NEWS OF OUR MUSICIANS

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16 NOVEMBER 2009:

ASTOUNDING WYSO SUCCESS

    

   Go to it. It's free and fun!

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9 NOVEMBER 2009:

CHRISTMAS ON THE (NEW) HORIZON

    The New Horizons Band, under the direction of Glenn Nielsen and featuring (I think) Wally Hanson, will perform a holiday concert at 2:00 PM on Sunday 12 December in the Monona Grove High School auditorium.

   Go to it. It's free and fun!

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2 NOVEMBER 2009:

WSMA HONORS PROGRAMS

    The annual WSMA Honors festival performances are a high point of the musical year, a tribute to how much can be accomplished in a short time by talented young musicians. This year's Honors ensembles gave concerts in Madison's Overture Center on Thursday 29 October. Featured were Gena Roisum, Honors Band, clarinet; Isis Leonard, Honors Orchestra, principal bassoon; and Ally Schmaling, Honors Mixed Choir, Alto. Kolin Walker was also chosen as a tenor in the Honors Mixed Choir, but was unable to accept.

    Scott Jones of Concordia College, Minnesota, conducted the band. Here is the band program, including Dr. Jones' notes:

NITRO by Frank Ticheli

  Nitro is an energy-charged three-minute fanfare for band and was commissioned by the Northshore Concert Band, Mallory Thompson, music director. It was commissioned in celebration of their 50th anniversary season, and received its premiere performance by them on April 9th, 2006. Nitrogen is the most abundant component of the Earth's atmosphere (78 per cent by volume), and is present in the tissues of every living thing. It is the fifth most abundant element in the universe, created by the fusion deep within stars; it has recently been detected in interstellar space. The sheer prevalence of nitrogen in all of nature, and the wide range of compounds it is part of - life giving, energizing, healing, cleansing, explosive - all appealed to the composer and served as the inspiration for the music.

  The main musical idea for Nitro is a powerful, angular theme, first announced by the trombones and horns, and then imitated in the trumpets. Trumpet fanfare calls and a busy and relentless chattering in the woodwinds enhance the bright, festive mood. The middle section is based on a woodwind theme that is partly fanfare-like, partly dance-like. This contrasting theme is built from intervals occurring in the natural overtone series (octave and twelfth), giving it an expansive, open-air quality. The main theme reappears, growing in power and density all the while, building to a thunderous conclusion.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MOON by Libby Larsen

  In our contemporary musical world, people create and perform music in two ways - by writing and reading it from the page or by improvising it and playing by ear. A good musical education provides students with practice and experience in both. An Introduction to the Moon combines these two distinctly different and wholly essential musical practices - music of the page and music of the ear. Using a form found in our everyday culture, the egg carton, Larsen creates a musical carton with eight partitions. She composed nine unified sections that the students rehearse and perform in the traditional manner, by reading and reproducing exactly what the composer has written for them. These nine sections surround eight sections that are reserved for music the students create themselves by improvising and performing by ear. The listener might think of the form of the piece as: Page-Ear-Page-Ear-Page-Ear-Page—Ear-Page-Ear-Page-Ear-Page-Ear-Page-Ear-Page In each of the eight "Ear" sections a poem is read. Each poem refers, in some way, to the moon. During rehearsal for the piece, the students listened to each poem and responded musically, improvising their impressions, discussing their improvisations and deciding amongst themselves which musical ideas best work with their ideas about the poetry.

  And so An Introduction to the Moon is not Libby Larsen's composition, it is the composition of everyone involved, the students and the composer. It is the hope that you as the audience experience the work as poetic in every way and that when the music has left the air you will have met the moon and remain suspended in its peaceful light.

ARMENIAN DANCES, PART 1 by Alfred Reed

  In his Armenian Dances, Alfred Reed has captured many of the styles, tempos, and subtleties of the Armenian folk songs and dances. Part I is based on five authentic Armenian folksongs drawn from the vast collection of Gomidas Vartabed (1869 - 1935). Gomidas has been credited as the founder of Armenian classical music for his work on preserving and documenting over four thousand folk songs.

  The opening, The Apricot Tree, is a sentimental song with a declamatory beginning. The Partridge's Song is an original song by Gomidas. Its simple, delicate melody was intended for a children's choir and is symbolic of that bird's tiny steps. A young man sings the praises of his beloved Nazan in the lovely, lively love song Hoy, My Nazan. Alagyaz is the name of a mountain in Armenia represented by a beloved folk song that is as majestic as the mountain itself. Part I ends with a delightful and humorous laughing-song (Go, Go!) with an ever accelerating tempo.

    The orchestra was conducted by William La Rue Jones, an active and versatile conductor itinerant in Asia, Europe, and both Americas. His program and notes:

HUAPANGO by Jose Pablo Moncayo

  Jose Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and was a composition pupil of Carlos Chavez and conductor of the National Symphony. His composition Huapango (1941) is an example of Mexican Nationalism in music. It is based on three authentic folk dances with their respective sones (tunes): Siqui Siri; Balaju; El Gavilan. The Huapango is a lively dance from the Mexican state of Veracruz, expressing a feeling of intense euphoria.

SYMPHONIC DANCES FROM WEST SIDE STORY by Leonard Bernstein

  West Side Story, composed in 1957 by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) ran for almost 1000 performances on Broadway. The film version, added in 1961, won 10 Oscars including Best Picture. It is considered a landmark, both for its serious subject matter (modernized version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), as well as for its compositional quality. Bernstein symphonically mixes jazz and Latin elements, along with melodies infused with the tritone. The two excerpts, "Somewhere" and "Mambo," are from his Symphonic Dances (1961).

WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE by Gioacchino Rossini

  The final opera composed by the prolific Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was William Tell (1829) before he retired to live the remainder of his life as a wealthy country squire. William Tell - based on the legendary Swiss folk hero who successfully shot an apple off the top of his son's head in defiance of enemies - is Rossini's longest and most inspired music. The overture musically describes:

Down in the Swiss mountains
A storm on the Lake
Pastoral Peace on Lower Hillside
Martial Glory of Patriotic Triumph

  The audience will certainly recognize the latter as the theme music for "The Lone Ranger".

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29 OCTOBER 2009:

NO TABASCO NEEDED

    Isis and Gena provided plenty of spice at the Wisconsin Music Educators' Association breakfast on the morning or Thursday 29 October. At the Association's request, they performed Isis' American Pastoral, a duet for clarinet and violin. The piece was wonderfully well received by the audience.

    The breakfast was an event to foster communication with Wisconsin legislators, several of whom were in attendance. AITDJB and Solstice Brass members Michelle Naegele, Anne Nichols,, and Glenn Nielsen were also among the dining dignitaries.

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28 OCTOBER 2009:

WYSO ON THE TERRACE

    The Youth orchestra of the the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (that's not redundant, just clumsy; but I didn't choose the names) performed for attendees of the Wisconsin State Music Conference at Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center on the evening of Wednesday 28 October. They gave a lively, nuanced performance that makes me hungry for the season to come. Director and conductor James Smith programmed a tasty mix that included works by a Madison composer and by a member of the orchestra. Isis Leonard was the principal bassoonist.

    The performance space was the convention center's Madison Ballroom, a nondescript, low, flat box like any conference room anywhere. The orchestra was on a platform about two feet high; the audience sat in an unstaggered grid of chairs on the flat floor. The arrangement is not conducive to photos parents may want to take of their little darlings as they perform, but the acoustics were certainly more uniform than those in Mills Hall, with none of the weird amplification Mills gives to certain frequency ranges and stage locations.

    Here's the program:

Mala Suita (Little Suite), by Witold Lutoslawski

I. Fujarka
II. Hura Polka
III. Piosenka
IV. Taniec

Adagio, by John Stevens

Symphony No. 7, B minor "Unifinished", by Franz Schubert

I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante con moto

Symphony No. 1, mvt. 3, by Joel Weng (premiere performance)

Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia India), by Carlos Chavez

    Lutoslawski's suite ueses transformations of folk melodies from the countryside around Krakow, Poland. It is lively, charming, colorful, and tonal. The Stevens adagio was conducted by its composer, a professor of Tuba and Euphonium at the University of Wisconsin. He recently rearranged the piece from its original form, a tuba-euphonium octet, to produce this setting for strings. The transisition is not entirely satisfactory. Listening to the work, one imagines brass, and the imagined version often sounds more decisive and apt.

    The orchestra perfomed the Unfinished Symphony with great passion and controll, bringing out clearly its elements which prefigure romanticism, notably the agressive modulations. Mr. Joel Weng is a young violinist in the orchestra; this premiere performance of part of his first symphony showed us a work of great vigor and athleticism, with hints of a fine melodist to come as he matures musically. Sinfonia India, by Mexican composer Carlos Chavez, is an impetuous and chock-full piece which I will have to hear again before I can comment on it.

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26 OCTOBER 2009:

FALL - IN LOVE!

    Credits for the tagline go to Anne Nichols: "Fall . . . In Love!" was the program title for tonight's MHS Choir Concert. The show was a feast of lollipops and sweetmeats.

    This was our first chance to lay ears on the new year's Blue Notes vocal jazz ensemble, and they're hot. Barry Bakunowicz, Beau Peregoy, Ally Schmaling, and Kolin Walker are in it, of course, as is the amazing Heather Traska. The ensemble opened with But Beautiful (click to listen), Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen's sad, pretty meditation on the contradictions of love. The arrangement here is by Steve Zegree; Joe Dever is the perfect pianist. Soloists are Heather Traska and Barry Bakunowicz.

    Blue Notes' other piece was Kirby Shaw's arrangement of Besame Mucho, originally by Consuelo Velazquez. Of course, it made me think of Bria Mason redlining the amp on a sunny Farmers' Market day outside the old McFarland Library, while Becky Schultz accompanied from a piano in the back of a pickup truck. But Blue Notes brought their own flavour to the song, and setting it for twenty voices makes it less personal but also richer, better able (to my ear) to explore a bit of irony. Brittney Leemon did a fine job with her solo turn, and Ben Petersen was snazzy on drum set. Recording to come soon . . .

    Isis Leonard and Gena Roisum provided an interlude after Blue Notes, performing Isis' American Pastoral for violin and clarinet, which she wrote as a birthday present for Gena. At the risk of sounding like an uncoached Solo & Ensemble student, the two movements provide excellent contrast, and are both wonderfully evocative. It's an audience-pleaser wherever they play it; presently I'll post a recording that includes all the applause.

    Concert Choir delivered Three Madrigals by Emma Lou Diemer, settings for extracts from Shakespeare's plays. In the composer's words, the texts deal with "love hoped for, love lost, love deceived - but none of this should be taken too seriously." Serious or not, they are delightful snippets, pleasantly performed. Here are the burdens:

"O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?" - Twelfth Night II iii

"Take, O take those lips away" - Measure for Measure IV i

"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!" - Much Ado About Nothing II iii

    The combined choirs gave us The Sparks Fly Upward by Stephen Hatfield, a stunt piece that seemed to be aiming for childlike, but missed and hit adolescent instead. It ran too long. Beau and Kolin were among a group of accompanying percussionists.

    A Cappella Choir is strong this year. Their rendition of Dirait-on, a setting by Morten Lauridsen of text from Rilke's poem of the same name, was powerful, and accurately blended. We also heard Set Me As A Seal, by Rene Clausen, and Alma Llanera, by Pedro Gutierrez, both of which were selections performed by the Rock Valley Honors Choir this year.

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25 OCTOBER 2009:

REFORMATION BRASS

    Sunday 25 October marked the celebration of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, an inquiry into church practices, which he mailed to a friend on Allhallows' Eve, 1517 (the story about Luther nailing them to the door of the Wittenberg church was written nearly thirty years later, by someone who did not live in Wittenberg in 1517.) Luther apparently meant his work to serve as the framework for a scholarly discussion of church doctrine and operations, not as a call to arms for a schsim. But his ideas caught fire, so now we have Protestant jokes, Dead Spreads with jello salad, and Methodists.

