 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2008-07-08 03:00
Here's a bit of our experience to add to what's written in the Clarinet Cache. My husband and I just returned from ClarinetFest. We found this experience something that every clarinetist should do at least once. A couple of announcements from Saturday's business meeting that will show up in the Clarinet magazine: 1) We already know that the 2009 event will be in Portugal. 2010 ClarinetFest will be in Austin, Texas and 2011 ClarinetFest will be held in North Ridge (Los Angeles), California. 2) On the ICA website, Clarinet Cache is being designed to bring in younger clarinetists. We were introduced to the two young women who have the responsibility to run this area of the site. 3) Some may already know, but the ICA is encouraging a program of sponsoring clarinetists in other countries who don't have ready access to instruments, reeds and other equipment. This program should be in the Clarinet magazine, although I haven't seen it yet myself.
There are so many demonstrations and recitals. So many styles of playing, composers, premier performances. There were solos, duets, ensembles. Clarinet with saxophone, with guitar, with flute, two clarinets together, clarinet choirs. Some were experimenting with multi-tonal playing which can sound tedious but is amazing to hear. We attended the Brazilian event and thoroughly enjoyed it. If one wanted to see the exhibition then some of the events had to be left to the wayside. So you look at the program and pick and choose.
Because of hearing all these pieces we could mark in our programs pieces that we'd like to purchase for our own use.
But are we allowed to say that we're clarinetted out by now? I thought so until the concert Friday evening. The difference is that during the concert a string orchestra is backing up the soloists and it was a refreshing contrast to clarinet with piano. Larry Combs was part of the Tribute to American Jazz. Then three other soloists showed the rest of us how to play pieces that are standard repertoire, the Weber Concertino including a cadenza after the slow variation (Michael Wayne, the new principle clar.in Boston Symphony), Weber Concerto No. 1 (Daniel Gilbert), and the Premiere Rhapsodie (Anthony McGill). I'd heard the Rhapsodie before on recordings but this interpretation was so gentle, so romantically French! Those players simply knocked our socks off.
We met up with Luis Rossi on Thursday. We hadn't seen him since we were in Santiago, Chile in 2006. Friday he performed Ginatera's Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 6, and also Paquito D'Rivera's composition Aires Tropicales for clarinet and string quartet, a real hit with the public! Paquito was there at the performance and said that Rossi and the quartet played it better than he wrote it!
I played under Chuck West in the Festival Choir, spoke with and had a picture taken with Fred Ormond, met up with several of the Puerto Ricans who came from the Conservatory there, and exchanged business cards with several other players. Business cards are a must to take with you at an event like this. Almost all of the professionals and professors were very accessible and gracious to anyone who wanted to speak with them or take pictures.
The master class directed by Daniel Gilbert was very informative for both players and teachers. The discussion and exercise demonstrations by the Physiotherapist specifically targeting clarinet players' muscle tension was very helpful. She demonstrated how to reduce tension and to lift our rib cage for a richer clarinet sound. The board discussion of the teaching methods of Joseph Allard was insightful for anyone wanting to teach and inspire new players. Two of his former students were part of the discussion, each in symphony orchestras themselves. Those were only three of the eight "Research" presentations during the festival.
David Borque from Toronto was going to play "Ghosts" but there were technical problems with the recording and that didn't happen. He did play two other pieces on bass clarinet and is a fabulous player! Several of the ICA present and former presidents performed for us.
The Saturday concert was fabulous as the Clarinet Cache noted. The audience simply wouldn't let Paquito leave even though he kissed us goodbye. The applause was about 5 minutes and was insistent... finally he came back with two encores. He showed his personality of gracious cooperation with the other musicians and pleasure at their playing.
Guy Legere was there with his new models of reeds, which James Campbell now uses exclusively. He's trying (unsuccessfully so far) to research double-reed making, starting with reeds for bagpipes. I asked him how he could tell if the reeds are any good - on bagpipes? He laughed and said that professional players tell him how they are.
