YouTube Livestream link, ETSU Brass Faculty Recital

An evening of music for Brass Quintet, featuring faculty from the ETSU Department of Music. Program includes works by Zoe Cutler, Giovanni Gabrieli, Joan Tower, and Michael Kamen. This event will be held in ETSU’s Martin Center Recital Hall, 1328 W State of Franklin Rd, Johnson City, TN. Concert begins at 7:30 pm; Admission is free and open to the public. Contact: Cindy Godwin, 1-423-439-4276, godwinc@etsu.edu

I am pleased to announce the premiere of Threnody by the East Tennessee State University Faculty Brass Quintet (Sarah Fellenbaum and Brett Long, trumpets, Sean Donovan, horn, Justin Waller, trombone, and Steph Frye-Clark, tuba). The performance will take place Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 7:30pm Eastern Time, and will be live streamed on YouTube (see link above).

Composed in 2021, Threnody is in memory of composer/conductor Theodore Antoniou (1935-2018). As one of my composition teachers while at Boston University, Theodore was a supportive and influential mentor early on in my life as a composer. I met him for the first time when I was a 17-year-old student at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where he came to speak about his musical life and trajectory. As part of the opening ceremonies for the BUTI students, we all performed as part of the chorus in a reading of his epic cantata Nenikikamen. The Greek title translates as “we are victorious”, and premiered at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich with enormous choral forces (over 1,000 singers if my memory serves). I remember Theodore as a fearless musician tackling enormously difficult musical projects, both within the scope of his own compositions and as a tireless proponent of other living composers’ works.

My musical tribute to Theodore attempts to convey my lasting impression of him. He was very proud of being Greek; he was champion of the music of his time; he had enormous energy and drive; he was supportive of his colleagues but did not suffer fools. I like to think of Threnody as both a celebration of Theodore as a powerful musician, and as a lament for a fallen hero.

—GGR