District 8 Music Festival Essay

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.

For this concert report I chose to go to a performance of student composers held at the Kimball Recital Hall. I chose this one because I wanted to see some of the talent that my peers have in the music realm, and also it was one of the only concerts I have been able to attend because I usually work at night. It was impressive to hear pieces composed by students. I cannot imagine creating something as complex as a musical composition, much less actually performing it, so this aspect of the concert was particularly awe-inspiring. There was a large attendance, and I think that much of the audience consisted of friends of the composers and/or performers. I went with three friends, who I convinced by telling it would be interesting to see

The song starts off from 0:00 to 0:12 with a melody begun by the saxophones, and there are riffs apparent played by the brass section behind this melody, followed by a repeating of this section until 0:22 when the brass section of instruments climbs up the scale to a higher key. This section, from 0:22 to 0:29,

On April 11th, 2017 in the Louis Armstrong Theatre, I attended the GVSU “University Band”. This up-beat ensemble lasted about 90 minutes; the talented students of GVSU’s university band joined together to perform multiple different songs ranging from a Waltz to a Dixieland Jamboree. All of the songs that the band played for the audience were all well-known, popular songs that they all enjoyed. Having the opportunity to attend this concert has opened new musical paths for myself and has allowed me to enjoy and kindly critique something that I perhaps would have never had the chance to otherwise.

The first piece the band played was a piece called Imaginarium, written by Randall Standridge.

On October 13, I attended a concert by the UT Jazz orchestra at the Bates Recital Hall. This performance consisted of seven pieces and all were stylistically different, which allowed the audience to enjoy the various sounds of jazz music. Among the instrument groups, there are saxophones, trumpets, trombones, piano and drums. Professor Jeff Hellmer served as director andJohn Mills appeared as guest conductor. The whole concert made a lasting impression on me.

It was performed by the big group percussion ensemble and incorporated the use of bass guitar, violin, and one drum set. The violin was playing a different melody as the rest of the group was playing in unison. At the end of the performance Tony Savage, drum set player, took a solo with light harmonic accompaniment.

In measures 12-15, saxophone began to play the main melody. In the first march to Sense of fun and the response of the melody in the violin at 15. The main melody played saxophone and flute instrumental in answering room measure 23.

The piece starts with just the bass performing the underlying melody that formed the groundwork of the whole piece. After a few bars, the piano and drums aid the bass in creating a nice accompany to the many solos of the piece. The trombone had the first solo that was very enjoyable with long and smooth notes. The solo

I attended one of the many Jazz concerts held here at Friends University. Somehow I always get stuck in the far back and off to the side of the concert hall and I don’t get to hear the music that well .I usually get to hear the voices clearly or an earful of some of the instruments then I can’t hear the other side playing. This time I finally was able to get a perfect middle seat on the floor. I had a great view of everyone and the acoustics were fabulous. Since I’m not use to going to jazz concerts in particular, I asked one of the music majors here at Friends what I should expect. They informed me that I must have the right mindset in order to fully appreciate the art of Jazz. I should be ready for anything and plenty of fun. So with that, I went in with a completely

In between major pieces, they had a trio of musicians that play pop culture tunes. The Violin, guitar, and sax were the prominent instruments for the interlude. They use instruments like the tuba to play the lower tones in the songs. Some were syncopated, especially the song The Entertainer which falls under the Ragtime genre.

Occasionally the saxophones would play a melody in unison and they would sustain tones. The rhythm was played by the piano,

The second vocal ensemble of the night started out with a song which included a twelve bar blues, called “ I use to know you”. This performance consisted of the most combinations of solos of the night as well as using an improvising style. The entire band started all together which led to a Trumpet solo. Then Jose on the Sax did his solo followed by the pianist comping. Then the choir along with the band joined together to lead to a female solo which was particularly interesting since she was scatting. The second performance of this ensemble was “Spring can really hang you up the most” which consisted of 3/4 time and 4/4 time. This started with a female solo vocalist then a male one. The band as a whole played together and ended with a male solo scatting. The third and shortest performance of the night was a vocal acapella piece, “Love walked in” which was short and sweet. The fourth performance of the night was a Richmond Rogers piece. This had a rhythmic swing/salsa feel from the “Lady is a tramp”. This started with the rhythm section, with the male vocalist and horns. Then the female vocalist from the choir joined and concluded this piece. The fifth performance for the group was a sequel to voice stand an acapella piece by Greg Jaspers. This song started with the choir using their voices as the instruments altogether. The final performance of the night was one of

     For my second concert report I thought that I would write about my only experience hearing songs of the Beatles live. The Rib America Festival was hosted by The Beatles Live Repertoire. The group dressed exactly like the Beatles, even had the same names, John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I had never heard any Beatles songs live before, so that was enough to get me off my butt. Not to mention, it was free entertainment, not a bad time at all.

This afternoon, I went to the music concert hall where is located in the music building for the listening hour, a small noon-time concert which is performed by the staff and students from the music majors. Since it is a free noon-time concert, most of the audiences just wear the t-shirts and jeans to the concert. Dresses are not required for the concert. The performance today is given by the Ananda Jazz Ensemble. They have played “Running Away”, composed by Bob Marley; “Madalena”, composed by Ivan Linz; “Conejitos y Ananda”, composed by Abi Romero; “La Bikina”, composed by Ruben Fuentes; and “Chukaro”, also composed by Abi Romero. Because this is a Latin Americdan Journey, all of the music performed is jazz music. All pieces played in the concert are an ensemble of piano, bass, and drums. During the concert, I was trying to be a perceptive listener; I enjoyed the music with concentration and paid attention to the music’s unity and variety, such as the dynamics and tempos. I also tried to associate the music with a picture when I listened to it and understand the emotion in the music.