Get to Know Soloist and Composer Janelle Finton Before Her GCB Debut
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It should come as no surprise that Janelle Finton pursued a career in music.
Her parents are both trumpet players, her mom a retired music teacher to boot. “Growing up, I always heard music in the house,” Finton says. “[My parents] were always playing different recordings of things for me [and teaching] me all the instruments and note names.”
Finton played in numerous ensembles throughout school, but realized music could be her career after participating in NYO Jazz, a youth jazz group that performs at Carnegie Hall and across the country.
“It helped me see what passion and music can turn into…seeing people that were older than me going out and doing it as their career and showing up in new places every night,” Finton explains. “It can impact the spirit of people in the room and bring light and joy to a space and to people. That would be the reason why I wanted to do music.”
That decision led to a music degree from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and her current career as a Chicago-area educator, performer and composer. Finton will be making her Glenview Concert Band debut on Sunday, April 26, as she joins her mom (trumpet section leader Louise Finton) and the rest of the ensemble in performing her piece “Letting Go: Space for Joy.”
Finton’s ties to the Glenview Concert Band run deep. “My mom played concerts with the Glenview Band when she was pregnant with me,” she says, recalling attending rehearsals as a child with a coloring book or Girl Scout cookies in tow.
She says being around the band made a huge impact on her as a budding musician. “I think that hearing that much concert band music really did shape my ear at that time — just hearing all the different instruments and what type of parts they each had, falling in love with all the different colors of instruments that way.”
“It’s really special to be back playing with this band and playing that piece,” she adds.
“Letting Go: Space for Joy” was originally written for jazz band as a college assignment, but caught the eye of Spencer Hile, the band director at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, who asked Finton to arrange it for concert band to be performed at the prestigious Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in December 2024.
Finton says the piece carries a lot of meaning for her, as it reflects her journey of navigating the uncertain times we were all in during and after COVID. “Obviously, there was a lot of unrest in the world and I think everybody individually,” she says. “A lot of that was me processing how to make peace with the unknown, and then letting go allows space for joy to come in.”
The colors of the piece aim to evoke those feelings, as Finton explains. “In the beginning, it’s a melody that represents some longing — maybe you’re just sitting with a lot of emotions around.”
As the music picks up in tempo, horn lines fade in and out like waves underneath a flugelhorn melody. “It feels like now we’re going on a journey somewhere,” Finton says. The introduction of an irregular 7/4 meter represents a struggle between the previous emotions and the search for joy.
Finally, as the piece reaches its climax, it opens into a warm key that provides for reflection and openness to the unknown. “Think about a calm, quiet peace after the bigger moment of realization dawning,” as Finton describes it. Flugelhorn and vocal solos throughout serve as a conduit for the emotional lifts and falls.
Just like how she was inspired by the music she heard as a student, Finton hopes her piece will do the same for the audience. “I hope it’s something that people can see their own experiences in as well,” she says. “Each time, it means something a little bit different to me. I love that about music.”
Join the Glenview Concert Band for their Spring Concert featuring soloist Janelle Finton and other band classics. The concert will take place Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. in the Glenbrook South High School auditorium. Admission is $5 per person or $15 per family.