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30 JULY 2007:
ISIS LEONARD RISES TO THE RED BOWTIE
23 JULY 2007:
NORA HICKEY, CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNER, FEATURED AT CONCERT
16 JULY 2007:
ZACH STASZEWSKI WINS MHS' NATIONAL CHORAL AWARD
At the MHS Music Awards Ceremony on 16 May 2007, Anne Nichols presented
Zach Staszewski with the National Choral Award. Does the AITDJB always have the best students in it, or what? All the members of the Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band, the Wind in the Reeds, and the Second String Violin Duo who are still in school scored piles of awards that night, including letters in music and medals from choral and instrumental WSMA Solo & Ensemble festivals. The list includes Zach, Andrea Bakunowicz, Eric Adams, Nick Bakunowicz, Isis Leonard, and Gena Roisum. Nora Hickey received a special commendation (and her own private ovation) for winning the WYSO Concerto Competition.
9 JULY 2007:
BLUES IN THE NIGHT
On Friday 11 May, McFarlanders were treated to an evening of fine jazz, featuring Dave Heilman's All That Jazz big band, and the McFarland jazz bands and choirs. The (hopefully) first annual Blues in the Night event, held at Madison's Marriott West conference center, featured a pretty-good dinner, a silent auction to raise money for McFarland music programs, and of course lots of great music. It was a smashing success. Brian Vanderbloemen, who has been good enough to occasionally take the stage with the AITDJB, picked up a trumpet and sat in with All That Jazz, a great swing group that also includes two of Quinn's cousins. The 7th and 8th grade bands reprised their sets from the April concert at MHS, with the exception that the 8th grade group substituted Rude Dude for El Gato. Early Bird I and II had more variation in their sets, featuring Eric Adams very prominently on Pots and Pans and Jericho, the latter coming accross with even more thunder than in April. Andrea Bakunowicz gave a fine turn singing Come Fly With Me with EB II. The Blue Notes vocal jazz ensemble, featuring Zach Staszewski and Andrea, sang a very cool Take 5; Somewhere; and an arrangement of Listen to the Music that made good use of Isaac Siegmann's vocal percussion skills.
On the whole, I think the music department had better do this again next year.
2 JULY 2007:
GENA ROISUM RISES TO THE RED BOWTIE
Gena Roisum,
new AITDJB member
Gena Roisum has played clarinet with the Wind in the Reeds woodwind quartet since 2005. This year she joins the AITDJB, and has jumped in with both feet, performing five pieces at Thursday's concert, four of them as the sole clarinet. She wore the Big Pink Bowtie when she stepped into Glenn's spot in the horn line to play Shine On Harvest Moon during our first set, then upgraded to a Red Tie for Jack Pettis's Bugle Call Rag, a piece that's new to our playlist this year. After the break Gena took three more turns, soloing on Saint James Infirmary and Basin Street Blues, and joining Glenn for our traditional closing When the Saints Go Marchin' In. She did a great job, showing both poise and talent on stage; she's a welcome addition to the band.
Bria Mason (left) and Beth Frieden:
Puirt-a-beul lasses
The lasses sang a medley consisting of Calum Crubach, Meall do Bhrogan, and Tha Bean Agam. I won't speak to the bawdiness of their selections, since they sang in Scots, which always makes the singer sound like she's got more than one meaning in mind. But I understand from Bria that the middle title means "Enjoy Your Shoes", and the lyric concerns one Neil, who has black shoes and a mother with two eyes. This performance may well have been the McFarland debut of mouth music. Bria and Beth sang with very evident pleasure in their ancient and honorable art, and did a lovely job as its ambassadors to the Midwestern hinterlands.
25 JUNE 2007:
'EVENING OF JAZZ' BLOWS DOWN THE WALLS OF JERICHO
On Monday 30 April 2007, the four McFarland school jazz bands gave a concert at MHS. The jazz concerts are always the highlights of the instrumental music year, because only the best and most enthusiastic young musicians choose to play in a jazz band. On Monday night we heard from several promising young soloists and maturing ensembles. Here's the program:
7th grade:The 7th grade jazz band featured great licks by Conley Potter on saxophone and Drew Kloes on clarinet, from both of whom I look forward to hearing more in the future. Brian Barr, who plays trumpet with Early Bird II, sat in with the 7th graders on harmonica. It was a great idea, and he looked like he was playing hard, but his mike was off or set very low and unfortunately we could not hear him.St. Louis Blues March by W. C. Handy, arranged by Robert Woods8th grade:
Sunday Morning by Neal Hefti, arranged by Roy Phillippe
C-Jam Blues by Duke Ellington, arranged by 'Stitzel'
Gospel John by Jeff SteinbergEarly Bird II:
Cool Front by Doug Beach
El Gato by Jim Cifelli
Swing Fever by Dean SorensonEarly Bird I:
Feelin' The Funk by Erik Morales
Oink Joint Rumble by Dean Sorenson
Buffalo Head by Bruce Pearson
Jericho, arranged by Chris Sharp
Spinning Wheel by David Clayton Thomas
Blue Skies by Irving Berlin
Sister Sadie by Horace Silver
The Early Bird II set featured solos by Nick Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2006) on Oink Joint and Buffalo Head. Buffalo also had a sax solo by Becca Funk (WitR 2003 - 2006). Gena Roisum (AITDJB 2007, WitR 2005 - 2006) also performed with Early Bird II, showing her versatility by taking up the tenor sax. But she didn't get any solos, and I can't think why.
