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Focus on Arts: The Eastern Music Festival will open Saturday with a new feature: a composer-in-residence Noteworthy
Photo Courtesy of Yuen Lui
Gerard Schwarz of the Seattle Symphony will serve as director of the Eastern Music Festival.
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Published: June 21, 2009
Each summer, the Eastern Music Festival goes on a clear mission: to educate aspiring young musicians and to present concerts. Might it also become a regional Mecca for living composers?
Such a development certainly looks possible because of the new programming at this year's EMF, which will start Saturday at Guilford College and other places in Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
Bright Sheng, a native of Shanghai who has lived in the United States since 1982, will serve as the festival's first composer-in-residence, showcasing work described as taking the lead in "exploring and bridging the musical traditions" of East and West. He has written numerous critically acclaimed pieces for orchestra, voice, chamber ensembles and the stage. He received a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award" in 2001, and he has taught at the University of Michigan since the 1990s.
Gerard Schwarz, EMF's music director, holds a similar position with the Seattle Symphony. He has conducted that ensemble in a recently released "American Classics" Naxos recording of several pieces by
Sheng, including Tibetan Swing, which the instructors in the Eastern Festival Orchestra will perform July 18 and 19.
"I met Bright when he first came to United States," Schwarz said. "I have been a champion of his composing ever since. He's remarkable; one of the great composers…. For the kids to be exposed to a composer on this level and to play under him will be an experience of a lifetime."
Schwarz said that he also chose Sheng for EMF because he "can participate on many levels" and, indeed, the composer will be quite busy during his two-week stay at EMF. He will conduct both Tibetan Swing and his Flute Moon, which will be performed July 16 by the students of the festival's Young Artist Orchestra. He will also play the piano during performances featuring two of his chamber works: A Night at the Chinese Opera (July 13) and Four Movements for Piano Trio (July 14).
This kind of hands-on experiences may seem unusual in an age when classical composers often write music, then stand aside as others perform it. Schwarz suggested that Sheng is harkening back to an earlier time.
"If you look at composers up until the middle of the 20th century, they were all performers," Schwarz said. "They all played or conducted their pieces.… Stravinsky conducted. Aaron Copland conducted. Rachmaninov was a great pianist. (Richard) Strauss was a fabulous conductor.… I'm a great fan of a composer participating in a performance."
But does performing necessarily make you a better composer?
"I don't know if it makes you a better composer," Schwarz said. "But it certainly gives you the performer's perspective of your music. That I think is crucial. Composers can write whatever the heck they want, and then we have to (play) it.
"If it's great, if it's well-done, then we're thrilled to be part of it; it's a great honor for us. On the other hand, sometimes you get these composers who write pieces that are unplayable, that go against anything an audience would ever want to hear. They should take responsibility; sometimes, when they're performing, they actually feel the responsibility a little greater than if they just write the notes and (tell) somebody else, ‘Well, you do it now.'"
Sheng's residence at EMF could pave the way for what Schwarz described as a "two-week composers' workshop" at the festival, with aspiring composers working with somebody on Sheng's level, with Schwarz and with the festival's many musicians.
"What we don't have and what's available at very few music festivals and schools is an actual place where composers can work, can communicate, can study and can be inspired by each other," Schwarz said.
Sheng's residence at EMF will be one of several new developments at the festival, which is two years away from celebrating its 50th anniversary. For example, festival musicians will collaborate with choristers July 12 and 19. And there will be a significant organ component in "Concert Organ Spectacular," to be presented July 8 at First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.
Featured in "Spectacular" will be three leading organists from the area: John Alexander, Andre Lash and Susan Bates, the assistant university organist at Wake Forest University. The program will include everything from such popular solo fare as Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to pieces including a small orchestra conducted by Schwarz, such as Poulenc's G-Minor Organ Concerto.
"People have asked for organ music, but I have been resistant because I don't think organ music on the stage at Dana with an electric organ is what we should do," said Stephanie Cordick, EMF's executive director. "We're training young musicians. If we're going to perform organ music, it should be on the finest instrument we can find."
■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.
EMF schedule
The Eastern Music Festival will be at Guilford College in Greensboro and elsewhere from Saturday through Aug. 1. For more information, visit www.easternmusicfestival.org. To order tickets through Triad Stage, call 272-0160.
Here are some highlights of the classical concerts.
• BRIGHT SHENG'S RESIDENCY: Sheng will lead the Eastern Festival Orchestra in his Tibetan Swing on July 18 and 19. He will lead the Young Artists Orchestra in his Flute Moon on July 16 in Dana Auditorium. He will also play the piano during performances featuring two of his chamber works: A Night at the Chinese Opera (July 13 in the Recital Hall of UNC Greensboro) and Four Movements for Piano Trio (July 14 in the Andrew Carnegie Room of Hege Library at Guilford College).
• SATURDAYS: The Eastern Festival Orchestra will perform at 8 p.m. in Dana Auditorium, Guilford College, July 4-Aug. 1. Peter Serkin will be featured July 4 in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor. The other soloists will include Sarah Chang (Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, July 11); Horacio Gutierrez (Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, July 18); Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (Shostakovich's Violin Concerto in A Minor, July 25); and cellist Xavier Phillips (R. Strauss' Don Quixote, Aug. 1).
The July 11 program in Dana will be repeated 8 p.m. July 12 in Farthing Auditorium at Appalachian State University, and the July 18 program in Dana will be repeated at 8 p.m. July 19 in Farthing. Both concerts in Farthing will be part of An Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone; see www.appsummer.org or call 800-841-ARTS.
• SUNDAYS: EMF musicians will perform chamber music at 3 p.m. July 5 in Babcock Auditorium at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem. The "EMF Young Artists Piano Recital" will be presented at 3 p.m. July 26 in Babcock Auditorium at Reynolda House.
• MONDAYS: Faculty and guest artists will perform chamber music 8 p.m. Mondays, June 29-July 27 in the Recital Hall at UNC Greensboro. Horacio Gutierrez will be featured in Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor (July 20) and horn player John Cerminaro will be featured July 27 in Ligeti's Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet.
• TUESDAYS: Faculty will perform chamber music at 8 p.m. Tuesdays, June 30-July 28, in the Carnegie Room of Hege Library at Guilford College.
• WEDNESDAYS: The Friends & Great Performers Series will be presented at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, July 1-29, in various venues around Greensboro. The "Concert Organ Spectacular" will be presented July 8 in First Presbyterian Church, 617 N. Elm St. in downtown Greensboro, and Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3-6 will be performed there July 15.
• THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS: The Young Artist Orchestras, consisting of EMF's students, will perform at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays in Dana Auditorium, July 9-31. Pianists James Giles and J.Y. Song will solo in Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos (July 23). The July 30 program will be in memory of Russell Peck, featuring his Peace Overture. Neal Cary will solo in Boccerini's Cello Concerto in B-Flat Major (July 10) and horn player John Cerminaro will solo in Mozart's Fourth Horn Concerto (July 24).
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