SFCM's Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Brad Hogarth, will perform an evening of classics and new works on October 24 tinged by both tragedy and the triumph of the human spirit.

The evening features a distinguished guest star in Aaron Schuman, Associate Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony. Schuman's showcase will be Oskar Böhme's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra, which has an interesting—and tragic—history: Though this concerto is the only full-fledged Romantic trumpet concerto of the 19th century, much about the composer's life was unknown until academics began uncovering details about his life in recent decades. Sadly, it was confirmed in 2019 that Böhme was killed in 1938, one of the last victims of Joseph Stalin's "Great Purge." This concerto, though, has maintained its spot in the repertoire, giving his music new life as more and more ensembles perform it, drawn to its drama and jaw-dropping cadenzas.

The Böhme concerto makes for an elegant follow-up to composer Shuying Li's In This Breath, a tribute to her partner, trombonist and music educator Glen Adsit, who passed unexpectedly in January 2024. The piece's title comes from famed Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh's book The Art of Living, which Li writes guided Adsit "through his personal struggles when confronted with his own mortality." The passage that inspired the piece reads, in part, "My nature is the nature of the cloud—the nature of no birth and no death… If you breathe in and out, and you find peace, happiness, and fulfillment, you know I am always with you, whether my physical body is still alive or not." Li adds that In This Breath "is both a celebration of Glen's life and the enduring bond he and I share and a tribute to the legacy of love and artistic collaboration that he left behind for all of us."

Shuyling Li.

The second half of the program highlights two of the most important ways we make our mark on the world: Art and music. Michael Gilbertson's Usonian Dwellings, a commission from the U.S. Marine Band, is a reference to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The term was Wright's preferred for a style of middle-income home he began designing in 1934, but more broadly applied to his concept of America and its landscape as a true "New World" free from the influence of previous architectural conventions. The piece's two movements, Taliesin West and Fallingwater, are inspired by two of Wright's houses: The former in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the better-known one in Mills Run, Pennsylvania. Wright's designs, Gilbertson writes, "designs draw inspiration from the landscapes that surround them—evoking an America that is both forward thinking and conscious of the natural world."

The concert's closing selection, Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, reflects the oral tradition of folk songs, which Grainger began studying in 1905 in the titular part of England. (An Australian native, Grainger was educated in Germany and lived in London before relocating to the United States.) The work, Grainger wrote in its original program notes "is dedicated to the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me… Each number is intended to be a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody."

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.

There's a distinct across-the-pond collaborative spirit to Lincolnshire Posy, however: Though directly based on English folk songs from the titular county in England, the piece was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association in 1937. Three of its movements were premiered in March of that month by the Milwaukee Symphonic Band, which included members of the Blatz Brewery and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer factory worker bands. Grainger's work with folk music, like R. Vaughan Williams, has been hailed as leading the revival of interest in British folk music that extended into the American folk music revival of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, with many British folk songs passing into the repertoire shared by both British and American musicians.

And which other British composer could you say lives on whenever someone opens a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon?

Reserve tickets for the Wind Ensemble's Oct. 24 concert here.