BY PAT FARNELLI
High school musicians from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s Region IV, comprised of 14 counties in Districts 8 and 9, gathered at Northern Wayne High School from Wednesday to Friday to prepare for a culminating concert Friday night.
Ray Stedenfeld, host director, introduced guest conductor, Dr. Jason Worzbyt.
Worzbyt spoke to the audience about the importance of music education in the schools.
He said that no other academic subject combines all of the others as music does. “How do you measure when a child’s heart is opened? How do you measure when a child’s soul is opened?” he asked.
Commending the regional band participants, he said, “These kids all have integrity. If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
Worzbyt is professor of bassoon and associate director of bands at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He brought an infectious enthusiasm for passionate, drama-filled music to the festival with selections that varied greatly in mood and dynamics.
The first piece, the patriotic “American Salute” by Morton Gould, was built around the song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” It was a powerful, complex concert band piece showcasing all of the instruments.
Next was “Rest,” originally a choral setting of a poem by Sara Teasdale which was given to composer Frank Ticheli to help him cope with the death of his infant son, Worzbyt explained. Ticheli’s composition contained both grief and abiding peacefulness.
The four movements of “Tar Heel Sketches” provided snapshots of the Carolinas in American culture and history and, as a whole, provided many opportunities for soloists.
“And now for something completely different,” said the conductor as the band prepared to play Bukvich’s Symphony No. 1, “In Memorium Dresden,” about the bombing of the cultural city in Germany in 1945 that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.
The piece was written as Bukvich’s master’s thesis, to fulfill the requirements of an assignment requiring odd, contemporary notation and using sounds beyond normal instrument sounds.
The four movements, “Prologue”, “Seeds in the Wind”, “Ave Maria”, and “Firestorm”, strive to convey, through modern notation, the human voice, and unusual adaptations of traditional wind instruments, powerful, haunting timbres which evoke many of the emotions surrounding this tragedy.
The band was given direction on interpreting the strange notation and unusual uses of instruments.
The symphony began with very low, ominous tones, with thunderous brass. By the second movement, representing the bombing runs, the lights were turned out to simulate what it was like in the city. The instrumentalists screamed, wailed, cried out German phrases, and gave muffled sobs.
From there Worzbyt lifted the mood with Symphonic Dance #3 by Clifton Williams, chosen by the conductor because the piece is “flat out fun.”
The concert concluded with “Carnival” by Paul Basler, another exciting and upbeat selection.
Participants from Susquehanna County included:
Blue Ridge: Kyle Rivenburg, clarinet
Elk Lake: LaAnna Farnelli, french horn
Montrose: Ashley Distad, flute; Krista Quinn, clarinet; Tony Bennici and Donnie Arnold, cornet; Samantha Bennici, Jessica Bulkley, Felicia Quinn, french horn; Sean Quinn and Chris Ricci, baritone horn
Mountain View: Keegan Ficarro, bassoon
Susquehanna: Daniel Staros, alto clarinet.
Be the first to comment on "Dynamic selections highlight regional band"