I started off as a musical conservative. I admit that. If it was written after 1900 I wasn’t interested. Then I went to Eastman….
I can’t claim to be the biggest advocate of new music but I’ve done my fair share. Premieres come my way, I’ve been involved in a few major commissions, and I can claim at least a dozen major composers as good friends and colleagues. The Eastman experience changed me because I was exposed to music written today, including a lot of music written by friends of mine. Now it’s my pleasure to search out the music of tomorrow.
Over the past couple of months my wife has been involved in playing a cycle of songs written for Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano by a young Minnesota composer named Abbie Betinis – currently Composer in Residence at the Schubert Club. She has been raving about this piece and with a recommendation like that it made sense to check this composer out. My opportunity came yesterday (Thursday) in a concert held at the old Courthouse in St. Paul, Minnesota.
One of the many advantages of living in the Twin Cities is the ridiculous amount of culture you can find at the drop of a hat. I blame it on the Scandahovians – they’re into their culture, education, and quality of living standards. You can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting another small liberal arts college, and the surfeit of major cultural institutions puts most metropolitan areas in this hemisphere to shame. Of special note is the Schubert Club, now run by my friend Kathleen van Bergen. I first met Kathy when she was working at the Chicago Symphony and over the years we’ve had the chance to collaborate at that orchestra and a couple of other ones.
The Schubert Club itself is a full-service musical arts organization. They have several recital series, and everyone from Daniel Barenboim to Deborah Voigt have recently appeared on their International Series, but that series goes all the way back to the 1890s!!! None other than the Chicago Symphony under Theodore Thomas appeared here back in that decade. The Club also has series around St. Paul, an early music series, and an Indonesian Gamelan!!! Being a huge fan of both of those later entries I treasure the fact that we have the Schubert Club in town. It was on their Courtroom series that I found my new favorite young composer. This is a series of free concerts held in an old courtroom in downtown St. Paul which happen pretty much every Thursday at noon throughout the season. They are hosted by composer Randall Davidson and are very well attended.
Two song cycles were the centerpiece of the Courtroom concert I heard – The Clan of the Lichens (2004) and Nattsanger (2008). These were preceded by a short prologue song for Soprano and (of all things) Bass Clarinet. I have no idea how this young composer will write for orchestra (she says she hasn’t had the opportunity yet) but I’m here to report that her song writing is exceptional. She simply “gets it,” and her use of the clarinet in both the prologue and the Nattsanger songs was fantastic. What’s more – she doesn’t seem to realize how wonderful her music is. She appeared a little starstruck by the response of the crowd.
I don’t want to pile a lot of huge expectations onto a young composer but if you’re looking for a possible candidate for a first tier composer of the next generation from America I would like to recommend this young lady. If she keeps going along these lines then many people will know her name before all is said and done. I consider myself privileged to have heard her music somewhat near the beginning of what I hope is a long and wonderful career.
You can always tell a good restaurant by how many trucks are parked outside, or at least that is what my dad always used to say. I didn’t check the parking lot outside of the old courthouse in downtown St. Paul last week but you could tell there was something special going on by who was in the audience.
Bill Eddins, of course, was there. But so were a number of other notable Twin Cities musicians: composers Edie Hill and David Evan Thomas, conductor/composer David Moore, a program officer from the MN State Arts Board, and then there were the usual suspects for a Schubert Club Courtroom Concert.
These folks are indicative of the usual audience: retired folks who played and taught music, a film-maker and impresario, office-workers, family and friends of the performers, and folks who have fallen in love with classical music. The room is small, but the audience is big every week.
Last week was notable for the number of accomplished musicians in attendance because this is the kind of event that raises the art of music to more than an exercise in personal accomplishment or institutional grand-standing. A cultural experience was created because of who was there, what they were listening to, and who was making the music. Simple. Rare. Wonderful.
I’m so glad Bill was there to document the experience!
Would love to hear the piece and the composer that Bill mentions here.