Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 7:30pm
Newport Lutheran Church
900 Fifteenth St.
Newport, MN 55055

Prelude to a Celebration has a decidely Western, cinematic feel and an energetic motive which keeps this piece moving. Yau Yuen Hing, born and educated in Hong Kong, is a very enthusiastic and experienced French horn performer, teacher, composer and arranger. He graduated from the Hong Kong Baptist College in 1981 and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1988 and joined the Hong Kong Government Music Office as French horn instructor as well as band director. His compositions and arrangements are widely performed in public by various groups such as the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, the Hong Kong Camarata, the Hong Kong Symphonic Winds, the Tom Lee Wind Orchestra and the Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band.

Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy is a set of six “musical wildflowers” that he collected in Lincolnshire, England and arranged in 1937 for the American Bandmasters Association. In the program notes Grainger explains his intentions: 'Each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody… a musical portrait of the singer's personality no less than of his habits of song… his regular or irregular wonts of rhythm, his preference for gaunt or ornately arabesqued delivery, his contrasts of legato and staccato, his tendency towards breadth or delicacy of tone'. He dedicated the work to 'the old folksingers, who sang so sweetly to me'.

Gregory Fritze, professor of composition at the Berklee College of Music, was commissioned by the United States Army Band to write a piece about the legendary General John J. Pershing. Among other things, General Pershing founded the Army Band in 1922. The tradition of excellence continues today.

[from the score notes]
"Snow Lotus is a Tibetan legend. A fairy maiden Juwasam lives in the celestial palace and enjoys a life of immortality. She is free from any worries that human beings are subject to, yet she cannot resist the attractions of the mortal world, which seems to be so beautiful and pure when seen from distance. So she comes down to the earth, fully aware that by doing so she loses her immortality. Soon her sacrifice proves to be unworthy, for the mortal world is nothing like her imagination. She is disappointed and stunned when confronted with the greed and conspircy of human beings. As pure and innocent as a snow lotus, she finally dies with a broken heart."