Symphony No. 15 in G Major
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)

Mozart was an Austrian composer whose works transformed classical music as a whole. A child prodigy, he wrote over 600 pieces across nearly every genre, including symphonies, operas, and chamber music. Known for his structural clarity, expressive depth, and melodic elegance, Mozart’s music ranges from joyful to profoundly introspective. His operas, like The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, display his psychological insight, while his symphonies and concertos show his mastery of form. Though he died at 35, Mozart’s influence endures, with his works celebrated for their universal beauty and technical brilliance.

Serenade for String Orchestra
NORMAN LEYDEN (1917–2014)

Leyden was a celebrated American composer, arranger, and conductor best known for his work with the Oregon Symphony’s Pops series, which he led for over 30 years. His music blends jazz and classical elements, often reflecting the charm and sophistication of the big band era. A veteran of Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band, Leyden arranged music for renowned orchestras and artists, bringing jazz and swing to concert halls nationwide. Through his accessible and elegant arrangements, Leyden made orchestral music widely appealing and left a legacy of genre-crossing creativity and dedication to popularizing American music.

Rondeau
JEAN-JOSEPH MOURET (1682–1738)

Mouret was a French Baroque composer best known for his “Rondeau” from Suite de Symphonies, which became widely recognized as the theme for PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. Mouret’s music, characterized by its elegance, clarity, and charm, reflects the refined tastes of the French aristocracy in the early 18th century. Mouret held prestigious positions within the court, including serving as director of the Concert Spirituel, one of the first public concert series in Paris, where he composed numerous operas, ballets, and instrumental suites. Despite his success, Mouret faced financial and health challenges later in life, but his music endures as a quintessential example of the grandeur and sophistication of the Baroque era. His Rondeau remains a timeless piece that showcases his mastery of melody and form, bringing an air of nobility and poise to modern listeners.

Ember Skies
KEVIN DAY (b. 1996)

Day is an award-winning composer, jazz pianist, and conductor known for his vibrant fusion of contemporary classical, jazz, R&B, and gospel influences. His compositions have been performed by renowned ensembles such as the United States Marine Band, Cincinnati Opera, and Houston Symphony Orchestra. As an active jazz pianist, Day brings a unique voice to jazz, blending his diverse influences. He holds degrees from Texas Christian University, University of Georgia, and University of Miami and serves as Lecturer of Music Theory and Musicianship at UC San Diego. His collaborations span high-profile albums and commissions, advancing his reputation as one of today’s leading voices in contemporary music.

Ember Skies is a composition for young band that depicts a red-orange-colored sky that awakens from the darkness of night, bringing forth the first light and signaling the start of a new day.

Pevensey Castle
ROBERT SHELDON (b. 1954)

Robert Sheldon is an influential American composer, educator, and clinician. A former faculty member at Florida State University, Sheldon taught music education and conducting, later spending seventeen years as Director of Concert Band Publications at Alfred Music. Now a full-time composer and conductor, his music is regularly featured in international concerts and festivals and lauded for its accessibility and expressive depth. Sheldon has received numerous accolades, including an honorary doctorate from VanderCook College of Music and multiple prestigious awards. 

Pevensey Castle is a vivid concert band piece inspired by the ancient fortress on England’s coast. Through a combination of haunting melodies and dramatic textures, Sheldon evokes the castle's storied history, from its Roman origins to medieval battles.

“Cossack Dance” from Mazeppa
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893)

Tchaikovsky was a towering figure in Russian classical music who left an indelible mark on the musical world. He was raised on music, starting piano at age five and quickly excelling at music comprehension and performance. Eventually he attended Saint Petersburg Conservatory. This education was particularly Western-oriented and is what eventually set Tchaikovsky’s composition style apart from The Mighty Five, a group of Russian composers that led the contemporary nationalist movement in music. Tchiakovsky’s ability to fuse Russian folk influences with European classical traditions yielded timeless masterpieces that have endured for generations. His personal struggles, including his complex relationship with his own sexuality, added layers of depth to his music, making it a rich tapestry of human emotion. 

