Posts Tagged ‘Tony Osborne’

Audition Daily Blog, The Return – part 3

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016

A very quick post … tonight’s practice session went well. Perhaps because the last thing I did last night was practice? And I ran over everything. So my brain had a chance to work on things overnight?

I also have to say that I gave a fair amount of thought and practice over the last few days to this article on bow speed and distribution from The Strad. I took it to heart, ‘invented’ some exercises, and have been applying the concepts to the excerpts. Very helpful.


In other news, I have to get serious about organizing the group for “Bassapalooza” at Valparaiso University on October 28. Our friend Dr. Phillip Serna would like us to close out the evening with a performance. (last year’s Facebook post)

I hope to perform “Enambered” and a new arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter by Michael G. Miller, and probably something from Simon Garcia or Tony Osborne.

Reading Session 2016-01-15

Saturday, January 23rd, 2016

It was a cold night, but we had a rewarding reading session on Friday, January 15.

People:

  • Marc Temkin
  • Bjorn Villesvik
  • Phillip Serna
  • Jacque Harper

This was great for me. Phillip and I have crossed paths a number of times over the years. At separate times, we were both students of Stephen Tramontozzi at the San Francisco Conservatory. But to my recollection, we had not played together. So it was good to do that. Marc is someone I met briefly many years ago at one of our early performances, but hadn’t seen since. He encouraged Bjorn to join us, and I’m glad he did. I’m always happy to expand my circle of colleagues.

Repertoire

  • Tomas Luis de Victoria, arr. Cameron – Three Spanish Motets
  • Tony Osborne – Sonnet for a Summer’s Day
  • Ernst Mahle – Quartet
  • Marc Temkin – work in progress
  • Serge Prokofiev, arr Serna – March from The Love of Three Oranges
  • Joseph Lauber – Quartet
  • Hindemith, arr Harper – Six Chansons
  • Wasserman – Pieces for Basses

The ensemble has read or performed all of these–except for Marc’s sketch, Tony Osborne’s ‘sonnet’ and the Wasserman piece–in the past, so I don’t have a lot of new comments on them. As always, it was energizing to be able to make music together.

I look forward to the opportunity to perform Sonnet for a Summer’s Day, in the hopes that I can encourage my wife to sing the soprano part. Rob Wasserman’s piece I’ve attempted to get through several times, but it seems to require more preparation than a pick-up reading session. I’m also not fond of the gimmick of the first movement being for a solo player, the second a duet, the third a trio etc. If I’ve gone to the trouble of finding five players, I want to make use of them. Marc’s work, completely and somewhat abashedly incomplete, shows promise. Always happy to read through something to give a composer a chance to hear ideas.

My only regret for the evening was that I failed to print out the parts for David Heyes’ work The Last Poppy. I really meant to. My apologies, David! Next time for sure.

Performance Wrap Up – Bass Festivals

Saturday, March 14th, 2015

In January and February, we performed at two local bass festivals: at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on January 10, and the Chicago Bass Festival (held in Highland Park at the Ravinia Festival grounds) on February 1.

UW-W Bass Fest

The drive to get to Whitewater, Wisconsin from Chicago is long. I got a ride there from Julian, and his tax filing for 2015 will show this gig as responsible for 200+ miles that day. And it was really, really cold! But don’t get me wrong, I love playing this festival (as I love any playing). It’s small, but Bradley Townsend is dedicated to getting young bassists in Whitewater and the surrounding areas the exposure to players and techniques.

I had originally planned to have the group play Frank Proto’s 1964 Quartet at both festivals. But a last-minute personnel change scuttled that plan. And I think that Bradley was a bit disappointed that we didn’t bring that challenging piece to his audience. Nonetheless, we were well-received. And we’ll revive that challenge for next year!

My friend Matt Erion made a recording of the performance for us, but I’ll be honest I haven’t listened to it, and probably won’t for some time until I stumble across it one day attempting to declutter my computer.

Chicago Bass Festival

I brought some better recording equipment to the Chicago Bass Festival, and I have listened to that recording a few times now.

