Behind the Camera with “Movie Music, and More!”

The Rhode Island Wind Ensemble
Sunday, March 16, 2025; 2:00 pm
Stadium Theatre; Woonsocket, RI

The conductor's main job DURING a concert is to set the tempo for each piece and manage any tempo changes that come up along the way. But honestly, the most important part of a successful concert is choosing the right music to play. I often approach this like a chef planning a menu for a special dinner: you want some hearty dishes, a few lighter options, and a blend of familiar along with some new. Variety is definitely “the spice of life,” but there’s got to be something that ties everything together and tells a bigger story. 

RIWE’s upcoming concert, “Movie Music, and More!” on Sunday, March 16th at 2:00 pm in Woonsocket’s storied Stadium Theatre, is a case in point. I’ve been looking forward to returning to this amazing venue for a few years now, ever since our June 2019 “Tribute to John Philip Sousa.” Playing music written by the great old (and newer) Hollywood composers in a grand old movie theater like The Stadium just makes sense! Here’s a play-by-play of our upcoming concert, one piece at a time.

20th Century Fox Fanfare

Alfred Newman composed this iconic fanfare in 1933 for 20th Century Pictures. Two years later, following their merger with the Fox Film Corporation, the fanfare became the symbol of this new Hollywood powerhouse. Newman, one of Hollywood’s most influential film composers and the uncle of singer-songwriter Randy Newman (known for his work on Toy Story), was charged with creating a musical logo to signal the start of a grand cinematic experience. He delivered one of the most recognizable musical trademarks in existence. From its drum "roll off" to the pregnant pause that follows its final note, it lasts only about twenty-five seconds. But what an electrifying twenty-five seconds!

Star Wars (Main Title)

In film scoring, the "main title" is the music played during the opening credits; it establishes the film’s tone and often introduces the key melodic ideas or motifs that recur throughout the score. I doubt there’s a more celebrated main title in all of film than John Williams’ masterpiece for Star Wars, released in 1977. We wanted to begin this concert with a big gesture, something eminently recognizable, and there really was no other choice! Williams’s music reflects his deep admiration for the great Romantic composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Influenced by Wagner’s sweeping orchestration, Tchaikovsky’s melodic inventiveness, and Mahler’s juxtaposition of delicate orchestral subtleties with explosive climaxes, his scores mirror the emotional landscapes on the screen perfectly. 

The composer writes, “The opening of the film was visually so stunning, with that lettering that comes out and the spaceships and so on, that it was clear that music had to kind of smack you right in the eye and do something very strong. I tried to construct something that would have an idealistic, uplifting but military flare to it, and to try to get it so it’s set in the most brilliant register of the trumpets, horns, and trombones.” Our brass players believe he succeeded!

The Wizard of Oz

It’s safe to say that most Americans have seen at least some of this legendary 1939 film, whose unforgettable tunes—especially the beloved "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"—have become a fixture in our musical landscape. The film represents a perfect convergence of a lavish budget, a star-studded cast, groundbreaking technology, and the magic of Harold Arlen’s contributions to the Great American Songbook. His work stands proudly alongside masterpieces by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, and Richard Rodgers, cementing his place among the luminaries of American music. 

Including music from The Wizard of Oz in this concert was an obvious choice. However, when vocal pieces are adapted for an instrumental ensemble—especially for a concert band that lacks the warm, resonant strings reminiscent of the human voice—the specific arrangement becomes even more critical. We’re thrilled to play this 1995 arrangement by composer James Barnes, one of the true masters of concert band scoring. Professor Barnes taught music at the University of Kansas (what a coincidence!) for forty years, is one of the few composers to have been commissioned to compose works for all five of the major American military bands in Washington, DC.

James Bond

Originating with the very first Bond movie Dr. No (1962), Monty Norman’s famous theme music captured the essence of suave danger and has become a cultural symbol for the entire “spy story” genre. The “Bond” medley we’re performing includes this most recognizable Bond theme, as well as John Barry’s 1964 “Goldfinger” theme, originally sung by Welch superstar Dame Shirley Bassey. Other Bond tunes in our collection include Marvin Hamlisch’s “Nobody Does it Better” and Sir Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die.” Such fun!

