June 27, 2026 7:00pm
The Scott Center at Holy Trinity - 5625 Holy Trinity Dr, Melbourne, FL 32940
What's Playing?
MARSHALL The Lost (David Calhoun, cello) (WORLD PREMIERE)
PISZCZEK Dedication and March (WORLD PREMIERE)
STAHL Solutions
DAUGHERTY The Decoration Day Parade (WORLD PREMIERE)
DRAGON America the Beautiful
LOWDEN Armed Forces Salute
TICHELI Shenandoah
SPARKE The Year of the Dragon
SOUSA Hands Across the Sea
SOUSA The Thunderer
SOUSA The Stars and Stripes Forever
Program Information
"A free program of music that reminds you why community matters — honoring the people who made it possible."
Your Space Coast Symphony Winds, under the direction of Aaron Collins, presents America, Together, a free patriotic concert honoring service, sacrifice, and the heroes who make that freedom possible. At the heart of the program is the Armed Forces Salute — the reason we gather each year — as we recognize and celebrate the men and women of our military, past and present. The concert also includes patriotic favorites such as America the Beautiful and Shenandoah, along with marches by John Philip Sousa. Soprano Beth Green returns to perform with the winds on God Bless the USA and America the Beautiful. Three world premieres anchor the program: Christopher Marshall’s The Lost, performed by SCSO Principal Cellist David Calhoun, is a deeply personal reflection on memory, absence, and those we carry with us. R. Michael Daugherty’s The Decoration Day Parade draws inspiration from the origins of Memorial Day, while Mark Piszczek’s Dedication and March honors the legacy of Joseph Kreines. Florida composer Sonya Leonore Stahl returns with Solutions, a powerful work shaped by mystery, ritual, and bold cinematic sweep. Philip Sparke’s The Year of the Dragon rounds out the program and is one of the great showpieces in all of wind literature, allowing the wind ensemble a chance to show its virtuosity and power. Guest Conductor Charles G. Ellis joins Aaron on the podium for this program of remembrance, gratitude, and community. America, Together is a chance to honor our heroes, gather as a community, and celebrate the music that brings us together.
Inside the Music
There's a cello in the middle of this wind concert. That's the first signal that something different is happening.
Christopher Marshall's The Lost began with a specific image: the missing children posters that appear in newspapers and mailboxes across America — the ones with two photos side by side, the child as last seen and an age-progressed version of what they might look like now. Marshall, who moved to the United States and encountered these notices as something new and quietly devastating, carried that image for years. By the time he began writing the piece in 2021, the world had changed around it. The pandemic brought a new kind of collective grief. The invasion of Ukraine filled screens with images of loss on an enormous scale. And then the unexpected death of someone close to him made it personal in a way that couldn't be stepped around. The music expanded to hold all of it.
Structurally, The Lost is built on seven long bass pedal points — sustained notes deep in the ensemble that shift slowly beneath the surface while the winds and percussion layer above them in overlapping waves, creating what Marshall calls a "sonic mist." The solo cello emerges from that mist and moves through it: reflective at times, nostalgic at others, searching throughout. The piece builds toward an intense climax before pulling back into an expressive soliloquy — the cello alone, saying what can't quite be said in any other way. The conclusion doesn't resolve so much as settle. Something like acceptance. Something like peace.
R. Michael Daugherty's The Decoration Day Parade reaches back further — to the Civil War and its aftermath, when a nation that had lost 600,000 soldiers began the slow, painful work of figuring out how to honor them. Decoration Day, which would eventually become Memorial Day, started as exactly what the name suggests: communities gathering to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers. Daugherty's program note draws directly from the songs of that era — the rallying cries, the battle hymns, the music that men carried into combat and that communities sang to bring them home. This is where Memorial Day actually comes from, and Daugherty doesn't let you forget it.
Mark Piszczek's Dedication and March honors the legacy of conductor and educator Joseph Kreines, a significant figure in the world of wind music whose influence touched generations of musicians. The piece is tuneful and cinematic in scope — a march that carries genuine weight, the kind of music that feels like it was written for a specific person rather than a general occasion. Because it was.
Sonya Leonore Stahl grew up between two very different musical worlds: Celtic fiddle music and Wagner's Ring Cycle. That combination — the earthy and modal alongside the vast and mythological — runs through everything she writes, and Solutions is no exception. The piece is built around the concept of a magic potion, which sounds whimsical until you hear it. The opening solos function almost as an incantation — a spell being cast, note by note. Powerful march-like sections build the momentum of the brewing, and a "bagpipe" chorale evokes something ancient and ceremonial, the kind of music that belongs in a stone room lit by torches.
