USA East Music BULLETIN - WINTER 2019/20 - ISSUE 4 | Page 8

composERS
FORUm 2020
By Edward Mylechreest, Regional Music Director, GNY
JANUARY 16-19, 2020 — The Eastern Territory
was well represented this year at the North
American Composers’ Forum, with seven
delegates and two faculty members, Dr.
Dorothy Gates (THQ) and DMD Gavin
Whitehouse (Pendel). This biannual event
brings Salvationist composers together in
a time of learning, fellowship and music
making.
The weekend is divided into times of
private tutorials as well as united sessions.
We were given the opportunity to work with
David Catherwood, William Himes, Stephen
Bulla, Ralph Pearce, Nick Simmons-Smith,
Gavin Whitehouse, Kevin Larsson, Andrew
Wainwright, Michael Stayner and, our very
own, Dr. Dorothy Gates in the private tutorial
times. They were so generous with their time,
knowledge and expertise, each offering
helpful hints and tips as to how to improve
our compositions.
The united sessions offered a chance for
communal learning. William Himes and Dr.
Harold Burgmayer led these two sessions,
The Composer’s Process, and Color and
Texture in the Brass Band. Hearing these
two great composers offer their thoughts on
these topics was invaluable.
There were also breakout sessions,
where we would have to make a choice as
to what session to attend. Having to make
the choice from breakout topics such as, Tips
for Arranging (Dr. Dorothy Gates), Writing
Effective Piano Accompaniments (Rachel
Ewing), Writing Singable Melodies (David
Catherwood), How NOT to Submit Your
Music (Marty Thomas), was by far the hardest
part of the weekend!
One of the highlights of the forum of
course is hearing your pieces played live for
the first time. This year we were blessed to
have two territorial groups perform our work,
the Chicago Staff Band and the newly formed
Central Territory Staff Songsters. These two
phenomenal groups did a fine job of sight-
reading our music, some of which was quite
literally hot off the printer!
Katelyn Knickerbocker (MASS.) had
two lovely pieces performed on the Friday
evening, Sa Diyos and Starlight. Her DMD,
Matt Luhn (MASS.), also had a stirring piece
performed, which for now must remain a
8 • USA EAST MUSIC BULLETIN | W I N T E R 2019/20
secret . . . but this beautiful piece will be sure
to tug on heart strings soon.
Jelani Weekes (Western Penn.) kicked off
the proceedings for the Saturday playthrough
with the CSB, with two exciting pieces, the up-
tempo O Praise Him and the glorious Fanfare
on Duke Street. Jelani was also on hand to
play percussion for the weekend and made a
fine impression on the kit when needed. Alex
Dressler (NJ) brought a funky arrangement
of the worship song Ain’t No Rock, complete
with some rhythmic changes that wouldn’t
be out of place for a Snarky Puppy tune.
Lost Time by Christian Mendoza (Pendel)
was a stunning change of pace in the
afternoon. So much of the music that was
premiered for band this weekend was up
tempo, but here we had a refined reflective
piece of original music, reminiscent of the
movie scores of Hans Zimmer. DMD Simon
Morton (NJ) brought with him two very
exciting Latin American inspired pieces, En
Los Montes and Que Maravilla, which both
proved popular with band and audience
alike. CONTINUED >>>
W W W. M U S I C . S A CO N N E C T S . O R G