La Fee Printemps

Deserving an entire blog post all to itself, La Fee Printemps is our most ambitious production on the concert, though at a bit over three minutes in duration, the shortest. La Fee Printemps (The Spring Fairy) was directed  by French filmmaker Ferdinand Zecca in 1902, and it has reached a kind of cult status among film buffs for its innovative use of special effects such as splicing, reverse effects, and hand colorization. These effects may seem a bit quaint to today’s viewers, but they lend an air of visual innocence to what is essentially a happy fairy tale. 

We will perform – actually, premiere – an original (and, hopefully, perfectly synchronized) soundtrack to the silent film while it is being projected above the band. Conducting this piece requires absolute synchronization between the music and the film itself, so I will be equipped with an earpiece that provides a precisely timed click track, and the ensemble must remain alert to subtle tempo changes. Emmy-winning composer and Rhode Island resident Roger Cichy has crafted a tender and compelling original score to this short film and has chosen the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble to present its world premiere. We are both honored and grateful for this extraordinary opportunity to unite film and live performance in a truly collaborative setting.

Jurassic Park

John Williams' choice to  return to grand orchestral film scoring in his soundtrack for Jaws in 1976 represents a crucial turning point in modern cinema. In an industry that had increasingly relied on synthesized and pop/rock-oriented scores, Williams reintroduced the emotional richness and dramatic nuances that only a full symphony orchestra can provide. He not only challenged the prevailing trends but also reinstated the orchestra as a vital component of film, reaffirming its power to evoke complex emotions and elevate visual storytelling into an unforgettable experience.

By the time Jurassic Park arrived in 1993, John Williams and Steven Spielberg had collaborated on several blockbuster films, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Hook (1991). When Steven Spielberg challenged Williams to capture both the awe and the underlying menace of encountering living dinosaurs, Williams retreated to his home studio and delivered one of his finest efforts. When Spielberg heard the initial demo, he was reportedly so moved by its emotional resonance that he nearly wept, convinced that Williams had perfectly distilled the film’s blend of exhilarating adventure and latent danger. 

And I can't overstate the scoring talent of Paul Lavender, the arranger of today’s medley. Most recently, he has received international acclaim with two notable transcriptions for symphonic band: Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. Both transcriptions were written for and recorded by the world-renowned United States Marine Band. Paul’s arrangement of the Jurassic Park score notably calls for harp and synthesizer in addition to the standard concert band instrumentation, adding layers of sonic delicacy and power.

2001: A Space Odyssey

In 1968, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick introduced to a much wider audience the music of two 19th-century German-speaking composers, born thirty-nine years apart, unrelated but sharing the common last name of Strauss. I remember going to the theater as a nine-year-old music lover and being captivated by the opening twenty-five minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey – there was no dialogue, just incredible music. Today’s tribute to the great “movie composers” continues with two memorable works of classical music from Kubrick’s 1968 film that were composed decades before cinema itself was even invented!

Written in 1896 by Richard Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra is a thirty-three minute tone poem inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel of the same name. Its opening solemn fanfare, “Sunrise” (Einleitung), has become one of the most iconic passages in classical music, largely due to Kubrick’s use of it in the opening credits and the “Dawn of Man” scene on the prehistoric African plains. In an abrupt change of scene, Johann Strauss Jr.’s much-loved On the Beautiful Blue Danube accompanies Kubrick’s visual ballet of futuristic spaceships in orbit around the earth and moon. Its graceful waltz rhythms evoke a sense of weightlessness in space, similar to how the waltz is meant to be danced as if one were floating effortlessly on the ballroom floor.

An American in Paris

“An American in Paris” is a cinematic homage to George Gershwin’s groundbreaking composition, and its making was as much about honoring the music as it was about redefining the Hollywood musical. Originally composed in 1928 as a tone poem evoking the vibrant energy and romantic allure of Paris, Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” served as the film’s emotional and musical backbone. Director Vincente Minnelli, renowned for his visual storytelling, envisioned the film as an immersive experience where Gershwin’s music would seamlessly intertwine with dazzling choreography and Parisian imagery. 

The production team painstakingly adapted the orchestral piece into a narrative framework, ensuring that its sweeping melodies and rhythmic vitality were not merely background music, but a dynamic force driving the storyline. Integrating the pre-existing composition posed creative challenges: the filmmakers had to choreograph elaborate dance sequences and construct visual tableaux that both paid tribute to and expanded upon Gershwin’s original themes. Through innovative staging and meticulous synchronization of sound and movement, the film transformed the familiar music into a living, breathing element that encapsulated the spirit of being an outsider enchanted by the City of Light. 

