Sunday, October 9, 2022 at 3:00 PM
”Changing Tides”
McAfee Performing Arts Center, Saratoga CA

Craig McKenzie is the Assistant Director of Bands / Director of Athletic Bands at San José State University in San José, California.

Dr. McKenzie received his D.M.A. from the University of Miami, Frost School of Music where he studied instrumental conducting with Robert M. Carnochan. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Music with an emphasis in conducting from San José State University. His conducting mentors also include Edward C. Harris, Alan McMurray, Diana Hollinger, and Thomas Verrier.

He is the Music Director and Arranger of the Wall of Song Project, an ongoing collaborative art project that acknowledges the legacy of athlete activism at SJSU through communal singing and music making. He is also the Music Director of the San Francisco Brass Band, the California Bay Area’s first competitive Brass Band ensemble.

With over 20 years of university, high school, and middle school teaching experience, Dr. McKenzie has previously held positions at Abraham Lincoln High School, a visual and performing arts school in San José, CA and Pioneer High School in Whittier, CA. At Lincoln High School he was honored with the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2012 and recognized as Teacher of the Year in 2013.

Dr. McKenzie is the 2019 Grand Champion of the International Conducting Competition hosted by the National Association of Brass Band Conductors (now the Brass Band Conductors’ Association) in Eccles, England.

He enjoys returning to the San Bernardino mountains of California whenever possible to visit Arrowbear Music Camp where he directed the Intermediate Session Band from 2002—2019. He credits Arrowbear Music Camp with an influential portion of his musical education and attended as a camper in his childhood.

When not on the podium, Craig resides in San José, CA with his wife Andrea, son Malcolm, and their dog Freya.

Saturday, February 27, 2022, 3:00 PM
”That’s Italian!”
McAfee Performing Arts Center, Saratoga

PASQUALE ESPOSITO was born and raised in Naples, Italy. He immigrated to the United States winning the Green Card Lottery in 1998.  He pursued his passion for music by studying at San Jose State University, where he was a distinguished alumnus, receiving his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 2009. He is an international crossover recording artist, acclaimed for his pop-opera delivery of songs.

Esposito has released seven albums and began touring internationally with his first musical revue: Naples … That’s Amore in 2005.  Thereafter, he toured with his CD of original compositions: A Brand New Me (2009) and Il Tempo (2011).

Following the success of spreading his rich Italian culture through music, he embarked on writing and producing his first PBS Special: Pasquale Esposito Celebrates Enrico Caruso in 2015. The program was filmed in the historic Castello Giusso in Vico Equense on the Amalfi Coast. Esposito was accompanied by the Orchestra Santa Chiara conducted by Maestro Renato Serio. The docu-concert pays homage to Caruso by taking the audience on a musical journey in Italy highlighting the life, career and songs that made Caruso an international star.  Maestro Placido Domingo collaborated in the program with an intimate interview. The PBS Special had over 220,000,000 potential viewers coupled with a current live touring version. A CD, DVD and Bluray are available of the special.

Esposito had his successful debut at San Francisco Opera in June 2015 with the premiere of Marco Tutino’s Two Women (an opera adaptation of the 1960s film La Ciociara –with Sophia Loren, whom he had the pleasure of sharing the stage with in her recent US Tour).  The New York Times stated that Esposito sang with “airy charm” for his performance of Ragazzo del Popolo while the San Francisco Chronicle described Esposito as “a charismatic and dulcet-toned singer.”

In Spring 2018, Esposito released his second Public TV special on PBS stations: Pasquale Esposito Celebrates Italian Piazzas.  Esposito was accompanied by the Orchestra Talenti Napoletani conducted by Maestro Adriano Peninno. This docu-concert is a unique musical journey of culture, art, and tradition where Esposito dedicates a song to each of the beautiful piazzas (squares) performed in the prestigious Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples, Italy.  A live concert version of the special wasfollowed with a robust fall/winter 2018 North American tour including the following cities: Toronto, San Jose, Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Hartford, Sacramento, Detroit, Reno and Chicago.

Presently, Esposito is arranging and recording a Christmas album that will be featured in his next Public Television Special Celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.  It is set for release in December 2019.

Esposito established Notable Music and Arts Organization, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit charitable organization promoting music education in Spring 2012.  The organization provides music instruction to underserved students in the SF Bay Area and develops and produces educational programming for public television. Esposito travels nationally to major universities and colleges offering master classes in vocal technique and also provides private instruction in his San Jose studio.

Sunday, May 15, 2022, 1:00 PM
”Remembering Darrell”
McAfee Performing Arts Center, Saratoga

SJWS and the entire South Bay community were saddened by the recent loss of our friend, mentor and founding conductor, Darrell Johnston, who passed away in May 2021 at the age of 90.

