Post 3: Music Faculty Concert

In celebration of the 40^th anniversary of campus history, the UTD music faculty held “An Evening of Latin Music.” The concert was performed at the UTD Conference Center on Friday, January 29, 2010. As various ensembles, the faculty themselves performed every pieces of the repertoire, which included six Latino-inspired works composed during the 20^th century. The audience composed of students, generally affiliated with music classes, and other music-appreciating guests alike, filled the seats almost completely. The audience was generally enthusiastic throughout the entire concert. The particular performance of How Insensitive and Lamento, composed by Latin American composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, seemed to captivate the audience, especially. The two pieces, which were deeply ingrained in Brazilian tradition, included a piano by Kelly Durbin, an electric guitar by Chris DeRose, a string bass by James Gilyard, and a drum set by Ted Wasser. Together, they presented catchy, samba-like collaboration of beats and rhythms that could urge a listener to move along with the music. In the middle of Lamento, the impressed audience applauded after a drum solo, and a short guitar solo ended the piece with an ovation. Before the intermission, however, the faculty musicians treated the audience with another work of Jobim as an encore performance. This time, two more musicians joined the stage: Winston Stone with his clarinet and Kathryn Evans, a soprano. This piece as well depicted a Brazilian style embedded with clarinet and guitar solos along with the singing voice. All in all, the whole concert was a delight for experiencing an array of Latin American taste of music. I hope their attempt of collecting donations for music scholarship funding turn out to be a success.

Post 2: Proposal for Musical Ethnography of a Dallas Music-Culture

Dallas is indeed a city that provides a variety of fascinating music-culture. I admit I had some struggles trying to come up with one interesting component of the music-cultures of Dallas for my musical ethnography project. I am open to most genres of music, but I know I am a fervent classical music lover. So, when it comes to quality classical music, I cannot help but to think Dallas Symphony Orchestra. I’ve always enjoyed attending their concerts and appreciated their deep passion for the art of music. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American ensemble of professional classical musicians with a long history tracing back to the start of the 20th century. With successive leaderships of eminent music directors, the DSO has achieved extensive touring, recording, as well as special community and education concerts. The DSO, currently under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, performs its concerts in the world-renowned Meyerson Symphony Center located at the Arts District of downtown Dallas. As one of the largest performing arts organization in the Southwest, the DSO relies on financial stability (from endowment funds and donations) as a key element of its success. The DSO mainly focuses on repertoires of classical masterpieces, but it incorporates jazz, pop, and opera music as well. I must say I am excited to research and learn more about this precious enriching commodity the DSO has to offer as a Dallas music-culture.

Official website of DSO

Post 1

Ever since I started grade school, I have been taking private lessons for piano and violin. Naturally, I grew up with classical music as the core and mainstream popular music as the rest of my musical influence. I am pretty open to a wide variety of genre, but I always appreciate the sheer existence of western classical music because it is timeless. The more I endure through the training in classical music, the more I learn about it each time. I could never get tired of listening to Chopin’s ballad no. 1 (yes, Chopin is one of my favorite composers of all time) as opposed to some of the mainstream pop music of today. Plus, a piece of classical music is presented in different interpretations by various musicians, but a pop song is almost always played by the same artist and in the same original manner on the radio. Nonetheless, I definitely enjoy singing, or even rapping along to songs by Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Jay-Z , and so on. But, it is not the same aesthetic experience that involves my soul whenever I play some Chopin, Rachmaninov, or even Mozart masterpieces on the piano. I simply love classical music, which is perceived as scholarly and prestigious by most musicians and music-lovers around the world, when studied at advanced level. I believe it is an art form that can be studied in the most meticulous means possible to a musician and as a passionate artist, I will continue to challenge myself in pursuing the unreachable perfection that classical music has to offer.