Solutions is also a piece about gratitude. It's dedicated to Wendell Simmons, the high school orchestra director who recognized something in a teenage Stahl writing music about carnivorous plants and woodpeckers and decided to program it anyway — sometimes under false names so her peers would take it seriously. Simmons remained a supporter for years after she left his classroom. He passed away in June 2022. The piece is, among other things, a thank you that arrived too late and exactly on time.
Philip Sparke's The Year of the Dragon is one of the genuine showpieces of the wind literature — commissioned in 1984 for a centenary celebration and revised by Sparke himself in 2017, it remains one of the most technically demanding and musically rewarding pieces in the repertoire. Tonight the ensemble performs the Finale alone — but the Finale alone makes the case. What Sparke describes as a headlong gallop, it drives forward with relentless energy, a heroic main theme interspersed with playful episodes before a climactic ending that leaves an ensemble and its audience both slightly breathless. Even in a single movement, it gives the winds a chance to show exactly why they are some of the finest musicians in all of Florida.
TICKET INFORMATION
America, Together is a free concert, open to the community. A suggested donation of $20 per person helps cover the costs of production and is greatly appreciated.
Ticket reservations open June 1st and are available through our website or by calling (855) 252-7276. All seating is general admission — seats are not assigned. For information about and to reserve tickets for Sunday's performance at Riverside Presbyterian Church, please click here.
Season 18 All Access Pass holders: Your reserved seats will be available for Saturday's performances.. No action needed.
Artist Information
Cellist David Calhoun has attracted the notice of today’s visionary musicians, including David Amram, who sums up his credentials thus: “David Calhoun is what American music needs now . . . [he has] extraordinary talents as a virtuoso soloist and ensemble expert.” His far-ranging career has included solo performances live in-concert with Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall, in scenes with the Martha Clarke Dance Company as both soloist and dancer, and chamber music collaborations with great violinists such as Ani Kavafian, Sydney Harth and Eric Friedman, the pianist Menahem Pressler and the Shanghai String Quartet. On the international stage Mr.Calhoun was featured as soloist with orchestra and chamber musician at the Tchaikovsky Festival in Tchaikovsky’s childhood home of Izhevsk, Russia. In the year 2000 he was honored to accept the invitation to perform a private millennial concert of solo Bach for Cardinals and clergy of the Vatican in Rome. He also has given concerts in Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, France,Canada and Mexico.
Mr. Calhoun has led a delegation of young artists to perform as soloists with the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a concert to benefit foster homes.Mr. Calhoun was appointed principal cellist of the Space Coast Symphony in 2025 by Maestro Aaron Collins, and is principal cellist of the Brevard Symphony, the Villages Philharmonic, and The Florida Philharmonic. He has performed as principal cellist with the American Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House, the New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM, the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall, the New York City Opera on tour, Musica Sacra at St. John the Divine, SONYC, etc. Mr. Calhoun has toured with Orpheus and with the Metropolitan Opera in Japan, and collaborates annually in chamber music concerts with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Classical Tahoe. Mr. Calhoun has performed chamber music regularly in New York’s most prestigious venues, including Bargemusic, Carnegie Weill, the Brooklyn Museum Chamber Series, the Look and Listen Festival, the Seacliff Chamber Players, at Symphony Space as soloist, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where for 15 years he was tenured in year-round residence with the Orion Piano quartet. He has been a member of the acclaimed Kinor Quartet in residence at the annual World Bank Mozart Festival in Washington, D.C. , and the Omni Ensemble.
David Calhoun has been an active performer in New York’s vibrant music scene which has included many television, movie, and radio performances. He has recorded for RCA and has performed frequently, including the Kodaly Duo and the Debussy Sonata, on live broadcasts for radio stations WQXR and WNYC in New York City. He can be heard as the cello soloist in Bill Moyers’ PBS series “The Power of Myth.” He was invited by Philip Glass to record the first solo recording of Philip’s cello concerto “Naqoyqatsi” at Looking Glass Studios. In the popular vein, he has played numerous Broadway shows in New York (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Showboat to name a few) and cast recordings, and toured as solo cellist for stars such as Liza Minnelli, Rod Stewart and Willie Nelson. He has appeared several times on the Letterman Show and shows such as “One Life to Live”. A participant at the Manchester Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Chautauqua Festival, the Bard Festival, Waterloo Festival, Garret Lakes Festival, Summertrios, Mr. Calhoun is currently a resident artist of Classical Tahoe.His solo performance on the 2021 Naxos cd of works of John Gottsch was hailed by Gramophone as “fine solo work..committed and colourful.” “Glorious performance of the Bach Suites” Allegro Magazine 20.
