Hello, I Must Be Going

 This is no longer an active site.  It now exists as an archive of pre-production information and photos of HSU Music Department performances (for which admission was charged) from 2006-07 through 2015-16 school years.

This site retires along with me, the author of the words (and many of the images) herein, and the person responsible for performance publicity over this period.  Apart from a record of these events, information on composers and the music may continue to be useful, and so it all remains here as a resource for everyone in the world.

Bill Kowinski

Glories of Nature with Humboldt Chorale and University Singers 

 Humboldt Chorale revives a favorite in John Rutter's "Gloria" and the University Singers celebrate the blessings of nature in the music of seven cultures, on Sunday May 8 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

 As a community choir, Humboldt Chorale has singers who remember performing Rutter’s “Gloria” in 1990 with director Ken Hannaford.

 “It’s nice to bring back a perennial favorite,” said current Chorale director Elisabeth Harrington, “and it is exhilarating to conduct and sing this very energetic and moving work.” This performance will include accompaniment by a brass ensemble conducted by Gil Cline.

 “We’ll round out our half of the program with the gentle and soothing ‘Seal Lullaby’ by the popular Eric Whitacre, and finish with the upbeat African chant, ‘I Live and Move,’” Harrington said. 

 Directed by Rachel Samet, the University Singers begin with incantations from a Celtic Mass, and end with the Kyrie from “St. Francis in the Americas: A Caribbean Mass” by Glenn McClure, with percussion accompaniment. 

 In between, selections include an African-American spiritual, a psalm from the Italian Renaissance, and a Visayan folk song from the Phillipines featuring soprano Jessie Rawson. 

 “The Moon is Distant from the Sea” is a setting by David N. Childs of a poem by Emily Dickinson. Eric Whitacre wrote the music for “Water Night” to a poem by Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz. 

 The two choirs combine to end the concert with a gospel song, “The Storm is Passing Over.” John Chernoff accompanies University Singers on piano, and Larry Pitts plays organ for Humboldt Chorale. 

 University Singers and Humboldt Chorale perform a shared concert on Sunday May 8 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Produced by HSU Music department.

Media: Times-Standard Urge Magazine, North Coast Journal The Set List, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.

Humboldt Chorale & University Singers Program

Humboldt Chorale
Conducted by Elisabeth Harrington

John Rutter

"Gloria" by John Rutter

"The Seal Lullaby" by  Eric Whitacre

"I Live and Move"

University Singers
Conducted by Rachel Samet
John Chernoff, pianist

Michael McGlynn

Incantations from Celtic Mass by Michael McGlynn

 My Lord, what a mornin’ African-American spiritual arr. Harry T. Burleigh

 Sicut cervus (Psalm 42:1) by  Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 
 Catherine Rippetoe, Rosemary Torres, Kyle McInnis, Alberto Rodriguez, Jordan Kramlich, Justine Bivans, Craig Hull, Allie Merten, soloists. MJ Fabian, percussion

 The Moon is Distant from the Sea :music by David N. Childs, poetry by Emily Dickinson

 Rosas Pandan: a  Visayan folksong arr. by George G. Hernandez
 Jessie Rawson, soloist.

 Water Night: music by Eric Whitacre, poetry by Octavio Paz, English translation by Muriel Rukeyser

 Kyrie from St. Francis in the Americas: A Caribbean Mass by Glenn McClure 
Michael Donovan, steel drums; MJ Fabian, drumset; Wes Singleton, percussion.

 University Singers and Humboldt Chorale 
The Storm is Passing Over by Charles Albert Tindley arr. Barbara W. Baker

2016 University Singers
Justine Bivans, Lisa Ko, Jordan Kramlich, Emily Nelson, Marykate Olson, Gabriela Pelayo, Antonia Picardi ,Stephanie Price, Jessie Rawson, Hope Botelho, Debi Cooper, Sara Dobson, Jenna Donahue, Jessica Golden, Erin Henry,  Kylie Jenkins,  Cecilia Kane, Allie Merten, Joelle Montes,  Linda Portillo, Catherine Rippetoe, Rosemary Torres, Ken Bridges, Victor Guerrero, Andrew Heavelin, Craig Hull ,Luis Landon, Richela Maeda, Kyle McInnis, David Vaughan, Raul Yepez,  Josh Abrams, Mark Berman, Kevin Blake, Michael Donovan ,John Pettlon, Alberto Rodriguez, Dan Szylewicz, Corey Tamondong, Julio Torres.

