Downtown Dash (Nathan Daughtrey, Flexible Instrumentation) - Texas Wesleyan Wind Ensemble

Under the direction of Professor Slade Presley Denman with the Texas Wesleyan Wind Ensemble on October 26, 2021.

Percussionist, composer, and educator Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975) is a musician who uses his wide-ranging talents to adapt comfortably to a variety of environments. As a performing artist and clinician for Yamaha percussion, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, and Zildjian cymbals, he has performed and given master classes and clinics throughout the United States and across three continents. Daughtrey has recorded two solo marimba albums to date – Spiral Passages and The Yuletide Marimba – as well as several chamber music albums, including a recent collaboration with euphoniumist Brian Meixner titled Praxis.

As an educator, Daughtrey served as a Visiting Lecturer of Percussion for three years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he taught applied percussion and conducted the Percussion Ensemble. He also served as a sabbatical replacement at the University of Oklahoma, where he taught undergraduate and graduate percussion students and conducted the world-renowned OU Percussion Orchestra. Daughtrey is currently a Visiting Lecturer of Percussion and Music Composition at High Point University (NC), where he teaches applied lessons, directs the percussion ensemble and works in collaboration with the School of Communication and Department of Dance.

Downtown Dash is meant to depict a brisk 5K road race (3.1 miles) through the city streets surrounded by towering skyscrapers. The runners are all assembled behind the starting line, anxiously awaiting the horn or gun to go off. Because there are so many runners, even after the race starts, no one is able to move very quickly until the pack thins out. Each mile of this race has its own musical character. During the first mile you are finally able to settle into your own comfortable stride. You start to pick up the pace a bit during mile two as the music moves into 3/4 time. During mile three, fatigue is starting to set in as you pick up the pace even more, depicted by the low brass taking over and moving the key into d-minor. As you reach the last tenth of a mile, the finish line is now in your sights, so you break into an all-out sprint to the finish.