By Kevin Eisensmith
Following an eight-year hiatus, members of the Keystone Wind Ensemble assembled at IUP in November 2023 to rehearse and perform a reunion concert (See “The Return of the Keystone Wind Ensemble”).
The Keystone Wind Ensemble rehearsed at the Texas Bandmasters Association conference.
The band met again in November 2024 to prepare new music for performance. During that reunion weekend, it was announced that the KWE had been accepted to perform at the Texas Bandmasters Association Conference (July 24–26, 2025), held annually in San Antonio, Texas. According to the article, the Texas Bandmasters Association was formed in 1920 by a small group of Texas bandmasters to organize band contests and promote bands. Since that time, the association evolved into the largest state band organization in the world. It was anticipated that over 6,500 people would attend the 2025 conference, including 2,400 band directors and more than 600 industry-related exhibitors.
Professor emeritus Jack Stamp led the ensemble during rehearsal.
Timothy Paul, IUP director of Bands, led the Keystone Wind Ensemble during a rehearsal.
Established by Jack Stamp ’76, the Keystone Wind Ensemble is a concert band composed of approximately 50 woodwind, brass, and percussion players. It is sponsored by IUP, and all members have a direct affiliation with the university as alumni, students, faculty, or administrators. Created in 1992, the ensemble was formed for the express purpose of recording new and more traditional works from the concert band repertoire for national release on compact disc.
For the Texas Bandmasters Association conference, members of the Keystone Wind Ensemble flew to San Antonio, rehearsed music for two different presentations, and ate lots of barbecue in between!
A clinic titled “The British Are Coming—Again!” was presented on Thursday, July 24. It featured live performances of works that were part of the KWE’s Cornerstones of the British Band Repertoire compact disc, released in 1999, along with new band transcriptions of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams for all levels of bands, from elementary to professional.
The ensemble presented a full-length concert on Friday that included two world premieres, “Four Aspects of London (Symphony No. 16)” by Rodney Newton and “Shifting Sands” by Scott Ostrander. Sharing conducting duties were Jack Stamp, professor emeritus and IUP director of Bands from 1990 to 2015 and Timothy Paul, IUP’s director of Bands since 2015.
Shifting away from recordings and moving into live performance, the band plans to apply to perform at the annual Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago.
The Keystone Wind Ensemble prepares for a performance at the Texas Bandmasters Association conference.
During their stay in San Antonio, members of the Keystone Wind Ensemble enjoyed Texas barbecue.
According to its website, with more than 18,000 attendees from all 50 states and from more than 40 countries, the conference offers music educators and musicians an unmatched networking opportunity.
Stay tuned for more performances by the Keystone Wind Ensemble!
Note: Kevin Eisensmith ’78 is a professor emeritus of music who taught at IUP from 1998 to 2022.