Travis J. Weller

Thank you friends and colleagues for your patience and support over the last four years. It has been a long process to be sure, but I am pleased to announce that Journey to the Prairie is now available from Manhattan Beach Music. It may be ordered direct from MBM or you can order from JW Pepper as well.

Journey to the Prairie was written in one night – I couldn’t turn off the sounds. As Quincy says transitional tasks can be very helpful to develop material, and my wife couldn’t be happier that evening as I continued mopping, sweeping, and cleaning the house. I finished the piece at 3 a.m. that December morning, printed parts and had the wind ensemble at my school perform the first and only draft. I was excited to see this piece come to life, but discouraged as it was passed over by 3 other publishers. With nothing to lose, I entered it in the 2nd Annual Ticheli Competition.

Now some 5 years later the piece is available. My thanks to Dr. Arnold at Grove City College who provided the recording for the contest (it is also posted on my compositions page). I hope this piece might be useful to your ensemble in the coming months.

A recording of the Washington Winds is up on YouTube as they record “Siege of the Dark Castle” (for young bands) from C.L. Barnhouse.

Now available from Wingert-Jones, Festival and Ballade for Winds was written for the 2009 Pittsburgh Diocesean Honor Band hosted by Bishop Canevin High School. I am especially proud of this piece as it was the first one I wrote completely away from a piano or keyboard. The work develops from the opening motifs, and after the energetic allegro spiritoso there is a lush and refelctive ballade – a real “jersey cow” section as Julie Giroux would say. There are recordings posted at both WJ and Pepper for your perusal. It is a great “festival” selection or concert opener for high school band at the grade 3 level. My thanks to the Pittsburgh Diocesean Band Directors for giving me the opportunity to share this music with them and work with such great kids. I know there are lots of good choices out there, but please consider Festival and Ballade for Winds as you make your selections for next year.

It was a great day yesterday at Marion Center with the PMEA District 3 Junior High Honor Band. I was able to share some good music with a great bunch of students and directors – including “Supsended Animation” (Patrick Burns), “Marching Song” (Holst), and the world debut of “For the Love a Soldier”.  The 6th Grade Honor Band was under the direction of friend and colleague Mike Grady – it was great catching up with him and hearing the debut of his “Gift for Band”.

Be sure to bump on over to Travis J. Weller on myspace to hear the PMEA District 5 Band recording of “Moravian Dance”.  Jack Anderson did a great job with the band, and I am so proud of the students for what they did with the music.  The piece will be available from FJH this summer.

A sincere thanks to Susan Glover and the students of the West Ridge Middle School Wind Ensemble for their performance of “Tales of  a Medieval Warrior” this past December at Midwest.

I was delighted to find another performance on Youtube given by the Hopkins West Junior High Band under the direction of Mrs. Kay Hawley. Bravo students and thank you Kay!