WASBE Day 5

Day five has drawn to a close it is becoming apparent that the whole event is rapidly coming to a close. As we near the end, I'm packing more and more in in an attempt to get as much out of the week as possible.

The day started with another early repertoire session, this time hosted by the Philharmonic Winds OSAKAN. They were, again, extremely well prepared and presented a session with five works from five different cultures. The Japanese piece by Yo Goto was inspired by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and played on the word relationship of lunar and lunatic. Fantasma Lunare was inspired by Beethoven but rarely overtly quoted Beethoven. It is a striking original work that would ring a chord, as it were with many types of listeners. We often don't get to hear original Korean band music and Koh Chang-su changes this with his Pansori'c Rhapsody based on the traditional Korean two-person dramas played out by voice and drum. Both are difficult pieces but offer something fresh to the repertoire.

Two session put on by the Conductor's Guild on technique and a lunch meeting regarding the schools network, brought us to a great dialogue with three prominent composers: Jennifer Higden, Gary Carpenter and Steven Bryant. Martin Ellerby, himself a prolific writer of wind music, moderated the session. For a full review of this session, see my blog entry on the WASBE web site.

The ended with dinner sandwiched between two concerts by very prominent American Bands: The Keystone Wind Ensemble under Jack Stamp and the North Texas Wind Symphony under Eugene Corporon. The first was a loud but well-played concert that included a trumpet feature by Joseph Turrin entitled Chronicles and Jack Stamp's Symphony No. 1: "In Memoriam David Diamond." Both were exciting and engaging works that brought the audience to their feet.

The North Texas performance was as polished as you might expect from this outstanding ensemble. The highlight was a new piece by Steven Bryant, Ecstatic Waters that successfully paired electronic sounds with winds. Many have tried this combination and I was not alone in thinking that this may be the first if not only successful work that combined the two. Again, not an easy piece, but very engaging both for the novelty of the concept but also for the pure expression of the music.