Percussion Ensemble
Under the intelligent, tasteful and sympathetic direction of Jon Nathan, the UCSB Percussion Ensemble has blossomed into a polished and highly entertaining group that also manages to provide an indispensable learning environment for its members.
If you think a percussion ensemble concert is likely to turn out to be a noise-production competition between angry drummers, then you owe it to yourself to show up at the door of Karl Geiringer Hall (Music Room 1250) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday for the ensemble’s spring concert.
You’ll hear Rhumba Clave by Roberto Vizcaino for two players playing two congas each; Bob Becker’s Mudra, a quintet for two vibraphones, marimba, snare drum and bass drum; an arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Alborado Del Gracioso for two marimbas; a portion of Paul Lansky’s multimovement quartet Threads; and Frank Zappa-influenced Whole Toy Laid Down by David Hollinden.
There also will be a solo percussion work, Firewire by William Brett Dietz, performed by senior bachelor of music percussion student Edward Trager.
Admission is $15 for general admission and $7 for students, with tickets at the door only.
UCSB Opera Workshop
While your head is still spinning — in a good way — from the UCSB Percussion Ensemble, you’ll want to re-establish your priorities the next evening with a sample tray of treats gathered from four of the greatest operas ever written when the UCSB Opera Workshop, directed by Katherine Arthur, will present “Mozart: Opera Scenes” at 7 p.m. Thursday in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall.
The program includes scenes from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (with Emily Einolander as Susanna, Annie Thompson as the Countess, Erik Bell as Figaro and Catherine McMurray as Barbarina), Cosi Fan Tutte (with Blythe Tai and Kate Bourne as Despina, Ashley Willits and Helena von Rueden as Dorabella, and Rebecca Monroe as Fiordiligi), Don Giovanni (with Nick Hengl as the Don, Amanda Morando and Rebecca Monroe as Zerkina, and Erik Bell as Masetto) and The Magic Flute (with Alyssa Favero as the Queen of the Night, Camille Fritsch as Tamino, Savannah Green as the First Lady, Erica Nagashima as the Second Lady, Blythe Tai as the Third Lady, Daniel Tuutau as Papageno, Claire Danielson as Papagena, plus Kate Bourne, Sara Covey and Laura West as Spirits). Naomi Sen is pianist for the production, lighting is by Mark Somerfield and makeup design is by Danielle White.
This concert looks very much like “Mozart’s Greatest Hits: Opera Division.” Leaving aside Wagner — always a good idea — what other composer produced four operas that would be on 99 out of 100 music lovers’ lists of the top 10 operas of all time — and possibly the top five? What we have here qualifies as a golden opportunity.
Admission is $15 for general admission and $7 for students, with tickets at the door only.
Wind Ensemble
The spring concert of the University Wind Ensemble, directed by Paul Bambach (Beverly Brossmann, graduate assistant) will be at 8 p.m.May 28 in UCSB’s Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall.
As usual with Bambach, the program is entertaining and coherent. The theme is “The Modern Era,” and represents an unusually thoughtful exploration of same. The first half of the concert will feature works written and published in the 1900s, including Gustav Holst’s Moorside March, Robert Washburn’s Partita, Vincent Persichetti’s Bagatelles for Band and Vaclav Nelhybel’s Trittico.
In the second half of the program, the period drawn on is reduced from 100 years to the nine that have elapsed since we rang in Y2K: Pacific Fanfare by Frank Ticheli, Shadow Rituals by Michael Markowski, Exultate by Samuel Hazo, Cloudburst by Eric Whitacre and the just completed Fanfare for Wind Ensemble by Justin Bell, an award-winning undergraduate student composer and University Wind Ensemble percussionist.
I am no more familiar with most of these works than others — although I recognize most of the names — but I trust Bambach, and so should others.
Admission is $15 for general admission and $7 for students, with tickets at the door only.
For more information on any Music Department event, click here or call 805.893.7001.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.