merican rass uintet AFIFTIETHB SEASONQ Volume 18, Number 1 New York, November 2009 ewslet ter Still Leading at 50? N By Raymond Mase Rojak on the Road - 2009 By John Rojak Recently a question came up at one of our master classes on Being frequent travelers, we in the American Brass Quintet tour that got me to thinking can report on one aspect of a bad economy that's not so ter - about the gentle aging of rible. With airlines on the brink of bankruptcy, suddenly there the ABQ as an ensemble. were low fares, empty seats, and personnel who treated merican Under normal circum - passengers as if they were human. Our travel experience A stances I wouldn’t have throughout last season bordered on pleasant (will this make Brass Quintet thought all that much for a boring Rojak on the Road? I'll do my best to not let that FIFTIETH SEASON about it, but with the 50th happen) and we arrived at all our venues complete with lug - anniversary at our doorstep, gage and instruments, ready for chamber music. it seemed particularly rele - The season began at 1960-2010 vant. The question went some - home, in Merkin Hall thing like, “Why does the ABQ con - near Lincoln Center. tinue to do things the way it always has, when the brass Joan Tower was cele - field has changed so much? We’ve heard that type of brating her 70th birthday question before, but this time it seemed less about recog - with a concert and had nizing what we’ve accomplished over the years, and more about why we didn’t seem up to speed with the rest of the invited several groups to brass world. I chuckled to myself as I flashed on the perform some of her Newsweek quote from some years ago calling us “the high pieces on the first half. priests of brass”—clearly this young brass player made it For the second half, she seem as if he thought we were more like the dinosaurs solicited a member of than the high priests. But I answered the question patient - each ensemble who was ly and thoroughly by talking about how when the group was not a composer to write founded in 1960, the idea of a serious brass chamber a piece for her. Being music ensemble was a new concept. Presenters and audi - extremely qualified as a ences questioned how a brass quintet would be more than non-composer, I a novelty with such limited repertoire. The ABQ founders became ABQ's chosen met the challenge head on by not only bringing forth the one and came up with most viable brass music from the past but by making a firm my first brass quintet. I and ongoing commitment to getting the most reputable ABQ performed for Joan Tower’s was a bit surprised that I contemporary composers to write for them. I referred to the 70th Birthday concert. Photo classic statement made by former ABQ trumpeter Chris was the only one to courtesy Noah Sheldon. Gekker twenty years ago saying that he found it ironic that name my piece “Tower the more we had stayed the same, the more different we Music” but perhaps that's a brass player's awareness. The had become. Yes, thirty years ago a good number of brass concert was hysterical—Paul Neubauer wrote a solo viola quintets began building their reputations by playing lighter piece titled, “Joan, Your Phone is Always Busy,” Yossi repertoire, but the ABQ never saw that as its mission and Kalichstein drew on submissions from dead composers to therefore, never saw any reason to adjust its programming. compile a happy birthday medley in the styles of Mozart, My answer to this student’s question was clear enough Beethoven, and Bach, and my piece had a main theme of and fine for the class, but I found myself thinking about it “Happy Birthday” backwards, followed by film score quotes more and more over the next few days. After all, the group from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “RoboCop,” and has done much the same thing for all of its fifty year histo - “The Running Man.” (Coincidentally, the television was on . Continued on page 2 while I was composing.) At intermission, three musicians from eighth blackbird were practicing their trio diligently, try - More on the Inside: ing to learn their very difficult parts. I mentioned to them that New Sprouts in an Old Forest . .3 my quintet was written in such a style that any rehearsal Remembering Arnold Fromme. 4 Hardy Oaks Among New Sprouts . 