As the end of Spring term nears, the college’s jazz and orchestra ensembles will go out with a bang in a series of early June concerts.
The Lane Symphonic Band will perform June 1, while the Chamber Orchestra will present “Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra” June 2.
The Spectrum Vocal Jazz Ensemble will join the Lane Jazz Ensemble for a performance on June 3.
Each concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Ragozzino Performance Hall on the college’s Main Campus. Admission prices will be $3 for students, staff and seniors, and $5 for community members. Tickets will be sold at the door.
Music instructor Ron Bertucci will direct all three concerts.
“In my 19 years as director of these three fine ensembles I’ve never heard them play better,” Bertucci wrote in an email to The Torch. “Each group will excite and entertain their audiences with great performances of outstanding musical selections.”
“It’s really a treat and an honor to be able to present such dynamic music to our audiences here at Lane.”
The Lane Symphonic Band, a 45-member wind and percussion ensemble, plays all styles of music literature. Bertucci shared the band’s June 1 program, themed to include major works such as “Suite of Old American Dances” by Robert Russell Bennett, “Satiric Dances” by Norman Dello Joio and “Dance of the New World” by Dana Wilson.
The audition-only Chamber Orchestra is primarily composed of string instruments but also includes some brass and woodwinds. Members are students at the college as well as local community members and professional players.
“Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra” is a new composition written by Paul Safar, a local composer and performer.
Safar said the concept of fusing classical and modern music came to him some 15 years ago, but hadn’t started working on the piece until recently.
“It’s always something I’ve been wanting to do, and then a couple years ago I thought, ‘you know, too much time is gonna go by — I’m gonna try to sink my teeth into it now,’” Safar explained.
Working with guitar instructor Olem Alves helped make the piece more “organic,” and Safar said Alves’ involvement fit like “a piece in a puzzle.”
“It’s my music, but his style of playing helped me write it,” Safar said. “This is a very classically-oriented piece, [but] he’s more of a jazz person, so we compromised,” leaving a section of the composition open for an improvisational guitar solo — Alves’ musical specialty.
“I come from a blues/rock background and then later got into jazz,” Alves wrote in an email to The Torch. “Therefore my musical comfort zone is improvisation.”
At first, Alves admitted he’d felt nervous and doubtful of his ability to perform the track.
“But then as I became comfortable … through practice and hard work, my thoughts were of satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, confidence, and a feeling of, ‘wow this is going to be good,’” he wrote. “The piece as a whole is out of the box for me as a musician,” Alves continued, “but studying it and eventually mastering it has made me a better person and musician.”
Safar hopes the modern twist on classical orchestral music will resonate with audience members.
“When I first had this idea, maybe it wasn’t the right time for an audience to appreciate it, but I feel like [there’s] more alignment with classical and modern music these days,” Safar said. “It’ll be interesting to see what people think of it.”
The Lane Jazz Ensemble is an 18-member “Big Band” group that includes saxophones, trumpets, trombones and some percussion instruments. Players in this group must pass auditions; some members are also in the Symphonic Band.
Bertucci shared that the jazz ensemble is finishing up a seven-concert tour to local high schools and “is really pumped up” to play its last concert of the season.
Spectrum, the vocal jazz ensemble, is an award-winning group of approximately 16 singers. The June 3 program will include arrangements by Maria Schneider, Jim McNeeley, Dan Cavanaugh and George Stone.