Eric Adams was featured on set for Early Bird I's roaring Jericho, and he really skinned his drums alive. I hope we get to hear this piece again. It is wonderful when the McFarland jazz bands use a vocalist, and they could not have done better than Andrea Bakunowicz's sweet singing in Blue Skies. Let's have more Andrea!
18 JUNE 2007:
DISNEY EWOK MAGIC GETS AROUND THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Eric Adams, hands faster
than a camera shutter
Band medleys included the range of old standbys, from Macho Man to the theme from The Magnificent Seven. Audience participation included dancing to the Beer Barrel Polka and singing along with variations on The Victors. This year the tuba-euphonium octet repertoire has rotated back to the Pink Panther theme, which was ably done. Early Bird jazz gave a rousing Jericho, and SB/CB jazz band let 'er rip on Feelin' the Funk.
Percussion ensembles included a symphonic finale, the very cool Sketches of the Orient, and Root Beer Rag. The last is one of my favorite pieces in the MHS percussion catalog, heard now for perhaps the last time. Dave Heilmann, the piece's talented arranged, retires after this year and passes control of the fine McFarland percussion program to a new director.
Eric Adams faced off against a dangerous rival in Quest for the Sacred Drum Bone, and blew the poor fellow away with his amazing stickwork.
11 JUNE 2007:
ORPHEUS, CANADA, AND DVORAK (THOMAS, NOT ANTONIN)
I certainly ought to have mentioned it long ago, but the MHS bands gave a fine holiday concert last December 7. The program featured guest conductor Tom Dvorak, who taught at McFarland from 1967 to 1974, and has since gone on to conduct some of the finest school, university, and honors bands in the nation. He's also a prolific author and a tireless educator.The MHS Concert Band performed Raiph Vaughan Williams' Flourish for Wind Band, a John Cacavas arrangement of Christmas Music for Winds, and Rick Kirby's Different Voices. The last piece was in three movements, titled 'The Spoken - Dialogue', 'Whispers', and 'Voices of Song'; it was meant as a representation of ways in which the human voice can be used as a 'vehicle of communication'.
The Symphonic Band performed Robert Smith's polyrhythmic Spirit of Orpheus, and did a fine job capturing the range of moods from boisterous to sonorously stately. The band's take on Luther Henderson's A Canadian Brass Christmas Suite was very creditable; the arrangement is thoughtful and clever, and demands a certain maturity in its performers. Symphonic Band's segment closed with Matyas Seiber's Irish Trilogy, in a lovely arrangement by Larry Daehn.
The Wind Ensemble opened its portion of the program with Seahawk by Jan Hadermann, a rather braying overture that did not excite me much except for the lovely melody with which the euphoniums open the second section of the piece's ABA structure. Sammy Hazo always produces material that is interesting to play and entertaining to hear, and his Fantasy on a Japanese Folk Song, as played by the Wind Ensemble, proved an engrossing programmatic piece. Program notes outlining the tale of a girl and her music box were clarifying, and the music followed the story arc vividly. The concert closed with LeRoy Anderson's A Christmas Festival, a brilliant work that was as usual an audience favorite.