Ultimately, “An American in Paris” not only cemented Gershwin’s work as a timeless classic in its own right but also set a new standard for how music and image could coalesce to evoke emotion, transporting audiences into a dreamlike, exuberant celebration of art and life in Paris.

The Disney Renaissance

Legendary composer Alan Menken has created some of the most beloved songs and musical scores of our time, with his unique voice as a composer capturing the imagination of audiences for over thirty-five years. Known for his music on stage and screen, he is noted for his multiple works with the Walt Disney company, as well as Broadway stage musicals Sister Act and Little Shop of Horrors. With eight Academy Awards, Alan has received more Oscars than any living person, and is the recipient of numerous other awards including Golden Globes, Grammys, Drama Desk Awards, and a Tony Award.

He was a central force in what has become known as “The DIsney Renaissance,” an era from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making more musical animated films based on well-known stories. The animated films released during this period include: The Little Mermaid (1989), The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), and Tarzan (1999).

“Disney Spectacular” is a delightful montage of seven of Alan Menken’s hit songs from three blockbuster movies from the Disney Renaissance. Songs included are: “Under The Sea” and “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid; “Beauty And The Beast” and “Be Our Guest” from Beauty And The Beast; and “Arabian Nights,” “Friend Like Me,” and “Whole New World” from Aladdin.

A Symphony of Sitcoms

Over the past thirty years, television theme songs have undergone a noticeable transformation. Once long and elaborate pieces that set the tone for each show or perhaps even told the show's backstory, theme songs are now significantly shorter and simpler. This trend reflects changing viewing habits and production priorities, as companies favor quick, catchy jingles that grab attention in a competitive media landscape; however, this often sacrifices musical richness and narrative depth. If you’re nostalgic for those classic, intricately arranged themes from the famous sitcoms from vintage TV, do we have a medley for you! Sit back and enjoy our “Symphony of Sitcoms,” and see if you can name all nine shows, just by their themes!

TV Sing-Along

What’s better than HEARING television theme songs? Why, SINGING them, of course! We close our salute to “Movie Music, and More!” with a good old sing-along of five icons of TV music, led by Stadium Theatre artist Chantell Arraial. In case you’re a bit rusty with the words, we’ll project them above the band so you can join in the fun! 

In Conclusion

I hope this commentary has helped whet your appetite for what should be a great musical meal on Sunday, March 16th. RIWE is grateful to The Stadium Theatre for this opportunity to present an entertaining (and perhaps illuminating) afternoon of some of Hollywood’s greatest music. Reserved-seating tickets are available at The Stadium Theatre box office or at www.stadiumtheatre.com. Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!

Side by What?

Side by What?

What does music from Latin America have in common with Jewish music? Why put them “side by side” on the same concert? At first, the answers to these questions might seem to be “Nothing!” and “I have no idea!” And yet….

Taking a step back to see the larger picture, music is always a reflection of the people (i.e., the culture) from which it arose  – and Latino and Jewish cultures actually share plenty. Although their traditional instruments, singing styles, and repertoire may be different, the people of these two cultures share a deep respect for hard work, family, and tradition. Both cultures have experienced loss, hardship, and oppression; yet both remain optimistic. And the music from both traditions has an almost magical way of expressing joy and sadness in the same piece. Maybe if we put them together on the same concert, ….

Full disclosure – the theme of any particular RIWE concert is never really decided BEFORE the repertoire. It’s more like a process of symbiosis and happy accident, to be fair. “Side by Side,” for instance, didn’t start with a flash of insight into the similarity of these two cultures; its point of origin was actually our performance calendar, and two very special community partners.

We Couldn’t Do It Without Them

For several years, RIWE has enjoyed the support of Temple Sinai and its congregation, performing there annually on a Sunday afternoon in the fall when the Patriots had a bye week. (At least that’s the way we started, when the Pats were Super Bowl contenders; this year our November 5th concert is on a game day, but considering the disappointing season they’re having, perhaps people would rather attend a concert?)

We’ve also enjoyed a growing relationship with the music program at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence. For several years, RIWE has shared the stage at MPHS with their students in an annual “side-by-side” concert (see our previous blog about the CTE Music Pathways here). According to the LaGrange (GA) Symphony Orchestra, a side-by-side concert is where the students “literally sit beside our musicians during one piece [on the] concert.  Both the students and the [adult] musicians play the same music, follow the same cues from the conductor, blend with the other instruments, and witness the same audience reaction.” It’s really a great experience, and we’re grateful for the opportunity. 

