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What started a year ago as an idea between two colleagues across the country resulted in a bittersweet farewell and the opportunity of a lifetime for Mansfield students and alumni.

It began when Dr. Adam Brennan, director of bands and professor of percussion studies at Mansfield since 1995, was approached by his counterpart at his alma mater with an idea.  

“My colleague who is now the director of bands at Western Illinois University, Dr. Mike Fansler, had this idea to do a concert in Carnegie Hall with their wind ensemble, but he was looking for a group to split the concert and the costs,” said Brennan. “He asked if I might like to share the venue.”

Brennan jumped at the opportunity and began fundraising to support the trip. Thanks to several generous donors along with support from the Student Government Association, the Mansfield University Mountaineer Foundation, and the Mansfield Foundation, the trip was within reach. “I wanted current students to be able to make the trip and worked to keep the cost down for affordability,” Brennan explained.

Rehearsals for the performance were carefully coordinated, with current students beginning work in March and alumni preparing independently before joining for a two-day rehearsal weekend in May. After a joint Spring concert, the group held one final five-hour rehearsal focused solely on the Carnegie pieces. On arrival in Manhattan, they had a two-hour rehearsal and a brief dress rehearsal in the hall to adjust for acoustics and balance.

Carnegie Hall has entranced musicians worldwide since it was built in midtown Manhattan in 1891 by its namesake, industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Every serious musician dreams of making it to Carnegie Hall one day. When Brennan speaks of Carnegie Hall, you begin to understand how the venue is a portal to something transcendent, where music becomes physical.

“Sound floats in Carnegie Hall in its purest, most natural form. I was mesmerized hearing solo instruments literally sing out into the hall,” Brennan said.

“The sound envelopes you, with sounds melting through you, surrounding you, reflecting off of you. There is nothing like it that I have ever experienced. It makes the music tangible in a way you can’t prepare yourself for, making it the experience of a lifetime.”

The Mansfield Wind Ensemble and alumni performed three works in this renowned space. Not only was this an incredible opportunity for the performers, but it was also the final act for Brennan in his role at Mansfield before retirement.
 

The first piece was the world premiere of a new saxophone sonata that featured Mansfield faculty emeritus, Dr. Joe Murphy, performing on four different saxophones. “I wrote this piece especially for Joe, and to have him give the world premiere at Carnegie Hall was absolutely amazing,” Brennan said of the piece.  

The second was a work called Tenebrae, or Dark Hours, created in response to a local tragedy and inspired by how Brennan’s family turned to their faith to cope with the death of a young child.

The final work was one of Brennan’s favorites, Symphony No. 4 by composer David Maslanka. Maslanka’s son Matthew was in the audience and was highly complementary of the group’s interpretation and performance of his late father’s work, saying it “actually opened up the piece for me in a new way.”  

Maslanka remarked to Brennan “for most of my life, I’ve tended to approach my father’s music from a place of knowing what it could be and working to help performers move in that direction. On Friday, I just sat and let you and your musicians show me the piece as it was in that specific moment with that specific group of people with their best understanding of the music.

“As I listened, I heard my father, almost in a state of giddy excitement, work to show us all what it felt like to experience the absolute glory of reality unveiled."

The Mansfield group received a standing ovation inside Carnegie Hall. It was a dream come true for the Mansfield students on stage, including junior music education major and principal trumpet player Tyler Eick. “It’s hard to put into words how honored and grateful I was to be given the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall,” Tyler said after the performance.

What made the event even more special for Tyler was being joined on stage by his father, Timothy Eick, who graduated from Mansfield with a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1996 and a master’s degree in conducting in 2001. Tyler, his father, and mother Cristin Sabourin — who earned a bachelor’s in music education from Mansfield in 2001 — all played under Brennan during their time at Mansfield.

“The personal connection my family has with Dr. Brennan made this experience even more meaningful. We are saying goodbye to the conductor who has been part of both our musical paths,” said Eick. “This shared experience with my father under Dr. Brennan’s guidance feels like a wonderful, full-circle moment, connecting generations through music, legacy, and cherished memories.”

"I will never forget how special the music was, and how marvelously it was performed."

For Brennan, it was the culmination of 30 years at Mansfield and 38 years in higher education.

“I will never forget how special the music was, and how marvelously it was performed. It was my last performance as Director of Bands at Mansfield, and it will be a memory I cherish as I move to other aspects of my creative career,” Brennan reminisced.

“Seventy-five people came together in one of the world’s most famous concert halls and gave everything they had to create something spectacular. I for one, will never forget it or the people who brought the music to life.”