    McFarland Lutheran Church supplements their Reformation Sunday services with brass music. This year's ensemble included AITDJB members Frank Ransley, Autumn Leonard, Quinn Leonard, and Jamie Sercombe, under the direction of Glenn Nielsen.

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19 OCTOBER 2009:

FROM RILKE, WITH LOVE

    Anne Nichols, instructress of vocal music at MHS, is not just a talented performer and a highly effective teacher; she's also an exciting and thoughtful concert programmer. On Wednesday 14 October, the small audience attending the Festival Concert of the Rock Valley Conference Honors Choir, which McFarland hosted, was treated to another of her smorgasbords.

    Barry Bakunowicz, Isis Leonard, Beau Peregoy, Ally Schmaling, and Kolin Walker, all members of the AITDJB, were among the singers selected for membership in the Honors Choir. Students from seven local high schools were nominated by their local music faculty, based on talent, ability, attitude, and dedication. Honors Choir members attended a daylong workshop at McFarland, culminating in the 2:00 PM concert. The workshop was taught by Ms Nichols and by Bruce Gladstone, who also served as guest conductor for the concert. Mr Gladstone is Associate Director of Choral Actvities at the UW, conductor of the UW Chorale and of the UW MAdrigal Singers, and teacher of serveral courses relating to vocal performance.

    Here's the program:

Ubi Caritas by Maurice Durufle, a 10th-centurie modal chant reset with contemporary harmonization
Set Me As A Seal, part of Rene Clausen's "A New Creation" cycle
Dirait-on, Rilke's poem set to music by Morten Lauridsen
Alma Llanera, by Pedro Guitierrez, part of a zarzuela of the same name, and so popular in Venezuela that it is considered a second national anthem

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12 OCTOBER 2009:

MARCHING BAND MAKES BIG "M" ON FIELD

    For such a small school, McFarland certainly has a dedicated body of marching band alumni. Friday 9 October was MHS's Homecoming football game, and according to the program, over 100 former Marching Spartans returned to take the field at Lloyd Schneider Stadium. Plenty of AITDJB members were among them: Andrea Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2005 - 2008), Anne Nichols (AITDJB 2005 - 2007, 2009), Becky Schultz (AITDJB 2001 - 2007), Frank Ransley (SB 2003 - 2008, AITDJB 2004 - 2009), Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006), Tonya Neumann (AITDJB 2003 - 2008), and David Michaels (AITDJB 2008).

    The regular Marching Spartans - I mean, those still in High School - opened the pregame show with Hail to the Victors as usual, marching a brief drill that ended by forming a big "M" on the field. Turning about and forming an "E" (for Evansville, the team chosen for us to drub at Homecoming this year), they played Illinois Loyalty: a strange-sounding song, at least to ears tuned our old athletic conference. The arrangement lacked a silly catch-phrase at the end.

    Then the iregulars - or "rapidly aging alumni," as the announced calls them every year - joined the uniformed band. It looked to me as if the regular band was slightly outnumbered by the ir-. Alumni who have marched with the UW Varsity Band stand out starkly, strutting like whooping cranes being treated, only partly sucessfully, with anticonvulsive drugs. And it's pleasantly nostalgic to see a few band members looking like escaped convicts, in their pre-Russia uniforms. The massed bands played I've Got the Music In Me while the High School Dance Team jumped around. I wish we had cheerleaders. Then all the hundreds of Marching Spartans lined up to form a fist-pumping gantlet for the Spartan Footballers to run. The sight was made of cool.

    Halftime was a Blues Brothers cocktail: equal parts I Can't Turn You Loose and Sweet Home Chicago, a dash of Gimmie Some Lovin' shaken and stirred by the Dance Team, and a stiff snort of Boom Boom, finished off with a shot of Everybody Needs Someone To Love. It was strong medicine.

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4 OCTOBER 2009:

PETERSEN IN THE PINK

    This weekend was the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band's last hurrah for 2009. Happily, we closed the season by welcoming a new friend to our ranks: Ben Petersen (bio soon to follow), who joined the MHS music faculty last year as a band director. He's a talented percussionist, a must-see conductor, and a man of boundless energy; we were delighted to have him sit in with us for a few rehearsals this fall. He also joined us for our last stationary performance of the season.

    The AITDJB performed on Saturday night in the Big Top tent at the 25th annual McFarland Family Festival. We were scheduled (I am not making this up) right after the dog races. Ben played mallets and took hot solo turns on I Want A Girl, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and especially Saint James Infirmary. Thank you, Bob Mecum, for this photo of Ben's Pink Bow Tie Moment.

    This year's MHS homecoming theme, "Where the Wild Things Are," presented us with the usual twofold challenge in choosing costumes for our performance on a parade float: to find something that would satisfy Glenn's deep need for pageantry while still leaving it possible for us actually to play our instruments. The solution took the form of animal masks worn on the crowns of our hats (plus a gaudy blue wig for Glenn, to mark him out as different from everybody else). Did we stage our float for Homecoming, or for the Family Festival? To make it a bit less clear, we threw multicolored Mardi Gras bead necklaces to the crowd. Ben Freese, former MHS percussion hotshot and sometime drummer with the Wisconsin Singers, held down the set functions and integrated neatly with the ensemble. Thanks to Arlyn Halvorson for once again providing us with a float wagon, an insured vehicle to tow it, and a driver of stature.

    Left to right in the float image: Glenn Nielsenn, clarinet (in blue wig); Arlyn Halvorson (in McFarland baseball cap); Autumn Leonard, trombone (Winnie-the-Pooh?); the eyes of Frank Ransley, trumpet (tiger); Ally Schmaling, vocalist and beadslinger (no mask, but then singers are always special, aren't they?); Isis Leonard, piano (tiger); Gena Roisum, tenor sax (kitty cat, I think); Ben Freese, drums (Monkey Boy); and Quinn Leonard, tuba (also a Pooh-bear). Roars! Thanks, all, for a great season.

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28 SEPTEMBER 2009:

SATURDAY TWOFER

    Last Saturday was the AITDJB's State Street debut: we blew our own horns from 11:30 until 1:00 on the 30 ON THE SQUARE performance stage. We liked the venue. Scads of relaxed Farmers' Market patrons drifed by; those who cottoned to our music sifted out of the crowd to hang with us. A grey-haired couple danced gracefully, each with one arm around their partner and the other sharing support of their newly-bought live sunflower plant, which nodded its great yellow blossom approvingly above their heads. Little kids jumped around. A guant man stopped by to request a song dedicate to a friend who had passed away. We made music, and it mattered to people.

Beau in motion

    Madison's Amanda Clark Vocal Studio, in which Beau Peregoy, is enrolled, held a fall recital last Saturday at the Capitol Lakes Retirement Center. Beau sang I'll Be Here, from Andrew Lippa's 1999 off-Broadway musical, "The Wild Party". The show is rife with sex, drugs, murder, and vaudeville, but Beau's selection was suitable for mixed audiences. He gave a fine performance, his voice rich and resinous, and his delivery well suited to the slightly larger-than-intimate room. Kudos!

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21 SEPTEMBER 2009:

DIXIE WITH THE ANIMALS

    The weather was beautiful and spirits were high on Sunday afternoon as the AITDJB performed at the Henry Vilas Zoo's annual Zoo Run Run fundraising event. It's a pleasant venue; we hope to be invited back.

    After two hot sets, some banjo music, and a bit of Schoolhouse Rock, the band piled on the (free!) carousel for a group photo. From left to right we have Brad Anderson, Kolin Walker, Frank Ransely, Michael Jaggers, Gena Roisum, Ally Schmaling, Glenn Nielsen, Quinn Leonard, Beau Peregoy, and Isis Leonard. Sara Siegmann is partly visible above Isis' head. Autumn Leonard is present as a bit of hair behind Ally.

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14 SEPTEMBER 2009:

AN "M" BY ANY OTHER NAME

    The Marching Spartans performed their first pregame show of the season Friday night, and they sounded especially good for such an early outing: sure sign of fine marching to come. Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2009, WitR 2005 - 2008) and Michael Jaggers (AITDJB 2009) were on the field; conductors were Ben Petersen, Michelle Naegele (SB 2008), and Brian Vanderbloemen (AITDJB 2005 - 2009).

    Was it especially easy for the Marching Spartans to form a big "W" (for "Whitewater") on the field, since it's nearly an upside-down "M"? And, what's up with the shave-and-a-haircut tattoo at the end of Whitewater High School's cleverly-named school song, The Whitewater High School Song?

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13 SEPTEMBER 2009:

BEN PETERSEN JOINS THE AITDJB

    Ben Petersen, beloved band director at MHS and percussionist extraordinaire, has joined the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band. Ben has been with us for two rehearsals, and will join the band for our performance under the Family Festival Big Top on Saturday 3 October.

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7 SEPTEMBER 2009:

MARCHING BAND IS OFF AND RUNNING

    They're at it again: the Marching Spartans are working up material for their Fall 2009 season.

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31 AUGUST 2009:

IT'S TIME FOR THE DAMN MUSICAL

    Damn Yankees, that is.

    The show is the second in as many years to bring Satan to the MHS stage, and will run November 19, 20, and 21 2009. Beau Peregoy and Ally Schmaling will be in it. And, as I never tire of pointing out, it is the second MHS show in as many years to feature the Prince of Darkness.

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24 AUGUST 2009:

GLENN HITS ONE OUT OF THE PARK

    The McFarland Community Band performed its last concert of the season (the 21st of the New Era) on the evening of Thursday 13 August. The mosquitos stayed away, and the good people of McFarland came: which is right and proper. Here's the program:

The Star-Spangled Banner, arranged by Sousa
Midway March, by John Williams
El Choclo Argentine Tango, by A. G. Villoldo
Suite of Old American Dances: No. 1 (Cake Walk) and No. 5 (Rag), by Robert Russell Bennett
Theme from The Magnificent Seven, by Elmer Bernstein; arr. Roy Phillippe
Festive Overture, by Dmitri Shostakovich
Preslude No. 2, by George Gershwin; arr. John Krance
Images of Ireland, by Brian Balmages
The National Game, by Sousa

    We played the Bennett piece rather well, I thought.

    Members of the AITDJB who have performed with the McFarland Community Band this summer are Eric Adams, Autumn Leonard, Isis Leonard, Quinn Leonard, Glenn Nielsen, Frank Ransley, Gena Roisum, Glenn Nielsenn, and Kolin Walker. Glenn is a Cubs fan (I'd've said a long-suffering Cubs fan, but I'm told that's redundant). For the baseball-themed National Game, he donned a Cubs uniform and emulated his favorite players by swinging at an imaginary ball: That's our Glenn, always the biggest ham in the room.

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17 AUGUST 2009:

IT SMELT LIKE A WINNER

    On Friday 7 August the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band was proud to be the featured entertainment at the KingFest Smelt Fry, a shindig thrown by McFarland's Christ the King Catholic Church.

    Turnout was high despite the nagging rain, and the rain kept people in the tent, where they had no choice but to listen to us. The Smelters were a friendly, appreciative audience, and we hope to be asked to serve them again.

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10 AUGUST 2009:

GOOD TIMES AT THE GAZEBO

    The AITDJB performed its second concert of the season at the Larson Park Gazebo on the evening of Thursday 6 July. We drew a huge audience, by McFarland standards; happy people filled the east side of Larson Park, and the United Church of Christ sold lots of ice cream. A gaggle of girls danced steadily for a whole, frenzied hour.

    Thursday night's performance was marked by two Big Pink Bowtie Moments, as Wally Hansen and Michael Jaggers joined the band for the first time (in public), both on trumpet. Wally was sitting in for Frank Ransley (SB 2003 - 2008, AITDJB 2004 - 2009), who was temporarily out of town. Michael is a rising freshman at MHS, who has had some exciting solo turns with the MSD jazz bands; we listen forward to hearing more from him.