RIWE also hosts interns from the Mount PLeasant CTE program: high school musicians who are recommended by their music teacher and who pass an audition with the RIWE conductor become regular members of RIWE for the entire concert season, attending weekly rehearsals and performing at all of our concerts across the Ocean State through June.

So with these basic pieces of the puzzle in place already, it really wasn’t a big leap to extend the musical cross-fertilization into the area of repertoire this year. After all, connecting with the predominantly Latino community at Mount Pleasant High School is easier through the Danzon of Arturo Márquez than through the marches of John Philip Sousa; the largely Jewish audience at Temple Sinai will respond to My Yiddishe Momme with the same ease of familiarity. So here’s what you can expect, and what we’re so excited about:

Jesùs Andujar

A native of the Dominican Republic, special guest soloist Jesús Andujar is a master percussionist in the Latin jazz tradition. “My inspiration comes from the culture of where I grew up,” Andujar said. He is a master of all styles of Latin jazz percussion, including rumba, son, mambo, salsa, bachata, cha cha and merengue. He studied at the New York Collective Drumming School and has played with various well-known Puerto Rican groups like Grupo Wao, Bonny Cepeda, and many others. He has made Providence his home since 1982, sharing his native musical culture with New England audiences. Take a look at this great feature on Jesùs from Rhode Island PBS. We’re thrilled to be performing with him! 

From Atlanta to the Sea

Composed in 2015, From Atlanta to the Sea is a march very much in the style of the great Portuguese-American musician John Philip Sousa. It borrows and transforms three well-known American tunes (Marching Through Georgia, Yellow Rose of Texas, and The Caissons Go Rolling Along), sometimes setting them in counterpoint against each other, sometimes changing the tune from major to minor. Duarte has written over twenty pieces of varying length and difficulty, for a variety of musical forces. Check out his website and listen to more of his music here.

Parasol

Composer and conductor Efraín Amaya was born in Venezuela, where he began his musical training. Continuing his studies in the United States, he earned degrees from the University of Indiana and Rice University. He writes:

Parasol (literally "stop-sun" in Spanish) is based on the "clave" rhythmic pattern that is used so much in Latin American folk music. When I wrote this piece in the winter of 2002, I had been yearning for the times when I was young and lived in Caracas. Back then, I used to go to the beach every weekend. The beaches in Venezuela are fantastic, and the one thing that will amaze you right away is the sun and its light. The sun at these beaches is both a blessing in its clear light and a deadly weapon to your skin. To survive in these beaches you needed either a palm tree or a parasol. Once you were in the shade, there was nothing to stop you from happiness!

Percussion soloist Jesùs Andujar will take Amaya’s Parasol as the starting place for a collaborative celebration of the clave rhythm, alternating episodes of solo percussion with the full ensemble.

Danzon No. 2

Arturo Márquez’s Danzon No. 2 gained worldwide attention when it was featured by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in their 2007 tour of the United States and Europe. Watch the spellbinding performance here. The composer writes:

The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez. It endeavors to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and it is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No. 2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.

Little Threepenny Music

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was born into a musical and deeply religious Jewish family in the town of Dessau, a small city eighty miles southwest of Berlin, Germany. His satirical style was well-suited to music for the theater, and by 1925 a series of performances in Berlin and at international music festivals established Weill as one of the leading composers of his generation. 

First performed in 1928, Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera proved to be the biggest theatrical success of the Weimar Republic, running for more than 350 performances over the next two years, until it was eventually banned by the Nazi government for its satiristic and unflattering portrait of German society. Weill fled Hitler in 1936 and came to New York, where his interest in American music and literature became a vital part of the music he composed for Broadway and Hollywood.

Innovation Tango

The tango is a partner dance that originated in the 1880’s in Argentina and Uruguay. In the early years of the Twentieth Century, dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires traveled to Europe and a feverish “tango craze” took place in high-society Paris, London, and Berlin, eventually making its way to the Gilded Age society in New York and Newport, RI in 1912-1913.

Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, one of Newport’s most influential society matrons, was offended by the close body contact between tango partners – so she did what any other uptight Victorian matron of means would do: she commissioned the world’s most famous dance couple, Vernon and Irene Castle, to create a tango where the partners never touched each other at all! (Observe the incredibly cool-looking, no-touch tango pose modeled by the Castles on the cover of the published sheet music here.) The music was written by Arthur N. Green, pianist to the Castles. A review of the tango from the Ft. Wayne (IN) Sentinel’s society page stated:

Because she didn't like the tango, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish hired its most noted exponents, the Castles, to invent a denaturized form of this dance. She calls it the "Innovation." The dancers take position twelve inches away from each other, look into each other's eyes, but never touch each other during the dance. Her guests on whom it was sprung were NOT madly crazy about it.

The Promise of Living

Often referred to as the "Dean of American Music," composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990) was born in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children to Harris and Sarah Copland, Jewish immigrants from Russia who adopted an Anglicized version of their original surname, Kaplan. His career as a composer was secured by such instrumental masterpieces as the Fanfare for the Common Man and the ballets Rodeo and Appalachian Spring.

Copland's only full-length opera, The Tender Land tells the story of a young girl, Laurie Moss, who grows up on a Midwestern farm and is about to leave home. Two numbers from this opera have become choral favorites. In The Promise of Living, at the close of the first act, three generations of the Moss family and their hired hands sing a hymn of gratitude for life, the land, and the spring harvest.

Tico-Tico no Fubá

Composed by Brazilian Zequinha de Abreu in 1917, the amusing title of this work translates literally to "sparrow in the cornmeal.” It was recorded and made popular internationally by Carmen Miranda, who performed it on screen in Copacabana (1947). It was also heard in the 1942 Disney animated film Saludos Amigos, among several other films. It is an excellent example of chorinho ("little lament"), considered the first characteristically Brazilian genre of urban popular music. Despite its name, this style of music often has a fast and happy rhythm. It is characterized by virtuosity, improvisation, and subtle modulations; it is full of syncopation and counterpoint. 

Haida

Haida is a nigun, a form of Jewish religious song sung in large groups, often with repetitive sounds instead of with formal lyrics. They are especially central to worship in Hasidic Judaism, in which they evolved to be structured, yet ecstatic forms intended to reflect the mystical joy of intense prayer. The true beauty of the Hasidic nigun was the drive to equalize prayer. The highest, most spiritual levels of prayer had always been reserved for the upper echelons of Jewish life — the rabbis and the wealthier in the community. Poor Jews had no time to study Torah and did not know the words to prayers, and were thus excluded from the spiritual mountain top. The Hasidic movement innovated singable tunes and dispensed with the words in order to include everyone. 

De Colores

De Colores is the oldest song on today’s program, commonly sung throughout the Americas since perhaps the 16th century, with a melody that probably originated in Spain. In the Twentieth Century it was a favorite song of the United Farm Workers for rallies and meetings. The song depicts the coming of spring to the countryside and the beautiful colors of the plants and birds. It celebrates the beauty of diversity and the bonds of affection between generations, as in the second verse we hear in turn from the roosters, the hens, and the little chicks.

Guantanamera

Originally written in 1929 as a patriotic song about Cuba, Guantanamera eventually became famous as a song of protest and has been used in struggles for peace and justice across Latin America and the U.S. It has been recorded by a remarkably long and diverse list of artists, including Joan Baez, the Fugees, Jimmy Buffett, Jose Feliciano, Julio Iglesias, Pete Seeger, and numerous others.

In Conclusion

There’s so much MUSIC to hear in this concert’s music: rhythm, melody, harmony, absolutely – but there’s also lots of HUMANITY to hear as well: tradition, struggle, grief, freedom, and truth. I hope you will join us either on Wednesday 11/1/23 at 6:00 pm at Mount Pleasant High School, 434 Mount Pleasant Avenue in Providence, OR on Sunday 11/5/23 at 2:00 pm at Temple Sinai, 30 Hagen Avenue in Cranston. The same program will be presented at both concerts. Admission is free, but all donations will go directly to support Rhode Island Latino Arts. Thank you!

Pictures, Part 1

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Welcome to the music that’s going to keep me awake for the next couple months — Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” written for piano solo in 1874 and famously arranged for large orchestra in 1922 by Maurice Ravel. The Rhode Island Wind Ensemble library contains a version that’s not-quite-as-famously-arranged for large symphonic band in 1959 by Mark Hindsley; this arrangement hasn’t been played by RIWE in a very long time, but it’s back in our folders for our May 21st concert at St. Ann Arts & Cultural center.

