Scott Metlicka, NIU Flute Instructor
Alex Harrington, Graduate Assistant and Guest Conductor

The Flute Concertino was commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire in 1902 (presumably as an examination piece for flute students) where the celebrated French flutist and teacher Paul Taffanel, to whom the Concertino was dedicated, taught. Among flutists, legend has it that Cécile Chaminade wrote the Concertino to punish a flute-playing lover after he left her to marry someone else, wanting to make a piece so fiendishly difficult that he could not play it (though he supposedly did manage).

– Program Note from Austin Symphonic Band concert program, 2 April 2018

When most French composes were focused exclusively on opera, Camille Saint-Saens was writing music in a wide variety of musical forms. Although criticized by some as conservative or traditional in his use of harmony and melody, this former child prodigy was eventually hailed as one of the greatest French composers. His prolific output included original works for military band, from which Pas Redouble was drawn. The transcriber is equally famous in our country. 

Arthur Frackenpohl (born April 23, 1924) is an American composer and Professor Emeritus at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BA, MA) and McGill University (DM). He studied composition at Tanglewood in 1948 with Darius Milhaud and with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau in 1950, where he was awarded the First Prize in Composition. In 1949, Frackenpohl joined the faculty of the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam. He has published over 250 instrumental and choral compositions and arrangements, various recordings and one textbook, Harmonization at the Piano, which is used in several college-level keyboard classes in the United States.

Morgan Tipton, drumset
Henry Harris, string bass
Elizabeth Vaughan, piano

One of the best things about being a composer in the 21st century is that there are no stylistic limitations on how we can express ourselves. The freedom to be unconcerned with fitting into any prescribed expectations of others is a gift, and one that’s amplified with age and perspective. I happened to complete my 60th solar rotation as I composed this music, and when the piece unexpectedly veered from my intentions stated in its pastoral opening to something with a different kind of energy, I viewed that as a positive metaphor for life, for creativity, and for the joy of becoming old enough to blithely follow one’s instincts.

On the opposite end of this emotional spectrum, it was just as I reached the final exuberant phrases of FREE that Russia launched its brutal, unconscionable war against the Ukrainian people. Writing such sanguine music to this hideous backdrop intensified my horror for the many victims whose lives only days before were not unlike mine: free. This piece is not a reflection on Ukraine, nor is it about cruelty. However, none of us exists in a bubble, and events in one part of our planet affect everyone, particularly when suffering is involved. May calm and freedom return to all.

What happens when a composer who loves the pop music of the ’80s and ’90s hangs out in dance clubs blasting Euro-disco house music in the 2010s? OFF THE EDGE offers a 140 bpm-thumping, EDM-jumping clue!

Scott Metlicka is the Instructor of Flute at Northern Illinois University. He holds the position of Principal Flute with the Rockford Symphony and Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra and Piccolo with the Elgin and South Bend Symphonies. He conducted the NIU Flute Choir at the 2022 National Flute Association Convention. Mr. Metlicka has performed as concerto soloist with the Rockford, South Bend, and Lake Geneva Symphony, Wisconsin Philharmonic, and Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra in Rockford. Additional engagements include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic, Madison Symphony, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. In summer he teaches at Birch Creek Music Center in Door County, WI and has performed with Peninsula Music Festival and Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As an advocate for live music, his chamber music group, Apollo Trio, presents concerts throughout the Midwest.

Alex Shapiro composes genre-blind concert works that are heard daily in performances and broadcasts and appear on over 40 commercial recordings worldwide. Known for chamber music that reimagines traditional instruments, Alex is also a leading voice in the wind band field, acclaimed for electroacoustic works that blend live performance with recorded sound and multimedia, pushing the repertoire in new directions.

A devoted advocate, Alex is the Symphonic and Concert writer member of the Board of Directors of ASCAP, and serves on the boards of directors of the ASCAP Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Music Publishers Association of the United States.

Educated at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, Alex moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles in 1983 and spent 15 years composing scores for film, TV, and media projects before shifting her career to concert music. In 2007, she traded the traffic and mudslides of southern California for life on Washington State’s remote, bridge-less San Juan Island. An award-winning amateur nature photographer, Alex’s images and music can be experienced throughout her website, www.alexshapiro.org.

Alex Harrington is currently a Graduate Student at Northern Illinois University studying Wind Conducting and assisting with all operations of the NIU band program. Prior to NIU, she taught K-12 band and general music in Novi, MI and taught private woodwind and piano lessons to children and adults. She received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Olivet Nazarene University where she was a drum major for the Tiger Marching Band for two years. She has been an active conductor at the NIU Wind Conducting Symposium and has recently attended the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and Illinois State Conducting Symposiums as a conducting participant.