John and Patti from Orsi and Weir were there, Patricola (direct from Italy), Luyben Music, Jeanne Inc., The Doctor's Products, Buffet, Rico, mouthpiece sellers and mouthpiece re-facers, etc. etc. Andino clarinets (three versions of a student clarinet designed by Rossi) were premiered in the exhibit section. It's nice to pay for music, clarinets and other toys without getting hit with the Canadian GST. I picked up music with a Latin rhythm for clarinet choir and also a piece for Clarinet, Cello and piano, purchasing them from the composer himself. He gave me his business card in case we needed to ask him anything about the music. (Maybe ask him to add a part for contra-bass?) There were freebies given out, and free advice and lots and lots of information.
Kansas City has a beautiful Plaza area made by a visionary Mr. Nielson in the 1920's to copy Valencia and Seville, Spain. So there are many large and gorgeous fountains, Morrocan designs in the buildings and mosaics, and beautiful shops and restaurants. The Italian restaurant had such good food, and fast, too. You can actually buy good crusty bread there. The avenues are WIDE as is the city itself. It has a spacious feel to it. This gives people a destination, a reason to travel through the prairies.
This is something every clarinetist should do at least once: to get to know professionals from all over, big names in the clarinet community, and to hear different styles of music, and to hear different playing habits in the musicians. It makes the information from the books come alive.
There's so much else that could be said. Others can help to fill in the gaps that we've left.
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Author: C2thew
Date: 2008-07-08 05:53
man, what a great review. I'll be checking the northridge clarifest in 2011.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. they are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which was already but too easy to arrive as railroads lead to Boston to New York
-Walden; Henry Thoreau
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Author: dgclarinet
Date: 2008-07-08 11:43
Brenda did a great job reviewing the fest (I was looking for Brenda the whole time, but somehow missed her). My wife and I went and had a great time. I wasn't expecting Kansas City to be such a nice place, but it really was a great town. In addition to what Brenda mentioned, there were several museums that were well worth checking out, and the food was just unbelievable. We went to a barbeque stand that was inside a gas station...some of the best food I've ever eaten, and that's coming from someone who grew up on good Georgia barbeque.
The conference itself was well worth the money and effort to attend. Sometimes I don't understand why people would not do anything possible to attend one of these things (at the very least one...every year is good too). If you love clarinet, you really should go...dust off the wallet and go. If you're cheap like most clarinet players, there are ways around that, just plan ahead and go. This year seemed to me to be the least attended conference I've been to. Hopefully, people will see the benefits and head to Austin in 2010.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-07-08 13:13
I've bookmarked the Clarinet Cache--nifty site! Brenda, thank you as well for the detailed review--made me wish I could have been there. As others have said, it's definitely worth depleting the piggy bank at least once to go to a ClarinetFest. I've only been to the one that was local for me, in 2004--a memorable experience that I hope to repeat.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2008-07-08 14:12
As usual, we usually remember other things in the middle of the night. Tom Ridenour was one of the exhibitors as well, with his clarinets available for trial. He's another man who's full of information. Also the people from Gonzalez reeds were there from Argentina. The best part of the exhibits was the opportunity to sit and ask questions of all the exhibitors. It was an opportunity to learn all you wanted to know about everything, especially since each of them had the time to explain everything. Personally I wanted to know how we realize when our mouthpiece needs refacing and why we'd do that instead of buying a new mouthpiece, and how this man got started doing refacing. I got satisfactory answers, plus.
A note about the Young Person's Competition - maybe someone else can fill in some more details about this since I didn't pay close attention to the details... In the business meeting they noted that 26 young ones from the US, Spain and Portugal applied. The judges had a hard time deciding on the finalists because of the quality of all of the applicants. Those who won the competition were awarded their cash prizes on stage and also presented with a brand new clarinet. Five clarinet manufacturers were included in those donating the prizes - Buffet, Selmer, Leblanc, Rossi, and one more (?). In the future ICA intends to expand this part of ClarinetFest to promote the development of young talent.
