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Spring 2017Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series
Friday, April 7 | 7:30 p.m.
The Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series presents two musicians of extraordinary accomplishment at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 7. The reputations of flutist James Walker and pianist Bryan Pezzone are almost legendary in the tight-knit family of concertizing musicians. Each straddles the worlds of jazz, contemporary and classical styles.
Walker has been principal flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded the jazz quartet Free Flight, has appeared on both “The Tonight Show” and “Today,” and is on the faculty of both the University of California and the Colburn School. He is widely considered one of the world’s greatest pedagogues.
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| From the Chair Chairing any academic department has its challenges and rewards. Recent days in the Rogers Music Center reminded me how much more profound the rewards are than the challenges. Music making & scholarship are alive and well
Recently, guest artists Josh Deutsch and Pannonia from New York performed and did coaching with our jazz small groups. The Cuarteto Chroma Cuerdas from Xalapa, Mexico, visited on an artist residency and did master classes with our string chamber groups, performed a sublime program celebrating Dia de los Muertos and offered a clinic in local public schools. Our own Haley Sawyer offered a beautiful senior voice recital. There are more to come from our seniors. With the support of professors Chris Engbretson and James Miley, professor Héctor Agüero conducted a collaborative effort including students from the University Chamber Orchestra, Voce Femminile and the Jazz Collective in an ambitious symphonic program of music inspired by Shakespeare. Professor Crystal Zimmerman was the Mozart piano concerto soloist. In the recent National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) regional competition, freshmen Hannah Boyack, Leni Heumann and Alex Foufos were first-place finishers in their divisions for Musical Theater. Things to be proud of in our building & alumni network
Violinist and WU alum Dr. Hannah Leland ’10 presented a convocation lecture recital on George Antheil’s Violin Sonatas. Our faculty also remained professionally engaged in the fall. Agüero was chosen as a semifinalist in the university band and orchestra divisions of The American Prize in Conducting. He conducted Epiphany Orchestra in Houston and led the Oregon Music Education Association’s (OMEA) District 4 inservice for the orchestra division. Professor Wallace Long performed and conducted the winning group for the Bangkok International Choral Festival in Thailand. Miley completed commissions for the Folsom High School jazz program and the University of Houston in advance of a Visiting Composer Residency at California State University, Northridge. Professor Paul Klemme conducted Handel’s "Messiah" for the Newport Symphony Orchestra featuring professor Les Green as tenor soloist. I toured and completed a new recording in Switzerland for Leo Records with Georg Hofmann and Andreas Stahel, who were artists in residence here last spring. Cellist professor Valdine Mishkin performed new work by Northwest composers on All Classical FM Radio on the Mod Modern series.
We in the Music Department are indeed graced to be among such accomplished students and faculty. Please allow me to remind readers of our hope that you will introduce us to promising music students trying to decide which college experience will be the richest for them. Visit our webpage and like us on Facebook.
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| Choir Tour and Peace Concert The year of choral music at Willamette looks bright. Though the Choir Tour in January had to be canceled due to the weather, (the first time canceled in over 30 years!), our Chamber Choir and Willamette Singers will still be bringing you the tour music at our Homecoming Concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, in Hudson Hall. Please come enjoy our ensembles in their top form.
The immediate focus for the semester will be the production of a special concert focused on the desire for peace in our world. The concert will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, in Hudson Hall. The concept for this concert has come from students within the choral program and will be organized by them.
You won’t want to miss our fifth annual Vocal Jazz Invitational Festival at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 28, in Smith Auditorium. This year’s festival will feature the Willamette Singers along with the vocal jazz choirs from South Salem, West Salem and Sprague high schools.
Finally, remember that we have opened an online CD store, which will make it much simpler for our devoted audience to obtain our newest CDs, as well as gems from the past.
Please reserve the choral concert dates on your calendars and be our guests for some wonderful music.
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| Love, Tragedy and Death comes to Smith AuditoriumIn Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” all is right with the world when Dido, the queen of Carthage, finally plans to marry her true love, the Trojan hero Aeneas. But when a sorceress plots Carthage’s demise, it is Dido and Aeneas who find themselves at the center of her master plan. Will their love — and they, themselves — survive? This heart-rending romance carries the great tradition of tragic opera into the present day, exploring the eternal struggle between betrayal, power, duty and love.
