Sunset Colors, by Alejandro Bernard-Papachryssanthou

This summer, the Interlochen Intermediate Concert Orchestra has had several unbelievable opportunities to meet composers and perform their works. It has been a particularly strong learning experience for students to hear the words of the composers themselves and to learn the motivation behind the works which they are performing. This is one of the great benefits of coming to and  performing at Interlochen. We have such a wonderful community of musicians that do so many things. And, for one group to be involved in two world premieres in the same 3-week session is simply unheard of. But, that is what is happening this session. The Intermediate Concert Orchestra will be performing another world premiere at our Saturday concert in Kresge Auditorium, 4 p.m.

Last summer I became friends with Alejandro Bernard-Papachryssanthou over lunch down at the waterfront.  We were both eating alone and struck up a conversation. We hit it off as friends right away and it was truly my pleasure to feature him on the last piece of the summer in of 2016, Bossa Rojo, by Bert Ligon, as a keyboard soloist with ICO. This summer, we met up again and following the first ICO concert, he asked me if I might be willing to play a piece that he was interested in composing. He has been working on Sunset Colors throughout the summer and it is our pleasure to perform it this week.

He came to class today and spent about an hour with the orchestra, discussing the motivation behind the piece and several specific performance practices. It was a thrill for us to have him at the rehearsal and a great deal of work was done.

He began by explaining the motivation for the piece. It is intended to conjure up the image of the beautiful sunsets that we experience here in Northern Michigan, particularly those that are seen over a lake where mountains do not encumber the view. The sunsets in this region are absolutely beautiful and it is a perfect inspirational vehicle for a piece of orchestral music.

Sunset Colors begins with a quiet Andate section. It is in a major but really travels between a number of keys throughout the work. The opening features the viola section right out of the gate. There is a beautiful melody and tight, jazz inspired harmonies throughout the work. The opening eventually gives way to a beautiful piu mosso so that features moving 16th notes in the first and second violins and a syncopated rhythmic pattern in the viola, cello, and bass. This section certainly presents the image of the brightest, most glorious sunset. This moving passage eventually gives way to a heroic section which culminates on a beautiful, sustained C sharp major chord. We spent a good deal of time in rehearsal today dialing in that chord and even discussed what color it sounds like. We had some students say orange, others felt it was pink, and I felt like it was a deep purple.  (All were correct!!) Following a grand pause, it returns to the "A" section and winds down to a beautiful ending which conjures up the image of the last little bit of color in the sky as the sun finally goes down for the night.

This  work is a perfect challenge for the Intermediate Concert Orchestra. I would say that it is probably a Grade 4. There is a little something for everyone and every section must be rhythmically and tonally independent. The kids are really committed to this work and have rehearse with great maturity. Their work today was admirable. Mondays are always tricky for ICO because Monday afternoon is usually "beach day" for the kids. They were certainly ready to look ahead to the fun of the afternoon during rehearsal today. Instead, they gave their full attention and had a wonderful rehearsal.

We are really excited to give the world premiere of this piece and I look forward to performing it many more times both here at Interlochen and in my various travels around the United States. I'm pretty sure that I will program it at NCSSM this fall!

We hope to see you at the concert on Saturday afternoon. I believe it will be live streamed as well.

Peace.

Scott

ICO 2016 Interlochen Final Concert

Before I close the door on my 2016 Interlochen experience, I want to make sure that I say a few words about the repertoire that I selected for our final concert of the season. That concert actually took place several weeks ago.  I am sorry I didn't post about it prior to the performance. I do, however I encourage you to check out the audio recordings of the concert at the Interlochen Public Radio website. I will attach the link here as soon as it is available.

For this concert we did 5 selections.