Tchaikovsky's “Cossack Dance” from the opera Mazeppa (1884) is a fast-paced orchestral piece featured in Act I. It accompanies a scene of celebration, where a group of Cossack soldiers perform a traditional dance. The music uses quick tempos and rhythmic patterns, inspired by Ukrainian folk tunes. It contrasts with the opera's more serious themes, providing a lively moment within the larger dramatic context of the Cossack leader Ivan Mazeppa's tragic story.

”Adagio” from Spartacus
ARAM KHACHATURIAN (1903–1978)

Khachaturian was a Soviet and Armenian composer and conductor who was deeply involved in the classical music scene of the Soviet Union. He and Shostakovich were contemporaries, but Khachaturian had a different, less tumultuous relationship with Stalin. 

Unlike most composers, Khachuturian did not play many instruments as a child. He learned tuba for a short time and taught himself piano, but he was more inspired by the music that was happening around him. Throughout his developing years, he was surrounded by Armenian folk music, which would come to have a tremendous impact on his later compositions. Khachaturian initially planned to become a doctor or an engineer and was studying biology at the Moscow University when he decided to also enroll at the Gnessin Musical Institute to study the cello. He began writing music before later entering the Moscow Conservatory to study composition. 

Although Khachaturian, for most of his career, was a Soviet composer in good standing, in January 1948—along with other composers including Shostakovich—he was denounced by the Communist Party for pursuing what they labeled “Formalism”—a negative term for music that was soulless and too overly intellectual for the masses to enjoy. He spent almost a year under censorship until December 1948.

Khachaturian's “Adagio” from the ballet Spartacus (1954) is a lush, emotionally charged orchestral piece. The Adagio, featured in the ballet’s "love scene" between Spartacus and Phrygia, is renowned for its sweeping, romantic melody, rich orchestration, and expressive depth. It captures both the tenderness and grandeur of the lovers' bond amidst the backdrop of rebellion. 

Symphony No. 5
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)

Beethoven was a German composer and pianist who is one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music. His musical talents were clear from a very young age and he was taught by his father before taking lessons from Christian Gottlob Neefe. Under Neefe, he published his very first works for keyboard, and after several years of study, Beethoven began teaching students of his own. At age twenty-one he moved from his hometown, Bonn, to Vienna, where he studied composition under Haydn and gained a reputation as a virtuosic pianist. 

Beethoven published his first large orchestral work and set of string quartets in 1800 and 1801. It was around this time when his hearing began to deteriorate. Despite this, he continued composing, telling almost no one that he could no longer hear by 1814. By then he had published his first five symphonies, the 3rd and 5th being the most revolutionary thus far. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is often cited as the turning point of the Classical to Romantic era. It included auxiliary instruments like the piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombone. The overarching progress from the stormy C minor of the first movement to the blazingly triumphant C major of the finale makes the Fifth Symphony powerfully expressive and cements its place in history. In many ways this symphony changed the course of large-scale classical works to come. 

Soon after his Symphony No. 5 premiered in 1808, Beethoven stopped almost all public appearances. He described his health issues and personal dissatisfaction with life in two letters, one of which was his Heiligenstadt Testament written in 1802. This was a letter to his brothers that, although not marked as such, is often interpreted as a will. Beethoven despaired over losing his hearing—without it he thought his career would be over and he would become a social outcast. Looking back, we can see that the opposite is true, as Beethoven’s late works were his most transformational. He wrote nine symphonies and hundreds of other works for chamber, piano, and orchestra.

Overture to The Barber of Seville
GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792–1868)

Rossini was one of the most influential composers in the history of Italian opera. His works are often characterized by their vivacity, humor, and impeccable melodic craftsmanship Rossini is renowned for his contribution to the elegant bel canto, or “beautiful singing” style, and his ability to captivate audiences with enchanting arias and overtures. 

Rossini's The Barber of Seville (1816) is a comic opera and one of the most famous in the opera buffa tradition. It follows the clever barber Figaro as he helps Count Almaviva win the love of Rosina, a young woman under the control of an older man plotting to marry her for her dowry. The story of a servant who continually outsmarts those in the upper classes and aristocracy was considered dangerously subversive during Revolutionary times, and it could only become palatable to a well-heeled audience via Rossini's irresistible musical humor and charm. Following a premiere that was rushed and initially not well received, The Barber of Seville soon became a huge success, remaining one of the most beloved and frequently performed operas worldwide.

