Returning for its third year, this series of concerts celebrates diversity in classical music. Students from different departments unite, sharing the excitement and beauty of old and new music by underrepresented composers.

“Seen and Heard” Program #1: Mon 26 Jun 2023, 6.30pm

David Josefowitz Recital Hall at Royal Academy of Music

Louise Farrenc - Sextet in C minor for piano and winds, Op 40
Barbara Harbach - Freeing the Caged Bird
Imogen Holst - Leiston Suite
Sanae Kanda - Karen; Purple Night

“Seen and Heard” Program #2: Tue 27 Jun 2023, 1.00pm

Angela Burgess Recital Hall at Royal Academy of Music

Sally Beamish - Between Earth and Sea
Sofia Gubaidulina - Serenade for guitar
Falla - La vida breve (excerpts)
Yoshi Weinberg - Four Elements
Toru Takemitsu - Toward the Sea

“Seen and Heard” Program #3: Thu 29 Jun 2023, 1.00pm

Angela Burgess Recital Hall at Royal Academy of Music

Brandon Scott Rumsey - Sacred Spaces
Kinan Azmeh - Waiting for Friday
Adolphus Hailstork - String Quartet No 3

Pure Winds will perform Emblems for woodwind quintet on the Fridays @ The Newberry Series in Great Falls, Montana. There are two performances: Friday January 7, 2023 at The Newberry and Sunday January 9, 2023 at The Sunday Series at First Congregational Church.

Pure Winds will perform Emblems for woodwind quintet on the Fridays @ The Newberry Series in Great Falls, Montana. There are two performances: Friday January 7, 2023 at The Newberry and Sunday January 9, 2023 at The Sunday Series at First Congregational Church.

American Patriots Tour Begins in Germany

This fall Samantha takes her American Patriots recital to Stuttgart, Germany! As part of the Klangram Festival housed at the acclaimed German music school Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart — Samantha will begin her American Patriots tour with an international audience.

American Patriots is a theatrical song-cycle that captures contemporary America from four vastly different perspectives: African-American, Native American, New American, and white Working-Class American. Featuring newly commissioned songs set to the unaltered text of interviews with over 35 Americans, American Patriots takes an unflinching look at the lived reality of American ideals today.

Music by: Regina Baiocchi, Gala Flagello, Danielle Jagelski, Brandon Scott Rumsey, Yaniv Segal

Commissioned and performed by Samantha Rose Williams (Creative Producer)

I can't believe it finally has a home, but my piece The Sparrows for tenor and chamber orchestra, written in 2017 for my dissertation and revised in 2020, will be performed at UT-Austin by the UT New Music Ensemble under its recently-named Director and my friend, Ryan Kelly! The piece is about 15 minutes long and features an absolutely glorious text by Geoffrey Nutter, commissioned for especially for this piece. Geoffrey's work has been so grounding for me as an artist, and I'm honored to have, after about six or seven years of setting his words, met him in January 2020. Google him and read his poetry, you won't regret it!

I'll be there, and I hope to see some of you there as well! 💜

Join us for Peter’s 32nd birthday with a livestream concert! Featuring classical music, classic songbook tunes, video game music, and many mooooore! Program will include the world premiere of Crystals (on aloneness) by Brandon Scott Rumsey!

Crystals (on aloneness) was commissioned by Peter Dayton and Douglas Johnson and includes an original text by Geoffrey Nutter, commissioned by Brandon Rumsey in 2017.

Live Stream Here

Text

There was an adage you told me once.
You were my best friend and beloved, so I listened.
It was a series of words brought together, like friends,
words that in their plainness shined.

And though I don’t remember them,
I recall the despair that your presence
lifted from me with a touch that night, one of many,
when I lie awake, mind grinding away
like a millstone with nothing to grind.

You spoke the words that guided me through
and our eyes grew brilliant, and we walked
on the mossy earth among trees
as if among the gentle dead.

They asked for nothing,
but only seemed to offer what was
one moment under a giant blue sky.

I’m thrilled to return to Portland, OR in January 2022 where the Arcturus Quintet and Doug Schneider, guest pianist, will be giving the world premiere of a new composition for piano and wind quintet (untitled at the moment), which was commissioned by 45th Parallel Universe and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music Alumni Support Initiative.

