More Live (Recorded) Music!
Later in 2021 we held our first live, in-person rehearsals in almost two years. We rehearsed as two smaller groups — the woodwinds and the brass, each assisted by percussion — to allow more space between players on the ample stage. On December 14, 2021, we performed a “closed concert” with no audience but with three stationary cameras. The video, presenting four works for brass group and three for woodwinds, is now on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEZwtIJCK2I).
Timeline:
0:00 - Banner and Director's Introduction
1:15 - (brass) Jazzalogue No. 1 - Joseph Turrin
3:37 - Director's Introduction
4:00 - (woodwinds) Light - Christopher Marshall
11:05 - Director's Introduction
11:30 - (brass) Invictus - Anthony Barfield
16:53 - Director's Introduction
17:30 - (woodwinds) This Cruel Moon - John Mackey
25:00 - Director's Introduction
25:30 - (brass) Symphony in Brass - Eric Ewazen
44:50 - Director's Introduction
45:35 - (woodwinds) Suite for Winds - Adam Gorb
56:20 - Director's Introduction
56:55 - (brass) The Hammer of Asgard - David Marlatt
1:05:50 - Personnel and Credits
1:06:30 - The End
CRWE Digital Collaboration 2021– Now Published!
Starting early in 2021, dozens of Boston-area community, collegiate, and professional musicians joined with members of the Charles River Wind Ensemble to bring Vicente Ortiz Gimeno’s symphonic work Poirot to life... digitally! Some 85 woodwind, brass, and percussion players rehearsed alone and in virtual sectionals, then individually recorded their parts of this 18-minute composition. Hours of work went into coordinating the music and showcasing the players as they recorded their parts.
So follow this LINK (to YouTube, full URL: https://youtu.be/htXqtSTjxcQ), go to full-screen mode, and enjoy this magnificent virtual performance by the many talented wind players of our community.
Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, relies on his “gray cells” for cunning deduction as he travels the world solving difficult crimes. For many years Poirot has been portrayed brilliantly by British actor David Suchet.
Earlier in 2021 ...
... we recorded a virtual performance of Jeff Tyzik’s New York Cityscape I. Ragtime Redux.
Audio/video engineering and clever setting by Artistic director Matthew M. Marsit.
The Charles River Wind Ensemble
presented its first concert
of the 2020 - 2021 Season
8 PM on Saturday, November 7, 2020
as part of the
Virtual Boston New Music Festival.
(The video is no longer available)
Dreaming of a Better Tomorrow
Give Us This Day — David Maslanka (2006)
Dream Elegy — Johnathan Bailey Holland (2017)
The central theme of this concert is music that is inspired by dreams and dream-like states. David Maslanka’s short symphony is inspired by his studies of Buddhism, the dreams being meditations. Jonathan Bailey Holland’s work is an homage to a long list of black men and women killed at the hands of law enforcement. The dreams are memories of their lives and our dreams for a better tomorrow.
How do you prepare a concert in the midst of a pandemic,
when your players can’t gather and rehearse together?
The short answer:
Thanks to the dedication and tireless efforts of our Artistic Direction and our Board of Directors.
In a bit more detail:
1) The director prepares a video which shows him conducting, while a sound track provides metronome-like clicks and some portion of the music for guidance.
2) Players watch the video, listening to the sound track through headphones, and record their playing as a video on another device, such as a smartphone.
3) The director collects all the contributions from the players. He combines, aligns, and balances the parts to create a full recorded performance.
This process requires the players to learn and practice the parts. From the director, it requires an enormous amount of time and effort working with sophisticated software as an audio engineer.