|
JOIN BANDQUEST ON FACEBOOK!
Become our fan today and see the latest from the series!
Hear composer Chen Yi featured on the Composers Datebook radio show for February 3, 2010, sponsored by the College Band Directors National Association!
Hear composer Michael Colgrass featured on the Composers Datebook radio show for January 31, 2010, sponsored by the College Band Directors National Association!
NEW FROM MICHAEL COLGRASS
Colgrass comes home to Illionois to write a piece for his former middle school band.
NEW SMARTMUSIC RESOURCES
SmartMusic 11.0 will soon be released. It features improved assessment and interface enhancements to help students easily use SmartMusic to complete assignments. Three videos from MakeMusic showcase various aspects of the new software.
-
The first of these is a 7 minute video designed for teachers. It explains how they can use SmartMusic assignments to better prepare concert music and develop student skills.
-
The second is a 4 minute video designed for parents. Teachers can use this video to help parents understand why SmartMusic is important for the music program and why students need to have SmartMusic at home.
-
The third video highlights the five types of content available to all who subscribe to SmartMusic.
Watch the videos!
DANA WILSON'S NEW PIECE FOR BANDQUEST, ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS, PREMIERES MAY 8 IN ITHACA, NEW YORK
Read all about this new work.
COMPOSER/BLOGGER JOHN MACKEY WRITES ABOUT ACF/BANDQUEST
Upcoming
Opportunity for Bands:
Wind
bands are needed to participate in the 2008
National Festival of the States year-long concert series in
Washington, D.C. , commemorating the 225th anniversary
of the end of the American Revolution.
BandQuest
on YouTube!
Wild
Music Exhibit
http://www.wildmusic.org/en/front_page
Learn
about wild music from this traveling science exhibit opening
March 2007 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. From the website:
"Whales compose, bullfrogs chorus, songbirds greet the
dawn, and people everywhere sing and dance. What do we all
have in common? Long before the advent of iTunes, the musical
instinct ran deep. Wild Music explores evidence for the biological
origins of music through highly interactive exhibits and exceptional
sound experiences, and -- in the process -- expands our understandings
of what makes music. With its multicultural content, careful
attention to accessibility, and rich menu of public programs
and performances, Wild Music offers broad appeal for diverse,
intergenerational audiences."
New
on BandQuest:
Tell
us where you are on our new Frappr
Map!
Read
more...
60th
Annual International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic
As
part of the 60th anniversary of this prestigious conference,
American Composers Forum's National Program Manager Carey
Nadeau has written a blog about ACF's planning and participation
as an exhibitor. Find this and more at www.midwestclinic.org
September
2006 Music Educators Journal
Read
Carlos R. Abril's article titled "Music that Represents
Culture: Selecting Music with Integrity." In this
article, Abril references BandQuest in the resources section.
One clarification: Hal Leonard is the distributor of
BandQuest, not of American Composers Forum.
Partnership
with Ravinia Festival, Chicago Sinfonietta and Chicago
Public Schools
In
2004-2005, BandQuest fostered a collaboration with the Ravinia
Festival, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Chicago Public Schools
in bringing the BandQuest series to Chicago. Professional
musicians from the Chicago Sinfonietta work closely with band
directors and students to prepare a selected composition through
mentoring, master classes with select BandQuest composers,
and the BandQuest CD-ROMs. The partnership culminates
in the performance of the BandQuest works at the Chicago Public
Schools All-City Band Concert.
Two
BandQuest Pieces named "Editor's Choice"
Michael
Daugherty's Alligator Alley and
Adolphus Hailstork's New Wade 'n Water
pieces were listed in the 2004-2005 J.W. Pepper Concert Band
Music Catalog for 2004-2005. Pepper also mentioned upcoming
pieces Rhythm Stand by Jennifer
Higdon and Mosaic by Stephen Paulus,
as well as mentioning Thomas Duffy's A+: A "Precise"
Prelude and an "Excellent" March,
Michael Colgrass' Old Churches, and
Libby Larsen's Hambone. Pepper
had this to say about the accompany CD-ROM forHambone:
"The CD-ROM included with the band set is an incredible
teaching tool that offers a teacher's guide, historical notes
about music of an oral tradition, games, composer interviews,
program notes, midi accompaniments which allow students to
play along while controlling the tempo and much, much more.
This is a welcome new format for student discovery in performing
concert band literature!" Visit
Pepper online.
Notes
from composer Michael Colgrass
Read
about the residency and commission of Michael Colgrass' Old
Churches in a journal written by the composer.
Through his work with students at Winona Drive Middle School
in Toronto, Colgrass formed a composition team with students
in addition to writing his band piece .
Journal
Home --Getting to know the students' abilities and limitations
and encouraging them to compose their own pieces.
Journal
Page 2- -The formation of the Composition Team.
Journal
Conclusion --Colgrass' thoughts on the BandQuest project
and writing for middle-level band.
Adam
Davis-McGee poses in front of the BandQuest booth at the American
Composers Forum offices. As a sixth grader, Adam was
photographed as the spokesperson for BandQuest, six years
later Adam provided the voiceover for the Grandmother
Song CDROM.
THREE
BandQuest PIECES IN NEW PUBLICATION
Three
BandQuest pieces: New Wade 'n Water by Adolphus Hailstork,
Alligator Alley by Michael Daugherty, and Alegre
by Tania Leon will be included in Volume 5 of "Teaching
Music Through Performance in Band" published by GIA
Prior to the publication, these pieces will be included in
the Conductors Collegium at the University of North Texas
College of Music with Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Dennis Fisher,
and Jack Stamp July 12-23, 2004. For more information
on participation, contact Jennifer Reed at 940-565-3737 or
jreed@music.unt.edu.
THE
KEY TO CREATIVITY: THINK LIKE A KID
By
Michael Colgrass, reprinted with permission
First
published in Adultita in Italy, this article by composer
Colgrass explains his classroom work and graphic notation
teaching process with students.
MUSIC
AVAILABLE FROM innova© recordings
THE
CD LABEL OF THE
AMERICAN
COMPOSERS FORUM
innova
recordings, the CD label of the American Composers Forum,
offers two recordings of band music by legendary and innovative
composers, performers, and conductors.
ALLIGATORS
INVADE CHICAGO!
BandQuest
at the 2003 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic
Reprinted
with permission from the Sounding Board, March/April 2004,
Vol. 31 #4
OLD
CHURCHES, NEW AUDIENCES
BANDQUEST
PIECE BY COLGRASS RECOMMENDED BY PEPPER Reprinted
with permission from the September/October 2003 issue of
Sounding Board.
Longmeadow
Commissioning Project
After
Michael Colgrass composed Old Churches,
he was invited to participate in a residency and composition
workshop with the students in Longmeadow, Mass.
Recent
Developments in Band Repertoire
With Recommended Literature for All Grade Levels by Robert
J. Ambrose
Reprinted
with permission, Georgia Music News , Vol. 63, Number
3, Spring, 2003, pp.49-52
|