HSU Jazz Orchestra’s Positive Sweat and Awful Coffee

 HSU Jazz Orchestra cooks “Awful Coffee” and exudes “Positive Sweat” in its adventurous concert of contemporary big band jazz, with originals by current and recent HSU students, on Saturday May 7 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

 “Awful Coffee” is by contemporary jazz composer Carla Bley, from her album tribute to the Big Band era. “Walking By Flashlight” by Maria Schneider is from this year’s Grammy winner for a large ensemble jazz album. 

 Other selections on the Jazz Orchestra playlist include an Ellington-inflected piece by David Berger, Pedro Giraudo’s "El Cuento Que Te Cuento," a medley of “Samba de Orfeo” from the 1959 film “Black Orpheus” and a Louis Armstrong tune from the late 1920s by acclaimed arranger Oded Lev-Ari. 

 “Positive Sweat (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Funk)” by Jazz Orchestra member Kyle McInnis is one of three HSU originals. The others are by recent alums Ryan Woempner (“Jibber Jabber”) and Dan Fair (“Omar.”) 

 The HSU Jazz Orchestra performs on Saturday May 7 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music department.

Media: Times-Standard Urge, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.

Jazz Orchestra Concert Notes

Program with comments by Jazz Orchestra director Dan Aldag:

"Walking By Flashlight" by Maria Schneider. Recorded on her album The Thompson Fields, which won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording this year.

 "Awful Coffee" by Carla Bley. Bley has been a major composer and arranger in jazz since the 1960s. This piece comes from her album Appearing Nightly, a kind of concept album that hearkens back to the big bands of the 1940s and 1950s, and is filled with quotes from old jazz tunes, and a few non-jazz songs.

 "Hindustan" by David Berger. Berger is the world's foremost authority on the music of Duke Ellington, and he also leads his own band in New York City. He composed this piece for his band, and it shows the influence of both Ellington and Gil Evans.

 "El Cuento Que Te Cuento" ("Storytelling") by Pedro Giraudo. Giraudo is an Argentinean bassist and composer now living in New York who fuses the American big band jazz tradition with Argentinean rhythms. This was recorded on Giraudo's album Cuentos.

In the liner notes for that album., Giraudo wrote of this piece, "Inspired by a line in a poem by Marianela Fernandez, my wife, this tune is a musical representation of human interactions. Every time we communicate with people verbally or musically, what is being said or played is different from what is understood or interpreted by the listener, sometimes slightly, other times significantly. This piece presents many repetitions that are altered by small melodic, harmonic or timbre changes."

 "Samba de Orfeo"/"Struttin' With Some Barbecue,"a medley of two tunes.The first was written by the Brazilian guitarist and composer Luiz Bonfa as part of the soundtrack for the film Black Orpheus in 1959. The latter tune was composed by Louis Armstrong and recorded by him and his Hot Five in the late 1920s. The arrangement combining the two was written by Oded Lev-Ari for the Anat Cohen album Noir.

Three pieces by current students or recent alums: "Positive Sweat or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Funk" by Kyle McInnis "Jibber Jabber" by Ryan Woempner "Omar" by Dan Fair.

Humboldt Symphony and ArMack Orchestra in Home-and-Home Concerts

An orchestral suite from the opera Carmen, favorites by Rachmaninoff and Copland, and a tribute to Louis Armstrong highlight two combined concerts by the Humboldt Symphony and the ArMack Orchestra of Arcata and McKinleyville high schools, in a home-and-home Mother’s Day weekend series on Friday evening May 6 at HSU and Sunday afternoon at Arcata High School. 

 The ArMack Orchestra under the direction of Cassandra Moulton performs Satchmo! A Tribute to Louis Armstrong and The Fair, an orchestral arrangement from Stravinksy’s ballet Petrouchka. 

 The Humboldt Symphony performs the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s popular Piano Concerto #2. As winner of the HSU concerto competition, student Charles McClung is the piano soloist. 

 The buoyant An Outdoor Overture by Aaron Copland is another popular piece on the Humboldt Symphony program. “On any collection of Copland’s Top Ten hits, the Outdoor Overture would definitely be included,” said Symphony conductor Paul Cummings. “It’s energetic but with more serene passages. All sections of the orchestra are given their moment of glory, with a number of prominent solos.”

 Carmen Suite #2 is itself a kind of greatest hits package, assembled from Bizet’s opera and including its most familiar melodies (including the Toreador Song.) Humboldt Symphony will perform the entire suite, together with the ArMack Orchestra. 

