Stephen Pratt: My name is Stephen Pratt. I'm the conductor of the southern Indiana Wind Ensemble. We've been preparing for our Spring Concert, that's at 7:00 PM in the very fine auditorium at Bloomington High School North. So…North side of Bloomington for the concert. Sometimes we have people who go to the South side first and then come North. This year we’re at Bloomington North and we're doing a concert that has turned out to be special, memorable for both good and sad reasons, and it's titled “Friends, Remembrances, and Jollity.” Originally, it was going to be “Friends and Jollity,” but it became “Remembrances” because in December we lost our President, our board member, and our very good trumpet player, and our great friend Janis Stockhouse. And so we added a piece of music to the center, which is the heart of the concert, from Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations. Nimrod, which he wrote in honor of his great friend. We couldn't imagine a better piece to play in honor of our great friend Janis Stockhouse. So, we'll be remembering her with music on both sides of that filled with friendship and joy. We open with Strike Up the Band by George Gershwin. And that fulfills friendship, because what is a band but a group of friends getting together and playing music? And this music is full of jollity. So we're looking forward to that.
Aaron Cain: Don't you have a premiere right After Strike Up the Band?
Stephen Pratt: We have two premiers. The first one is by William Owens, and he wrote this in remembrance of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Aaron Cain: Ah.
Stephen Pratt: This was a special commission by the American Bandmasters Association to support composers who are young and from under-representative areas. And William Owens happens to be an Indiana resident, born in Gary, and has developed into quite a good composer. So that's called, And With This New Day, which is from a quotation by Eleanor Roosevelt. The other Commission is entitled Over Peaceful Horizons. And this was actually commissioned by the Sturgis Michigan Wind Symphony in memoriam of my best friend, who I have known for over forty years, from Sturgis, Michigan, where I first started teaching. Our wives got to know each other; our kids grew up together. And he passed away a year ago. I conducted the Sturgis Wind Symphony in the premiere of this piece—this is the second performance that I know of—in honor of my great friend Scott Davidson, who people will recognize as the composer of the IU Fanfare…
Aaron Cain: Wow!
Stephen Pratt: …which he wrote for my wife’s and my wedding. That piece is particularly memorable to me, too, for both remembrances and friends. We’ll close with a work by Leonard Bernstein, who was commissioned to write a piece of music for Mstislav Rostropovich, who was the brand-new conductor of the National Symphony of Washington, D.C. at the time. And he said, “Lenny, write me a piece!” And so, Bernstein did. And it's called Slava!, which was a friendly designation for Mstislav, and we close the program with that. We're also doing a piece by Gustav Holst from his The Planets. We’re playing Jupiter. Definitely that's a jollity thing, but in the center is a wonderful slow piece, which Holst also used for a hymn, and it's well known in England, I Vow to Thee, My Country. Holst is remembered for both The Planets and for this hymn.
Aaron Cain: Well, it sounds like you are going to get to do precisely what you are setting out to do with this program. What you described definitely seems like it is full of celebration of friends, and of remembrances of friends, dearly missed, and plenty of jollity.
Stephen Pratt: And that's what we try to bring to the people who will be in attendance. We value the friendship of them, too, and hope they come to experience the jollity.
Aaron Cain: Well, Stephen Pratt, thanks so much for speaking with me today.
Stephen Pratt: It's a great pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Aaron Cain: The Southern Indiana Wind Ensemble, conducted by Stephen Pratt, presents their spring concert Monday, May 5th at 7:00 PM in the Bloomington High School North Auditorium. More information at siwemusic.com. For WFIU Arts, I'm Aaron Cain.