4 JUNE 2007:
ART AND MUSIC AT THE LIBRARY
March was Youth Art Month, and though I haven't gotten around to mentioning it, McFarland's wonderful new
library hosted a showing of student art work. There was plenty of good stuff to see, but on the opening night there was also much to hear. The District music department continued the tradition of providing student music for the evening, including excerpts from upcoming Intermediate School and Middle School programs. Students from he High School vocal and instrumental music departments performed for an hour, and I for one would have liked much more. The Blue Notes vocal jazz ensemble, featuring Andrea Bakunowicz and Zach Staszewski, gave us their take on Take Five and Somewhere: both very fine. Blue Notes took these pieces to State. Isis Leonard performed Accolay's A minor violin concerto with great fire and verve, accompanied by her mother. Andrea performed as part of a sax quartet rendering The Entertainer; this group went to State, too. Nora Hickey was amazing in her brilliant performance of Franz Berwald's Konzertstuck for bassoon - with which she has WON THE WYSO CONCERTO COMPETITION! - more on that later. Nick Bakunowicz, on trumpet, teamed up with Jackson Meyer, on soprano sax, for Shades of Jazz - an odd combination of instruments that worked very well. I hope to hear more of these two.
28 MAY 2007:
MHS CABARET SPARKLES WITH DANCE EVOLUTION
On the evening of Saturday 19 May 2007, students in the MHS vocal music performance staged their varied and mostly brilliant annual Cabaret show, under the overall direction of
Anne Nichols.
Highlights included a Blue Notes rendition of Listen to the Music, and Sydney Cook singing What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? to the exciting accompaniment of Joe Dever on piano. The Buhalog Boys (TM) gave an absolutely startling cover performance of Jud Laipply's
Evolution of Dance video (if you have not seen the original yet, check it out). Their version was actually funnier than the original, since there are two of them.
Zach Staszewski and Andrea Bakunowicz were adorable, vivacious, and musically clued in their performance of What I've Been Looking For, from Disney's dreadful High School Musical film. They chose to perform the version done by the Bad Couple in the film - the Couple we as an audience were not supposed to want to win the audition. It's far better than the sappy ballad version the Good Couple sings. Go, Z&A!
21 MAY 2007:
HARDWARE FROM WHITEWATER
The top performers at our District-level WSMA Solo and Ensemble Festival advance to UW-Whitewater for the State Festival there, which this year was held on Saturday 26 April. As usual McFarland was well represented. Musicians from the
Almost In Time Dixieland Jazz Band, the
Solstice Brass Quartet, and the
Second String Violin Duo were all over the place, bringing home heaps of honors and pounds of medals.
14 MAY 2007:
AUTUMN PLAYS WELL WITH AN AWFUL LOT OF OTHERS
The University of Wisconsin U-Bands performed in Mills Hall on the afternoon of Sunday 6 May 2007, with
Autumn Leonard
on hand under the direction of Michael Lorentz. Autumn's band performed all four movements of P. D. Q. Bach's startling Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion, to wit: 'Grand Entrance', 'Simply Grand Minuet', 'Romance in the Grand Manner', and 'Rondo Mucho Grando'. It was a grand performance. If you have never heard this work, a review probably cannot do it justice - but that's the case with most of Peter Shikele's material. Grand Serenade showcased all of the great composer's trademark elements, including humor, surprise, and pretty good melodies. The band handled all the reed-crowings, foot-shufflings, moanings, and other bizarre elements with wit and aplomb.The program also included Chorale and Alleluia, by Howard Hanson; Gandalf (The Wizard), from John de Meij's first symphony; Blessed Are They, arranged by Barbara Buehlman from the work by Johannes Brahms; and Wisconsin Forward Forever, abstracted by Andrew Glover from the John Philip Sousa march. Gandalf was very nicely handled. The Wisconsin Forward march lacks melodic interest, but I suppose we should listen to it once in a while.
7 MAY 2007:
CHAMBER MUSIC AT MORPHY DEBUTS ISIS' 'WALTZ'
On the afternoon of Saturday 21 April 2007, students in the
Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras' (WYSO)
Chamber Music Ensemble program gave a series of fine recitals in the UW's acoustically-challenged Morphy Hall.
Isis Leonard and
Hora Hickey
were on hand with their respective groups, of course. Isis' ensemble performed two movements of Tartini's Sonata for string quartet. The group also gave the world premiere performance of Isis' new composition, Waltz.
30 APRIL 2007:
EASTER BRASS at MCFARLAND LUTHERAN
Frank Ransley and
Quinn Leonard
performed in a brass quartet for two services at
McFarland Lutheran Church
on Easter Sunday, 8 April 2007. Handbell and vocal choirs also performed, all under the well-practiced direction of
Glenn Nielsen
23 APRIL 2007:
MHS WIND ENSEMBLE SMASHES WINDOWS
On Tuesday 27 March, the MHS Wind Ensemble and the Concert and Symphonic Bands gave a well-received concert. Their performances were interspersed by examples of the many entries MHS is sending to the WSMA State Solo and Ensemble Festival at UW-Whitewater on 28 April; the smorgasbord of music was a real treat. Nora Hickey (WitR 2005 - 2006, SS 2004 - 2006) performed an excerpt from Franz Berwald's Konzertstuck for bassoon and orchestra, accompanied tonight by DeAnn Larson on piano; Nora is a winner of the 2007 Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras' (WYSO) Concerto Competition, a singular honor. Nora was, of course, all over the piece.
