When I first started back in the 60’s, it was a big struggle among people throughout
the country as to whether this upstart organization that Fred Fennel had founded, whether this
was just sort of a high brow put-on or what.
It’s like anything else in the world about change.
When people are comfortable with something, there’s a lot of resistance when somebody
says, “Well, let’s try this”.
And it almost seemed like it’s a criticism of what was going on with the large band.
That wasn’t Fred’s idea is to say, “This doesn’t work, you should do this”.
He’s saying, “What about this?”
I was a student from 1950-54 and when I came in 1950, all there was to play in, wind-wise,
was a hundred-piece band.
This was the norm for the nation.
Fred held a concert that was a program of music for wind instruments and instead of
just doubling anybody who was on the part, like in the big symphony band it was a totally
different thing to suddenly have one player per part.
The sound is different, the whole atmosphere is much different.
I knew about Frederick Fennel.
I met him in the 70’s and met Don only in the 80’s when I was thinking about actually
coming here to study conducting.
Think about all the stages we’ve played on.
And so in 1987 when I started as a student here – a conducting student - I also did
a lot of playing.
And then when I came back in 2002 and I was selected as the 4th conductor of the Eastman
Wind Ensemble, it was a pretty amazing thing.
That would’ve been the 1978 tour because I think after we were done with the tour,
we probably threw all the white coats out of the way, after going through Southeast
Asia for 3 weeks.
Let’s try that section one more time.
I’ve heard about the legend that is this ensemble all throughout my musical growth.
And so the first time I played in it, it was such an honor and privilege and I wondered,
as I stay here over the next couple of years, is that going to change?
But it hasn’t.
Every time I sit down into a rehearsal in that ensemble, I sit there going, “Wow.
Am I really here?
Am I really playing in the Eastman Wind Ensemble?”
As a musician, I think you’re always learning.
As a student, you do all the work to prepare for a professional career.
And then when you’re in the orchestra, you’re expected to come and just do it.
So the wonderful thing about being in a Wind Ensemble was that it gave us that chance to
train as a professional that’s been so important for my career in the RPO.
When I was younger, I had quite a few of the Fennel recordings.
I mean, almost everybody did if you were an instrumental musician.
But what really turned me on were Don’s recordings, because I was later in my life,
I could appreciate them a little bit more the sophistication of some of the things Don
did.
I was super attracted, of course to the Wynton “Carnaval” recording, and of course I
came here 2 years after that.
The recording project, with Wynton Marsalis, came about after he had come here to play
with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble.
Well the group just sat down and they just played the daylights out of everything.
He came in and we recording for about 4 days.
There was something about Wynton that was really special at that time.
He was about my age.
Here was somebody who was already a very well-respected musician.
And he and Dr. Hunsberger had a wonderful collaborative relationship.
This collaboration with Winton ended up being nominated for a Grammy and coming out, unfortunately
second to Yo-Yo Ma.
But that’s not bad.
But we were number 1.
We did this at Eastman in order to give our students, actually, a better experience as
a solo player, because that was their part; they owned it and nobody else did.
They had to play it on stage and you can’t hide.
Dr. Scatterday holds us to the potential that he sees in us, which we don’t always see
in ourselves; and that’s something that’s always stretched me all along.
Whenever I’m outside of Eastman, it’s really a special thing when you see another
ensemble playing, to know – whether they realize it or not – that what they’re
doing and enjoying, as a community orchestra or another university group, has this link
back to your musical home at Eastman.
Eastman is still very much on the cutting edge of playing repertoire that’s really
new and still developing.
Getting to play with all these musicians here has just been incredible because it’s one
thing to sit in the practice room all by yourself, all day long and know that you’re getting
a little bit better than you were yesterday.
But then you come into the ensemble and you’re challenged by the musicality and the talent
and the hard work that everybody else has put into it as well.
And it just makes you want to be a better musician every day.
I would say that if you go through all of the colleges and universities in the United
States and Canada, you will find that almost every one of them has an ensemble called “The
Wind Ensemble”.
They may still have a symphonic band, but they have a wind ensemble.
That’s been the thrilling part of it, is to see everything continue to grow.
One of my roles is to protect this group, to honor the history of the group, to be the
best teacher and conductor I can be in the present, but also to look to the future to
see what can we do next that’s even better.
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