The Humboldt Symphony and the ArMack Orchestra perform on Friday May 6 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. The two ensembles also perform on Sunday May 8 at 2 p.m. in the new theater in the Fine Arts Building at Arcata High School. Admission is $5.

Media: Times-Standard Urge Magazine, North Coast Journal The Set List, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.

ArMack Orchestra and Humboldt Symphony Program Notes

Armack Orchestra
Cassandra Moulton, conductor

 Satchmo! A Tribute to Louis Armstrong arranged by Ted Ricketts

"Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history. As a trumpet virtuoso, his playing, beginning with the 1920s studio recordings made with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles, charted a future for jazz in highly imaginative, emotionally charged improvisation. For this, he is revered by jazz fans. But Armstrong also became an enduring figure in popular music, due to his distinctively phrased bass singing and engaging personality, which were on display in a series of vocal recordings and film roles."
--William Ruhlmann for AllMusic.com

Louis Armstrong  "practically invented jazz." "Improvisation was created by the likes of Louis Armstrong."  He "invented swing, a strictly American form of music that will never go out of style, because it's our national tempo.  Louis invented bop; he invented rap.  Whatever the next category that comes out, you'll discover he was the first one who did it."--singer Tony Bennett from his book Life is a Gift.

The Fair from Petrouchka by Igor Stravinsky, arranged by Merle J. Isaac

 The Firebird was Stravinsky's first big hit, and it made him famous, almost literally overnight, at the age of twenty-eight. Petrushka is that most difficult of artistic creations—the follow-up.

 The Firebird had not only made Stravinsky the talk of Paris, then the capital of the international art world—capturing the attention of the city's biggest names, including Debussy and Proust—but it had scored a huge success for Sergei Diaghilev, who had taken a risk hiring the young, relatively unknown composer to write music for the Russian Ballet's 1910 season. Naturally, both men wanted another sensation for the next year.

Stravinsky already had an idea. While he was finishing the orchestration of The Firebird, he had dreamed about "a solemn pagan rite: wise elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring." These powerful images suggested music to Stravinsky and he began to sketch almost at once.

At first he thought of it as a symphony, but when he played parts of it at the piano for Diaghilev early that summer, the impresario immediately knew that this was music for dance.

 With Diaghilev's urging, Stravinsky continued working on the score that would eventually become their biggest sensation, Le sacre du printemps—The Rite of Spring. But in the meantime, Stravinsky got sidetracked. When Diaghilev went to visit Stravinsky in Switzerland at the end of the summer, he was stunned to discover that the composer had begun a completely different work instead. As Stravinsky recalled, Diaghilev "was much astonished when, instead of the sketches of the Sacre, I played him the piece which I had just composed and which later became the second scene of Petrushka."

What had begun as just a detour from The Rite now became the main project of the year, and at the same time, the score with which Stravinsky found his modernist voice—the voice that made The Rite possible. -- Phillip Huscher for Chicago Symphony

Humboldt Symphony
Paul Cummings, conductor

An Outdoor Overture by Aaron Copland

"A funny thing about Aaron Copland’s buoyant, invigoratingly open-air piece, An Outdoor Overture: it was written in 1938 for performance in the indoor auditorium of the High School of Music and Art in New York City. The work owes its existence to a request from the school’s orchestra director, Alexander Richter, for a composition to begin the institution’s long-term plan to concentrate on “American music for American Youth.” And who better to inaugurate such a campaign than an American composer who had so recently affected a radical and crucial stylistic change in his music, a change from austerity and dissonance into folkish simplicity?"

"In composing the piece, Copland kept in mind that, although he was writing for a high school orchestra of at least near-professional capability, he must still hold careful rein on the over-all difficulties. But neither did he underestimate the expertise of the student players and in devising the music in his typically syncopated, brilliant manner, he provided them, and professional orchestras, with an attractive bit of Coplandiana."--Orrin Howard  for Los Angeles Philharmonic

Concerto #2 for Piano and Orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninoff
First Movement

"A quality especially apparent in the Second Piano Concerto is a sense of effortlessness in its unfolding, and that is something new in Rachmaninoff's music. He begins magnificently, and with something so familiar that we come perilously close to taking it for granted—a series of piano chords in crescendo, all based on F, each reinforced by the tolling of the lowest F on the keyboard, and, through the gathering harmonic tension and dynamic force, constituting a powerful springboard for the move into the home chord of C minor. Once there, the strings with clarinet initiate a plain but intensely expressive melody, which the piano accompanies with sonorous broken chords.

