Charlie Vernon World Premiere Piece in Arizona

[Derek Reaban]

I attended a fantastic concert this evening! The professor of trombone at Arizona State University, Gail Wilson, is retiring this year. His son Brian, also a trombone player and music educator, organized a once in a lifetime event at the Jr. High where he is the band director.

The concert opened with a trombone quartet (of former students from the ASU studio) in the Sonata in D minor for 4 trombones by Daniel Speer. Three individual soloists followed this group (Robert Lindahl playing Sonata “Vox Gabrieli” by Stejepan Sulek, Mark Hartman playing Lament for a Poet by Paul Steinberg, and Josh Bledsoe playing Bolivar by Eric Cook) all accompanied by Miriam Yutzy. What great playing by everyone!

Next an all star wind ensemble came onto the stage, including Dave Hickman on trumpet, Robert Spring on clarinet, and many other outstanding local players. They opened with Carrollton March by Karl King. Before they started playing, Brian explained to the audience that his father had been invited to Hendrix Jr. High to introduce this piece and give a little background (considering that he had lived in the town of Carrollton). When Gail took the microphone, he told us that he was quite surprised to see the personnel on stage because he had been told it would be a Jr. High wind ensemble! Surprise!

After the march, Will Kimball came out and played the 3rd Movement of the Trombone Concert by Derek Bourgeois (What a fun piece and a great player)! The next portion of the concert was the main reason that I was in attendance. Brian Wilson had commissioned a piece for his father. Douglas Akey was the composer and conductor (a horn player, band director, and composer in the Phoenix metro area). The guest soloist for this piece was Charlie Vernon from the Chicago Symphony. The piece was entitled Pousane Intonent and was based on a 13th century medieval chant. It opened with Charlie on alto trombone and his sound and phrasing were simply captivating! He alternated with his bass trombone throughout the work. This was a very enjoyable piece of music, and clearly a great tribute to Gail Wilson. The parts for the wind ensemble were also very well done and I’m glad that I was fortunate to be in the audience for this world premiere.

I saw Ralph Sauer in the audience during intermission and Kim Ohlemeyer from the Phoenix Symphony. There were countless other trombone players that were in attendance from many of the ensembles that I’ve played with over the years (probably all Gail Wilson students).

The second half kicked off with the ASU Jazz Repertory Band (conducted by Sam Pilafian) doing a piece called “Arrivedercci Gail-A” with soloists Keith Jackson, Steven McAllister, and Joey Sellers all upfront on trombone. Sam clearly had too much fun with this (and his small percussion "shaker")!

Next was a beautiful piece by Flor Peters (Quartet for Four Trombones) featuring Mark Hartman, Will Kimball, Bob Lindahl, and Charlie Vernon. Wow! This group sounded amazing.

Then we were treated to the Small Trombone Ensemble (17 players) doing Layla by Eric Clapton and arranged by Eric Crees. And finally the Large Trombone Ensemble came out (59 players – my third grader counted all of them)! They did a very cool Eric Crees arrangement of 76 trombones that had antiphonal trombones in the hall doing Richard Strauss excerpts and Ravel Bolero and they walked up and joined the rest of the ensemble on stage. Next was Finlandia (conducted by Brian Wilson), and finally Taps and Chorale segueing into Achieved is the Glorious Work (Haydn) conducted by Charlie Vernon.

This was quite an undertaking for Brian Wilson and a marvelous tribute for Gail Wilson. My son and I loved the concert (he told me last year he thinks he wants to play trombone) so I figured I’d take him to hear the best! He was not disappointed.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Shake and Bake]

Thank you for sharing this special experience! Gail Wilson is a true gentleman and a wonderful teacher. I worked with him at the Brevard Music Center and his insights help me every day. Bravo Gail!!
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