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It is a mystery why the great song composer Hugo Wolf wrote his rare instrumental piece Italian Serenade in 1887. Originally intended as a three-movement work but never completed, partially due to his failing syphilitic health, the light tarantella-like showpiece for quartet is a delightful encore piece. The tragedy of his life and his syphilitic decline stand in great contrast to the ebullience and spirit of this music. A serenade traditionally is night music sung outdoors, often for courtship, and the melodic character of this piece and its whimsy fit that description perfectly. Wolf never visited Italy, but was likely inspired by a novella by Eichendorff in which a young violinist travels to Italy. The main tune resembles a melody originally played on a form of Italian folk oboe. A true quartet showpiece for all players, it is also a great example of the combination of song and dance in music, a charming eighth lilt pervading the delightful texture.

- Program Note written by Roberta Viviano

The tradition on which Giannini's and Flagello's string orchestra music draws is exemplified in Josef Suk's Serenade, albeit in much sunnier form. The outlines of Suk's life will also seem familiar: a gifted child born into a musical family, and trained at a conservatory where he later taught for many years. Suk was also a violinist who specialized in chamber music, performing with the Czech Quartet for 40 years. 

Suk entered the Prague Conservatory when he was eleven years old. He stayed on an extra year to study with Dvorák, who joined the faculty at the beginning of 1891. He became Dvorák's favorite pupil and later married Dvorák's daughter Otilie.

The Dvorák/Suk relationship, familial as well as tutorial, was a happy one. "It's summertime now, so go and make something lively for a change, to compensate for all those pomposities in minor," Dvorák instructed Suk at the summer break in 1892. Suk obliged him, and returned with this Serenade in E-flat major, a substantial but gentle - and generally cheerful - piece. After further work and partial performances, the Serenade had its premiere in 1895, and was published by Simrock the following year on Brahms' recommendation.

The tone is set immediately in the first movement, no dramatic Allegro but rather a genially poised Andante con moto, with a Brahmsian main theme launched from a falling triad. Suk was always most at home in instrumental ensemble music, and the string writing glows with warm assurance.






Suk did not much share Dvorák's interest in folk materials, but it is hard not to hear the dance intimations in the second movement, again sprung from a falling triad. Suk's tempo qualifications are instructive: the first movement was an Andante "with motion" and this is an Allegro "but not too much and graceful." No madcap scherzo, this is a gentrified country dance marked with characteristic hemiola passages (two groups of three beats changed into three groups of two beats).

The unqualifiedly slow movement is the emotional heart of the work, reflective and even pensive. Though not labeled such, this movement is much like Dvorák's instrumental dumkas (Slavonic laments), in its slow, duple-meter ruminations and sectional contrasts. It is quite capable of passionate agitation, but makes stronger points through heart-breaking tenderness, such as bringing back the main theme high and soft in muted violins immediately after the most violent climax.

The jocular finale - again qualified, "but not too quick" - returns the piece to easygoing charm. The bustling accompaniment makes much use of two-against-three patterns and punchy figuration. Suk feints a soft fade-out, then a quick crescendo brings the volume back up to fortissimo for an emphatic ending.

- Program Note written by John Henken

Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears, his lover, lifelong companion, and musical inspiration, left England for the United States early in 1939, with no definite plans to return. Their reasons for departing were at least twofold: the feeling on Britten’s part that his music was not appreciated at home and both men’s certainty that Britain would soon become involved in a war to which they were opposed. Whether or not Britten had become a more “English” composer during his self- imposed exile, there could be little doubt that he had become a master of his craft, as witness the Serenade, to be followed a year later by his greatest operatic success, Peter Grimes. 

The Serenade, written early in 1943 for Pears and the horn virtuoso Dennis Brain, consists of six songs which are enclosed by a prologue and epilogue in which the solo horn plays on natural harmonics, a daring move by the composer, since the ear can easily be fooled into regarding the performer’s intonation as being suspect. 

The first song, to the deliciously quirky and comforting “Pastoral” by the 17th-century poet Charles Cotton (best known as a contributor to his friend Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler), is ideal fodder for Britten’s imaginative word painting, which is always at its best when challenged to complement or heighten elusive visual images, here of various objects whose forms are magnified – in their shadows – by the setting sun, described by the tenor’s gracefully descending “The day’s grown old.” 

