Introducing the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra

By Kathryn Bumpass

What is the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra and what's a wind orchestra anyway? The SLO Wind Orchestra is a performing ensemble made up of highly trained musicians playing woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments and directed by Dr. William Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Music at Cal Poly. You sometimes hear such groups called by other names, such as symphonic band, concert band, and wind ensemble.

Music composed specifically for winds and percussion goes back as far as the wind serenades of Mozart, who wrote to his father in 1778, "You cannot imagine the glorious effect of a symphony with flutes, oboes, and clarinets." This repertory really blossomed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, with works by prominent classical music composers such as Holst, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Persichetti, and more recently by John Corigliano and others of his generation.

Recently I had a chance to talk with Dr. Johnson and Shannon McNeely, President of the Orchestra.

Kathryn: Tell me a little about the founding of the SLO Wind Orchestra.

Bill Johnson: From 1990 to 1999, we were the Cuesta Wind Ensemble, which was established to provide the college with a wind and percussion ensemble that was capable of performing works for the modern wind band. Most of the players, however, were not college students and the ensemble functioned mostly as a community wind ensemble.  By 1999 the SLO Wind Orchestra became a non-profit organization and gave its first concert New Year's Eve in the Old Mission Church.

Kathryn: What were your purposes in establishing the Wind Orchestra?

Bill: The purpose of the San Luis Obispo Wind Orchestra was, and still is, to provide the community with the opportunity to experience the sounds of serious and distinctive music composed and arranged for the modern wind orchestra, performed at the highest level possible. The orchestra strives to provide an educational and cultural outreach to our young people through performances, seminars and scholarships. The orchestra also provides its members with an opportunity for musical expression, growth and fellowship.

Kathryn: You and Shannon have said that the 2013-2014 season will be devoted to audience building, reaching out especially to young people. I note that your first concert will include a segment called Video Game. What's that all about?

Bill:  Many younger people often see orchestra concerts as events that have little interest for them, mostly because of the seriousness of the repertoire. Yet most young people are unaware that much of video game music is well written, serious music. Knowing this, it's our hope that the video game music will attract more young people to the concert hall and, while there, enjoy not only video game music but other serious works for wind orchestra such as a symphonic poem about Melville's Moby Dick.

Kathryn: What might be the musical profile of a representative player or two in the SLO Wind Orchestra?

Bill: Most of our members are amateurs, in that they don't earn their livings by performing music.

Shannon McNeely: Amateurs in that sense, but all highly trained, professional-level performers, fully competent to play complex, serious music.

We have medical doctors, dentists, CPAs, educators, engineers, a police officer, computer scientists, business people, and some retired people. We are from all walks of life with a common purpose of making beautiful music.

Kathryn: Both Bill Johnson and Shannon McNeely bring interesting backgrounds and musical experiences to the Wind Orchestra.

Bill: I hated school during Grades 1-6, and was a poor student. Then in a 6th grade class, the local high school band director visited our class and brought in all kinds of instruments. I wanted to join the band, but my parents said no because of my poor grades. In the 7th grade I found a way to get on the bus taking the band kids to rehearsal. Basically I sneaked out to go to band practice. The director gave me a baritone horn to play, and that was the beginning of my path to becoming a band director myself.

This was an unusual start for a man who is now president-elect of the World Association for Symphonic Bands. Now retired from a long and distinguished career of teaching and conducting, Bill devotes much of his time to transcribing music written for symphonic orchestra into scores for wind orchestra. Most recently he has completed a transcription of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, which will be on one of the Orchestra's upcoming concerts.

Shannon McNeely started life with parents who were classical music lovers. She began  band in 5th grade, in times when the public schools had strong music programs. (Many fewer such opportunities are available now, due to deep cuts in school funding and retirements of public school music teachers who are not replaced.)

Like many members of the SLO Wind Orchestra, Shannon was Bill Johnson's student in the Cal Poly Band during her college years. After graduation she performed on and off, as circumstances permitted. There followed a 15-year hiatus during which time she raised three  children, cared for her mother who had Alzheimer's Disease, and worked in the business world. Returning to performance, she played in the El Segundo Community Band. Six years ago she and her family returned to the Central Coast. She is now a clarinetist in the SLO Wind Orchestra and also a member of the San Luis Obispo Symphony.

The Wind Orchestra has an ambitious season planned, for the first time with five concerts instead of four, as in previous years. The largest undertaking will the performance of the Queen Symphony, a six-movement work by Tolga Kashif  incorporating a dozen or so songs made famous by the British rock band, Queen, led by charismatic singer Freddie Mercury.

The distinctive rock elements of the themes have been omitted, and the songs are woven into a richly lyrical and sometimes dense symphonic fabric. Bill describes the work as "totally classical" and very difficult to play, but feels the wind orchestra has reached a level where it has "command of the repertory" for this instrumentation. The work is in a romantic, tonal style with a 150 person choir surrounding the orchestra on three sides. The Queen Symphony will be performed on the concerts of May 17 and 18. The Wind Orchestra will be joined by the Cuesta Master Chorale, the Cal Poly choirs, solo violin, cello, and piano.

Shannon emphasizes that the SLO Wind Orchestra performs serious, complex, orchestral works. She describes most of their music as "tonal, (with some inclusion of 20th century harmony), written by contemporary composers specifically for wind ensemble, and engaging to both the serious and casual music lover."

Shannon adds that nothing else quite like this ensemble exists on the Central Coast, making the Wind Orchestra a unique musical resource for a repertory little known to most American concert-goers.

Their season opened September 28 with a program including video games and the tone poem Of Sailors and Whales, inspired by Melville's Moby Dick. Be sure to attend their second concert, Saturday, November 16, at 8:00pm at the Cuesta College CPAC. It's  called Stars of SLO, and will showcase talented musicians from the local community.

Featured works include Il Convegno: Divertimento for two clarinets, by Ponchielli, with Ian Murton and Shannon McNeely as soloists. On that same program is Hidas' Fantasy for Violincello and Wind Ensemble, with Jeanne Shumway as cellist, and Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, recently transcribed for wind orchestra by director Bill Johnson.

Images by Shannon McNeely

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