Playing with the Chicago Clarinet Ensemble

About a month ago, my teacher, Dileep, asked me if I wanted to perform with the Chicago Clarinet Ensemble. The Chicago Clarinet Ensemble was founded in 2007 by Dr. Rose Sperazza who teaches at Northeastern University.  The performance contains mostly college students and adults so it is really exciting to play with them. Everyone has been really nice through the rehearsals even though I'm a lot younger than everyone there. Also, Stanley Drucker, the former principal of the New York Philharmonic, and his wife Naomi Drucker, also an accomplished clarinetist, are playing with us. Stanley Drucker was the principal clarinetist of the Philharmonic for more than 50 years and he has played in more than 10,000 concerts. He even played under Leonard Bernstein! We are performing tonight.

The concert should be a lot of fun. We are playing are Pursuits of Happiness a sextet by Eric Mandat, Hasty Fragments by Edward Yadzinski, Ruth, Rubric-Rational; Realisms-Relationals by Jeff Kowalkowski, Mendelssohn’s duo concerti for two clarinets, which will feature the Druckers, Molly on the Shore by Grainger, and Jupiter from the Planets by Holst. The Mandat, the Yadzinski, and the Kowalkowski are all premiers. I am playing on the Holst, the Grainger, and the Kowalkowski. It is a really fun selection of pieces.

The Pursuits of Happiness is a sextet by Eric Mandat. Performing this piece are Mr. and Mrs. Drucker and Rose Sperazza on Bb clarinet, John Bruce Yeh playing Eb clarinet, his wife Teresa Reilly playing basset horn, and Mr. Tuttle on bass clarinet. There are three movements. The first one is fast and happy and features the Druckers. I especially like it when the Druckers play sweeping notes up and down the clarinets' range extremely quickly while the bass clarinet plays a very low and light harmony. There is one part in the first movement when no one plays except Mr. Drucker. I love this movement. The second movement is slow and intense. This movement seems to probe your mind and look into your deepest hidden feelings. It features Mr. Yeh and his wife very prominently. I can't wait to hear it again tonight.

Yesterday I got to sit on on the Druckers rehearsing the Mendelsson and the sextet.  The Mendelssohn duo concerti are being played by the Drucker being accompanied by the clarinet ensemble. The Druckers are amazing!  Just listening to Mr. Drucker warm-up before the rehearsal was cool. He played five arpeggios in the time it would take me to play one. It was really inspiring to watch him and his wife working with John Bruce Yeh.  I loved every movement of the Mendelssohn concerti, but I especially liked the last movement of the second concerto, the polacca. It was amazing how they moved from register to register without any change in the color of their sound.  I find this really hard to do. They moved beautifully though each register of the clarinet, each dynamic and the different styles of the compositions. I cannot wait to hear him perform tonight!  May I'll even get up the courage to ask Rose to introduce me to the Druckers tonight.  They are legendary clarinetists after all.

Molly on Shore is a quick light piece with a repetitive Irish theme. I am playing fourth clarinet in this song and so I get mostly the beat and the harmony under the melody. This is a great piece, because there is a counter-melody always going on at the same time as the melody. The theme is always consistent but the counter-melody changes and moves in interesting ways. This piece is really good for a clarinet choir because of the beautifully light, pure sound of a a clarinet. John Bruce Yeh is conducting both Molly on the Shore, Jupiter and the Mendelssohn.

Ruth, rubric-rational; realism-relationals is an exotic piece for clarinet choir and synthesizer by Jeff Kowalkowski. It changes time signatures constantly so you always have to be on your toes while performing it. It is a very otherworldly radiant composition. I especially like that there are a couple of duets in the middle of the piece for synthesizer and contrabass clarinet without accompaniment. This makes a really fun combination. I also like the way the composer has combined the Contrabass and Eb clarinets -- not a common pairing! The stark differences in the range of these two instruments create an odd but strangely ethereal effect. At many places in the piece everyone is playing similar parts but not at the same time. That made it very difficult for me to play it yesterday at the rehearsal because I was the only second Bb clarinet there. I think it is an outstanding work.

