We will never leave college.
After accumulating a combined total of some 50 years of university study, the members of 8bb now spend several months each year teaching, coaching and generally making a nuisance of ourselves at all manner of liberal arts colleges, state universities and music conservatories around the US.
It is always a refreshing surprise to be involved in residency activities that make use of our unique skills as an ensemble. I have written previously about two occasions when we coached groups that had memorized music, at the University of Colorado and Baylor University.
During the last of four visits to the University of Michigan, at the urging of renowned flute professor Amy Porter, a wind quintet made up of some very talented young players (Kenzie Slottow, flute; Joe Bucci, oboe; Andrew Koeppe, clarinet; Conner Howell, bassoon; Camran Wilson, horn) played the first movement of Ligeti’s exuberant, witty Six Bagatelles from memory.
The audience for the class was a giggling gaggle of flute players, so there were many shrieks of shock and joy (definitely better than “shock and awe”) as we encouraged the players to shed their inhibitions and fling themselves out of their comfort zones. It is very easy to forget how awkward a classical musician can look without the protective barrier of a music stand. Suddenly they realize how exposed they are in front of an audience.
There were also a few inevitable looks of disapproval; we were making light, good-hearted fun of a masterpiece of wind chamber music. Watching a curmudgeon from across the room, I could hear his brain cry at me, “Classical music demands serious attention. You are cheapening it for the sake of entertainment.” This is difficult territory: Art v Entertainment. I admit to jealously coveting a (mythical) golden age, when art and entertainment mixed freely, and, um, cherubs danced along gold-paved streets on which rich and poor lived in perfect harmony while watching pigs flying gracefully through the air…
More cool recent residency activities tomorrow…
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