Maestro Johnston founded SJWS in 1957 and remained at the podium for 44 years before handing the baton to Dr. Harris in 2002. Under Darrell’s leadership, SJWS became one of the premier community bands in the country, providing an opportunity for non-professional, adult musicians to continue to perform at a high level.

Born in 1930 to native California parents in Sacramento, CA, he came from humble beginnings. He attributed his fulfillment and success in life to his parents, Avlin and George Leland Johnston, and his immigrant mother and father-in-law, Aniela and Stanley Slawek, who he adored. His parents instilled values of family, hard work, education, and kindness. 

From an early age, his father drove him to Lodi, CA, to study clarinet with the principal clarinetist of the Stockton Symphony Orchestra. Darrell quickly rose with such ability that he soloed with various high-school orchestras and later professional jazz and orchestra big band dance bands. He often invited his dance band saxophone members to rehearse at his home. He joined the Sacramento Symphony while he was in the 9th grade. Several years later, he noticed a beautiful violinist in the first violin section, Miss Helen Slawek, who he eventually married. The couple lived happily together for 68 years. 

Darrell, affectionately known as “DJ” to his students, attended Sacramento Community College and graduated from California State University at Sacramento with a degree in music in 1952. He mailed an audition “tape” of his performing the Brahms “Sonata for Clarinet and Piano” to the famed Eastman School of Music at New York’s University of Rochester and was accepted. On August 23, 1952, he married Helen in Sacramento and spent one honeymoon night in San Francisco before boarding a cross-country train the following day with his new bride to Rochester, NY.  

Darrell earned his Master’s degree in Music from New York’s University of Rochester Eastman School of Music in 1953. He credited his appreciation for chamber music to his mentor and friend, Professor Fredric Fennell, who later invited him to audition for the newly formed Eastman Wind Ensemble. He won Principal First Clarinet. Darrell and Fredric Fennell maintained their friendship for a lifetime.  Maestro Fennell proudly conducted the San Jose Wind Symphony as guest conductor numerous times over the years.  

After completing his Masters’ degree, Darrell was drafted into the US Army and served for two years, from 1953 to 1955.  He received his basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey, CA. Appreciating his musical talent, the army directed him to serve as a corporal in its US Army Band, which he proudly did in Missouri and Wisconsin. 

Following the completion of his Army service, he began his music teaching career in Woodland, CA. He was then quickly recruited by San Jose City College (SJCC) as Professor of Music and Director of Bands in an inspired teaching career from 1958-1993.   He pursued additional graduate studies work at Stanford University’s Department of Music during the early 1960s.     

During his first year at SJCC in 1958, he founded the San Jose Symphonic Band, a renowned adult ensemble, which later became the San Jose Wind Symphony. He conducted the Wind Symphony for 44 years until he stepped down from the podium in 2002 as conductor emeritus. A tribute to his legacy, the San Jose Wind Symphony continues to thrive and perform today.

At San Jose City College, he was most proud of the highly successful chamber music program he developed, with up to 100 students performing per week. During his career, Darrell was an active judge and clinician with the World of Music Festivals band competitions and a clinician at chamber music festivals at California’s Humboldt and Chico State Universities and the University of Oregon at Medford. The San Jose City Symphonic band, the San Jose Wind Symphony’s predecessor, competed nationally and in numerous band festivals over many years. It hosted many renowned soloists and ensembles, including Julius Baker, New York Woodwind Quintet, Eastern Brass Quintet, Maynard Ferguson, Paul Horn, Don Ellis, Galen Lemmon, and many San Francisco Symphony principal players.

The Wind Symphony performed throughout California in major concert halls, including several times at Disneyland, which his children cherished as well as internationally. His jazz ensemble performed for His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden at the Swedish consulate residence in San Francisco during his US visit in 1976 (as the King was known to be particularly fond of jazz).

Darrell attributed the greatest gift he received as Professor of Music and Maestro to be his rapport with hundreds of students and musical colleagues. Many remained dear friends throughout his retirement. His passion for education and music inspired two generations of musicians throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

Outside of music, Darrell was an accomplished hiker, snow skier, ping pong, and tennis player. He loved riding trail bikes and fishing at his forest cabin in the Lake Tahoe Sierra’s. He was a proud Eagle Scout from Troop 1, Sacramento, and revisited its summer encampment at Cody Lake high in the Sierras throughout his life. He enjoyed using his hands to build fences, paint, and other projects at Helen’s family home in the Sacramento Delta. He was proud of and treasured his orange, apricot, peach, plum, and persimmon trees in the San Jose and Santa Cruz areas. His family was his priority and focus: he never missed a baseball game, tennis match, ballet, or musical performance by his grandchildren.

Sunday, May 15, 2022, 1:00 PM
”Remembering Darrell”
McAfee Performing Arts Center, Saratoga

Among the most distinguished classical artists of his generation, clarinetist Jon Manasse is internationally recognized for his inspiring artistry, uniquely glorious sound and charismatic performing style.

