Tennessee Musician - Vol. 67 No. 1

TM
Orchestra Chair |Ben Reagh
I recently attended the Austin Peay Honors
Orchestra Festival as a director accompanying my students
that had been selected. The weekend was fantastic,
not only for my students, but also for myself, as it
was filled with terrific musical and educational events
and experiences. So I want to write a little about the
event, and share some general thoughts I have about
honor festival weekends.
The selected students had the privilege of
working with two excellent string music educators and
clinicians- Matt Wilkinson from Maryville, TN and
Georgia Ekonomou from Atlanta, Georgia. The three
days of rehearsals were intense, yet fun, culminating
in an enjoyable concert on Saturday afternoon featuring
the two honors orchestras. Of course, this is typical
of any weekend honor event, but this was just one
part of this festival.
As the students began rehearsals, I was delighted
to find out (coinciding with the orchestra
festival) there was a recital about to begin in the
concert hall featuring world-renowned clarinetist
Charles Neidich that had been in residence at the
University all week. Now I am not a clarinetist, nor
was I in Clarksville for that reason, but my philosophy
is “good music is always worth listening to”,
and when you have a chance to listen to a virtuoso
perform live (on any instrument) you do it! I was not
disappointed. In fact, it was better than I had anticipated.
Neidich’s selections allowed him to display
a wide variety of perfected techniques concluding
with a jaw-dropping performance of Sarasate’s famed
showpiece Zigeunerweisen, originally for violin. The
evening took me back to my college days of attending
recitals on a near-nightly schedule. I was glad I had
not spent the hour sipping coffee and checking e-mail
as originally planned.
The next evening, the students and I were
treated to another concert featuring the award-winning
Parker String Quartet from Boston, MA. They
performed Haydn’s Quartet #76, No.5, followed by
Ainsi la nuit written by Deutilieux, and concluded
with the Mozart Clarinet Quintet featuring Charles
Neidich as he concluded his week of performances.
The Parker Quartet put on a superb display of the
highest level of musicianship.
Besides performing, the Parker Quartet and
Charles Neidich both presented master classes on
Friday during the day. Additionally, on Saturday morning,
before heading to the airport, the Parker Quartet
did a private performance for the high school students
followed by an enlightening Q&A session.
The APSU faculty contributed to the festival
in several ways, as well. Dr. Emily Hannah Crane and
Dr. Eli Lara not only organized and ran the festival,
but also listened to chair placement auditions and led
sectionals for the honors orchestras. Before the Parker
Quartet concert, Dr. Gregory Wolynec gave a pre-concert
talk to the festival students covering the history
of the string quartet, biographical information about
the featured composers, and insightful information
about the music to be performed. Dr. Eric Branscome
presented a wonderful session, applicable for both the
parents and teachers, on the topic of how understanding
your child’s personality and learning styles can
help you to help them have better practice and performance
techniques.
So as you can see, it was a fantastic weekend
for everyone involved. I applaud APSU for hosting
a great event, and I know that they are just one of
many Tennessee universities through the course of the
school year and during the summer that hold similar
events and summer camps for students of all ages in
the areas of strings, winds, percussion, and voice. I
know we all have super busy schedules, limited funds
and limited time to do extra paperwork, but I would
18 www.tnmea.org
TM | Volume 67 number 1