Thu, March 12, 2015 at 7:30pm
Rutgers Bands Extravaganza
Celebrating 100 Years
PROGRAM
Concert Band
Timothy G. Smith, Conductor
Lassus Trombone
Henry Fillmore
(1881–1956)
Folk Song Suite
March: Seventeen Come Sunday
Intermezzo: My Bonny Boy
March: Folk Songs from Somerset
Ralph Vaughan Williams
(1872–1958)
Benny Goodman: The King of Swing
Maureen Hurd, Soloist
Paul Murtha
(b. 1960)
Symphony Band
Darryl J. Bott, Conductor
Commando March
Samuel Barber
(1910–1981)
Suite of Old American Dances
I. Cake Walk
V. Rag
Giovanni Garcia – DMA ’17, Guest Conductor
The Carnival of Venice
Transcribed by Alan Catherall
Aaron VanderWeele, Soloist
Jerry W. Peel, Guest Conductor
Twelve Seconds to the Moon
Robert Russell Bennett
(1894–1981)
Herbert L. Clarke
(1867–1945)
Robert W. Smith
(b. 1958)
Wind Ensemble
Kraig Alan Williams, Conductor
Icarus and Daedalus Fantasy
Keith Gates
(b. 1948)
Metamarch
William Berz, Guest Conductor
Steven Bryant
(b. 1972)
Moviegoers’ Guide to John Williams
Jay Bocook
(b. 1952)
The Combined Bands of Rutgers
A Salute to the Big Ten
Thomas Bourgault
(b. 1983)
This program is made possible in part through a grant by the New Jersey State Council on
the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Rutgers Bands Extravaganza
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
RUTGERS BANDS EXTRAVAGANZA
This special concert features music spanning the 100-year history of the Rutgers Band
Program, the Big Ten, and historical and popular culture of the past 100 years. The show
lineup includes the Rutgers Wind Ensemble,
Rutgers Symphony Band, Rutgers Concert
Band, and the Rutgers Marching Scarlet
Knights, along with numerous faculty soloists
and guest conductors from the program’s history. The program includes a salute to Benny
Goodman; Twelve Seconds to the Moon, a history
of space travel; and Icarus and Daedalus Fantasy, commemorating the achievement of flight.
Rutgers faculty guest soloists include Maureen Hurd, clarinet, and Aaron VanderWeele,
euphonium.
100 YEARS OF THE RUTGERS
UNIVERSITY BAND PROGRAM
1915 Faculty member Leigh Kimball’s correspondence with President William
Henry Steele Demarest in December
1915 leads to the creation of the Rutgers
University Band program. The earliest
known performances take place at baseball games and military drills in the
spring of 1916. Kimball has experience
as composer, clarinetist, and U.S. Army
band veteran. In addition, he serves as
French professor at Rutgers College.
1927 Charles W. Cook begins a dual 12-year
career as Rutgers band director and
Thu, March 12, 2015 at 7:30pm
Army private. Rutgers band performances include marching as well as concert programs. The group performs live
on the radio (1930) on New York Radio
Station WOR.
1962 Casomir (Casey) Bork (music supervisor
of Roselle Schools) leads the Marching
Band from 1962 to 1966. The Rutgers
Wind Ensemble performs at the 1964
World’s Fair under Bork.
1941 Band activities are greatly diminished
and perhaps halted entirely at points
during World War II. In 1941, the band
is led by Wilbert Hitchner (Rutgers College ’22) until his deployment in the war
effort. He assumes leadership of the
band for several years when he returns
from the war.
1965 Initially student-led, the Rutgers Pep
Band begins appearing at basketball
events.
1948 After graduation from The Juilliard
School as a concert pianist and experience as a trombonist in the 76th Air
Force Band, Martin Sherman arrives as a
music faculty member at Rutgers. While
Sherman’s job description consists primarily of music history and music theory instruction, directing the band is an
“added” activity to his course load. The
Rutgers Marching Band assumes an Ivy
League approach to drill and style, donning straw hats and red blazers.
1967 The Rutgers Wind Ensemble performs at
New York City’s Town Hall to favorable
review in The New York Times. Mason
Gross (president of Rutgers University)
provides the narrative to Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait for the occasion. In
1968, the group makes a return appearance at Town Hall under Whitener. The
Rutgers Concert Band (second indoor
band) is formed to accommodate addi-
1955 Richard Gerstenberger continues the
marching-band tradition with the Ivy
League approach until 1962.
