The University of Michigan Symphony Band is a leader of the wind band movement in America. Through recordings and performances in prestigious venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts, and La Scala, the UM Symphony Band is known for its professional quality of performance and keen sense of "trailblazing" in building repertoire.
Under the baton of Michael Haithcock since the fall of 2001, the Symphony Band has won praise from a wide range of audiences, composers, and critics. Reviews of recordings on the Equilibrium label have hailed the band's "breathtaking precision" as well as its "detailed, polished, and expressive phrasing." Critics have also praised the band's "organ-like sound quality as something to savor." Professional standards of performance combined with the highest artistic standard in repertoire is the hallmark of the University of Michigan Symphony Band.
I was fortunate to be a student at Micigan when Bilik was teaching there and also to be in his arranging class. In addition to his amazing abilities in arranging, he also understood the students better than most other instructors.
1. Lonely Nocturne 0:30 2. Circles 2:50 3. Beale Street 5:39 4. Stiller Freund 7:07 5. Not What Was 9:20 6. Call to Creation 14:22 7. Fire 16:39 8. Moan 19:50 9. Island [1] 22:48
I played tuba on this amazing master piece in high school. It's so awesome! To blast the low notes on tuba. Jazz is so fun to play! Imagine playing this while wearing blue shades!
Great recording! So many moving parts in this piece. Each part must be covered for this to work. English Horn and bass players are hard to find. So are low reeds. Bravo on a job well done! Well oiled machine!
Oooohhh... beautiful version !!! the saxophones bring so much to this almost "silky" atmosphere... when you know more about the whole story, this piece doesn't give a clue to the nasty action that will soon follow. The calm before the (mean) storm !!!
Sam Houston State University Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Ralph Mills played this just as well back in 1982. Michael Haithcock almost certainly knew Dr. Mills at the time...as he was director of the Baylor University Wind Ensemble at the time.
I remember playing this in HS band almost 50 years ago. We had a very good clarinet section that the director wanted to showcase so he picked this piece. We didn’t have bassoons in our band so it was really nice to hear the contrabassoon around the 3:00 mark. It really adds a lot to that section. Although this ensemble sounds very good, the tempo should have been a bit slower. There are a number of sections where things aren’t in sync, particularly those playing on the off beat. i think a slower tempo would have resulted in a cleaner performance
Hello I came across this recording while doing research of symphonic band music! Sounds great! Do you happen to have the rest of this concert performance? I’m looking especially for Celebration by Glass from this same concert. I’d love to listen to it for a project I’m doing. Also do you have the full concert of the Symphony Band from January 14, 1971? The whole concert has music I’d like to do for my project. Thanks for reading!!!
Its a great performance for a college band, but I am sure in the future he will polish the band to be the best college band in the Western Hemisphere. Just being at the Unversity of Michigan will draw many future players into the music program.