The MYA van getting snowed in at #BassFestBlizzard

The MYA van getting snowed in at #BassFestBlizzard

First, that was quite a day! It had snowed Saturday night, and was still snowing Sunday morning as I got packed up to drive to Highland Park, IL. The weather service was forecasting blizzard conditions for 2 pm, meaning the drive home (about 5 pm) would be quite an adventure! And getting there was an adventure, too. When I got to the exit for Highland Park, there were two cars stuck on the exit ramp. I slowed down, but made the decision to pass the exit: I don’t think my Mazda2 had the ground clearance to make it through the drifts collecting on the roadway. I had enough time before the festival start, and Apple Maps on my phone, so I took the chance that I would be able to find my way back from the next exit.

Arriving at the festival after making it through the backwoods of Highland Park. Snow fell throughout the day.

Arriving at the festival after making it through the backwoods of Highland Park. Snow fell throughout the day.

The festival was definitely still on, and I arrived in time. Ben Rusch, the coordinator, was manning the front desk, since his student volunteer(s) had not arrived. We knew we would have some stories to tell from #BassFestBlizzard. In the end, I believe about half of the registered attendees actually made it that day. I was relieved that by noon all six bassists and our marimba player were present!

I was happy to be there in time for David Murray’s class on dancing to the Bach ‘cello suites. If you hear he is offering this again, I encourage you to attend … it will open your eyes on the performance of these staples of the adopted bass repertoire.

As always, I was really happy to be a part of the festival.

A wise person I know reminds me to treat the recording of a live performance as something unique, and to not judge it too harshly. There are stresses and conditions when performing live that are specific to live performance, and until you as a group have a lot of experience together, you won’t sound as good as you do when rehearsing. As I said, wise words. But here is some reflection and analysis of our performance. (.pdf: Program Chicago Bass Festival.)

Dream Time – the sound is rich and full! Listening back to it, I really remember why I wanted to have Julian Romane as part of the group – he has an attack sound that is really sort of marvelously aggressive. The performance has a lot of excitement and energy and I love the piece. But our execution is bedeviled by rhythmic sloppiness, missed entrances and the occasional intonation woes. I know it could have been better. I wish I had had both the time and the discipline to record our rehearsals and really make everyone listen to them so we could have identified problem spots and ironed them out.

Quartet 1987 – as in the other pieces, there is a really good sound across the group and it’s such a emotionally rich piece to play. But there are the occasional rhythmic / ensemble problems. And my own occasional pitch inaccuracy (oh damn, that was supposed to be a dominant rather than a major seventh chord!) But still, there is a real emotional resonance across much of the performance, and I’m happy about that! I can see also that some of my colleagues suffer from the same occasional lack of concentration that I do (missed entrances). But there is also some great ensemble playing, rhythmically tight and exciting.

At this point in the program, we added two more bass players to the mix, bringing us to a total of six on stage!

Livre – the texture of four basses playing the vibraphone part works very nicely, and Josh Harrison and Doug Johnson carry their parts beautifully. And happily there is only one moment—but very very obvious—when one of the pizzicato voices (one note per measure for each of the other four bassists) miss an entrance.

Rural Sketches – a much better recording than the premiere. Doug Johnson and Andy Anderson doing great work on those highest voices. And the more I listen to this piece, the more I like it. Matthew Coley’s marimba playing seems flawless. The articulation of the basses is sometimes lost, which is probably more a function of the microphones and their placement than of our performance or the piece. Ensemble is good (Well, except for that one impossible bit) (but where would we have been if not for our conductor, Leslie B. Dunner!).  Neal Rodack, playing with us for the first time, acquitted himself quite well. I am enjoying listening to our performance; I wish we could do it again with more rehearsal time. https://soundcloud.com/jacque-harper/rural-sketches (audio only) and youtu.be/mbmS23_105o (video).

bass sextet with marimba

The Chicago Bass Ensemble, with Matthew Coley, marimba, and Leslie B. Dunner, conductor, at the 2015 Chicago Bass Festival.

Running this group is something I really love doing. And also something that I find really challenging. Why? Because it’s not working the way I’d like it to. I really want a collaborative atmosphere, with a committed group of the same people, constant across gigs. I want the group to sound really polished and exciting. And I haven’t been able to achieve that.

But it might be for lack of trying.

I have always preferred a model of rehearsals dedicated to a specific performance. Rehearsing every week with no specific goal in sight has always seemed to me to be the mark of an amateur ensemble. But I have to admit that in the earlier years of this group, that was the model we followed, and we did sound better for it. My mistake there was probably that at some point I should have been more aggressive about finding “ends,” that is to say some kind of performances. Doing so would have kept up the interest of two critical players who ended up declining to participate further (at the time).

