Ball State Symphony Orchestra Concert Report

On April 26th, I attended the College of Liberal Arts Department of Performance Studies presenting there Small Ensembles Concert. The performance began at 7:30 at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and the ensemble was coached by David Wilborn. The ensemble included a variety of brass including; a horn trio, a brass trio, a trombone and tape, and a trombone choir. The performers were talented, but I did not care for the pieces that were chosen for the concert.

Ludwig van Beethoven-Symphony No. 9 performed by the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra on May 9, 2016, was an amazing concert to view with the many pitches and ranges of the instruments and vocalists. I enjoyed the concert more than I thought would. As I am writing this report, I am listening to it once again. This concert report reveals what I saw and heard during the concert with any significant observations.

I went to Palmetto Middle Schools band concert. It was conducted and directed by Avery Davis. There were around 50 students that performed. It was held luxurious Palmetto Middle School auditorium. They played: Rough Riders by Karl L. King, Afton Variations by Carl Strommen, and Blue Ridge by Brian Balamages. Before I went to the concert I did not expect much, but then I completely was blown away. I enjoyed the whole concert but, I loved Afton Variations the most. I know this song pretty well, and I know that it requires a lot of “woodwind power”, which they had.

On April 14, 2016 I attended the Dvorak Cello Concerto at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. The instruments that were being played were made up of the whole symphony orchestra. In addition, the instrument that was featured was the cello. The reasoning for this is because there was a special guest musician, Susie Yang who was performing with the orchestra and she played the cello. The structure of the performance consisted of three different main pieces of music with different sections within them. In addition, this was the first time I had been to the Tennessee Theatre. The theatre was very intriguing because of the elegance that came with it. The décor was very nice and looked expensive. It is exactly what I imagined when I thought of the setting for a symphony. It was well lit with beautiful crown molding in the celling. In addition, there were lovely curtains blocking an area that looked to be a balcony beside the stage. In addition, there was back drop lights on the walls highlighting pieces that looked to be Grecian Urns.

On November 20, 2014, I had an opportunity to watch a concert entitled “Autumn Winds” at Colburn School in Downtown Los Angeles. It was part of a monthly concert series “Rush Hour Concerts at Colburn” hosted by Gibson Dunn. Gibson Dunn is a prominent law firm whose active involvement in the community expands to all various arenas of the society through their leadership and services. Rush Hour Concert is held monthly at Thayer Hall in Colburn School located at 200 South Grand Avenue diagonally across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Rush Hour Concert encourages the commuters to avoid traffic with this program to unwind after a long days of work with a wine reception at 5:30 pm

I went to see All Beethoven at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday, July 16. This concert featured Los Angeles Philharmonic and violin soloist Martin Chalifour under the leadership of conductor Bramwell Tovey. LA Phil is an outstanding, awarded symphony orchestra that performs at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall all year round. Martin Chalifour is a well known solo violinist while serving as the Principal Concertmaster of the LA Phil. Last but not least, Bramwell Tovey is a Grammy-winning conductor who had been conducting many other orchestras beside the LA Phil.

My first concert experience turned out to be very different from what I expected. Even though I would not choose to listen to classical music normally, the concert has made me enjoy this type of music more and made me think about how much more there is to music than just lyrics and a

Before the concert began, I was able to observe the audience members outside of the entrance doors. Unlike the other Kennesaw State concerts that I attended, there was an extremely large and diverse crowd dressed formally. The doors opened fifteen minutes before the concert began and an usher escorted me to the second row in front of the stage. As the performance began, felt a formal and prestigious atmosphere within the crowd. I began to copy my neighbor’s etiquette in order to fit in with the audience.

The performance began with Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland, a piece that started with a bang. The pang of a gong, and the beat of the drums, immediately captured and captivated the audience from the start. The slow build that led up to the trumpets and other brass instruments folding in, possessed an almost militaristic feel. Upon looking into the composer, it was no wonder why the triumphant sounds produced by the brass instruments came off as militaristic. Copland composed the piece during World War II. According to Elizabeth Bergman Crist, Copland:

The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Kraemer, played at the Tilson Music Hall on Indiana State University campus. The orchestra came to Terre Haute as part of the Indiana State University 50th Annual Contemporary Music Festival. To hear the orchestra play was a delight. The pieces that were played were by James A. Beckel, Jr. and Libby Larsen.

As soon as I was settled, I observed that the concert had given off it a thoroughly different atmosphere from any other concert that I encounter before. The crowd was dressed extremely casual but the musician was dressed formally in ebony tuxedos. The environment absolutely relaxed me and I additionally noticed the arrangement of the instruments. These included nine Violins, four Viola, three Violoncello, three Bass, one Harp, two Flutes, two Oboes, two Clarinets, two Bassoons, two Horns, two Trumpets and three Percussion. The string/woodwind instrument was arranged in the center, the membranophones were arranged in the rear and the chordophone were arranged in juxtaposition of the aerophone. Performers were rehearsing before each section.

I attend the concert “UA Philharmonic Orchestra” on Friday, October 10, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. The performance location is Crowder Hall, School of Music, University of Arizona. This hall has 544 seats. The concert has two programs. The first program will feature Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major conducted by Matthew Spieker. The second program is "Dance of the Tumblers" from “The Snow Maiden” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and "Danzón No. 2" by Arturo Márquez. The conductor is Ace Edewards. He is a doctoral student. The two programs are instrumental music. The group of the instruments used in the performance is: group of violin, group of viola, group of violoncello, group of bass, group of flute, group of oboe, group of clarinet, group

For my final event I went to the IUS orchestra. Originally, I had planned to go see the Louisville Orchestra when they were at IUS, but ended up being sick so I was unable to go. The orchestra played on November 20th in the early afternoon. I’ve been to an orchestra before, but it was Halloween themed so I wasn’t sure what exactly this one would be like. The orchestra I had been to before had skits before they started playing and everyone was in costumes. This was closer to a more typical orchestra than the one I had originally intended. The conductors were dressed in tuxes and one, or two, gave a couple of short introductions.

On Wednesday, February 15, 2017, there was a concert in the Organ Recital Hall. In this concert, there were four movements that were performed. The first movement was Oxycotton by Tim Sanchez. The second movement was Acht Stucke by Paul Hindemith and performed by Samantha Post. The third movement was Blues and Variations for Monk by David Amram and performed by Nicholas Gledhill. The last movement was Misty by Errol Gardner and performed by Nikolas Valinsky, Matthew Chanlynn, Emelie Pfaff, William Gamache, and Heather Ewer. Each movement had dynamic contrast and an emotional

The concert was performed on the Southam Hall stage at the NAC; this is a large hall with extremely good acoustics. It is a nationally known stage, so the quality of the hall is very good. Generally, the audience was very receptive as it was composed of adults, who were all silent. The acoustics were very good as the hall spread the sound throughout the hall without making it echo. This had a positive effect on the performance, because it was possible for the orchestra to be clearly heard from any point in the entire hall. I was impressed by the large number of students that I saw that night because the show deserved to have been heard by many young people.