Monkey and Suite Dreams in Jasper, Indiana
Just returned from several days in Jasper, Indiana, where James Goodhue and the rather extraordinary Jasper High School band premiered my new work, Suite Dreams, and followed that up with a performance of Monkey.
The premiere went very well, and I’m extremely excited by the new piece. It went through a major round of revisions in the process, including the addition of humming by most of the band, and I appreciate the band’s willingness to adapt and experiment with me. They’d never premiered a new work before or worked with a composer, but they didn’t flinch, and even seemed to enjoy themselves.
The work was commissioned in appreciation of Linda Sermersheim, the band ‘secretary’ (I don’t know if she has an official title, since she works entirely on a volunteer basis!!), and director James Goodhue and I kept it a surprise until the concert itself. He’d talked about how valuable she is to the program since we first discussed this commission, and how he wanted to surprise her with something of lasting value. After finally getting to meet her this weekend, I can see how the whole program is indebted to her. It was wonderful to meet she and her husband Pete and their family – great folks!
Now, as I said, the premiere was wonderful, and I’m very proud of the new piece, but I was just blown away by their performance of Monkey. I haven’t heard this piece live since the premiere back in November of 1998, and I think maybe five (not more than 10) groups on the planet have played it. And never a high school. And they pulled it off. Amazingly well. And it made me realize I’ve been writing that piece off too easily – it *is* playable. These kids proved that, and I have to say it was really, really satisfying to hear it again after all these years. Despite the frivolity of the title and underlying ‘program’ to the piece, I’m proud of the craftmanship, and a little surprised at what I pulled off nearly a decade ago. Makes me wonder if I actually had better ideas back then than I do now…
Anyway, V and I had a great weekend down there – beautiful weather, nice folks, and great meals at the Schnitzelbank (the area has extensive German heritage) with James and his lovely wife, Heather. For a town of 10k people, they have an amazing band program, which obviously requires a lot of community enthusiasm and involvement.
A few pictures:
Me with Linda Sermersheim and James Goodhue
A gaggle of Jasper band students after the concert. I believe at least two of them are named Sara[h].
With Ross, the Bass Drummer for Monkey. Seriously – it’s a huge and active part. He rocked it.
And finally, I HAD to get a photograph of this:
James’ truck, with gun rack. Weapon of choice: clarinet. Awesome.