The NJWS celebrates its 40th Anniversary with a special concert welcoming back guest soloists from the New York Philharmonic Joe Alessi (trombone) and Chris Martin (trumpet). The concert program will include Alfred Reed’s “La Fiesta Mexicana”.
Christopher Martin is one of the leading classical trumpet voices on the world stage. He joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Trumpet, The Paula Levin Chair, in September 2016. He served as principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for 11 seasons, and enjoyed a distinctive career of more than 20 years in some of America’s finest orchestras, including as principal trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and associate principal trumpet of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in October 2016, performing Ligeti’s The Mysteries of the Macabre, led by then Music Director Alan Gilbert. Read More
Praised as “brilliant, impeccable” by The New York Times and as a musician of “effortless understated virtuosity” by The Chicago Tribune, Christopher Martin has appeared as soloist multiple times nationally and internationally with the CSO and music director Riccardo Muti. Highlights of Mr. Martin’s solo appearances include the 2012 World Premiere of Christopher Rouse’s concerto Heimdall’s Trumpet; Panufnik’s Concerto in modo antico, with Mr. Muti; a program of 20th-century French concertos by André Jolivet and Henri Tomasi; and more than a dozen performances of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Other solo engagements have included Mr. Martin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Festival, Atlanta and Alabama Symphony Orchestras, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Christopher Martin’s discography includes a solo performance in John Williams’s score to Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012) and two recordings of a concerto Mr. Martin co-commissioned: John Mackey’s Antique Violences.
Dedicated to music education, Mr. Martin is a professor of trumpet at The Juilliard School and has given master classes and seminars around the world. He has served on the faculty of Northwestern University and coached the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for 11 years. In 2010 he co-founded the National Brass Symposium with his brother Michael Martin, a trumpeter in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in 2016 he received the Edwin Franko Goldman Memorial Citation from the American Bandmasters Association for outstanding contributions to the wind band genre.
Christopher Martin is a Yamaha Performing Artist. He and his wife, Margaret — an organist and pianist — have two young children who both prefer the piano over the trumpet.
Joseph Alessi was appointed Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic, The Gurnee F. and Marjorie L. Hart Chair, in the spring of 1985. He began musical studies in his native California with his father, Joseph Alessi, Sr., as a high school student in San Rafael, California, and was a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony before continuing his musical training at the Curtis Institute of Music. Before joining the Philharmonic, Mr. Alessi was second trombone of The Philadelphia Orchestra for four seasons, and principal trombone of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for one season. He has performed as guest principal trombonist with the London Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, led by Pierre Boulez. Read More
Mr. Alessi is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In April 1990 he made his New York Philharmonic solo debut, performing Creston’s Fantasy for Trombone, and in 1992 premiered Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Trombone Concerto with the Philharmonic, which commissioned the work for its 150th anniversary celebration. He performed the World Premiere of Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto, conducted by Lorin Maazel in February 2007. In July 2013 he appeared with the Philharmonic as soloist in Bramwell Tovey’s The Lincoln Tunnel Cabaret for Trombone and Orchestra, written for Mr. Alessi, at Summertime Classics and at Bravo! Vail, both performances conducted by the composer. In June 2016 he gave the World Premiere of William Bolcom’s Trombone Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission, conducted by then Music Director Alan Gilbert as part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL; Mr. Alessi and the Philharmonic, led by Alan Gilbert, reprised the concerto in the 2016–17 season.
Mr. Alessi has been a guest soloist with the Lincoln, Colorado, Syracuse, Virginia, Alabama, Santa Barbara, Puerto Rico, Hartford, and South Dakota symphony orchestras; New Japan, Seoul, Hague, and Helsinki philharmonic orchestras; National Repertory Orchestra; Orchestra of Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily; Mannheim National Theater Orchestra; and National Symphony of Taiwan. Mr. Alessi has also participated in numerous festivals, including the Festivale Musica di Camera in Protogruaro, Italy; Cabrillo Music Festival; Swiss Brass Week; and Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. He was featured in the 1997 International Trombone Festival in Feldkirch, Austria, and the International Meeting of Brass Instruments in Lille, France. He is a founding member of the Summit Brass ensemble at the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Tempe, Arizona. In 2002 Mr. Alessi was awarded an International Trombone Association Award for his contributions to the world of trombone music and trombone playing.
Joseph Alessi is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School; his students now occupy posts with many major symphony orchestras in the U.S. and internationally. As a clinician for the Edwards Instrument Co., he has also given master classes throughout the world and has toured Europe extensively as a master teacher and recitalist. He has performed as soloist with several leading concert bands, including the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, U.S. Army Band (“Pershing’s Own”), and the U.S. Marine Band (“The President’s Own”).
Mr. Alessi’s discography includes many releases on the Summit record label, including Trombonastics and Fandango, with retired Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith. He also recorded New York Legends on the Cala label, Return to Sorrento on the Naxos record label, and conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey’s Urban Cabaret. His live recording with the Philharmonic of Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Trombone Concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra’s 150th anniversary project, can be heard on Volume II of An American Celebration, on New York Philharmonic Special Editions, the Orchestra’s own recording label.
Mr. Alessi was invited by the International Trombone Association to record a solo disc of newly composed works, which was distributed to the Association’s membership of 5,000 trombonists in early 1999 and is now available as Beyond the End of the Century through Summit Records. His recording of George Crumb’s Starchild on the Bridge record label, featuring Mr. Alessi as soloist, won a Grammy Award for 1999–2000. Other recordings featuring Mr. Alessi are with the Canadian Brass (Sony Classical and Philips Records). Further information about Mr. Alessi can be found on his website, www.slidearea.com.
