Intermediate Concert Orchestra Section Faculty

Intermediate Concert Orchestra Section Faculty

Left to Right: Aaron Tenney, David Carter, Jane Schranze, Brittni Brown, 

Scott Laird, Graham Emberton

Today I want to highlight our awesome Intermediate Concert Orchestra Section Faculty.  We are fortunate at Interlochen to have a magnificent faculty of some of the finest musicians and teachers in the country. In every orchestra there is a faculty member assigned to each section. That faculty member runs sectional rehearsals and frequently comes to orchestra rehearsals to take note of the work that is being done and give instructions specific to that instrument or voice. Every year we have wonderful folks and I wanted to take a minute to thank and highlight this year's section faculty.  

In ICO, we welcome our Section Faculty to the first hour of rehearsal on Tuesday and Thursday.  We call these "side-by-side" rehearsals.  During this time the faculty member sits in the section and plays along with the orchestra. They hear what the orchestra is doing, how their section is responding musically, and have opportunities to offer suggestions and insights into the repertoire and technical aspects of the works. These are wonderful collaborative rehearsals and I value their input very much. I believe that our students find this time to be fun and exciting. There is nothing like sitting beside your teacher while in a rehearsal. I believe I learned more about orchestral playing sitting beside my college violin instructor than in any other class. I do my best to rotate our students so that as many as possible have the opportunity to sit beside their teacher.

Additionally, on Fridays, the orchestra students have a one-hour sectional rehearsal with their section faculty member. At this time the section focuses on their specific part and the faculty member offers specific suggestions on bowing, fingering, specific techniques, and other aspects of the music. Sectional rehearsals are absolutely vital to the life of an orchestra. That is certainly the case here. A great deal of progress gets made individually and corporately in these rehearsals.

For more information on each of these fine musicians:

Dr. Brittni Brown, violin

Graham Emberton, violin

Jane Schranze, viola

Dr. David Carter, cello

Aaron Tenney, String Bass

This will give you some insights into the folks that are working with our students this summer.  They are a wonderful group and we certainly have some magnificent teaching going on here.  I want to personally thank each of these folks for their investment in the Intermediate Concert Orchestra.

Peace.
Scott

Interlochen 2016, ICO Concert #3

Today we are making our final preparations for the 2016 Intermediate Concert Orchestra's third concert of the summer season. It has been a wonderful week or so of rehearsals and ICO is really ready to give this performance. We have three pieces to perform on this concert and I know they are all going to be well received.

We will open the concert with Mendelssohn's Sinfonia # 7 in D Minor, Mvt 1. This is a wonderful String Symphony movement that will challenge any young string orchestra. It features wild dynamic swings, a contrapuntal texture at times as Mendelssohn is known to utilize, and requires independent counting from each section of the orchestra. I particularly love how the viola section is challenged in this piece. The ICO viola section in this session is certainly up to the task. This piece always requires a great deal of detailed rehearsal and the orchestra has risen to the task. My goal for the last two rehearsals is to really accentuate the rhythmic motion and variation in the peace and develop a little bit more of the dynamic nuance within each line of the work. This piece also provides ample opportunity for encouraging students to listen across the orchestra in an effort to solidify rhythmic stability.

Next, we will feature two of our esteemed cello faculty members, Dr. John Marshall and Dr. David Carter on the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in G Minor. It has been a wonderful experience to prepare the accompaniment for this work and I feel that providing the opportunity for these young musicians to accompany such fine soloists is rare, indeed. Again, this accompaniment provides ample opportunity for teaching young orchestral musicians to look past the notes and rhythms and to find the direction in a piece of music. I always tell students that their first job in playing Vivaldi is to make every note "sparkle." I am also pleased that my bassist in this ensemble, Jonathan, will be performing the continuo part along with a student harpsichordist. Again, this is a rare opportunity for such a young musician and he has truly risen to the task. The smile on his face during rehearsals has been truly gratifying for me.

We will finish our portion of the program with another great jazz string orchestra chart from my friend Tom Sharp. This one is called Mayfair Drive and is listed as Medium Difficult by Lucks Music. This chart features a cool solo bass line and some really cool string riffs and sounds. Since I had a harpsichord player around rehearsals for the Vivaldi, I asked Tom to give me something that a keyboard player could use in playing this piece.  He quickly send me the changes and a lead sheet for the pianist.  (It pays to know the composer!!) Then, one of our piano instructors, Alejandro Bernard-Papachryssanthou tweaked the part just a little bit more and we will be featuring our piano player, Isabella, with the orchestra on this piece. Like many of Sharp's charts for string orchestra, this requires no improvisation on the orchestra's part and allows for teaching the orchestra swing style and a variety of other idiomatically jazz concepts.

This concert will be live-streamed and broadcast live on the web on Wednesday, July 27 at 6:30 p.m. I hope that you can tune in and check out a great performance by the Interlochen 2016 Intermediate Concert Orchestra.

Peace.

Scott