So, as a leader I think I must renew the effort to stabilize the group’s membership, and return to a regular practice schedule with the goal of sounding good. Further ends will materialize as needed.

This is quite a long post. Have you read all the way through it? Were you at either of these performances? What did you think? Do you play in a band or an ‘ensemble’ of some sort? What is your organizational style and what are your goals? Let me know in the comments.

Timing, Revised

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

So, I admit that I’m not as prepared for our performance this weekend as I would like to be. The relatively late change in personnel–which I haven’t blogged about–definitely threw me for a loop. As evidence, I cite my previous post, Timing.
I didn’t really think through all the possibilities for program order. There’s one order that occurred to me earlier today that actually seems really good:

  • Quartet (by Joseph Lauber), two of four movements,
  • Livre (by ‘cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, arrangement for four basses by Jacque Harper),
  • Double Bass Quartet 1987 (by David Anderson), five movements.

in the 2:00 pm slot, saving

  • Dream Time (by Tony Osborne)

for the end-of-day performance.

This gives a nice arc and an exciting finish to the 2:00 session, and leaves a showy piece for the end-of-day.

I definitely like to make decisions like this in collaboration with the rest of the group, so we’ll discuss it at tonight’s rehearsal. But I’m glad that I came up with this order. It feels much better thought-out than playing the Lauber incomplete at the finale.

The other task I haven’t done for this concert is to send a message to the mailing list. But to atone for that, I HAVE made entries in the Daily Dose of Double Bass Calendar for both the UW-W and Chicago Bass Festivals. So that’s something, anyway!

Timing

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015

A really elemental post. I am going to double-check the timing of the pieces we’ll be playing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Bass Fest next weekend.

We have 45 minutes to play (2:00 pm to 2:45 pm), and we will also play something on the end-of-day concert. When you get down to it, we have four pieces set up for this performance:

  • Livre (by ‘cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, arrangement for four basses by Jacque Harper): 4’ 30″
  • Dream Time (by Tony Osborne): 5′ 15″
  • Double Bass Quartet 1987 (by David Anderson), five movements: 2′ 30″, 3′ 04″, 2′ 58″, 3′ 28″, 7′ 05″
  • Quartet (by Joseph Lauber), two of four movements: 3′ 39″, 1′ 44″

Some of these times are “calculated,” that is, by me playing them through with a metronome. Others are from “experience” of previous times we have played them.

That is a total time of 34′ 13″. If we allow about three minutes between each piece for some talking, tuning and page aligning–which is generous, we come out with about 46 minutes. Perhaps instead of doing the two movements of the Lauber during the 2:00 pm slot, we’ll save them for the end-of-day concert. That leaves us maybe a tad under what would be perfect for the afternoon, but not badly.

If the guys feel we can stretch, and include some of the other movements of the Lauber, this could be recalculated.

 

February 1, 2015, Chicago Bass Festival

Tuesday, December 30th, 2014

Once again, we’ll appear at the Chicago Bass Festival!

February 1, 2015, on the grounds of the Ravinia Festival – see the link above for details. Festival registration for full participation is $50 ($45 for MYA members), but if you inquire, you can purchase an “observer” ticket for $15. This allows you to watch all the lectures, workshops and performances, but not actively participate. Perfect if you’d just like to see us perform.

The festival begins at 9:00 am, and we are currently scheduled to perform at 1:00 pm in Bennett-Gordon hall.

Performers:

  • Josh Harrison
  • Doug Johnson
  • Julian Romane
  • Jacque Harper
  • Andy Anderson
  • Neal Rodack
  • Matthew Coley, marimba
  • Leslie B. Dunner, conductor

At this performance, we’ll reprise the piece we premiered in March, 2014, Rural Sketches for marimba and six double basses!

Program:

  • Anderson: Quartet 1987
  • Osborne: Dreamtime
  • Jeanrenaud, arr Harper: Livre
  • Iachimciuc: Rural Sketches
  • Byrd, arr Cameron: Ave Verum Corpus

This is the program as a .pdf file.
 

updated 8 Jan with final players, and formatting changes

updated 16 Jan with information about the Observer ticket. See the second-to-last question in the Bass Festival FAQ. And added schedule information.