Andrea Bakunowicz (AITDJB 2005 - 2006) was part of a saxophone quartet performing an attractive arrangement of The Entertainer, which is advancing to State. The Concert Band played Pierre LaPlante's Riversongs and Barry Kopetz' From the Cedars to the Mountains.
Eric Adams (AITDJB 2005 - 2006) gave a smoking rendition of Prestidigitation, a snare drum solo with which he is sure to win his 1 rating at State. The Symphonic Band gave us Sammy Nestico's Vaquero and Giovannini's Overture in B Flat.
The Wind Ensemble performed Robert Xavier Rodriguez' exciting Smash the Windows, and a briskly-tempoed Festive Overture, by Shostokovich. In between, Isis Leonard (WitR 2003 - 2005, SS 2004 - 2006) played Accolay's violin Concerto in A Minor, accompanied by Kathy Leonard.
16 APRIL 2007:
STATE SOLO & ENSEMBLE FESTIVAL SCHEDULES
Complete schedules the State Solo and Ensemble Festival at the UW-Whitewater on Saturday 28 April 2007, have been posted on the
WSMA Web site. I have extracted all the events featuring MHS students, and these schedules can be found here, sorted
by PERFORMANCE TIMEand, for any WSMA numerology junkies out there,
by STUDENT NAME,
by WSMA EVENT NUMBER.Remember that ensembles are listed under the name of one student only, and that student may not be yours.
9 APRIL 2007:
MHS CHOIRS TACKLE FAURE'S REQUIEM
The combined MHS Concert Choir, A Cappella Choir, and Band/Choir Choir combined forces on the evening of Monday 19 March 2007 for a stirring performance of Gabriel Faure's Requiem. The singers presented a very mature and nuanced interpretation, thanks certainly to director Anne Nichols' superb efforts as teacher and wrangler. Meg Johnson was particularly excellent as the soloist in the Pie Jesu; she has a fine snowy innocent purity to her voice - suppressed even-numbered harmonics? I enjoyed her solo very much. My, this is a Romantic piece, isn't it? It just drips. Ms. Nichols got the choir both to understand the piece's logic and to feel its sentiment. More cannot be asked for.Many members of the choirs are travelling to New York in April, where they will sing the Requiem in Carnegie Hall (!) with members of other select choirs from across the United States.
Monday evening's concert was made even more luscious by a smorgasbord of performances by MHS Solo and Ensemble participants. Naturally, the highlight of these was the Blue Notes vocal jazz ensemble, including perky AITDJB members Zach Staszewski and Andrea Bakunowicz. The arrangement of Somewhere, from Leonard Bernstein's creatively impoverished West Side Story score, was beautiful. It can serve as an example that there are a few Bernstein melodies that can be salvaged and put into settings where they work very well. But I still much preferred the Blue Notes' rendition of Take 5. If they were not enjoying singing it, they do an excellent impersonation. Blue Notes will be at the State Solo and Ensemble Festival at the end of April.
2 APRIL 2007:
WYSO CONCERT ORCHESTRA AT OVERTURE CENTER
On Saturday 24 March, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra's Concert Orchestra performed at the Overture Center in Madison, wrapping up the group's annual performance tour.
Isis Leonard was featured as principal bassoonist. The program was a recap of the 10 March concert.
26 MARCH 2007:
MCFARLAND ROCKS AT S&E
On Saturday 10 March, Stoughton High School hosted the Blackhawk District WSMA Solo and Ensemble Festival and, as usual, McFarland students did very well. From our groups,
Isis Leonard,
Zach Staszewski,
Gena Roisum,
Eric Adams, and
Andrea Bakunowicz
are advancing to the State Festival at UW-Whitewater on Saturday 28 April. Best wishes to all.