Though I’ve listened to Pictures many times as a music student and classical music fan, I never really opened the score to study it — until NOW! What was I thinking? Sure, I thought, we could perform Pictures. The band will love it. It will sound great in St. Ann, surrounded by resonant carrara marble and countless frescoes on the walls and ceiling. What a good bit of programming, I thought to myself. So I pulled the music from the files, ordered a missing part from the publisher (first trumpet, of all parts!), and began getting it ready for the players to rehearse.

Then I listened to it again, this time with a bit more serious intention, and I freaked out. IT’S HARD! It has challenges galore for the players, but even more for the conductor. Damn. I’m going to have to do real score study, real quickly, and I know that’s not the best way to do it.

So in the spirit of full disclosure and transparency, and for a bit of fun, I’ll keep this blog post going from now until the concert, sharing the ups and downs of the process once in a while, when I need a study break. Welcome to my anxiety. Welcome to this amazing piece of instrumental music.

Behind the Scenes: Mount Pleasant High School CTE Music Pathways Program

Once in a while, we’ll use this space to intentionally step away from the music itself and shine a little light “backstage” at RIWE. If you ever played in your school band, you know that what the audience sees on stage is just a fraction of what actually goes on. Public performances that make it onto our YouTube channel (shameless plug here: please subscribe to @rhodeislandwindensemble) don’t tell the full story of who we are – it’s just one very visible and rewarding part, and it’s often connected with something bigger.

For example, our January 19th concert at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence has an important back story that deserves its time in the spotlight, and like many stories in public education it involves funding. And an acronym.

Mount Pleasant High School is the only high school in the Providence Public School District to offer a Music CTE (Career and Technical Education) Pathway. You could think of it as a college major only in high school, but its main focus isn’t purely academic. According to the Rhode Island Department of Education website,

“Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a component of PrepareRI, an initiative intended to support programs that will prepare all Rhode Island youth with the skills they need for the jobs that pay. Career and Technical Education programs consist of three or more courses which will help students earn an industry credential and prepare them to enter the workforce. Rhode Island’s CTE programs … are rigorously equipped to prepare youths and adults for a range of high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.”

So, you might wonder, how does playing music fit into these “high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers”? When did it become possible to earn an “industry credential” in the saxophone?

It’s not, actually. Fine arts programs, as well as most traditional liberal arts like literature, math, and history, don’t really fit naturally into the CTE model, which includes programs such as Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, Architecture & Construction, Finance, Information Technology, and Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). But music teachers, knowing that money makes the world go ‘round, and knowing that CTE program approval could translate into much-needed funding for their underfunded music programs, jumped onto the bandwagon with two feet. But just where does that funding come from?

It follows the student, when they choose to attend a particular high school because the CTE program looks good. Students can attend ANY high school in the state, and schools are thus incentivized to compete for students and the tax dollars that follow them. It’s a business/free market approach to structuring public education that assumes competition between schools will make them better, and it’s all the rage. (Personally, I do not believe it raises the quality of education for all students; I feel it magnifies the existing inequities between schools. But that’s not today’s topic!)

RIWE is partnering with the Music CTE Pathway at Mount Pleasant High School to provide the “real-world” (i.e., outside of school) context that’s at the heart of CTE programs. Whereas a student in a carpentry CTE program might serve an internship with a local carpenter as part of the program, Music CTE students from Mount Pleasant High School will interact with RIWE members is a number of ways:

1.     Music CTE students seeking a mentor on their instrument can partner with a RIWE member who volunteers to teach the student in one-on-one lessons on a regular basis.

2.     Some CTE students will serve a full-time internship in RIWE, attending all our rehearsals and performing in all our concerts throughout the year. These internships are open to all CTE students by audition.

3.     All Music CTE students will join RIWE on stage for a side-by-side performance as part of the concert at Mount Pleasant High School on Thursday, January 19th.