I love how the Chicago Clarinet Ensemble can sound so much like a full orchestra, especially in a piece like Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from the Planets. Jupiter is a grand and festive piece. I am playing second clarinet on Jupiter and I get a lot of melody which is exciting. The piece is extremely light and carefree for much of it. During a slower section, the clarinets imitate the low strings and brass very well, who play this part in the original version. I love the ending where the clarinets are like a torrent, flying up and down arpeggios. Jupiter has a great ending with a restatement of the original theme in a fast tempo which keeps crescendoing until the last note.

MYA's Spring Concert: Be Heroic

Last Sunday, MYA’s youth orchestras all performed at Pick-Staiger at Northwestern University. At the first concert, which took place in the afternoon, the Reading, Cadet, Concertino, Philharmonia and Concert Orchestras played. The evening concert featured the Symphony Orchestra, which played a Concerto with Mathieu Dufour, the principal flutist of the CSO, and a performance of Strauss' Ein Heldenlaben. It was the last concert of the year.

I played in the first concert, because I'm in the Concert Orchestra. During this program, the younger orchestras in MYA performed. Concert performed the entire Dvorak 8th Symphony, which they've been working on for much of the year. I really enjoyed playing with all my friends in Concert. They're a great group of kids. All of the orchestras did a fabulous job, and they all showed a lot of improvement from the fall. Concertino's winds really stood out this time and sounded really great. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see some of the performances, because I was backstage. I was especially disappointed to miss the Concerto played by Natalie Clarke with Philharmonia, but I hear it was wonderful. I was also sad to miss the chance to listen to Philharmonia's excellent brass section. All in all, this concert was a great way to end the year.

At 6:00pm, the Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Alan Dennis (aka Dr. D) took the stage. The first piece they played was a flute concerto by Jacques Ibert , a composer I really like. This concerto featured Mathieu Dufour, principal flutist of one of the best orchestras in the world. It was a marvelous performance. While Mr. Dufour was playing he had such expressive movement. Also he danced through the technical parts with apparent ease. His phrasing was phenomenal! During the fast parts, his playing was quite beautiful, but during the slow parts his expression was so emotional, it seemed to stop time. I was completely entranced. One thing that really stood out while he playing were his eyebrows. How can a person's eyebrows be expressive? It seems extraordinary, but it was almost as if he had extra muscles in his eyebrows that normal humans don't possess, and it really added to his playing. The Symphony Orchestra, played an exceptional accompaniment to Mr. Dufour. Sam Mattenson, principal clarinetist, really stood out with his many solos, and he played exceptionally well in this piece.

After Mathieu Dufour’s inspiring performance, the Symphony Orchestra played Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life). Ein Heldenleben is a tone poem, a continuous piece of music with no separate movements that illustrates a story or picture, with six parts -- at least in this case there are six parts. The first part is called Der Held (The Hero) and is a short, heroic beginning which Symphony performed with incredible grandeur.

The second part is called Der Helden Widersacher (The Heroe's Adversaries). This features the winds and brass at their most annoying as they mock the hero. The flutes really stood out in this movement, biting and harrassing the leitmotif.

The third part is Des Helden Gefahrtin (The Hero's Companion). This movement begins with the hero’s theme and then moves on to a new theme, the companion's theme. The companion's song was played by principal violinist, Amy Pikler. She navigated the many expressive and difficult sections with heart-breaking beauty. Symphony accompanied her so smoothly and sweetly that you couldn't guess what would happen next.

The fourth section, Des Helden Walstatt (The Hero at Battle) is a flurry of sounds. It is a very hard section to master because everything is wild and out of control. It really sounds like a battle! It must have taken a lot of work by symphony to conquer, but they did so heroically. It started with a trumpet call from the balcony. After the trumpet call the three trumpet players who played it hurried out of the balcony, and soon after they appeared on stage and rushed to the safety of the back of the orchestra. After the confusion cleared , the hero’s theme returned at the end of the section.

