| |
Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington
was the scene of the Harvey Phillips
Northwest “Big Brass” Bash XV. The event was
hosted by Larry Gookin, Director of Bands at Central Washington
University, on Saturday and Sunday, July 7 and 8, 2001. It was
perhaps the most successful and meaningful session to date with
special awards presented to Harvey Phillips and Marilyn Trail,
wife of the late President of the Board, John Baker. Over 140
participants from as far away as New Orleans were in attendance.
Brian Bowman and Pat Sheridan were the guest artists.
After registration, the event began with a rehearsal of the large
group in preparation for the final Sunday afternoon park concert.
Following the rehearsal, Brian Bowman presented an active clinic
on breathing as applied to our instruments involving all participants.
There was much joy on the faces of these people as they stretched
and discovered new sources of air they didn’t know they had.
After lunch, the large ensemble rehearsed again and then took
a break before the first recital of the day.
The format was much the same as in the past except for the addition
of an extra recital for the youngest soloists. This short recital
titled “The Young Artists Recital” featured 7th grade
tubists Jens Peterson of Tacoma performing Corelli’s “Sarabanda
and Gavotta” and Connor Day of Puyallup, Washington performing
Rene Maniet’s “Premier Solo de Concours”. 8th grade
Euphoniumist Evan Lewis from Puyallup performed three movements
from Galliard’s “Sonata No. 1” and Quinn Wolcott,
euphonium, also an 8th grader from Puyallup, performed Guy Ropartz’s
“Andante et Allegro”. Kyle Gillett, tubist from Missoula,
Montana performed an original work by Michael Rosbarsky written
specially for him entitled “Song for Kyle” and Sam Thompson
tubist from Cusick, Washington performed Robert Spillman’s
“Andante from Concerto”.
Back to top
The Pro/Semipro Recital followed after a brief intermission and
was opened by the Astoria Tuba Quartet in a medley of pieces.
This group, a regular group at “Big Brass” Bash events
for the past 13 years consists of Bob Joiner and Sam Blumenthal,
euphoniums, and Dennis Hale and Lee Stromquist, tubas. Leonard
Byrne of the Spokane Symphony performed Clifford Bevan’s
“Variations on The Pesky Sarpent” on serpent. Matt Carlson
now a student at the Oberlin Conservatory performed Rachmaninoff’s
“Vocalise” and the first half of the recital was closed
by Martin Cochran, tubist from the University of Puget Sound performing
the “Allegro Deciso” from Gregson’s “Tuba
Concerto”.
The second half of the recital was opened by the Oregon Tuba Ensemble
from Eugene, Oregon. Bill Martin, Jerry Ostermeir, Jeff Turay,
and Warren Wellford were the euphonium section and Susan Daily,
Dean Huston, Dave Mckee, Jeff Olson and Jim Seaberry formed the
tuba section. The group was conducted by John Bigelow and their
medley of selections was introduced by former member and President
of the Oregon Tuba Association, John Huenink. Ryan Schultz, Principal
Tuba Northwest Ballet, performed John Harmon’s “Silhouette”and
USC graduate student, tubist Brian Knowlton, completed the program
with a performance of J.B. Arban’s “Carnival of Venice”.
After a relaxing 2 hour dinner break, It was time for the John
Baker Founder’s Recital. Chris Olka, Principal Tubist of the
Seattle Symphony opened with the Gregson “Tuba Concerto”.
Torrey Lawrence, Tuba Faculty at the University of Idaho in Moscow,
followed with Pergolesi’s “Sinfonia” arranged by
Ralph Sauer. The first half of the recital was completed by Brian
Bowman. Among the pieces he performed were the “Andante and
Rondo” of Capuzzi and Ravel’s “Piece en forme de
Habanera”. He finished with Klengel’s “Allegro”
from “Concerto No. 1 in Bb Major” and the Picchi/Mantia
“Fantasia Originale”.
Back to top
The second half of the recital was opened by a special performance
of Soichi Konagaya’s “Celebration”, a piece commissioned
by the Japanese Euphonium-Tuba Association or JETA in 1979 to honor
the 50th Birthday of Harvey Phillips. Pat Sheridan was soloist and
a select ensemble, consisting of Brian Bowman, Jason Gilliam, Dave
Baldock, euphoniums and Keating Johnson, Torrey Lawrence, and Chris
Olka, tubas, accompanied him. The ensemble was conducted by Larry
Gookin. Following their performance, a special plaque was awarded
to Harvey Phillips for his enormous contributions to this event.
Another plaque was presented to Marilyn Trail, John Baker’s
wife in honor of the inspiration and contributions to this event
by John Baker. Marilyn in turn presented John’s extensive music
collection and the “Threeba” to the Harvey Phillips Northwest
“Big Brass” Bash. The “threeba” is a tuba with
two additional bells soldered on that in the past was traditionally
given as an award to the oldest person in attendance each year.
After the award ceremony Jason Gilliam, solo euphonium of the Tacoma
Concert Band, performing the Marcello “Sonata No. 1 for Cello
or Bass”. Keating Johnson, tubist and Director of Bands at
Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, followed with
Gliere’s “Nocturne Opus 35, No. 10” and Franz Strauss’s
“Nocturno, Opus 7”. The rest of the second half belonged
to Pat Sheridan. He performed the Ellerby “Tuba Concerto”,
the Barnes “Yorkshire Ballad” and finished with Arban’s
“Variations on a Tyrolean Theme”. What a way to end an
already outstanding recital!
Back to top
A special note should be made regarding Kim Russ, accompanist for
all three recitals. She deserves nothing but the greatest praise
for a Saturday that started at 8AM rehearsing with each and every
soloist from the three recitals and then performing all three recitals
admirably. We are very fortunate to have such a fine accompanist
who is so well versed in performing the literature of our instruments.
Saturday ended with the traditional ice cream party to the delight
of all. Brian Bowman deserves special mention for being the first
to begin serving the ice cream to all participants. This gesture
was typical of the caring and general unpretentious sharing exhibited
by he, Harvey Phillips and Pat Sheridan throughout the event.
Sunday morning began with a two hour final rehearsal for the large
group in preparation for the afternoon concert. This was followed
by a clinic presented by Pat Sheridan. Pat emphasized the importance
of mastering respiration in order to become a virtuoso on ones instrument.
We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for the final park
concert. The ensemble had a shaded pavilion to play in and the park
was bustling with many people out for a relaxing time. The ensemble
played a mix of the usual classical, jazz and pop tunes and Harvey
sang “Rubber Ducky” and “Santa Wants a Tuba for Christmas”
with Pat Sheridan accompanying. Brian Bowman performed “Londonderry
Air” with a smaller ensemble, and the concert ended with Sousa’s
“Stars and Stripes Forever”.
Back to top
|
|
