Date: Thu, Oct 1, 7:30 PM PDT
Machines roar, race, remember, and dream in this program exploring the boundary between human imagination and mechanical power. William Bolcom’s Machine launches the concert with relentless momentum, while Saunder Choi’s Locomotion transforms the pulse of a train into a vivid portrait of Philippine commuter life. Mason Bates’s Observer in the Magellanic Cloud sends a robotic satellite across deep time to glimpse an ancient Earth, and Shuying Li’s The Last Hive Mind pits artificial intelligence against a fragile human lullaby. The concert features SJSU saxophone professor Dr. Michael Hernandez, as well as David Cortez, winner of the 2026 SJSU Concerto Competition, in a consortium premiere of Alan Theisen’s Archaic Machines, a genre-blurring baritone saxophone concerto in which jazz, funk, mystery, and science fiction collide. PROGRAM Lichtweg/Lightway by Jennifer Jolley Sonic Pathways by Nathan Hervey Tight Squeeze by Alex Shapiro Escapade by Nicole Piunno CONSORTIUM PREMIERE Dr. Michael Hernandez, alto saxophone Synthetic Sunlight by Steven Bryant SJSU Symphonic Band Dr. Grant Knox, conductor INTERMISSION Machine (from Fifth Symphony) by William Bolcom arr. by Paul Lavender Dillon Braisher, conductor Observer in the Magellanic Cloud by Mason Bates arr. by David Vickerman The Last Hive Mind by Shuying Li Locomotion by Saunder Choi Archaic Machines by Alan Theisen CONSORTIUM PREMIERE David Cortez, baritone saxophone 1. Madness in Any Direction 2. Midnite Trip 3. Corrupted Files from Galactic Planets SJSU Wind Ensemble Dr. David Vickerman, conductor Dillon Braisher, graduate conductor