(light music) - [Presenter] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

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- [Presenter] This program was made possible in part by Henry and Monika Bowman and Tim and Susan Tewalt.

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(stately tuba music) - Hello, my name is Winston Morris.

I'm the former director of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble, recently retired.

Thank you so much for joining us for this program this evening.

This was a performance that was presented in April that celebrated the 55th anniversary of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble, and part of that celebration was to present the world premiere performance of about 10 or 11 brand new pieces.

The first group was the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble, the current students, and then we had an alumni group of students that came in literally from all over the country, Tokyo, Japan, Naples, Italy, flew in, formed a great alumni group.

But we opened the program.

This was a piece called "Tuba 55," which celebrates the 55th anniversary of this ensemble.

It was composed by Dr. Charles Decker, and we hope you really enjoy this.

A lot of famous tuba quotes in this.

Those of you in the audience that are tuba players will recognize some of these tunes.

So here we are, "Tuba 55."

(suspenseful music) (foreboding music) (menacing music) (audience applauding) Well, here we are for the second piece on our performance by the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble, and I'm delighted to have a couple of special guests for that.

Josh Whited was a recent graduate of ours, and he's featured on solo euphonium on this piece, but of special interest is Dr. Preston Light who joins us here.

Preston is one of our former students, and we're just so proud of him, that he will be the new professor of tuba and director of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble.

And he was one of the featured soloists on this next piece.

It was just a terrific piece.

He's gonna tell us a little bit about that piece right now.

Dr. Light.

- Sure thing.

The next piece is "Emmanuel" by French composer and conductor Michel Colombier.

This piece was written in 1971 in memory of his son who had passed as an infant.

It's been recorded by many different artists over the years, most notably in recent times by American trumpeter Chris Botti.

Now his arrangement was a little bit different.

He included a solo violin with him.

And that's the one that we're basing our performance off of.

So our arrangement was done by a Tech alum, Ben McMillan.

He was a euphonium student here at Tennessee Tech and has written many pieces for the ensemble over the past few years since he's graduated, and we're just thrilled that he has done this for us for this concert.

And again, this features myself on solo tuba and Josh Whited on solo euphonium.

(melancholy music) (melancholy music) (melancholy music) (melancholy music) (audience applauding) (audience cheering) - Preston, it's great to have you here at the university.

When did you graduate?

- I graduated in 2014.

- 2014, and then Preston went up to Cincinnati Conservatory and studied to get his master's and his doctorate.

And I'm delighted, after teaching at Tennessee Tech for 55 years, I've recently graduated, and I couldn't be happier that Preston's gonna take over the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble program that we've been running for all these years in the Tuba Studio.

I don't think anybody could do a better job of doing.

I'm real proud of you, man.

- Thank you.

- Being here to do that, and so you've been at it for almost a week and a half now.

You ready to retire yet or what?

- I'm waiting for the end of the semester.

- Okay, he's already waited till the end of the semester.

He's been here for a week and a half.

So now you know what it's like.

- I do, I do.

(Winston laughing) - Dr. Light's been involved in the production of the 31st recording of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble to be released by Mark Records up in Buffalo, New York.

And you're one of the featured soloists on that piece, which you, we've already been talking about that.

Piece called "Emmanuel."

- Mm-hmm.

- And who wrote that piece again, "Emmanuel?"

Who is the composer?

- Michel Colombier.

- Colombier, we have to remember that.

And who arranged that piece?

- That was Ben McMillan.

- Now Ben McMillan was one Cookeville native.

Really well-known composer and has really got an international reputation now 'cause he's had people from outside the United States commission him to do pieces.

So I'm real proud of him.

And he lives right here in Cookeville, and he's composed stuff for people all over the country, and hopefully will continue to do that.

So, you know, you can be in touch with him, right?

- Absolutely.

- Maybe get some more music out of him.

- Gotta keep him busy.

(melancholy music) - All right, now we're ready for a really wonderful new piece that was commissioned by Dr. Kenyon Wilson, who teaches at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and is a former member of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble.

This piece has a unique title called "Grawlix," G-R-A-W-L-I-X.

You'll need to look up grawlix in the dictionary, as I had to.

Grawlix is all of those crazy little symbols that you see when you quote something and you need some profanity in there, and rather than actual profanity, you've got the little symbols.

That's called grawlix.

So this really great piece was commissioned by almost 70 alumni of the ensemble for this world premiere performance of this piece by Dr. Kenyon Wilson.

(dynamic music) (pensive music) (tense music) (audience applauding) This is a piece by one of our really great friends, composition theory teacher Dr. Greg Danner at Tennessee Tech University.

And this piece is called "RW Funk," F-U-N-K, like something that's funky and crazy.

The RW, thank you very much, Dr. Danner, is from my name, Ralph Winston Morris, "RW Funk."

So here we are with a really fun piece, world premiere of "RW Funk" by Dr. Greg Danner.

(spirited music) (mellow music) (stately music) (spirited music) (audience applauding and cheering) Well, here we are with the second part of the program, which was consist of recent graduates of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble that were invited back to be in our alumni ensemble.

This group had members from all over the United States, many of them professional performers.

We had one young man fly in from Naples, Italy and other one from Tokyo, Japan and members of various military bands.

For the next piece on our program here this evening is a piece by Aldo Forte.

Aldo Forte is a really great friend of ours and a graduate of the School of Music here at Tennessee Tech University.

