Percussion Ensemble & Calypso Band

HSU Percussion Ensemble presents contemporary andexperimental compositions plus music based on traditional styles of Brazil, Africa & the Caribbean, and the Calypso Band features its festive dance rhythms on Saturday, April 26 at 8 PM in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Admission $7 general, $3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928), the Works in Eureka and Arcata, and The Metro in Arcata, or at the door. First 50 HSU students free with ID. Directed by Howard Kaufman and Dr. Eugene Novotney; HSU Music Department production.

Spring Rhythms with the HSU Percussion Ensemble and Calypso Band

It wouldn’t be an HSU Percussion Ensemble concert without an array of exotic instruments playing complex rhythms from around the world—and this spring is no exception.

The featured work on Saturday evening, April 26 will be “Ketjak” by renowned Japanese composer, Akira Nishimura. Scored for six percussionists playing multiple instruments, this piece is based on the famous Balinese "Monkey Chant," in which 100 men sit in a concentric circle and chant in complex interlocking rhythm.

“This piece captures the deep emotion of the ‘Monkey Chant’ in a dramatic percussive orchestration,” said Dr. Eugene Novotney, director of the Percussion Orchestra. “It pushes the six players to the limits of their technique and musicality.”

The concert includes two of Novotney’s compositions. Both works showcase unusual instruments. “Scratch” is composed for a quartet of Guiros (scrapers), and “SEAR/CHING” for a quartet of hand-made tube-o-phones, producing unusual sounds due in part to their tuning (19-tone rather than 12-tone equal temperment), unfamiliar to western ears.

A suite of traditional Mandeng (West African) drumming, and a Brazilian Samba arranged for authentic indigenous instruments will conclude the Percussion Ensemble’s half of the show.

Then the ever-popular Humboldt State Calypso Band takes over, with the emphasis this year on Panorama compositions: the high-energy dance music of the Caribbean Carnival in Trinidad and Tabago.

“The Band prides itself in maintaining an accurate and authentic connection to the roots of the steel band movement and the innovative musicians of Trinidad, where this music was born,” Dr. Novotney said.

In addition to its regular performances at Humboldt State and throughout Northern California, the band has undertaken tours to San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities in northern and southern California, as well as Eugene, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

The HSU Percussion Ensemble and the Humboldt State Calypso Band perform on Saturday, April 26 at 8 PM in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Admission $7 general, $3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928), the Works in Eureka and Arcata, and The Metro in Arcata, or at the door. First 50 HSU students free with ID. Directed by Howard Kaufman and Dr. Eugene Novotney; HSU Music Department production.

Symphonic Band

HSU Symphonic Band plays music from “West Side Story” among other selections in its spring concert on April 25 AT 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free with ID. Paul Cummings, conductor; produced by HSU Music Department.

Symphonic Band Spring Concert Dances to “West Side Story”


The HSU Symphonic Band, conduced by Paul Cummings, returns from a performance tour for its spring concert on April 25.

The concert gets off to a rousing start with the “Florentiner March” by Julius Fucik, a Czech composer and military band conductor, known in the early 20th century as the “Bohemian Sousa.” His music is still a staple on patriotic occasions in the Czech Republic. (One of his tunes, “Entrance of the Gladiators,” is often heard at the entrance of circus clowns.) “Florentiner March” is considered a showcase for wind ensembles.

The “Suite Francaise” was written by French composer Darius Milhaud towards the end of World War II, especially for American audiences. It has five sections, each named after one of the French provinces-- ” the very ones,” the composer has written, “ in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground for the liberation of my country.”

“I used some folk tunes of these provinces,” Milhaud commented. “I wanted the young American to hear the popular melodies of those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought to defeat the German invaders.”

“Antithigram” by contemporary American composer and wind ensemble conductor Jack Stamp, will be conducted by student Kearney Vander Sal.

The concert concludes with “Four Dances from ‘West Side Story’” by Leonard Bernstein. Music from the popular Broadway show and Academy Award-winning film is adapted in four sections, including a Mambo, a cha-cha, and a fugue called “Cool.”

The HSU Symphonic Band performs its spring concert on April 25 AT 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. HSU students free with ID. Paul Cummings, conductor; produced by HSU Music Department.

The Friday Quartet: Sky Miller on tenor sax,
Joel Bettencourt on piano, Bobby Amirkhan on bass
and Mike Munroe on drums.

Jazz Weekend: Jazz Combos and Jazz Orchestra

Two jazz quartets and one trio feature an array of styles to begin HSU’s annual jazz weekend, on Friday, April 18. Jazz weekend continues with the HSU Jazz Orchestra in a program with a south-of-the-border flavor, on Saturday, April 19. Both concerts begin at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets for each performance are $7 general, $3 students/seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. An HSU Music Department production; Dan Aldag, director.

Jazz Weekend at HSU

Three Jazz Combos kick off the spring jazz weekend at the Fulkerson Recital Hall on Friday, April 18.

The fusion-oriented Wednesday Quartet performs “4 Ton Mantis" by Amon Tobin, a Montreal-based DJ and producer, and "3 Deuces" by the electric bassist and producer Marcus Miller.