19 MARCH 2007:
WYSO CONCERT CONCERT
On Saturday 10 March, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchesta's Concert Orchestra performed its annual Winterfest concert in the UW's Mills Hall, featuring principle bassoonist
Isis Leonard. It was a wonderful show, displaying conductor Christine Mata Eckel's usual flair for assembling a program of delightful depth and contrast. Dark Adventure, by Ralph Ford, had a rich Eastern Arabian feel, great motion, and sections of wailing melody; it would make excellent end-credit music for a Douglass Fairbanks film. I especially appreciated Ms. Eckel's precise selection of tempo, incorporating both drive and insouciance. Charles Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette came off very well in a redaction by Steven Rosenhaus. Ms. Eckel's program notes and comments were especially helpful for placing the work in its original context, aiding us old fogeys in dissociating the piece from Alfred Hitchcock's TV show. The musicians' performance showcased a very nice delineation of styles and moods, especially in the central tavern sequence.
Certainly my favorite work on the program was J. H. Foulds' heartbreakingly lovely Keltic Lament. The version performed by Concert was at once simply arranged and lushly scored by Charles Woodhouse, and the orchestra captured a magnificent amount of passion, especially considering that they are a bunch of comfortably-off youngsters who have not, presumably, ever had much lamenting to do. I very much look forward to the CD.
Jack Mason's medley arrangement of material from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story hit most of the themes people are likely to remember from the musical. I don't care for Bernstein in general: he never seems to know how to develop or conclude a melody once he has come up with three or four notes that go in the middle of it. But of all his works this musical is perhaps least affected by that defect (I picture Sondheim correcting scores when Bernstein was not looking). Reynard Burn's Flying was very repetitive both musically and emotionally; perhaps it would be better if it went faster?
The concert closed with a nifty, well-executed Dance of the Hours, from Ponchielli's 'La Giaconda'. To my ear, the orchestra did very well by this popular and exciting piece, bringing across the schmaltz and colour without sounding Disnified. The horns deserve a lot of credit.
12 MARCH 2007:
WARMING UP FOR THE SOLO AND ENSEMBLE CONTEST
Monday 5 March was the MHS Academic Awards Banquet. Prelude music was provided by
Isis Leonard on violin, and by Kolin Walker and Isis upon piano.On Thursday 8 March, the McFarland Music Department joined forces with the Art department for the opening of Youth Art Month, an annual event at the McFarland Public Library. Works by young McFarland artists will be on display throughout the month. To celebrate the exhibit's opening, MHS Solo and Ensemble entrants performed excerpt from the pieces they are preparing for the S&E District Festival.
AITDJB and WitR members were well represented. The MHS Blue Notes Vocal Jazz Ensemble, including Zach Staszewski and Andrea Bakunowicz, gave tasty performances of 'Take 5' and 'Somewhere'. Isis performed the second half of Accolay's A minor concerto for violin, accompanied by Kathy Leonard. Andrea came back on stage as part of a sax quartet playing 'The Entertainer'>. Nora Hickey gave a performance of Berwald's 'Konzertstuck', with which she won the WYSO Concerto Competition this year. And Nick Bakunowicz on trumpet teamed up with Jackson Meyer on soprano sax to play 'Shades of Jazz'; the combination worked very well.
5 MARCH 2007:
WALTZING CATS AND BUGS BUNNY
On Sunday 4 March the University Bands gave a series of performances in the UW's Mills Hall, and Michael Lorenz's band, with
Autumn Leonard as principal euphonium, shone brightly among them. Lorenz often chooses strongly programmatic music that is attractive to audiences; on Sunday he characteristically wrung every last drop of cleverness and punch from a colourful program. Ted Mesang's Truax Field March is clean and bright, the kind of march one thinks they don't writ any more. Leroy Anderson's The Waltzing Cat was drunken and exuberant - did Anderson ever write anything that audience's don't love to hear, and to whistle as they leave the hall? Another Anderson piece followed: his four-part Alma Mater - Scenes for Band. The movements are 'Chapel Bells', 'Freshman on Main Street', 'Library Reading Room', and 'Class Reunion'; the wonderfully evocative titles were translated superbly into the score, including a wave of murmuring and shushing in the Library sequence. A fine time was had by all. The program closed with G. E. Holmes' arrangement of the 'Pilgrim Chorus' from Wagner's Tannhauser - you know: the bit Bugs Bunny sings when he and Elmer Fudd lampoon the opera.
26 FEBRUARY 2007:
JAZZ BAND CONCERT CANCELLED
Tonight's 7-12 Jazz Concert has been cancelled because snow has kept certain key people - for example, Dave Heilman - from getting to McFarland. The bands will perform in April at a special event with Dave's band, "All That Jazz", to be held in Middleton.
