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I would like to take a moment to thank the Ithaca College community for the privilege of directing this band for the 2024-25 school year. It has been an absolute joy to spend two nights a week with these fine young musicians. Their work ethic, sense of humor, patience, determination, and musicality has made the journey one that I will never forget. A special thanks to Mike Titlebaum for trusting me with his band, and to all of the administration and staff in Whalen. I had a lot to learn about processes when this started. I still have a lot to learn, but we have at least made it through. 

I am particularly proud of the programming that we have performed throughout the year. We dug deep into the repertoire of several important jazz composers throughout history; Thad Jones, Duke Ellington, Bill Holman, and Kenny Wheeler represented composers that brought big band music to new heights and tested what was possible with this instrumentation. Newer composers/arrangers like Fred Sturm, John Clayton, Nathan Parker Smith, Dave Chisholm, Mike Conrad, and David Cutler offered pieces that showed what happened after the course was set by the legends of the artform. We also played larger works, most notably the 25-minute epic by Maria Schneider, Cerulean Skies. Tonight’s concert is the final course on this year’s menu, and it is a microcosm of all that has come before.

Tonight we celebrate the David and Susan Wohlheuter Composition Contest with two winning compositions, chosen by the students, that are world premieres--works that have not yet been heard by the public, and were written by composers specifically for this evening. We will also perform two works by another young composer from Los Angeles, Jacob Mann. Another John Clayton arrangement bookends the season and honors the jazz tradition--in the fall, it was his Blues for Stephanie, written for the Count Basie Orchestra, and tonight, a piece from the Ellington canon that he arranged, Squatty Roo. In the second half, we feature two works by Binghamton native (and college classmate of Mike Titlebaum) John Hollenbeck, and we will conclude with the massive and hugely influential Celebration Suite by Bob Brookmeyer, originally written for the great Gerry Mulligan (and Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra, which featured Hollenbeck on the drums). 

The repertoire of this year has largely had a personal connection for me. I presented the band with music that has made a difference to me in my journey. Whether it is the piece itself that meant something to my development, or the composer, it has been a year full of “soft spots”. Beyond personal expression, my goal has been to reflect what is happening in jazz RIGHT NOW, and in recent times, in defense of the unspoken fallacy that modern jazz is not a current or even relevant artform. Jazz is a music that represents many perspectives, and takes many forms, and for all of our students on stage tonight, they can say that they are prepared for a future in the jazz world because of this repertoire. Not every student loved every piece, and this is decidedly a great thing--growth from each band member has been exponential.




I met tonight’s guest artist, Owen Broder, when he arrived at the Eastman School of Music in the early 2000’s. Owen was a member of a class that included some truly visionary artists, and he always managed to stand out from that prodigious crowd. Whether through his work with the GRAMMY nominated Anat Cohen Tentet, Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, Miho Hazama, or his own groups, including the quintet Cowboys and Frenchmen, Owen always innovates while respecting the tradition he has been born from. We are fortunate to have him with us.

It is a real testament to the community here at Ithaca College that a night like tonight can happen. A guest artist, world premieres, a composition contest that attracts entries from around the world--these things are not common! Thanks to the incredible support from all stakeholders, and the hard work of students, this is only one of many incredible things happening here in Whalen. I often refer to this quote from Vonnegut, whether alone or with others, and I think it is fitting to leave you with, as we celebrate the end of another year here on South Hill:

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”

Thank you and enjoy the concert.

--aaron staebell, 2025

Pete Wheeler and Flight Screen Solitaire were both introduced to me by a profound mentor of mine (and IC alum and faculty member) Bill Tiberio. Jacob Mann, the composer, is an L.A.-based pianist. It is hard to say whether he’s more known for his quirky big band arrangements, his ‘stride (piano) Fridays’ on Instagram, or his contributions to one of my favorite bands of all time, “Shrek Is Love”--a band that only writes songs (completely unironically) about the Shrek movie universe. Flight Screen Solitaire represents the vibe of games on the back of airline seats--not really that fun, but better than nothing. Pete Wheeler is well-known to millennials as the red-headed pitcher from the computer game “Backyard Baseball”. 

Squatty Roo was first recorded by Johnny Hodges (of Ellington fame) and his orchestra in 1941, and has since been reprised by many jazz legends, including Ray Brown, Ahmad Jamal, and with this arrangement, by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, led by John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton. It offers a lot of space for solos, and features many of Clayton’s hallmark twists and turns, keeping both band and audience perpetually on their toes.