Brian Jones on alto sax and guitar, Leo Echazábal on tenor sax, Rachel Hrdina on piano, Cullen Miller on bass and Gabriel Ben-Shalom on drums follow these new compositions with contemporary arrangements of two older jazz tunes: John Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lament" and Joe Zawinul's "Scotch and Water".

The Friday Trio has a unique drummerless instrumentation, with Clay Carey on tenor sax, Ali Chaudhary on guitar and Maia Wiitala on bass. They will perform Miles Davis's "So What", "Beatrice" by Sam Rivers and an original composition by Maia Wiitala.The Friday Quartet consists of Sky Miller on tenor sax, Joel Bettencourt on piano, Bobby Amirkhan on bass and Mike Munroe on drums. They will play Wayne Shorter's classic "Footprints, "Question and Answer" by Pat Metheny, and two originals: Amirkhan’s "Goodbye's Not Forever" and Bettencourt’s "Quick Trip, Long Jaunt."

On Saturday, April 19, the Jazz Orchestra takes the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage, in a concert that includes two renowned compositions from Latin America.

The first is “Libertango,” which Assistant Professor of Music and director of the Jazz Orchestra Dan Aldag describes as “probably the most famous piece by the great Argentinian composer and bandoneon playerAstor Piazzolla.” The bandoneon is an instrument related to the concertina and accordion, often associated with Argentine tangos. “Since there's no one in Humboldt County with a bandoneon,” Aldag said,”we're being joined by HSU alum Issa Stemler on accordion, the next best thing.”

Also on the program is the three-movement "Panama Suite" by the Panamanian pianist and composer Danilo Perez. “It combines the rhythms of traditional Panamanian music with the harmonies of contemporary jazz,” Aldag said. “This piece requires two extra percussionists (on bongos and conga) andthree vocalists.”

Jazz of a more conventional nature is represented by anew arrangement of a piece from the Miles Davis "Birth Of The Cool" album called "Israel" by John Carisi, and by "Alright, OK, You Win," a number recorded by the great singer, Joe Williams, with the Count Basie Orchestra. HSU Jazz Orchestra saxophonist Brian Jones will perform the vocal.

Performing Toshiko Akiyoshi's "I Ain't Gonna AskNo More," graduating senior Kearney Vander Sal will play the rarely featured bass trombone. Rounding out the evening will be a classic 1930 Duke Ellingtoncomposition, "Old Man Blues" and an improvised arrangement of "Freddie Freeloader" by Miles Davis.

Both the Jazz Combos performance on Friday and the Jazz Orchestra on Saturday will begin at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets for each concert are $7 general, $3 students/seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Both are free to HSU students with ID.

Ching-Ming Cheng

Pianist Ching-Ming Cheng will play works by Bach, Schumann, Ravel and Scriabin in her first solo recital as an HSU faculty member on Sunday April 13 at 4 PM 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. This Faculty Artists Series concert is produced by the HSU Music department.

Different, Difficult and Fun to Play: Ching-Ming Cheng’s First Solo Piano Recital at HSU

Ching-Ming Cheng didn’t have a particular theme in mind in choosing music for her first solo piano recital as an HSU Music Department faculty member. But the pieces she chose for her concert on Sunday afternoon, April 13, turn out to have several elements in common: variety, difficulty, and music she loves to play.

She might have begun with a more obvious selection from Johann Sebastian Bach, but she chose the Toccata in E minor. “Because of the variety,” she said. “It starts slow, then goes to a moderate fugue, then an improvisation section, and then a very fast section, which is another fugue. The Toccata has a little of everything.”

Her next selection is “Kreisleriana” by 19th century German composer Robert Schumann, which has a very specific kind of variety. “It contains two opposite characters in one piece, just as some believe he had two different personalities—an impulsive side and a tender side. This is probably one of Schumann’s finest piano compositions.”

She begins the second half of her recital with Sonata No. 2 by the Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin, which he wrote at the end of the 19th century.

“This is also called the “Sonata-Fantasy” because the first movement is a kind of fantasy—it has an improvisational feel to it,” she said. “It’s a very beautiful movement. It’s very hard to memorize, actually—it has four different voices going on the whole time. Every time I play it, it’s more and more fun. But the second movement is very straightforward and very fast-- totally opposite to what we hear in the first movement.” Contrast and variety.

The final piece on the program is “Alborada del Gracioso,” a section from a larger work by 20th century Basque-French composer, Maurice Ravel. “This is probably one of the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire,” she admits. “It doesn’t sound very difficult, but it’s very hard to play. But it’s got a lot of variety, and once you have it down, it’s a pleasure to play.”

Ching-Ming Cheng performed with violinist Cindy Moyer in a concert at HSU this past November, but April 13 will be her first solo performance as an HSU faculty member. She teaches piano, ear-training, accompanying and piano literature.

Originally from Taiwan, she studied piano and earned her masters and her doctorate at the University of Miami. After teaching there and at Barry University in Florida, she came to HSU in 2007.

Ching-Ming Cheng plays works by Bach, Schumann, Ravel and Scriabin on Sunday April 13 at 4 PM 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. This Faculty Artists Series concert is produced by the HSU Music department.