    Between-sets entertainment was provided by Autumn Leonard (AITDJB 2001 - 2009, SB 2001 - 2008), who sang and played the banjo, and by Ally Schmaling (AITDJB 2008 - 2009) and Beau Peregoy (AITDJB 2008 - 2009), who sang to the piano accompaniment of Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008 - 2009, SB 2007 - 2008) and Sara Siegmann (AITDJB 2004 - 2009).

    Autumn gave us Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, When I'm 64, and Still Alive; for extra drama he pulled the old Paganini stunt and broke a string, but kept on playing.

     Beau and Ally sang the classic Schoolhouse Rock pieces Conjunction Junction, Interplanet Janet, and Lollly, Lolly, Lolly (Get Your Adverbs Here), with Autumn as the voice of the huckster. The crowd appeared to be suitbably edified.

    Thanks are due to Kathy Leonard, Mariah Johnsen, and Bob Mecum for these and many other splendid photos. Further thanks to Bob Mecum for his article in the McFarland Thistle, titled "Sundaes on Thursdays Fun Enough to Make a Man Forget Himself - And His Wife".

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3 AUGUST 2009:

ISIS AND GENA TO ENTERTAIN BIGWIGS

Isis Leonard and Gena Roisum have been invited to perform during the Wisconsin State Music Conference, to be held in late October at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison. The conference includes symposia, workshops, and panel discussionsis on all aspects of music performance and instruction, and is the premiere annual meeting of Wisconsin music educators.

Isis and Gena will be performing American Pastoral, a duet for clarinet and violin, which Isis composed. The two friends received a 1 rating at the State Solo & Ensemble festival for their performance of the piece last spring.

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27 JULY 2009:

ISIS STORMS WYSO

Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2009) has successfully auditioned into the Youth Orchestra, the top performance group of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) program. Here's a blurb from the WYSO home page, descriptive of the program:

" Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) was established in 1966 by Professor Marvin Rabin of the University of Wisconsin-Extension Music Department. More than 5000 young musicians from more than 100 communities in southern Wisconsin have participated in WYSO during its 42 years of providing excellence in musical opportunities. WYSO, currently under the artistic direction of James Smith, includes three full orchestras and a string orchestra, a chamber music program, a harp program, a percussion ensemble, and a brass choir program.

The orchestras rehearse on Saturday mornings during the academic year, perform three to four public concerts per season, and tour regionally, nationally and internationally. The Youth Orchestra toured to Eastern Europe in 2005 and has toured to Canada, Japan, Scotland, Spain, France, Colorado, Iowa, and Washington, D.C. in the past.

The WYSO program is a not-for-profit organization, depending upon many diverse constituencies for its financial stability. Students who successfully audition into the WYSO program are assessed a tuition fee that represents only about 30% of the total cost to sponsor a WYSO student musician. Scholarship funds are available for season tuition, private lesson support, and international touring."

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20 JULY 2009:

DIXIE ON THE SQUARE

The Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band performed on the Capitol Square during the Dane County Farmers' Market last Saturday, and this time there were no fences to keep our adoring fans from getting up close and personal. Jerry Hrovat joined us on reeds, and Ally Schmaling debuted her nifty whistling break in Sweet Georgia Brown. Drew Birrenkott had his Pink Bowtie Moment when he performed his first-ever piece with us.

Between-sets entertainment included Ally and Beau, accompanied on piano by Sara Siegmann, performing selections from Schoolhouse Rock, and Autumn Leonard, accompanied on banjo by himself, singing an eclectic mix.

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13 JULY 2009:

MCFARLAND COMMUNITY BAND

Beautiful weather and a lack of trains contributed to an evening's entertainment with the McFarland Community Band last Thursday night.

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6 JULY 2009:

DIXE SOCIAL A REAL BARN-BURNER

    Not literally; that's hyperbole, folks. But audience turnout was great for the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band's first performance of the summer, on July 2 at the Larson Park Gazebo.

    We were pleased as punch to welcome back the lovely and talented Anne Nichols, who did not perform with us in 2008 because she was feeling a bit Muzzy. She and Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008 - 2009, SB 2007 - 2008) split the vocal duties; Kolin debuted Indiana, which Frank has wanted to play for years.

    Glenn was unable to join us, but we sprang Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2009, WitR 2005 - 2008) from the UW's Summer Music Clinic, and she came willingly - that's dedication.

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29 JUNE 2009:

DREW BIRRENKOTT TO JOIN THE AITDJB

    The ninth season of the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band is up and running: by the time you read this, we will have had two rehearsals, and we'll be wondering if we're ready for our first performance on 2 July. Here is the lineup as I know it now:

Frank Ransley, trumpet
Glenn Nielsen, clarinet
Gena Roissum, clarinet and tenor sax
Andrea Bakunowicz, tenor sax
Autumn Leonard, trombone
Quinn Leonard, tuba
Brad Anderson, drums
Eric Adams, drums
Isis Leonard, piano
Kolin Walker, piano and vocals
Anne Nichols, vocals
Ally Schmaling, vocals
Beau Peregoy, vocals

    We are happy to welcome Drew Birrenkott to the band this year; he's a talented trombone player from MHS, who will be spelling Autumn from time to time so that we can all enjoy more banjo. And I hope to see some of our other old friends on stage with us from time to time.

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22 JUNE 2009:

MHS SHIPS OFF ANOTHER BATCH OF SENIORS

Here are some non-Seniors, singing in the choir at the MHS Graduation Ceremony, Saturday 14 June 2009. Note Ally Schmaling.

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15 JUNE 2009:

BRIA WOMANS THE HELM OF THE HIGHLAND ANNUAL

    For the second year running Bria Mason (AITDJB 2002 - 2006, SB 2003) served as the living spirit of the Highland Annual, Edinburgh's "oldest and largest" or "maddest and biggest" ceilidh, depending where you ask.

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8 JUNE 2009:

AITDJB MUSICIANS CHOSEN FOR WSMA HONORS PROGRAM

    Four students from MHS auditioned successfully for the prestigious 2009 Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA) Honors Project. The WSMA Web site says this about the Project:

    "Students selected for the WSMA State Honors Music Project participate in a 3-1/2 day summer camp in June and perform in Madison during late October as part of the Wisconsin State Music Conference. The WSMA State Honors Music Project is nationally recognized as one of the finest opportunities for young people."

    All four MHS musicians are members of the AITDJB. From left to right in the photo above, they are Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008 - 2009, SB 2007 - 2008), WSMA Honors Mixed Choir; Ally Schmaling (AITDJB 2008 - 2009), WSMA Honors Mixed Choir; Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2009, WitR 2005 - 2008), WSMA Honors Band (clarinet); and Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2009), WSMA Honors Orchestra (principal bassoon).

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1 JUNE 2009:

MEMORIAL PARADE

     The Marching Spartans had their last hurrah of the season in the Memorial Day parade on Monday 25 May 2009. They played American Pride, a conglomerate of patriotic tunes.

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Amanda Goes Into The Woods

2006 production at Carleton College

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25 MAY 2009:

LAST IN A SERIES OF FIRSTS

    This has been a year of firsts for the Instrumental Music program at MHS: each performance was the first of its kind in many years to take place without the direction of any of the Big Three. Brian Vanderbloemen, Michelle Naegele, and Ben Petersen - the New Three - are taking the MHS bands along some exciting new paths, without jettisoning the program's rich history.

    Bill Garvey has always been the beating heart of the annual Pep Band concert. The guy bleeds blue and red: he modelled the show after his beloved UW Marching Band's Varsity concert, and many of the music arrangements seem particularly Badgerish. Officially, Bill's employment at MHS ended with the 2007-2008 school year, but his connection certainly didn't. After the hoopla of the 2008 Pep Band concert (a dancing Bucky, cadres of UW horn players in full regalia, a warmly extravagent tribute by Mike Leckrone), it was only fitting that he play a part in this year's show. Bill, Dave Heilmann (about whom more later), and AITDJB member Glenn Nielsen were back in the saddle this year, turning up in the opening video as heroes who save the show from disaster. Brian, Michelle, and Ben are being held captive by an evil clarinet player, you see; the Big Three hold sectional rehearsals, and eventually work the magic that lets the New Three escape so the show can go on.

    Here's the night's program:

Opening Medley:
  Victors / On Wisconsin Fanfare
  Victors
  Hot Time in the Old Town

SB Percussion Ensemble: Chameleon

Rock Medley I:
  You Really Got Me
  Rock and Roll Part 2
  24 or 6 to 4

WE Percussion Ensemble: Pire

Pep Band Favorites I:
  Disney Magic
  Blister in the Sun
  Sha-BOOM
  Pirates of the Caribbean

SB/CB Jazz Band: Gospel John

CB Percussion Ensemble: Big Yellow Mambo

Pep Band Favorites II:
  Macho Man
  Hey Baby
  Thriller

Percussion Ensemble: Short Circuit

Rock Medley II:
  The Magnificent Seven
  Watermelon Man
  Crazy Train

  Land of a Thousand Dances

Marching Band Show:
  20th Century Fox Fanfare
  Theme from Star Wars
  Theme from E. T.
  Theme from Jurassic Park
  Raiders of the Lost Ark march

2009 Marching Preview:
  Can't Turn You Loose
  Gimme Some Lovin'
  Gospel John

Senior Medley:
  Apache
  Final Countdown
  Beer Barrel Polka

Closing Medley:
  Finally Victors
  You've Said It All

    Bill conducted Pep Band Favorites II. Mr. P. himself took some solo turns on mallets with the percussion ensembles, and the man was on fire - I hope to hear more of him. The Band Video, assembled this year by Drew Birrenkott, seemed entertaining; unfortunately the sound quality was too low for the audience to hear much of what was going on. But the live material was as good as ever. This year's show was shorter than usual, due partly to having each jazz band perform only one piece, but mostly because there were no acts included from Cabaret. That crossover added spice and variety, but is a

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MHS Cabaret 2004

Tonya, Mitch, Autumn

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18 MAY 2009:

MHS CABARET 2009: A SPARTAN'S STORY

     What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play!

    But no: if you weren't in the MHS Aud on the evening of Saturday 16 May, you've missed your chance, and the more fool you. The MHS instrumental music department has its Pep Band concert, and vocal music has Cabaret; Cabaret 2009: A Spartan's Story was full of good things, including, for the first time I can remember, a story arc. Ally Schmaling (AITDJB 2008 - 2009) wrote the script. Here are some highlights:

• Drift Away and Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours were brought to us by the 2009 MHS Blue Notes, including Ally, Beau Peregoy (AITDJB 2008 - 2009), and Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008 - 2009, SB 2007 - 2008). Drift Away must be one of the most covered songs ever, and though it often appears as a closer, it was a great choice as an opening piece for tonight's show, semi-medleyed with Signed, Sealed, etc. in an arrangement by Deke Sharon. Sam Siegmann, Kolin, Brittney Leemon, Ben DuCharme, and the amazing Heather Traska had solos.


• Ally and Ben Psyk were charming and connected, singing Jason Mraz's Lucky.




Kittens at Cab

• In the evening's standout solo performance, Heather Traska sang I Have Nothing to piano accompaniment by Kolin. Ms. Traska's parsing was intelligent, and her delivery astonishingly emotive and powerful.


• The Kitten's Mittens (the guy subgroup of Blue Notes) gave us Coldplay's Viva la Vida in an arrangement by Jason Rush; Kolin deftly handled the vocal percussion line.
  
  
• Alyssa Gray sang Christina Aguilera's Impossible solo with wonderful, smoky blues flair.




• Responsibilities were divided in the stage-filling "A Spartan's Story" montage. Elder choir members sang Mancini's Pink Panther theme, the young 'uns did Be True To Your School, the girls performed It's Raining Men, and so forth. Other numbers included Holding Out for a Hero, the Hot Lunch Jam from Fame (Ben Psyk's pure, expressive tenor was well fitted to his solo turn), Go the Distance from Disney's Hercules film, and something called For Good. The ubiquitous MHS chicken costume made an appearance during Hot Lunch Jam, wielding a SAY NO TO NUGGETS protest sign. Ally and Beau (!) showed off their mad lunch-lady skills amid general madness. Sam Siegmann was appealing as a somewhat aggressive banana.


