Program Note:

Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble creates a dichotomy of percussion and winds using a four-note motive that is introduced at the opening of the work. Through this divide, the piece explores the idea of control—a central element to the soloist and ensemble paradigm. Throughout the opening movement, the percussion soloist maintains supreme control in developing the various materials of the piece with a muscular display of virtuosity on the marimba. The second movement shows a relinquishment of this control where the winds develop and spin out two very contrasting ideas based on the initial four-note motive. When these ideas reach critical mass and can go no further, they are engulfed by a percussive wave in a fiery cadenza where the percussionist is now performing on a quintessential "percussion" setup. At the opening of movement three, a percussion quintet introduces a steady groove that proliferates into a full-band percussion ensemble. After a brief climactic moment, pitch begins to reemerge, and a brass fanfare heralds the original motive through an energetic finale in which soloist and ensemble work in tandem to reach the ultimate conclusion.