Student Conductors Show Talent in Fall Concert

By April Bayer

On Tuesday night, an audience gathered in the Cattle Conference Room to witness the musical talents of the University Symphonic Band, which featured several songs led by student conductors.

The evening began with a performance by the full Symphonic Band, which has about 85 members. The group performed three pieces conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Andrew Schultz. The songs covered a range of genres, with one piece inspired by an Irish jig, another based on Olympic fanfare, and the other a Russian Orthodox choral piece arranged for instrumental performance.

The concert then continued with performances led by four student conductors from this semester’s instrumental music methods class: juniors Brandon Holmes and Stephanie Barry, and seniors Jacob Roggow and Sarah Brutlag.  Each of the conductors led specific sections of the band in pieces specifically chosen by Schultz to help each of them grow in their individual talents.

“Each of those students has a piece that I thought would work for them, and there are good challenges for the band,” Schultz said. “There are a couple marches in there and a couple of slower lyric songs.”

Roggow’s piece was “The Big Cage” by Karl L. King. He worked with the band through five rehearsals and focused on expression, dynamics, phrasing, articulations and tempo. In his personal preparation as a director, he also sang the instrumental parts to help himself connect with the emotions of the piece so he could help the band express them instrumentally.

“It was interesting, taking the director role without much previous experience and when you are working with your peers that are very talented,” Roggow said. “The band members were very patient and supportive to all of the student conductors and usually had helpful input.”

Overall, Roggow was satisfied with his group’s performance.

“I think the group performed very well; they were going to do well regardless of what I did up on the podium. Overall, it was a very good experience to get up in front of a talented ensemble and perform for an audience, and it will make things that much easier for the next experience,“ Roggow said.

Schultz said he was glad to see the student conductors improve in their musical knowledge and communication skills.

“They (the student conductors) have all grown tremendously, and I see a lot of improvement that should really help them as they get ready for the classroom,” Schultz said. “They’ve hopefully had a real positive experience working with a larger instrumental ensemble so they have a greater depth of knowledge and skill base to head out student teaching.”

The concert closed with a performance by the band’s auditioned wind ensemble of approximately 40 players. Schultz said the pieces the ensemble performed at the concert will likely be used for their tour in the spring.

Senior Katie Wehling, a member of the wind ensemble, especially enjoyed the challenge of trying some new types of pieces this semester.

“We have really good songs. There’s a lot of Celtic-type music, more than we’ve had before. I really like playing that type of music on the flute because it fits (well),” Wehling said.

Audiences can also enjoy the Symphonic Band’s performances at the upcoming Christmas at Concordia concerts from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2. Tickets can be reserved here.