• This year's aging-out sequence was set to Farewell to Farwell, written by the 2005 Music Theory class, and sung to the Seniors by the lower grades.

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Some members of the 2007 AITDJB

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13 MAY 2009:

BAKUNOWICZ NICKS BOTH BAND AWARDS

     Well no, not really: That makes it sound as though he stole them; in fact he won them fair and square.

     On Wednesday night, Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006) became the first MHS student since - well, maybe since ever - to win both the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award and the John Philip Sousa band award. The image at right shows director Ben Petersen congratulating Nick for his double dip, and for the other awards he won at WSMA festivals this year. (Note that Petersen appears blurred even when he is, technically, not moving. This is due to motion caused by zero-point energy. Get Doc Campbell to explain it to you.)

     Other members of the AITDJB raked in piles of hardware, too. Here is Kolin Walker, who has just received his loot, hugging Resident Goddess Anne Nichols while Isis Leonard, Beau Peregoy, Gena Roisum and Ally Schmaling look on; all are sometime members of the band.

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

MHS cast, 2006

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11 MAY 2009:

PHILHARMONIA IN PARIS

     Last weekend saw the final concerts of the 2008-2009 WYSO season, and the Philharmonia Orchestra gave us a feast of sulubrious lollipops. Every piece was a sure-fire, double-action crowd pleaser, and the marks sure ate it up. But fluff is alien to conductor Thomas Buchhauser's constitution, and there was none in this program.

     Phil's performance of George Gershwin's An American In Paris, in the form of a suite arranged by John Whitney, was brash, lush, and lovely, and performed with evident joy.

     The first movement of Mendelssohn's G minor piano concerto, Molto allegro con fuoco, opens with a spate of chromatic chords from the orchestra. These are taken up by the piano almost at once, contrary to the practice of the times; usually, the orchestra was a fuller partner in a double exposition of themes. The piano lets the opening theme take flight as it will, for a while, eventually gentling it to a singing second theme; the two themes wax rhapsodic in oboes and upper strings, until the combination becomes, somehow, a fanfare in a major key. Ariela Bohorod was the charming, exuberant, and brilliant pianist. (Have you noticed that half the young women in Phil are named after goddesses, spirits, or angels?) A side note: Hector Berlioz claimed to know of a piano upon which this concerto had been played so many times that the instrument took up playing it by itself, and would not stop until it was chopped into pieces and burned.

     Local composer and bassoonist Pierre LaPlante was in the audience for the premiere performance of the orchestral version of his Prairie Songs. Parts of the piece are better suited to strings than to saxophones.

     The finale of Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th Symphony is terse and obsessive. It put me in mind of Mahler's first symphony, but I think Isis does not agree with me.

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Solstice Brass 2005

L to R: Frank Ransley, Sherry Wegner, Autumn Leonard, Quinn Leonard

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4 MAY 2009:

ONCE MORE WITH FEELING

     Diana Popowycz is a force of nature, the kind of woman who does half a dozen things at once all day, every day - and all well. Her enterprise infects her violin students - of whom Isis is one, so that the annual recitals she holds with other local Suzuki-method instructors are always a delight. This year's event was held on Sunday 3 May 2009 in the excellent theater at the Oakwood Village retirement community in Madison. Diana asked Isis and Kolin to come perform the Dvorak Sonatina for Piano and Violin they had prepared for the WSMA festivals.

     It was wonderful to have one more chance to hear them perform the piece. They gave perhaps their most nuanced interpretation yet - it helped that Kolin had an excellent piano, for once. I made a pretty-good recording, which will appear here eventually.

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The 2003 McFarland Community Band

Brad Anderson and Steve Thorson are visible

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29 APRIL 2009:

THEY'RE ALL PIRATES

     Wednesday night's Spring band concert at MHS ended with a Pirates of the Caribbean video tribute and a first-of-its-kind announcement about the annual band awards. I've lifted some of the better program notes written by the students:

CONCERT BAND:

Seacliffe Overture, by Jim Curnow

"Seacliffe Overture sounds like the majestic theme song of a salty old fisherman who carries a harpoon and has a gray beard and wears a yellow raincoat with a matching bucket hat." - Ruby Rugland

Night Dances, by Bruce Yurko

"At the beginning of Night Dances I always get the heebie-jeebies. The percussion makes it sound really eerie but, at the end, it's totally the opposite." Gabriela Cristobal

Cajun Folk Songs, by Frank Tichelli

I. La Belle et le Capitaine
II. Belle

"The first movement is slow and sultry. It then bursts into the second movement that is spicy like Cajun food! Listen for the grand pause at the end. It is really cool!" - Bridget Schwefel

SYMPNONIC BAND

Cenotaph, by Jack Stamp. We just heard this fanfare at Badger Honors Band; and wasn't it a WSMA honors piece a few years back, too?

Mazama, by Jay Chattaway

Irish Trilogy (Reel, Ayre, and Jig), by Larry Daehn

WIND ENSEMBLE, featuring Isis and Gena:

Symphonic Dance #3: Fiesta, by Clifton Williams

"Symphonic Dance is evocative of the romance of Spain. The uses of rubato, multi-meter, and Spanish triplets all make this piece complex and absorbing" - Isis Leonard

Puszta, by Jan Van der Roost

"The three gypsy dances truly bring the listener into a different culture." - Ben Stoffel-Rosales

Abram's Pursuit, by David Holsinger

"This fast-moving dynamic arrangement is one of my favorite pieces to play due to the moving triplets and the constant intensity of the piece." - Michelle Johnsen

Pirates of the Caribbean Symphonic Suite; music by Klaus Badlet, arr. Wasson

"It is sometimes mournful-sounding and tranquil; at other times, intensely energetic." - Gena Roisum

This piece was coordinated with a montage of sequences from the three Pirates movies. The video project was worked up by Drew Birrenkott, and was admirably fitted and synchronized.

     Oh, and the unique announcement? Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006) won both the John Philip Sousa and the Louis Armstrong band awards - a double whammy I can't recall happening before. I'll check the plaques in the band room and get back to you.

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Wind in the Reeds 2006, at the McBank

L to R: Nora Hickey, Gena Roisum, Isis Leonard

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27 APRIL 2009:

STATE OF THE ART

     Have you noticed that the kids in the McFarland music programs actually seem to like each other?

     The annual WSMA State Solo and Ensemble Festival at Whitewater is one of my favorite days in the musical year, and only partly because my own children get to strut their stuff. Members of the AITDJB, the Solstice Brass, and the Wind in the Reeds are always on prominent display; for a full list of who did what, click here. But all the McFarland musicians who go to State do well, and most exemplify the finest qualities of professionalism, courtesy, talent ripened by diligence, and simple joy in their art. Having, myself, no skill that can be pressed into service as an accompanist, I am free from care on that day. I get to roam the halls listening to music. It is a great pleasure.

     No small part of the pleasure comes from watching the support MHS students give each other. They turn out in droves to listen to each others' performances - and they wouldn't need to, you know. It's a big campus; schedules are tight; and with the pressure they're under, the musicians could be excused if they spent the time before their performances getting into the Zone, and the time after at the Double Dip Deli. But they enjoy appreciating each other, in a camaraderie that cuts across musical disciplines and friendship cliques. These musicians are the best ambassadors we can send to the world.

     And they have some excellent role models. The McFarland music faculty went to hear many of the students perform - not only their own students, in events they had coached, but again: across disciplines. It matters to the students that the music teachers show that the performance matter to them. Kudos to Anne Nichols (AITDJB 2005 - 2007) Brian Vanderbloemen (AITDJB 2005 - 2008) Michelle Naegele (SB 2008), and Ben Petersen for a job well done.

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The 2005 MHS Instrumental Music Awards

L to R: Dave Heilmann;
Becky Schultz and Autumn Leonard (John Phillip Sousa award);
Brad Anderson (Louis Armstrong award); Bill Garvey

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20 APRIL 2009:

WHEN THE BLUES MAKE YOU HAPPY

     McFarland boasts no finer performing groups than Anne Nichols' Blue Notes Vocal Jazz Ensemble and MHS' Early Bird jazz band; when their feeder groups and subsets join them on stage, the results are magical.

    The flavor of instrumental jazz at MHS is somewhat changed since Dave Heilmann and Bill Garvey retired. But if there is a bit less funk on the menu, that just means that the program gets to visit some other places on the jazz roadmap. The third annual Blues in the Night, held in the transmogrified IMMS Cafetorium on the evening of 18 April 2009, had a heady mix of styles on tap.

     The Early Bird Jazz Ensemble has spent a couple of years regenerating from the loss of talented Senior classes. Now it is velvet-wrapped dynamite again. Here's what the band gave us Saturday night, under the direction of Ben Petersen:

- Dry Roasted, by Mark Taylor: a swing arrangement that tips its hat to Count Basie, and showcases the saxophones. A fine tenor sax solo by Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2008, WitR 2005 - 2008) was placed (a bit oddly, I thought) after the guitar break, but the last slot in the lineup is a good one for the strongest performer. Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008, SB 2007 - 2008) got plenty of nifty piano fills, too.

- High Impact, by Robert Woods: a Latin/rock (or maybe rock/Latin) trumpet spectacular, which made good use of Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006)

- Sing, Sing, Sing by Louis Prima; Gena had a clarinet solo here
The Mooche, by Duke Ellington; not sure who arranged it but it's a lot like the Jazz at Lincoln Center version. Gena, Nick, and Drew reprised their excellent solos from the February 2009 Jazz Concert

- The Peter Gunn theme, by Henry Mancini; arr. Jennings

     Other notable Early Bird soloists were Jackson Meyer (alto sax), Jeff White (guitar), Drew Birrenkott (trombone), Alexander Brown (alto sax) naturally, and of course the always-amazing Brian Barr on electric bass.

     Good whiskey gets smoother as the years roll by, and so, incredibly, do the Blue Notes. They sang the pieces they are taking to State this year: The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Fugue in C minor by J. S. Bach via the Swingle Singers. The first was heartfelt and warm; the second was detached and cool, cool, cool. Kolin Walker was the group's spokesman and guest conductor!

     Ditching the gals, the Blue Notes guys then reconstituted themselves as the Kitten's Mittens (get it? - not the Cat's Pajamas, but close) to sing two songs stag. Mark James' Hooked On A Feeling originally had an electric sitar and no chanting cavemen, but when Jonathan King recorded it in 1971 he added the obsessive OO-ga cha-ka OO-ga cha-ka OO-ga OO-ga OO-ga cha-ka that we all know and love, and that's the way the Mittens sang it. Sam Siegmann was especially fine, his voice laden with sobs as he took a solo turn on the Girl, you just don't realize what you do to me verse. Beau Peregoy (AITDJB 2008) got in a good solo cut, too. Ben DuCharme did his typically Charming vocal percussion riff. For their rendition of Coldplay's Viva La Vita, the Mittens used real percussion, in the form of Kolin thwacking a floor tom; he also conducted. Alex Walker had some great high flights in this piece.

     Michelle Naegele (SB 2008) led the McFarland High School Concert/Symphonic Band Jazz Ensemble's set. (Have I commented often enough on how clunky, how wretched, how utterly unsuitable that name is? Yes? OK, I'll refrain.)

Broadway
Good Time Blues
Gospel John
Watermelon Man
Cabeza de Qeso, by Fred Sturm. This piece was commissioned for the 2007 WSMA Honors Jazz Ensemble, and is one of my favorites. It starts sweet, and eventually becomes a samba. The piano holds it together - thank Cole for Leif Larson.

    Fine work by Tanner Rasmussen and Barry Bakunowicz on alto sax, and James Hickey on tenor! But alas: alackaday: my dream of seeing Michelle in a cheesehead hat remains unfulfilled.

