The Gower Community Band of St. John’s celebrates its 10th anniversary this month with two special performances and the establishment of new composition awards at Memorial University’s
School of Music.
The first event is a horn recital by
Bruce Bonnell, professor of horn at Central Michigan University, on Thursday evening, May 17, at Petro-Canada Hall in the School of Music. Dr. Bonnell will perform works by Mozart, Bozza, Neilson, Turner, Marais, and Glazunov, and will conduct a master-class for horn students on May 18.
Tickets are $10 each, available at Provincial Music, the Music Collection stores, or Gower Street Church Office. All proceeds support the MUN Music Scholarship Fund.
On Saturday evening, May 26, the Gower Community Band will present its 10th Anniversary Gala Concert at the D.F. Cook Recital Hall in MUN Music. The band will perform the World Premiere of a new work by renowned American composer
David R. Gillingham, his
Concerto for Horn and Symphonic Band, with Bruce Bonnell as soloist. The concert will also include new works by Newfoundland composers and arrangers as well as selections from the standard wind band repertoire. Proceeds from both events will support the GCB’s MUN Music Scholarship Fund.
The Gower Community Band has maintained a focus on the encouragement of new compositions by or for Newfoundland and Labrador musicians since it was formed in 1997. With its musical sibling, the Gower Youth Band, the GCB developed and introduced a series of manuscript concerts which presented original works by Newfoundland and Labrador composers. Last fall, the band travelled to Grand Falls-Windsor for a concert which featured works by central Newfoundland music educators Michael Carroll and Michael C. Snelgrove.
As a special 10th Anniversary project, the band developed its Terra Nova Program to explore new worlds of musical creativity. This program will provide annual awards to composition students at MUN Music, and also create funding for the commissioning of new works.
The development and implementation of this community cultural initiative has been made possible through the support of
Petro-Canada. GCB director Edsel Bonnell says the band is “most grateful for this example of significant and effective corporate citizenship which will bring lasting future benefits.”
The Gower Community Band is an adult concert band which follows in the tradition of community service established by the 34-year old Gower Youth Band. The Gower band program was founded and is maintained by Gower Street United Church as a non-denominational community initiative.
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Biographical profilesBruce Bonnell, Horn
A chamber music specialist, Dr. Bonnell has enjoyed a successful career as orchestral performer, soloist, clinician and pedagogue on the horn and natural horn throughout North America and Southeast Asia. [Photo:
Vieri Bottazini]
Born and raised in St. John’s, he began his instrumental training in the beginners’ class of the Gower Youth Band in 1976 at the age of eight, moving quickly from trumpet to alto horn to French horn. His association with the GYB lasted more than 12 years, during which he served as player and soloist, section leader, instructor, and Associate Director. He received his undergraduate degrees in Music Education and performance from Memorial University and the Guildhall School of Music (London), his Master of Music from Northwestern University (Pi Kappa Lambda) in 1991, and a Doctor of Music at Indiana University in 2003. He was Assistant Professor of horn and theory at Indiana State University in 1997-98, and has been Assistant Professor of horn at Central Michigan University since 2000.
Dr. Bonnell’s orchestral experiences include Second Horn in the
Hong Kong Philharmonic from 1991 to 1994, and Principal Horn in the Malaysian Philharmonic from 1998 to 2000 where he earned high praise for his playing from such notable maestros as Kurt Masur, Sir Neville Marriner, Kenneth Jean, David Atherton, Jan Pascal Tortelier, and Hans Graf.
Solo and chamber music highlights include the finals of the 1989 Canadian Music Competition, the 1998 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and recitals throughout North America and Southeast Asia. An enthusiastic performer of new works for horn, Dr. Bonnell premiered David Gillingham’s
Baker’s Dozen at the 2001 International Horn Symposium, and
Danza Breves for Horn and Percussion by José-Luis Maúrtura at the 2004 Sound Symposium in St. John’s.
As a member of the Powers Woodwind Quintet, he has toured and performed throughout the Midwestern states and received high critical acclaim for the quintet’s 2006 release
Brementown Musicians on Centaur Records. His next recording project, a compilation of works for horn and flute with Vieri Bottazini, flute and Newfoundland-born Peter Green, piano is due for release in 2007.
Dr. Bonnell has also performed with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Ottawa Symphony, Hull Chamber Orchestra, Bloomington Camerata, Pan Asian Symphony and the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. His teachers include William Costin, Kjellrun Hestekin, Michael Hatfield, Paul Tervelt, Richard Seraphinoff and Richard Bissill.
David Gillingham, ComposerConcerto for Horn and Symphonic BandDavid Gillingham earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in instrumental music education from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Theory/Composition from Michigan State University.
Dr. Gillingham has an international reputation for the works he has written for band and percussion. Many of these works are now considered standards in the repertoire. His commissioning schedule dates well into 2009.
His numerous awards include the 1981 DeMoulin Award for
Concerto for Bass Trombone and Wind Ensemble and the 1990 International Barlow Composition (Brigham Young University) for
Heroes, Lost and Fallen. Klavier, Sony and Summit Records have recorded Dr. Gillingham’s works.
His works are regularly performed by nationally recognized ensembles including the Prague Radio Orchestra, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble, The University of Georgia Bands, North Texas University Wind Ensemble, Michigan State University Wind Ensemble, Oklahoma State Wind Ensemble, University of Oklahoma Wind Ensemble, Florida State Wind Ensemble, University of Florida (Miami) Wind Ensemble, University of Illinois Symphonic Band, Illinois State Wind Symphony, University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Wind Ensemble, and the University of Wisconsin Wind Ensemble. Also, internationally known artists Fred Mils (Canadian Brass), Randall Hawes (Detroit Symphony) and Charles Vernon (Chicago Symphony Orchestra) have performed works by Dr. Gillingham. Over 70 of his works for band, choir, percussion, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments are published by C. Alan, Hal Leonard, Southern Music, MMB, T.U.B.A., I.T.A., and Dorn.
Recent works by David Gillingham include
Sails of Time for massed band and soloists which was premiered at the inaugural Premiering Sydney Festival in the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, a Concerto for Marimba and Wind Ensemble, and a double concerto for cello, viola and orchestra. He is currently working in his Second Symphony for Band.
Dr. Gillingham is a professor of music at Central Michigan University and the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award, a Summer Fellowship, a Research Professorship, and the President’s Research Investment Fund grant for his co-authorship of a proposal to establish an International Centre for New Music at Central Michigan University. He is a member of ASCAP and the recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award for Composers of Concert Music in 1996 to 2005.
The
Concerto for Horn and Symphonic Band, commissioned by the Gower Community Band, is Dr. Gillingham’s first concerto for horn. His other horn solo works include
Baker’s Dozen, which had its premiere in the United States with Bruce Bonnell as soloist.
