Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943, David Maslanka studied composition at Oberlin College with Joseph Wood. After a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he earned his master’s and Ph.D. in music theory and composition at Michigan State University, working primarily with H. Owen Reed. Maslanka’s wind music is especially well-known. About a third of his oeuvre are pieces for wind ensemble, including eight symphonies, 17 concertos, a Mass, concert pieces, and many chamber works. Following his death in 2017, his music has been preserved and circulated by his son Matthew, an accomplished euphonium player and trombonist as well as an engraver and copyist whose projects included the Pixar film The Incredibles 2.

One of Maslanka’s lesser-known chamber works, the Wind Quintet No. 4, was commissioned by The Florida West Coast Symphony and premiered in 2008 by its resident Florida Wind Quintet. Gayle Williams wrote in the Herald-Tribune before the work’s premiere, “In remarks made from the stage before the performance, Maslanka said that music connects the soul to the mind. He said he has no idea where the music or the consciousness comes from, but it is the most essential part of who we are. He also said that music, for us, in the space and time of the world, is about the transformation of pain and suffering.”

Born in 1954 in Cleveland, the “unabashedly atonal” composer Eric Ewazen studied at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School with teachers including Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, and Gunther Schuller. He has received many awards and prizes and is particularly well-known for his music for brass.

Frost Fire, which the American Brass Quintet commissioned for their 40th anniversary season, has been performed worldwide and is a staple of the brass repertoire. As Ewazen describes the work,

Marked “Bright and Fast,” the joyous first movement, in classic sonata-allegro-form, is full of buoyant melodies and rich chords. The second movement, marked “Gentle and Mysterious,” has a waltz-like feel. In a ternary (A-B-A) form, the outer sections consist of ribbons of melodies being gently passed from instrument to instrument. The middle section is a stately fugue which builds in intensity, volume, and rich-sounding resonance. The final movement, “Tense and Dramatic,” brings back material from the first movement, but sets it in a much more turbulent and frenetic environment. Although this movement is based on the skeletal outlines of a sonata-allegro form, it is much freer and more erratic, with shifting meters and contrasting, interpolated passages, ultimately leading the way to a heroic and dynamic conclusion.

Born in 1954 in Cleveland, the “unabashedly atonal” composer Eric Ewazen studied at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School with teachers including Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, and Gunther Schuller. He has received many awards and prizes and is particularly well-known for his music for brass.

Frost Fire, which the American Brass Quintet commissioned for their 40th anniversary season, has been performed worldwide and is a staple of the brass repertoire. As Ewazen describes the work,

Marked “Bright and Fast,” the joyous first movement, in classic sonata-allegro-form, is full of buoyant melodies and rich chords. The second movement, marked “Gentle and Mysterious,” has a waltz-like feel. In a ternary (A-B-A) form, the outer sections consist of ribbons of melodies being gently passed from instrument to instrument. The middle section is a stately fugue which builds in intensity, volume, and rich-sounding resonance. The final movement, “Tense and Dramatic,” brings back material from the first movement, but sets it in a much more turbulent and frenetic environment. Although this movement is based on the skeletal outlines of a sonata-allegro form, it is much freer and more erratic, with shifting meters and contrasting, interpolated passages, ultimately leading the way to a heroic and dynamic conclusion.