Today was a whirlwind! We had double clinic sessions at both 9 and 10 this morning, all featuring my American/Canadian buddies from New York and ASU. And despite the double scheduling, I stopped in on them all! They were (in the order I attended):
Malcolm Jones – Revisiting Gestures through Laban’s Efforts in Action
Bradley Ethington, Timothy Diem, and Milton Laufer – Significant Wind Ensemble Repertoire by Underrepresented Composers
Jason Caslor – Squirrel! Being Present in a World That Doesn’t Want Us To Be
Trae Blanco – Look like their SOUND: Two-step process to incorporating oral articulation into physical gesture, often lost in translation
We rushed over to our first concert at 11: the Brooklyn Wind Symphony from NYC, USA, led by Jeff W. Ball. Their varied program consisted of:
The Low-Down Brown Get-Down – Omar Thomas
Borrowed Scenery “Dadohae” – Kang Han-Moi (with guest conductor Travis Cross)
Storm Chasers: Timpani Concerto – Catherine Likhuta (with soloist Alex Jung)
Metropolis 1927 – Peter Graham
Un Cafecito – Dennis Llinás
Mount Fuji – Toshio Mashima
Like with the US Navy Band, I am hopelessly biased when it comes to this group, since I have longstanding personal connections with at least a dozen of them, including both conductors and the timpani soloist. That said, they brought all of this ambitious program to vivid life the way that only New Yorkers can, with tremendous energy, musicality, and an utter commitment to style. The Thomas put it all on the table immediately – it was a bluesy and funky tour-de-force that Thomas must have had a ton of fun writing. The Kang by contrast was cinematic at times. Timpani soloist Alex Jung dazzled in the Likhuta, which was by turns menacing and dreamy. The Graham lived up to its title, depicting (to my ear, anyway) the busy, towering, sultry, mysterious, and even gentle aspects of a city. The Llinás adopted a Latin groove for most of its duration, but kept the material at just the right level of abstraction to sustain this symphonic listener’s interest. In other words, it was great symphonic writing with a real tasty groove. The Mashima is a classic of Japanese band literature, depicting Mount Fuji in all of its aspects. It does so with many moods and sudden contrasts which these New Yorkers obviously understood completely – they were just within sight of Mount Fuji on the first leg of their tour. Tour comes with its risks, though, and their oboe player took ill before the performance. Fortunately, they found a local substitute who sight-read the sound check and concert. Had Maestro Ball not told me this after the concert, I NEVER would have known, so polished was the performance. Bravo, my friends!!
We only had time to quickly scarf lunch before the next concert: the Orchestre d’Harmonie des Jeunes de Strasbourg, with conductor Maxime Maurer. The played:
Fantaisies Symphoniques (two movements) – Frédéric Unterfinger
Prélude et Scherzo – Jordan Gudefin
Ikiru Yorokobi – Roger Boutry
There must be something in that Rhine River water that separates Strasbourg from Baden-Württemberg. The sound coming out of these young musicians was excellent and elegant, and quite mature and musical, with a range of transparent textures, from delicate to robust, and absolutely pristine intonation. Maestro Maurer’s assured leadership certainly belied his 24 years – it’s almost as if he put his age in his bio to make the rest of us wizened old fossils feel inadequate! Their program overall featured mostly Neo-Romantic music with heavy doses of modernism. They played two extended movements of the Unterfinger, which used every instrument in the band to great effect in a variety of moods and textures. The Gudefin began dark and brooding before turning a bit scary in the scherzo, with something of a post-tonal palette that reminded me of Vittorio Giannini. The Boutry began as a lively fanfare with extended harmonies before becoming something akin to Gershwin’s “Summertime,” then spilling into a Latin groove. This was a truly impressive performance with some wonderful music!
The final concert of the entire conference came from the WASBE Youth Wind Orchestra (WYWO), led by Beatriz Fernández Aucejo and Surapol Thanyawibool, and featuring young musicians from 12 different countries. Today is Saturay, and they worked together since Tuesday to put together this very full program, while still having time to be tourists in this country where most of them have never been. They played:
El Regalo de Gea – José Suñer-Oriola
Cleopatra – Amparo Edo Biol
Cavetowns “Cappadocia“ – Satoshi Yagisawa
Rhapsody on a theme of King Rama 9 – H. M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej
These musicians achieved a wonderfully blended ensemble sound in the short time they had together, a testament to both their commitment and the wizardry of both conductors. I found Maestra Fernández Aucejo’s conducting especially dazzling. She took the first two pieces on the program, both of which went through a range of moods. The Biol was quite evocative of the titular Cleopatra and her world. Maestro Thanyawibool took the final two selections. The Yagisawa began dark, featured a sung kyrie, and when we thought the climax had arrived, the entire brass section stood up and made it even more intense. The final piece followed a similar though slower arc, with another intense climax that included a false ending! These musicians did such tremendous work, and their performance is a flowering WASBE’s mission to connect people from around the world through band.
There was a closing ceremony. There was a gala dinner. And then we all dispersed, back to our many home countries. I’ve written about each concert and event as best I could. But none of this really captures the EXPERIENCE of a WASBE conference. Imagine that you have friends you see only every couple of years, but you agree to meet in a different place around the world each time and have the complete tourist experience. That’s WASBE. Imagine also that these friends are from all over the world, and that you bring new friends into the mix each time you get together. That’s WASBE. But also imagine that you get to bring world class musical acts to perform music you love at the highest level at amazing venues and you get to watch them all and meet the musicians in the process. That’s WASBE.
And this was a super special WASBE conference. Why? The Local Organizing Committee here in Gwangju did an AMAZING job preparing for us. As I said on day one, there was an Olympic-magnitude opening ceremony, there are musical artifacts all over town, there are staff and volunteers everywhere, and even the mayor of this city of 400,000 has been to many of the events. On top of that, I learned yesterday that they have PERMANENTLY renamed their main square “WASBE square.” They have gone ALL OUT for this conference. As a result, the local community has bought in thoroughly. ALL of the main stage concerts sold out, and there was a line out the door for the closing ceremony. I cannot emphasize enough how welcome we were all made to feel, and how thoroughly and deeply enjoyable the whole experience has been. I eagerly await news of the next conference in 2026. Wherever it is, I plan to be there, and I hope, dear reader, that you will join me.