Visual & Performing Arts

Symphonic Band Conductor

Dr. Tammy Fisher is completing her 24th year as a member of the UW–La Crosse Music Faculty. Her responsibilities include directing the Screaming Eagles Marching Band, teaching applied percussion and various music education classes. She also spends time observing teacher candidates in field experiences and student teaching. Fisher is an active musician, performing in theater shows at Viterbo University and with numerous jazz groups in the region. In 2023, Fisher was one of six candidates selected to participate in the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra fundraising “Conductor Wannabe” contest. Her fundraising efforts netted more than $12,000 for the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and St. Clare’s Health Mission. Most recently Tammy was one of 7 faculty members to receive the Eagle Teaching Excellence Award. This award is driven by student nominations.

Guest Conductor

Ms. Jennifer Schraufnagel teaches Instrumental Music at Tomah Middle School and High School in Tomah, Wisconsin. She directs the 8th Grade Band, the THS Concert Band, the THS Pit Orchestra, co-directs the THS Marching Band, and serves as the Tri-M Music Honor Society faculty advisor.

Jennifer is from Slinger, Wisconsin, and received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Ms. Schraufnagel is completing her Master of Music Education degree with an Instrumental Conducting Certificate through UW-Stevens Point.

Jennifer is an active musician in the community, performing with the Tomah Area Community Theatre, La Crosse Wind Symphony, La Crosse Concert Band, and the La Crosse Community Theatre. Jennifer is a member of the Wisconsin Concert Band Association (WCBA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association (WMEA).

Dr. Kourtney R. Austin is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She earned her Ph.D. in Performing Arts Health at the University of North Texas, and also holds degrees in voice from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and music education from Northwest Missouri State University. Dr. Austin also studied Speech Pathology and Voice Science at the University of Iowa and is a Certified Vocologist. She previously used this expertise in her own business, Heartland Healthy Voices, providing vocal health seminars, voice rehabilitation, private voice lessons, and transgender voice training in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Austin was a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas and has held faculty positions at Midwestern State University, Grayson College, the Community Music School of Webster University, as well as serving as Artistic Director of CHARIS, The St. Louis Women’s Chorus. She is a frequent presenter of performing arts health research throughout the United States and in Australia. Her current research interests include using spectral analysis to quantify characteristics of the vocal onset as it applies to vocal efficiency and fatigue. She has presented on varying topics of performing arts health and voice science all over the world including The Voice Symposium in Shanghai, China; The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia; the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; The Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia; and The Performing Arts Medicine Association International Symposium. In June 2024, Dr. Austin will present her research at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in Knoxville, TN. She is a current member of PAMA, PAVA, The Voice Foundation, and NATS. 

Dr. Christopher M. Hathaway, conductor and singer, is Professor and Director of Choral Studies at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. His responsibilities at UWL include conducting the university’s premier choral ensemble, the UWL Concert Choir, as well as the Treble Chorus, and Choral Union. In addition to his responsibilities leading the choral ensembles, Dr. Hathaway is the Director of Choral Music Education where he teaches classes in choral conducting, choral techniques, and choral methods. He also serves as the supervisor for the undergraduate choral music education students in their field work and student teaching.

Before moving to La Crosse, Hathaway’s conducting engagements include leading the Women’s Chorus at the University of North Texas and serving as assistant to Dr. Richard Sparks and the internationally acclaimed UNT Collegium. While in Texas, Hathaway also served as Assistant Conductor to Dr. Jerry McCoy and the Fort Worth Chorale. During the 2013-2015 seasons, Dr. Hathaway served as the Assistant Conductor for The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay: the official symphony chorus for the Florida Orchestra. In this position, he assisted with the preparation for performances including Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Fauré's Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, and Orff's Carmina Burana. 

Prior to his graduate work, Hathaway served as a choir director in the school systems of Kalamazoo and Otsego, Michigan. Choirs under his direction consistently achieved the highest professional ratings at both the district and state levels.

