The 2025 Meyer Music Honors Band
Director Bio
Maureen Ross, Retired Orchestra & Band Director
Maureen Ross retired in 2020 after teaching for 33 years. For 22 years, she taught in the Grandville Public Schools, having taught Seventh Grade Band, Eighth Grade Band, beginning percussion and clarinet, Middle School Jazz Band, and High School Jazz Band. Before coming to Grandville, she taught band for nine years at Newhall Middle School in Wyoming. She has found a second career as an Educational Representative at Meyer Music, calling on schools and serving as a clinician.
Bands under her direction have received consistent superior ratings at MSBOA Festivals. Her Grandville MS Eighth Grade Jazz Band performed at the Midwestern Conference on Instrumental and Vocal Music in January, 2002, and in 2006 she co-directed the GMS 8th Grade Band at the inaugural Michigan Music Conference. Jazz bands under her direction have received superior ratings at both district and state festivals. Numerous students were recognized as outstanding soloists and received nominations for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival jazz ensemble.
Maureen Ross is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, with a focus on music education and percussion. She has been a faculty member at the Knollcrest Music Camp, where she directed the Middle School Jazz Band. This past summer, Mrs. Ross was a faculty member and performer with the Blue Lake International Symphony Band. She has also performed with the Blue Lake Festival Band, Grand Rapids Symphonic Band, and Holland Symphony. She served on the MSBOA District Ten Executive Board as treasurer, president, and adjudicator chair, and was State Vice President for Music Selection. Maureen is also active in the music ministry at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids. She lives in Byron Center with her husband James, retired Director of Instrumental Music at East Kentwood High School. They have two adult children, Michael and Claire, who are outstanding musicians and wonderful human beings.
Program Notes
Declaration Overture… Claude T. Smith
This symphony was written in 1893 after the composer spent a significant amount of time in America… Spillville, Iowa to be exact. The music of the American Negro community left a great impression, and inspired him to write his own thematic, spiritual material. The fourth movement of this symphony is perhaps his best known work. Originally published as his fifth symphony, but later on other unpublished works of his were discovered and re-numbering was in order. In the modern era, this is known as his ninth symphony.
Halcyon Hearts, An Overture for Love… Katahj Copley
Composed in 2003 for the Walt Disney blockbuster film series by the same name. This arrangement captures many of the main themes of the film including Fog Bound, The Medallion Calls, To the Pirates Cave, The Black Pearl, One Last Shot, and He’s a Pirate. This arrangement is edited just enough to give musicians an opportunity to perform this incredible score with confidence and pride.
Meyer March …F.R. Kimball, arr. by John P. Zdechlik
From the ballet “The Red Poppy” which premiered in June of 1927 by the Bolshoi Ballet. The dance is perhaps the most famous piece from the three act ballet, depicting traditional dance choreography executed on a ship sailing the unstable high seas.
The Bonsai Tree …Julie Giroux
This piece was written in 2016 and the title is taken from the poetry of Oscar Wilde entitled De Profundis, written while he was imprisoned in 1897. The music is dedicated to the orchestra program in Marquette, Michigan, Janis Shier Peterson, Director. An excerpt of the poem reads, “She (Nature) will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.”
Highlights from Wicked …Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, arr. by Michael Brown
This is a two movement suite highlighting English folk music. The first movement is has multiple sections varying in style and meter, and the second is just pure, joyful, energetic fiddle music!