Welcome to the official site for Wes Stephens. Here you can remain current on all of
his new works, commissions, premieres, performances, and clinics.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 12:11AM So I was roaming around Youtube watching indoor drumline videos and noticed that Central High School's 2015 indoor drumline show was in my queue of related videos. I had the pleasure of working with Central's pit and also got to compose a piece for them callled Havana (it's the middle movement in the video). Hope you enjoy the performance.
Sunday, July 16, 2017 at 01:52AM I was appointed the Director of Percussion at Lafayette High School this year. I am very excited to be working with these hard working and talented students and have already started upgrading our percussion equipment. My teaching partner, Joe Schreimann, and I have a grant on DonorsChoose that will go towards purchasing a much needed inventory of mallets and a few cymbals. Please help support these kids by donating or by sharing the link to your social media pages.
If you donate be sure to use the code LIFTOFF so that your donation is matched by DonorsChoose.
Sunday, June 11, 2017 at 03:18PM Hey guys,
I just posted a video of Luna's Tea Party for Jazz Band to YouTube. It was premiered by the St. Joseph High School Jazz All-Stars at the 2017 Coleman Hawkins Jazz Festival on June 10, 2017. The group is under the keen direction of Chad Lippincott. Thank you guys for a wonderful performance!
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 08:33PM I have just received a commission to write a grade 1 work for concert band from Elizabeth Betts, who is the band director in the North Harrison school district. My goal is to write a fun, challenging, and unique piece so I am drawing upon my love of sci-fi and writing a quasi-cinematic work that tells a story of a daring space explorer. It also introduces students to aleatoric elements and non-traditional chord sounds and melodies (lot of quartal/quintal based melodic ideas, chromatic mediant chords are also used to give it that spacey sound.)It will be a fun challenge for me to keep all of my ideas within the realm of possibility for second year players and I look forward to working with Elizabeth and her students in the future.
Friday, May 19, 2017 at 02:18PM I just recieved word that Luna's Tea Party for jazz band will be performed by the St. Joseph High School All-Star Jazz Band during the Coleman Hawkins Jazz Festival. For more details visit www.colemanhawkins.org