Each year, the Dallas Wind Symphony conducts a fanfare competition for brass composers and composition students. Unpublished works from around the world are submitted and critiqued, and seven winners are selected to have their works performed prior to curtain at each of the subscription concerts that season.
Kevin Day, sophomore and music pre-major, is a 2015 DWS Fanfare Contest winner. His composition Fireworks was selected from hundreds of entries and will be performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas Feb. 23, 2016.
Kevin Day
Photo by Jessica Rockwell
“I am blessed to attend TCU and honored to have won this competition,” said Day. “When Professor Francis encouraged me to enter, it never occurred to me that I might win. I simply did it for the challenge and the fun.
“Now, my composition will be played by the Dallas Wind Symphony, featuring world-renowned trombone player Joseph Alessi, and on my 20th birthday no less!”
Day said he composed Fireworks for brass and percussion instruments to create a musical experience that reflects the happiness and excitement he feels when watching fireworks each Fourth of July.
The pre-concert fanfare, now a tradition for the Wind Symphony, provides a festive setting for concert patrons to enjoy before they enter the hall for the main program. Day will be recognized for his accomplishment at the start of the fanfare and is invited to attend the main program that follows.
Day grew up in Arlington, Texas, and comes from a long line of musically gifted relatives. His parents both sing and play piano, and his siblings play a variety of instruments. Day, a member of the TCU Marching Band and TCU Wind Symphony, plays the tuba, euphonium, piano, drums, guitar and bass—as he says, “my only stringed instruments.”
“Kevin is an extraordinary young talent and a gifted composer,” said Bobby Francis, director of bands at TCU. “Even renowned composer John Mackey, composer in residence at TCU last spring, was impressed and predicted Kevin would become a great success in the world of music and composition.”
The TCU Marching Band performs before an annual crowd of half a million and includes students from differing musical interests, those who are interested in a career in music as well as those who participate as an extracurricular initiative. The Wind Symphony, also under the direction of Francis, is one of the outstanding collegiate bands in America, with critically acclaimed performances and continued dedication to commissioning new and exciting works.
Upon graduation, Day plans to attend graduate school—let’s hope it’s at TCU—and eventually wants to compose scores to accompany motion pictures or television.