Arts & Entertainment
Flutist scaling way to professional career
By Chris Burchard
Staff Reporter
Sitting in the auditorium of the
Lied Center for Performing Arts last
Tuesday night was like standing in
the middle of a Nebraska field be
neath one of those huge power trans
formers that drapes electricity across
the state.
The low hum of expectancy and
murmur of conversation mingled with
the dissonance of the orchestra as it
tuned its instruments. A number of
stragglers searched for their seats.
Then, at 8 p.m., without pomp or
fanfare, Alison Brown took the stage,
flute in hand.
After a brief cackle of applause the
crowd became silent. This is what it
had been waiting for. The conductor
tipped up, instruments came to posi
tion, and Brown began to play.
“I was very comfortable, not nearly
as nervous as I thought I’d be,” Brown
said after the concert. “Things went
great to begin with, that helped.”
Things went great, indeed. Brown,
a graduate assistant of flute and thc
ory at the University of Ncbraska
Lincoln, placed second that night in
the finals of the J. Edmunds and Thelma
Miller Young Artist Competition.
The competition, now in its 15lh
season, accepts applicants from seven
slates including Nebraska. Of the 24
original applicants,eight were admit
ted to the semifinals, and three, in
cluding Brown, went on to the finals.
The other final ists included Kcl ley
L. Mikkclscn, a cellist from Sioux
Falls, S.D., and Jeffrey Savage, a
pianist originally from Scotlsbluff.
All three soloists were accompanied
by the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by music director Robert
Emile.
Brown began the competition with
the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
by Carl Nielsen of Denmark. In this
complicated piece, the solo flute and
other instruments portray contrasting
personalities in dialogue with one
another. The soloist’s suave and gentle
flute, for instance, converses with the
clarinet and violin. Then, crude out
bursts from the bumbling trombone
spark spirited objections from the
soloist.
Brown played the concerto mas
terfully, moving through the piece
with impressive technical skill while
interacting smoothly with the orches
tra’s beautiful accompaniment.
“I thought I contained my nerves
very well,” she said. “There was maybe
one time when I thought, ‘Wow, there
are people out there.’”
The crowd, estimated at 1,700
people, applauded vigorously after
her performance, as did the members
of the orchestra.
John Bailey, assistant professor of
flute at UNL and Brown’s instructor,
liked what he heard, too.
“She played beautifully,” he said.
“I think she peaked at that perform
ance, which is exactly what you want
to do in front of a large group of
people ... Yeah, I’m very proud.”
Mikkelsen, playing a violoncello
more than two centuries old, turned in
a rousing performance of Earnest
Black’s Schelomo for Cello and Or
chestra, gamering her first place in
the competition. Savage took third
place with Tchaikovsky’s intricate
and moving Piano Concerto No. 1.
While the judges deliberated, the
Lincoln Symphony Orchestra pre
miered “Shamanic Dances,” a 1991
work by Randall Snyder, professor of
theory and composition at UNL.
After the concert Brown was one
big smile.
“I’m very happy,” she said. “I didn’t
care what place I got. I went back
stage to my dressing room and just
basically said ‘Yeah!’”
Brown, who grew up in Hays, Kan.,
was introduced to the flute in the
fourth grade by her father, an assis
tant professor of woodwinds at Fort
Hays State University. Three years
later, she was playing with her high
school orchestra.
In the summer of her junior year in
high school, while at the National
Music Camp at Interlochen, Mich.,
Brown said, “Something clicked in
side me. I just knew what I wanted to
do.”
Apparently her intuition proved
correct. In addition to the award she
just received, Brown has acquired a
long list of accomplishments, includ
ing being a Hays Arts Council Soloist
with the Hays Symphony Orchestra,
Shaun Sartin/DN
Alison Brown, a graduate assistant of flute and theory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
won second place in the J. Edmunds and Thelma Miller Young Artist Competition last Tues
day.
a finalist in the Jacksonville-MacMur
ray Young Artist Competition, and a
Kansas Governor’s Scholar. She also
played first flute in the opera orches
tra at Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony
near Eureka Springs, Ark.
Brown received her undergradu
ate degree as a flute performance
major from the University of Illinois.
She came to UNL’s School of Music
last June, passing up such institutions
as Ohio State University, the Univer
sity of Missouri at Kansas City, Lou
isiana Slate University and North
western University.
Her decision to attend UNL was
due to the presence of Bailey, whose
credentials and personal interest in
her abilities impressed her, she said.
Brown will receive her master’s
degree from UNL next May.
“Right now I’m just looking at my
lovely schedule and how much I have
to do,” she said.
Until she graduates, Brown said
she plans to continue assisting under
graduate flutists, attending her classes,
entering other contests and audition
ing. for symphony positions. Brown
said she may have a recital in late
May.
In the future she said she hopes to
land a seal with a professional group
such as the Boston Symphony or the
Metropolitan Opera, but she said she
would be more than happy to work
with the Lincoln Symphony Orches
tra.
If a professional career doesn’t
work out right away or if no flute
positions are open when she gradu
ates, Brown said she would consider
pursuing a doctoral degree.
“But at this point in time I can’t
imagine writing a thesis,” she said.
After Tuesday’s performance, it’s
hard to conceive that Brown would
have any problems at all.
“I feel good about everything,”
she said,“like I gained some respect.”
