Concert Bands of UC Davis

Campus Band 

Leonard Bernstein: Slava! A Political Overture

• Presented as an arrangement of Bernstein’s short orchestral work, the piece was originally written for the inaugural concert of cellist (and conductor) Mistislav Rostropovich—who was known to his friends as Slava—with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, in 1977.

Dmitri Shostakovich: Folk Dances

Katahj Copley: Unspoken

• This short piece was written in 2020 in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Katahj writes, “I wanted to show the five stages of grief, they are not in the order of the stages but better yet the stages of the black community’s grief.”

Cait Nishimura: Wilderness

• "This piece was commissioned by the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in celebration of their 75th anniversary. “Wilderness” celebrates and honours Earth’s remaining wild spaces and the people who fight to protect them. Through this music, I explore the range of emotions I experience as an environmentalist, and I express my gratitude for all that nature has given me. This piece is a call-to-action for all of us to do our part in spreading awareness about climate change, to reflect on our relationship with nature, and to deepen our respect for the stewards of this land." - Cait Nishimura 

UC Davis Concert Band 

Li Chan: Folk Song of Midu

Samuel Barber: Sure on this Shining Night

• Among Samuel Barber’s most popular pieces of music, Sure on this Shining Night has been arranged for chorus, solo voice, orchestra only (without voice) and concert band, and no doubt others. It was originally (in 1910) an art song, with text by James Agee, which evokes a calm within on a starlit night. 

Parisa Sabet: Nawruz

• “Nawruz” is written in celebration of Persian New Year. Nawruz won the 2011 Chicago College of Performing Art’s Wind Ensemble Composition Competition.

Percy Grainger: Gum-Sucker’s March

• A “Gum-Sucker” is an Australian nickname for Australians born in Victoria, the home state of the composer. In the march, Grainger used his own Australian Up-Country Tune melody, written by him to typify Australia, which melody he also employed in his Colonial Song for two voices and orchestra, or military band.

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