The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Records Convergence, the second album in the Musical Landscapes in Color Project: A Convergence of Classical Music Styles and Tastes
Andre Myers (top) and Valerie Coleman (above) are two of the composers whose work will be recorded by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra on October 10th in the Capitol Theater
by Jonathan Gramling
On October 10th, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will be recording Convergence, the second of five albums in the Musical Landscapes of Color project that is featuring the work of Black composers. The project is the brainchild of WCO Conducter Andrew Sewell and WCO’s artist-in-residence Bill Banfield. The first album, Harmony in Black was released last March and included music composed by Banfield and Patrice Rushen, a Grammy nominated composer.
For Convergence, Rushen returns with her piece Fanfare and Fantaisie and his joined by Grammy-nominated Michael Abels with Global Warming and Nope Film Suite, up and coming composer Andre Myers with Changes and Grammy-nominated flutist Valerie Coleman with Umoja.
Coleman wrote the first iteration of Umoja when she was in graduate school and it has undergone transformation as Coleman’s career has transformed as well.
“I think that it has grown with me and I’ve grown because of it,” Coleman said. “It started off as a piece for a women’s choir when I was a college student during my graduate studies in New York. And then when Imani Winds was created, out of need, Umoja became a piece for woodwind quintet. And it worked. I was really shocked and delightedly surprised that version could be used so practically throughout the needs of what the group needed for programming, whether it is the end of a concert or to start a concert. Whatever it needed to be in that moment, Umoja is that work. And so over the years, it’s had many different versions of it with the common thread of the melody. But it has different form and different variations to it. So in a way, each incarnation — brass quartet, string quartet, orchestra and right now I’m rewriting a new choral version of it — has its own distinct flavor, but they have a common thread. It makes them more or less siblings to one another.”
As its name implies, Umoja is about human unity.
“I think Umoja really encapsulates what Maya Angelou says in her poem ‘Human Family’” Coleman said. “‘We are more alike than we are unalike.’ And so there is a sing-songy quality and the feel of healing that I feel Umoja is imbued with. For the listener, I think the melody and the nature of the meaning of the work, just everything about it, really uplifts spirits. In this crazy political climate that we are in right now, I think we need that now more than ever to remind each other that we are more alike than we are unalike. And decency and humanity are really important now more than ever.”
And it is the instruments played in Umoja that give it its voice.
“In this composition, I try to give some voices the opportunity to really sing the melody,” Coleman said. “And it wasn’t really a deliberate selection of, ‘Okay, I really want this to be the violin’s show.’ It was really more of an intuitive aspect of which instruments I would like to hear within this particular incarnation. The work starts off actually, within this really ethereal state. And then the violin comes in with the melody. This is the first time that we hear the melody. In the original version, it’s very much like a drum circle. It dances and it has a flow to it. But in this case, the violin part is more of singing. It’s more of a nurturing and warm type of slower ballad feel to introduce the melody. And then the rest of the string ensemble, the violin sections one and two along with viola, come in with the second part of the melody as if everyone is joining in. A community is joining in to really sing this moment of unity together. And then later on, we hear the truest incarnation of the piece right at the end. It takes a while for this journey to happen. Everything dances and grooves. There are a lot of esoteric moments throughout the piece. It is its own journey. But when we get to the end, that’s when we hear the Umoja melody and feel in its purest form, back to the original. I wanted to do that because I wanted to make sure that this journey that we all go through really comes right back home. We are always looking for home as artists, as people. We’re looking for our people. We’re looking for our surroundings to accept us for who we are. And so often times, that means we are stepping back into a simpler place after all of the complexities of life tosses us around. I think that is what the end of the piece is, really a return to something that is simpler but triumphant.”
Andre Myers brings more of a contemporary soul to classical music.
“In some ways, it’s working with the same instruments of the classical tradition,” Myers said. “But it is doing so hopefully in a way that meets contemporary needs. The focus of my musical interests is on the present even though I am using instruments of the traditions of the classical past, my work is very much interested in the musical present.”
Like Coleman’s Umoja, Myers’ Changes has been with him since his collegiate days at the University of Michigan. And it is written in the minimalist tradition.
“I was really interested in music that is sometimes referred to as minimalist music like Philip Glass,” Myers said. “I think the term process music is more appropriate because oftentimes folks will think the music of Phillip Glass is very repetitive when in actuality, this music celebrates change. In terms of making music and how I work with instruments, I think it’s a matter, at least with this particular piece, trying to take what I really like in the music of others, but also finding a way to make it my own.”
Changes is about the change of season, when fall meets winter.
“This piece started out as a chamber music piece. It’s for string quartet and clarinet. I wrote this as a student at Michigan back in 2002. At the time, I was writing for a student group who was preparing a concert for an exhibition of art. This was at the University of Michigan. This was art that was also part a part of the minimalist movement. There were very few colors. It was celebrating very specific types of textures. They were putting on a concert of music that had this process style. It wasn’t so much the changes of the world that I was focused on as much as the changes of a particular season. This was taking place in the dead of winter. I was really wanting to write something that sounded like snow, that sounded like a field of snow. That was the initial motivation. Once I had that assignment, the piece came pretty quickly.”
And while the audience is certain to be pleased with the performance of Changes, it’s not the audience that Myers had in mind when he wrote it.
“I try to write for musicians,” Myers emphasized. “My job is to make musicians happy. And the musicians’ job is to perform for the audience. But my job is to make music for musicians. One of the great joys of my professional life is being able to work with other musicians and orchestras. I’m a pivot introvert. It’s always nice to have opportunities to work with musicians of all sorts.”
The October 10th performance will be a convergence of musical styles and tastes that will come together in harmony to the delight of the audience.