How To Write A Concert Critique

It’s amazing to listen to musicians who do not normally play with each other come together and leave the audience in complete awe. That is exactly what happened on the day of Thursday November 26th 2014. The Bill Crothers Varsity Winds comprised of grade eleven and twelve students along with a few, talented grade tens went to listen to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play. We travelled via a typical yellow school bus that took us to Roy Thomson Hall where we went right to the top level and took our seats. The seating seemed rather helpful because from a distance you could hear every instrument when you focused on it. It was beautiful. The band presented well with their “Penguin” like attire that was kind to the eyes. They appeared very organized,

I attended the University of Indianapolis Jazz Ensemble on Wednesday, October 11, 2017. The concert was located in the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall at 7:30p.m. The band played a total of eight different songs, varying in the types of jazz. I perceived the overall mood of the whole concert as energizing, powerful, and uplifting. I was also able to apply much of the knowledge that I learned in class to the event.

Last Thursday, I attended the Department of Music Concert Series at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. I was able to listen to both the Symphony Band, under the direction of Dr. Cara Morantz as well as the Wind Symphony Band directed by Dr. Sean Murray. They presented a tremendous performance comprised of pieces by J.B. Chance, Frank Ticheli, Samuel Hazo as well as a wide variety of other authors. The event was pleasurable to me, as well as many others in attendance to the concert. By the looks, colleagues families and teachers came to support the talented musicians on stage that night!

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

On November 27th, the Allen Wind Ensemble Band performed their winter band concert consisting of Scherzo for X Wings by John Williams, Hymn to a Blue Hour by John Mackey, and Second Suite in F for Military Band by Gustav Holst.

The music played throughout all of the concerts adhered to be diverse. The instruments, the individuals performing, and the conductor all proved to be outstanding. The concerts proved to be interesting as I witnessed them, first hand.

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.

After evaluating student’s responses, it is important to recognize that teachers and directors have different perspectives and views. Mrs. Grizzle, the director here at VCMS, and three students were asked a series of questions regarding how music can help them and other students. Furthermore, Mrs. Grizzle has said, “ I hope that I impact students to have confidence in themselves, constantly work for improvement, and accept everyone.” This shows us just how much

For my Cultural Event I had the opportunity to attend the UTEP symphony orchestra concert. This concert took place at the fine arts center in UTEP. I choosed to attend this event for a variety of different reasons. First of all, it was a fine arts event, and secondly, I love listening to classical music that orchestras typically perform. I was in orchestra for a number of years during my elementary and middle school education. Unfortunately, I stopped playing in High School in which I regret drastically. I enjoy hearing all the instruments play different parts of the music piece and at the end they all create a beautiful master piece.

On the evening of Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30, I attended the UNG Instrumental Honors Recital. To be quite frank, I was entirely unsure of what to expect as I had never attended an instrumental concert before. The entire evening had a semi-formal air about it, despite the casual t-shirts and jeans many people were wearing. Each musician would step on stage to a completely silent audience, settle on the provided chair if necessary, take a deep breath, and then finally let the music sweep them away as they played for the audience. The passion and emotion each musician had was clear from the intensity of their respective facial expressions, which changed depending on what piece they were playing.

The orchestra performed passionately and precisely with perfect synchronization. The dramatic crescendos and decrescendos really brought out the emotions of each piece. The first piece performed was called “Don Juan” (1888-1889) and started off fast paced and suspenseful. Composed by Richard Strauss (1864-1949), the piece had a lot of dissonance within it. There were times when the piece would slow down gradually then suddenly speed up, returning back to its original pacing. Each instrumental section could be heard precisely and no one section overwhelmed another. The conductor stood out the most during the performance and excellently controlled the pacing and tone of the piece. His exotic movements seemed excessive at first, but I began to realize that he was simply passionate about the

I would definitely go to another student recital or concert. I would recommend this concert to anyone who want to learn the diversification of music because all music has roots from another genre and it makes you more diversified as an individual. The third piece was the most favorable piece because it had great melody, and harmony and balance. The least favorite piece was the French horn piece because it was not exciting and I did not enjoy the melody. This performance made me feel happy and it left me in a great mood but it did not last long. I expected an hour and fifteen minutes performance, but it was a thirty minutes performance instead. It was very shocking because I was expecting to hear and see more performance but it ended. I think the composer’s life experiences can influence their music because through their piece of work it portrays a particular impression they want to leave on their audience. Overall the different pieces reminded me of the classical period with composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and

They also provided small improvised solos for some of the students, with of course the saxophone being the main one. Although, I believe the person playing the bass lacked something. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it felt like something was off with his playing. I’m thinking it was more issues with technical skills or maybe just a problem with sound. His improv skills could have used a little bit more polishing, but he did used a couple of different, simple scales repetitively. The group as a whole had great rhythm and appealing attitudes towards us, the audience. The audience then reflected that same attitude back to the performers. That made it a lot easier to analyze this performance in comparison to others I’ve been to. I particularity enjoyed the saxophone player’s solos. Something about the tone of it seemed more expressive than the other instruments. Those solos were definitely the most creative and had more complexity to them. This theme was kept through most of the first half of the concert. It was kind of hard to hear or at least catch things that weren’t quite so

For some students, like Jillian Paffenbarger ‘18, Ostermann’s song choices succeeded in carrying out a joyful sound. “I think it definitely did reflect the theme of joy. Some of the songs were virtuosic and playful, almost.” For other students, with finals only a few weeks away, the concert provided an outlet of creativity. College Choir member and alto singer Lauren Brumfield ‘20 enjoyed performing these songs. “Music in general makes me feel really happy,” she explained. “I liked that we got to sing pieces about joy.” She also added that “it was great to see so many members of the Carlisle community here.”

I learned a lot in music appreciation, without this course I would not be able to understand patterns in music or different tempos. This live performance opened my eyes to the world of classical music I never thought of the whole “Star Wars,” trilogy sound track being based off the classical era. Each piece that was played I could make comparisons and analyze the songs based on what we were taught throughout music