NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands Dr. Jeffrey C. Mathews will co-moderate a worldwide discussion on the music of composer Martin Ellerby on Saturday.
Mathews along with Jack Stamp, the International Composer in Association to the world-renowned Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band, will lead a discussion with Ellerby of his compositions, and extraordinary musical life. This “Repertoire Roundtable” will include opportunities for questions from those in attendance, and selections from the composer’s wide-ranging catalog of music including several holiday selections. This session is sponsored by the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles and is open to all.
Ellerby has written in most forms including several sinfonias and concertante works, music for strings, several instrumental sonatas and suites, songs and choral music including a Mass for choir and orchestra. He has also written test pieces for all the key brass band contests (Tristan Encounters, Elgar Variations, Genesis, Electra etc.) and much repertoire for concert band (Paris Sketches, Venetian Spells, Meditations, Via Crucis, etc.). Additionally, he has composed examination and sight reading material for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and other educational bodies and publishers.
His music has been broadcast and recorded all over the world by leading ensembles and performed at prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Barbican and Wigmore Halls in London; Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York City; Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and St. Thomas Church in Germany; La Madeleine in Paris and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. He has been twice represented at the BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts at the RAH (broadcast on BBC Radio 3). A 7-year post as civilian composer-in-residence to the Regimental Band of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards resulted in much music for specific State events, Royal occasions and overseas tours.
Mathews did his doctoral dissertation on Ellerby’s music and has fostered a working relationship with the British composer. Ellerby was Composer in Residence at NSU in 2005 and visited the university again in 2011 when he was commissioned to compose “Cane River Murals” in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Northwestern State band program. The work was inspired by the paintings of artist Clementine Hunter.
Mathews prepared and conducted the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra for a recording of “Cane River Murals” for the Polyphonic label.
Professor of Horn Kristine Coreil used funds from the Magale Endowed Professorship to commission an original work for the natural horn by Ellerby and to apply for a performance slot at the 51st International Horn Symposium in Ghent, Belgium. Her proposal was accepted and Coreil performed the work for an international crowd of horn players and horn enthusiasts.
The event begins at noon CST and will be held on Zoom, Meeting ID 926 0501 9772. It will also be available on Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/events/1243451999388824.
