Sunday, May 13, 2007


Springville Quartet: Christine Foreman, Val Phillips,
Bob Peoples, Mike Thompson.
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Music from North Coast Communites

The Meadowood Quartet, Springville Quartet, and Friends of Mozart quintet--three chamber music ensembles composed of players from six North Coast communities-- will perform music for strings, winds and piano by Mozart, Haydn and other composers, at 8 PM on Sunday, May 13, in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. A production of the HSU Music Department.

Friends of Mozart: Gwen Rust, Felicia Oldfather, Ellen
Weiss, Justin Sousa, Val Phillips.
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Meadowood Quartet
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Three Quartets of 101 Flyers Combine for Chamber Music Concert

The Meadowood Quartet, Springville Quartet, and Friends of Mozart quintet--three chamber music ensembles comprised of players from various North Coast communities—will take the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage on Sunday night, May 13, in what participants hope will be the first of a regular series.

“The idea is to present two of these concerts each year, during breaks in HSU’s academic year,” said Valgene Phillips, coordinator for the event, who is also a past chairman of the HSU Music Department. “ The purpose is to give community players a good place to play, and give local audience more live chamber music concerts.” Facilitated by current chairman, Kenneth Ayoob, the Music Department is sponsoring the evening.

But though this is the first such event, most of the performers will not be new to Fulkerson Recital Hall. “They’ve been on that stage many times, as HSU students, Humboldt Symphony members and participants in summer workshops,” Phillips said. But they are returning in a new way.

The difference this time is not only that these ensembles are small (four or five members each), or that they play a particular kind of music. It’s that these groups organize themselves, and they come from communities all over the North Coast.

“Our players are ‘101 Flyers,’” Phillips said. “They live in communities between McKinleyville and Redway. They meet in someone’s home every week to play, just as chamber music groups did in Mozart’s time.” The three groups include residents of Eureka, Fortuna, Arcata and Blue Lake as well as McKinleyville and Redway.

Many such groups never play in public, Phillips said, but these three ensembles have been preparing for this concert for months. “They coach themselves, refining the music they’ve selected over several months of weekly rehearsals.”

Since each group has a different combination of instruments, Sunday’s audience will be presented with a variety of chamber music sounds. The Medowood Quartet is a string quartet: Betty Bliss (Redway) and Marilyn Page (Arcata) playing violins, Stefan Vaughan (Eureka) viola, and Eric Jones (McKinleyville) cello. For this first concert they will play Haydn’s Quartet in G and Carlos Gardel's “Tango.”

The Springville Quartet features four French horns. Michael Thompson (Redway) Christine Foreman (Fortuna) Robert Peoples (Eureka) and ValgenePhillips (McKinleyville) will play two works by Russian composers, and shorter pieces by Lowell Shaw and Val Phillips.

Friends of Mozart is a quintet: Felicia Oldfather (from McKinleyville) on piano, Ellen Weiss (Arcata) on oboe, Gwen Rust (McKinleyville) on clarinet, Justin Sousa (Blue Lake) on bassoon and Val Phillips on French horn. They will play Mozart’s Quintet in E Flat for Piano and Winds.

The chamber music concert begins at 8 PM on Sunday, May 13 in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $8 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. A production of the HSU Music Department.

Saturday, May 05, 2007


Jazz Orchestra, group shot, left side (see below for
the other half)
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HSU Jazz Orchestra

HSU Jazz Orchestra spring concert features student and alumni music as well as Mingus, Dave Holland and Duke Ellington, on Saturday May 5 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. $6 general, $2 students/seniors, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Music Department Production; Dan Aldag, conductor.

Friday, May 04, 2007


Madrigal Singers (with pianist John Chernoff)
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Madrigal Singers and Mad River Transit

HSU Madrigal Singers perform a cappella madrigals, funky jazz and music from the 1940s, and the MRT Singers do blues, swing and ballads with a 3-piece rhythm section, in a jazz extravaganza on Friday, May 4 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets $6 general, $2 student/seniors, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Department of Music, Harley Muilenburg directing.

Thursday, May 03, 2007


AM Jazz Band
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AM Jazz Big Band

From Coltrane and Mingus to Alice in Wonderland, the AM Jazz Big Band swings the classics on Thursday, May 3 at 8PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets $6 general, $2 student/seniors, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Produced by HSU Department of Music, Paul Cummings conducting.

Jazz Orchestra, right half, with Dan Aldag
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Band, Orchestra and Voices: A Jazz Weekend at HSU


The HSU school year closes with a weekend of jazz, May 3 through 5: the Big Band sounds of the AM Jazz Band on Thursday, May 3, a jazz vocal extravaganza with the Madrigal Singers and MRT Singers on Friday, May 4, and the HSU Jazz Orchestra playing classics and originals on Saturday, May 5.

All concerts are at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets for each are $6 general, $2 students and seniors, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.

On Thursday, May 3, the AM Jazz Band begins and ends their evening with classic compositions by jazz greats John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, both first recorded in 1957. “Moment’s Notice” by saxophonist John Coltrane (from his album, Blue Train) exemplifies his “sheet of sound” composition style of the late 50s. The HSU band plays an arrangement by Mark Taylor. “Haitian Fight Song,” heard on The Clown album, remains one of the best known and most frequently played compositions by bassist Charles Mingus.

Between these two classics, the AM Jazz Band plays the theme from the 1951 Walt Disney movie classic, Alice in Wonderland, by Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain, arranged for big band by Roger Holmes. The rest of the program consists of works written specifically for big band by contemporary composers: “Dark Side of the Blues” by Andy Classen, “A Warm Breeze” by Sammy Nestico and the Latin beat of “Revenge of the Chili Pepper” by Doug Beach and George Shutack.

This semester the AM Jazz Band is directed by HSU Music Department Assistant Professor Paul Cummings.


On Friday, May 4, the HSU Madrigal Singers perform a cappella madrigals, funky jazz and music from the 1940s, followed by the Mad River Transit Singers with a program of blues, swing and ballads, in their combined spring concert.

After warming up with some a cappella madrigals, the Madrigal Singers’ jazz set includes “Java Jive,” “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” “Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie” and “Frim Fram Sauce.” John Chernoff provides piano accompaniment.

The MRT singers begin with a blues tribute (“Scat Blues in D,” “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” and “Bluesette,”), and perform classics by George Gershwin (“I Got Plenty of Nothin’”), Harold Arlen (“If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz) and Charlie Parker (“Au Privave.”)

Mindy Willens and Bernie Steinberg combine for a vocal duet on Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird,” and the group performs the legendary “Harlem Nocturne,” written by Earle Hagen in 1939 and arranged by Michele Weir, with a sax solo by Matthew Brogdon. MRT is accompanied by a three-piece rhythm section: Joel Bettencourt (piano), Robert Amrkhan (bass) and Jonathan Kipp (drums.)

The evening ends as it began—with some a cappella singing: “Acappella in Acapulco” by Anders Edenroth. HSU Professor Harley Muilenburg directs both ensembles.

On Saturday, May 5, the HSU Jazz Orchestra features student and alumni works: "Song For Yong Zoo" by Youn Joo Sim, "Adamra" by Simon Lucas, "Alone In The Fishbowl" by HSU alum (and Eureka High grad) Jared Coyle, and "E's Flat, Ah's Flat, Too", a Charles Mingus composition arranged by HSU student Tommy Obeso. Other music on the program includes compositions by Dave Holland, Gerald Wilson and Duke Ellington. The Jazz Orchestra is comprised of the best student jazz players, and is conducted by Assistant Professor Dan Aldag of the HSU Music Department.