The fifth movement, Des Helden Friedenswerke (The Hero’s Works of Peace) is an emotionally beautiful section. Symphony could not have done it better with their expression and phrasing, which were right on target. They played it so angelically that I wanted to cry.

The sixth and last part, Des Helden Weltflucht and Vollendung (The Hero’s Retirement from this World and Consummation), is sublime. Near the end, Amy Pikler comes in playing the companion again and is joined by Zachery Popp, the principal horn. Together they set the stage gorgeously for the brass to finish off this grand tone poem.

Throughout the whole work of music, James was on the balcony, directly over the Symphony Orchestra, flipping the pages of a big Flip Thing. After the concert, he said that the giant pad of paper was really unstable, and he feared it would fall on the percussion. Fortunately, due to the heroic efforts of our own chamber music master, the percussion was spared a horrible fate.

This was another fabulous concert to end another fantastic year at Midwest Young Artists.

Chamber Music in the Spring

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged!

I've been very busy this spring, especially with chamber music performances and competitions.  I participated in the Discover Chamber Competition and the Rembrandt Chamber Competition with my woodwind quintet, and my trio and my quintet played in three soirees at Ravinia.

I really enjoy playing in my woodwind quintet, Calcetinos Vivos.  They are very nice and very talented musicians.  Here's a picture of us:

Some of the pieces we've played this year are Arnold's Three Shanties, a quintet by Klughardt, and Paquito d'Rivera's Aires Tropicales.

I also play in a piano, clarinet, and viola trio.  We still haven't given our group a name yet.  My brother Ari plays viola, and we play with a 7th grade pianist named Finley.  We have been working on the Schumann Trio and the Bruch Eight Pieces.  This is a really fun group too.  Here is a link to us playing the first movement of the Schumann:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQC1rObrwE

May is a busy month.  There are of performances for my orchestra and wind symphony and my chamber groups.

Walgreens Concerto Competition

In December, I competed in the Walgreens Concerto Competition.  I played the Weber Concertino.  This was my first competition.  I was very nervous.  Before I performed, Dr. Dennis, my orchestra director, told me to "play like a wild man -- in a good way."  So I did.  I played really well for the first two themes, but I rushed the third one and got tangled up.

Still, I got an honorable mention, and I want to do it again next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNmq5n34GPw

Here's a video.  I think I've come a long ways over the past thousand hours of practice.

MYA's Christmas Concert: Be Festive!

Saturday afternoon, Midwest Young Artist’s Big Band, Choral, and Symphony Orchestra performed their annual Christmas Concert at the Harris Theater downtown. They played exceptionally! When they took the stage, the first thing you noticed was the blinking lights on the bassoons and one of the basses. It looked so cool, and it was impressive that it didn't distract them from their playing. Also, on the wall there were projections of boughs of holly and other neat holiday things.

The orchestra opened with Holiday Overture, a piece by James M. Stephenson. It was an interesting mix of Christmas and Chanukah songs and very different styles of playing from orchestral to jazz to Klezmer and back again. I especially like the Klezmer clarinet solo performed skillfully by Theodore and Andrew. Symphony played stunningly until Big Band joined in with an interesting jazz style. Symphony jumped back in with the low brass leading and lively piccolo glissandos. The composition had a grand ending with the whole orchestra gracefully ending with The First Noel.

The next composition was also by James M. Stephenson and featured the entire bassoon section. It was called BasSoon it will Christmas. While the bassoons were getting set up Dr. Allan Dennis, the head of MYA and Symphony Orchestra’s conductor said that every piece besides Cool Breeze was by Mr. Stephenson, a parent of one of the violins in the Philharmonia Orchestra who is also composer. The piece started with the orchestra and then the Bassoons joined in.  It was a witty mix of Christmas songs and recognizable orchestral themes tied together in droll and interesting ways. I loved how the bassoons played together! It was a really fascinating piece with a lot of cool bassoon parts that probably would never be played by a bassoon normally.