Additional Notes:

“Kreisleriana” by Robert Schumann is an eight movement piece composed for solo piano in 1838, dedicated to Frederic Chopin. The title may refer to the fictional character, Johannes Kreisler, a manic-depressive poet in three books by E.T.A. Hoffmann.


Alexander Scriabin wrote ten piano sonatas over a period of 11 years. But Sonata No. 2 alone took him five years to complete.

“Alborada del Gracioso” by Maurice Ravel is one of five sections of the solo piano work, “Miroirs” (or Reflections, meaning the reflections in a mirror.) Each section is dedicated to a specific individual. This section, which translates roughly as the jester’s song, was dedicated to music critic and writer Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi, who wrote the text to Ravel’s composition, “Cinq mélodies populaires grecques.” Ravel later scored this section of “Miroirs” for orchestra.

media: photo and story at Humboldt State Now.

Opera Workshop

The HSU Opera Workshop performs scenes from opera and musical theatre in its annual concert on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. An HSU Music Department production; Elisabeth Harrington, artistic director.

Interpretations and Improvisations by the HSU Opera Workshop

The annual spring concert of the HSU Opera Workshop on April 11th and 12th features scenes from both opera and musical theatre.

For example, from the operatic repertoire, students will perform Act I of “La Serva Padrona” by the 18th century Italian composer, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and a scene from “Dialogues of the Carmelites” by 20th century French composer Francis Poulenc.

From musical theatre, they will perform two selections by Stephen Sondheim. Also featured will be three fables from “Fables: Five Very Short Operas” by contemporary American composer Ned Rorem.

But in addition to these interpretations of standard works, there will be some one-of-a-kind moments.

“In true workshop fashion, the students have created three original, semi-improvised ‘opera’ scenes,” said Elisabeth Harrington, HSU Assistant Professor of Voice and the Workshop’s Artistic Director. “Our spontaneous and very intuitive staff accompanist John Chernoff will provide interactive background music for them.”

One of these improvisations as well as the Rorem fables are directed by senior vocal performance major Kirsten Randrup.

The Opera Workshop has 23 students this semester,” Dr. Harrington said. “Mostly voice majors, but a few theatre majors as well as two science majors.” Opera Workshop performances are acted as well as sung.

The HSU Opera Workshop will perform on Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. An HSU Music Department production; Elisabeth Harrington, artistic director.

media: photo with calendar in North Coast Journal and Times-Standard Northern Lights.

Pipe Organ and Brass Concert

HSU’s newly restored baroque-style pipe organ goes into action for a concert also featuring several brass ensembles, on Saturday, April 5 at 8 PM in Armstrong Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 seniors/students, HSU students free with ID, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.

Live Surround Sound as Pipe Organ Meets Brass at HSU

With music played “in the grand Venetian style of San Marco,” HSU professor Gil Cline promises a “sort of ‘surround sound experience’ as a high point of the concert on Saturday, April 5, featuring the newly restored baroque-style pipe organ and several brass ensembles playing a variety of period instruments.

The concert last fall celebrating the dedication of the newly restored Bosch organ at HSU naturally emphasized what the organ itself could do. But the upcoming concert will include “more ensemble playing, a strong suit of the Bosch organ,” Cline said.

In addition to a return by organists Douglas Moorehead and Merry Schellinger (both local members of the American Guild of Organists), student Rebecka Ross will play the organ along with three small brass ensembles organized specifically for this concert. HSU students along with Professor Cline will perform on natural trumpets and other period instruments which Cline simply calls, “a variety of old trombones.” They will also play a rare baroque timpani on loan from the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra of Ashland, Oregon.

The concert begins with “Fanfare du Roi” by Josquin, a Flemish-French Renaissance composer. Published in 1500, it is one of the earliest pieces in print. Other works include 17th century sonatas for the trombone family of alto, tenor, and great bass trombone.

The piece providing the “surround sound experience” will be the “antiphonal, divided choir music” by 16th century Venetian organist and composer Giuseppe Guami, and Giovanni Gabrieli, a composer and organist of the Venetian School during the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period.

Concluding the concert is the “Three Dot Fanfare” written for the 2002 San Francisco Herb Caen Days and premiered at Grace Cathedral. “Concert-goers will hear tones and instruments seldom heard in Humboldt County,” Cline promises, “or anywhere else, for that matter.”

Brass players in the ensembles include Frederick Belanger, Tristan Kadish, Perry Crook, Ari Davie, Kyle Kaufman, and Eric Oiler, trumpets; Bodie Pfost, Talon Nansel, Leah Jmaeff, and Toshi Noguchi, trombones and sackbuts. The large ensemble also includes bassist Bobby Amirkhan and percussionist Brett Huska.

The concert begins at 8 PM on Saturday, April 5 on the HSU campus in Arcata. Unlike most concerts at HSU, which are held in the Fulkerson Recital Hall or the Van Duzer Theatre, the pipe organ and brass concert will be performed in Armstrong Hall (Room 131 of the music building)—because that’s where the Bosch pipe organ lives. Seating is limited, so purchasing tickets early through the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) is recommended.