Tennyson’s “Nocturne” (“The splendor falls on castle walls”) is the brightest of night-songs, full of the buzz and energy of nocturnal activity, “of starry glitter and the last flashes of the sun,” as Peter Pears wrote. While the horn was the protagonist in “Pastoral,” here it joins the voice only in the refrain. 

The horn is again center-stage in the shattering “Elegy,” one of those breathtaking examples of word setting wherein a new and even more powerful work of art has been created through musicalization. It is the horn’s menacing minor seconds that above all distinguish Britten’s reaction to William Blake’s brief, shattering depiction of the corruption of beauty and innocence, a theme particularly close to the composer’s heart, as he would affirm in such later masterpieces as the operas The Turn of the Screw (after Henry James) and Billy Budd (after Herman Melville). 

The vocal line of the subsequent “Dirge” to an anonymous 15th-century poem has no dynamic or expressive marking other than the initial come un lamento, thus it is usually rendered (following Pears’ example) in a constant mezza voce. It is, as described by Christopher Palmer, “a bleached and spiritless song of the vanity of all human endeavor... The voice in a sense unregardingly, impassively independent of the orchestra, which represents the human element... A fugally impelled funeral procession... approaches close enough to strike mortal terror in our hearts (horn hysteria) and then makes off, leaving the last word to the disembodied wail and whine of the singer.” 





Horn and singer are given their ultimate workout, rather like a two-person acrobatic team, in Ben Jonson’s giddy “Hymn,” dedicated to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt, while the horn rests in the soothing “Sonnet” (“O soft embalmer of the still midnight”), wherein Keats’ verbal density is mitigated by Britten’s wonderfully broad, syllable-stretching setting. That the horn is absent here not only makes dramatic sense but serves a practical purpose, allowing the player to move unobtrusively offstage to play the epilogue.

- Program Note written by Herbert Glass

The lack of evidence to the contrary seems to indicate that Raff himself coined the word Sinfonietta for his Op. 188 in F. It has since been commonly used for works such as this - "little" or "light" symphonies and Raff's piece pre-dates the next work [with the same title] (by Rimsky-Korsakov) by seven years. The Sinfonietta was popular in its day and that no doubt helped the use of the term amongst composers. 

He wrote the piece in Wiesbaden in Spring 1873 during the period which was, as his daughter Helene wrote, "the cultural high point of his life". The Lenore Symphony had recently capped even the success of his "Forest" Symphony and everywhere he was fêted and honored. However, the next work he completed after the Sinfonietta - his 6th Symphony - got a rather cooler reception and marked the start of what became a period of artistic crisis for the composer. 


Isolated works are rare in Raff's canon. In contrast with his eleven Symphonies, six Operas, eight String Quartets, four Piano Trios and five Violin Sonatas there is only one Sinfonietta and only one other (earlier) piece for wind band. This is unlikely to signal any feeling by Raff that the work was a failure, however. It was virtually unique in its time and was popular from the first. Raff understood the financial imperative of getting his works performed. From a commercial point of view there may have been little point in writing another whilst the original one was doing so well in an uncontested field. From an artistic standpoint, it is difficult to see how he could have bettered his first attempt. 

Written for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and French horns, it was clearly intended by Raff to be regarded as something greater than the wind serenades which had been popular since Mozart's time. Neither his motivation for writing the work, nor the occasion of its premiere is recorded, but it was published in November 1874 by Siegel of Liepzig, and Raff himself also arranged all four movements for piano four hands. 

The Sinfonietta's popularity endured and it was one of the works which continued to keep its composer's name before audiences, long after most of his music was forgotten. This is no doubt partly due to the comparative dearth of quality repertoire written for small wind bands, but it must also be because of the unfailing wit, vivacity and good humor of the music itself. It retains the traditional symphonic movement structure and is truly a "small symphony." Throughout, Raff employs his trademarks of counterpoint and classic musical forms but these never interfere with the work's pervading atmosphere of joi de vivre.