We began the program with Mandolina by Gabrielle Faure, arranged by Tom Sharp. Those of you that know me, know that I frequently perform alt styles works arranged and composed by Tom Sharpe. This, however, is a wonderful piece by Faure, originally scored for piano and soprano solo. Tom Sharpe has brilliantly arranged it for string orchestra. Let me Begin by saying that this is a pretty difficult work. We actually had to modify some of the viola and cello parts to accommodate some of the less experienced players in the Intermediate Concert Orchestra. That said, it was quite easy to transcribe the bass line for these areas of the piece. This work includes beautiful melodies for each section of the string orchestra. It begins with a lovely soaring cello line and then hands the melody off to the violins. The B section is led by the violas. The melody then returns to the cellos  featured on the A' section to the end. I must say that this addition does require a good deal of editing. The bowings also must be modified for young orchestra in order to make the phrasing really speak. Also, it takes some time to really figure out who has the melody at any given moment and how the accompaniment parts fit in underneath the melody. That said, when all assembled, this is an absolutely beautiful work. I would rate this as about a grade 5 piece. It is absolutely stunning when performed.

For our second piece, I continued with the French theme. We performed the Minuet from Le Tombeau de Couperin, by Maurice Ravel, arranged by Carrie Lane Gruselle. I became aware of this work 2 years ago at a new music reading session that ASTA presented in North Carolina. It is a little outside the box of what I would normally Program for young orchestra. Each voice in the string orchestra is very independent and it requires attention to dynamic detail, as well as attention to details in phrasing, bow technique, hooked bowing, and other techniques associated with the impressionistic period. This piece features lovely melodies in each section and requires students to be very cognizant of conductors' nuances in the stick. The B section of this work features a muted string section performing a haunting minor melody.

Third, the orchestra presented the world premiere of Peter Terry's Blindsighted. You can see my notes on this piece in my previous post.

Following that, we performed the world premiere of another String orchestra work. This piece, the Colosseum, by Macenna Hanson held a place very near and dear to my heart. Miss Hanson, you see, was the concertmaster of this very ensemble during the summer of 2015. She approached me at the beginning of the summer of 2016 and informed me that she was now a composition major at the Interlochen Arts Camp. She told me that she had been working on a piece for string orchestra. I offered to read the piece in one of my rehearsals and she enthusiastically accepted the offer. After looking at the score and hearing a midi recording of the work, I offered to spend some time on the piece and see if it might be performable. It became clear very quickly that this piece would be a favorite of the students and myself and we could certainly perform it on the stage of Kresge Auditorium. Of course, Macenna was thrilled and we, in fact, performed the world premiere of that work on our concert. It was such a thrill and pleasure to perform a work by a young composer and see her hard work come to fruition in such a magnificent performance space.

Our fifth and final selection for this concert was Bert Ligon's Bossa Rojo for string orchestra. This is a wonderful, light bossa style piece for string orchestra that features opportunities for teaching articulation, improvisation, and pop style playing for young string orchestras. This piece is a grade 3.5 and is truly a pleasure to perform. The melodies have been stuck in my head for the past several weeks! We decided to feature Interlochen faculty piano instructor, Alejandro Bernard  Papachryssanthou on the electronic keyboard as part of this performance. He added a solo on keyboards that was a true face melter! What a blast! It was a wonderful way to end the 2016 concert season for the Intermediate Concert Orchestra.

Again, I encourage you to check out the recordings of these pieces. I could not have been any happier with our performances. I look forward to continuing to write about repertoire that I select for the various orchestras I am working with in coming weeks and months.

Until next time.

Peace.

Scott

Repertoire for Intermediate Concert Orchestra, Concert 4, 2015

It has been a great summer for the Intermediate Concert Orchestra at Interlochen in 2015 and we are very excited to finish the summer with a wonderful performance this coming Saturday at 4:00 PM in Kresge Auditorium. As part of that performance we will be performing four works. I would like to give you a little information on each of those works.

First, we will be performing the first movement of Percy Fletcher's Folk Tune and Fiddle Dance, the Folk Tune movement. This work starts out in 6/8 time, D major and works its way through a variety of time signatures and key signatures throughout.   This is an exciting and varied movement that requires students to shift seamlessly between styles, time signatures, and key centers. Fletcher explores compound time, a minuet feel, a pesante section, and finishes back in 6/8 time with the original beautiful melody, eventually modulating to E major.