     The Eighth Grade Jazz Ensemble, under Michelle's direction, had a wonderful set:

Hang On Sloopy
Swing Shift
'Tater Patch, a swing piece by Sammy Nestico
Free Your Mind, a rock chart
Please Don't Climb on the Iguana - funky

     I was pleased to hear a fine trumpet solo by Michael Jaggers.

     The Seventh Grade Jazz Ensemble performed the Swingin' Shepherd Blues, with Michelle on piano, Brian Vanderbloemen (AITDJB 2005 - 2008) on trumpet, and Ben Petersen on set.


Photos courtesy of Kathleen Osten

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Dance, nosh, play

Happy people at the 2009 Blues in the Night
(Photo by Kathleen Osten)

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13 APRIL 2009:

EASTER AT MCFARLAND LUTHERAN CHURCH

     Glenn Nielsen (AITDJB 2001 - 2008), Music Director for McFarland Lutheran Church, likes to have brass perform at Easter; and why not? This year he fielded a six-member ensemble: a tuba, two trombones (Quinn and Autumn), and three trumpets (Frank, among others.) We performed:

- Jesus Christ is Risen Today, reading from the SATB version in the Red Lutheran Book of Worship;
- Christ is Risen, Alleluia, in a setting for brass and mixed choir, and
- Thine Is the Glory, as a postlude.

     The little photo above is a banner image lifted from the Church's Web page, and seems to date from 2008; interested parties may note Autumn's hair, bobbed for his appearance in the film Public Enemies.

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AITDJB Float in the 2008 Homecoming Parade

L to R: Quinn Leonard, Ally Schmaling,
Beau Peregoy, Brad Anderson, Gena Roisum

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6 APRIL 2009:

MHS CABARET LINEUP REVEALED

1. Drift Away/Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Blue Notes
2. Fur Elise - Bethany Ester
3. Lucky - Ally Schmaling & Ben Psyk
4. Finding Solace - Shauna Lisse
5. Who Says You Can’t Go Home - Melanie & Keaton Williams
6. Farwell Street Boogie - Jake Barleen
7. I Have Nothing - Heather Traska & Kolin Walker
8. Tribute to Moms & Dads - Emily Stocks & Mikey Flaherty
9. Viva la Vida - Kitten’s Mittens
10. Survivor - Emily Stocks
11. Anyone Else But You - Aleesha Kozar & Sam Siegmann
12. Rock n Roll - Kyle Kubicek
13. Hallelujah - Shauna Lisse & Melanie Williams
14. Impossible - Alyssa Gray
15. A Spartan’s Story

- Pink Panther
- Be True To Your School
- Raining Men
- Holding Out
- Hot Lunch
- Go the Distance
- For Good

16. Presentation of National Choir Award

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"Up a Fifth" at MHS Cabaret 2005

Featuring Zach Staszewski!

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30 MARCH 2009:

LOS GRINGOS LOCOS

     On an evening in February, a group of guys gathered to make sounds at The Pub on State Street. They were (from left to right in the photo) Alex Hartzman, Autumn Leonard, Martin Barrett, and Nicklaus Reichel; the lips and nose of an adoring female fan can be seen at far right. Together they are Los Gringos Locos, providing song sets that are a mixture of covers from Radiohead to Journey, with a lot of original material folded in. Energy was high.

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McFarland Family Festival 2004

Amanda and Quinn

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23 MARCH 2009:

A LITTLE FESTIVAL MUSIC

    Sometimes less is more may be a tired truism, nowadays trotted out mostly by do-funny "artists" trying to justify such aberrations as Mondrian or Reinhardt; but on the evening of Thursday 19 March it could have stood as apt praise for the delightful concert given at MHS. This is the time of year when the vocal and instrumental music departments showcase performances that have earned the right to advance to the WSMA State Solo and Ensemble Festival. Both programs present concerts featuring a pleasant mix of solos, ensembles, and longer works by the full groups - what a wonderful way to spend an evening! The instrumental solos and ensembles at Thursday's concert were excellent. Here's the program for the full bands:

Concert Band

Rough Riders by King; watered down by Swearingen
The Hive, a "directional tango" by Erik Morales, and a real treat

Symphonic Band

Henry Fillmore's immortal Lassus Trombone;
Different Voices, by Rick Kirby. This is a stunt piece, in which the performers whisper, stamp their feet, crow their reeds, fart their trombones, and make other noises bands generally do not make. This piece is a good illustration of why they do not.

Wind Ensemble

Solas Ane by Sammy Hazo
Malcolm Arnold's lovely Prelude, Siciliano, and Rondo

Among the memorable small-group performances:

Encore in Jazz for percussion ensemble, by Vic Firth;
Die Bankelsangerlieder, arranged by King and performed by a brass quintet featuring Nick Bakunowicz on trumpet;
Ralph Vaughn Williams' Folksongs from Somerset, arranged for woodwind ensemble by Gardner;
American Pastoral, written by Isis Leonard as a birthday present to Gena Roisum, performed by Isis and Gena on violin and clarinet, respectively;
Pire for percussion ensemble, by Roland Vazquez, in a performance featuring Kolin Walker on piano; and
F. W. Meacham's rousing American Patrol, in Paynter's spritely arrangement for marimba, performed by Ben DuCharme and Matt Rush

My best wishes go pit to all these performers as they prepare to hit Whitewater for the State festival in April.

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One of the U-Bands in October 2005

(Autumn is in there somewhere)

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16 MARCH 2009:

IT SURE TAKES A LOT OF PIANOS

     Saturday 14 March 2009 was the WSMA District Solo and Ensemble Festival, held at good 'ol MHS. Kudos to everyone from the District who made the day successful; and especially to the music faculty: Anne Nichols (AITDJB 2005 - 2007), Brian Vanderbloemen (AITDJB 2005 - 2008), Michelle Naegele (SB 2008), and Ben Petersen.

Members of our performance groups were well represented, as always; if I miss anybody in the list below, please just figure I was overwhelmed by the quantity of quality. Here's who did what:

Ally Schmaling: (AITDJB 2008)

1* Alto Solo: Voi che sapete from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro
1* Musical Theater: 1* Don't Rain on My Parade from Merrill & Styne's Funny Girl
1* SATB Quartet (including Beau): Kyrie Eleison from Mozart's Missa Brevis
1* SSA Triple Trio: Two (of Three) Spanish Ballads by butler; 1*
Mixed Vocal Jazz Ensemble (Blue Notes, including Beau and Kolin): The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Fugue in C minor by J. S. Bach, as arranged by the Swingle Singers

Beau Peregoy: (AITDJB 2008)

1*Vocal Duet: Now With Rejoicing and Laughter by J. S. Bach
1*Musical Theater: I Am the Very Model, from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance
1* Mixed Vocal Jazz Ensemble (Blue Notes, including Ally and Kolin): The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Fugue in C minor by J. S. Bach, as arranged by the Swingle Singers;
1* SATB Quartet (including Ally): Kyrie Eleison from Mozart's Missa Brevis

Becca Funk (WitR 2003 - 2007): Saxophone Choir

Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2008, WitR 2005 - 2008):

1* Clarinet Choir: the Rondo from Mozart's Diverimento in B flat Major
1* Clarinet Solo: Concertino for Clarinet by von Weber
1* Miscellaneous Duet (clarinet, with Isis on violin): American Pastoral by Isis Leonard

Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2008):

C/O Bassoon Solo: Andante e Rondo ongarese by Carl Maria von Weber
1* Violin Solo: Czardas by Monti
1* Violin and Piano Duet (with Kolin): Sonatina in G by Dvorak
1* Miscellaneous Duet (violin, with Gena on clarinet): American Pastoral by Isis Leonard

Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008, SB 2007 - 2008):

1* Violin and Piano Duet (with Isis): Sonatina in G by Dvorak
1* Musical Theater: Luck Be A Lady from Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls
1* Vocal Solo: O Del Mio Dolce Ardor by Gluck
1* Vocal Duet: Pie Jesu from Webber's Requiem 1* Misc Percussion Ensemble: Pire by Vazquez
1* Mixed Vocal Jazz Ensemble (Blue Notes, including Ally and Beau): The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Fugue in C minor by J. S. Bach, as arranged by the Swingle Singers; 1*

Maia Perez (WitR 2008): Oboe solo

Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006)

1* Brass Quintet: Die Bankelsangerlieder arranged by Carl King

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MHS Band Concert, 10 December 2008

Ben Petersen in motion

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9 MARCH 2009:

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT PHILHARMONIA

    On the evening of Sunday 7 March 2009, the WYSO Philharmonia Orchestra gave a characteristically brilliant performance in UW's Mills Hall. Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2008) and Maia Perez (WitR 2008) lent their stellar talents to the show.

    Phil members wrote the program notes, to which I could add but little in grace or charm. Here then, as follows:

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Franz von Suppé (1819-1895): Light Cavalry Overture
Program notes by Rongjie Lu, Violin

    Francesco Ezechiele Ermenegildo Cavaliere Suppé Demelli, who later simplified his name to Franz Von Suppé, was a 19th century composer who contributed many stage pieces such as operas and ballets during his time. Though most of his work ceased to appear on the stage after first appearance, two of his overtures, Light Calvary and Poet and Peasant, did survive to modem day. Light Calvary, first performed in March of 1866, was perhaps Suppé’s most famous work. It has reappeared in concerts of many famous orchestras around the globe since then.

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Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Swan Lake Suite
Program notes by Alice Zhang, Violin

    Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake in 1875 after a request from Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, the director of the Russian Imperial Theatres. Tchaikovsky had a very large part in the storyline of the ballet. In the ballet, Prince Siegfried, the heir to the kingdom, must choose a wife during his birthday ball. He falls in love with Princess Odette, who has been cursed by an evil sorcerer to take a swan form by day and a human form by night. The pair must then overcome the schemes of the sorcerer in order to be together.
    During the first year of productions, the ballet was quite unpopular. The music was criticized for being too hard to dance to while the original ballet was criticized for being extremely dry and unoriginal. It was only after a revision by the choreographers, Petipa and Ivanov, that Swan Lake became much more successful. Unfortunately, this was done after Tchaikovsky’s death. Much of what we know today comes from the revision of Petipa and Ivanov.

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Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Sea Songs
Program notes by Heath Hill, Clarinet

    Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney, England. Mr. Vaughan Williams went to Trinity College, Cambridge. Afterwards, he was a student of Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music. He later studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.
    At the turn of the century, he was one of the first to travel to the countryside and collect folk-songs and carols from singers, putting them on paper for future generations to enjoy. Mr. Vaughan Williams composed many hymns that are now worldwide favorites, such as For All the Saints and Come Down 0 Love Divine. He also helped to edit the Oxford Book of Carols with similar success.
    There were hardly any genres of music that failed to be enriched by Vaughan Williams. His works include nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music, and works for chorus and orchestra. The first performance of Sea Songs was at Wembley in 1924. It was originally arranged by Mr. Vaughan Williams for brass and military band. In 1942, he created the version for full orchestra.

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Englebert f{Humperdinck (1854-1921): Hansel and Gretel
Program notes by Hannah Silber, Viola

    In Act I, Scene 2 where the orchestra will begin in the piece tonight, Hansel and Gretel have just been visited by the Sandman who sprinkles them with sand to help them sleep. The two children sing their evening prayer as the angels descend around them. The scene that is created by Humperdinck’s music is angelic and ominous all at once. Composer Englebert Humperdinck was born in Germany in 1854 and composed his first piece when he was seven years old. In the 1 890s, his sister, Adelheid Wette, wrote a libretto (a text of dramatic musical work) based on the Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, and asked her brother to write music to it to entertain her children at Christmas, music that would later be among his most famous compositions. The completed Hansel and Gretel was completed and presented to Hedwig Taxer, his fiancé, as an engagement gift. Humperdinck suffered a stroke in 1912 that paralyzed his left hand permanently and he later died in 1921 from a heart attack. In memory of his musical accomplishments, the Berlin State Opera performed Hansel and Gretel, an opera still regarded as a worldwide favorite.

