Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas –– Stephen F. Austin State University’s Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band will perform “The Music of Joel Puckett,” featuring the music of composer-in-residence Joel Puckett, professor and chair of music theory, ear training and keyboard skills at John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute.
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 in the Griffith Fine Arts Building’s Turner Auditorium. Puckett will complete a residency at SFA that will culminate with this concert in which he will attend.
“During his time on campus, Puckett will work with the symphonic band and wind symphony, which will be performing a number of his works, including the second performance of his newest composition,” said Dr. Dan Haddad, SFA assistant professor of music and associate director of bands. “In addition to the concert, he will be a guest lecturer in music education and composition classes and give composition lessons to a select few students”
The Symphonic Band, under the direction of Dr. Chris Kaatz, SFA assistant professor of music and assistant director of bands, will perform two of Puckett’s works inspired by special memories with his children. “Emory’s Barcarolle” commemorates a humorous moment when the composer’s toddler son heard Chopin’s “Barcarolle” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” back to back and insisted both be played “again, again, again!” The composer was so amused that he “gave Emory his own ‘Barcarolle,' littered with fragments from the first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5.’”
The first half of the concert will conclude with “Avelynn’s Lullaby,” depicting Puckett’s bedtime ritual of singing a favorite lullaby to his daughter. Beginning with enthusiastic fanfares intermingled with gentle soloistic melodies, the piece culminates in a lush, magical soundscape that includes a sung lullaby in canon and a subtle harmonic connection to the flute concerto featured on the concert’s second half.
The Wind Symphony, under Haddad’s direction, will feature Dr. Christina Guenther, SFA professor of flute, on Puckett’s “The Shadow of Sirius.”
“In the winter of 2009, my wife and I experienced a heartbreak that left me unsure of how to breathe, let alone grieve,” Puckett said. “On March 1, 2009, I found a copy of W.S. Merwin’s, ‘The Shadow of Sirius,’ and I began to feel myself heal. A friend once said to me, ‘Many concertos explore a virtuosity of technique but not many explore a virtuosity of expression.’ It was with that thought in mind that I began work on ‘The Shadow of Sirius’ for solo flute and wind orchestra.”
The Wind Symphony will conclude its performance with the second-ever performance of Puckett’s newest piece, “Prelude and Fugato from Mama Dee’s Notebook.”
Puckett wrote this piece as a tribute to his grandmother who, despite numerous hardships and living through the Great Depression, earned multiple college degrees, the first being in music. This piece is based on some musical fragments from short sketches the composer found while sorting through her belongings during the pandemic.
“The work draws from her ideas and evokes the rich, resonant sounds of a pipe organ, the kind that fills the space of a large church,” Puckett said.
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for senior citizens, and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call (936) 468-6407 or visit the SFA Fine Arts Box Office website.
For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.