Salty Cricket Composer Collective Presents Bangin' Brass

Salty Cricket Composer Collective Presents
Bangin' Brass

Bangin' Brass ~ A little brassy, a little percussive. An evening of pieces by Utah Composers for Trumpet, Piano, and 2 Percussionists.
December 16th at the Ladies Literary Club

The inspiration of Utah composers will be put on display at Salty Cricket Composer Collective’s December 16th concert, Bangin’ Brass. The evening will highlight works by Utah Composers for an ensemble of trumpet, piano, and and two percussionists. The performance will be held at the Ladies Literary Club located at 850 E South Temple and will begin at 7:30pm. Tickets are available by calling 801-652-0737 or visiting saltycricket.org. Tickets are 50% off if purchased prior to December 16th.

Explore the minds and musical works of our composers, interpreted by an elite ensemble featuring trumpet (Randolph Lee), piano (Jed Moss) and percussionists Eric Hopkins and Michael Pape. Banging’ Brass will feature a wide array of musical compositions, from eccentric and avant-guarde to more traditional harmony.

ABOUT THE MUSIC:

The stimulating works that will be performed at “Bangin’ Trumpet” represent a large variety of musical styles and inspirations, ranging from Greek mythology, Middle Eastern tributes, as well as pieces that turn inward and explore the logical fallacies of the mind in musical form.

Composer Margot Murdoch’s Argument for Final Consequences was inspired by the weekly podcast “Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” where the contributors regularly play a game called “Name that Logical Fallacy.” Margot’s piece features a series of pieces that musically demonstrate an array of differing fallacies. Quoting Murdock; “Argument from Final Consequences is a fallacy where cause and effect are confused. This piece musically demonstrates this fallacy by ending in a unexpected way; the last measure is seemingly unrelated to any previous musical material.”

Marden Pond’s Tritonia: Of Sea Swell, Giants, and Diabolicals is a grand piece that will highlight the virtuosity of the performers. Says Pond: “Triton was a mythological Greek God of the sea; the son of Poseidon . . . His chief attribute was the blowing of a conch-shell trumpet, blown to soothe the restless waves of the sea. Triton’s trumpet is also said to have frightened the Gigantes (giants) in battle, its sound being so terrifying that they thought it was the roar of a dark wild beast.” Marden’s piece will showcase a lyrical flurry of trumpet punctuated by virtuosic melody and rich harmonies from the piano.

Extreme virtuosity is again under display in Igor Iachimciuc’s Two Lyrical Pieces The works are “conceived as a journey into musical processes, occurring in piano miniatures by Edward Grieg, who organically incorporated folk music elements into Western music idioms. The unusual instrumentation directed me towards the exploration of different type of lyricism, mixed up with Eastern melodic ornamentations, and Latin American moods.”

The ensemble will play two places by Nathaniel Escher: Trio Sonata and Clarino. Trio Sonata is a short three-movement work that features the trumpet as a soloist against the Vibraphone and Piano. According to Eschler, “In the Scherzo, the trumpet is always at the dramatic forefront. In Maestoso it is antagonistic and struggles for its lead. In Giocoso it taunts at first and then enters a playful banter. Conversely, Clarino is an encore piece for solo trumpet. In the Baroque period, clarino was a virtuoso style of trumpet playing that showed off the upper range of the instrument. Clarino also makes use of extreme contrast in dynamics.”

A revised work by Crystal Young-Otterstrom has a Middle Eastern inspiration. “...quiyan... (Revisted) was originally a piece I wrote in graduate school. Quiyan were basically the prostitutes (although semi ritualized) of ancient Islam and are basically the creators of secular music in the Middle East. I wrote this piece for these used women, utilizing their scales, as a way of giving them voice in the modern era. Crazy hard for pretty much all of the players, I originally wrote this for trumpet and three percussionists. It was a lot of fun to expand the piece, which I had always meant to do, and replace one of the percussion voices with piano, which really is a percussive instrument anyway. There are also a lot of purposedly "out of tune" microtonal notes in the music that comes from the quiyan scales themselves. In this revision, I've cut some of that out, but left the most important microtones.

A venture into more tonal music concludes the program. M. Ryan Taylor’s Leafs from the Diary of an Old Soul was originally conceived as an art song cycle for voice based on the spiritual poetry of George MacDonald, a figure that C.S. Lewis considered to be his spiritual mentor and guide. As Taylor states, “Lewis even included MacDonald as a character in his 'hell to heaven' road trip opus, The Great Divorce. The poetry is excerpted from MacDonald's Diary of an Old Soul, which is 365 short poetic reflections on life, death, and the essence of his beliefs.” This revision features the trumpet as the voice, without words.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:

An impressive cast of composers must be backed up by an equally accomplished ensemble. The centerpiece of Bangin’ Brass will be the accomplished trumpeter Randolph Lee, a member of the Orchestra at Temple Square. Lee has performed in some of the most prestigious venues, from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. Other performing opportunities include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra as guest principal trumpet, Philip Glass Ensemble, Utah Festival Opera, Utah Wind Symphony, and various chamber ensembles.

Pianist Jed Moss brings a lifetime of experience, having played in a wide spectrum of locales spanning the nation, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the New York Philharmonic, and numerous venues in-between. Moss is featured in numerous collaborative works, being heard with the Prague Orchestra and members of the Martinu Quartet in recorded works for Deseret Book’s “Sunday Morning with Beethoven,” and with Cellist Nicole Pinnell in the CD “Sunday Morning with Classical Cello.” 

Percussionists Eric Hopkins and Michael Pape will be the backbone of the ensemble.

Associate Principal Timpani at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera Eric Hopkins is an artist that has chosen music as his main platform. Eric's performing opportunities have been as diverse as the instruments he plays. Coming to Salt Lake from New York City, Eric brings with him a passion and respect for contemporary music and its boundlessness. The minimalistic music by Steve Reich, the innovative and aleatoric music by John Cage, and the mathematically complex music of Iannis Xenakis are just examples of Eric's interests. As a soloist Eric was the first prize winner of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 2012 Modern Snare Drum Competition. He can be heard as a vibraphone soloist on the CD, FSU Percussion Ensemble Vol. 1.

Michael Pape is a versatile musician who has made a career as a symphonic percussionist and timpanist. For the past 5 seasons, Mr. Pape held the position of section percussion with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. During the 09/10 season, Michael held a one-year position as section percussion with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He performed with them on several national and international tours and recordings. He has also has held positions with the Canton (OH) Symphony and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has performed and recorded with the Chicago Symphony and has also performed with the Utah Symphony, the New World Symphony (FL), Pittsburgh Opera, Mendelssohn Choir, and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. In 2004, Michael was the winner of the 1st prize at the International Snare Drum Competition in Paris, France. Michael received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. Michael has also studied with Chris Deviney, John Soroka, Andy Reamer, and Chris Allen

Ladies Literary Club
850 E South Temple
Salt Lake City, UT
801-652-0737


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