Christopher Martin grew up in a musical family – with a band director father and a vocalist mother. He often attended his father’s drum corps rehearsals and was inspired from an early age to play a brass instrument. Read More
Praised as “brilliant, impeccable” by The New York Times and as a musician of “effortless understated virtuosity” by The Chicago Tribune, Christopher Martin is now one of the leading classical trumpet voices on the world stage. He joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Trumpet in September 2016 following 11 seasons as the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to music education, Martin is a professor of trumpet at The Juilliard School and has given master classes and seminars around the world.
Trombonist Joseph Alessi comes from a musical family – his mother was a soprano at The Met, his father played trumpet at The Met, and his grandfather, who came to the U.S. from Sicily, was the cornet soloist at the Rialto Theater. Mr. Alessi’s musical life began on the cornet at the age of five. He transitioned to trombone at eight when his father brought home a trombone. Read More
Graduating early from high school at age 16, Mr. Alessi successfully auditioned to join the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He then studied Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and, while still a student, served as second trombone in the Philadelphia Orchestra for four years.
After spending a year as first trombonist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Alessi joined the New York Philharmonic as principal trombonist. He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School shortly after.
Mr. Alessi continues to be an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.
Sunburst Fanfare, James Stephenson: Composer James Stephenson wrote Sunburst Fanfare to help celebrate the NJWS’s 40th Anniversary Season. Of the work, the composer writes:
“The music is meant to be ebullient, full of life and energy, similar to a celebratory feeling like the NJWS is experiencing. The concert date of March 31st also brought to mind the beginning of spring and the coming warmth and (hopefully) a lot of sunshine; hence the title.”
Concerto in E-Flat, Joseph Haydn: Joseph Haydn composed his Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major in 1796 for the trumpet virtuoso Anton Weidinger, who had also just invented the keyed trumpet. This updated instrument could play chromatically throughout its entire range. Haydn’s concerto highlighted these new capabilities. Read More
Due to its physical characteristics, the keyed trumpet was closer in tone to the natural trumpet than the valved trumpet. It was once said to have sounded like a “Demented Oboe.”
The popularity of the keyed trumpet waned with the invention of valves in the 1820s – and the popularity of Haydn’s concerto followed suit, laying largely forgotten until the 20th century, gaining a place in the concert repertory only in the 1930s. It remains a favorite in the trumpet repertoire and has been cited as “possibly Haydn’s most popular concerto.
Concertino for Trombone, Ferdinand David: Ferdinand David was a German virtuoso violinist and composer who was the concertmaster at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn. Read More
David composed “Concertino for Trombone” in 1837 and dedicated it to Karl Traugott Queisser, who also performed at the Gewandhaus. The work premiered with Queisser playing the solo and Mendelssohn conducting. The work has three movements: Allegro maestoso, Marcia funebre (Andante), Allegro maestoso.
David arranged the second movement for Violin and Piano by David and it was played at his own funeral.
Triptych for Trumpet, Trombone, and Wind Ensemble, Joseph Turrin: Joseph Turrin’s “Triptych for Trumpet, Trombone, and Wind Ensemble” was written in memory of Eric Rombach-Kendall, who was a musician, educator, and great champion of new music. An homage to the trumpet and trombone works Mr. Rombach-Kendall had commissioned Mr. Turrin over the years, ‘Triptych’ spotlights trumpet and trombone soloists. The piece contains three movements: Preamble (featuring the trumpet), Lament (featuring the trombone), and Dialogues (featuring both soloists).
La Fiesta Mexicana, H. Owen Reed: Composer H. Owen Reed spent six months studying folk music and composing in Mexico in 1948 while on a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work “La Fiesta Mexicana” was a direct result of this experience, portraying both secular and sacred music and reflecting Aztec, Roman Catholic, and mariachi culture. The work’s three movements are meant to depict a religious festival dedicated to the Virgin Mary featuring the tolling of church bells, a parade, a mass, a circus, a bullfight, and a mariachi performance.
Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor, Gaetano Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor is a tragic opera composed by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti in 1835. Set in Scotland, the opera tells the dramatic tale of Lucia, rival families, and thwarted love. The sextet falls near the end of the second act and is among the opera’s most famous melodies. The work went on to find its place in 20th century pop culture, being played by Sousa’s Band on a 1901 record, sung by Shirley Temple in her 1936 movie “Captain January”, and utilized by Looney Tunes in a 1941 short featuring Sylvester the Cat.
Rolling Thunder, Henry Fillmore: Composer Henry Fillmore’s father was a conservative man, considering the trombone to be sinful and off-limits to his son. His mother, however, snuck him a secondhand trombone. He went on to be a great composer of circus marches, often featuring exciting trombone lines. Rolling Thunder s no exception, subtitled “A Trombone Ace.”
Sunburst Fanfare (premiere written for NJWS) – James Stephenson
Fort Sheridan March (concert band premier) – Joseph Turrin
Haydn Concerto for Trumpet – Franz Josef Haydn
Christopher Martin, Trumpet Soloist
Concertino for Trombone – Ferdinand David
Joseph Alessi, Trombone Soloist
La Fiesta Mexicana – H. Owen Reed
Tryptich for Trumpet and Trombone (consortium premiere) – Joseph Turrin
Chris Martin and Joseph Alessi, Soloists
Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor – Gaetano Donezetti
Rolling Thunder – Henry Fillmore
Program Subject To Change
All New Jersey Wind Symphony Subscription Concerts are held at the West Side Presbyterian Church, Ridgewood, NJ. West Side Presbyterian Church is fully ADA compliant providing handicap accessible entry to the concert venue as well as bathroom facilities. Important signage and directions are presented in braille..