Arcturus Quintet

Martha Long, Flute
Karen Wagner, Oboe
James Shields, Clarinet
Steve Vacchi, Bassoon
Joe Berger, Horn

with

Maria Garcia, Piano

PROGRAM

Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major, K. 452
Louise Farrenc: Sextet in C minor, Op. 40
Brandon Scott Rumsey: Piano Sextet (World Premiere)

Silhouettes will be performed by Kelly Cunningham, Doctoral Bassoon student at the University of Oregon at Beall Concert Hall, Eugene, Oregon!

The virtual world premiere of Crystals (on peace) was recorded and performed by Midori Samson, below. This project was commissioned by The Peace Studio for the “100 Offerings of Peace” project.

ASU WIND ENSEMBLE AND WIND SYMPHONY - Wanderlust: Let's Travel the World!

Tuesday, October 26, 7:30 pm

The ASU Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony perform works by Alfred Reed and Percy Grainger and feature 2021 ASU Concerto Competition winners Nathan Bitter, trombone and Jared Waters, saxophone. The Wind Symphony also welcomes our first guest conductor of the season, Dr. Armand Hall from Rochester New York’s ROCmusic Collaborative.

Brandon Scott Rumsey: Wanderlust (Armand Hall, guest conductor)

Luis Serrano Alarcón: Tramonto (Thomas Landschoot, cello)

Launy Grøndahl: Concerto for Trombone and Band (Nathan Bitter, trombone & Dylan Maddix, guest conductor)

Alfred Reed: Armenian Dances Pt. 1

Percy Grainger: Shepherd’s Hey and Irish Tune from County Derry

André Waignein: Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Band (Jared Waters, saxophone & Phil Vallejo, guest conductor)

Omar Thomas: Come Sunday

The University of Texas at Austin Bassoon Studio will give a virtual premiere of Afterglow for bassoon ensemble, commissioned by the studio’s fearless leader and my former teacher, Kristin Wolfe Jensen. The program will also feature a concert experience by the UT Percussion Ensemble. Please read all of the details below! The live stream can be accessed beginning July 18 at 7:00 p.m. CDT.

LIVE STREAM

UT Bassoon Studio

Afterglow for Bassoon Ensemble (world premiere) by Brandon Scott Rumsey
Kristin Wolfe Jensen, director
Farkhad Khudyev, conductor

UT Percussion Ensemble

This 50-minute-video project is set around Yaz Lancaster’s work dis[armed] which attempts to explore the conversation around gun violence – particularly mass shootings and the killing of unarmed Black people by police in the United States. Yaz’s work, and the program as a whole, encourages a conversation to figure out where to go from here, and that there is somewhere better to go. Supporting works include: Joseph Pereira (Mallet Quartet), Devonté Hynes (Perfectly Voiceless), and a world premiere of (Elysium Infernum) by doctoral percussion student Cy Miessler.

Blank House Media, audio mixing/mastering and video production
Thomas Burritt, producer
Jordan Walsh, assistant producer

From the Butler School of Music’s website:

Though the pandemic turned our world upside down, the students at the Butler School of Music met the challenges of this year with courage, creativity and compassion. Throughout the course of the year, small ensembles met to rehearse and record together under careful conditions. Recitalists were recorded in empty halls. Several students flexed new skills and curated their own video projects.

We celebrate our students' excellent work from the past year in this special Butler Summer Series. Six concerts will be streamed for free on Thursdays and Sundays after July 4.

God’s Green Earth world premiere is live below!

I can't believe it finally has a home, but my piece The Sparrows for tenor and chamber orchestra, written in 2017 for my dissertation and revised this year will be performed at UT-Austin by the UT New Music Ensemble under its recently-named permanent Director and my friend, Ryan Kelly! The piece is about 15 minutes long and features an absolutely glorious text by Geoffrey Nutter, commissioned for the piece. Geoffrey's work has been so grounding for me as an artist to encounter and I'm honored to have, after about six or seven years of setting his words, met him in January. Google him and read his work, you won't regret it!!

Additionally, Afterglow for bassoon ensemble, commissioned by Kristin Wolfe Jensen, my former bassoon teacher and one of the most inspiring figures I've had the privilege of learning from in my musical training. Anyone who has studied with me has (and some who haven't have) received *something* from Professor Jensen's musical and humanity toolbox, and I'm so honored that they'll be presenting this piece for the first time as well. Honestly, when do you get to hear a whole studio of bassoons and contrabassoons playing a swarm of gorgeousness? April 29th, that's when. :)

I'll be there and I hope to see some of you there as well! 💜

P.S. There will be other composers on the program announced soon, don't worry! 😅

The Northwest Wind Quintet, the faculty wind quintet of the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the Univeristy of Idaho will be performing Emblems on Sunday March 8 at 7:30pm. This will be a special performance as it will be the retirement performance for UI faculty member Dr. Carol Padgham-Albrecht after 30 years at the LHSOM.

Virtual World Premiere of Silhouettes is here:

On March 30, 2019 the Back Pocket Duo (Annie Jeng, pianist and Colin McCall, percussionist) will perform Crystals (on empathy) at the Faber Piano Institute! The Empathy Project involves commissions by several composers to develop new works which focus on the theme of "empathy". The hour-long concert experience creates a narrative which aims to blur the lines between traditional roles delineated in typical concert music: performer to performer, performer to listener, composer to performer to listener, etc. with the goal of fostering empathy in their audiences and beyond.

Crystals features a newly-commissioned text by American poet Geoffrey Nutter that is then broken up into four movements which can be arranged by the performers and placed throughout the concert in whatever arrangement they choose. Crystals also incorporates elements of play, improvisation, verbal and/or non-verbal communication, and on-the-spot decision making combined with traditional musical notation to create four unique movements that are unified by a common theme of love.

I met this inspiring duo of fearless musicians during graduate school at the University of Michigan, and since forming in 2016, they have found a musical niche somewhere between pop and classical music.

On March 1, 2019 the Back Pocket Duo (Annie Jeng, pianist and Colin McCall, percussionist) will perform Crystals (on empathy) as a part of their residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Empathy Project involves commissions by several composers to develop new works which focus on the theme of "empathy". The hour-long concert experience creates a narrative which aims to blur the lines between traditional roles delineated in typical concert music: performer to performer, performer to listener, composer to performer to listener, etc. with the goal of fostering empathy in their audiences and beyond.

Crystals features a newly-commissioned text by American poet Geoffrey Nutter that is then broken up into four movements which can be arranged by the performers and placed throughout the concert in whatever arrangement they choose. Crystals also incorporates elements of play, improvisation, verbal and/or non-verbal communication, and on-the-spot decision making combined with traditional musical notation to create four unique movements that are unified by a common theme of love.

I met this inspiring duo of fearless musicians during graduate school at the University of Michigan, and since forming in 2016, they have found a musical niche somewhere between pop and classical music.

On February 8, 2019 the Back Pocket Duo (Annie Jeng, pianist and Colin McCall, percussionist) will premiere Crystals (on empathy) at the University of Windsor! The Empathy Project involves commissions by several composers to develop new works which focus on the theme of "empathy". The hour-long concert experience creates a narrative which aims to blur the lines between traditional roles delineated in typical concert music: performer to performer, performer to listener, composer to performer to listener, etc. with the goal of fostering empathy in their audiences and beyond.

Crystals features a newly-commissioned text by American poet Geoffrey Nutter that is then broken up into four movements which can be arranged by the performers and placed throughout the concert in whatever arrangement they choose. Crystals also incorporates elements of play, improvisation, verbal and/or non-verbal communication, and on-the-spot decision making combined with traditional musical notation to create four unique movements that are unified by a common theme of love.

I met this inspiring duo of fearless musicians during graduate school at the University of Michigan, and since forming in 2016, they have found a musical niche somewhere between pop and classical music.

EMBLEMS is a wind quintet and collective of musicians who value individuality, storytelling, and collaboration. June 3rd we are giving a concert at the University of Oregon featuring some of our favorite works for wind quintet and a world premiere by Nathan Thatcher, commissioned by Emblems with the support of the Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition. 

