The ETSU Department of Music will mark the beginning of the university’s 100th birthday observance with its Centennial Celebration Concert, featuring major ETSU musical ensembles premiering two new compositions, on Sunday, Oct. 10, at 3 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Martha Street Culp Auditorium.This gala concert is the first of three in the department’s “Week of Musical Celebrations.” Other concerts in the series include a Trumpet and Piano Celebration with acclaimed duo Ronald and Avis Romm on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 105 S. Boone St., and a Steinway Dedication and Celebration Concert featuring The 5 Browns on Friday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Culp Auditorium.

“The Department of Music is honored to be a part of ETSU’s Centennial celebrations,” said department chair Dr. Frank Grzych. “It’s a year of remembrance and a year to look forward.

“Music always plays an important role in America’s celebrations, whether they are birthdays, sporting events, graduations, you name it . music helps to lift our spirits and make the occasion extra special. A ‘Week of Musical Celebrations’ is our way of adding to the festive atmosphere taking place on the ETSU campus.”

The Centennial Celebration Concert will highlight the talents of the 107-voice ETSU Chorale, the popular male a cappella ensemble 12BucsWorth and the 55-member Symphonic Wind Ensemble from the Department of Music, along with the ETSU Bluegrass Pride Band, the top band in the Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country Music Program in the Department of Appalachian Studies.

These ensembles will give the world premiere performances of two new major works commissioned for the ETSU Centennial and this Celebration Concert.

The first, “Five Songs from the Hills” for mezzo-soprano, baritone and band, was composed by Dr. Jack Stamp, chair of the Department of Music and director of Band Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Stamp dedicated the piece to ETSU Director of Bands Dr. Christian Zembower, who served as a graduate assistant to Stamp while he was working toward his master’s degree, which he received from IUP in 1992.

The piece is a suite of five movements using Appalachian folksongs as the melodic material and subject matter. These movements include “Fanfare: On Top of Old Smokey,” “Elegy: Barbara Allen,” “Scherzo: Old Dan Tucker,” “Lament: Bury Me Beneath the Willow” and “Finale: The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife.”

Stamp earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from IUP, his master’s degree in percussion performance from East Carolina University, and his doctoral degree in conducting from Michigan State University. Before joining the IUP faculty, he chaired the Division of Fine Arts at Campbell University in North Carolina. He taught for several years in the North Carolina public schools, conducted the Duke University Wind Symphony and was musical director of the Triangle British Brass Band, which he led to a national brass band championship in 1989.

Stamp is active as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator and composer throughout North America and Great Britain. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading military and university bands across the U.S., and he has received numerous awards for his work. He is founder and conductor of the Keystone Winds, an ensemble dedicated to the performance of American band music that has recorded two CDs on the Citadel label.

The second half of the concert features “Mountain Memories” by freelance composer/arranger Michael Davis, who visited the ETSU campus in 2008 to discuss the possibilities of writing a composition honoring the university’s Centennial.

His composition is a five-movement, continuous work for band, chorus, men’s group and bluegrass band that tells the story not only of ETSU and its accomplishments through its first century, but also of the East Tennessee region. “Mountain Memories” describes this history using songs that have been popular during the last 100 years, as well as narrations, poetry and storytelling set in a musical documentary format.

Davis has more than 40 years of professional experience writing and has worked closely with many prominent musicians, including Henry Mancini, “Doc” Severinsen, Helen Reddy, Roy Clark, Lee Greenwood, The Canadian Brass, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and many others.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in music at the University of Maryland and spent 30 years as a member of one of the world’s most prestigious musical organizations, the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., serving as staff arranger, chief arranger, music production superintendent and band manager.

The Centennial Celebration Concert is free, but tickets are required and available through the ETSU Department of Music.

For tickets or more information, call the department at 423-439-4276.

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