The kids were asking me to do something a little bit more technically challenging for this concert, so I put a little-known work by Alfred Reed in front of them. It is the first movement of his Suite Concertante for String Orchestra entitled Prelude and Fugue. This work is in ABA form and begins with a fanfare in rhythmic unison, mixed meter. The B section is a contemporary fugue that really challenges each section rhythmically and technically. The fugue builds to a magnificent climax, and then melts back into a recapitulation of the prelude. The movement ends with a huge allargando ending and a exciting musical exclamation point to finish! This may end up being the opener for our program. One quick note to music instructors and conductors out there: there are many misprints in the parts and score. If you would like a list of Errata, please don't hesitate to contact me.  It will sve you a great deal of time and frustration in the end.

Interlochen is in the midst of a Copland Festival in the summer of 2015. With that in mind, I decided to program a number of Aaron Copland works for ICO as well. For this concert, we will be performing The Red Pony, Excerpts from the Film Suite by Aaron Copland, as arranged by Erik Morales. This version of the Red Pony is taken from the film suite which was completed in 1948. It includes four tunes from the film: Morning on the Ranch, Dream March, Walk to the Bunkhouse, and Happy Ending. Each of these sections includes wonderful Copland style and sounds, and provides ample technical challenges for the ensemble. This work lasts about 4 minutes and 35 seconds and takes the students through 6/8 time section, a difficult 5/4 section, some lovely open chorale passages, a march style movement, and ends back in compound time.

Our closer for this program is an original work by Bert Ligon, entitled Road Trip to Rio.  This up beat contemporary pop piece is perfect for closing a concert and the summer.  It is a light work listed as a grade 3. However, I feel it's just a little more difficult than that. There is plenty of syncopation throughout the work that requires strong rhythmic skill and attention. The pop style is not always a "slam-dunk" with young string players, so much attention must be paid to articulation and phrase beginnings and endings. An opportunity for improvised or written-out solos is  found in the middle of the piece. We will be welcoming an Intermediate guest pianist, drummer, and all of the guitarists in the Intermediate Guitar Program here at Interlochen to participate in performing this piece. I know it will be an exciting closer for our program.

So, there it is! It has been a wonderful summer of music-making at Interlochen and I hope that some of these notes on repertoire have been useful for you.  I will try to post links to the recordings as they are available as well.

My attention will soon turn to the fall at NCSSM.  There may be a few more Interlochen posts,  but things get pretty busy for the last few days.  Who knows, I may get inspired to put some  more thoughts in writing before heading back south to NC.

Peace.

Scott

ICO Concert #2 Repertoire

Hi all!
This will be a quick post on the concert repertoire for the Interlochen Intermediate Concert Orchestra performance on July 17, 6:30 PM.  This concert will be livestreamed at http://live.interlochen.org/corson-camera
So, I hope that you can check it out if you have a chance!

We will be doing 4 works  on this concert.

We will open with Aaron Copland's string arrangement of his wonderful Hoedown from Rodeo.  I gave this out  to the kids as a challenge early in our three-week time together and they stepped up to learn the work in grand fashion.  Interlochen is in the middle of a summer-long Copland Festival and it is fitting that we do this work in honor of the Festival.  There are so many challenges in this work: rhythm, high passages, intricate intrplay between sections, solos, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm.  I am really proud of the accomplishments of these young musicians on this piece.

Next, we will perform Robert McCashin's adaptation of Allegro Moderato from No. Symphony 29 in A Major, by Mozart, published by FJH Music.  This is a wonderful grade 4 adaptation that provides the perfect opportunity to teach Viennese-style techniques, including spicatto bowing,  detailed interplay between sections, wonderful crescendi, and beautiful lyrical playing.  It will be a nice contrast following the Hoedown.

Next, we will feature my colleague, jazz saxophonist David Kay, on Bert Ligon's arrangement of Billy Strahorn's Take the "A" Train. This arrangement is great for teaching swing style to young string students.  We have added student piano and drum set players as well.  Every section must count independently and really understand the rhythms and style to pull it off.  David will be tearing it up on this one.  I am really pleased to share the stage with him again this summer.