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RIWE is proud to partner with Mount Pleasant High School and the Providence Public School District, but the real story belongs to the music teacher who’s responsible for it all. Here’s your introduction to an amazing young music educator, Mrs. Danielle Trial Lucini. Her bio reads:

A native of New Bedford, MA, Danielle Trial Lucini is a graduate of Rhode Island College with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education, a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre and a Minor in Dance. She has been a music educator since graduating in 2012, and the Music Director at Mount Pleasant High School since 2014. Trial Lucini is the Music Director for the Concert Band, Choral and Piano programs as well as the Career and Technical Education Pathway for Music Performance and Education. She is also the Unified Arts Teacher Leader, New Teacher Ambassador and Building Delegate, and was nominated for Providence Teacher of the Year during the 2021-2022 school year. She is currently pursuing National Board Certification in Early Adolescent and Young Adult Band. Danielle is married to a fellow RIC Music Education Alum and is a mother of three.

RIWE: When did the Music CTE program start? What were your first steps?

DTL: I was hired at Mount Pleasant in 2014 and tasked with building a Pathway Program dedicated to music. It took about five years to fully establish the program and structure the sequence of courses. In 2019, I attended a number of professional development workshops regarding the RIDE CTE process. I began to align our pathway to the CTE guidelines. While 2020 brought a lot of programs to a halt, it allowed me time to work with our CTE department at the district level, which makes Mount Pleasant Music Education and Performance Pathway an official part of Providence Public Schools CTE offerings at our school choice fair. Students and parents attend an event and make their high school selections based on the programming offered there. The Music Pathway was not part of that school choice until the 2020-2021 school year. We now have 10-15 eighth grade students and families applying to the program each year, and an additional dozen that sign up once the school year begins.

I began writing the curriculum and programming during my second year at Mount Pleasant, the 2015-2016 school year. The 2018-2019 school year was the first year that we had students enrolled in four levels of concert band or chorus that had followed the program from freshman year through senior year. The 2020-2021 school year was the first that we began following the CTE work based learning and credential process set forth by RIDE - which includes a minimum 80 hours of work based learning/contact with professionals, internship or industry placements (part of which is satisfied by our partnership with RIWE), as well as a music theory course aligned to curriculum taught at the college level.

RIWE: Who did you turn to for advice and support?

DTL: The various Professional Development sessions that were hosted by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), the Rhode Island Music Education Association (RIMEA), and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) in 2018-2019 were very helpful. During the 2020-2021 school year, Providence hired a new CTE coordinator named Brett Dickenson. I reached out to her, introduced myself, and filled her in on all the work I had done at Mount Pleasant over the years without being affiliated with the CTE department. She immediately supported my program and began the work of establishing our program as part of the district CTE department instead of a stand-alone program at Mount Pleasant.

RIWE: Why did you start the CTE program?

DTL: The principal of the school at my time of hiring was a big supporter of the arts. His intention was to create a strong program to draw students and families to the school, and to improve community perception of our school and students. This has always included a lot of community performances - opportunities to get our students out into the world in a positive light.

The program now provides those opportunities to students who want to participate in music recreationally, as an elective in band or chorus. However, the CTE Pathway designation allows students who are interested to participate in a much more in-depth level of study. The program also prepares them to enter college as a music major. While not every student chooses to pursue a music degree, they have had the more advanced coursework and performance opportunities to prepare them to do so.

RIWE: What's RIWE's role in it?

DTL: RIWE joint performances have served as part of our work-based learning opportunities for students during the last two years. This year, we will also expand that to include an audition/interview and opportunity for students to become members of RIWE. This satisfies the internship/workforce placement component for those students. This partnership also allows a unique opportunity for students to perform for members of the community and perform alongside musicians playing at a higher, professional level. We look forward to continuing to expand the partnership and these opportunities.

RIWE: Is there anything else that you think people should know about the CTE program?

DTL: The Mount Pleasant CTE Music program is currently written to include both Music Education and Performance. While some students may choose to work with groups such as RIWE for performance, others are interested in working with students at local elementary schools, another partnership currently in development. Our program has primarily included students in band and chorus. In the 2020-2021 school year, we expanded to include students interested in piano performance. Next year, we intend to include guitar performance and music production courses as well!

Silhouette, for Solo Flute and Chamber Ensemble

Roger Cichy was born and educated in Ohio, at The Ohio State University, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master of Arts degrees. He has conducted college bands in Iowa and elsewhere, and recently at the University of Rhode Island, in 2021. An award-winning composer, he has been recognized by ASCAP for excellence in serious music, and earned an Emmy in 2016 for the film score for a PBS documentary “The American St. Nick“. His music has been recorded by College bands from all parts of the United States, as well as around the world. “Rich and vast“, “melody and creative orchestration“, and “accessible, colorful, and personal“ are some of the descriptive highlights of his compositions, according to the musical professionals that have conducted his music.