1960 An attempt at establishing a universitywide wind ensemble on the Douglass
campus is made by Gerstenberger and
Douglass clarinet professor George Jones.
1961 The Rutgers University Wind Ensemble
forms under the direction of Martin
Sherman.
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1966 Scott Whitener arrives as director of
bands. The Rutgers Marching Band develops a Big 10 high-step approach and
becomes known as the Rutgers Marching 100.
tional students joining the program.
1969 Rutgers Marching 100 performs at the
Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. In 1970, the Marching Band appears
in a segment with Nancy Sinatra, which
is performed live on The Ed Sullivan
Show.
1973 Women are permitted to join the Rutgers
Marching Band.
1980 William Berz is hired as marching band
director. The Rutgers Marching Band
shifts from high-step marching to glide
step. Rutgers plays Princeton in football
for the final time.
1982 Rutgers Marching Band reaches 200
members.
1989 The Rutgers Marching Band performs in
Ireland as the football team plays University of Pittsburgh in the Emerald Isle
Classic.
1993 William Berz assumes leadership of the
Wind Ensemble. Their first CD, titled
Rutgers Bands Extravaganza
Windfall, is recorded in 1995. In all, 24
recordings are released by the wind ensemble from this point until 2009. The
group receives a total of 44 entries into
the Grammy® nomination entry list.
2000 Timothy G. Smith is named director of
the Rutgers Marching Band and the
Concert Band. A third band ensemble,
the Symphony Band, is created.
2005 The Rutgers Wind Ensemble performs at
Carnegie Hall.
2008 Daryl Bott joins the Rutgers band staff
and Mason Gross School of the Arts faculty. Bott eventually assumes leadership
of the Symphony Band.
2011 Kraig Alan Williams is named director of
bands and conductor of the Rutgers
Wind Ensemble.
2014 Rutgers Marching Scarlet Knights perform at Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife
Stadium. In addition, the Rutgers drum
line performs with the rock group U2 on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Marching Scarlet Knights enter the
field with 250 members in their first year
performing in the Big Ten Conference.
MASON GROSS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Founded in 1976, Mason Gross School of
the Arts is the flagship public arts conservatory
of New Jersey. Part of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the school is home to the
departments of Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts as well as the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Mason Gross Extension
Division, Arts Online, and the Rutgers Center
For Digital Filmmaking. Its faculty and alumni
rosters include arts professionals recognized
nationally and internationally, including Kristin
Davis, Calista Flockhart, Avery Brooks, Cleo
Mack, William Pope.L, Alice Aycock, Sean
Jones, and Cristina Pato. The school’s enrollment of 752 undergraduates and 281 graduate
students across four departments, combined
with a faculty of 219, ensures students the opportunity to work closely with accomplished
artists within their fields.
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
Established in 1766, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is America’s eighth oldest
institution of higher learning. The Rutgers system educates more than 65,000 students and
serves the people of New Jersey at universities,
research centers, and clinical practices
throughout the state. The flagship, Rutgers
University–New Brunswick, is one of the nation’s premier public research universities and
is the only public institution in New Jersey represented in the prestigious Association of
American Universities. Rutgers University is
also a member of the Big Ten Conference and
its academic counterpart, the Committee on
Institutional Cooperation—a consortium of 15
world-class research universities.
RUTGERS WIND BANDS
The Rutgers Band program celebrates its
100th anniversary in 2015. Scott Whitener and
William Berz developed a rich heritage from the
late 1970s through the beginning of the 21st
century. Director of bands Kraig Alan Williams,
appointed in September 2011, is implementing
plans to meet the challenges of joining the highprofile Big Ten, the oldest Division I collegiate
athletic conference in the nation.
The Rutgers Wind Ensemble, with a history
of Grammy®-listed recordings, continues to
present repertoire at the highest artistic and
performance levels. A Symphony Band now
complements the Wind Ensemble. Rounded
out with a University Concert Band offered in
the spring, the wind bands are now meeting
the needs of over 250 students, both music
majors and nonmajors, who enjoy the merits
of performing in a concert ensemble setting.
Since 1915 the Marching Scarlet Knights
have demonstrated support for Rutgers University athletic teams. Originally begun as an
11-member band to play music for weekly
drills of the Rutgers College Cadet Corps, the
band has gone on to play the school’s fight
songs, to sing the school’s alma mater, and to
provide the university with school spirit and a
robust tradition.