Finally, ICO will finish up with Legend of the Phantom Pirates, by Brian Balmages.  This is a wonderful original (grade 3.5) composition that toggles between a slow, mysterioso section and a driving allegro pirate theme.  The kids love it and it will be a perfect finale for the ICO portion of the show.  I recommend this one highly.

I can't wait to perform this concert!  The students have prepared well and it is time to wrap up this three-week session at Interlochen.  Congratulations to all of the fine young musicians that have participated.

Peace.

Scott

ICO 2014 Concert 1

Hi friends!

I wanted to take a quick minute today to run through the repertoire that I programmed for my first two concerts with the Intermediate Concert Orchestra here at Interlochen this summer.  My hope is that this post will give parents of ICO students some insight into what their children have done this summer and some of my values as a conductor.  I am also hopeful that perhaps colleagues will find some of this to be helpful as they plan their repertoire for the upcoming year with similar ensembles at their schools or youth orchestras. 

The ensemble that I conduct is a string orchestra with students ranging from 12 to 15 years old.  The playing level is quite diverse with the top students auditioning on intermediate repertoire such as Mozart Concerti, Accolay Violin Concerto, and other similar appropriate solos and possessing a good deal of range and musical background.  Other students are significantly less experienced and it is always a challenge to bring the group together in a way that challenges and inspires all students, without leaving the less experienced folks in the dust.  This concert cycle, the group is quite evenly matched and that has been less of an issue that some other years. 

For each concert, I always try to select a diverse program that includes something traditional and something more contemporary; something very technically challenging and something that doesn’t take as long to learn the notes and rhythms, something lyrical and something fast and rhythmic; and something that features a guest artist or extended instrumentation.  I think that we achieved all of those goals for this concert cycle.

Concert 1

We began our first concert with Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla, by Glinka, Arr. McCashin (Pub FJH).  This is a wonderful arrangement of the original for string orchestra that really challenges a young orchestra.  We were able to work this up to tempo and do some really great things with ensemble and listening across the orchestra.  The celli and violas get a beautiful lyrical section in the middle and everyone gets the opportunity to play “high, fast, and loud” as part of the fun.  It was a great concert opener and I think it really surprised our audience.  I always like Bob McCashin’s arrangements because he keeps the pieces very true to the original and always challenges the player.  This is listed as a Grade V piece.

Next we did Serenade for Strings, Mvts I, II, IV, by Robert Washburn.  This gem has been around for many years and I hadn’t conducted it for at least 13 years or so.  Dr. Washburn was Professor of Music at The State University of New York in Potsdam for many years and just passed away in November, 2013, at the age of 85.  I had conducted this piece in 1997 with the Maryland Junior All State Orchestra and Dr. Washburn stopped in to hear about two hours of my rehearsal.  He took some time to speak with the students and with me afterwards and it was really the thrill of a lifetime.  His affirmation of my work and encouragement went a long way for me in the early part of my career.  The first movement is in ABA form and is very lyrical, requiring all players to listen carefully to the inner rhythm of the work.  The second movement is in “3” and reminds me of a lullaby.  Again in ABA form, the B section is very warm and “orchestral” in nature.  It is simply gorgeous.  The forth movement is more rhythmic and driving.  To my ear, there is a Native American flavor to it.   Each section gets a feature in this movement and it ends the Serenade with a bang!  This piece is usually listed as a Grade IV work.

We ended our first concert with Cascade, by Bert Ligon.  The piece is in a pop style and calls for a piano and drum set in addition to the string orchestra.  I thought it needed guitar as well, so I called Bert up and asked if he might be able to help us out with a guitar chart.  He graciously agreed and I had guitar charts for the piece within about 48 hours!! (Thanks, Bert!!) This piece is great for teaching a pop style and the importance of syncopation in contrast with non-syncopated figures.  It is also fantastic for teaching and reinforcing dynamics and direction of line.  Every section gets a feature in this piece.  It is listed as a Grade 3.5, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it with a much more advanced group.  Bert’s music is always so well-written and it feels good to play.  I intend to do with my NCSSM group this fall.

So that was our first concert.  I will write about our 2^nd concert in the next post.  I hope this was helpful!!

Peace.

Scott