January 10, 2015, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

Tuesday, December 30th, 2014

Bass Festival

University of Wisconsin, Whitewater

Returning again to the stage where we debuted as the Four Js so many years ago!

January 10, 2015, 2:00 to 2:45 pm, at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI. Visit the link above to register for the festival.

Performers:

  • Josh Harrison
  • Doug Johnson
  • Julian Romane
  • Jacque Harper

“Positions” i.e., Bass I, Bass II etc. are rotated on each piece according to whim and interest.

Program:

  • Joseph Lauber (1864-1952): movements one and two from 1942 quartet
    • Andante espressivo
    • Allegretto scherzando
  • Joan Jeanrenaud (b. 1956), arr Harper: Livre
  • David Anderson (b. 1962): Quartet 1987
    • Wedding Music I
    • Rondo/Dance
    • Recitative
    • Wedding Music II
    • Finale

At the end-of-day “faculty performance,” we’ll play Tony Osborne’s (b. 1947) Dream Time.

—-

updated 7 January with program order and time.

updated 8-9 January with composer’s dates, movement titles.

Review, October 13

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

One of the first reviews written about us, from our October 13 performance

Thomas and I went to the Chicago Bass Ensemble performance the Sunday before the wedding.  It was truly wonderful, four basses playing together and the music reaching deep inside.  The musicians looked dapper, each with a shirt of different colors.  Jacque performed a remarkable and what seemed to be a difficult solo with virtuosity that I would not mind hearing again.  It was both an artistically nurturing afternoon and an occasion to have a pick to a side of Jacque that, because of the distance, might not be very well known and or experienced.  I recommend that you arrange your next trip to coincide with a performance.  Go, Chicago Bass Ensemble, Go!!!

Okay, full disclosure … that review is written by my mother-in-law, who I adore. But I couldn’t resist sharing it.

Updates

We’ve begun working on Harrison’s Clocks, a recent work by Tony Osborne, for our January 11 appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater bass festival.

I’ve also committed to co-commissioning a piece for marimba/percussion with six basses, which will be premiered on March 31 in downtown Chicago and will feature Matthew Coley. I’ll write more about this later.

January 11, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Bass Festival

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

We’ll perform on the program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Bass Festival on January 11, 2014.

More details to come! Don’t hesitate to sign up for our mailing list in order to get updates delivered.

We’ll perform Tony Osborne’s Harrison’s Clocks, which I’ve been wanting to get to for about a year now. In addition, we’ll perform

  • Danny’s Bass Camp, an arrangement by Patrick Neher of a familiar melody
  • Quand mon mari, one of Orlando Di Lassus’ Chansons arranged by Michael Cameron, and
  • Dance No. 2 by Teppo Hauta-Aho

Performers this time ’round:

Quite a few years ago, we played at this festival when Jason Heath was running it. This is close to the same personnel as played then, and we were four Js then as well!

October 13, North Shore Baptist Church

Thursday, September 5th, 2013

We’re on the schedule for a performance October 13, 2013 at North Shore Baptist Church in Chicago

ssslogoNorth Shore Baptist Church
5244 North Lakewood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640

2:00 pm, with a reception following.

This program is part of North Shore Baptist’s Second Sunday series. Visit North Shore Baptist’s page for the series for more information about this concert and others in the Second Sunday Series.

Program:

  • Dan Armstrong’s “Wildebeests and Warthogs”
  • O magnum mysterium from “Three Spanish Motets” by Tomas Luis de Victoria, arranged by Michael Cameron
  • Teppa Hauta-Aho’s “Why?”
  • O vos homnes from “Three Spanish Motets”
  • Telemann’s Concerto #2 in D for four Violins — arranged for four basses in G
  • Jan Alm’s “Quartet #1”
  • O quam gloriosum est regnum from “Three Spanish Motets”
  • François Rabbath’s Poucha Dass (solo bass)
  • Lee Kesselman’s Basses Three (trio)
  • Paul Ramsier’s “Lullaby”
  • Tony Osborne’s “Rocket Man”
  • “A Night in Compostela” by Simon Garçia

People (alphabetically by third letter of first name):

  • Jacque Harper
  • John Floeter
  • Hans Peterman
  • Anton Hatwich