Composer Frank Ticheli, 2023
Photo credit: Graham Lindsey/Wavelength Media
Northshore Concert Band, under the baton of Dr. Mallory Thompson, is thrilled to include Frank Ticheli’s Earth Song in the winter performance of our 68th season on February 18, 2024, at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. This concert features our 20th Lifetime of Music Initiative event. Local student musicians are invited to join us on stage for a portion of our program during this annual concert. This program provides a rewarding musical experience to young musicians: granting access to unique performance opportunities outside of the classroom, introducing students to outstanding wind band repertoire, and exposing participants to the performance opportunities that await them beyond high school, regardless of whether they choose to pursue music as a career.
Frank Ticheli’s Sanctuary was a highlight of our spring 2018 program and he kindly shared with us his musical influences, inspirations, and words of advice for young musicians which can be viewed here. Nitro, commissioned by Northshore Concert Band in celebration of our 50th anniversary season and premiered during our April 9, 2006, concert, kicked off our celebratory return to Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on February 20, 2022, after a two-year COVID hiatus, and in celebration of this return to live music and the Band’s legacy, we reposted Mr. Ticheli’s 2018 interview.
We invited this lauded composer to again be featured in our mini-interview series with a new set of questions designed for our audience to learn more about him and gain a greater understanding of the role of a composer.
Please tell us about Earth Song.
The band version of Earth Song is actually the grandchild of Sanctuary. While composing Sanctuary back in the early 2000s, the music seemed to be crying out for a choral setting, so I extracted a few minutes from it and recomposed it for chorus, setting it to a poem that I wrote. The poem itself is a kind of plea or prayer for peace. The poem also describes music's healing powers. Thus, Earth Song for chorus was born, and it's very special and personal for me. Skip ahead a couple of years, when a colleague asked me to make a band version of Earth Song. I told them that the music already exists in Sanctuary. My friend replied, "Yes, but I'd like you to make a band version of just that portion that comprises Earth Song." And that's how Earth Song for band came to be the grandchild of Sanctuary.
When did you start composing, and what or who were your early passions and influences?
I've been composing since my high school days in the 1970s. I suppose I was most heavily influenced by the music I was playing in my public school music program and by my teachers, but also by jazz. Later in college, my professors opened my ears and mind to a whole new universe of possibilities, introducing me to mostly 20th century composers who expanded my whole perception of what music can be.
What do you usually start with when composing?
There's no single answer to this question. It can be anything.
What would you consider the most challenging aspect of composing music?
Starting a piece is difficult because I don't have anything to react to at first. It takes time for the work's universe to begin to appear to me — its personality, its unique rules, its heartbeat. It takes time for my early sketches to begin crystallizing into something that is living and breathing.
What's your view on the role of composers today?
Be yourself and bring that out in your music as honestly as possible. Nobody can compose your music better than you, so find out who you are.
Do you have any advice for young musicians?
See above. And also, don't get bogged down in comparisons with others. Just bring who you are into all you do creatively.
Please share any thoughts that you may have about the Northshore Concert Band.
Thank you for including my little work Earth Song in your Lifetime of Music Initiative. Best wishes to all of the musicians!
Frank Ticheli's music has been described as being "optimistic and thoughtful" (Los Angeles Times), "lean and muscular" (The New York Times), "brilliantly effective" (Miami Herald), and "powerful, deeply felt crafted with impressive flair and an ear for striking instrumental colors" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel). Born in 1958, Ticheli joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in 1991, where he is Professor of Composition. From 1991 to 1998, Ticheli was Composer in Residence of the Pacific Symphony.
Ticheli is well known for his works for concert band, many of which have become standards in the repertoire. In addition to composing, he has appeared as guest conductor of his music at Carnegie Hall, at many American universities and music festivals, and in cities throughout the world, including Schladming (Austria), Beijing and Shanghai, London and Manchester, Singapore, Rome, Sydney, and numerous cities in Japan.
Frank Ticheli is the recipient of a 2012 Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, his third award from that prestigious organization. His Symphony No. 2 was named winner of the 2006 National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest. Other awards include the Walter Beeler Memorial Prize and First Prize awards in the Texas Sesquicentennial Orchestral Composition Competition, Britten-on-the-Bay Choral Composition Contest, and Virginia CBDNA Symposium for New Band Music.
In 2018, Ticheli received the University of Michigan Alumni Society’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame Award, in recognition for his career as a composer. He was also awarded national honorary membership to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, “bestowed to individuals who have significantly contributed to the cause of music in America,” and the A. Austin Harding Award by the American School Band Directors Association, “given to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the school band movement in America.” At USC, he has received the Virginia Ramo Award for excellence in teaching, and the Dean's Award for Professional Achievement.
Frank Ticheli received his doctoral and masters degrees in composition from the University of Michigan. His works are published by Manhattan Beach, Southern, Hinshaw, and Encore Music, and are recorded on the labels of Albany, Chandos, Clarion, Equilibrium, Klavier, Koch International, Mark, Naxos, and Reference.
A special thank you to Mr. Ticheli for generously speaking with us and for permitting us to reproduce this material. For further information about Frank Ticheli and his music, please visit the composer’s website at www.FrankTicheli.com.
Please join us on Sunday, February 18, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University; 50 Arts Circle Drive in Evanston, Illinois for A Lifetime of Music, conducted by Artistic Director Mallory Thompson.
Ticket Information: Tickets are $25 each, seniors $20, students/children $10. All seats are general admission.
Tickets are available online through Eventbrite.