Cellist David Calhoun has attracted the notice of today’s visionary musicians, including David Amram, who sums up his credentials thus: “David Calhoun is what American music needs now . . . [he has] extraordinary talents as a virtuoso soloist and ensemble expert.” His far-ranging career has included solo performances live in-concert with Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall, in scenes with the Martha Clarke Dance Company as both soloist and dancer, and chamber music collaborations with great violinists such as Ani Kavafian, Sydney Harth and Eric Friedman, the pianist Menahem Pressler and the Shanghai String Quartet.
On the international stage Mr. Calhoun was featured as soloist with orchestra and chamber musician at the Tchaikovsky Festival in Tchaikovsky’s childhood home of Izhevsk, Russia. In the year 2000 he was honored to accept the invitation to perform a private millennial concert of solo Bach for Cardinals and clergy of the Vatican in Rome. He also has given concerts in Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Mexico. Mr. Calhoun has led a delegation of young artists to perform as soloists with the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a concert to benefit foster homes
Mr. Calhoun was appointed principal cellist of the Space Coast Symphony in 2025 by Maestro Aaron Collins, and is principal .cellist of the Brevard Symphony, the Villages Philharmonic, and The Florida Philharmonic. He has performed as principal cellist with the American Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House, the New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM, the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall, the New York City Opera on tour, Musica Sacra at St. John the Divine, SONYC, etc. Mr. Calhoun has toured with Orpheus and with the Metropolitan Opera in Japan, and collaborates annually in chamber music concerts with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Classical Tahoe. Mr. Calhoun has performed chamber music regularly in New York’s most prestigious venues, including Bargemusic, Carnegie Weill, the Brooklyn Museum Chamber Series, the Look and Listen Festival, the Seacliff Chamber Players, at Symphony Space as soloist, and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, where for 15 years he was tenured in year-round residence with the Orion Piano quartet. He has been a member of the acclaimed Kinor Quartet in residence at the annual World Bank Mozart Festival in Washington, D.C. , and the Omni Ensemble.
David Calhoun has been an active performer in New York’s vibrant music scene which has included many television, movie, and radio performances. He has recorded for RCA and has performed frequently, including the Kodaly Duo and the Debussy Sonata, on live broadcasts for radio stations
WQXR and WNYC in New York City. He can be heard as the cello soloist in Bill Moyers’ PBS series “The Power of Myth.” He was invited by Philip Glass to record the first solo recording of Philip’s cello concerto “Naqoyqatsi” at Looking Glass Studios. In the popular vein, he has played numerous Broadway shows in New York (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Showboat to name a few) and cast recordings, and toured as solo cellist for stars such as Liza Minnelli, Rod Stewart and Willie Nelson. He has appeared several times on the Letterman Show and shows such as “One Life to Live”. A participant at the Manchester Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Chautauqua Festival, the Bard Festival, Waterloo Festival, Garret Lakes Festival, Summertrios, Mr. Calhoun is currently a resident artist of Classical Tahoe. His solo performance on the 2021 Naxos cd of works of John Gottsch was hailed by Gramophone as “fine solo work..committed and colourful.”
Charles Ellis is a native of Virginia, residing there until 2021 when he and his wife Carol bought a property on Merritt Island, FL as a getaway. Within the first year on MI, they became permanent residents, and their Virginia property became their getaway. He began his musical career, like most youngsters, in an elementary band program. He wanted to play trumpet, but his band director told him his “lips” were “too fat”. He stood his ground, and that director attended his Senior Recital for his Music Performance Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and conceded that he was wrong. Charles developed a “Big Band” while in high school consisting of top players from three area high schools. During college he ran a society/jazz quintet. Great opportunities to have income during high school, college and throughout his professional career.
His first conducting experience came in college as the music and drama departments performed “Bye Bye Birdie”. And the rest is History. He took a position as a Band Director fresh out of college in a high school that had never had a band program. At the close of his seven years as a teacher his band was in regional competitions. He walked away from teaching, but never his music, for a career in Public Relations and Marketing, first for the City of Danville, VA and later for a commercial bank for 38 years. Trumpet was his life, spanning solo, ensemble playing, pit player, choral conducting and symphony playing for 65 years and he was recruited as the first instrumentally trained conductor of the Danville Symphony Orchestra (DSO) taking it from a skeleton ensemble to a regional symphony at his retirement. He worked with such artist as Elyane Laussade, renowned Australian pianist, Alan Rippe, Jazz Saxophone Professor at Memphis University, Ronnie Milsap, country artist’s jazz performance with DSO, and a Celtic symphony concert with” Cherrish the Ladies”.
He prides himself on recognizing talent and providing opportunities for young players to engage with him in brass ensemble performance and symphony section playing. DSO's success continues and is completing its 38th season in July. Charles was chosen, by the then Governor of Virginia, for a five-year term on the Virginia Commission for the Arts, serving as Chairman for two years.
