Lexington Symphony workshop held

By Sarah Gurley/Special to the Minuteman

Friday, February 09, 2007

Something very special occurred in Lexington last week, something of which Lexington should be proud and which says a great deal about the town. We are so fortunate to have gifted teachers and musicians and dedicated individuals who work to bring the greatest talent into our town, our schools and concert halls. If you listen to WGBH, you may have heard an interview on Friday with the world-class horn soloist and teacher Gail Williams. If your child is in the high school instrumental music program, he or she did you one better.

On Thursday, with hundreds of students attending, LHS Wind Ensemble performed with Williams and Lexington Symphony flutist Danielle Boudrot, conducted by Lexington Symphony Music Director Jonathan McPhee.

Williams is a veteran of the Chicago Symphony and has been a featured soloist with many of the top orchestras in the United States. She is also a professor at Northwestern University and has given master classes at the finest conservatories in the world, and now at Lexington High School.

The workshop at the high school, which featured rehearsal, performance and Q and A about a challenging new work by American composer Elliott Schwartz, was funded in part by the Lexington Education Foundation and through the generosity of longtime Lexington Symphony supporter Elsa O. Sullivan. It developed through the collaboration of Jeffrey Leonard, Director of Bands and Jazz Program at LHS, McPhee, Williams and Rebecca Hawkins, violinist and board member of the Lexington Symphony.

It is unusual for an artist of Williams’ stature to work with high-school aged students; as Williams said herself: “The opportunity to work with young people in this atmosphere, both in rehearsal and performance, doesn’t occur often enough.” Indeed, this was the first time Williams had participated in a workshop such as this at the high school level.

The ensemble was able to work closely with Williams, Boudrot and McPhee, and the student audience was able to see behind the scenes of how an ensemble, soloists and a conductor work together. It was inspirational and transformative to watch these musicians work at the height of their craft. Boudrot, an LHS alum and a top flutist in New England, was an apt example of the musical excellence that can be achieved by our own students.

LHS bassist Zachary Nestel-Patt, a participant in the workshop, commented, “The greatest way to learn is to play with outstanding musicians. When you are part of a group of superb musicians, they can teach you something that in a lesson or in the practice room you can't get to. … [T]he professionalism that they all have, and the dedication is something we can all learn from.”

In the Question and Answer portion of the workshop, McPhee and Williams discussed the difficulties of tackling a contemporary piece such as Elliot Schwartz’s “Summer’s Journey.” This is a highly challenging contemporary piece with complex rhythms and harmonies that stretch the boundaries of traditional musical tradition and experience. They used the example of learning a foreign language.

Williams said, “When first approaching a contemporary piece of music it looks like a foreign language, [despite using the same musical] notes I read all the time. The only way I can make any sense of it is to put a picture or a story to it. You can envision colors or something that you have experienced.”

Dan Garmon, the pianist in the LHS Wind Ensemble agreed. “Every time I play contemporary music, I discover something new. … Contemporary music requires a different learning process from classical or jazz because it doesn’t follow conventional patterns.” Nestel-Patt added, “It is cool to be on the cutting edge of where music is. … Rarely do we get the chance like we did Thursday to play current music. I think that playing contemporary music really focuses us in a different way.”

The Lexington Symphony considers this type of community educational outreach to be one of its two guiding principles. The other principle is to bring excellence and accessibility to the performance of classical music.                This second principle was stunningly on show in the concert held on Saturday evening at Cary Hall, filled to the rafters for this thrilling performance.

Frequent Lexington Symphony concertgoers know well the entertaining and educational pre-concert talks given by McPhee. On this occasion it was also well attended by many faces familiar from Thursday’s high school program. The Symphony had provided the students and their families with discount vouchers for the performance. The program included the familiar Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture and Beethoven’s less performed masterpiece, Symphony No. 4. McPhee gave a romantic and intimate interpretation of the Symphony in his pre-concert talk that helped to highlight the lyrical and joyous nature of this work, not always associated with the brooding image we hold of Beethoven.

The two pieces in which Williams featured were profoundly memorable even to these historic halls. The first, Nocturne written for Williams by Anthony Plog, showed off the clarion beauty of Williams’ horn playing, which brought forth the power of an entire horn section in its variety and virtuosity. The second piece, Horn Concerto No. 1 by Richard Strauss, showed the full range of the instrument, from heroic fanfare to melancholy contemplation to playful virtuosity, met at the conclusion by a tumultuous ovation that was spontaneous and genuine. 

The experience of attending both the workshop at the high school and the concert at Cary Hall reinforced that learning is a pursuit of a lifetime. Learning takes place when hearing a fresh interpretation of a Mozart piece familiar to our ear, but also when puzzling to find a way into an unfamiliar contemporary music composition, such as the piece the students had an opportunity to experience in the workshop on Thursday.

For those of us in the audience at Cary Hall on Saturday, we felt something of what the students experienced. The intensity and clarity of Williams’ horn playing, supported by the confident excellence of the orchestra was thrilling and elevating. It was a privilege to hear such fine musicians in this historic venue for the arts. We shared something with our children and learned to appreciate that great art can bring us together, young and old. As Garmon said, “Rehearsing and performing with artists of such high caliber is always an amazing experience, for it pushes the entire ensemble to play at a higher level. It was very inspiring.”

Very inspiring. For all of us.