Ivy League Ensembles Join Forces

Sometimes, a great idea emerges from the most casual of conversations.

Such was the inspiration behind the Columbia University Wind Ensemble's most recent performance, a joint concert with the Yale Concert Band, at Yale's Woolsey Hall last weekend.

"I was at a band conference here in New York several years ago," explains music director Andrew Pease, TC '04, "when I encountered [Yale Concert Band Director] Thomas Duffy. He took an interest in the Wind Ensemble [and band music in New York] and brought up the idea of working together."

The performance was met with tremendous success at Yale, and the ensemble's members are optimistic about the upcoming concert in Lerner's Roone Arledge Auditorium this weekend, featuring roughly the same program.

"It was a great experience for the Wind Ensemble to play in a different venue, and with a different ensemble, too," said president, concertmistress, and clarinetist Heather O'Neil, CC '08. "The performance went very well, and next Sunday is going to be even better."

Fellow clarinetist Robert Kohen, CC '09, agreed. "It was spectacular. It was a pleasure to play with them [the Yale Concert Band]."

The Yale Concert Band is in its 25th year, while its Columbia counterpart is only in its seventh. Because it is not as established as other programs, the Columbia Wind Ensemble's "collaborations with more established concert bands is a great idea," O'Neil says. "That way, we get our name out there."

Percussionist Jessica Miller, BC '09, also sees this as a learning experience. She said that working with an ensemble of such caliber "shows what ours can do."

Such innovative collaborations and programming are not new to the Wind Ensemble. The ensemble also performed with the MIT Concert Band in the spring of 2004 and looks forward to more collaboration in the future. The Wind Ensemble's themed concerts have also long been a popular feature, as is its annual spring senior choice concert, which presents works chosen by the group's graduating seniors.

O'Neil considers the group's "New York, New York" concert in the fall of 2006 one of the most memorable. "It included our first commissioned piece by Michael DiGiacinto, who studies at the Manhattan School of Music," she says. "It was music all about New York-many of the composers were New York natives, and the others were inspired by the city."

Since 1998-when trumpet player Kenneth Cho, SEAS '01, revived the Wind Ensemble-it has acquired around 50 to 60 members, who come from all of Columbia's undergraduate and graduate schools. It performs at various campus venues-among them, Miller Theatre, St. Paul's Chapel, Roone Arledge Auditorium, and Philosophy Hall-four times a year.

According to Pease, the ensemble is comprised of "your best players from your high school concert band, thrown into a room to play challenging but fun music."

O'Neil was quick to agree: "Wind Ensemble is full of talent, passion, and fun. It sounds cheesy, but it's true."

In the fall of 2006, the Wind Ensemble began a conducting partnership with Teacher's College. This partnership allows a graduate student in music to conduct the group for half a semester. "I wanted to give back to the [Teacher's College] program in some way," Pease explains. "It's also good for the ensemble to work with different conductors-it gives the musicians a different musical perspective."

And what should the audience expect for Sunday's concert? "A program featuring two extremely talented ensembles," says O'Neil. "It's good exposure, especially for people who aren't too familiar with standard wind ensemble repertoire."

Columbia's Wind Ensemble will perform works by Stamp, Rimsky-Korsakov, Persichetti, Ticheli, and Arnold, followed by the Yale Concert Band, with music by Sousa, Whitacre, Grainger, Duffy, Sullivan, and Peck. The final piece, Frank Perkins' "Fandango," features musicians from both ensembles, and should be particularly exciting. As O'Neil says: "110 [college] musicians playing together? Come on. It rarely happens!"