Merryl Neille (Ann Arbor, MI), flute
Alex Hayashi (Las Vegas, NV), oboe
Clarissa Osborn (Portland, OR), clarinet**
Brandon Scott Rumsey (Ann Arbor, MI), bassoon**
Caroline Steiger (San Marcos, TX), horn

** Alumni of the University of Oregon!

Program
SEEGER, Ruth Crawford - Suite (1952)
KARLSSON, Finnur - Mirrors (2010)
RUMSEY, Brandon Scott - Emblems (2016)
THATCHER, Nathan - Terms of Venery (2018)

The program will last approximately 50 minutes and the quintet will stay afterward for socialization and Q&A. 

Learn more about us at http://emblemsquintet.com/

Source:: https://www.facebook.com/events/160238924809237/

Wanderlust will be premiered at my alma mater, The University of Texas, by the Symphony Band led by Ryan Kelly. 7:30pm Central, Bates Recital Hall at UT.

Live stream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/batesrecitalhall

Concert program: https://music.utexas.edu/sites/files/bsom/utsb_0.pdf

The The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra woodwinds will be giving the New York City premiere of Emblems for woodwind quintet at their “The Brilliance of the Woodwind Quintet” recital featuring works by Valerie Coleman, Kenji Bunch, Brandon Scott Rumsey, Fernande Decruck, and Francis Poulenc. This will be taking place Saturday March 17 at 3pm at The Fort Washington Collegiate Church (729 West 181st Street, New York).

Featuring:
Anna Urrey, Flute, Ellen Hindson, Oboe, John Hong, Clarinet, Pierre Lidar, Bassoon, Jamie Sanborn, Horn, Michael Smith, Piano

Invocation for soprano and string quartet, featuring an original poem by Geoffrey Nutter, will be premiered by Tony Arnold and Third Angle New Music (Ron Blessinger, Greg Ewer, Charles Noble, and Marilyn de Oliveira) on October 21, 2017. The concert will be held at the beautiful Bowstring Truss House in Portland, Oregon at 5pm. This concert is the culmination of the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and will also feature works by Dave Reminick, David Coll, Nina Shekhar, Carlos Simon, and Hitomi Oba.

Amy Petrongelli, soprano; Alexandra Porter, soprano; and Zach Pulse, oboe will premiere In Sunglight, featuring several two-line poems by living poets on a Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project (CUSP) concert. More details to be released soon!

CUSP (Alexandra Porter - Artistic Director, Founder) creates a platform for modern classical compositions for the voice by supporting both emerging and established performers, composers, and visionaries in the world of contemporary music. Audiences will become familiar with the music of our time – the music being composed and performed all around them, previously unheard and unseen. Young performers are given the chance to create something new through unique programming. Composers can work closely with artists to bring their work to life.

On April 11th, I will be defending my dissertation The Sparrows that was recently workshopped by Jason Weisinger (tenor), Roberto Kalb (conductor), and student performers from the University of Michigan School of Music. The cycle of two songs was selected from a series of six original texts by Geoffrey Nutter that were created for this piece.

As a part of our March concert programs, the Emblems Quintet will be giving a recital at the University of Michigan's Britton Recital Hall!

Tentative Program: 
Emblems (2016) – Brandon Scott Rumsey
Suite (1952) – Ruth Crawford Seeger
Darker than Blue (2014) – Emma Logan
Instilling Hope (2015) – Jabez Co
Mirrors (2010) – Finnur Karlsson

As a part of our March concert programs, the Emblems Quintet will be giving a recital at Adrian College at Dawson Auditorium.

Tentative Program: 
Emblems (2016) – Brandon Scott Rumsey
Suite (1952) – Ruth Crawford Seeger
Darker than Blue (2014) – Emma Logan
Instilling Hope (2015) – Jabez Co
Mirrors (2010) – Finnur Karlsson

Cultivate Coffee and Tap House in Ypsilanti will be hosting the EMBLEMS Quintet for an unwind with woodwinds happy hour! Please join us for exciting repertoire by composers from our call for scores and other works that are rarely performed.

Tentative Program:
Emblems (2016) – Brandon Scott Rumsey
Suite (1952) – Ruth Crawford Seeger
Instilling Hope (2015) – Jabez Co
Mirrors (2010) – Finnur Karlsson

Jason Noble and his Scarsdale High School Wind Ensemble will be giving another performance of their commissioned work, WANDERLUST, at Sydney Town Hall in Sydney, Australia!