Dr. Hathaway earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of North Texas and a dual Master’s of Music in Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance from The University of South Florida. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in Music Education where he studied with Dr. Joe Miller. 

Coriolanus Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven

The Overture to “Coriolanus” was composed for performance in the theatre. It was customary in Beethoven’s day to have a full symphony orchestra play incidental music: and overture, entr’acte music, and often other pieces during the action itself, as a part of regular spoken drama. This Overture introduced a Coriolanus drama by one of Beethoven’s friends, Heinrich Joseph von Collin. The Overture is also a portrait – a portrait of a hero much like Beethoven himself: proud, uncompromising, forceful, sometimes arrogant, quick to anger, but willing to sacrifice for an ideal.

Coriolanus was a historical character, a brilliant Roman general who led his army to victory against the neighboring Volscians. The Overture begins with a long-held, powerful tone in the strings, cut short by a sharp chord, and features a tumultuous battle throughout noting the shifting allegiance of Coriolanus. The work ends with the orchestra dropping away to silence signifying Coriolanus’ silent victory over himself.

-Note from Levy Archives

Suite from "The Fairy Queen" by Henry Purcell

Purcell is considered one of England's greatest and most original composers. When he was 18 years old, he was appointed to the Chapel Royal as a composer, and five years later he became organist of the chapel. His official duties led him to the composition of a large amount of church music. He also wrote much theater music, short opera masterpieces for school performances, popular ditties, and a large quantity of instrumental music for harpsichord and string instruments. A prominent feature of Purcell's music is a vigorous and steadily moving bass line, an idiom heard throughout the remainder of the Baroque period.

The Fairy-Queen (1692) is a semi-opera by Henry Purcell, a "restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age of 35. Following his death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century.

-Martin Pearlman

Melia Fretwell, soprano

Melia Fretwell is a sophomore majoring in Microbiology and Vocal Music Performance on the Pre-Veterinary track, with biology and chemistry minors from Waukesha,Wisconsin. She has been in school choirs since seventh grade and has been singing in regional and state solo competitions since eighth grade. Melia participated in the 2025 Honors Recital and is currently studying with Dr. Kourtney Austin. She has been a member of UWL’s Concert Choir since 2023.

Concerto No. 22 in A Minor by Giovanni Battista Viotti

Success came early to Viotti. He studied from a young age with Gaetono Pugnani, with whom he toured successfully. In 1782, he debuted one of his concertos on the Concert Spirituel to immediate acclaim. Despite his success, political conditions made life difficult for Viotti and he was forced to move several times. In 1789, he opened a new opera theater, subsequently moved to London, then Hamburg, back to Paris, and, ultimately died in England.

His popular Concerto No. 22 in A-minor features a sombre orchestral introduction followed by the soloist’s contemplative entry. Viotti, the master violinist and composer, present a well-constructed movement of contrasting moods neatly juxtaposed with thematic strength.

-Heather Ann Wolters Hart

Yassia Felts, violin
2025 UWL Solo Artist Competition Runner-up

Yassia Felts is a double major in social work and ethics, culture, and society at Viterbo University. Yassia is involved in UWL's symphony orchestra and Hoeschler String Quartet as a part time UWL student. She has been playing violin for nearly 18 years and is currently studying with Dr. Michelle Elliott. Outside of music, Yassia enjoys spending time with family and friends and helping others in any way she can.

Goodnight, Goodnight by Steve Danyew

Originally written for SATB Choir, this captivating, chorale-like piece showcases the string section’s colors and expressive qualities. Goodnight, Goodnight was written for the Bethel College Wind Ensemble, Timothy Shade, conductor. Here is the poem that inspired this work:

Goodnight, Goodnight
by Ashley Danyew

Sun sets low beneath the sky
Leaves all in golden state
Stars glow at edge of twilight
And here I stay, your words await

Goodnight, Goodnight

Sky a shade of midnight blue
Moon in its glowing fate
The world at peace is a calming view
And here I stay, your words await

