My Musical Weekend

On Saturday, I accompanied ten DHS students to New Trier High School for the IMEA District VII festival. We had three vocalists in the choir, two violinists and a trumpeter in the orchestra, and four band members. They worked with guest conductors from Augustana College, University of Iowa, and Western Illinois University, performing in large honor ensembles. The concert at the end of the day was just wonderful. The 200+ voice choir sounded great, especially on an improvised version of "Down to the River," which they created that morning in rehearsal. The orchestra performed the very tuneful Polovetsian Dances by Borodin, and the band was played one of my all-time favorites, Four Scottish Dances by British composer Malcolm Arnold and arranged by my mentor at Northwestern, John Paynter. I enjoyed hearing Dr. Fansler's interpretation and remembering how Mr. Paynter used to do it. All in all, the students did a fine job.

Today, I took my son, who is a horn player, to a concert of the Northshore Concert Band at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston. They had a special promotion for music students and their parents--$5 tickets! I saw a couple of other DHS students there as well. The programming was exceptional. The opener was Toccata Marziale by my favorite composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The DHS Wind Ensemble performed this several years ago. It's a great, brassy, contrapuntal work that doesn't sound like the rest of RVW's band pieces--there's not a folk song to be heard. They then played Rest by Frank Ticheli, a memorial piece in honor of two of their members who had passed. Next up was the main reason we came, Schumann's tour de force for four horns, Konzertstuck. NU professor and former CSO hornist Gail Williams and three of her masters students were the featured soloists, in addition to the nine section horns in the band. The technique, range, and sound they displayed were outstanding.

The second half featured a new piece by student composer Ben Hjertmann, called Catclaw Mimosa. It was an engaging, post-modern work that blended spiky modernist melodic fragments with rock rhythms in a very natural manner. The concert closed with Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, featuring all of Bernstein's memorable tunes. What a way to finish the afternoon.

So for me that makes four concerts in six days, after last week's band concert and the choir concert for which I was a supervisor. Coming up on Saturday we have the IMEA Jazz Festival at Evanston Township High School, where I'll be working with the vocal jazz combo and cheering on our two Deerfield participants. Then there'll be the impromptu marching band performance for Grandparents Day and a relaxing Thanksgiving break. This year, I won't be typing frantically on my dissertation, so I'll have time to enjoy my extended family. My hope for all of my students is a similarly homework-free break!