West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra Concert Report

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,

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.

The concert performed by the Allen High School Symphony Orchestra, which combines the Chamber and Sinfonia Orchestras, was an amazing concert but was not a flawless one. The pieces all sounded quite wonderful on the outside, but by diving deeper into the music and truly listening to and observing the performance with a sharper eye, there were some problems that appeared in a couple different areas, and those problems came mainly from three distinct areas: tone, technique, and musicianship.

The first piece that the GVSU’s University band performed was a piece called “Fusion” by Brian Balmages. The overture that was preformed (from the

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, I attended the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra at the Pioneer Center. The program for that evening included a Violin Concerto op 14 (1939) by Samuel Barber. With Benjamin Beilman, on the violin, the piece included three movements. Followed by Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 I D major, Titan (1889).

One performance I attended this semester was the Lenoir-Rhyne University Jazz Ensemble’s concert on November 13. The ensemble's performance was exciting and entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed all ten song selections. Throughout the entire performance, a clear sound was produced along with great tone quality. Additionally, the intonation was great across all instruments, not only in the opening pieces, but for the entire concert. However, in a few places, articulations could have been more clear and consistent. Overall, dynamics were well executed and the transitions between dominance with different instruments were smooth. Contrastly, the ensemble as a whole could have backed off more dynamically during certain solos. All the solos were

I cannot believe what my eyes have witnessed. On February 24, 2017, I had the opportunity to volunteer and to witness a Stax Music Academy concert. Every year in February, the Stax Music Academy pays tribute to legendary music artist by performing some of the most iconic songs that were sung during the late 50’s - early 90’s. This year, the Stax Music Academy did an R&B concert based on the Stax Volt tour, which included people like, Otis Redding, The Barkays, The Staple singers, and more. This concert was sold out, and the crowd really enjoyed themselves.

On Saturday, October 1st, 2016, I attended a performance by The DVC Symphonic Band at the Performing Arts Center at Diablo Valley College. The symphony was composed of wind, brass, and percussions sections as well as a string bass and a piano. The musicians were all dressed in black with a blue haired clarinetist and a pink haired French horn player.

On Friday, 27 November 2015 in Houston the Two Star Symphony performed Field of Light in the foreground. I was very anxious to attend. Bruce Munro appeared as concertmaster.

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

On September 30th, I had the pleasure of attending the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the Fisher Auditorium. We walked in quietly to the back row of our section because the show had already started, so it would have been rude to walk up to where our actual seats were. As we took our seats the orchestra sat up there in the beautiful auditorium dressed in their all black formal attire holding their various instruments including the woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussions. The orchestra was in the middle of playing Symphony No. 8 in F major, Opus 93. This symphony included 5 compositions that were all very similar to each other. In most of the compositions they took the audience on a roller coaster ride. The rhythm of the compositions would

Lamont Symphony Orchestra performed three beautiful sets of music that was conducted by Ryan Kozak with Hisham Bravo Groover, Assistant Conductors and Lawrence Golan being the Music Director and Conductor at Denver University on Thursday, November 17, 2016 in June Swaner Concert Hall at 7:30pm. Kozak conducted all three of the of the pieces; Danse Macabre Op 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 to 1921), Isle of the Dead, Op. 29 by Sergei Rachmaninoff which is my favorite out of all three pieces (1873 to 1943), and Symphony No. 5, Op. 107 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809 to 1847). Walking into the concert hall I was flabbergasted. The size of the room just amazed me and the stage was fantastic to say the least. Made me more excited for the show to start! As I sat down in my seat I noticed all the types of people in the concert hall were dressed in many different sets of attire. Elderly people were better dressed with their suits and dresses and pant suits where the younger people in the concert hall were still nicely dressed but were a little more casual. After what seemed like forever the lights finally began to go dim and I knew the show was about to start. In the first piece, Saint-Saëns, setting of the poem, the solo violin represents the devil who is playing his fiddle for the dance. The dance begins at the stroke of midnight in a graveyard. The harp begins the work with 12 strokes,

On November 5, 2016 at 7:30 pm the Civic Orchestra played in the Stocker Center at Lorain County Community College. They played three pieces all by different composers. They also had Janine Porter singing one of the pieces.

On Friday, February 23rd 2018, I attended a music concert at Chabot college at building 1300. The concert was tithe “wind symphony”. The name of the performers was Chamber Ensemble, The Orchestra, The Wind Band and Jazz Ensembles. During the concert Timothy Harris was the conductor, Gray Hill the guest conductor while Joe Bonfiglio, the soloist. The instrument of the ensembles were Horns, Trumpet, Trombones, bass trombone, Harp, percussion, Clarinets and Bass Clarinet, Bassoons and contrabassoon, 1st violins, 2nd violins , flutes and piccolo, Oboe and English Horn, viola, Bass, cello, double bass, wind, saxophone, tuba, marimba , Xylophone, timpani, Piano, Bass Drum, cymbals and Snare Drum.

On March 15, I decided to attend faculty recital at the Walker Recital Hall (WRH) which stared pianist Dr. Nathan Hess. The WRH filled up pretty quickly and almost every single seat got taken. The audience represented people from different walks of life, starting from the very young and leading up to relatively old.