Soul to Soul

Program notes by Richard M. Kesner ​ Ryan Fillinger (2001 - ), Sinfonietta Ryan Fillinger is an Oregon-born composer of wind ensemble, orchestral, and chamber music. His works fuse styles of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Century with modern techniques and contemporary instrumentation. Sinfonietta, for wind ensemble, is structured into two movements; the first, marked “slowly, reflectively” draws inspiration from the serenity of the middle movement of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, featuring a similarly extensive and melancholic run-on melody that repeats only twice over the course of the movement. The second movement, marked “quickly, with energy,” immediately changes pace with a sudden burst of forward-moving energy, and maintains its momentum throughout its modified rondo form until the final bar. ​ Quinn Mason (1996 - ), Soul to Soul Quinn Mason is a composer and conductor based in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Artist in Residence. Mason composed Soul to Soul as an “elegy for Wind Ensemble” in 2017 and subsequently revised it in 2019. The work was written in the memory of Dr. David Maslanka (1943-2017), with whom Mason worked closely for a brief period in February 2017. The work is a tribute to Dr. Maslanka and his unique style of writing for wind ensemble, complete with brass and wind chorales and hopeful trumpet fanfares. In addition to the chorales, this piece also contains a quote from Maslanka’s 8th Symphony. ​ ​David Maslanka (1943-2017), Symphony No 10 David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood. Among his more than 150 compositions are over 50 pieces for wind ensemble, including ten symphonies, seventeen concertos, a Mass, and many concert pieces. His chamber music includes four wind quintets, five saxophone quartets, and many works for solo instrument and piano. Maslanka served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.. Maslanka passed away while writing this final work. His son, Matthew completed the composition based on his father’s sketches. According to David, the work began with two visions or dreams of “the Holy Mother takes me sliding down a rocky mountain slope, all loose small rocks,” and “the Holy Mother in the guise of an 18-year-old Swiss farm [shows me] views of the earth and the oceans.

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