7 . Continued on page 5 2 AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET NEWSLETTER November 2009 Still Leading at 50? (continued from page 1) them, by Shafer Mahoney. David Sampson and Eric Ewazen, written for the ABQ. A veteran concert-goer at a ry—perhaps there really are all kinds of things that have recent ABQ performance of this program in North Carolina passed us by without our noticing. So I began to examine commented to me afterwards that he had no idea that mod - our operation from top to bottom with an eye toward mak - ern brass music had this kind of depth and variety. In fact, ing sure we hadn’t gradually slipped out of touch with the the ABQ has prided itself in the performance of its own mainstream of brass activity. I considered the question of commissions for decades. Chatting with Pulitzer-prize win - whether the ABQ’s view of modern brass chamber music ning composer Melinda Wagner several years ago I was truly remains at the forefront today. Have we lost sight of pleased and surprised to learn that our then 40+ perform - progress and innovation? ances of her Brass Quintet (written for us) made it by far Since the question was raised at a master class, I first her most frequently performed work. But the ABQ commit - took a look at our approach to education and whether we’re ment to our new works doesn’t stop with performances— keeping up. Our Juilliard and Aspen residencies are the indeed over the past two decades, the ABQ has released centerpiece of our educa - an impressive list of tional mission and have recordings of just over 30 served as the model for works written for the ABQ. what we offer on our tour - Next year instead of a pat- ing mini-residencies. The on-the-back historical ABQ Seminar at Juilliard compilation recording in is now more than twenty celebration of our 50th years old, the Aspen resi - anniversary, the ABQ will dency over forty. Not release a compact disc of much has changed with eleven works written for either program. Are they us since the year 2000. still providing the brass Just for the record that’s chamber music training over forty pieces that are required in the field now available to the brass today? In both cases the world in the last two programs are remarkably decades that might not strong and vital. At exist had it not been for Juilliard, in addition to tra - the ABQ. Add to that the The American Brass Quintet ditional coaching, we (left to right) David Wakefield, Raymond Mase, work our board and man - meet for ten seminars a John D. Rojak, Michael Powell, Kevin Cobb (Photo: Peter Schaaf) agement team does year with all the brass stu - behind the scenes in dents to play for each other, talk about our performance securing the necessary funding to support all of this, and objectives, invite guest performers and ensembles to meet the old adage “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” sure comes to with the class, and explore all facets of life as a serious mind time after time. Looking at the whole picture—per - chamber ensemble. If professional placement after gradu - formance, recording and education—I’m finding myself ation is any indicator of a program’s success and rele - pretty convinced that this 50 year-old group is really far vance, then the fact that our graduates hold positions with from the old stuck-in-the-mud ABQ that I feared I might dis - the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Atlantic, Canadian, Empire cover. and Manhattan Brass, and even with the ABQ, is a pretty I wish I could thank that student out there for his question glowing endorsement. Little has changed with how we do that made me take such a close and necessary look at the things because little has needed to be changed. And while ABQ’s place in the field. In fact, there truly is a lot of the the ABQ/Aspen brass program is designed differently to same “old” ABQ now at 50 as there has always been, but suit the needs of this busy and diverse summer festival, instead of the brass field having sped by without us notic - we’ve still managed year after year to find a way to inte - ing, I think they might still be in our rear view mirror. grate brass chamber music into the unique orchestral train - ing offered at Aspen. Even with the confidence my examination gave me in the validity of our educational work, the proof of the pudding still has to be in ABQ’s commitment to its mission of per - forming, recording and promoting serious brass chamber th music. Looking at our touring repertoire over the years is th as good an indication as any of what music we consider 50 most important to program. During this current touring sea - 5Ann0 iversary son we are continuing our long-standing tradition of pro - gramming Renaissance and other historical brass music, 1960 - 2010 but also playing four pieces by living composers—three of FIFTIETH SEASON November 2009 AMERICAN BRASS QUINTET NEWSLETTER 3 New Sprouts in an Old Forest News Nuggets By Kevin Cobb The ABQ’s Aspen Music Festival recital on July 30th featured world premieres by Shafer Mahoney and David Sampson.