of the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Eugene Migliaro Corporon is an American conductor, known for his work with wind ensembles and is a scholar of wind / band music repertoire. He is co-editor of two literature catalogs, Wind Ensemble/Band Repertoire (1984) and Wind Ensemble Literature (1975), as well as all ten volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band Series. He also co-hosted the Inner Game of Music videotape.
Dr. Glenn D. Price is a Canadian conductor who is the Director of Performing and Visual Arts at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he currently conducts the Symphony Orchestra and Wind Orchestra. He was formerly the Director of Wind Studies at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Yasuhide Ito is a contemporary Japanese composer.
Dr. Timothy Brett Rhea is director of bands and music activities at Texas A&M University. As director of bands, he leads the university band program, serves as conductor of the Texas A&M Wind Symphony, and coordinates the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band marching band. As director of music activities, he administratively oversees the activities of the jazz, orchestra, and choral programs. Rhea also served as the 79th president of the American Bandmasters Association from 2016-2017.
Alpharetta High School is a public high school located in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States within the Fulton County School System. Atlanta Magazine named Alpharetta High School one of the metro Atlanta area's best all-around high schools. In 2020, the U.S. News & World Report ranked the school #7 in Georgia and #281 nationally.
Now defunct, The National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain (NYWE) was regarded as one of the top youth wind groups in Europe, and hailed by Timothy Reynish as "one of the best wind groups in the world.".
The Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble is a Canadian wind band from the Metro Vancouver area in British Columbia. The ensemble's home venue is the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam.
Julie Ann Giroux is an American pianist and composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and numerous concert band works.
Scott Boerma is a composer of contemporary classical music, an arranger of music for marching ensembles, and the Director of Bands at Western Michigan University.
Viet Cuong is a Vietnamese-American composer. Praised as "alluring" by The New York Times and "irresistible" by The San Francisco Chronicle, Cuong's music has been performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. His music has been commissioned and performed by organizations such as the New York Philharmonic, So Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Eighth Blackbird, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and The Crossing.