Composer of Silhouette, Roger Cichy

SILHOUETTE, for solo flute and chamber ensemble, was composed by Roger Cichy in 2002.
It was commissioned by the Luther College concert band, from Decorah, Iowa. The composer recognized that the flute has many dimensions, or silhouettes, so he wrote this work in five movements to feature them: a plaintive introduction, bluesy jazz, slow and in a minor key, a passionate ballad, and an animated and highly articulated dialogue with the ensemble.

The solo flute is accompanied by a small wind and percussion ensemble lending support and response to the soloist. It was performed and recorded by the Luther College concert band in 2002, and much more recently by the University of Rhode Island Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by the composer, Roger Cichy, in December 2021. A few years ago, the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble performed another of Roger Cichy’s compositions called “Flowing Pens from Concord“, an homage to the well-known transcendentalist authors of that New England city.

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Featured Soloist, Moriah Ramos

Moriah Ramos is an accomplished musician and experienced music educator. She pursued her passion for music and received a Bachelor of Music from Rhode Island College and then a Masters of Music in Flute Performance from Long School of Music of Bard College. Along with playing piccolo and flute in the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble, Moriah also plays flute in a flute and piano duo, In Harmony. When Moriah is not playing music she is teaching it. She spreads her love for music as the music director at The Pennfield School in Portsmouth, RI where she teaches pre-school through 8th-grade music, band, and chorus. She is also the summer camp director at the Pennfield School. In her spare time, Moriah also runs and maintains a private lesson studio consisting of woodwind and piano students.

Moriah is the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble’s featured flute soloist on Silhouette, for Flute and Chamber Ensemble to be performed on Sunday, November 13, 2022, at Temple Sinai in Cranston, RI!

RIWE rehearsing Silhouette, for Solo Flute

Aaron Copland Never Visited Cummington, MA (You should -- here's why.)

For some composers, travel has inspired great works – consider Mendelssohn’s visit to Scotland (Hebrides Overture), Holst’s travels in the far east (Beni Mora Suite), or Elgar’s Italian vacation (In the South: Alassio). But apart from his early study in Paris and his conducting tours later in life, Aaron Copland, the composer who most successfully captured the spirit of the “Great American Frontier,” never really left New York.

Hailed as the creator of a “warm rural sound,” he lived a comfortable urban lifestyle. Seminal works like El Salon Mexico, Billy the Kid, and Appalachian Spring didn’t arise out of visits to rural America; they came from his fertile imagination alone. So it should come as no surprise that when commissioned to write the score for a US government documentary about little Cummington, MA, Copland happily wrote the masterful score to The Cummington Story from his suite at the Hotel Empire in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The “Little Red House” - a refugee hostel in Cummington, MA

The Cummington Story was one of over two dozen documentary films created by the US Office of War Information (OWI) to counter the prevailing Hollywood image of America as a violent, gangster-ruled land. The OWI hired well-respected Hollywood director Robert Riskin to oversee the entire project, which included films such as The Cowboys, Autobiography of a Jeep, Swedes in America (starring Ingrid Bergman), and The Window Cleaner. These films were shown around the world at the end of the war as a way to counter the image of America as a lawless and reckless society. Check out Connie Gentry’s insightful article about Riskin’s gentle propaganda film machine on the National WWII Museum (New Orleans) website.

U.S. Office of War Information Logo

 Copland’s 1945 score for The Cummington Story was written in his well-known “American” style, and it found new life in 1962. Always interested in young performers, Copland accepted a commission from Life magazine to compose a short piece for piano students to be published in the June 19, 1962 issue. He borrowed themes from his 1945 score to The Cummington Story and created a two-minute piece for piano students, naming it Down a Country Lane.

A few years after its publication in Life, Copland tenderly scored his little piano piece for a chamber orchestra of six woodwinds, four brass, and strings. This version, though unfortunately not performed often, beautifully captures the film’s original mood.

Texas band director and arranger Merlin Patterson published a sensitively-scored arrangement for wind band in 1991, and the musical themes which came to life in The Cummington Story made their way into the wind band repertoire, reaching a much wider audience. Here is the November 13, 2022 performance of “Down a Country Lane” by the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble.