It’s not often that Durango’s guardians of classical music get together to share their cultural resources. But for the first time, Music in the Mountains, the San Juan Symphony and Fort Lewis College are combining their forces in what they’re calling the Brass Summit.
“We had one last year that we did ourselves, but this is the first time we’ve all collaborated on anything of this scale,” said Marc Reed, chairman of the FLC music department and director of brass studies. He also plays trombone with the symphony.
The summit began Thursday night with a French-themed, high-ticket fundraiser for Music in the Mountains. Reed performed with the visiting guest soloists, horn player Greg Hustis and trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden. Hustis also serves as artistic director for Music in the Mountains. Bowden has been one of the most respected soloists on the circuit since she was 14, with a long list of symphonic credits and awards from coast to coast.
Both soloists, and Reed, will be busy Saturday as the full summit unfolds. They will spend the morning in Roshong Recital Hall, where Hustis and Bowden will speak and teach free master classes on their respective instruments. Also during the morning session, Reed will lead a performance by the symphony’s trombone section.
In the afternoon, all will move over to the concert hall, where the rehearsal for Saturday night’s San Juan Symphony concert will be free and open to the public.
“For Saturday, anyone who is a lover of brass, student or retired people, any and all, will have a great day,” Reed said.
ted@durangoherald.com
Finale to have Pops night feel
The San Juan Symphony will cap its Lollapalooza season and the Fort Lewis College Brass Summit in grand style Saturday night.
“Bach and Beatlemania!” will span more than 250 years of popular music, beginning with J.S. Bach’s unmistakable Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Horns and strings will stand in for the famous organ introduction for the Symphony’s version of Leopold Stokowski’s arrangement, immortalized in the opening of Disney’s “Fantasia.”
The fugue will end with what conductor and musical director Arthur Post called “About as big an orchestral noise as you’ll hear” during his “Musically Speaking” preview Wednesday evening at Open Shutter Gallery.
Soloists Mary Elizabeth Bowden and Greg Hustis will follow the Bach opening. Bowden will take the lead on another signature piece, Joseph Haydn’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. Many know this concerto by Haydn, known as the “Father of the Symphony” to be his most famous piece, which also made history in 1796 as the first piece written for a keyed trumpet. The instrument was a technological stepping stone between the valveless trumpets of the age and today’s modern valved instruments. The concerto reaches higher on the scales because of the versatility offered by the improved trumpet.
Hustis’ solo was written for him by Lee Holdridge, one of the more famous contemporary composers who gained fame working with Neil Diamond in the 1970s. Hustis debuted “Ode to Orion” with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2006. He’ll give an encore performance of the nine-minute piece for his “other” home audience. Hustis spends his summers in Durango as artistic director for Music in the Mountains.
After intermission and Stewart Goodyear’s 4-minute “Count Up,” the 2012-13 San Juan Symphony season will conclude with Sam Hyken’s “Beatles Guide to the Orchestra.” The semi-educational program is a takeoff on Benjamin Britten’s 1946 “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” which used narration and isolated performances to introduce kids to the instruments of the orchestra.
The 31-year-old Hyken used the same formula but substituted 17 songs by the Fab Four. Terry Swan will provide the narration Saturday as the musicians show off their instruments on songs including “She’s Leaving Home” (strings), “Penny Lane” (trumpet and piccolo) and a percussion-heavy version of “Come Together.”
Even Post, who doesn’t call himself a Beatles fan, is impressed by Hyken’s project. Saturday’s concert will mark only the second time it has been played in public (The Miami Symphony debuted it in 2011).
“The Beatles made great use of orchestral instruments,” he said.
ted@durangoherald.com
If you go
Morning events in Roshong Recital Hall; afternoon and evening symphony events in the Community Concert Hall:
9 a.m.: Welcome and Introductions
9:05 A.M.: Lectures by Greg Hustis and Mary Bowden
10 a.m.: San Juan Symphony trombone section performance
11 a.m.: Master class with Hustis and Bowden
12:30 P.M.: lunch (on own)
2 p.m.: Open rehearsal with San Juan Symphony
7:30 P.M.: “Bach & Beatlemania” San Juan Symphony concert (tickets at www.durangoconcerts.com)