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Jean Sibelius (1865-1975) Symphony #2
Program notes by Robert Harlow, Percussion

    Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer born to a Swedish family on December 8, 1865. Finland, long a part of the kingdom of the Swedes, passed to Russian control after the Finnish War of 1809. Sibelius began his higher education as a law major, but switched to music composition and went on to study in Germany, Austria, and Italy, where, in 1900, he began work on his 2’” Symphony. Today, the 2 Symphony is the most famous of his works and most identifiable with Finnish Nationalism, a cause with which Sibelius is, himself, identified as the “National Composer of Finland.” It is unclear if Sibelius intended a patriotic message in his 2 Symphony, but it was received as a strong reassurance to the Finnish people in an ongoing time of foreign rule. With the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Finnish people gained sovereignty in the form of a democratic republic that still exists today. Sibelius’s work was undoubtedly transformative — he broke with and progressed traditional structure, experimented with new tonalities, and developed a characteristic style of orchestration that is dismissed by some as crude but praised by others as characteristically Finnish in depicting the country’s beautiful, rugged landscape.

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Into The Woods

Rendered by Sara

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2 MARCH 2009:

REBECCA SCHULTZ, OBOE VIRTUOSA

. . . we will listen to a simple tale
Of fireside pleasures and of shepherds' loves.
A reedy voice, sweet as the nightingale,
As tender as the cooing of the doves,
Shall sing of Corydon and Amaryllis;
The grasshopper shall chirp, the bee shall hum,
The stream shall murmur to the waterlilies,
And all the sounds of summer-noon shall come,
And, mingling in the Oboe's pastoral tone,
Make thee forget that man did ever sigh and moan.

     So wrote a contributer to Dwight's Journal of Music in 1853, and surely the inspiration for the verse must have been a performance like the one given by Becky Schultz in her senior recital, held on the evening of 27 February 2009 in UW-Stevens Point's Michelsen Recital Hall. But both her playing and her selection of music went far beyond the murmur of streams.

     Becky is an oboist of great dexterity and clarity, bringing grace to everything she performs. She is pursuing a degree in Music Education at UW-SP, where she is, or has been, principal oboist in every orchestra or band worth mentioning; she also performs with smaller ensembles and unique productions involving (for example) theremins. She was a founding member of the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band, in which she played piano from 2001 - 2007. I have also been fortunate enough to perform with her several summers in the McFarland Community Band. She is a talented and passionate musician, and is sure to make a fine teacher.

     She was joined in her recital by Michelle Zajicek, flutist. Here's the program:

Sonata "Undine" op. 167 by Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)

I. Allegro
II. Intermezzo
III. Andante Tranquillo
IV. Finale

Michelle Zajicek, flute
Stephen Radtke, piano

Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

I. Elegie
II. Scherzo
III. Deploration

Rebecca Schultz, oboe
Shannon Connors, piano

Sonata No. 4 in D minor (La Lumague) by Michel Blavet (1700-1768)

I. Adagio
II. Allemanda
III. Siciliana
IV. Presto
V. Le Lutin

Michelle Zajicek, flute
Stephen Radtke, piano

Bagatelles, Op. 19 by Femand Canon

I. Melopee
II. Scherzettino
III. Tarentelle

Michelle Zajicek, flute
Rebecca Schultz, oboe
Rachael Streich, clarinet

Density 21.5 by Edgard Varese (1883-1965)

Michelle Zajicek, flute

Grande Fantaisie Concertante by Charles Cohn (1832-1881)

Michelle Zajicek, flute
Rebecca Schultz, oboe
Cassandra Lemens, piano

     The three movements of Poulenc's Sonata are arranged in the order slow-fast-slow, reversing the more usual sequence of the form. If the opening movement is an elegy, it is an angry one. A lovely melody that puts one in mind of the oboe's pastoral associations, and gives Becky a chance to show us her consummate lyricism, soon gives way to slow rage in a minor key: Do not go gentle into that good night, transcribed as music. The second movement (which seemed to me, in my ignorance of oboes, to be very demanding technically; Becky of course played it flawlessly) starts as a smoothly-running machine run by a slightly deranged operator: bars in 9 are jammed among bars in 6, phrases sometimes end earlier or later than we expect, and blocks of arpeggios are cyclic yet uneven. We get a brief reprieve in the middle, from another hauntingly beautiful melody, and then the frantic machine starts up again and runs until it explodes, ending the movement. The final movement carries a tightly-composed melody that initially does not stray from the instrument's highest register. It encompasses extremes of dynamics - which Becky brought out superbly - as well as shifts from major to minor. But here the feeling is one not of madness, but of grief. Like the first movement, the third ends on a long sustained tone, gradually dying away. The harmonies do not resolve.

     Femand Canon is a composer unknown to me, but the Bagatelles were a delight, especially the Scherzettino. As for the Grand Fantasy: this may be a cop-out, but I'll need to hear it again before I can comment on it even semi-intelligently. Becky's father had a camcorder at the recital, so my hopes are high.

     Some flute notes for the curious: The density of platinum is about 21.5 g/cc; the connection has something to do with the composer's friend owning a platinum-plated flute. "Undines" are beautiful, immortal water nymphs from central European mythology. If they fall in love with a mortal man, and bear his child, they become mortal. Some of them apparently desire this, although judging by the violence of some of the stories, the bit about falling in love appears to be optional. In any case Ms. Zajicek performed Reineke's sonata with marvelous fluidity.

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The 2008 Marching Spartans

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24 FEBRUARY 2009:

ISIS & MAIA DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE

     The River Arts Center in Prairie du Sac rang with power of Sibelius and the allusiveness of Humperdinck on the evening of 24 February 2009, as the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras' (WYSO) Philharmonia Orchestra wrapped up their 2009 concert tour with a well-attended public performance. The WYSO orchestras are Wisconsin's ambassadors of symphonic music, reaching young people around the world; this year's Phil tour also included performances for students at Reedsburg and Prairie du Sac.

Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2008), principal bassoon, Maia Perez (WitR 2008), oboe, and Leif Larson, percussion, were among the members of the prestigious, audition-only orchestra; Maia and Isis gave us some especially fine double-reed moments in the Sibelius piece.

Here's the evening's program:

Light Cavalry Overture, by Franz von Suppe
Swan Lake Suite, by Piotr Tchaikovsky:

Scene
Valse
Dance of the Swans
Czardas

March from Sea Songs: traditional; arranged by Ralph Vaughn Williams
Evening Prayer and Dream Pantomime from Hansel and Gretl, by Englebert Humperdinck
Finale: Allegro moderato, from Jean Sibelius' second symphony

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Isis Leonard, Maia Perez, Leif Larson

WYSO Philharmonia Orchestra Tour
Prairie du Sac River Arts Center
23 February 2009

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23 FEBRUARY 2009:

GENA AND KOLIN BURN DOWN THE JAZZ STAGE

     The Evening of Jazz program performed in the MHS aud on 23 February 2009 showed some great results, and even more promise. Indian Mound Middle School fields only an eighth grade jazz band this year, and a small one at that. But they were enthusiastic, and are working at their craft. Trumpeter player Michael Jaggers blew with a fine solid tone and is a lad who bears watching. Conductor Michelle Naegele (SB 2008) got a lot of mileage out of these kids.

     The McFarland High School Concert Band / Symphonic Band Jazz Ensemble really, really needs a new name. They did a nice job with some difficult charts, and showed lots of spirit on the Fred Sturm work specially chosen for them by Michelle. Kudos to Leif Larson for giving everyone stone-solid tempos to lock onto, and for clever fills.

     The Early Bird Jazz Band sounded as good as I've ever heard them. Noteworthy solos: Samantha Bussan on flute in Dry Roasted; Drew Birrenkott, who played his trombone to the rafters; Mariah Johnsen, also on trombone; and an explosive Brian Barr on bass. Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006) had a fantastic, dirty, cupped trumpet solo in The Mooche and another cleaner (but no less entertaining) one in the Peter Gunn theme. Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008, SB 2007 - 2008) was bright and peppery at the piano, especially for his solo turn in Nutville.

     Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007 - 2008, WitR 2005 - 2008) was the belle of the ball; her clarinet solo in The Mooche defies my hyperbolic powers of description. It hung mostly in the low register (the "chalumeau" range, named after a separate instrument that used to be made for playing notes that early clarinets couldn't), so rich and dark we could taste it in the air. Gena was way, way down in the groove on this one: It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. After the last purr floated away she shifted to a higher range, and played a neat little duet of communication with Drew Birrenkott's trombone. I hope V recorded this concert.

Here's the evening's program:

IMMS 8th Grade Jazz Ensemble:

Hang On Sloopy, by Farrell & Russel; arr. Knight & Nowak
Don't Step on the Iguana, by Dean Sorenson

MHS C/S Jazz Ensemble:

Strike Up the Band, by George Gershwin; arr. Nestico
Zoot Suit Riot, by Perry; arr. Murtha
Cabeza de Queso, by Fred Sturm

MHS Early Bird Jazz Band:

Dry Roasted, by Mark Taylor
Nutville, by Horace Silver, arr. Kidd
The Mooche, by Duke Ellington
The Peter Gunn theme, by Henry Mancini; arr. Jennings

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Tonya Neumann and the Red Hot Horn Dogs

A performance in some bar somewhere, in 2006

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16 FEBRUARY 2009:

BREHM BRECHT IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

     If you live in McFarland, you must by now know at least the bare premise of American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis's 2005 The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, performed February 13 and 14 2009 by the MHS Drama Department. Briefly: A lawyer representing Judas, who is comatose in Hell, litigates for her client's promotion into Heaven; Heaven has retained an attorney from Hell, to keep him out. The case has come to trial by jury, with expert witnesses, and the trial is the core of the script. There are frequent incursions by saints and apostles, who perch on on the fourth wall with their backs to the trial, deliver glossatorial monologues, and then disappear. The play also includes flashbacks and Jesus, of whom more later.

     The cast and crew - let me say it now, and get it out of my system - did one holy Hell of a fine job. But before any discussion of the performances in this extraordinary production must come a description of the staging. Director Eric Brehm did not arrange things to mollycoddle the patrons.

     The defending and prosecuting attorneys, who carry a large fraction of the lines, were seated with their backs to the house; though they both spent considerable time on their feet and visible in profile, their passions and performances were clearly aimed at the other actors on stage, not at those of us who merely happened to have paid money for tickets. But the jury members, almost none of whom had even a handful of words to speak, faced the house throughout the play's entire running time of over two hours: in fact they, not we, were the real audience. Those of us seated offstage were being watched, and perhaps judged, by the silent performers.

     There was no background scenery of any sort. A black curtain, indistinguishable from those marking the wings, defined the upstage boundary of the acting area and formed one side of a completely black frame; the result was an unsettling sensation that the action was taking place nowhere at all, or somewhere unconnected to anywhere else. A slit in the back curtain, when drawn slightly open for the entrances and exits of trial witnesses, revealed a bank of blinding white lights. This arrangement produced a cynosure silhouetting each actor to the point of obliteration at the instant of passage, suggesting near-death experiences, or astral gateways allowing dimensional transit, or whatever. But the lights also glared directly upon the house seats, blasting the spectators painfully every time. While the horizontal frame was made all of curtains, the vertical sightlines laid bare parts of a theatre's guts that are usually hidden: the valence curtain, and maybe the other border curtains above the stage, had been removed, so everyone could see the lighting instruments and the girders supporting them. Some of the lights pointed at the house.

