POINT OF TRANQUILITY

Fuchs: Point of Tranquility - Christina’s World - Rush - Forever Free

ARTISTS: United States Coast Guard Band, Adam Williamson (conductor), Greg Case (saxophone soloist), Jeffrey Renshaw (guest conductor).
COMPOSER: Kenneth Fuchs
LABEL: Naxos Wind Band Classics | 747313356775

FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION

This recording features definitive performances of symphonic band music by Kenneth Fuchs, GRAMMY® Award-winning American composer and Professor of Composition at the University of Connecticut; the exceptional United States Coast Guard Band (one of the five premier military bands in the United States), stationed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut; and their associate principal saxophone soloist, Greg Case, Instructor of Saxophone at the University of Connecticut. The compact disc booklet cover features the painting Beyond the Blue Horizon by artist Preston Trombly. Mr. Trombly is a composer and received his Bachelor Music degree from the University of Connecticut. He is, as well, a successful mixed media visual artist with a studio in New York, and he is also a classical music radio program host at SiriusXM (Symphony Hall, Channel 76). — Kenneth Fuchs

Kenneth Fuchs

Kenneth Fuchs’s fifth album with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta won the 2018 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Compendium. The award capped thirty years of musical collaboration between Fuchs and Falletta and fifteen years recording five albums with the LSO for Naxos American Classics.

The first album (8.559224), released in 2005, was nominated for two GRAMMY® Awards. The second (8.559335) was released in 2008 and featured music for horn. Musicweb International stated, “Fuchs’s distinctive voice is evident from the outset, and his flair for orchestral colours and sheer lyricism shine through.”

The third album (8.559723), released in 2012, was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award. BBC Music Magazine stated, “Kenneth Fuchs writes tonal orchestral music of great imagination. He’s a master of orchestral writing.” The fourth album (8.559753), recorded at Abbey Road in 2013 and released in 2014, featured baritone Roderick Williams in a program of vocal music based on texts by Don DeLillo, John Updike and William Blake. Gramophone magazine wrote, “Fuchs claims his own expressive warmth and colour.… The performances are exemplary, from baritone Roderick Williams’s commanding artistry to the bold, fresh playing of the London Symphony Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta’s sensitive direction.” The album’s principal work, Falling Man (text by Don DeLillo, adapted by J.D. McClatchy), was presented as a monodrama in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11 by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

The fifth Naxos album included three new concertos — for piano, saxophone and electric guitar — and an orchestral song cycle. In 2013, Naxos released a recording of Fuchs’s chamber music (8.559733) including Falling Canons, Falling Trio and String Quartet No. 5 “American.” Gramophone stated, “Few composers have gained as much mileage — or found greater range —than Fuchs’s ‘Falling’ works, which open and close this collection.”

Albany Records released the highly successful album Kenneth Fuchs: String Quartets 2, 3, 4 performed by the American String Quartet. The American Record Guide stated, “String quartet recordings don’t get much better than this.” Fuchs’s music is performed worldwide and has achieved significant global media exposure through audio broadcast, downloading and streaming. Fuchs serves as Professor of Music Composition at the University of Connecticut. At the University of Miami, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree, Fuchs studied with acclaimed band composer Alfred Reed and performed flute and piccolo under renowned band conductor Frederick Fennell. He received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Milton Babbitt, David Diamond and Vincent Persichetti.

For complete information, see www.kennethfuchs.com.

Kenneth Fuchs discusses the recording project…

and the composition of Point of Tranquility.