Goodnight, Goodnight

Distance leaves us far apart
So at midnight if I may
Wish upon the brightest star
And hear your voice so softly say

Goodnight, Goodnight

Steve Danyew is an American composer, teacher and saxophonist. Steve received a B.M. cum laude, Pi Kappa Lambda, from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and holds an M.M. in Composition and Certificate in Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music. Additionally, Danyew has served as a Composer Fellow at the Yale Summer Music School with Martin Bresnick, and as a Composer Fellow at the Composers Conference in Wellesley, Mass. with Mario Davidovsky. Danyew enjoys teaching and has held composer residencies, presented lectures and coached ensembles at schools throughout the United States. He serves as an instructor in the Arts Leadership Program at the Eastman School of Music, where he teaches a course titled “Excellence, Innovation, and Uniqueness: Developing Your Creative Career in Music.”

Steve Danyew’s music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as possessing “sensitivity, skill and tremendous sophistication” by the Kansas City Independent. Danyew is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including prizes from organizations including BMI, ASCAP, CBDNA, Ithaca College, Delaware Valley Chorale, Keene State College, Octarium, Society of Composers, Austin Peay State University, Shoreline Chorale, Hot Springs Concert Band, and more.

A saxophonist and passionate chamber musician, Danyew frequently performs his own chamber music compositions and transcriptions for saxophone. After a performance of his own work, the South Florida Sun Sentinel called him a “saxophone virtuoso par excellence, making the instrument sing as well as shout.” Danyew also serves as managing editor of the music website Polyphonic.org, where he curates content and manages the Polyphonic On Campus section – a career resource section for students and young professionals.

-Steve Danyew

Ann David, flute
2025 UWL Solo Artist Competition Winner

Ann David is a fourth-year student majoring in English (Medical Professions emphasis and Professional and Technical Writing certificate), with biology and music performance minors from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She has been playing flute since fourth grade and currently studies with Dr. Jonathan Borja. She currently participates in the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Orchestra, and Cordeiro Woodwind Trio. She participated in the 2024 and 2025 WCBA Intercollegiate Honor Bands and in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Honors Recitals.

Perpetuum Mobile, op. 257 by Johann Strauss, Jr.

Johann Strauss, Jr., composed a great number of polkas, mazurkas and marches to perform with his own orchestra that played on "dance soirees" in Vienna. When the industrial age dawned in the middle of the 19th century, the phenomenon of perpetual motion again began to attract a lot of attention. In 1861 Strauss composed on this theme his Perpetuum Mobile, subtitled "A Musical Jest."

-Note from the publisher

Dr. Martin I. Gaines proudly serves as the conductor of the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Band as well as teaching courses in Conducting, Clarinet, and Music Education. Prior to this posting he served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Morningside University and the Associate Director of Bands at McNeese State University. He holds degrees in conducting and music education from the University of Arizona (DMA), Middle Tennessee State University (MM), and the historic VanderCook College of Music (BMEd). 

As an active conductor, clinician, and music producer, Dr. Gaines’ most recent recording project David Maslanka: Music for Wind Ensemble was released in January 2021 on the Toccata Classics Label. He has also served as producer for an album featuring the wind orchestra music of Nigel Clarke. Prior to his academic appointments, he also served as the principal conductor for the Arts Express Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona and as the founding conductor of the UArizona chamber ensemble Solar Winds.

Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Gaines taught middle and high school bands and orchestras for fifteen years in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently in Florida. His bands have consistently received top marks from adjudicators and were often featured in clinic performance, e.g. the Southeastern Band Clinic at Troy University (2010) and the University of North Florida Invitational Festival (2010, 2014). He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2015 for Oakleaf High School (FL). Dr. Gaines holds professional memberships in CBDNA, College Music Society, College Orchestra Directors Association, International Conductor’s Guild, NAfME, National Band Association, Tau Beta Sigma, WASBE, and is a Life Member of Kappa Kappa Psi.