19 FEBRUARY 2007:
RUMORS CONFIRMED
Zach Staszewski gave a spot-on, beautifully developed performance as Lenny Ganz in the MHS Drama Department's production of Neil Simon's Rumors last weekend. Ganz is brash and self-centered, though aware enough of others' emotions to snipe at them with some accuracy; Zach was all over the role, doing an especially fine job with the two-page monolog near the play's end, during which his character displays un unsuspected talent for wild extemporaneous fabrication. That monolog is Simon's escape hatch from this frothy farce, wrapping things up, not to anyone's logical satisfaction, but with an obvious fiction all the characters can pretend to agree upon. It works. The play's strengths lie in its brisk, fresh word-play, and the interplay among the characters, each of whom seems blithely determined to do nothing they not rue later. Simon gets the whole situation so wrapped around the axel that Zach's monolog is the only way out, but never mind: the ride is lots of fun.
The small, tight cast worked together well on the whole, producing several moments of rather fine ensemble acting - a tribute to the talent of director Eric Brehm. Chris Scott Boness cut a colorful figure upon the stage. Ally Schmaling, last year's wonderful Dorothy in the IMMS production of The Wizard of Oz, continues to be wonderful in High School. Her Claire Ganz was the perfect foil for Zach's Lenny - and the reverse is true, too; the two made a juicy couple, but Ally's strong presence lifted her character into high relief.
Production values were typically high. The company took advantage of the script's requirement for only one setting, to produce a slightly more elaborate set than usual - the walls had working lights, for example. Also, the production used no microphones, a technique in favor of which I want to cast my vote - three or four votes, actually. In an auditorium this small, no actor who has been taught to project should need amplification (if you think they need mics to compete with the orchestra in the musicals, then the orchestra is too loud, that's all). I hope this is an indication that drama at MHS is taking a new, and more sustainable direction: toward becoming a teaching program that produces capable thespians, and away from being a series of special events, that do nothing but produce good performances.
12 FEBRUARY 2007:
AUTUMN FOR CHRISTMAS
Autumn Leonard,
principal euphonium in one of the University of Wisconsin's three University Bands, gave a rich, warm performance with that group in Mills Hall on Sunday 3 December 2006. Works included
A Christmas Festival by Leroy AndersonAny concert with Leroy Anderson's stuff in it is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. His Christmas Festival (which the upper MHS band tackled recently) was a brisk, flavourful delight. Autumn got a good grip on the soaring eupho part. Sandpaper Ballet is just what it sounds like it might be: it features two soloists performing upon construction materials. Dawn showed off the group's great depth of very capable solo performers upon more traditional instruments. The tubas were mighty throughout, and even though there were twenty trumpets, their intonation remained pretty accurate. With God, conductor Michael Lorenz had an opportunity to show off his group's controlled restraint, as they made fine distinctions among soft dynamics.
By Dawn's Early Light by Jay Dawson
God of Our Fathers by Claude Smith
Sandpaper Ballet by Leroy Anderson
5 FEBRUARY 2007:
BRAD TAKES THE HELM
Brad Anderson,
principal percussionist in the University of Wisconsin's Concert Band, gave a typically crisp performance with that group in Mills Hall on Sunday 3 December 2006. Works included
Tunbridge Fair by Walter PistonTunbridge (with Brad on timpani) was a juxtaposition of flowing melodic sections and angular rhythms, sometimes overlapping. The tuba was muscular. Rhosymedre's rich, luscious lyricism would be well suited to a brass choir. Brad covered timpani and bells. There is at least one fine oboist in Mills. Louve was strongly programmatic, against which I have nothing. But this work hews so closely to the pattern of Pictures at an Exhibition that it comes across as merely derivative. I spent each segment of Dello Joio's work thinking about which segment of Moussorgski's work he was mimicking, and about how Moussourgski did it better. Scarlet Dawn was heard here in world premiere. Atmospheric, spooky, powerful stuff; some parts rather like the chopper sequence in Miss Saigon.
Rhosymedre by Ralph Vaughn Williams
Scenes from "the Louvre" by Norman Dello Joio
Scarlet Dawn by Justin Schwartz
Poema al Pestre by Franco Cesarini
29 JANUARY 2007:
TONYA NEUMANN IN 'CHORAL COLLAGE'
Tonya Neumann and the UW Women's Chorus performed in Mills Concert Hall on 15 October 2006, giving a program of selections from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, which the group was preparing for their November concert.
'Shake the Cloud, Banish Sorrow'The entire concert can be found here: UW Women's Chorus October 2006
'Witches' Prelude'
'With Drooping Wings'
22 JANUARY 2007:
TONYA NEUMANN IN 'LOVE, LIFE, AND LOSS'
Dido, dissatisfied
The opera was originally performed at a girls' school in England, and though it is now often performed with a mixed company, UW's all-female rendition may be more in keeping with the composer's intent. For a summary of the opera's story of love, lust, betrayal, and tragedy, see here: WikiDido. Streaming audio of the entire concert can be found on the School of Music Event Calendar. Tonya's distinctive timbre can be heard in the selections that include sailors.
