Wilktone

Jazz, brass, composition, and other things music related.

Wilktone - Jazz, brass, composition, and other things music related.

Category Archives: Orchestral

Guess the Embouchure Types: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Brass Quintet

Tip of the horn to John B. for spotting this video of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Brass Quintet.  Back in high school I took a semester of Japanese and recognize the characters in the video as the kana.  I gave up after a short while trying to work out which of the orchestra’s brass players are performing here, so if anyone knows and can supply us the names of the individual performers, please leave a comment. (Update – Dan F. worked out the trombonist, it’s Jorgen Van Rijen.  Thanks, Dan!)

You can get a pretty close look at all five of their chops in this video, but it’s tough to spot all of their embouchure motions because most of the time there isn’t enough of a range change at that moment in the music to see one (this is why in my videos I demonstrate this with octave slurs, it’s a large enough interval to clearly see them).  Still, we can make an educated guess based on mouthpiece placement and there are a couple of points in the video where you can spot a player’s embouchure motion.  Take a look and make your best guess of their embouchure types.  My speculations after the break.

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Help Save the Lafayette Elementary School String Program

A friend of mine teaches strings at a Chicago inner city school and they are in danger of having their program cut due to lack of funding.  A mutual friend of ours sent me the following email and asked for help spreading the word.

Dear Friends:

I am writing you today to ask that you join me in supporting a music program that is very dear to my heart. One of my lifelong friends, Art Weible,  developed an inner-city orchestra that is due to lose it funding in September unless private donations can be secured to keep the program running for the next school year. I would like to tell you about Art, his program, and my hope that you can contribute in some manner to this very worthy cause.

Art Weible and I are lifelong friends going all the way back to first grade. In many ways our lives are parallel:  We grew up in Oak Park, attended the same college, married our college sweethearts, and we both have very satisfying careers with the Chicago Public Schools. Art pours his heart into his life’s work and his passion is music.

Art teaches at Lafayette Elementary School in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. He is teaching in a very challenging part of town. Early in Art’s career he won a grant that let him build a student orchestra from the ground up. The grant funded instruments for the kids, rehearsal time after school, teacher stipends, and transportation costs for their performances. Art runs his orchestra until 6:00 almost every day, thus giving his students safe after-school activities. Art’s students have played all over Chicago including Orchestra Hall, the Union League Club, and the elementary school where I teach junior high social studies. They are an amazing group.

The financial challenge the Lafayette Orchestra faces and their fundraising efforts have made the local Chicago news (Windy City Live) and national news (AP and CBS Evening News).

I am asking for you to help in three specific ways.

  1. Click on the links below to learn more about the Lafayette Orchestra.
  2. Make a donation to help keep the program running.
  3. Please forward this e-mail to as many people as you can to help get the word out.

I hope my e-mail motivates you to help out and I welcome your follow-up comments or e-mails. I am sending this e-mail to about everyone in my contact list. I hope we can make a difference.

With many thanks…tk

The links: 

Reasons to Give Story/Donation Site:
http://reasontogive.org/reasons/lafayette-elementary-needs-help-to-save-their-music-program

The AP story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110606/ap_on_re_us/us_saving_the_music

Windy City  Live:
http://windycitylive.com/Help-Save-the-Lafayette-Elementary-Schools-String-Ensemble/8177669

If you can, please donate to Lafayette Elementary School’s string program or to a similar program near you.  In this economic climate music programs are being cut all over the country and many of them are in dire need of financial assistance.

Old Masters and Young Geniuses Concert

Tomorrow night (Saturday, March 19, 2011) I will be performing on a fun concert with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra. The “young geniuses” on the concert are the Hendersonville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

One of the pieces on the program is William Schumann’s Konzerstuck for Four Horns, OP. 86, featuring Anneke Zuehlke, Christina Cornell, Paula Riddle, and Mark Frederick as the horn soloists.  They came in for the first time to rehearsal last night and they sure sounded great.  If you’re near Hendersonville, NC tomorrow night and love great brass music, don’t miss hearing them play.

If you’re not nearby, here’s a performance of the first movement I found on YouTube so you can get a taste of what you’ll miss.

Behavioral Violation for Symphony Orchestras

Orchestra season has started up again.  This Sunday I’ll be performing with the Brevard Philharmonic, with violinist Rachel Barton Pine performing a piece I wasn’t familiar with before, Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 46 by Max Bruch.  We’ll also be performing Beethoven’s Overture to Fidelio and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5.

In the spirit of the season, here is something everyone who performs with orchestras can take to your next rehearsal and hand out with abandon.  I should probably not be spreading this around, as I see that I am most recently in violation of the following: Continue reading →

Do regional orchestras still make artistic sense?

Terry Teachout, of the Wall Street Journal Online doesn’t seem to think so.  He asks:

What, if anything, justifies the existence of a regional symphony orchestra in the 21st century? Many people still believe that an orchestra is a self-evidently essential part of what makes a city civilized. But is this true?

He goes on to compare regional orchestras to regional museums and theater companies.  These are probably good comparisons to make, since it’s probably the same group of people who are attracted to these artistic activities.  But what point is Teachout driving at with this comparison?   Continue reading →

Orchestral Trombone Excerpts

TromboneExceprts.org is exactly what its URL states, a list of important audition excerpts for orchestral trombone auditions. The brain child of Seth T. Vatt, it’s an excellent resource as a list of important excerpts, the sheet music of those excerpts, and sample recordings to listen to. Best, it falls within fair academic use and is free to use.

Thanks, Seth!

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