 The piano's role as accompanist is also worth noting. Nowhere is the pianist so often an ensemble partner and so rarely a soloist aggressively in the foreground as in this first movement of the Second Concerto."--Michael Steinberg for the San Francisco Symphony

Both Orchestras

Carmen Suite for Orchestra No. 2 by Georges Bizet, assembled by Ernest Guirard

"Whereas the first suite drawn from Bizet's opera Carmen focused on preludes and entr'actes, the second is mostly a string of hit arias and ensemble pieces, with individual instruments filling in for the missing voices."

"The opening "Marche des contrebandiers," or "Smugglers' March," depicts the nocturnal progress of smugglers through the mountains...Befitting the secretive nature of the business at hand, this is a predominantly quiet but still cocky march, full of pert woodwind solos.

 Next comes one of the opera's two most famous numbers, Carmen's teasing-seductive "Habanera," concerning the fickle nature of gypsy love. Bizet based it on a popular song by the Spanish composer Yradier. In this non-vocal form, the line is divided into long phrases and allotted to various instruments-usually solo woodwinds, but also trumpet, and at some points the violin sections.

The long Nocturne is actually Micaëla's aria from Act 3. Here the long, flowing, yearning melody is taken mainly by the solo viola (solo horn in some versions), although it becomes violin property when it begins to soar halfway through the piece.

 The "Chanson du toréador" is the opera's greatest hit, although Bizet was ashamed of it and denigrated it as "trash." Here, the torero ("toréador" is a French fabrication) enters in the form of a solo trumpet to tell his bullfight story through dramatic verses as well as the famous marching chorus.

"La Garde montante" is the Act 1 children's chorus, in which kids tag along at the changing of the guard. Thus, the piece begins with militaristic fanfares in the brass, but quickly is taken over by a whimsical piccolo march. Clarinets and violins also fill in for the children's voices as the piece progresses."--James Reel, AllMusic.com

Calypso Band 30th Anniversary Fulkerson Hall Finale With Guest Artist Andy Narell 

Humboldt State Calypso Band ends its 30th anniversary celebration in the place where the band began—Fulkerson Recital Hall—with a concert featuring a guest artist, the legendary steel pan player Andy Narell, on Thursday May 5. 

 Eugene Novotney, founder and current director of the Calypso Band, calls it as “our student and community appreciation show,” marking the band’s first appearance in Fulkerson Hall in the spring of 1986.

 Guest artist Andy Narell is a virtuoso steel pan player (he played more than 25 parts on an album recorded one instrument at a time) who teaches in Paris and across the U.S.

 "Andy Narell is not only one of the premier steel pan artists and composers in the world, he is one of the best musicians on the planet,” Novotney said. “He is the true definition of what it means to be a performing artist, and his influence both in the steelband movement and in the jazz world has been immeasurable.” 

 “He is undeniably the most recorded steel pan artist in history, and his compositions for the steelband are historic and profound,” Novotney continued. “We are beyond thrilled to have him come to Humboldt State, and we are extremely excited to share the stage with him and experience his artistry. This will be the show of a lifetime, and we could not think of a better way to celebrate our 30th anniversary at HSU." 

 In addition to his performance in this concert, Narell will hold a free workshop for HSU students on Wednesday May 4 at 3 p.m., to be followed by a rehearsal with the Calypso Band, also open to the public at no charge.

The Humboldt State Calypso Band with guest artist Andy Narell performs on Thursday May 5 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Directed by Eugene Nototney, produced by HSU Music department.

Media: Eureka Times-Standard Urge Magazine, North Coast Journal The Set List, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.

Humboldt State Calypso Band

 Founded in 1986 by Dr. Eugene Novotney, the Humboldt State Calypso Band was the first ensemble of its kind in the entire California State University system.

As of spring 2016 marking the 30th anniversary of the Calypso Band at HSU, the Calypso Band now stands as one of the oldest and longest standing steelbands in the entire United States.

 The Humboldt State Calypso Band is a 100% acoustic group comprised of an orchestra of steelpans. The Humboldt Calypso Band prides itself in maintaining an accurate and authentic connection to the roots of the steelband movement and the innovative musicians of Trinidad & Tobago, the island nation that created and developed this unique percussion phenomenon.

