Under the direction of Brad Hogarth, SFCM's wind ensemble presents music by Francis Johnson, Henri Tomasi and the world premiere of a new arrangement by Ursula Kwong-Brown. Brown's Cover the Walls, commissioned by SFCM, is a themed piece “inspired by Chinese poems that were carved into the walls of the detention center of Angel Island.” Trombone player Austin Talbot performs in this concert, featured in Tomasi's Trombone Concerto, as the winner of SFCM's concerto competition.

Program

Francis Johnson (arr. Brad Hogarth): Suite No. 1
     I. Captain J. Mountfort’s Kent Bugle Slow March
     II. Boone Infrantry’s Brass Band Quick Step
     III. The Death of Willis
     IV. Victoria Gallop
     V. Washington Gray’s Kent Bugle Slow March

Henri Tomasi (arr. Donald Patterson): Concerto pour Trombone
     I. Andante et Scherzo-Valse
     II. Nocturne
     III. Final-Tambourin
Austin Talbot, trombone

Ursula Kwong-Brown: Cover the Walls

-Intermission-

David Maslanka: Symphony No. 4

Artists

Austin Talbot, trombone

Bay Area trombonist Austin Talbot is committed to performing music through a composer's vision while adding a taste of personal beauty and expressiveness. He has made appearances with the San Francisco Symphony and the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera as well as performed with the Round Top Festival Orchestra throughout the Summer of 2023. In addition, Austin had the opportunity to perform at Michael Mulcahy's international trombone seminar at Northwestern University in 2019 and 2024, as well as Gene Pokorny's low brass seminar in 2021 and the Southwest Trombone Conference in 2024. Austin has also found success as a multi-year finalist of the American Trombone Workshop National Solo Competition which he was named winner of in 2024. Supplementing his solo and orchestral career, Austin has been apart of various successful Bay Area chamber ensembles such as QuartetCR and Brass Milk. He is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the direction of Paul Welcomer and Tim Higgins, and he is set to graduate in Spring 2025.

Brad Hogarth, conductor

Brad Hogarth is a versatile and multi-faceted musician, whose career has taken him from the finest concert halls in Europe to the frozen Arctic tundra and the dusty Black Rock Desert. He is especially passionate about musical outreach - both as a performer and as an educator, Brad hopes to bring people and communities together through the power of live performance.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Brad is the Associate Professor of Conducting at San Francisco State University, the Associate Conductor of the Monterey Symphony, and is the music director and conductor of the Art Haus Collective, known for presenting spectacular performances of classical and contemporary works in unique spaces. Brad is also on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he conducts the Conservatory Wind Ensemble, and starting in the fall of 2024 will be the music director of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra.

Brad has recently made appearances as a guest conductor with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, Monterey Symphony, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Brass Guild, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Bay Brass, and was on the conducting staff of the 2022 National Brass Ensemble recording, concert, and institute. This season he will make his debuts with the Marin Symphony, Symphony San Jose, and the Juneau Symphony.

In August 2017, Brad conducted the Art Haus Collective’s ballet production of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at the Burning Man. An estimated 10,000 people were in attendance and photos from the event were featured in USA Today, Business Insider, as well as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery as a part of the No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man exhibit.  Brad was the conductor and music director of the Contra Costa Wind Symphony from 2015 - 2022, and has also conducted many of Grammy winning composer Mason Bates' Mercury Soul projects. As a guest conductor, he's also appeared with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, the ECHO Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Wind Ensemble, the Oakland Municipal Band, and regularly conducts various professions, educational, and community events all over the Bay Area.

An accomplished trumpeter as well, Brad performs regularly with a number of orchestras.  He can be heard on the San Francisco Symphony’s recording of Ives’ Symphony No. 4 and the San Francisco Ballet’s recording of Lowell Liebermann’s Frankenstein. Brad toured with the Indianapolis Symphony to the Kennedy Center as a part of the 2018 SHIFT Festival, and has performed as guest principal trumpet with the Louisville Orchestra.

Brad’s summer engagements include the Sun Valley Summer Orchestra, Cabrillo Music Festival, Britt Festival Orchestra, Thueringer Bachwochen’s Weimar Bach Academy, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Mendocino Music Festival, The Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, and Music in the Mountains, as well as international festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, CCM Spoleto Festival in Italy, and the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands.

Other Bay Area ensembles Brad regularly performs with include the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Bay Brass, Opera San Jose, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, California Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Monterey Symphony Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Marin Symphony, and Symphony Napa Valley.

As a trumpet soloist, Brad has most recently been featured by The Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra performing the Arutunian Concerto. Regularly highlighted with the un-conducted chamber orchestra One Found Sound , Brad has been featured playing Copland’s Quiet City, Ives' Unanswered Question, and Martin's Concerto for 7 wind instruments. The Walnut Creek Concert Band, Contra Costa Wind Symphony and the Diablo Wind Symphony have all featured Brad as a solost playing pieces like Arban’s Fantasie Brilliant and Rafael Mendez’s version of La Virgen de La Macarena. In the summer of 2012, Brad was a featured soloist with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, playing the Henri Tomasi Concerto for trumpet and orchestra.

At San Francisco State University, Brad received a 2021 LCA Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2019 - 2020 Presidential Award for Professional Development, as most recently the Marcus Transformative Research Award to focus on reviving the work of 19th century American composer, Francis Johnson. An avid educator, he was the Chair of Instrumental Music, Band and Full Orchestra director of Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts High School. In 2014 he conducted the Ruth Asawa SOTA Orchestra at SF Jazz for the Other Minds Festival, the first student group to ever be featured in the festival’s 20-year history. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Brad taught music at the Gunma Kokusai Academy in Ota Gunma, Japan.

Brad earned a Bachelors in trumpet performance and music education from the Eastman School of Music, spent a semester in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and holds a Masters degree in trumpet performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal trumpet teachers have been James Thompson and Mark Inouye.