Adagio Para Orquesta de Instrumentos de Viento by Joaquin Rodrigo

Rodrigo’s title roughly translates to “Adagio for Wind Instruments.” At once mournful and sweet, Adagio seems to reflect on a past event through the lens of three characters: solo flute, oboe, and clarinet. As if recalling a distant memory, the characters elaborate on similar themes, without exactly engaging in a call-and-response type dialogue we might expect with repetitive melodic material. This opening scene is patient and not overly nostalgic. An energetic and driving B section seems to be a flashback to that distant event, revealing chaotic turmoil. When the solo characters return, we have a better sense of how they are connected, their memories now more present, front of mind. Another flashback interjects before a stoic, resigned conclusion.

Although composer Joaquín Rodrigo did not specify a programmatic intent for Adagio, the moods are indicative of many other compositions from his prolific career. Known largely for contributions to the classical guitar repertoire, Rodrigo’s music is decidedly Spanish. Having gone blind at an early age after contracting diphtheria, he became a national artistic figure, receiving Spain’s highest civilian honor in 1996. There are, however, notable references to other parts of his biography. In Adagio, for example, the allegro sections are reminiscent of the musical storytelling of Paul Dukas, with whom Rodrigo studied in Paris (think: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). Adagio was Rodrigo’s first work for winds.

Rodrigo studied music with Francisco Antich in Valencia and with Paul Dukas in Paris. In 1925, he received the Spanish National Prize for Orchestra for his work Cinco piezas infantiles (Five Pieces for Children). Beginning in 1947, Rodrigo was a professor of music history at the University of Madrid, holding the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music. In 1939, he composed the famous Concierto de Aranjuez, a concerto for solo classical guitar and orchestra. The tremendous success of the concerto catapulted Rodrigo to international fame, and led to commissions from many notable artists, including James Galway, Andres Segovia, and Julian Lloyd-Webber.

In 1991, he was made nobility by King Juan Carlos, who gave him the title Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez (Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez), and in 1996 he received Spain's highest civilian honor, the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award.

-Note by David Stanley

Amparito Roca by Jaime Texidor

Jaime Texidor Dalmau was a composer, conductor, and publisher who lived much of his life in Baracaldo, a picturesque city in northern Spain. He was born in Barcelona in1885, played saxophone in the military band for several years, and in 1927 he became conductor of the Baracaldo Municipal Band. Texidor conducted the band until 1936 and, during that time, composed and arranged so much music that he decided to establish his publishing company. Many of his works were republished by Editorial Musica Moderna of Madrid and Boosey & Hawkes of London.

Texidor was a prolific composer of music for band. He wrote more than one hundred pasodobles descriptive poems, potpourris, waltzes, schottisches, sardanas (national dance of Catalonia), tangos, folk dances, polkas, jotas, and a number of processional, funeral, and concert marches. Juan Esteve, conductor of the Baracaldo Municipal Band since 1957, recently estimated that 80 works by Texidor, including 25 pasodobles, are currently in that band’s library.

Texidor’s most popular publications include the descriptive poem Una Jornada Militaire; the rhapsody Sabor de España; and the pasodobles Amparito Roca, Carrascosa, De Andalucia a Aragon, Sangre de Artista, Gloria al Trabajo, and Chacarte (which was dedicated to a bullfighter of Baracaldo).

Amparito Roca is a distinctive Spanish pasodoble march dedicated to a girlfriend named Amparo Roca, but whom he affectionately called, Amparito. The introduction and first strain are indicative of a bullfighter’s music, whereas the gentle, lighthearted trio section takes on the character of a couple’s dance, evoking the other essential element of the pasodoble. The powerful brass in the dogfight (...or bullfight), and the tutti texture of the maestoso section bring this piece to a grand conclusion.