     The general impression was not one of attending a play at all, at least in the usual mode of passive voyeurs sitting in the anonymity of dark seats while talents posture for our amusement. But if we were denied the comfortable fiction that we were simply watching a show, neither were we granted the warm fuzzies of participatory theater. Actors did come down off the stage, but their contact with the patrons was confrontational as often as not. We could not even rest our eyes on pretty furniture when the drama got intense. The Ninth Circle of Hell, for example, where Judas sat Zennishly inert through much of the performance, was represented by a chair in front of a brick wall. The minimalist main set consisted of risers and chairs for the jury, desks and chairs for the counsels, and a witness stand attached to the judge's pulpit-like bench. Nothing else. The paint was plain.

     At the opening curtain even the courtroom set was absent, leaving only the bare abyss of the stage. Two actors lay on the floor, like drops of milk in a pail of black blood: Judas' mother, caressing and weeping over her son's dead body, harshly lit by a single light directly above. There was no dialogue as six black-clad members of the tech crew entered to tear her away from the body, which they bore offstage. Her tearjerking opening monologue, delivered in front of the empty stage, set the show's tone. What followed was a thoughtful examination of despair and salvation, destiny and responsibility, not burdened by any fear of inquiry, but not wholly irreverent either.

     Not that the show was one long grinding lecture on the philosophy of salvation in Christian mythology. Moments of uproarious humor were many, and sometimes jarring. "Cross?" asks the defense attorney dryly, after she finishes with a witness. To which the prosecutor, somewhat alarmed, replies, "No thank you!" Mr. Brehm's choice of programmatic music - it was too intrusive to be called "incidental" - also provided a steady undertow of hilarity, ranging as it did from Vivaldi to Twisted Sister by way of Bob Dylan. As Mother Teresa came in through the glare, for example, Paul Simon's Loves Me Like A Rock blared from the speakers. Simon crooning "When I was a little boy, my mother said to me" was baldly appropriate. But the next line, "Who do you think you're foolin'?" was a subtler comment on one of the twentieth century's great charlatans: a woman who would climb out of her limo to walk barefoot the last three blocks to meetings with dignitaries, who believed that the suffering of poor people is "beautiful" because it "brings them closer to God", and who accepted vast amounts of money to provide medical care to the dying, without reporting how it was spent, while maintaining that systematic medical diagnosis was "too materialistic" to be compatible with mercy. Other musical selections were equally barbed, and Brehm is to be applauded for his audacity. (Or so I read it: duly note that the interpretations given here are solely my own.)

    Brehm also deserves credit simply for tackling this work in a high school at all. Setting aside the fact that it is not musical fluff (against which I have nothing, by the way), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a play that requires the audience to think, if they are to get anything out of it beyond a superficial giggle, and, worse, to think about religion. There were murmurs of controversy when the subject matter first become generally known, and rumors that the performances might be picketed. But of course when it came right down to Sydney or the bush, the good Norwegians of McFarland were too Wisconsin Nice actually to do anything of the sort. A few people may have stayed away on the grounds that Jesus and Satan ought not to be portrayed as characters, but audience turnout was excellent both nights. (Half of the box office proceeds for the run of TLDJI were donated - applicably, for a play featuring a legendary suicide - to the HOPES suicide education and prevention program.) At intermission I didn't hear any grumbling about blasphemy; comments were mostly about how good the actors were.

     Which brings me to the cast, and their performances. My respect for everyone who undertook a role in this show is boundless. Many were simply superb.

     Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2008), as a juror, was colorful and attentive, conveying an interest in the trial and, perhaps, in justice. Melanie Kloes portrayed Margaret of Galilee, Judas' childhood playmate, with unaffected charm. Tom Richardson's Saint Peter, fisherman and disciple, was a bluff, no-nonsense captain of men. Daniel DeBoer was perfectly cast - I mean this as a compliment - in the role of Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea and champion of manly virtues: difficult duties executed without personal bias, stiff upper lips (on others) when the chips are down, and a disdain for the niceties of technical jurisprudence. And golf.

     Ben DuCharme's Jesus put me in mind of Doctor Manhattan, and not just because of the bald head. There was an abstract intensity inherent in his mostly silent performance (notably, he only spoke when he was arguing with Judas) which made it completely believable that, at his simplest gesture, the other characters would drop what they were doing and go into the light. Also, as Ben noted in his bio, he was for once not cast as a villain or psycho. Heather Traska, as Judge Littlefield, was nominally in charge of the proceedings, and she carried off her large part very well. Most of the characters in the play are already paying some form of penance for sins real or perceived; the revelation that Littlefield lacked the impeccable past one might expect in a member of the judiciary was a key expression of this theme, and Traska crossed this stile in her character's development in good stride.

    Michael Flaherty's Simon the Zealot had a self-assurance and lack of introspection that put me in mind of a lad who'd spent his youth in the IRA but later decided he didn't like the hours, so he moved to Canada and got a job delivering beer kegs; it was a fine piece of character acting. Alyssa Gray was luminous as Mary Magdalene ("Christ's best friend"). In a show this packed with monologues, many actors got only one shot at selling their characters to the spectators. In the brief time available to her, Alyssa showed us a woman of simple dignity, honesty, love, and faith. It was as nearly perfect a moment as any theatergoer has a right to expect. This wonderful young actress is always a treat to watch, especially when she's showing off her range as well as her depth: Alyssa's Mary was all the way 'round the clock from her broad, bawdy Ado Annie in Oklahoma!

     Judas Iscariot is the star of this play in the same degree that the bull is the star of a bullfight. The other characters have much to say about choice, and the human freedom to accept or reject salvation; even the specious El Fajita jumps on this wagon once or twice. But it is hard not to see Guirgis's Judas as a man doomed by his own unavoidable actions. Christ the God chose Judas as a disciple, in full foreknowledge that Judas would betray him. Christ the Man spent enough time debating theology with Judas to know that he would eventually realize the monstrousness of that crime. How could we, or a just God, expect a mere mortal under such crushing pressure to find anything but despair? Yet it is for precisely this crime that Judas is on trial. The actual betrayal is old news, and Judas has already drawn the punishment of Hell for it. In the Frank Capra atmosphere of the courtroom, despair is the most serious form of sin: a significant departure from the Roman Catholic doctrine that otherwise informs the script. Judas, to put it mildly, is screwed.

     Sam Siegmann did an outstanding job of being screwed. Since he starts the play dead, the catatonic scenes might perhaps be taken as a step up, and a chance to really work on one's method acting. But what a hideous demand on an actor! He must sit immobile and in full view through most of the play, abruptly executing scenes of naked emotion, only to lapse back into a coma. He never leaves the stage, but much of the time he has no character to hide in. Those raw peaks of performance come with almost no leadup, and end like snuffed candles. What must go through an actor's mind as he sits before our eyes on the apron, his own eyes closed, and waits to suddenly become a child, or a drunk, or an angry, betrayed friend? Sam was all of these things, flawlessly.

     Yusef El-Fayoumy, the prosecuting attorney, approaches his case from the standpoint that the function of a trial is to formally demonstrate the superior moral characters of a judge, some jurymen, and two or more lawyers. This is to be done by contrasting them with a vile creature known as a "defendant," a role generally filled by a human being or a socialist.*  Judas - absent, damned, and nonresponive - is the ideal defendant, and Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008, SB 2007 - 2008), as El-Fayoumy, makes the most of him. Here's what Kolin's El-Fayoumy is: He's unctuous, oily, and odious. He's fawningly servile to the judge, but also hellbent on prosecuting his case. His dealings with the female defense attorney are a conflation of brass and insinuation; he hits on her with all the charm of a pig in pomade. This guy's a Hollywood used-car salesmen with his throttle stuck wide open. Fun? You bet. We can love the characters we like the least, when they're done right. From the frantic energy to the well-sustained accent, Kolin nailed this one hard.

     Al-Aziz is one of the ninety-nine Names of God, and as a name for men Aziz has roots in Arabic and Hebrew words having to do with might, power, and respectability. A feminine form is Aziza, which a quick Web search turns up mostly as a stage name for belly dancers. I don't know if any of this was in Bridget Norris's mind when she gave us her fabulous Fabiana Aziza Cunningham, defense attorney for Judas Iscariot, but she certainly found the role's complexity. Strong, fragile, articulate, and slightly neurotic, Ms. Norris's Cunningham is not necessarily litigating for Judas' forgiveness, though she's certainly willing to argue that he deserves to be forgiven if that's what it takes to get him into a better place. What she wants is consistency and fairness, and for the system to work as it should. On a deeper level, perhaps what she needs most is to be taken seriously. Ms. Norris is a mighty presence onstage, well up to the task of outfacing anyone up to the Devil himself; Mr. Walker ought to have been terrified to go near her, much less comment on her fragrance. It was a pleasure to see such a strong actress find some vulnerable places to show us. It's part of the actor's paradox that it takes strength to portray self-doubt. Ms. Norris has what it takes to do anything.

     I have put my favourite character last and in the chiefest place: I mean of course Satan, devastatingly debonair as played by the multitalented Ally Schmaling (AITDJB 2008). Isn't this supposed to be the bad guy? Ally reminds us that one of the Devil's other names is Lucifer, the Bringer of Light. No one else in the play says so many nice things, and Satan is (I think) the only character who ever states clearly and unambiguously that he loves God. Ally has been sensational in every production she's ever been part of - her extraordinary turns as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Claire Ganz in Rumors come to mind - but the Prince of Lies is a role with plenty of room for chutzpah, and Ally took advantage of all of it. Judge Littlefield may nominally have been master of the courtroom, but whenever Ally's Satan turned up there was no doubt who really had the gavel by the handle. Slumming among mortals, she often wore the sort of smile one might expect on a leopardess who wakes to find she has been surrounded, during the night, by a herd of callow gazelles; she delivered her inflammatory comments with feather-light, deadly irony, like darts dipped in poisoned honey. This Satan was the pure, wicked dynamic that drives good people to make bad things happen to themselves. The steel-in-velvet approach is dropped only once, when Satan finds that God has been poaching souls that were already damned, stamped, and delivered to Hell; Ally chews fire and bullies the judge into setting things right. (Or wrong. POV, yes?) And as a final tour de force, when Jesus summoned her into view so he could tell Judas that Satan is not real, Ally was able to stuff all that dark glamour away somewhere and make herself look like a wax doll. That's acting.

     Even the best productions leave a few nits to pick, so here are some of mine: For one thing, the house lights came up too fast after the show. I don't generally stand up to applaud a high school performance - if every ovation is a standing one, the distinction is lost, and then what's the point? We may as well give everyone a gold medal and go home. But this show earned it, and we weren't given time to deliver. (I've heard since that the bum's rush was intentional.) For another, I understand that Mr. Brehm cut lots of cusswords, which I think is a nonissue one way or the other. But if he was taking a scissors to the script anyway, he could have done something about the relentless colloquialisms in some of the monologues, which at times came across as very forced and self-conscious. And if that was meant to be the point, it was lost on me.

     Taken all in all, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was one of the better productions to grace our stage. But it was a little more than that, marking as it does a return to high concept material unlike anything seen here since, perhaps, the heady days of Gene Olson's stagecraft. Eric Brehm is a talented director who made bold to stage a play that tackled live-wire topics head-on. His cast rose to the occasion beautifully and, if I may say so, so did the viewing public of McFarland. The show broadened the range of theater offerings, and that always good for everyone, in the long run. Here's to the bright future of MHS drama.

* Thanks to A. B. for this devil's definition.

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The 2008 Wind in the Reeds

At the McBank for Christmas in the Village

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9 FEBRUARY 2009:

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

    The return rate - I would tend not to use the word "recidivism" - among members of the AITDJB, Solstice Brass, and Wind in the Reeds is very high: our fine musicians keep coming back, year after year. But eventually some of them must move on. Here's what some of them are up to:

Jonathan Alden (AITDJB 2001-2002, SB 2001) is a married video producer now (I mean, he's married and he produces videos).

Nora Hickey (WitR 2005 - 2007, SS 2004 - 2007) plays bassoon in several chamber recital groups at MIT.

Amy Kolpin (SB 2007) is abroad in Bristol, England where she studies chemistry, enjoys cider on barges, and plays French horn in the Bristol Symphony Orchestra.

