A Swinging Affair

The Friends of Music kicked off the new year right! A great night of vocal jazz tonight courtesy of Jack and Helen Saum who brought us the UPTOWN VOCAL JAZZ QUARTET. Another full house witnessed an eclectic mix of jazz and American songbook standards. I especially loved “Sophisticated Lady” and “Li’l Darlin’”. It was nice to expand the series to vocal jazz for the first time. Thanks Friends for making another great night of music possible!

Busy Semester Kicks off in Style

The SU music department brings in the New Year with a whirlwind of performances. On Wednesday, January 13th the Preparatory Orchestra concert was well played and well received. A mere five days later, the Frank Center was once again “standing room only” for our 6th annual honor band concert featuring some of the most talented high school musicians in the four-state area. Today, we were thrilled to hear the Borup-Ernst Duo in a special performance before their Copenhagen premiere this weekend. Friday night the Friends of Music Concert Series continues with the incredible Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet. With so much going on, it is fortunate that we can keep track of it all at http://www.shepherd.edu/musicweb/concerts.html
Hope to see you on campus soon and happy new year!

Trio of concerts wrap up our semester

Three concerts in thirty hours, five concerts in four days– such is the life of a musician at Shepherd! The Composer’s Concert yesterday afternoon showed some real promise in our young composers. Tom Huenger’s String Quartet No. 1 was particularly noteworthy. Yesterday’s Gamelan/Percussion Ensemble Concert offered music rarely heard.–how many schools offer a gamelan?! The Jauk Manis dance was exciting visually and aurally and the percussion ensemble was stellar as always.
Tonight’s Small Ensemble Concert presented as wide a variety of ensembles as styles. (The Clarinet Quartet’s Hungarian Dances reminded me of our summer concert tour and the music we heard in Prague.) Who would know that Barber’s beautiful Adagio for Strings would transcribe beautifully to brass quintet or that Gershwin’s 3 Preludes fit a sax quartet so well? Excellent performances all around. Happy holidays students! Get a good break and come back ready for a great season of music next year!

Kicking off the Holiday Season

The music department is always proud to contribute to the season in early December each year with a weekend full of performances. The Ram Band led the parade, through the snow, on Saturday morning and the entire department came together for fine performances at the Holiday Gala both Saturday night and Sunday. The candle-lit ceremony of carols was beautiful, the faculty funny was particularly funny this year and we were pleased to see Betty Lou Bryant become the newest member of the Hall of Fame. The wind symphony played with conviction, Dr. Helldobler’s conducting debut was one to remember and of course, the highlight of the evening was when all voices (including the audience’s!) joined together for “White Christmas”. Indeed, a grand weekend. Happy Holidays All!

Bravo student conductors

A fine student conductor concert by the wind symphony tonight. It was a great pleasure to see a stage filled with musicians, none of whom were faculty. That these students chose the music, studied the scores, ran the rehearsals, wrote the program notes and performed the concert with minimal faculty input shows a great ensemble and fine student leadership at its best. Four weeks ago they were a marching band running up and down the east coast performing on a football field. A little over a dozen rehearsals later, a concert like this. Bravo to all the SU students involved. We are all proud of you!

So Many Reasons to be Proud

I just returned from the Masterworks Chorale performance of the Mozart Requiem at St James Catholic Church in Charles Town.  Bravo!

So much to be proud of:

• A great evening with our new friends at St. James, with special thanks to Father Brian and Gary Penkala
• A great performance
• Over one thousand people heard Mozart live (many likely for the first time) in a space for which the work was intended and stood for many minutes to cheer the performers at the end

Where else but Shepherd would undergraduates get an opportunity to sing in such a refined 130-member chorale, to play with a professional orchestra, to be soloists before that orchestra and chorale?

And where else but Shepherd would these undergraduates perform so beautifully?

Indeed, a night to remember. Bravo all!

Awadagin Pratt: A Musical Evening to Remember

There are times when a player plays so fluidly, is so connected to the music, that it seems “improvisational”. Listening to Awadagin on the Beethoven Saturday night seemed “compositional”–he was so connected to this music, bringing out every line and harmonic structure, pausing ever-so-slightly at a refreshing cadential choice, it seemed he was composing this music as he was playing it–as if it were being heard for the very first time.

Oh–and the Fazioli was built for a performer such as this. What a magical evening.

The Department Chair Has a Blog?

I thought the same thing: why blog? In fact, two reasons not to: time and “can it be useful”? To wit, short blogs on meaningful things will be posted here. Hope you will join in the conversation! Welcome to Shepherd University students, faculty, alum, to Friends of Music, members of our supportive arts community and all interested persons.