Albanian Dance (Shelley Hanson) - North Texas University Band

Описание: The North Texas University Band under the direction of Slade Presley Denman on their April 13, 2022 concert.

PROGRAM NOTES:
Shelley Hanson (b. 1951) is an American composer, conductor and clarinetist. Hanson received her Ph.D. in performance, music theory, and music literature from Michigan State University, and has conducted university orchestras and wind ensembles as a faculty member of several universities. She is also on the artistic staff of the Minnesota Youth Symphonies.

Shelley Hanson’s compositions have been performed on every continent except Antarctica. As a conductor, record producer, and clarinetist, she has performed as a soloist with many ensembles: the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the U.S. Air Force Band, among others.

Also a conductor, record producer, and clarinetist, she and her band, Klezmer and All That Jazz, have performed her Concerto for Klezmer Band and Orchestra with the Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many other groups. Klezmer and All That Jazz recorded traditional and her original music for the award-winning audio book version of the classic Yiddish folk tale The Dybbuk.

Principal clarinetist of the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra, she has recorded orchestral and chamber music for Virgin Records, Teldec, Innova, and others, and was a soloist for the soundtrack of the feature film Out of the Wilderness. She is the founding director of the Macalester College Wind Ensemble in St. Paul, Minnesota

Hanson shares the following of Albanian Dance (2005):

Eastern Europe has had a long tradition of brass bands, some of which include clarinets and, since the twentieth century, saxophones. Although the instruments now commonly used by concert bands look and sound somewhat different than some of the instruments used by Eastern European bands, this setting of the popular Albanian tune Shota seeks to re-create the festive mood of a raucous village dance, where just such a folk band would have provided the music. Present throughout the piece is the rhythmic pattern of long-long-short, which is a very common folk dance rhythm in many cultures.

This piece is based on part of the finale of the accordion concerto AccorDances, which was written for accordion virtuosos Mark Stillman. The present version was commissioned by Jane Church and the East Lansing High School Concert Band, and was premiered in November, 2003 with the composer conducting.