Montana State’s Wind Symphony to record concerto for upcoming album

BOZEMAN - Montana State University's Wind Symphony and assistant professor Wonki Lee will premiere and record a concerto this fall for an upcoming album.

The 25-minute concerto for saxophone and wind ensemble, titled "The Invisible Battle," captures a musician's struggle to produce creative work in a "hero's journey" across five movements, from experiencing a burst of inspiration to reaching a frustrating breaking point, Lee said.

Lee, who teaches saxophone in the School of Music in the College of Arts and Architecture, commissioned the piece from composer Joel Love after performing one of his works with the Wind Symphony in 2023.

To fund the commission, Lee created a consortium of 18 universities across the nation - from California to Florida - and in Taiwan. Each university contributed funds and will have the chance to perform the concerto over the next two years. As consortium leader, MSU will premiere the piece in a free performance featuring Lee and the 50-member Wind Symphony at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, at Gallatin High School.

"This whole creative process is probably one of the most professional, meaningful experiences the students can have," Lee said. "Because we are premiering the concerto, Montana State University and our name is going to be in history forever."

In early November, 13 students in an upper-level music technology course will record Lee and the symphony performing the concerto in a Gianforte Hall studio, the first commercial recording in the new building. The building marked its grand opening in September and is home to industry-level software for students in the Gianforte School of Computing and the College of Arts and Architecture.

A label is expected to distribute the recording by the end of 2028 as part of an album. The album will also include a recording of Lee and the Wind Symphony in Gianforte Hall performing a 45-minute concerto titled "Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble" by composer David Maslanka, who lived in Missoula for many years.

Jeremiah Slovarp, an Emmy Award-winning music technology lecturer at MSU, will oversee engineering, recording and mixing. Lee is in the process of pursuing the album's release with a record label.

"Most music tech schools nationwide probably don't have the capacity to record an entire symphony like this," Slovarp said. "This is just a neat opportunity for students to conceptualize and execute that kind of recording. If you go to some of the greatest studios on Earth, this is going to be a little more how they're recording movie soundtracks, video games, 'Star Wars,' all the big stuff."

It's a career milestone for students like Ashtin Wilhelm, a junior music technology major and alto saxophonist from Hardin, who is considering live mixing for a traveling band after college. Wilhelm and her peers have spent the semester recording and post-producing music by local, professional musicians in genres ranging from bluegrass to pop.

"A lot of music is networking, and I've met so many awesome people through this whole experience so far," she said. "Music, I feel like, brings anybody and everybody together, and I just really love that."

Each student will post-produce a mix from the symphony recording session for an assignment, though Slovarp intends to mix and master the final product. Gianforte Hall's Studio G allows for a final level of control in the post-production phase because it is acoustically "dead," meaning microphones will not pick up sound reverberating off the walls, and it includes booths to isolate individual musicians' sound.

On the other side of the recording booth will be 50 Wind Symphony members, many of whom have previous recording experience through the School of Music on one of composer Jack Stamp's CDs. Nate Deuel, a fifth-year music major and saxophonist from Kalispell, said he enjoyed working with Stamp before recording the music, and he looks forward to doing the same during rehearsals ahead of "The Invisible Battle" premiere. Love will also host a guest seminar for students, faculty and staff during his visit to MSU.

Deuel - who has gained performing experience in the orchestral pit for productions in Montana, such as Opera Montana's "A River Runs Through It" in Bozeman - said the collaboration will create a more authentic performance that is true to what Love felt while composing the piece. The music is technically difficult, pushing the limits of the saxophone with a fast pace and high notes at the very top of the instrument's register.

"It's very sensitive writing, and I think being able to share that with others is great," Deuel said. "Maybe other people can hear that story of perseverance and the hero's journey and relate, working through the struggles just to make their art and share it with others."