 Many of the Humboldt State Calypso Bands’ original steelpans were built and tuned by Clifford Alexis, a Trinidadian native who’s work with steelbands in the Caribbean and the United States is legendary.

 The indigenous “Calypso”and “Soca” music performed by the Humboldt State Calypso Band represents the true voice of steelband music in the Caribbean, and steelband arrangements from Trinidad & Tobago greatly influence the group's repertoire and instrumentation. The Humboldt State Calypso Band has developed a relationship with some of Trinidad & Tobago’s most important steelband composers, most notably Ray Holman & Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, who have written many of the arrangements and original scores that the group performs.

Some alumni of the group have traveled to the West Indies, where they performed in the National Panorama Competition during Trinidad’s famous Carnival celebration, and performed in some of the best steelbands in the world, such as the Phase II Pan Groove, the Invaders, Silver Stars, Starlift, the Hummimgbird Pan Groove, and others. Other alumni have gone on to lead steelbands in communities, in public schools, at colleges and universities, and professionally throughout the United States.

 In addition to the Humboldt State Calypso Band’s regular performances in Humboldt county and throughout Northern California, the Calypso Band has undertaken tours to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield, Berkeley, Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Diego, Eugene, OR, and Seattle, WA.---Humboldt State Calypso Band

Andy Narell

The following is a brief bio of Andy Narell. For more, check out his website.

 With his first solo album in 1979 Andy Narell took the steelpan out of the steelband and brought it into the jazz band, and with every recording and concert since, he has explored the possibilities and expanded the role of the pan in contemporary music.

Narell has made 15 albums as leader, one as co-leader with Relator (University of Calypso), two as co-leader of the Caribbean Jazz Project (with Paquito D’Rivera and Dave Samuels), and two as co-leader of Sakésho (with Mario Canonge, Michel Alibo, and Jean Philippe Fanfant).

Along the way he has worked with such artists as  Bela Fleck, Tito Puente, Spyro Gyra, Nancy Wilson, Aretha Franklin and the Kronos String Quartet. He has performed on movie scores by James Horner, Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Hans Zimmer, Michel Colombier, Thomas Newman, and Carmine Coppola, and his compositions are featured in the film ‘PAN – Our Music Odyssey,’ plus television shows and commercials.

 As a bandleader and soloist he has played hundreds of concerts and jazz festivals throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. In 1999 Andy became the first foreigner to compose for Trinidad’s Panorama steel band competition, guiding the 100 player Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra to the finals of both the 1999 and 2000 Panoramas.

 He has been an artist in residence at  many United States colleges and universities. "My other ongoing teaching assignments are at Calypsociation in Paris, and Laborie Steel Pan in Laborie, Saint Lucia. I make the rounds of universities and high schools in the USA every year."

Madrigals & MRT Singing Rainbows

 It's all about rainbows at the Madrigal Singers and Mad River Transit concert on Sunday May 1 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. 

 The Madrigal Singers perform music from a rainbow of nations and cultures, sometimes in combination. "It's a very diverse range of music in four different languages, from Rachmaninoff to a Hawaiian piece, to a traditional Yiddish folk song, to a contemporary piece set to Native American poetry," said conductor Rachel Samet.

 "Bogoroditse Devo" is from "The All-Night Vigil," an a cappella setting of a Russian Orthodox ceremonial text by Sergei Rachmaninoff. A history of Russian music published by the University of California in 2002 calls it Rachmaninoff's finest achievement. 

 The text for "Grandmother Moon" is a poem by Mary Louise Martin that uses the language of the Mi'kmaq people of Canada's Atlantic seacoast, with music by Eleanor Daley. It has been described as "tender" and "gorgeous." 

 Other selections include a Hawaiian hymn, a requiem by Texas folk singer Eliza Gilkyson, and a joyful tune taken from a Yiddish folk song and arranged by Joshua Jacobson. 

 The rainbow theme returns as the MRT jazz singers perform a program that is specifically colorful, with tunes including "Orange Colored Sky," "When Sunny Gets Blue," "The Pink Panther," "Sweet Georgia Brown" and Ella Fitzgerald's vibrant "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" ("A brown and yellow basket.") 

 Both vocal groups combine for Craig Hella Johnson's arrangement joining a 1970s Christian Rock song, "I Love You," with Louis Armstrong's 1967 hit, "What A Wonderful World." 

The HSU Madrigal Singers and MRT perform on Sunday May 1 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door.  Directed by Rachel Samet, produced by HSU Music department.