- Program Note written by Mark Thomas

Violin I
Val Connor, concertmaster
Dustin Rood
Marisol McDowell
Lily Milkis
Katalena Hume

Violin II
Cristian Rodriguez, principal
Mackenzie VanVoorhis
Maya Connolly
Marvin Juarez Espinoza
Kathleen Robinson

Viola
Zoe Galgoczy, principal
Antonio Breanna
Zoe Link
Tatiana Ranger

Cello
Eli Jort, principal
Natalie Bryan
Gerdrose Jean Louis

Bass
Jacob Eisentraut

Flute
Madi Connor
Tori Hollerbach

Oboe
Liv Hawthorne
Reid Canham

Clarinet
Anthony Angelillo
Noemi Bender

Bassoon
Casey Delsandro
Kaitlyn Beasley-Zeitler

Horn
Eliza Ferrara
Finny Keefe

Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. Recently appointed as Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College, New York, Kwok also serves as Music Director of Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, Minnesota and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Having established a nationwide professional reputation, He has served as Assistant Conductor of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and cover conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Kwok was previously Assistant Conductor of Collegium Musicum Hong Kong and has performed in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Musikverein in Vienna. His most recent guest conducting engagements include the New World Symphony (FL), the Syracuse Orchestra (NY), Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra (MN), Arapahoe Philharmonic (CO), Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (NY), Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra (GA), and Eastern Festival Orchestra (NC).

 An avid music educator, Kwok previously served as the Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony, and in the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University and University of Minnesota Duluth. His recent educational guest conducting engagements include the Connecticut All-State Orchestra, Suffolk County All-County Orchestra on Long Island, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He was invited as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association, University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and Binghamton University.

Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, from Mozart's Idomeneo to Puccini's La Bohéme, Britten's Albert Herring, and Menotti’s The Consul. He was the instigating artistic force behind the formation of opera orchestra at Eastern Kentucky University and has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World.

Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has led to numerous US premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ruth Gipps, and Ina Boyle, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds. Kwok appeared as conductor for the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. 

Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. He has also studied with Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Grant Cooper, José-Luis Novo and Eric Garcia.

Dr. Daniel Cook is Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music Performance at Ithaca College. In this role, he leads the renowned Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, overseeing all aspects of the ensemble's performances, rehearsals, and artistic programming. His work at Ithaca includes teaching courses in music performance, conducting pedagogy, select components of the music education curriculum, and providing mentorship and supervision to student teachers. Cook earned Doctor of Musical Arts with program honors and Master of Music degrees in conducting from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Dr. Mallory Thompson. He graduated magna cum laude with the Bachelor of Music degree in music education from the University of Georgia in Athens. There, he was also recognized as a Theodore Presser Scholar.

Prior to joining Ithaca College, Cook was a Lecturer in Wind Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT), where he directed the UNT Wind Ensemble and the acclaimed 435-member Green Brigade Marching Band. His contributions at UNT extended beyond performance, as he taught both undergraduate and graduate students in conducting and music education, served on Faculty Senate, chartered the University’s Kappa Kappa Psi chapter, and contributed to the robust Wind Studies program. The Wind Ensemble was the winner of the 2021 American Prize in Wind Ensemble Performance, and the Green Brigade earned significant recognition, including a standout performance in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade and regular appearances at Bands of America and Texas UIL events.

Cook’s dedication to music education is further reflected in his work with prominent organizations such as the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, where he serves as an Ensemble Specialist and Consultant. Cook’s Drum Corps International background also includes music instructional positions with the Phantom Regiment and Blue Knights. He has also held the role of Resident Conductor of the Dallas Brass Band. Under the direction of Cook and co-conductor David Childs, the British-style brass band rose to national acclaim, releasing an album on WOBPlay, performing at the TMEA Conference, and garnering a first-prize finish in the First Section at the 2022 North American Brass Band Championships.

Throughout his career, Cook has actively engaged in program development, establishing initiatives that benefit both students and the broader music community. At Ithaca College, he founded the Northeast Concert Band Festival, leads the Northeast Wind Conducting Symposium, and is a host of the CSI Northeast/NYSBDA collaboration, all of which have become meaningful platforms for the advancement of music education. Additionally, he curates and manages key endowments such as the Walter Beeler Composition Prize and the Arnald Gabriel Visiting Artist Endowment.




