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.