Bria Mason (AITDJB 2002 - 2006, SB 2003) is truly, madly, deeply involved in the folk music and ethnology of her now-native Scotland: President of the Edinburgh University Folk Society (EUFolksoc); Treasurer of the Edinburgh Ethnological Society; some sort of Gaelic liaison officer in the Edinburgh Highland Society; organizer of the Highland Annual (the "Maddest and Biggest Ceilidh of the Year"); instructress of waulking songs - and those are just the official titles. She sings a lot, too.

Anne Nichols (AITDJB 2005 - 2007) made a triumphal return to the stage - no; that makes her sound old, and Margot Channing-ish. How about: Anne Nichols brought down the house as Muzzy van Hossmere in a new production of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Tonya Neumann (AITDJB 2003 - 2008) has taken turns singing with several choral groups at the UW-Madison, including the UW Women's Chorus during their performance of Dido and Aeneas.

Becky Schultz (AITDJB 2001 - 2007) has added Music Education to her Music degree at UW-Stevens Point. She plays first oboe in nearly every UW-SP performance group that has oboes, is active in chamber music, and has a senior recital coming up - watch this space for a review.

Zach Staszewski (AITDJB 2004 - 2007) is at Carroll University in Waukesha, where he has performed with the Carroll University Concert Choir, the Vocal Collective, and the University musical theater group in their recent production of "Company".

Steve Thorson (AITDJB 2001 - 2004)

still has, at last report, "a pretty much monogamous relationship with [his] saxophone. Those are his words. Really.

Reports place Sherry Wegner (SB 2005 - 2007) somewhere in Germany, travelling with her French horn.

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Let's not drag this out!

Tonya, Mitch Williams, and Autumn M.C the
2004 MHS Cabaret

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2 FEBRUARY 2009:

JAZZ CABARET

     On the evening of 23 January, the McFarland Jazz Ensemble performed at the Marriott hotel in Middleton, under the direction of MHS's new and energetic Ben Petersen. The event was a threefer with Middleton High School and Madison East - a fourfer actually, since Middleton fielded two jazz bands, their Six O'clock and Seven O'clock flavours. I was unfortunately unable to attend, but all accounts were glowing.

     Here's what the MHS band played:

The Peter Gunn theme, by Henry Mancini (arr. Jennings)

Killer Joe, by Benny Golson (arr. Higgins)

Beulah Witch, by Don Menza (arr. Blair)

Nutville, by Horace Silver (arr. Kidd)

Front Burner, by Sammy Nestico (served straight up)

Feelin' the Funk, by Eric Moales (also straight, no chaser)

     The AITDJB was represented by Nick Backunowicz (trumpet; solo in Peter Gunn), Gena Roisum (tenor sax and clarinet; solos in Killer Joe and Front Burner), and Kolin Walker (piano; solo in Nutville).

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Bria & Autumn Under the Plam Tree

From the 2003 MHS production of
We Found Love and an Exquisite Set of Porcelain Figures Aboard the S.S.Farndale Avenue

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26 JANUARY 2009:

TWICE THE REEDS, TWICE THE FUN

     When one reed just isn't enough, call in the basoons and oboes! The University of Wisconsin's annual Double Reed Day is a festival of fagotti, a soupcon of hautbois, and a parliament of English horns.

     A student who's a musical schlemiel doesn't choose to play bassoon or oboe in band, so the level of musicianship among a group of double-reed players is always high. Saturday's group was comoposed of about two dozen oboes, four English horns, twenty or so bassoons, and a contrabassoon; they sounded wonderful on a few hours' rehearsal.

Here's the program:

The Washington Post March, by John Philip Sousa (arr. Vallon)

Hungarian Rhapsody # 5, by Johannes Brahms

Sabre Dance, by Aram Khachaturian

The overture to Handel's Music for the Royal Firework

The Double Reed program is blessed in two superb teachers, Profs. Marc Fink, oboe, and Marc Vallon, bassoon. They are both fine conductors, and Vallon's incisive arrangements are a delight. Among the performers were Isis Leonard, bassoon, and Maia Perez, oboe and English horn.

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Anything Goes at MHS, 2003

Autumn Leonard (in boxers) takes vocabulary notes
on the utterances of Bria Mason (in boa)

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19 JANUARY 2009:

ROCK VALLEY CONFERENCE HONORS BAND

    On Saturday 17 January, instrumental music students from ten local schools gathered at Parkview High School in Orfordville for the daylong Rock Valley Conference Honors Band program. The AITDJB was well and represented by Nick Bakunowicz (trumpet), Isis Leonard (first bassoon), and Gena Roisum (first clarinet). Gena was given the lyric line from Holst's Sing Without Words in soli, with one other clarinet and an oboe. Needless to say, she played very well.

     It is not clear to me exactly what relationship, if any, inheres between baseball and bassoons, but Sombody Somewhere has decided that the schools we beat at football are the same ones with which we should make music, so there it is: Bob's your uncle. Not that I am complaining about the students from Big Foot or Palmyra-Eagle high schools; they were mostly a cheery lot, and they put on a pretty good program. Band directors at the participating schools nominate their best musicians for inclusion in the band, and club together to coordinate so that the group is not all trumpets and percussion. There is no audition process.

    Some notably good things happened at the concert, especially when you remember the group had only four hours to prepare everything from scratch. Balance was overall pretty good, though the low brass ran consistantly soft. There were strong French horns and some decent woodwinds, including a fine flute, a good oboe, and Isis. Percussion was solid, too. It's interesting that the honors band in this new conference did not borrow a whole truckload of equipment from McFarland; maybe they don't know us well enough yet. One other oddity: many of the other schools made their members wear marching band uniforms. In a concert setting this is an exercise in corny tawdriness. Some schools had concert-band jackets (borrowed from their Glee Choirs?), which looked better. McFarland should either do this, or require our students to wear concert black.

Here's the program:

Cenotaph, by Jack Stamp - crisp and brisk

Second Suite in F - mvts. I (marchs) and II (Song Without Words), by Gustav Holst. The march tempo was brisk and at times felt rushed; low brass was a bit muddy throughout and often weak. But there was good work by the percussion and woodwinds.

Radiant Moonbeams, by David R. Gillingham. This is a lovely piece and it was well played, but coming after the dirgey Cenotaph and the slow Holst movement, it seemed to make the lineup heavy on down and light on up.

Ancient Blessings, by Charles Rochester Young. This was a hoot, especially the klezmer stuff; the woodwinds' fingers were flying.

Circus Days, by Karl King. Not one of King's more difficult marches, especially in this arrangement, but it was a lively end to a surprisingly polished show.

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Bakery Handoff

The Baker's Wife (Sara Siegmann)
passes bread to the Baker (Autumn Leonard),
to keep it from being lifted by
Little Red Riding Hood (Sophie Nelson),
in the 2002 MHS production of Into The Woods

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12 JANUARY 2009:

SOUTH DAKOTA SHADOWS

    The combined MHS choirs' first performance of the year was their Major Work concert, on the evening of Monday 12 January 2009; they presented Jackson Berkey's 1989 South Dakota Shadows. Here's the press release the school emailed me (I'm not sure who wrote it):

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   "In keeping with our theme this year of stories through music, we are thrilled to share our upcoming extended work, "South Dakota Shadows". This work by Jackson Berkey is a six movement suite of pieces commissioned by Al Stanga and the Master Singers of Sioux Falls (SD). "South Dakota Shadows" was premiered in 1989 as a part of the centennial celebration of the statehood of South Dakota. All the texts chosen for the work were by South Dakota writers, including Charles "Badger" Clark, the first South Dakota poet laureate.

   "Jackson Berkey was originally trained as a classical pianist at Julliard School in New York. Since his schooling, he has worked with a broad spectrum of keyboard instruments & synthesizers, both as a performer and composer. He toured over two decades with Mannheim Steamroller as their featured keyboardist and fifteen years with the Norman Luboff Choir.

   "In Berkey's composition, the six pieces pay tribute to the land, the climate and the people. Indian Summer speaks of the sudden shifts of the state's climate & the light transforming images on the plains. In Turkeys & Badger's , Charles "Badger" Clark welcomes listeners to a "Turkey In the Straw" hoedown, where homemade entertainment and fast friendships compensate for daily loneliness and work. Evening Shadows is a haunting a cappella piece that paints a picture of how the bleak stony landscapes can transform with the beauty of light at sunset.

   "A new experience for the choir is movement four, Boxing with Snowflakes, where there is no singing, but rather the somber music accompanying the poem "Boxing with Snowflakes" by Tony Long Wolf. The poem probes the dark side of frontier life, the conflicts between cultures and races, and the struggles, tragedies and anguish that people of displaced cultures can experience. We are fortunate to have Mr. Eric Brehm perform the poem with us.   

Part of the 2009 MHS choir

   "Mercy Song catches the ecstatic spirit of folk religion, which pleads for mercy by paradoxically recognizing the passion of sin. It is not about guilt or penance, but rather about how people will live, will get caught up in sin, will ask for forgiveness and then thank God for his mercy . . . all a simple part of life.

   "The final movement is a simple and plaintive song. Requiem brings all the community to the grave of the pioneer mother. Her spirit and energy eased hard times in a lonely, bitter place by keeping the homes alive with light, warmth and love. Here the pioneer mother finds final rest, which is also fulfillment and illumination. She has set an example for all of us with her hard work, endless love and perseverance, and for that, we learn and give thanks.

   "We look forward to sharing this beautiful work with you on Monday, January 12 at 7:30 PM in the High School Auditorium."

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    Kolin Walker had a dandy baritone solo in Turkeys and Badger's (the apostrophe stonkers me but seems to be intended by the composer). In the photo you can pick out Kolin, as well as Beau Peregoy, Ally Schmaling, and the back of Anne Nichols' head; also the quarter-pate of some balding guy who sat in front of me at the concert.

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Part of the 2003 McFarland Community Band

Steve Thorson and Brad Anderson are visible;
more of the band can be seen after the jump

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5 JANUARY 2009:

THE DEVIL IN ALLY SCHMALING

     Ally Schmaling (AITDJB 2008) has been cast (type-cast?) in the role of Satan for MHS' upcoming stage production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Clearly this is a long-overdue recognition, on the part of the MHS faculty, of the wicked qualities the rest of us have always seen in this diabolic girl, glowing redly from her eyes when she has moments of unguarded evil glee. She ought to do well in the role.

     Kolin Walker (AITDJB 2008, SB 2007 - 2008) takes on the role of Yusef El-Fayoumy, a slimytoad sleazefawning yes-your-honor-may-I-wipe-your-bum-Sir lawyer, and a skirt-chaser to boot. I wouldn't buy a used stick of gum from this guy, but I'm counting on Kolin to make him entertaining.

    The play, a recent effort by American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, deals with a court hearing attempting to rule on the final disposition of Judas Iscariot's immortal soul: should he be left to languish in Hell, or be offered redemption and a ticket to Heaven? Kolin's El-Fayoumy is the attorney arguing for damnation; Ally's Satan is an expert witness. Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2008, SS 2004 - 2008, AITDJB 2007 - 2008) is in the jury. Much of the dialog is bubble and irreverent, if sometimes rather self-conscious in its relentless use of slang, but the material is thoughtful. And a bit wild. The play will be performed on Friday and Saturday, 13 and 14 February 2009, in the MHS auditorium; that should be plenty of time for closed-minded religionists to decide they don't like it even if they haven't read it. For myself, I'm looking forward to it.

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If I left all the material on one page all the time, the page would grow huge and take forever to load in your browser. Therefore, everything earlier than the article above has been archived. If you're on the AITDJB home page, with the pretty banner and the Madison.com link tabs, you can use the search frame at the top of the page to search all the archives. If got here some other way, here's a link to the AITDJB Home Page.

Individual archive files can be found here:

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I've indexed a few years' worth of stuff, too:

Indices to news archives

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