Ad Astra (2025)

Ad Astra is a seven-minute composition written for and premiered by the University of Michigan Concert Band, led by Dr. Courtney Snyder. Ad Astra was premiered at Hill Auditorium on November 24 2025, at Hill Auditorium, conducted by graduate student conductor John Mange.

"For Ad Astra, Elsinger set out to compose a work that would amalgamate symphonic voicing with a jazz-informed harmonic palette and a Latin sensibility for rhythm. Intricately syncopated montuno grooves in the percussion and piano provide much of the rhythmic impetus of the work. An overlay of cinematic texture and stylistic pastiche in the winds— ranging in affect from grand melodic sweeps, to mariachi-like trumpet flourishes, to peaceful moments of repose—give this work its particular character as a combination of many elements into one sophisticated musical statement."