His family immigrated from Cuba in the early '60s, and he had became very well-known in the military as a military band composer.

And he was commissioned by one of our former students to write this really interesting piece called "Romanza and Pachanga," and you've got to enjoy this because it's such a terrific piece.

(solemn music) (foreboding music) (solemn music) (energetic music) (jaunty music) (stately music) (audience applauding) Well, this next piece is a really interesting piece, and it's a wonderful composition by, once again, a former member of the ensemble by the name of Jon Oliver.

Jon is a band director, and he teaches at one of the local schools here.

And he's had many, many compositions that have been published and performed all over the world.

This particular piece, "Lost in Daydreams," is sort of a programmatic piece, many different sections to it.

I know that you're gonna enjoy.

This is one of our favorite pieces, "Lost in Daydreams," by Jon Oliver.

(pensive music) (stirring music) (solemn music) (stirring music) (solemn music) (pensive music) (tense music) (solemn music) (tense music) (audience applauding and cheering) And this next piece is by a really special young man by the name of Ben McMillan.

Once again, a graduate of our program here.

Very well-known composer.

And this piece is called "Valiant's," and it's just a terrific piece by Ben McMillan.

(foreboding music) (dramatic music) (suspenseful music) (edgy music) (dramatic music) (suspenseful music) (audience applauding and cheering) Well, our next piece is quite different.

Unique, I might say, from everything else on the program.

This is by Dr. Leroy Osmon, who is a famous composer, a native of Texas recently retired in Mexico.

And he's composed a number of pieces for us.

Always very, very difficult music.

But, as mentioned, he's an internationally known composer.

This piece, the title of which is "The Morris Code Is Broken."

Morris meaning me.

Code being broken means I'm in the process of retiring.

A very unique piece, very relaxed, very reflective, and all of a sudden, these crazy sounds start coming out.

I hope you enjoy this piece.

I think it's quite wonderful.

"The Morris Code Is Broken," by Dr. Leroy Osmon.

(ominous music) (jarring music) (ominous music) (jarring music) (foreboding music) (ominous music) (foreboding music) (ominous music) (jarring music) (ominous music) (menacing music) (jarring music) (ominous music) (foreboding music) (audience applauding) Well, now we come to a really interesting piece on the program performed by the alumni ensemble.

This piece called "Wind and the Sun" was composed by Bill Cherry, who is a former member of the ensemble.

This is what we call programmatic music, "Wind and the Sun."

And you'll hear in this piece a lot of special effects with tapping on the mouthpiece of the instrument and blowing air through the horn to emulate the sound of the wind.

And then the wind builds up and draws down, and then you get this really nice music that represents the sun.

So it's a programmatic piece and it's called "The Wind and the Sun" by Bill Cherry.

(wind rustling) (object clattering) (uncanny music) (objects clattering) (eerie music) (wind howling) (eerie music) (wind howling) (eerie music) (wind howling) (eerie music) (musicians sighing) (uncanny music) (wind rustling) (objects clattering) (solemn music) (dynamic music) (audience applauding) Well, this next piece is almost too cute for words.

The title is called "Samba Deez Daze."

Samba as in the dance samba.

Deez, D-E-E-Z, deez.

Daze, "Samba Deez Daze."

And it's based on a samba rhythm, and it was composed by a great friend of ours, Jim Self.

Jim Self is one of the most famous tuba players alive today, and everyone in the audience, you've heard him hundreds of times 'cause he's the number one tuba player in Los Angeles for all of the movies that are produced, the Stephen Spielberg movies, et cetera.

He's the famous tuba solo in "Close Encounters."

So he also composes, and this piece, "Samba Deez Daze."

(elegant music) (lively music) (jaunty music) (lively music) (tense music) (stately music) (tense music) (stately music) (audience applauding) - I know you're going to enjoy this final piece that we're gonna do for you this evening, as far as the alumni ensemble is concerned.

This is a piece called "Streets of New Orleans," and this is by a really good friend of ours named Glenn Martin, lives in Lebanon, Tennessee, and he's written many pieces for the ensemble before.

But this piece was commissioned once again by one of our former members, and it features some of the most famous New Orleans tunes.

You're gonna recognize just about all of these great tunes from "The Streets of New Orleans."

(majestic music) (jaunty music) (easygoing music) (mellow music) (melancholy music) One, two, one, two, three, pum pum.

(exuberant music) (audience applauding and cheering) Well, thanks so much for joining us this evening.

We've had so much fun performing for you for our 55th anniversary of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble.

We've invited members of the audience who brought their instrument with them to join us on stage with this great arrangement of the "Wabash Cannonball."

(stately music) (vibrant music) Yeah, brotherhood!

(audience applauding) Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Well, thanks for joining us for our special program here.

This was the 55th anniversary performance of the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble here at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee, an ensemble that it was my pleasure to start in 1967.

(laughs) So if you count up the years, it was the 55th year of this group, which is quite well-known.

The 31st recording of the ensemble is released soon.

The ensemble performed all over the United States, including Carnegie Hall and two world's fairs.

And it has been my honor to have been involved with the program, and want to thank the people at WCTE Public Television here in Cookeville, Tennessee for their support over the years.

And we hope that you will come back and visit with us again sometime soon.

(somber music) (somber music) (audience applauding) (suspenseful music) (audience applauding) (light music) - [Presenter] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music)