Day - Windborne, ft. Johanna Yarbrough

The LSU Wind Ensemble, under the direction of conductor Damon Talley, presents Kevin Day's "Windborne", featuring soloist Johanna Yarbrough, Julian R. & Sidney Nicolle Caruth Assistant Professor of French Horn.

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Windborne: Concerto for Horn and Wind Ensemble is my fifth concerto commission, this time in collaboration with my dear friend and soloist Steven Cohen, whom I am greatly thankful for in supporting this project.

This three-movement work is inspired by the life of a family member of mine named Oscar Desper Jr., my great uncle on my mother’s side. I never got the chance to meet him but heard many stories of him as a kid from my mother about his work in aeronautical engineering and the Rockwell International Space Shuttle Program. Before I chose my path to go into music for college, I originally wanted to be an aeronautical engineer too, with dreams of wanting to fly and explore the unknown.

With this context in mind, the three movements, Aero-Schematics, Cloud Dreams, and Flying Machine explore this aeronautical process of designing an aircraft and witnessing that design come to life. The “flying” concept for the concerto started by replaying experiences in my head hearing horns. I’ve always loved the epic and beautiful sound of the instrument, as well as its ability make the listener feel like they are soaring.

-Program Note by composer