Lansing Great Entertainment Bargain and MSU's Wind Symphony

Clearly, the greatest entertainment bargain in Lansing is the series of concerts presented by the Michigan State University School of Music. Throughout the year (yes, during the summer too) the school of music presents concerts by its talented student body in solo recitals, and in ensembles such as orchestras, choirs, bands, operas, new music groups and various jazz ensembles. Also, the school’s world class faculty presents many solo recitals and chamber ensemble concerts – and many of these folks perform solo gigs with orchestras and ensembles throughout the world for big-ticket prices.

Tickets for these concerts are a steal. Students get in for free, and general admission prices are $9 for regular concerts, and $18 for special events. A bargain indeed!

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I attended one the school’s finest large ensemble concerts recently, the Wind Symphony conducted by newcomer Kevin Sedatole. This is Sedatole’s second year as Director of Bands and Conductor of the Wind Ensemble at MSU, succeeding the retirement of the superb John Whitwell.

Many classical music lovers bypass band concerts – a big mistake. They usually line up for tickets for concerts by orchestras, operas, choirs and ballets but wrongly believe that band concerts will be loud, boisterous, and made up mostly of Sousa marches.

In fact, a concert by a highly skilled band (fancy alternative names are symphony band, wind ensemble, etc) will usually delight the listener with music that has great energy, beauty and freshness. Today’s top-rated college bands, along with the great service bands, will astound you with their technical facility and musical subtly.

But the best surprise from attending a band concert is hearing excellent and exciting music written IN OUR LIFETIME.

Orchestra concerts rarely feature current music. One of the most recently composed pieces to find its way into the basic orchestral repertoire is the Bartok Concerto For Orchestra and that was written some 60 years ago.

The Wind Symphony concert I attended (December 2, 2007), featured eight works, seven of which were composed by living composers.

Instead of sitting down to hear music that I’ve heard dozens of times (as I would in an orchestra concert), all this music was new, fresh and intellectually challenging.

Sedatole is a compact man who conducts with great intensity and focus. He attends to every detail in the music, and his young musicians are fixed on his every movement.

He began the program with a piece written in 2004 by Carter Penn called Slalom. Perfectly named, the piece seems to slide down the snowy hill with fury and fire. The woodwinds were brilliant and the energy of the music was exhilarating.

Another piece that demanded much from the listener, but even more from the performer was the Concert Suite for Alto Saxophone and Band by Pulitzer Prize winning Ann Arbor composer, William Bolcom. Joseph Lulloff, MSU professor of saxophone played this frightfully difficult piece with apparent ease. Each of the four movements was totally impendent from the others, giving the listener great variety of style and expression.

Lulloff, a world renowned saxophone soloist, demonstrated the full spectrum of the instrument. In the first movement, his fingers were a blur as he flew through bunches of notes ranging from the very top to the bottom of the instrument. However, in the sublime second movement Lulloff played with a sensitivy and nuance that you hear from the greatest violinist. With Lulloff’s artistry, the sax’s tone emerges from somewhere in the clouds and swells into a robust lyricism that fills the heart.

Another standout performance in this concert was the singing of tenor Richard Fracker, chair of MSU’s voice faculty and featured singer with New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Fracker sang The Heart of the Morn by MSU composition professor, H Owen Reed. It was a lush and romantic interpretation of the tapestry Michigan’s beauty.

Sedatole, graciously, invited several guest conductors to the podium: Jim Barry, retired director of bands at Okemos High School, soon-to-retire director of bands at Grand Ledge High school Mike Kaufman, MSU graduate student Isaiah Odajima and assistant director of MSU bands, John Madden. Although they all did excellent work, the band sounded like a completely different, more responsive ensemble under Sedatole’s baton.

An interesting aspect to the concert: One of the pieces performed was Trauersinfonie by Richard Wagner - probably written about 1880 or so. Compared to the sparkling, rhythmic music of our current age that makes full use of modern woodwinds, percussion, and brass, the Wagner was really old school. A friend who came to the concert with me whispered in my ear, “It sounds so last millennium”. I couldn’t agree more.

One suggestion to the School Music: do a better job with the programs for these concerts. It would be more interesting and educational if some notes would be included about the soloists, guest conductors and the music itself.