Sun 8.14

Bright Wings: A Valediction

DAN WELCHER (b. 1948)

Dan Welcher first trained as a pianist and bassoonist, earning degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He joined the Louisville Orchestra as its Principal Bassoonist in 1972, and remained there until 1978, concurrently teaching composition and theory at the University of Louisville. He joined the Artist Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 1976, teaching bassoon and composition, and remained there for fourteen years. He accepted a position on the faculty at the University of Texas in 1978, creating the New Music Ensemble there and serving as Assistant Conductor of the Austin Symphony Orchestra from 1980 to 1990. That same year, Welcher was named Composer in Residence with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra through the Meet the Composer Orchestra Residencies Program. During his three-year residency, he distinguished himself with a weekly radio series entitled Knowing the Score (which has had a second life on KMFA-FM in Austin winning the 1999 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Broadcast Award) and inaugurating a series of new music concerts entitled Discoveries. After leaving Honolulu, he returned to his position at the University of Texas, continuing to write orchestral works on commission, such as Bright Wings: Valediction for Large Orchestra, commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and premiered in Dallas under the baton of Music Director Andrew Litton in March 1997. Among his larger works of recent years are Venti Di Mare: Fantasy-Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, commissioned by the Guggenheim Foundation for the Rochester Philharmonic and premiered in February 1999; JFK: The Voice of Peace, a 55-minute oratorio for chorus, orchestra, narrator, solo cello, and soloists, premiered in March 1999 by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston; Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, commissioned by the Utah Symphony and premiered in October, 2004 by timpanist George Brown, with Keith Lockhart conducting, and Jackpot: A Celebratory Overture, commissioned by the City of Las Vegas on the occasion of its 100th anniversary and premiered by the Las Vegas Philharmonic under the baton of Harold Leighton Weller in September of 2005. On August 14, Dan Welcher will join us for the west coast premiere of Bright Wings: A Valediction at Mission San Juan Bautista.

www.danwelcher.com