Faculty composers challenge views of classical music
mu^,Kw,
By Andrea Christensen
Staff Reporter
Modern classical music is often thought of
as didactic, over-analytical and just unpleas
ant-sounding.
But the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Faculty Composers’ Concert tonight may help
change that impression.
The 8 p.m. concert in the Johnny Carson
Theater will feature music by Robert Chum
bley, director of the Lied Center for Perform
ing Arts, and Randall Snyder, professor of
theory and composition.
“The audience for music of our time —
music by living, breathing composers —is
very small, which is unfortunate,” Chumblcy
said. “What this concert is designed to do is to
get some people in to hear a concert by living
composers and to have a good experience with
it.”
To create a positive experience with mod
em music, the recital will allow the audience to
sil in a semicircle around the performers and
ask questions and make comments about the
compositions.
Chumbley’s composition is a piano solo
entitled “Homage to Keats.” He explained that
the piece is one of a scries of homages to the
English romantic poets Keats, Shelley and
Wordsworth. The composition was inspired by
Keats’ poem, “Ode to a Nightingale.”
“The piece is full of bird calls and carries
with it some of the underlying tensions that
Keats himself had as a poet and as a person,”
Chumbley said.
He said that he was not trying to recreate the
events of the poem musically. Instead, he was
trying to express the emotions of the poem
through music.
“I didn’t set out to be descriptive," Chum
bley explained. “What I’m trying to do is to
evoke the same emotions aurally that the poem
evokes verbally, because I think that there is a
dimension to aural experience that reading
doesn’t always give you. And, of course, as a
musician, I respond to the poem on an auditory
level.”
“Homage to Keats” was composed in 1984,
and has been played by several pianists since
then. However, tonight will be the first timt
Chumbley has played the piece himself in a
recital. Chumbley said that as director of the
Lied Center, he did not have as much time to
practice the piano as he did before accepting
the position. He expressed some nervousness
about tonight’s performance.
“I feel a little daunted by following in the
footsteps of some very great pianists who have
played this piece,” Chumbley said. “I asked
Randy (Snyder), ‘If I play it once and I mess it
up, can I play it again?’ He said, ‘Sure, play it
twice.’ I might do that.”
The recital will include a period of ques
tions and discussion between the audience and
the musicians. Chumbley said he hoped this
period would be used for more than a technical
analysis of his piece.
‘‘Sometimes people have a tendency with
new music to want to ovcr-analyzc it, and I’d
prefer that the first response be emotional and
the second be analytical,” Chumbley explained.
“I would rather have an audience respond with
their own observations or questions than tell
them what I expect them to feel.”
Snyder, on the other hand, said he planned
to introduce his compositions with a technical
explanation.
“Understanding a piece of music intellectu
ally makes it more interesting to listen to,”
Snyder said. “Some of this music is hard to
understand at the first hearing, that’s why I’m
going to provide some explanation and some
handouts before my pieces are performed.”
Snyder’s composition, “Refrains,” is an
abstract work in IS short movements and will
be performed by the Bachman Trio with Re
becca Van dc Bogart, flute; Tracy Sands, cello;
and Catherine Hcrbcner, piano.
The premiere of Snyder’s “Four Satirical
Songs,” a setting of four poems by Nebraska
poet Kathlccnc West also is on the program.
The piece will be performed by Margaret
Kennedy, soprano and Shirley Irek, piano.
“I was very intrigued by West’s poetry,”
Snyder said. “These arc four poems that share
a feminist viewpoint. They all make fun of the
typicalmalc-chauvinist viewpoint.”
Tonight’s concert is free of charge.
Swervedriver takes listener on emotional,inspired ride
|
Swervedriver
“Raise”
Creation
Swervedriver’s “Raise” inspires an
emotional release similar to angry
rock ‘n’ roll or fast driving.
From London, Swervedriver seems
to be part of the new British “inva
sion” of American by sounding like
it’s from Seattle or Pittsburgh.
Although “Raise” is not ground
breaking, it is yet another good re
lease in a consistent invasion from
Creation records. The LP is worth
purchasing.
The term post-punk is ambiguous
enough to encompass many of the
college or alternative records released
in the past 13 years. The energy,
intelligence and remorse of its literal
definition, however, can be applied
to the seeming musical anger of this
LP.
“Raiser sounds like a “Blood And
Chocolate” Elvis Costello singing with
Dinosaur Jr. The songs have more
driving doom in them, however, than
the Costello songs with their variety
or craftiness.
The references to cars, trucks and
driving take the listener on Swerved
river’s swerving, emotional and in
spired ride as the group sings of scenes,
friends and escape.
The downfall of this LP may be its
lack of any outstanding songs. The
musical mood of most of the songs
seems to be the same, though the first
three songs on the LP, “Sci-Flycr,”
“Pilc*L'p” and “Son of Mustang Ford”
are more perfected versions of that
mood and energy.
“Son of Mustang Ford” rocks hard
and fast, raises the heart rale and
raises expectations for the remainder
of the record. Although the next song,
“Dcap Scat,” is nearly great, the LF
never quite reaches that high again.
This group may have found itself
in a repetitive musical rut driven mostly
by a recurring emotional state of mind.
Maybe in the future it will have a
broader vision, though few invasion
bands have succeeded.
— Mark Nemeth