Chamber Symphony No. 1 by José Suñer-Oriola

Chamber Symphony No. 1 is referred to by the composer as “Una pequena nube flotando en elcielo musical” (A small cloud floating in the middle of the musical sky). The piece was composed in the style of the old Italian Symphonies from the seventeenth century, and Suñer-Oriola composed it as a classical piece. “I thought of structural simplicity, transparent instrumentation along with intervalic motion, and some characteristic relationships between the two composers that I tried to capture: the motion in intervals of Shostakovich and the melodic simplicity of Mozart.”

Suñer-Oriola studied percussion, harmony, analysis, and counterpoint at the Valencia Conservatory and subsequently studied conducting and composition with Maestro Julio Ribelles. He has participated in music festivals in Barcelona, Santander, Nimes, Luxembourg Maastricht, Ludwigshafen, Innsbruck, Paris, Edinburgh, London, Tokyo, and Hamamatsu. Suñer-Oriola has been a member of the Municipal Band of San Sebastián, Conservatory of San Sebastian, Bilbao

Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. He is currently professor of the Municipal Band of Valencia and director of the Musical Society of Albuixech Eslava.

His works have premiered in Europe, America, Australia and Japan. Suñer-Oriola is a member of COSICOVA, SGAE, and WASBE. In 2006, he was invited by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and was awarded the "Special Prize Frederick Fennell," which is the first prize in the composition category for the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra for his work, Chamber Symphony No. 1. He was also awarded the SACEM prize (Society Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music in France), which is the third prize for Coups de Vents 2008 in Lille, France.

-Note by the composer.

Hispania by Oscar Navarro

their music part of our lives and the Spanish National Culture before, now and forever. With this piece, I wanted to make a nod to the nationalist compositional language of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and give a fresh touch without losing the traditional essence and of course using traditional rhythmic dances of our folklore.

The Alicante Municipal Band has never missed music in their programming from our ancestors, so with this piece I want to offer a badge to the band, who can proudly wear everywhere and with a stamp with “Alicantina´s roots”, such as mine.

Navarro began studying the clarinet at an early age. He received the bachelor's degree from the Conservatorio Superior Oscar Espla in Alicante, Spain. Navarro is the recipient of many national and international music awards for composition, and his music is performed and commissioned by many orchestral and wind ensembles throughout the globe. Navarro combines his busy agenda composing with master classes and lectures. He has been invited to speak at several music festivals and universities, including Chapman University, California, 25th Film Symposium Jove in Valencia, Spain, CIFICOM (Sci-Fi Film Festival of Madrid), II Symposium of Wind Ensembles of Medellin, Colombia, Music Festival of the Symphony of Manizales, Colombia, and the University of Southern California.

-Note from the composer.

Dr. Martin I. Gaines proudly serves as the conductor of the UWL Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and Concert Band as well as teaching courses in Conducting, Clarinet, and Music Education. Prior to this posting he served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Morningside University and the Associate Director of Bands at McNeese State University. He holds degrees in conducting and music education from the University of Arizona (DMA), Middle Tennessee State University (MM), and the historic VanderCook College of Music (BMEd). 

As an active conductor, clinician, and music producer, Dr. Gaines’ most recent recording project David Maslanka: Music for Wind Ensemble was released in January 2021 on the Toccata Classics Label. He has also served as producer for an album featuring the wind orchestra music of Nigel Clarke. Prior to his academic appointments, he also served as the principal conductor for the Arts Express Orchestra in Tucson, Arizona and as the founding conductor of the UArizona chamber ensemble Solar Winds.

Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Gaines taught middle and high school bands and orchestras for fifteen years in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently in Florida. His bands have consistently received top marks from adjudicators and were often featured in clinic performance, e.g. the Southeastern Band Clinic at Troy University (2010) and the University of North Florida Invitational Festival (2010, 2014). He was also named Teacher of the Year in 2015 for Oakleaf High School (FL). Dr. Gaines holds professional memberships in CBDNA, College Music Society, College Orchestra Directors Association, International Conductor’s Guild, NAfME, National Band Association, Tau Beta Sigma, WASBE, and is a Life Member of Kappa Kappa Psi.