United States Coast Guard Band

The United States Coast Guard Band is the premier band representing the United States Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. The 55-member ensemble is based at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. In addition to performing concert tours around the nation, the band has also played in the former Soviet Union, Canada, England, Japan and Taiwan. In 2008, the Coast Guard Band became the first premier American military band to perform a concert tour of Japan. Concerts are free and open to the public and include a broad spectrum of music, from wind ensemble classics to swinging jazz charts.
www.uscg.mil/community/band

Adam Williamson (conductor)

Commander Adam Williamson serves as the seventh director of the United States Coast Guard Band, carrying out the band’s missions of promoting public goodwill through the highest level of musical performance and supporting official Coast Guard functions. Williamson is responsible for the overall presentation of all Coast Guard Band activities, for maintaining the world-class stature of the 55-member ensemble and for supporting hundreds of engagements annually. Williamson originally joined the Coast Guard Band as tenor saxophonist in 2003 and was a featured soloist on multiple occasions, including the band’s 2007 Southeast Tour and at notable venues such as Carnegie Hall and Boston’s Hatch Shell. As a member of the Coast Guard Band Saxophone Quartet, he performed concerts and conducted masterclasses extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Williamson served in the saxophone section for ten years before being named director. As the leader of the sole official musical representative of the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard, Williamson provides musical guidance for official functions and creates musical programs to advance the Coast Guard’s public affairs missions. In his time as director, Williamson has led the Coast Guard Band in performances for President Trump, President Obama, members of Congress, Department of Homeland Security secretaries and Coast Guard leadership. The Coast Guard Band performed for the 2015 National Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C., and marched in the 2017 Presidential Inaugural Parade. Williamson is committed to supporting music education and during his tenure has expanded the Coast Guard Band’s outreach programs, now reaching more than 14,000 students in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. He created the American Composers Series recordings to capture the musical language, sound and aesthetic of living American composers, so far recording the works of Kenneth Fuchs and Jess Langston Turner. His endeavor to engage a worldwide audience has led to extensive use of online and social media platforms, enabling the Coast Guard Band’s concerts and outreach activities to be broadcast to millions around the globe. Williamson earned musical degrees from the State University of New York at Potsdam, studying saxophone with Timothy McAllister. He began graduate studies at Indiana University with saxophonist Otis Murphy. He attended the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, where he studied instrumental conducting with Glen Adsit and Edward Cumming.

Greg Case

Greg Case is co-principal saxophonist of the United States Coast Guard Band and has been a member since 1997. He has been a frequent soloist with the band throughout the country and a regular jazz soloist with the Coast Guard Swing Band, Dixieland Band, Big Band and Jazz Combo. As a member of the Coast Guard Saxophone Quartet, he has performed at the conferences of the World Saxophone Congress, North American Saxophone Alliance, and Midwest Clinic. He also is a founding member of the Element Saxophone Quartet, winning medals at both the 2004 and 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He performs with the Hartford Jazz Orchestra and the Goodspeed Opera Company. Since 2003, he has served as instructor of saxophone at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches applied study in classical and jazz saxophone as well as saxophone quartet. He has co-commissioned concertos by Kenneth Fuchs, Libby Larsen and Lewis Spratlan. Case holds a Master of Arts degree in jazz studies from New York University and a Bachelor of Music degree in classical saxophone performance from Indiana University. His teachers include Eugene Rousseau, George Garzone and Ralph Lalama.

Jeffrey Renshaw (guest conductor)

From 1993 to 2017 University of Connecticut Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Renshaw conducted and directed the University Wind Ensemble and taught undergraduate and graduate conducting. Renshaw is a champion of new music, having conducted more than sixty world premieres with new music ensembles, wind ensembles and orchestras. In 1996, at the request of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Renshaw and the University Wind Ensemble performed at Carnegie Hall in a tribute to Morton Gould. Renshaw has had more than thirty articles about conducting and repertoire published in professional journals. He is an accomplished arranger, and his music has been recorded by the Eastman Wind Ensemble on the CBS/Sony Masterworks label and is published by Ludwig Music Publishers and Counterpoint Music Publishing. His performances and arrangements have been broadcast throughout Europe, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, and in the United States on WGBH Boston’s Art of the States and National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Renshaw received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he also served as assistant professor of conducting and ensemble coordinator.