Maxfield: John Hollenbeck was a student at the Eastman School of Music in the 1990s, and speaks of his time spent in the balcony of Eastman Theatre, staring at the frescos on the walls. One of his favorites was by painter Maxfield Parrish, an artist known for his realistic clouds and skies. This piece was written for Jazz Big Band Graz (Austria) and appears on the Joys and Desires album, along with Joys and Desires #3: The Garden of Love. Part of a three-movement suite, The Garden of Love uses text by William Blake that was more recently used by the drum corps “The Bluecoats” during their summer 2023 season. The music does an incredible job evoking the brooding emotion found within the text,  often interpreted as an indictment of organized religion, reflecting on the poet’s views of how it can stifle natural joy, freedom, and human connection through strict rules and repression.


I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore. 

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.










Bob Brookmeyer’s Celebration Suite was written for baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra. It is a masterclass in development, highlighted by the final movement, which uses the same rhythmic cell (in some form) for over 200 measures. Brookmeyer’s writing is poignant while also at times aggressive, always pushing performers and audiences to access the full catalog of emotion. He writes for unique combinations of instruments in the reed section, including 4 soprano saxes in Part 1, and a choir of 3 clarinets and 2 bass clarinets later in the work. Brookmeyer talked about abandoning jazz when seeking inspiration after a while, and being more deeply moved by 20th century classical composers like Bartok, Berg, and Schoenberg. He continued to innovate until his death in 2011, just a year after we shared the stage for his 80th birthday concert. He spent his later years writing and playing trombone in the hills of New Hampshire. It is surely only a coincidence that two of our trombone players are also from New Hampshire, but as Bob once said to me about something else: “it didn't hurt”.

- Program Notes written by Aaron Staebell

Saxophones
Leo Andrews
Grace Gounod
Colin Leary
James Baker
Amanda Haussmann

Trumpets
Bowie Beacher
Alessio Vega
James Owens
Lamar Williams
Thomas Papke

Trombones
Nick Marks
Jamie DiSalvo
Kate Martin
Will Delaney

Rhythm
Michael Scamacca, guitar
Jamie Decker, synth
Andrew Woodruff, piano
Chris Rakeman, bass
John Oliver, drums
Brayden Reed, vibes/perc

Vocals
Nora Abshire

Saxophonist and bandleader Owen Broder is an active presence across diverse musical circles, both as a leader of his own ensembles and a valued collaborator in others. He earned the title 2018 Debut Artist of the Year from NPR’s Francis Davis and was included on DownBeat Magazine’s Critics Poll as a Rising Star Alto Saxophonist in 2023 and 2024. Known for his lyrical approach, Broder has been praised for his “smooth-as-silk alto and baritone saxophone work” (Frank Alkyer, DownBeat), and for his improvising as “a model of restraint and concision,” marked by his “facility, timbre, and nimble attack” (Pierre Giroux, All About Jazz).

Broder is a member of the GRAMMY® nominated Anat Cohen Tentet and has performed with internationally respected artists such as Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project, Miho Hazama, the Ulysses Owens, Jr. Big Band, and YouTube sensation Postmodern Jukebox. His six albums as a band leader have received national recognition. DownBeat said of his "Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1" (2022), “the swing is impeccable,” and included the album on the publication’s list of Best Albums of 2022. The debut album from his American Roots Project, Heritage (ArtistShare®, 2018), was praised by DownBeat Magazine as a “transcendent work of art.” He also co-leads the quintet Cowboys & Frenchmen, described as “innovative as well as inspiring” (Travis Rogers, Jr., JazzTimes), which has received critical acclaim for three full-length recordings, including a four-star review from DownBeat for their 2017 release, Bluer Than You Think, and singles from their 2021 release Our Highway premiered by WBGO and JazzTimes.

In musical theater, he was a member of the pit orchestras for the German tour of Grease and off-Broadway production For the Last Time, appeared with the band in David Bowie’s Lazarus and the Tony Award® winning musical Tootsie, and originated the woodwind chair in the U.S. premiere tour of The Bodyguard the Musical.

An award-winning composer and arranger, Broder writes for his own ensembles and a variety of others. “Fans of large-ensemble music might notice the sturdy artistic thread Photo by Adrien H. Tillmann 53 Sound Systems that connects bandleaders Maria Schneider, Ryan Truesdell and Owen Broder,” (Bobby Reed, DownBeat). His composition “Goin’ Up Home” earned him a 2018 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, and in 2020 he received a commission grant from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers. Other commissioned projects have come from the U.S. Air Force Band in Europe, the Airmen of Note, the off-Broadway show “About Love,” the Winchester Symphonic Winds, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and the internationally acclaimed woodwind quintet WindSync.

The projects Broder leads are marked by creativity and originative thinking. UNCSA’s 2021 Artpreneur of the Year Award and the 2018 Eastman/ArtistShare New Artist program recognized his entrepreneurial ventures for their creative musical programming, innovative presentation, and meaningful impact on the community. Notably, in response to the pandemic, Broder co-founded and performed in Live From Our Living Rooms. The initiative was credited as “the first online jazz festival” (Rolling Stone) and raised over $140k in support of US-based musicians whose performance careers were halted due to COVID-19.