An Outdoor Overture
AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)

Copland was an American composer and conductor who had a large role in cultivating ‘the American sound.’ Creating concert music derived from folk idioms of the Americas was foundational to Copland's style. Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York and began studying music at a young age. He eventually studied in France with renowned composer Nadia Boulanger, who had a significant impact on his style. Copland's early works were influenced by jazz and modernist composers like Stravsinsky, who developed his strikingly modernist sound from fragments of Russian folk tunes, Copland eventually developed a more accessible and populist style that reflected his interest in American folk music.

Copland composed An Outdoor Overture in 1938 to evoke the spirit of American outdoor life. Commissioned for a youth concert, this vibrant work features a lively and appealing style showcasing Copland's distinctive blend of folk elements and classical traditions. The piece embodies Copland's ability to convey the essence of American music with simplicity and freshness.

Ballade in A Minor, Op. 33
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR (1875–1912)

It was common in England for choral festivals to commission new works for choir and orchestra, as well as new pieces that featured the orchestra alone. The Three Choirs Festival (near Wales) had commissioned Edward Elgar to write a piece for the upcoming summer in 1898, but Elgar reneged, saying he was too busy. Instead, he had a recommendation for them: “I wish, wish, wish you would ask Coleridge-Taylor to do it. He still wants recognition, and he is far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men.” Thus, the young and little-known composer received his first major opportunity, which was a resounding success. 

Coleridge-Taylor subsequently produced a cantata on an American theme, "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast," which went on to become one of the most frequently performed works in England and the United States over the next 30 years. However, copyright laws being non-existent or ineffective at the time, Coleridge-Taylor reaped little-to-no financial benefit from his success. This unfortunate fact, combined with his death at a young age, not to mention the habitual discrimination of the music establishment against composers of color, led to the travesty of his music being neglected for many decades. In recent years, renewed attention to his astonishing mastery and compelling artistry is restoring his music to its rightful place on concert programs. The Ballade in A minor, written in a musical idiom that recalls Tchaikovsky, is in a sectional format, akin to the stanzas of a long poem (such as a ballad), with strongly contrasting ideas that alternate throughout the work. The opening is filled with dramatic, colorful energy and conflict. Eventually, this subsides into a gentle, lyrical song that gathers passionate momentum.

Fantasia & Fugue in C Minor, Op. 86
J. S. BACH (1685–1750)

Bach was the most profound and prolific descendant in a long line of important composers in the German tradition.. He was well-versed in music as a child, learning violin and theory from his father, and his extended family was made up of many professional and amateur musicians. After being orphaned at age ten, he learned clavichord from his brother for five years before continuing his music education at the prestigious St. Michael’s School in Lunenburg. Over the next several years  Bach occupied posts at various churches, all of them within a small area in central Germany. He was soon widely-recognized for his keyboarding skills and became the organist and later director of music at the ducal court in Weimar. 

The Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, was one of many of Bach's compositions for the organ during his time at Weimar (1708-1717). It is a work in two distinct parts: a lamenting, sorrowful, meditative fantasy followed by a boisterous, extroverted fugue. Over 200 years later, the English composer Edward Elgar proposed to his fellow composer Richard Strauss that they collaborate on an orchestration of this work, and Elgar immediate set to work orchestrating the Fantasia. However, Strauss didn’t keep up his end of the deal and Elgar completed the orchestration himself in 1922. This transcription helped popularize Bach’s work beyond just organ circles, showcasing Elgar’s admiration for Bach and his role in the development of Western classical music.

Danzón No. 2
ARTURO MÁRQUEZ (b. 1950)

Márquez is a Contemporary Mexican composer whose music vibrantly reflects his country's rich cultural heritage. Known for infusing classical forms with Latin American rhythms, Márquez is best known for his Danzón No. 2, inspired by the Cuban danzón tradition and popular dance halls in Veracruz. Opening with a gentle clarinet melody, the piece gradually builds as other instruments join, creating layers of texture that mirror the dance’s flirtatious exchanges. Márquez’s orchestration emphasizes the music’s pulse through percussion, while solos in the clarinet, trumpet, and flute add a conversational, improvisational feel. These musical elements evoke the experience of dance, moving seamlessly between moments of intimacy and exuberance. He composed Danzón No. 2 as a commission from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and dedicated it to his daughter, Lily.

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