The only piece that wasn’t by Mr. Stephenson was titled Cool Breeze. Right before the Big Band started Mr. Madison showed the audience his love of painful punning, telling us that he chose the composition because of the ‘cool breeze’ outside. I was an interesting jazz piece with lots of solos. My favorite solo was the bass plucking solo. The Big Band played the whole thing marvelously.

The next song was a lovely solo for three violins, Amy, Alan, and Emily. Dr. D said that it was instead of the three kings, it was The Three Strings and that it was a mix of different styles of playing. I loved how at the beginning Amy was playing a gorgeous melodic line and Alan and Emily were playing these really sensational harmonic lines along with her. I was enthralled by the virtuosity of these three violinists. It was really interesting how the different styles mixed together and it was amazing that the violinists could transition so smoothly from style to style.

Three of the choral members, Katey, Rebecca, and Miriam sang during this composition. They each sang a beautiful solo one at a time while the male voices among the instrumentalists were singing “Ba-Boom", "Ba-Boom” the whole time. Many people in the Symphony Orchestra were not Ba-Booming very enthusiastically, but the trumpets seemed to be very consistent in their Ba-Booms.

The Magic of Christmas, which was next, included the whole choral, directed by Gordon Krauspe. It began with a lovely harp solo by Ellie, and then Zachery played an enchanting solo. I really liked the ribbon on his French horn. The horns had a big part and they had an extremely smooth tone throughout. The choral came in and sang with an extremely pure and delightful sound.

Before Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Dr. D told the audience that they had covered just about everything so far in this concert except animals. So it’s just natural that he chose Rudolf to be the penultimate composition of the afternoon. I loved Michael’s trombone solo. There were a couple tap dancers who surprised us and made the concert even more entertaining. It got more and more exciting until the very end where everyone in the orchestra stood up for the finale.

They closed the concert with a fun sing along called A Holly and Jolly Sing-Along, again by Mr. Stephenson. The audience and the choral sang nearly every holiday piece from Deck the Halls to We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was a great ending for a great concert.

I felt really happy as I walked out of the Harris Theater. I can’t wait for the next MYA concert in February.

Ouch! Too Much Practicing!

Friday, MYA's Honors Wind Symphony played a concert with the Newington College Symphonic Winds, an Australian band on tour in the United States. 

Friday morning when I pulled out my clarinet to practice, my forearm really hurt!  It was hard to practice, and suddenly I found that I couldn't play the fast sections at full speed.  This was bad because I was supposed to play in two concerts this weekend!  I called my clarinet teacher, but he didn't answer the phone so I called my piano teacher Barbara.  She said, I had probably hurt myself, because I was practicing too much this week and tensing my arm while I was playing.  She told me to get Aspercreme and a heating pad and not to play my clarinet.

My teacher Dileep called my mom and told her that he would neck strap for the concert that evening.  He said repetitive injuries could be really serious and I had to take it easy.  I put the Aspercreme on my arm and rested with the heating pad until it was time for the concert.

When it came time for the concert, I was feeling a bit better after using the Aspercreme, heating pad, and advil.  I went to the MYA building in Highwood and warmed up in a practice room.  I had forgotten my mouthpiece, so I borrowed one, but it was really hard to use.  The day was not going well.  I was hurting a bit, but it was much better than the morning.  Sandra Wu, the organizer for HWS, told me it was time to start the dress rehearsal.  I went in and sat next to the principal clarinetist of the Newington College Wind Symphony.  He introduced himself to me.  He was really nice and he had a really nice tone on his clarinet.  It was fun rehearsing with the Australian band.  They were really good.  The Newington Wind Symphony left the hall so our Wind Symphony could practice their chamber piece, Old Wine in New Bottles.  It was hard to play with an unfamiliar mouthpiece and my arm was starting to hurt more.

