Wind and Percussion Ensembles

Wind Ensemble

Eric Hewitt, Conductor

The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble performs four concerts each year, featuring highly diverse and challenging repertoire. A variety of transcriptions, original works, concertos, commissions, and chamber music pieces are selected each year.

Recent performances include: 

• Beethoven: Octet in E-flat major, op. 103
• Grainger: Lincolnshire Posy
• Hindemith: Symphony in B-flat
• McLoskey: Concerto for Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble
• Shostakovich: Festive Overture
• Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
• Susato: Selections from the Danserye
• Ueno: Concerto for Timpani
• Varese: Deserts
• Weill: Violin Concerto

Each year there is a Composition Competition open to all composition majors at The Boston Conservatory.  Recent winners include:

• Craig Pellet
• Kevin Church
• Justin Barish

Each year there is also a Concerto Competition open to all instrumentalists and vocalists. Recent winners include:

• Bo Kyung Byeon and David Dziardziel, Clarinets
• Thomas James Wible, Flute

Brass Ensemble

Larry Isaacson, Conductor

The Boston Conservatory Brass Ensemble performs two concerts each year, exploring the diverse repertoire written and transcribed for brass and percussion.

Recent performances include: 

• Bernstein: West Side Story Suite (arr. Crees)
• Cheetham: Keystone Celebration
• Grieg: Funeral March
• Haufrecht: Symphony for Brass
• Hindemith: Apparebit repentina dies (with chorus)
• Hindemith: Konzertmusik for brass, piano, and two harps
• Holst: The Planets (arr. Sauer)
• Husa: Divertimento
• Larsen: Brass Flight
• Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Howarth)
• Nystedt: Pia Memoria
• Rautavaara: A Requiem in our Time
• Reed: Symphony for Brass and Percussion
• Schuller: Symphony for Brass and Percussion
• Tomasi: Fanfares Liturgiques

Recent guest conductors include Ken Amis and Eli Epstein.

Percussion Ensemble

Sam Solomon and Keith Aleo, Directors

The Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble performs two to three concerts each year, focusing on the standard repertory of the 20th and 21st centuries in addition to fostering the performance of new works.  All Percussion Performance majors are required to perform in Percussion Ensemble during each of their semesters in residence.

Recent performances include: 

• Vinao: Estudios de Frontera
• Nishimura: Kala
• Wallin: Stonewave
• Takemitsu: Rain Tree
• Cage: First Construction (in Metal)
• Cage: Amores
• Muhly: Ta & Clap
• Zappa: The Black Page #1
• Lansky: Threads
• Manoury: Duo for Marimbas (from Le Livre des Claviers)
• Varèse: Ionisation
• Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
• Reich: Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ

Saxophone Ensemble

Kenneth Radnofsky, Director

The Boston Conservatory Saxophone Ensemble performs two concerts each year, including premiere performances of composers as diverse as Charles Wuorinen, Henry Brant, Robert Morris, and Curtis Hughes. The group has also performed Louis Andriessen's "Workers' Union" and the work of emerging composers.  All Saxophone Performance majors are required to perform in Saxophone Ensemble during each of their semesters in residence.

Recent performances include: 

• Elgar: Enigma Variations (arr. Bricault)
• Glazounov: Quartet, Op. 109 (1932)
• Kuehn: Objet/Ombre (2008)
• Tchaikovsky: Serenade, Op. 48 (arr. Bricault)