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ALLIGATORS
INVADE CHICAGO!
BandQuest
at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic
Reprinted
with permission from the Sounding Board, March/April 2004,
Vol. 31 #4
What
does a box of plastic alligators have to do with new music?
If
you've ever been to a band conference, you'll know that plastic
alligators are really not all that out of place,
considering many of the other wacky promotional items like
light-up ties and earrings that are part and parcel of that
trade-fair environment. How about batons with miniature
Koala bears clutching their tips? Or knobby-kneed salespeople
in lederhosen passing out brochures about foreign touring?
To put it mildly, the band environment is an interesting one
— peopled by rabid salespeople and equally crazed music educators
hungry for the effective pedagogical innovations or that brand-new,
killer band piece that will help their band place
first at festivals.
The
Forum's BandQuest program
for middle-level ensembles offers both innovative pedagogy
and killer repertory – including a brand new piece by Michael
Daugherty entitled Alligator Alley
that received its world premiere performance at the 57 th
Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago this past
December. The Forum sponsored a booth at the Clinic, and gave
out plastic alligators with leashes and tags advertising the
Daugherty's premiere by the James Logan Wind Symphony from
California, directed by Ramiro Barrera, one of the top band
conductors in the country.
Alligator
Alley was a bit hit. St. Louis retailer Shattinger
Music sold out of scores, and for his part, Daugherty, in
Chicago for the premiere, could be seen happily autographing
plastic alligators.
In
all, three BandQuest pieces
were performed at the Clinic. In addition to the premiere
of Daugherty's Alligator Alley,
Grandmother Song by Brent Michael
Davids, and Old Churches by Michael
Colgrass were also heard.
Chen
Yi, Tom Duffy, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Robert X.
Rodriguez and Alvin Singleton are
some of the other composers who have written new pieces for
the project. More commissions are planned. In addition
to the music, BandQuest hopes
to offer educational CD-ROM to accompany each score. Three
CD-ROMS for the Chen Yi, Duffy, and Larsen scores are currently
available, with three more planned to accompany the Colgrass,
Davids, and Rodriguez pieces (see the “2004 BandQuest
Update” sidebar elsewhere on this page). Each CD-ROM
includes an interview of the composer by students, teacher's
guides, a video of a complete band performance of each piece,
rehearsal materials, and in-depth information on the history
and culture behind the composer's inspirations for writing
the piece in the first place.
BandQuest
was initiated six years ago, and for the past
five the Forum has been attending major band clinics like
Midwest. Our presence has paid off, and this year music educators
from all over the country stopped by the booth to thank us
for the project. In the band world, newly composed
pieces are common, but quality work by major composers is
often rare, and cutting-edge, innovative pieces specially
composed for middle school bands with accompanying CD-ROM
curriculumvery rare.
BandQuest
is doing all just that, one alligator at a time.
2004
BandQuest Updates
- BandQuest
composer Chen Yi is currently offering professional
development seminars through the Forum's partnership
with the Chicago Public School District.
- A BandQuest
clinic will be presented at the MENC/NAMM
Convention in Minneapolis on April 16-18, 2004.
- Newly
commissioned BandQuest
scores include “Mosaic” by Stephen Paulus (available Spring
2004) and an untitled work-in-progress by Jennifer Higdon
(tba 2005).
- Dates
have been set for the publication of three new CD-ROM for
Brent Michael David's “Grandmother Song. (Spring 2004),
Michael Colgrass “Old Churches” (Fall 2004) and Robert X.
Rodriguez's “Smash the Windows” (tba 2005).
For
updated information on all the BandQuest
scores and educational CD-ROMS, visit www.bandquest.org.
Read
more...
OLD
CHURCHES, NEW AUDIENCES
BANDQUEST
PIECE BY COLGRASS RECOMMENDED BY PEPPER
Reprinted
with permission from the September/October 2003 issue of
Sounding Board.
Longmeadow
Commissioning Project
After
Michael Colgrass composed Old Churches,
he was invited to participate in a residency and composition
workshop with the students in Longmeadow, Mass.
Recent
Developments in Band Repertoire
With Recommended Literature for All Grade Levels
by Robert J. Ambrose
Reprinted
with permission, Georgia Music News , Vol. 63, Number
3, Spring, 2003, pp.49-52
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