Ben Tibbetts Studio      Home    Services    Archive    Students    About    Contact    Now    Store    Subscribe To My Father As A Young Man For Concert Band Listen (mp3) To My Father As A Young Man was a piece I composed for concert band while at UMass. It was inspired by thoughts about what my father must have experienced at a similar point in his life. My dad, Dwight Tibbetts, was a middle school band teacher. Before retiring, he worked in the Augusta, Maine school system for about thirty-five years. He was an exceptional leader. I admired how he worked with his groups; he was attentive to everyone's needs and it seemed like he was very into his job. I think this is what made him a popular teacher. Every four years he organized trips with his band students to Washington, D.C. where they would play music and take a tour of the city. My dad and I are similar in a lot of ways. We're both musicians, and my dad is also a composer and arranger. When I graduated from college, I wanted to write a piece about how he must have felt when he graduated from college. I wanted to celebrate the feelings of ambition and potential, and also depict the negative emotions of uncertainty and feeling out of your depth. I think this piece conveys both. There are complex moving parts which portray dark fears, but melodies emerge above them and grow more confident over time. The recording on this page is a live performance by the UMass Amherst wind ensemble. That audio is free, but the sheet music is only available to subscribers. If you'd like to perform this piece with your group, please either subscribe to this website or reach out directly to purchase the parts.  Ben Tibbetts Studio      Home    Services    Archive    Students    About    Contact    Now    Store    Subscribe Search     Copyright © 2006-2023 Ben Tibbetts change log