Shine - Kevin Day - Air Force District Brass

For this blog post, I want to feature this piece called "Shine" by Kevin Day. It was commissioned and performed by the Air Force Band's District Brass. 

A little background on Kevin Day from his website:

"Composer Kevin Day has quickly emerged as one of the leading young voices in the world of music composition today, whose music ranges from powerful introspection to joyous exuberance. Kevin Day is an internationally acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist, whose music often intersects between the worlds of jazz, minimalism, Latin music, fusion, and contemporary classical idioms. Day serves as the Vice President of the Millennium Composers Initiative, a collective of more than 120 composers from several countries around the world."

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Some Background on District Brass if you need a refresher:

The Ceremonial Brass includes 38 active-duty Airmen who play brass and percussion instruments. The band provides musical support for funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, arrivals for foreign heads of state at the White House and Pentagon, patriotic programs, and change of command, retirement, and awards ceremonies.

District Brass was formed to perform for young audiences and believes in the importance of music to communicate across different cultures.

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I found this piece when searching YouTube for pieces to feature on this blog and immediately loved it. I love the cinematography and how engaging it is to the viewer. The music itself is pretty jazzy and fun. towards the middle there is a section where each performer gets a second to solo. the camera during that moment does almost a "That 70's show" camera pan to all of the performers, and it was super cool (if you don't know what that is click here). I couldn't find any program notes on this piece other than it was commissioned by Col. Don Schofield as part of the Hope Arises Commission Project. "In 2020, The U.S. Air Force Band commissioned eight of our nation's leading composers to create new musical works in preparation for the anticipated celebration that would come with the return of live performances. Featuring The United States Air Force Band's Concert Band, Ceremonial Brass, Airmen of Note, and Air Force Strings, the nine world premiere videos featured on Hope Arises capture the central themes of joy, renewal, and triumph of the human spirit over hardship. The link to that playlist is here.