At The Master’s Feet

The New York Staff Band [NYSB] and the Eastern Territorial Music Department have maintained for over 70 years a significant relationship with outstanding composers and arrangers who have served as both editors of the territory’s music publications and supplied the NYSB with an outstanding array of pieces designed specifically for the band. This album highlights aspects of that on-going relationship while also demonstrating that these composers have also impacted the larger brass band culture via excellent pieces written and commissioned for the brass band contest scene. Some of the musicians briefly profiled here did get formally labeled as ‘composer-in-residence,’ though ‘editor’ has been the more common identifier, whether in handling departmental publications or when supplying new music for the NYSB. The composers featured are: Erik Leidzen, Emil Soderstrom, Stephen Bulla, Peter Graham, Brian Bowen, James Curnow, Kevin Norbury, and Dorothy Gates. We pray you will be blessed by this music.