CSUF Symphonic Winds - Dunton - Stillwater

Kelijah Dunton - "Stillwater"
CSUF Symphonic Winds
Dr. Gregory X. Whitmore, Director
October 3, 2021
Meng Concert Hall - Cal State Fullerton
Kelijah Dunton is a New York-based composer who has enjoyed a short but prolific musical background starting in his high school years. He studied alto saxophone through school and continues to be an active performer with NYC’s own Metropolitan Music Community. Without formal composition training, Kelijah has only recently embarked on his composition career, persevering as he learns from his musical peers and experiences. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Kelijah has called the neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Crown Heights home. Moving from place to place has helped him learn what it means to be around people of all backgrounds, ages, and walks of life, as well as exposed him to many genres of music in different communities. Kelijah’s significant musical moments include performing in NYC honor bands, competitive NYSSMA festivals, traveling to prestigious music colleges, sitting in with various award-winning jazz bands, and most recently, performing with an MMC community band for all ages and music education levels. (Program Notes From…And We Were Heard)
On Stillwater, the composer writes,
Inspired by the beauty of a small town, Stillwater, Minnesota. This town has a big lake in its center, and out of everyone’s backyard it could be seen. During the winter, the very top of the lake freezes and creates this tranquil effect that could not be seen, but heard. When stepping out into your backyard, you’d see this frozen mass, stuck into place and completely unmovable, but if you listened closely, you could hear that the water underneath continuedto flow.
Why is this important?
We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves; we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belongings.
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