March - Spring is coming!

We are entering into an early spring, and I am seeing more days of sun and warmer weather. My spring gardens are budding with my crocus showing their little heads above ground.

The month of February was an active one with several concerts and foreign guests visiting the Illinois state University campus.

We began the month on February 1 with a large Invitational High School Orchestra Festival, bringing 9 high schools, 11 orchestras and 540 high school string students on campus for the day of clinics and work with the ISU artist string faculty and with rehearsals by me.

The 2nd week had two guests visiting the campus to lead ISU Symphony rehearsals and work with my conducting studio students: Maestro Massimiliano Messieri, composer/conductor from the Republic of San Marino (Italy) and Maestro Javier Mas from Argentina, who was to guest-conduct on the February 13 Valentine’s Eve ISU Symphony concert!

The ISU Symphony concert on February 13 had music inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” composed by Tschaikovsky, Prokofiev and Leonard Bernstein! The program also included music from Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” and Maestro Mas conducting a wonderful arrangement by my dear Argentine friend Alex Herrerra of Carlos Gardel’s legendary tango “Por Una Cabeza”, made unforgettable in the tango scene from the movie “Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino!

The ISU Conducting Studio is now up to 14 students with all serious and dedicated to learning about conducting! Most are in the ISU Symphony Orchestra, many are music education students imagining a career conducting secondary and university/professional orchestras! It is an honor and joy to be able to work with so many serious and hard-working students!

Most are in their first semester of study, and so are immersed in basic technique, and soon will be working on score preparation and conducting Beethoven’s “Egmont Overture.”

Following the Valentine’s Eve Concert on February 13 we immediately began rehearsals for a new concert for March 24 featuring music by Rimsky Korsakov – “Russian Easter Overture” conducted by my assistant Dr. Useon Choi; an orchestral work by my friend Claudio Alsuyet from Buenos Aires, Argentina who will travel to the United States to be here for final rehearsals of his “Buenos Aires: Carpe Diem?” Early rehearsals had me teaching Piazzola/Tango string effects: el Latigo (whip), Tambor (special pizzicato effects, la Chicharra (cricket), and la Strambatta (bass/cello: ricochet’ bow effects followed by the hand hitting the box! The rest of the program will be the world premiere of “Emotica” by ISU alumnus Steven Allen Fox, the composer/conductor from Hollywood were he is music director of the California Pops Orchestra.