Cook’s ensemble performances have received acclaim, most recently by such composers as Bryant, Daugherty, Del Tredici, Gotkovsky, Higdon, and Schwantner. Ensembles under his direction have performed at the Florida and Texas state music conferences, Bands of America events, the Texas UIL State contest, as well as at the Music for All National Concert Band Festival.

Cook’s professional accomplishments extend beyond the classroom and the concert stage. He is a frequent guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator at festivals, honor bands, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. His research and presentations on music education, including topics such as performance artistry and flow theory in music, have been featured at national and international conferences, such as the Midwest Clinic, the CBDNA conference proceedings, and at multiple state music education association conferences. Cook has also participated in prestigious masterclasses, such as the inaugural Reynolds Conducting Institute at the Midwest Clinic, and as a winner/invited conductor for the Young Conductor/Mentor Project sponsored by the National Band Association. He is published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series.

His current professional affiliations include the Collegiate Band Directors National Association, National Association for Music Education, National Band Association, New York State School Music Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Cook is proud to be a mentor teacher within the National Band Association and Kappa Kappa Psi organizations and an Educational Advisory Board member for Music for All.

Dann Coakwell, tenor, has been praised as a “clear-voiced and eloquent … vivid storyteller” (The New York Times), with “a gorgeous lyric tenor that could threaten or caress on the turn of a dime" (The Dallas Morning News). He can be heard as a soloist on the Grammy-winning The Sacred Spirit of Russia (2014), Grammy-nominated Considering Matthew Shephard by composer/director Craig Hella Johnson (2016), which peaked at number three on the Billboard Classical chart, among other Grammy-nominated albums on the Harmonia Mundi and Delos record labels. He also appeared on the critically acclaimed Naxos 2016 release of composer Mohammed Fairouz’s Zabur (as Jibreel), with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Orchestra, and most recently, with Masaaki Suzuki on Nicolas Bruhns: Cantatas and Organ Works, Vol. 1 (2022, BIS records). He has performed as a soloist internationally under such acclaimed conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Masaaki Suzuki, William Christie, María Guinand, Nicholas McGegan, Matthew Halls, and the late John Scott.

Coakwell has performed many times at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and David Geffen halls, as well as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Trinity Church Wall Street in New York. He has appeared as a soloist with organizations such as Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in Germany, Bach Collegium Japan (across Europe, Mexico, and Japan), Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, Oregon Bach Festival, and Conspirare.




Specializing in the Evangelist and tenor roles of J.S. Bach, Coakwell frequently performs the composer’s major oratorios—St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and Mass in B-Minor—as well as many of Bach’s cantatas. An enthusiast of Benjamin Britten, Coakwell has appeared in several productions of Britten’s Canticles, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, and St. Nicolas. Other prominent solo and titular roles performed also include: Rameau’s Pigmalion; Handel’s Samson, Judas Maccabaeus, Israel in Egypt, Alexander’s Feast, and Messiah; Haydn’s Creation and Missa in Angustiis; Mozart Requiem and Mass in c (Levin, Beyer, and Süssmayr completions); Medelssohn’s Elijah; and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

Coakwell also serves on the voice faculty at Ithaca College, and has enjoyed guest teaching artist residencies at institutions such as El Teatro Teresa Carreño in Venezuela, Yale University, University of Missouri Kansas City, Dartmouth College, Texas State University, and University of Idaho. He holds an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degree from Texas Tech University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Alexander Shuhan, Professor of Horn, is also a founding member (1993) of Rhythm & Brass, an international touring, performing and recording ensemble. He is principal horn with the Binghamton Philharmonic and the Fort Smith (AR) Symphony and performs frequently with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival. He also previously served as principal horn of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. Recently, Shuhan has begun specialized teacher training that will certify him to be the first Suzuki Horn teacher in the world.

He has studied at Southern Methodist University with Greg Hustis, the Eastman School of Music with Verne Reynolds, and the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School with Harry Berv. Other teachers include Marvin Howe, Nancy Cochran, John Jacobsen and Henry Babcock.

Shuhan is also an accomplished composer and arranger, having written a number of works for Rhythm & Brass. His composition "Awakenings" is featured on the most recent Rhythm & Brass recording entitled "Inside The Blue Suitcase."