It all began on a rainy Thursday afternoon. The date was February 13th, 1992. The place: the Creative Arts building, San Francisco State University. I was wandering about the practice rooms, looking for an open room, when I saw my friend Frank through the door window. He opened the door, and I blurted, “I have an idea. Do you have a moment?” Ideas had been stirring in my head for a while due to my overactive mind. But now it was time to share them — and one in particular.
First, let me take you back approximately two years before that important date. I was taking an orchestration class with Dr. Roger Nixon, then the Composer-In-Residence at S.F. State. I was always interested in composing and arranging, even as a beginning flute student. I had privately examined countless scores and studied as much as possible before taking the class. I remember Dr. Nixon complimenting me on my arranging skills. He even said at one point, “You should be teaching this class.” That was the best recognition of my efforts that I could have hoped to hear.
From that moment on, I was hooked on arranging. Between 1990 and 1992, I arranged three other compositions. Simultaneously, I started to develop a curiosity about recording techniques and a desire to record what I had already arranged. This is what led me to the conversation I had with Frank on that fateful day.
I broached the subject of recording my arrangements with him almost as soon as I closed the practice room door. He knew about my arrangements and was very supportive of recording them. Then, we started thinking about the logistics. In addition to the recording equipment, we would need 20-25 musicians to do this! If we had to pay them, the cost would have been prohibitive. And where would we record? Probably on campus. But how much would it cost? Lots of questions, to be sure. Eventually, we both realized this recording project would never get off the ground at our current income level.
I was about to leave the room wholly defeated when Frank said, “Hey, if you’re going to do this in the Summer, why not just start a regular band? There are lots of musicians here that won’t be that busy.” I thought, Well, I don’t really like the concept of a “band,” but something about this might work. I said, “We should try it, but model it after the Eastman Wind Ensemble. There are many possibilities with the repertoire that aren’t performed by our school group.” This is where we started to disagree. He envisioned “a lot of musicians” and only objected to arrangements of rap music. I was more selective and preferred a group of about 30-40 musicians. But at least we were committed to working with each other and excited about starting a new group, which, after some brainstorming, would be called the Pacific Wind Ensemble.
Pacific Wind Ensemble 