We felt that the news of the evening concerts (and really of the festival itself) should have been splashed all over the news in the host city! When we arrived at the hotel the information pamphlet announcing the current events in town had no mention at all about the festival. The evening concerts were attended by perhaps 300-400 people, all from the festival. But there was room for at least twice that number. If there was advertising of the evening concerts, imagine how many local residents would have paid good money to attend even Saturday's concert if they only knew that Paquito was in town! That would have been a boost to the ICA's bottom line.
When we thought of the $$ spent for the five days and the value received in exchange we felt that the experience was well worth the cost. The four evening concerts alone could have cost the same as the entrance fee if they were charged at market value. But all the other recitals thrown in, meeting professional players and professors, sharing notes with other attendees, it was well worth it.
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Author: Joseph Brenner, Jr.
Date: 2008-07-08 19:35
I must have been on another planet, but I did not know that Michael Wayne is the new principal of the BSO. Has Wm Hudgins decided to devote his career to chamber music and teaching?
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Author: Ryan25
Date: 2008-07-08 19:46
Michael Wayne is the New SECOND clarinet in Boston. Will Hudgins is still principal and Tom Martin is still Assistant/Eflat.
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Author: rmyoder
Date: 2008-07-09 02:13
Just a clarification... Clarinet Cache is created and maintained by Kellie and me, and we are not officially part of the ICA website. Just friends. The Clarinet, in which our print column appears, is of course published by the ICA but we do both the column and blog as volunteers. As the site grows, so does the time commitment, so at some point we may look into finding sponsors for the site so that we can afford to keep it up. However, for now we are just enjoying working on the site and we're excited that we are able to make a contribution to the clarinet community. We also do try to keep our site in line with the ICA as far as being international and encompassing a variety of styles and genres.
Glad you all are enjoying Clarinet Cache so far and thanks for the additional reporting on ClarinetFest!
-Rachel
http://www.clarinetcache.com
Post Edited (2008-07-09 02:14)
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2008-07-09 02:33
So, David - I'm wondering how to answer your original question without sending you the entire program! There were so many works done... some of them would be known only by a few individuals, some were new ones, and some are better known. Where do we begin? Here is only a small sample:
Ballade for Bass Clarinet and Piano - Eugene Bozza
Sonata, Op. 94 - Sergei Prokefiev
Partial Truths (for Bass Clarinet) - Evan Ziporyn (played by the composer)
A couple of wonderful Brazilian pieces:
Sonatina (1978) - José Siqueira
Three Studies for Clarinet and Piano (1963) - José Siqueira
Concertino for Clarinet and Piano (1957) - Francisco Mignone
And more:
Concert Piece No. 1 in F minor, Op 113 for Basset horn, clarinet, piano - by Felix Mendelssohn
Serenade for Three (clarinet, violin, piano) - Peter Schickele
Dance Suite - Tango, 3rd movement - Robert Nelson
Portraits of Langston (clarinet, flute, piano) - Valerie Coleman
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Author: susannah
Date: 2008-07-09 03:09
Did anyone hear the competition? What did you think of the players? And the results?
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2008-07-09 13:44
Susannah - I'm not sure whether you'll hear from those attending the competition. There were so many events overlapping that probably only friends and families of the participants attended. The winners were presented on stage Saturday before the concert and were awarded their prizes. I wonder if Clarinet Cache or the ICA website would have that information?
ICA has already posted information for those interested in participating in the 2009 competitions.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-07-09 14:06
I've sat through the complete competition before even when a student of mine wasn't in it.
Really interesting to hear the various approaches, mistakes that happen completely out of the high, high, really high pressure of it, and to hear the future greats (hopefully) of the instrument.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: J. Schoepflin
Date: 2008-07-10 21:24
So much great and intriguing playing was heard that it is difficult to single out special performances. But these two, among many, seem worthy of special note.