Recent season highlights include return performances with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, The Chappaqua Orchestra, Montana’s Missoula Symphony Orchestra and Oregon’s Rogue Valley Symphony. With pianist Jon Nakamatsu, he continues to tour throughout the United States as half of the acclaimed Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. The Duo’s activities include the world premiere performances of Paquito D’Rivera’s The Cape Cod Concerto with Symphony Silicon Valley, conducted by Leslie B. Dunner.

Jon Manasse’s solo appearances include New York City performances at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Hunter College’s Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse, Columbia University, Rockefeller University and The Town Hall, fourteen tours of Japan and Southeast Asia – all with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, debuts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Osaka and concerto performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, both at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and at the prestigious Tokyu Bunkamura Festival in Tokyo. With orchestra, he has been guest soloist with the Augsburg, Dayton, Evansville, Naples and National philharmonics, Canada’s Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Chamber Orchestra and the Alabama, Annapolis, Bozeman, Dubuque, Florida West Coast, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jackson, Oakland East Bay, Pensacola, Princeton, Richmond, Seattle, Stamford and Wyoming symphonies, under the batons of Leslie B. Dunner, Peter Leonard, Eckart Preu, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia and Lawrence Leighton Smith. Of special distinction was Mr. Manasse’s 2002 London debut in a Barbican Centre performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

During the 2009-2010 season, Jon Manasse gave the world premiere performances of Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Neal Gittleman – performances that were recorded for commercial CD release. Subsequent performances included those with the symphony orchestras of Evansville, Juneau, Las Cruces, North State (CA), Roanoke and the University of Massachusetts.

An avid chamber musician, Jon Manasse has been featured in New York City programs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theatre (on Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers Series”), The Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse and Merkin Concert Hall; at the Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Colorado Springs Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival and France’s Festival International des Arts, as well as the chamber music festivals of Bridgehampton, Cape and Islands, Crested Butte, Georgetown, St. Bart’s, Seattle and Tucson. He has also been the guest soloist with many of the leading chamber ensembles of the day, including The Amadeus Trio and Germany’s Trio Parnassus and the American, Borromeo, Colorado, Lark, Manhattan, Moscow, Orion, Rossetti, Shanghai, Tokyo and Ying String Quartets, and has collaborated with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jon Nakamatsu.

Manasse is also principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. In 2008 he was also appointed principal clarinetist and Ensemble Member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. As one of the nation’s most highly sought-after wind players, has also served as guest principal clarinetist of the New York Pops Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and New Jersey, Saint Louis and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, under the batons of Gerard Schwarz, Zdenek Macal, Jerzy Semkow, Robert Craft and Hugh Wolff. For several seasons, he was also the principal clarinetist of the New York Chamber Symphony. Mr. Manasse has been a guest clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic in concerts conducted by Valery Gergiev and André Previn, and, during the 2003-04 season, served as the principal clarinetist of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, performing under the batons of Artistic Director James Levine and, among others, Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Jurowski.

In addition to the premiere performances of Lowell Liebermann’s Clarinet Concerto, which was commissioned for him, Jon Manasse has also presented the world premieres of James Cohn’s Concerto for Clarinet & String Orchestra at the international ClarinetFest ’97 at Texas Tech University and, in 2005, of Steven R. Gerber’s Clarinet Concerto with the National Philharmonic.

Jon Manasse has six critically acclaimed CDS on the XLNT label: the complete clarinet concerti of Weber, with Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra; the complete works for clarinet and piano of Weber, with pianist Samuel Sanders; recording premieres of 20th Century clarinet works; “Clarinet Music from 3 Centuries,” including Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet (with the Shanghai Quartet), as well as music by Spohr, Gershwin and James Cohn; James Cohn’s Clarinet Concerto #2; and the concerti of Mozart, Nielsen and Copland, with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also available are his recordings of Steven R. Gerber’s Clarinet Concerto with Vladimir Lande and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony on the Arabesque label and Lowell Liebermann’s Quintet for Clarinet, Piano and String Trio on KOCH International. His debut CD with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, a harmonia mundi album of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas, was released to international rave reviews, early in 2008. 2010 saw the release of concerti by Mozart and Spohr with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, also on the harmonia mundi label.

Jon Manasse is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with David Weber. Mr. Manasse was a top prize winner in the Thirty-Sixth International Competition for Clarinet in Munich and the youngest winner of the International Clarinet Society Competition. Currently, he is an official “Performing Artist” of both the Buffet Crampon Company and Vandoren, the Parisian firms that are the world’s oldest and most distinguished clarinet maker and reed maker, respectively. Since 1995, he has been Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Eastman School of Music; in the fall of 2007 Mr. Manasse joined the faculty of his alma mater, The Juilliard School.

Jon Manasse and his Duo partner, the acclaimed pianist Jon Nakamatsu, serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, an appointment announced during summer 2006.