Mr. Colburn’s Miracle

An Audience Guide to the Municipal Band

Composition for Narrator and Band by A. Eric Heukeshoven

Based on a Theme and Variations by George A. Colburn

WORLD PREMIERE

at our Final Centennial Season Concert

August 12, 2015 • 8:00 pm • Winona Lake Park Bandshell

Mr. Colburn’s Miracle: An Audience Guide to the Municipal Band is based on a recently discovered theme and variations composed by the Winona Municipal Band’s founding director, George Alfred Colburn. A. Eric Heukeshoven has created a composition for narrator and band that takes the audience on a historical journey using Colburn’s delightful variations to highlight each section of the band.

The new work was commissioned by the Winona Municipal Band Centennial Celebration Committee with the support of our generous donors and in honor of our 100th anniversary season. Dr. Dan Barr, a former member of the tuba section, will be featured as narrator with Levi Lundak leading the band as they tell a story one hundred years in the making.

Photo: George Alfred Colburn, 1878-1921.

A. Eric Heukeshoven (b. 1956) is a first generation American – son of a German immigrant father and Scandinavian mother. Heukeshoven holds a BA in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Minnesota/Minneapolis and an MS in Music Technology from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. His mentors include Dominick Argento, Paul Fetler, Frank Bencriscutto, Tom Root, Erik Stokes, Kevin Dobbe, and John Paulson.

As Assistant Professor of Music at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota (Winona), Heukeshoven directs the Music Industry and Jazz programs. He also teaches composition, arranging, low brass, organ, and jazz piano. He also serves as director of the SMU Brass Ensemble.

In March 2015, Heukeshoven was selected as one of two composers for the American Composers Forum’s national Faith Partners composer-in-residence program. Working with English Lutheran and First Congregational churches in La Crosse (WI), Heukeshoven will create six new compositions, two for the separate congregations and two shared by both.

Recent commissions include And They Have Lies – Heukeshoven’s ninth commissioned work for the La Crosse (WI) Chamber Chorale’s Words to Music program, The Chief – a collaboration with Winona (MN) poet laureate James Armstrong for the Duisigh Ensemble, and Exaltation Triptych – a three movement work commissioned for the Winona Brass Band’s 20th anniversary season.

Preghiera Semplice (available from Alliance Publications) for SATB choir was commissioned by the Saint Mary’s University Chamber Singers. The work, based on an Italian translation of The Prayer of St. Francis, received its premiere performances in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican and also at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi during the ensemble’s 2011 international tour. The composition was also selected as one of three winners of the first annual Choral Competition at Morningside College.

Other commissions include works for the Sheldon Theatre Brass Band (Red Wing, MN), Winona State University Summer Dixieland Jazz Workshop, and many diverse compositions ranging from the traditional to a duet for steam calliope and tuba!

Many of Heukeshoven’s compositions are performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe and he is in demand as a jazz pianist and trombonist as well as a composer/arranger. He is a member of the American Composers Forum, American Guild of Organists, ASCAP, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Eta Nu chapter). Heukeshoven lives in Winona, MN with his wife Janet, their two sons, Hans and Max, and one large cat.

Numerous choral and instrumental works are published by Alliance Publications, Inc.: apimusic.org. More information about the composer can also be found at: composersforum.org.