Author: Daphne Auza
Carnegie Hall and the Great Wall of China are only some of the widely acclaimed venues in which the CalTech-Occidental Concert Band has performed, but for their annual winter concert, the group returned to the more familiar stage of Occidental’s Thorne Hall. Nearly all the performances featured individual musicians as soloists, but the concert gave band members the opportunity to prove their talent in conducting as well.
“What I try to do at these concerts, especially at Thorne Hall, which is such a great and wonderful acoustical environment for performing, is to showcase the talent of the students,” CalTech-Occidental band director William Bing said.
A total of five guest conductors stepped onto the stage to take turns leading the band. All conductors came from Caltech, in Pasadena, Occidental, or the local community. Each conductor added a personal touch to their introduction of each piece, contextualizing the work within both the composer’s original intent and its meaning to the conductor.
Before stepping onto the podium to conduct Richard Strauss’ “Allerseelen,” music major Jeff Leblow (senior) dedicated the performance to his mother for her birthday. The band then played “Happy Birthday” before transitioning into a rendition of “Allerseelen” as heartfelt as Leblow’s message to his mother. Another guest conductor, CalTech graduate student Jamie Rankin, preluded Morten Lauridson’s “Contra qui, rose?” by reading the poem that inspired the work.
One piece, “Symphony in Minor Keys,” celebrated some of the history of the CalTech-Occidental Concert Band, as the symphony was composed by former band member Ralph Dunlap. Guest conductor Paul Asimow explained that the piece exemplified how quality music can be produced by amateur musicians. During the performance, the band met the challenge of capturing the distinct moods in each section of the three-part composition.
While the sound of the band as a whole was enjoyable, some of the most unique pieces of the night were played by different ensembles within the band. The brass section began the night with a rendition of Franz Biehl’s “Ave Maria.” At one point, the entire band left the stage to the percussion section, giving the audience the chance to enjoy “King Igor’s Strut,” a whimsical, shorter composition that broke the night’s pattern of traditional band concert music.
The trombone choir featured two pieces, “Allegro con brio” and “Mr. Sandman,” to complete the first half of the concert. After intermission, the clarinet choir reengaged the audience with a fast-paced and melodic “Clarinet Caprice” that showcased the different ranges within the instrument’s family. The ensemble features enhanced the audience’s experience of the band’s sound as it allowed listeners to explore the voices of the specific sections.
The highlight of the night turned out to be Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy,” which, according to Bing, is one of the most difficult and best loved compositions written for concert band. As band members played with enthusiasm, they captured the folk-song influence that pervades each movement in the piece. The evening ended with a dynamic Sousa march that brought the concert’s focus back to a traditional, powerful band sound. In bringing both notable and lesser-known works to the stage, CalTech-Occidental Concert Band’s Winter Concert succeeded in featuring an exciting variety of pieces while simultaneously celebrating classical concert band music.
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