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August 6, 2007

Music department's Stewart hosts radio program

By kim urquhart

Tune in to WABE 90.1 FM on Tuesdays to hear “Summer Winds,” a new series created by Scott Stewart of Emory’s Department of Music. The show debuted on July 24 and continues each Tuesday night at 9 p.m. through Aug. 14 on Atlanta’s National Public Radio affiliate.

This is the first time that the director of wind studies has served as an on-air host for a radio program, though his performances as conductor of the Emory Wind Ensemble and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony have earned much air time.

Summer Winds features music written for wind ensembles and bands.

Challenging the assumption that “band music” is primarily marches, polkas and waltzes, Stewart said he created the program to introduce another side of the genre.

“There is a huge variety of music featured on the shows — one of the reason I love this genre,” he said. “Wind music covers the gamut from Renaissance dances, the glorious Baroque brass ensembles of Gabrieli, classical wind serenades, and a handful of Romantic pieces.”

Listeners will hear from representatives of the wind band “explosion” at the turn of the 20th century: composers such as Percy Grainger, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Paul Hindemith and Vincent Persichetti.

Because much of the contemporary action in wind ensemble and concert bands takes place in colleges and universities, Stewart’s show includes musicians with Emory connections: Emory euphonium faculty member Adam Frey, and John Lynch, former director of instrumental music at Emory, conducting the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble.

Stewart was creative in his programming. “I try to program the shows with a theme in mind, so the second installment was ‘Shall We Dance?’ featuring ‘Suite of Old American Dances,’ ‘The Solitary Dancer,’ ‘Gazebo Dances’ and others. Another show features classical masters and their wind compositions,” he said. The Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, based at Emory, is featured on the final show, performing Eric Whitacre’s “October.”

Stewart joined the Emory faculty in 1999 where he teaches courses in conducting, wind band literature, and film music. He received a Bachelor of Music Education and Doctor of Conducting from the Indiana University School of Music and a Master of Music Education from the University of Texas at Austin.

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