Western Michigan University's three concert bands open their season at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11, in Miller Auditorium. In an interview with Cara Lieurance, director of bands Scott Boerma previews the University Wind Symphony's portion of the program, much of it shaped by his recent sabbatical in Australia and Thailand.
Boerma's Wind Symphony begins with his own "Sails," inspired by Sydney Harbour and its opera house. "It's just a concert opener, about a four-minute piece that hopefully encapsulates some of the feelings I got from witnessing that," he says. Commissioned by the Wheaton Municipal Band and premiered last March at the American Bandmasters Association convention, it receives its first Michigan performance.
Boerma began his sabbatical teaching at a conducting school run by the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association, where school bands often rehearse just once a week. "So the desire and the energy is exactly what we experience here, but the resources of time are drastically different," he says.
Thailand offers a contrast. While a visiting professor at Mahidol University, Boerma guest conducted his piece "Zoom" at Kasetsart University during a rehearsal that ran about four and a half hours. "They were going to rehearse until everything was great," he says.
That experience leads him to "Khaen" by Thai composer Viskamol Chaiwanichsiri, which evokes the drones and rhythmic ostinatos of a bamboo mouth organ from northeast Thailand and Laos. The work won a grant awarded in memory of Robert M. Carnochan, the late University of Miami director of bands. "Rob was one of my closest friends," Boerma says.
Graduate conducting student Jairo Cabrera leads J.C. Heed's 1885 march "In Storm and Sunshine." The program closes with Vittorio Giannini's four-movement Symphony No. 3, a 1958 work written originally for winds that Boerma describes as neo-Baroque.
The University Concert Band performs under new conductor Allison Davis, who succeeds the retired Mary Land. Trey Harris leads the University Symphonic Band, which opens with a work by Australian composer Katy Abbott.
Tickets are $18 for general admission, $14 for seniors and $6 for faculty, staff and students, available at the door or through the School of Music. Boerma advises arriving early.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
