Texas Star “Western Concert March” is the official march of the Dallas Wind Symphony. Dedicated to Lovrein’s high school band director, Charles Forque, and the Plano High School Band, this sprawling western march is a musical impression of the famous “Texas Star” Ferris wheel at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas. It was first performed at the Fairgrounds in May of 1996.

Wild Nights! is a joyous, colorful seven-minute musical journey inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem:

Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

Numerous composers have set the words of Wild Nights! to music, however, to my knowledge, no one has used this wonderfully sensuous poem as the basis for a purely instrumental tone poem. This was my aim, and in so doing I focused most heavily on the lines “Done with the compass,/Done with the chart” and “Rowing in Eden!/Ah! the sea!” These words suggested the sense of freedom and ecstatic joy that I tried to express in my work.

Throughout the piece, even during its darker middle section, the music is mercurial, impetuous, optimistic. A jazzy syncopated rhythmic motive permeates the journey. Unexpected events come and go, lending spontaneity and a sense of freedom. The work is composed in five distinct sections, contained within each section are numerous surprises and a devil-may-care swagger. Surprises are found at every turn and continue right through the final cadence.

– Program Note by composer

On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six educators were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Having grown up in Sandy Hook just a mile from the school, this is where I attended grades 3-5. For the past several years, I have thought about writing a piece of music that would reflect on this tragedy, but I have struggled to know where to start. Even after beginning to sketch out ideas for this piece, I felt unsure of where the piece should go and what it should communicate. In an effort to find a clearer sense of direction, I searched for poetry that reflected how I was feeling. When I came across Remember, a moving poem by Christina Rossetti, I found the direction I was looking for. Through the simple idea of remembering — not forgetting that this happened, not forgetting these children, not forgetting the grief that their families must feel — I realized this is what I wanted and needed to communicate through music.

The music incorporates elements of a funeral march, as well as a lament, using a descending tetrachord as a ground bass. The funeral march and the lament are combined early in the piece and after the ground bass repeats and grows to a climax, the funeral march gradually fades and a more ethereal music emerges.

– Program Note by composer

The Plano Community Band performs this music today in remembrance of the twenty-seven souls swept away from Cape Mystic on July 4, 2025.

The starting point of Colors is bipartite. On the one hand I wanted to create a solo piece based upon the colors yellow, blue, red and green. I wanted to express the characteristics, associations and emotions related to these colors in a subtle manner. This way, every movement was named after a color:

1) Yellow: inspiring and stimulating, (also: wisdom and light)
2) Red: dynamic, passionate developing into dramatic, furious and fighting (also: courage and will-power)
3) Blue: melancholic, dreamy and introvert (also: truth and peace)
4) Green: hopeful and full of expectation (also: balanced power and harmony)

A second important source of inspiration was the death of an uncle who was a trombone player in his free time. The heavy struggle that this man went through at the end of his life might be symbolized in the second movement of the concerto, which sounds like a battle at the end of this movement.

The unity in the piece is reached by the use of a three-tone motif (c-d-g) which constantly returns in various ways throughout the composition, and which is the basis of every important theme.

Finally, I tried to use the coloristic pallet of the trombone in the best possible way, making use of the complete range of the instrument and the different timbres of the instrument.

– Program Note by composer

Meredith Willson’s beloved march Seventy-Six Trombones, from The Music Man (1957), bursts with the buoyant optimism and small-town pride that define American musical theater. In this brilliant arrangement by Leroy Anderson, the tune’s Broadway charm is infused with orchestral polish and rhythmic vitality—Anderson’s signature wit transforms Willson’s parade into a dazzling concert showcase. Jay Bocook’s band adaptation further amplifies that spirit for the modern wind ensemble, balancing crisp brass fanfares with buoyant woodwind flourishes and a swaggering percussion drive. The result is both nostalgic and electrifying: a jubilant celebration of community, pageantry, and the irresistible power of a band in full stride—seventy-six trombones strong.

Sir Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances, Book One, Op. 27a (1950), stands among the composer’s most beloved works—four exuberant miniatures that capture the vitality, humor, and lyric grace of mid-century British music. Originally composed for orchestra and later transcribed for wind band, the suite draws its spirit not from literal folk tunes but from Arnold’s own invention of melodies that sound quintessentially English.

Written shortly after his work on several major film scores, these dances reveal Arnold’s flair for vivid characterization and rhythmic wit. The first dance brims with jaunty optimism, evoking the pageantry of village life; the second turns wistful, its lilting 6/8 melody unfolding with pastoral warmth. The third movement’s driving rhythms and asymmetrical phrases suggest a rustic reel that threatens to spin out of control, while the finale sparkles with brisk energy and a sly touch of satire.

Giacomo Puccini’s Nessun dorma (“None shall sleep”) is one of the most iconic arias in all of opera, drawn from the climactic final act of Turandot (1926). In this transcription, Puccini’s sumptuous orchestration and vocal drama are transformed through the color and power of the wind ensemble, preserving the aria’s emotional sweep while reimagining its textures in the instrumental realm.

In this performance, trombonist Peter Steiner assumes the role of the tenor soloist, channeling the heroic voice through the warmth and flexibility of his instrument. Renowned for his lyrical expressivity and vocal phrasing, Steiner draws from Puccini’s bel canto tradition to shape each phrase with operatic nuance, making the trombone sing with both tenderness and triumph. His performance illuminates the aria’s human essence—the persistence of hope and love rendered in pure musical form. Through the collective sonority of the band and Steiner’s luminous solo line, Puccini’s timeless message resounds: even in darkness, the human spirit endures—and triumphs.

Eric Cook’s Bolívar is a dynamic and evocative symphonic portrait inspired by the life and legend of Simón Bolívar—the revolutionary hero who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule. Written for wind ensemble, the work fuses bold rhythmic energy with vivid harmonic color to capture both the fervor of revolution and the dignity of Bolívar’s vision for unity and freedom. Latin American rhythmic elements—propulsive percussion, syncopated brass fanfares, and driving ostinati—intertwine with expansive melodic gestures that evoke landscapes both majestic and untamed. Cook’s writing is cinematic and passionate, blending modern concert band sonorities with the vitality of folk dance and ceremonial procession. Bolívar stands as a celebration of courage, resilience, and the enduring power of one leader’s dream to forge independence through music that is at once fierce, lyrical, and triumphant.