PBS Wisconsin Music & Arts

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Announcer

And now it is my distinct privilege to introduce the 2019 Wisconsin High School State Honors Band and their distinguished conductor, Dr. John Oelrich. (audience applauding) (somber instrumental) (drums rolling) ("The Star-Spangled Banner") (audience applauding) Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And so wonderful to be back in my home state of Wisconsin with a bunch of cheese heads. I love it. I love it. Hooray! I'm just gonna talk a little bit about each piece ahead of time. I know you have a program now, but we have a lot of moving of things around here. And there are people of instruments and percussion, et cetera. So I wanna kind of cover some of that. The first piece is based on two things, trains, but especially the blues. So if you're a jazz or blues aficionados, listen for that blues scale that you probably have heard whether it be a guitar solo in Free Bird or you know, maybe in Miles Davis. But Steve Danyew who's actually a good friend of mine, uses the blues scale in this piece, not just for melody, but also for harmony. So if you listen vertically, I know there's a lot of music teachers out here, right? So if you listen vertically as well as horizontally, you're gonna hear some of those blue notes coming through. We hope you enjoy "Magnolia Star". ("Magnolia Star" Steve Danyew) (audience applauding) So the next piece in the program is called "Danceries". It's a fore movement work that is just really lush and lovely and delightful, but also really playful. It's based on some dances from the Renaissance medieval period, but also some newly composed material just set in a fashion or in the style of that time period. It's a very complex work. There's a lot of layers like onions and ogres, right. So it's been a delight to work with these students. I joked with them a little bit yesterday. It's like the difference between my first vehicle, which was a '73 Chevy C10 pickup with a wooden box or a high performance sports car. So these guys are amazing. And we hope you enjoy Hesketh's "Danceries." ("Danceries" Kenneth Hesketh) (audience applauding) Well, if that doesn't at least earn them an ice cream cone after this, I'm not sure what will. If you had to pay 'em by the notes, sorry about that. It's a wonderful piece, though. I'm in love with it, love it. He's such a colorful composer. And speaking of another friend of mine, Aaron Perrine, wrote the next piece called "Only Light". You can read the program notes in what it's about but I think the beautiful thing about music is that it doesn't have to just be about what it says it's about. It can also be about something that maybe you relate to that or you feel connects with that. Maybe instead of a disease, maybe it's just something tragic that's happened. That's unfortunate that you can't control that. You ask yourself why. And I think music is... Obviously, you all are here so I'm preaching to the choir but music is one of those things that can help us cope and help us process and help us to understand how to feel. And I think we need more of that in our world today. It's a beautiful work. We're gonna take a new tuning pitch and then we'll carry on with Aaron Perrine's "Only Light". ("Only Light" Aaron Perrine) (audience applauding) I would be remiss if I didn't thank a few folks. First of all, the board of WSMA for inviting me to come and work with these incredible young musicians and people. To all the sectional coaches who make all of this work. It takes a village and you all are amazing and I'm so thankful to have worked with you but and now to be able to count you as colleagues and friends, so thank you. I would like to give a shout out to the students for enduring maybe some bad jokes here and there but for working really hard and going after a lot of detail and playing so musically. Thank you for that. I will take that with me for always forever, so thank you. It's a really beautiful thing that you have brought together today and I'm really thankful that we could all do this together. I also want to thank a very special group of people, all the music educators, because this doesn't happen by accident. So I know you've already been recognized but I just want to say thank you. I'm one of you, I understand, I get it. And so thank you for all of the hours that you spend doing the things that make these people who they are. Parents, families, same to you. Thank you for all of the work and all the support and listening to the squeaks and squawks and grunts and groans and maybe punch into the wall when the metronome speeds up on you or slows down whatever it might be. So thank you. I also want to give a really special shout out to people who really helped me to make my life in this world in this way and that is my high school band and choir director, Randy and Diane Veal, are you guys somewhere? Could you stand up, please? (audience applauding) There they are, way up there. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We never know as teachers what seeds we're planting and we don't know what they don't know or what their passions are and so clearly you instilled something in me that is still bearing some fruit today and I will hopefully plant some seeds of its own in musicians that I encounter. So thank you both from the bottom of my heart. Do I really have to answer that question? (audience laughing) 1991. So before, with no further ado, the last piece "Entry March of the Boyars" Mrs. Boisterous and conjures all sorts of imagery of Romanian aristocrats in hats and we kind of likened it to the fourth Harry Potter movie when Igor Karkaroff and his gang come in and then the Beauxbatons come in. So we hope you enjoy "Entry March of the Boyars". Thank you again. ("Entry March of the Boyars" Johan Halvorsen) (audience applauding) (whistling) (cheering)