Report by Melissa Morales
The final event for ClarinetFest® 2016 took place on Sunday, August 7 at 3 p.m. in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre. The Festival Clarinet Choir was comprised of 35 members and was led by conductor Raphael Sanders. The choir opened with Claribel (2000) by Roland Cardon. They played with a full, lush sound and brought the melodies to life, accentuating the fun and comical character.
Following the Cardon was a quartet feature piece Concertante for 4 clarinets and Orchestra (1833) by L.A.B. Schindelmeisser. The choir was accompanied by four esteemed clarinetists: Julianne Kirk Doyle (Suny Potsdam), Blake Arrington (United States Air Force), MUCM James Logan (United States Navy Band), and Mary Alice Druhan (Texas A&M University Commerce). The quartet played with great ease and facility, supported by the sonorous ensemble behind them.
After the expert playing from the quartet, virtuosos Ricardo Morales and Benjamin Lulich joined the stage for Mendelssohn’s Concertpiece No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 114. The pair played in perfect tandem, complimenting each others energy and matching each others musicianship. The audience was thrilled by their performance, beckoning them back to the stage multiple times with their applause.
The final work of the conference was a Luc Note work titled Suppe Meets Offenbach (2004). The jazz-inspired work was the perfect ending to an inspiring conference. Several choir members took short solos, displaying their skill both on their instruments and small percussion toys. The audience was invited to join in the piece with several joyous interjections of “Hey!” throughout. Sanders led the clarinet choir masterfully and gave an enjoyable and diverse concert for all in attendance.
[Edit: Many of the festival choir appearances on Sunday were devoted to the memory of Guido Six. He was a great friend and leader within the clarinet community. He will forever be missed and honored for his contribution to the clarinet community through his choirs and his teaching that lives through his students.]
Melissa Morales served as adjunct Music Education faculty at DePaul University for 2015-2016 as well as clarinet faculty and project manager at The People’s Music School from 2013-2016. She currently serves as the Director of Education for the Chicago Symphonic Winds and performs with the Chicago Summer Opera.
Why did you not mention one word about Sunday being devoted to honor Guido’s memory and why did you start with the last program of the day and not go back to the morning when so many clarinet choirs performed in honor of Guido – my husband – James Cohn’s two pieces among them and also the entire program by the Houston Texas Choir honored Guido. This coverage was not satisfactory.
We do apologize if this report has in any way offended, that is never the ICA’s intention. We all love and respect Guido Six and the contributions he made to the clarinet community and honored him several times throughout the blog. We recognize that he was missing in our final report and we have adjusted this oversight.
All choir performances were covered and can be found if you search ‘Day 5’ in the search box in the upper right. All reports were published in the order they took place, from the first performance of the day to the final performance of the fest, creating the backwards chronological order you see. Additionally you can find James Cohn’s works in the ClariZona report here and the Houston Choir report dedicated to Guido Six here. We hope this clarifies any confusion on the report order and its content.
-ClarinetFest 2016 team