Dana Wilson (composer)

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Dana Richard Wilson (born February 4, 1946 in Lakewood, Ohio ) is an American composer and music teacher .

Life

Dana Wilson came into contact with music at an early age, although as a pianist and guitarist he turned to the genres of jazz and rock. Since he was of the opinion that these styles were not suitable for a serious occupation as a composer, he studied psychology at Bowdoin College . He then signed up for military service, which he performed as a pianist in a military band, including in Heidelberg . After that, Wilson decided to take a formal musical education and studied composition at the University of Connecticut and at the Eastman School of Music with Samuel Adler , where he obtained a PhD in 1982. Wilson was Professor of Music Theory , Music History and Composition at the College of Ithaca, New York from 1994 to 2016 .

plant

Wilson often uses elements of jazz in his compositions; his work includes calm and melodic as well as rhythmically influenced pieces. Many important orchestras such as the Eastman Wind Ensemble or the Tōkyō Kōsei Wind Orchestra have commissioned or performed pieces by Wilson.

Wind band

  • 1988 Piece of Mind
  • 1990 Time Cries, Hoping Otherwise for saxophone
  • 1992 Dance of the New World
  • 1993 Shakata: Singing the World into Existence
  • 1997 Concert for horn (2001 for horn and symphony orchestra)
  • 1998 Last Ride to Solutré
  • 1998 Shortcut Home
  • 1999 Vortex for piano
  • 1999 Kah! (Out of Darkness)
  • 2002 Leader, songs , concerto for trumpet
  • 2005 Liquid Ebony for clarinet
  • 2013 concert for tuba
  • 2015 concert for trombone
  • 2017 Banquet ... and the poison soup plot
  • How Very Close for vocals and wind ensemble

Chamber music

  • 1986 This Ain't a Straight Sentimental Marvel for eight horns, double bass and drum set
  • 1989 Escape to the Center for saxophone quartet
  • 1993 Io Rising for brass quintet
  • 1994 Mirrors for woodwind quintet
  • 1995 Deep Remembering for horn and piano
  • 1997 Dancing with the Devil for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion
  • 1997 Pu Em Remu… (From the Tears) for flute and percussion
  • 1998 I Remember… for solo trumpet
  • 1999 All Our Yesterdays for flute, clarinet, horn, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion
  • 2001 Masks for trumpet and piano
  • 2002 Mandala for oboe and piano
  • 2003 Musings for horn and piano
  • 2005 Graham's Crackers for solo horn
  • 2007 Shallow Streams, Deep Rivers for horn, violin (or flute) and piano
  • 2009 Antico for horn quartet
  • 2014 A Thousand Whirling Dreams for clarinet, viola and piano

Publications

  • with Arthur C. Ostrander: Contemporary Choral Arranging . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1986, ISBN 978-0-13-169756-0 .

Awards

In 1987 Wilson received the Sudler Wind Band Composition Competition Prize (and thus the Medal of Honor ) from the John Philip Sousa Foundation for his piece Piece of Mind , and in 1988 the Sousa / ABA / Ostwald Award from the American Bandmasters Association . He won two first prizes in the International Trumpet Guild composition competition : 1998 for I Remember ... and 2001 for Masks .

Recordings (selection)

  • Deep Remembering (2001, Summit Records DCD 298), Gail Williams (horn), Mary Ann Covert (piano).
  • Classic Structures (2010, Equilibrium EQ 97), Adam Unsworth (horn), Nancy Ambrose King (oboe), The University Of Michigan Symphony Band, Michael Haithcock (conductor).
  • Ports of Call (2011, Altissimo! Records), The United States Navy Band, John R. Pastin (conductor).
  • American Tribute (2014, Ongaku Records 024-125), Jonathan Cohler (clarinet), Rasa Vitkauskaite (piano).
  • Danzante (2014, Summit Records DCD 459), James Thompson (trumpet), Eastman Wind Ensemble , Mark Scatterday (conductor).
  • American Voices: music for clarinet, viola and piano (2016, MSR Classics MS 1541), The Waldland Ensemble.
  • Transformations (2016, Bridge BRIDGE 9471), Aaron Tindall (tuba), Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, Stephen Peterson (conductor).
  • Color + Light (2017, Mark Masters MCD 51498), Lucas Borges (trombone), Ohio University Wind Symphony, Andrew Trachsel (conductor).
  • Vortex: Music of Dana Wilson (Mark Custom Records MCD 4327), Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, Stephen Peterson (conductor).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dana Wilson (1988). University of Maryland website, accessed June 29, 2017 .
  2. ^ Dana Professors. Ithaca College website, accessed June 29, 2017 .
  3. ^ Medal of Honor Recipients. John Philip Sousa Foundation website, accessed June 13, 2017 .
  4. ↑ ABA Awards. The American Bandmasters Association, accessed October 29, 2017 .
  5. ^ William Richardson: The 1998 ITG Composition Contest for Trumpet. Alone in the Jazz Idiom . In: International Trumpet Guild Journal . Vol. 23, No. 1, September 1998, pp. 34 f .
  6. ^ Faculty Notes . In: Ithaca School of Music (Ed.): Soundings . Volume 3, Number 1. Ithaca 2002, pp. 7 ( ithaca.edu [PDF; 11.9 MB ]).
personal data
SURNAME Wilson, Dana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilson, Dana Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Lakewood (Ohio)