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Oberlin College Community Winds to Showcase Band Literature and Orchestral Transcriptions on Thursday, May 11, 8 P.M. in Finney Chapel
Story by Jennifer Spitulnik
RELATED
On
Thursday, May 11, the Oberlin College
Community Winds, conducted by
John Knight, will present a program of band literature and
orchestral transcriptions, including works by Percy
Grainger, Max
Bruch, Gustav
Mahler, Malcolm
Arnold, Warren Benson and
Gustav
Holst. The concert will
feature soloists and a student conductor from the
Conservatory. The concert begins at 8:00 PM in Finney Chapel
and is free and open to the public.
"Programming is one of the most difficult things a conductor does" notes John Knight, professor of music education and director of the division of conducting and ensembles. "When selecting a program, we try to chose pieces that contrast each other in mood, style and key, yet still seem to belong on the same program. These pieces definitely complement each other. The Grainger march is a great piece to begin with because it is characteristic of the band idiom and will grab the audience right away. The Bruch violin concerto and the Mahler are both romantic and highly emotional. The Benson saxophone concerto is contemporary, the Arnold Scottish Dances are lively and accessible, and the Holst is an old band favorite and a great way to complete the evening."
Knight,
founder of the CCW, is pleased with the work the group has
accomplished this semester. "My overall goal was to enrich
musicality and depth of expression, and I think they've
achieved that." He is also happy to be working with the
soloists, all of whom have previously worked with the group.
Violin performance/music education fifth year Shin-Hee Kim, the soloist for the Bruch Violin Concerto in G Minor, played a Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the group two years ago. "Shin-hee is a conscientious student and a fine musician," says Knight.
Paul Cohen, teacher of classical saxophone, will perform the Benson saxophone concertino. "He is great to work with and I'm happy to have him on the program again."
Junior music education major John Blickwedehl will conduct Grainger's "Children's March." Although not his first conducting experience, Thursday's performance will mark Blickwedehl's conducting debut with CCW, a group he's performed with for the past six semesters. "I love working with large groups of people," says Blickwedehl. "It's so much more fun than playing by yourself in a practice room. Music education and outreach is very rewarding for that reason. I sometimes feel as if I am learning more from the people I work with than they are from me!"
Conductor Knight is back at Oberlin after a semester-long sabbatical. During that time, he interviewed great contemporary conductors , including Pierre Boulez and Kurt Masur to be included in his upcoming book: The Legacy of the Maestros. The Instrumentalis, magazine, for which Knight serves as a consulting editor, sponsored the interviews. Knight sites the most significant lesson he learned from these conductors was that an ensemble will always meet the standards set by the conductor. " I have a high level of expectation for the CCW, and they consistently meet them."
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