By Jenna Rittman
Correspondent
The Wind Ensemble held its last performance of the semester on April 27. Conducted by music professor Eric Laprade, they performed a variety of pieces that all correlate with life after loss, which was the theme for the concert.
This concert in particular collaborated with The Artivism Project. TAP is a collective of faculty, staff and students originating from the College’s School of the Arts and Communication, which was founded by Colleen Sears, the chair for the department of music. This project aims to raise awareness about social justice issues and use the arts to help amplify marginalized, invisible and silenced voices in our communities and more.
“[This project] holds a very special meaning for us, as our department has lost four students and one faculty member,” she said before the concert began.
The concert started off with the piece “Remembering” by Baljinder Sekohn. This piece begins in complete darkness and, at first, sounds eerie but then becomes calm after a few moments as the darkness turns into a yellow hue. This work deals with concepts of memory and how memories play a role in consciousness. It contains fragments of sounds and melodies that sound out of place, but they begin to mold together like a person's consciousness evolves over time. A slideshow of happy memories was shown behind the ensemble near the end of the piece.
Interludes played after the second and third pieces. These were submitted by students, faculty, staff, family and friends. The first interlude was called “Always With You” and contained sounds such as a piano playing, sounds of people talking and nature. The second interlude was called “Where Love Goes,” and featured a piano playing in the background while people talked over it.
The next piece, “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen, continued the calm portion of the concert. This piece was very soothing as a backdrop of nature played in the background behind the ensemble.
After their calm start to the concert, the wind ensemble transitioned to a more energetic piece called “Traveler” by David Maslanka. The piece began with a string quartet playing in the background where the audience could not see them. The percussion section was very prominent in this piece.
Laprade introduced the next piece himself, which was “Shared Spaces” by Viet Cuong. He mentioned that this was the world premiere of this piece, and was commissioned by Laprade, Sears and the Wind Ensemble.
“We have been so fortunate to be working with Viet Cuong for the past few days,” he said. “I’m really proud of TCNJ and proud for TCNJ to commission this work.”
Larpade invited Cuong up on stage to say a few words about the piece.
“This piece is called Shared Spaces for a couple of reasons,” he said. “A couple of years ago I lost my father. The focus of all of my music the past few years have been healing and dealing with peace.”
Cuong described this piece as a “chorale that has been broken apart into pieces and brought back together.” He emphasized that the piece is demanding because it asks people to come together. It was inspired by the poem “I Want to Write Something So Simply” by Mary Oliver.
Like Cuong described, the piece sounded like a chorale and was very soothing to listen to. All the instruments blended well together.
Sears then walked onto the stage to present the recipient of an award, which is presented annually to a student at the end of their junior year who has shown extraordinary academic and musical accomplishments, and demonstrates leadership and citizen qualities. This is called the 2024 Presser Scholar Award. This award was presented to senior music education major and percussionist and violinist Josh Laude.
Laprade then took a moment to reflect on how this is the final concert for graduating seniors. He shared how they all started their college experience on Zoom and asked each to stand as he introduced what each student will be doing after graduation.
Gianna Marrrano, a senior music education flutist with a minor in music technology, reflected on how this was her last concert with the wind ensemble.
“[It’s] bittersweet!” she said. “I’m really proud of what I have accomplished in my last three years in wind ensemble, but I will miss it very much!”
The concert ended with the piece “AMEN!” by Carlos Simon, which Laprade dedicated to Gary Fienberg, an assistant professor of music and coordinator of brass studies, who died in July 2023. This piece consisted of three movements and was lively throughout each one. It was easy to see the jazz elements scattered throughout the piece. There were many solos from the trombone section, along with a few solos from the trumpet and clarinet section.
“I think the concert went really well!” Marrano said. “This is the most involved one of our concerts has ever been and I think it went very well!”
While this was the last wind ensemble concert for the semester, the musicians will make their return in the fall.