Co-produced with the Willamette Theatre Department, directed by Allison Swensen-Mitchell and conducted by Chris Engbretson, this classic baroque masterpiece is sure to leave you longing for more! Performances of the opera begin at 7 p.m. March 9-11, with a matinee at 3 p.m. March 12, in Smith Auditorium.
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| Willamette’s Small Ensembles to perform double concertsFour small ensembles — the Trumpet Ensemble, the Willamette University Woodwind Quartet, the Contemporary Ensemble and the Willamette University String Quintet — will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, in Hudson Hall. Then, these ensembles will repeat the program at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, at the annual fundraising concert for the Music Education Assistance Project at the Salem Public Library’s Loucks Auditorium, as part of the Camerata Musica series.
Both concerts are free and without ticket. Donations at the Willamette concert go toward summer study by Willamette music students. Donations at the Camerata Musica concert raise funds for promising low-income music students in the community.
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| University Chamber OrchestraTwo unique musical events held at Willamette in the fall marked an exciting direction for our department.
The first, a five-day residency by the Cuarteto Chroma of Xalapa, Mexico, brought wonderful musical experiences to our students and community through chamber music coaching, sectionals and performances. The string quartet’s main performance on Nov. 1 was a celebration of the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead and featured the work “Altar de Muertos” by Gabriela Ortiz. The residency began with a coaching session with our student string quintet on Sunday and ended with student composer string quartet readings on Wednesday afternoon. Willamette students and faculty will be traveling to Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa this April as part of an exchange with the Cuarteto Chroma.
The second notable musical event occurred Nov. 6, when the University Symphony Orchestra performed “Overture,” a program of music inspired by William Shakespeare as part of the WU Theatre Department season. The event was a huge success, filling Hudson Hall with a diverse audience of theater and music supporters. The larger-than-normal orchestra, comprised of members from the Jazz Collective, faculty and guest performers, made it possible for the program to include large-scale symphonic works from the standard repertoire. The result was a great musical experience for our students and community. We look forward to more opportunities like this in the future.
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| Wind EnsembleThe University Wind Ensemble continues to perform concerts that balance standard wind repertoire with newer works. Upcoming performances on March 2 and April 23 will feature works by up-and-coming composers combined with visual art.
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| The Jazz and Improvised Music programThe Jazz and Improvised Music program at Willamette University is growing by leaps and bounds as we head into 2017. In the past two years alone, we've enjoyed excursions with students and faculty to Kathmandu, Nepal, for a week of workshops and concerts; faculty have taken trips to Hong Kong, Switzerland, South Korea and Germany for performances; we've seen the release of new recordings by full-time faculty members Mike Nord and James Miley; and the Willamette Jazz Collective has had two successful visits to the Reno Jazz Festival, where they earned unanimous superior ratings from the adjudicators both times. This fall, the Department of Music was fielding a full-instrumentation student big band for the second time in as many years, along with five strong small jazz ensembles coached by our excellent faculty. Here's to ringing in the new year with some serious swing in our step. Please come down to campus and hear the WJC and small groups in their element this spring, including a much-anticipated visit by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble on April 13. Photo caption: Andrew Mell ’17 trying out singing bowls in Patan Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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| Ford Hall Music Technology Studios The new hardware and software installed in the Ford Hall music technology studios during the summer and early fall are working fantastically, giving our students the opportunity to work with current professional technologies. In Ford 002/4, our students are again getting studio experience on “both sides of the glass.” In the control room, digital recording students are engineering and producing sessions for both curricular and co-curricular performance groups. The performers are getting solid recording studio experience, preparing them for the move from an academic environment to a professional one. In Ford 006, an independent study project by Wil Bakula ’18 saw him building and proofing a vintage synthesizer MIDI workstation. It will be fully online and available for the spring semester. Providing composing and production students access to the actual sounds, rather than emulations, used over several decades offers a nice counterpoint to the cutting-edge equipment like the touchscreen virtual mixing surface at the main workstation.
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| Willamette Master ChorusThe Willamette Master Chorus is pleased to present two performances of Carl Orff's celebrated "Carmina Burana," scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 and 3 p.m. Feb. 19 in Smith Auditorium. The chorus will be collaborating with the WU dance program for these performances. Dance faculty member Michele Ainza and students will perform on stage during the entire production. The final concert of the season will feature the WMC at the Mount Angel Abbey at 3 p.m. May 7 and 21.
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| Event CalendarWe welcome Willamette students and community members to experience our music concerts, which are performed by our ensembles, students and faculty both on and off campus.
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