After the rehearsal, we got dinner.  MYA had brought in food for both ensembles.  I ate some food and talked with my friends.  I was a little nervous to meet the kids from the Australian group, because I'm always a little nervous about meeting new people and many of them were a lot older than me.  After dinner, I went and got my tux on, which took me a long time, because it was hard to get the little metal buttons on right.  I went to the concert hall, and I got warmed up.  Dileep, my clarinet teacher, rescued me with a neck strap, because the neck strap would take some of the clarinet's weight off my arm.  My mom came in with my normal mouthpiece, so things were better.

We started the concert.  I played better than earlier in the day, but the neckstrap restricted my movement, making it harder to phrase.  I didn't think I played as well as I could have played.  That made me upset, because I felt like I had let my ensemble down, especially with my big solos in the third and fourth movements.  The rest of Honors Wind Symphony played really well. 

After we finished, the Australians took the stage.  The Newington Big Band played really well.  I especially liked the trumpet solos.  Then the Newington Wind Ensemble played.  They had a nice sound, and they performed really well.

Finally, Honors Wind Symphony and Newington Wind Ensemble joined together to finish the concert with a piece called Variations on a Korean Folk Song by Chance.  I played much better in this piece than in our earlier piece, because I was getting used to the neck strap.  By the time we finished the concert, I was in a lot of pain.  Still, it was a fun concert, even though I had to stay until 10:30 that night because my mom was loading the MYA truck for the Symphony Orchestra Performance tomorrow.  I couldn't help, because my arm hurt so much.

It was fun to meet the Australians in spite of all the problems I was having.  I'm hoping it will heal soon enough that I can play in the Walgreens compeition in 9 days.

Martin Fröst Plays the Lincoln Center

It’s not every day that you get to meet one of the best clarinetists in the world, but last weekend I got to do just that.

On Sunday, I went to see Martin Fröst play a solo concert with pianist Shai Wosner at the Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. Martin Fröst is a clarinet superstar from Sweden. I had been looking forward to this concert for weeks. He launched the presentation with an amazing performance of Premiére Rapsodie by Debussy. I loved his movement while he was playing; it was like he was dancing.

Next, he played a sonata by Poulenc with such wonderful phrasing, it was like he was singing. He seemed so excited while he played, that it was fun just to watch him.

The next piece really captured the day. Fröst played the Theme with Variations by Françaix with unbelievable grace. The pianissimo notes were so astonishing that they could be heard throughout the hall. The expression of his body movement was so interwoven with the music; it was like he became the melody.

After the Françaix, the clarinet virtuoso executed the Brahms Sonata in E-flat major, No. 2 even more impressively than the piece before. His phrases were superb and his tone was just marvelous, like a flowing river. He just throws himself in the music, making every note gorgeous. He persuaded me that there was for that hour nothing else in the world besides his enthralling playing. Martin Frost has his own ostentatious style which no one could ever replicate.

Finally, he received such an ovation that he ended the morning with an encore. He played an animated klezmer-like piece called Csárdás from his album Frost and Friends which woke us up from his lulling, beautiful Brahms. He jumped right into it, and played all the technical parts with such enthusiasm. As the piece became more exciting, he played with even more eagerness. It was a grand ending and he pulled it off with virtuosity almost unknown to the clarinet.

There was a coffee reception after the concert where everyone got to meet Martin Fröst and Shai Wosner. Martin Fröst’s agent had given me and my mom his comp tickets when we found the concert had sold out, so we had to thank him, and I really wanted to meet him. I was really nervous while I was in line to meet him. When it was our turn to talk to him, I was so nervous that I couldn’t speak coherently. My mom and I thanked him for the tickets, and my mom asked him if she could take a picture of me and Martin Fröst. He said yes and my mom took a picture. She said that I looked terrified, and Martin Fröst was so nice that he said, “I looked terrified too, take another one.”

It was a spectacular performance and I hope I can watch him play his clarinet again soon even if he is Swedish and not Norwegian.  (The Bakkes come from Norway.)