15 JANUARY 2007:
NORA HICKEY WINS WYSO CONCERTO COMPETITION
Nora Hickey is a winner in the 2007 Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) concerto competitions. She performed Franz Berwald's Konzertstuck for Bassoon and Orchestra, accompanied by DeAnne Larson on piano. Nora participated in the Youth Orchestra portion of the competition, which is the highest bracket. She is eligible to perform her piece with the full Youth Orchestra at a concert this spring.The WYSO Concerto Competition is a prestigious event. Members of the Youth Orchestra are already among the finest young orchestral musicians in the state; serious contenders in the Competition tend to be the sort who can go on to study at a conservatory and a career in music, if they choose.
8 JANUARY 2007:
LUSCIOUS 'ARABIAN NIGHTS' AT UW
Autumn Leonard served as Master Electrician for a University Theater production of Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights, which ran on the UW campus through last December. It was a rich, wonderful show, staged and performed with great intimacy. Each member of the marvelous cast played many roles, moving among them with deceptive ease. Nearly everyone was called upon to sing, dance, or play an instrument, which they did with remarkable flexibility and panache. The result felt like two hours spent listening to a master storyteller. Zimmerman's arrangement of her material pivots on the strong personality of Scheherezade, who emerges as a character in high relief. Stories are strung along the arc of her conversion of Shahryar from a tyrant who has lost touch with his humanity into a lover who is open to wonder. Brief framing material at the play's beginning and end give it contact with the modern world through the characters of a group of U. S. soldiers in Iraq, in sequences that are both moving and appropriately dreamlike, and carried out deftly in this production. Material for the play is drawn from many of the lesser-known stories in Arabian Knights cycle, with the author wisely choosing very personal tales: we see no vast armies, towering demons, or flaming seas. Nevertheless the fantastic flavor of the source material is perfectly preserved, expressed in situations and human response rather than in pyrotechnics. The choices make the work stageable, but there is more to it than that: the stories comprise a catalogue of human experiences, which the company gave like a gift to their audiences, thanks to the immediacy of the performance. For those of us lucky enough to see this show, those experiences are now part of our own lives. And that, I think, is a definition of good theater.
1 JANUARY 2007:
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Many of the talented and amazing students who have played in the AITDJB have been out in the world - well, in college, at least - for several years now. They're not just sitting on their hands. Here are some of their exploits:
Jonathan Alden (AITDJB '01-'02; SB '01) reports that his "lips are not completely gone".
Brad Anderson (AITDJB '01-'06) has come to the UW Madison, where he is principle percussionist in the audition-only UW Concert Band.
Amanda DeBoer (AITDJB '01-'06) is in the Carleton Choir, the Carleton Singers, and the Carleton Knightingales all-female a capella group; the latter two are by-audition-only ensembles.
Katie Hepler (AITDJB Band Camp concert '02) is a trombone section leader in the UW Varsity Marching Band.
Autumn Leonard (AITDJB '01-'06; SB '01-'06) is principal euphonium in his section of the UW University Band ("Band 41"). Last year he performed in the chorus for the UW Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and he may be involved with this year's Don Giovanni. He also works in technical theater, assisting with several productions each semester. He was Master Electrician for the University Theater's fine production of Arabian Nights. Autumn is one half of Lolecule, a uke-and-voice duo with occasional bursts of banjo; they can often heard on the University of Wisconsin's student radio station. Look for the 'Waka Laka' segment.
Bria Mason (AITDJB '02-'06; SB '03) continues her adventures at the University of Edinburgh. Last year she appeared in the chorus for a production of Smetana's The Bartered Bride. This year, she has joined the Lothian Gaelic Choir, with which she recently performed (in Gaelic) at the Scottish Parliament. She is a frequent performer at meetings of the Edinburgh Folk Society, and is a neophyte fiddler.
Tonya Neumann (AITDJB '03-'06) is a member of the University of Wisconsin's Women's chorus, with whom she recently appeared in a production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She also plays sax with the UW Varsity Band, and has sat in with the Red Hot Horn Dawgs.
Becky Schultz (AITDJB '01-'06) placed by audition as principal oboe in both the UW-Stevens Point Concert Band and the UW-SP Orchestra. She also plays in a quartet. It adds up to 7 hours of rehearsal per week, not counting practice, but she's not complaining. She seems to be in some danger of really, truly becoming a music teacher; this semester, for example, she will study violin, viola, 'cello, and bass.
