Baylor Wind Ensemble Tours Texas Before Taking the Stage at TMEA

The Baylor Wind Ensemble performed several concerts on its way to this year’s TMEA in San Antonio, TX. The ensemble performed in the Klett Center for the Performing Arts in Georgetown, the South Performing Arts Center in Cedar Park, and held open rehearsals in Round Rock and San Antonio leading up to its concert in the Lila Cockrell Theater.

Prior to the regional tour, the Baylor Wind Ensemble and prominent clarinetist Julian Bliss released Divine Mischief on the Signum Classics label. Conducted by Director of Bands J. Eric Wilson, D.M.A., the album features two new commissions: the title concerto, Divine Mischief, by John Mackey, and Zhou Tian’s Sinfonia. It also includes Morton Gould’s Derivations for Clarinet and Band. Just as exciting, the ensemble’s recording—with the help of Grammy-winning producer Elaine Martone—will be submitted for Grammy consideration this fall.

“Personally, being a part of this project represents a microcosm of the gratefulness I feel being at Baylor University. Collaborating with our remarkable students and colleagues has been a tremendous blessing for nearly 20 years. Specifically, this recording project was quite a labor of love and a massive undertaking from beginning to end and involved forces both internal and external to Baylor. Nevertheless, the final product is something of which we will forever be proud, and I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to offer this music to the world.”

The Baylor Wind Ensemble was a commissioning consortium member for Divine Mischief and Sinfonia, and the album represents the “world-premiere” commercial recording of those pieces.

“This recording of Divine Mischief by the Baylor Wind Ensemble represents the first wind ensemble to be released on the Signum label,” Wilson said. “It is truly a historic day for Baylor University and the School of Music!” Signum Records is a leading British independent label, specializing in classical music. Signum boasts a catalogue of over 700 titles and continues to release 40-plus new recordings each year. It was awarded Label of the Year in the Gramophone Awards (2017) and has also reached a milestone 500 million streams for its recordings.

Bliss, Mackey and Tian, have served as visiting artists with the School of Music, and Wilson says they each played a significant role in bringing this project to life.

“This project involved a true ‘family’ of collaborators,” Wilson said. “First and foremost, the students of the Baylor Wind Ensemble were absolute professionals and several faculty and staff contributed in significant ways. On this album, we recorded two works featuring the world-renowned Julian Bliss, and highlighted the music of two of the most relevant living composers, Zhou Tian and John Mackey. Furthermore, we had the pleasure of working with a Grammy Award-winning producer, Elaine Martone, and engineer Ben Maas, who recorded and mastered such brilliant music.”

Out of 76 musicians, 57 are undergraduate students—a highly rare percentage for such a highly acclaimed university wind ensemble. In more than five decades of existence, the Baylor Wind Ensemble is guided by a philosophy that seeks to educate and expose its students and audiences to the highest quality music written or arranged for wind band representing a diversity of musical styles and historical periods.