The Saturday evening performance by Paquito D'Rivera and Stéphane Chausse with a "surprise" appearance by Larry Combs in the rousing finale, was indeed extraordinary. The Wednesday evening concert by "Clarinetes ad Libitum" from Portugal was amazing. This concert was presented with no music stands or printed music for the entire evening. Everything came from the heads, the hearts, and the superbly creative intellect of the four fantastic clarinet players and their percussionist. Their technical work was prodigious, and their humor/entertainment component unsurpassed.
Anyone who has yet not attended one of these great conferences should strongly consider attending any or all of the scheduled upcoming events - Portugal in 2009, Austin TX in 2010, and Los Angeles CA in 2011.
SpokaneJim
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Author: dgclarinet
Date: 2008-07-11 01:06
I finally dug my program out of my suitcase, and would like to mention a couple of pieces that I don't think have been mentioned so far:
Scott Andrews played a piece by Leslie Bassett that I'd never heard before...Soliloquies, for solo clarinet...very nice.
Clair, by Franco Donatoni, for solo clarinet, was played twice, but was really played by Paolo Beltramini.
Philippe Berrod playing the Debussy Rhapsody with piano was just amazing. It was like an American playing a Sousa march..it just flowed out of him. Then Anthony McGill played it with orchestra and was just as amazing in a different, American way.
The whole concert with orchestra was the highlight of the show for me. I didn't get that much out of the quartet piece that was like Supersax for clarinets, but the Stark Quartet itself was amazing. Michael Wayne, McGill and Daniel Gilbert showed why they're some of the top drawer clarinet players around today. And how many times do you hear a concert with two Weber clarinet pieces with orchestra on it? A lot of fun.
Speaking of "American"...I sure hope the ICA never has another 4th of July festival. Besides the fact that an awful lot of people have playing jobs on the 4th...the festival did their best to pretend that it wasn't the 4th of July, which is a pretty important holiday in the US. Would you have a festival on Christmas Day and just ignore the fact that it was Christmas? Yes, I know there were people from all over the world there, but 90% of the people there were from the US and it would have been nice to hear Stars and Stripes as an encore...anything. If I went to a festival in France on Bastille Day, I would expect to hear something about it.
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Author: Jkelly32562
Date: 2008-07-11 01:39
Did anyone see the July 4th concert for "Recent Works for Clarinet" at 4 o'clock? I'm interested to hear what you thought of the new music and those players.
Also, did anyone try the new Selmer Privliges? I'd like to also hear those reviewed.
Jonathan
Jonathan Kelly
jkelly32562@troy.edu
Post Edited (2008-07-11 01:50)
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Author: clarinets1
Date: 2008-07-11 16:44
Clarinetfest 2008 was my very first Clarinetfest-ing experience. it was kind of like Woodstock for clarinet players (without the mud and free drugs). the performances were just stunning, particularly the Clarinetes ad Libitum and the Larry Combs/Anthony McGill et. al. concert.
i also attended the Middle Eastern influences recital. the first few pieces didn't seem to fit in, but the last two performers were just amazing. i thoroughly enjoyed the Klezmer playing by Mr. Krakauer. the afternoon with Ellington music was a refreshing change from the piles of "legit" music that i had heard throughout the day.
the exhibit hall was fun, even though it was repeatedly interrupted by the fire alarm. i can safely say that i have never been surrounded by so many clarinets or clarinettists at one time.
as this doubled as my summer vacation, i also managed to cram in lots of other non-clarinet themed activities in lovely Kansas City, MO. there are a lot of great museums in KC, and i fell in love with the giant shuttlecocks. i also trekked out to 18th & Vine to pay homage to the great Charlie Parker.
overall, it was a pleasant, inspiring experience. i will definitely try to attend another one in the future.
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