Nick Schleicher (SB '02) auditioned into the UW Varsity Marching Band, which already has him stepping higher.
Sara Siegmann (AITDJB '02-'06) earned acceptance into the prestigious Williams Oxford Programme, and is spending her year abroad hobnobbing with the likes of Philip Pullman. She has studied, or is studying, writing, language, logic (sometimes at the same time, for the latter two!), Shakespeare, and higher maths. She teaches piano, and sings with the Oxford University Chorus.
25 DECEMBER 2006:
Some members of the
2006 Almost In Time
Dixieland Jazz Band
MANY THANKS
The music groups represented on this site receive help from many people; without that help, we could neither exist nor perform. Thanks is the exchequer of the poor, yet I draw tender on it now, for I have found that working and playing with all of you for the past year has been a gift beyond price. 
Some members of the
2006 Almost In Time
Dixieland Jazz Band
Thanks to:
ALL THE PARENTS
for rearranging your schedules, clapping at performances, schlepping and hauling (especially parents with vans), and most of all for loaning me your offspring for another year.
THE PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS
who have shared rehearsal space and equipment, and trained the fine young musicians who play in these groups. And extra thanks to those who have performed with us: it is a glory and a wonder to find so many of you willing to share your talents by taking the stage with us. We thank:ANNE NICHOLS, for being seen in public with the Solstice Brass at the Bank and the Bonfire, for inviting the SB to play at your winter concert, and especially for performing at the Gazebo with the AITDJB; you are a goddess and a heroine
BRIAN VANDERBLOEMEN, for contributing hot sax licks at the Gazebo and keen clarinet riffs at Lawrence
BILL GARVEY and DAVE HEILMAN, for inviting me into your bands, loaning music stands and horns to the SB, loaning whole musicians to the float in the Family Festival parade, inviting the AITDJB to perform at the McFarland Music Camp, and especially for graciously allowing the AITDJB to rehearse in your band room for the last six years
The 2006 Solstice Brass
THE MCFARLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT:
Dr. Jim Hickey, for offering unbelievable support from and access to MHS
Gary Schneider, for trusting me, year after year, with your PA equipment
The MHS custodians, who remain cheerful and helpful even when we run late or get noisyEVERYONE WHO HAS GIVEN US PERFORMANCE VENUES, ADVERTISING SPACE, OR FRIENDLY SUPPORT
THE MCFARLAND STATE BANK, for giving the SB a place to play indoors
NAZARETH HOUSE and HARMONY HOUSE, for giving us a chance to play our Christmas tunes one last time, once we'd finally gotten pretty good at them
THE MCFARLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, for Christmas in the Village
THE MCFARLAND FAMILY FESTIVAL, for offering the AITDJB three venues in a single weekend
THE MCFARLAND COMMUNITY BAND, with which the AITDJB would have shared a concert, if Bill hadn't chosen the apparently-accursed piece American Salute for the program again.
The many LOCAL BUSINESSES who have been kind enough to allow us to hang advertising flyers in their windows. Thanks particularly to the McFarland Thistle for running our performance announcements; to Ken's Automotive for the use of their letterboard; and to . Asta Sepetys, Mistress of the Marquee, for programming the MHS dot matrix display to our advantage. Thanks to the Wisconsin State Journal for free access to its "Rhythm" section, and to Madison Dot Com for this Web site.
The Second String Violin Duo
performs Pine Apple RagTHE MUSICIANS
who performed with us in 2006 for the first time: Emily Raasch, Amy Kolpin, and Nick SchleicherAnd finally, to all
THE RETURNING MUSICIANS
I don't know what I've done to deserve you, but I will try never to stop. Thanks to Eric Adams, Brad Anderson, Andrea Bakunowicz, Amanda DeBoer, Becca Funk, Nora Hickey, Autumn Leonard, Isis Leonard, Anne Nichols, Bria Mason, Tonya Neumann, Glenn Nielsen, Frank Ransley, Gena Roisum, Becky Schultz, and Sara Siegmann, Zach Staszewski, Brian Vanderbloemen, and Sherry Wegner.My heartfelt thanks to the many fine musicians who have given so enthusiastically of their talents and time to make the AITDJB a success, for six years running now. It is always a delight to perform with you, and frequently to rehearse with you: age cannot wither you, nor custom stale your infinite variety. Farewell 'til the next chart.
- Quinn
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, all items dating before the 2006 Summer Solstice are in the Archives. Contents of the several Archives are indexed here:
Indicies to news archives
