Jack Gallagher's 'Proteus' to be Performed at Cincinnati Conservatory

Work presented at Corbett Auditorium by CCM Symphony Band

Jack Gallagher

"Proteus Rising from the Sea," a work by Jack Gallagher, the Olive Williams Kettering Professor of Music at The College of Wooster, will be performed by the Cincinnati College-Conservatory Symphony Band, conducted by Terrence Milligan, on Thursday May 1, at 8 p.m. The performance, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Corbett Auditorium on the CCM campus.

A single-movement work of 10 minutes' duration, "Proteus" was commissioned by the Air Force Band of Flight, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Lt. Col. Richard A. Shelton, Commander and Conductor. Taking its name from a poem by William Wordsworth, the work was composed during a 1993-94 research leave from The College of Wooster.

"Proteus Rising from the Sea" was premiered January 26, 1995 at East Tennessee State University by the Air Force Band of Flight and released on that ensemble's compact disc, titled Images. It was also performed at the 1998 National Conference of the Society of Composers, Inc., by the Indiana University Wind Ensemble, and at the 2002 SCI National Conference by the University of Akron Symphonic Band. In addition, "Proteus" was selected for the Virginia College Band Directors 2001 Symposium of New Band Music at the University of Richmond, where it was led by the composer conducting the Virginia Intercollegiate Band.

"Proteus Rising from the Sea" is the most recent of six compositions by Gallagher performed at CCM in recent seasons. Others have included "The Persistence of Memory," performed by the Cincinnati Conservatory Wind Symphony; "Diversions Triptych," "Stanfare," and "A Psalm of Life," performed by the Symphony Band; and "Ancient Evenings and Distant Music," performed at Watson Recital Hall by a wind quintet that included oboist and Wooster High School Symphonic Band graduate Mary Cicconetti.

Gallagher, a member of The College of Wooster faculty since 1977, has composed 45 works for orchestra, chorus, symphonic band, chamber ensembles and solo instruments. His compositions are included on 12 published compact discs on the Musical Heritage Society, Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, Summit Records and ERM labels. He has been the recipient of awards, grants, fellowships, or recognition from the Ohio Arts Council, the Charles Ives Center for American Music, Meet the Composer, the Yaddo Corporation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and numerous other agencies. As producer, his recording for TNC Records of Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques with pianist Angelin Chang, conductor John McLaughlin Williams and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony won a 2007 Grammy Award in the classical category "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra." At Wooster Gallagher teaches Composition, Twentieth-Century Music Theory, Orchestration, Trumpet, and Seminar in Music of Living Composers, a course he originated.