Day Four

Day Four
Originally uploaded by drewle

It's been a while!

I've been insanely busy starting up the new semester at Hope and also learning Prokofiev 3, which I'll be performing with the Holland Symphony Orchestra on Saturday. Details are available at www.hollandsymphony.org. I can't wait!

I also started Project 365, where I'll be taking one photo each day for a year and posting them on Flickr. Today is Day Four. Hope you'll enjoy. (Clicking on the photo will take you there.)

After this weekend, I'll be resurrecting Beethoven's Emperor for a performance with the Phoenix Youth Symphony later this month. Check out their website.

Gilmore Piano Camp

Last week, I had a most fantastic opportunity to work as a guest clinician for the 2009 Gilmore Piano Camp. The students were great -- such a wide range of repertoire and personalities! Augusta, Michigan, where the camp took place, was also a wonderful surprise, as it was so much more beautiful than I imagined it to be.

Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck begins TODAY!!!

All our months of hard work and preparation are culminating today and tomorrow! Tonight and tomorrow night, at 8 o'clock, are our opening concerts for CMFS. Our blitzkrieg of publicity (thanks primarily to our awesome publicist, Mary Ann) sums everything up very nicely:

Grand Rapids Press -- July 5

On The Town -- June 23

Holland Sentinel -- July 7

We hope to see you there!

Congrats, John!

Go, John!!!

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/archive/x12346986/Hope-high-jumper-leaps-away-from-busy-schedule-to-nationals

'Tis a good thing to be stellar at more than just one thing.

Our newly-released 2009 Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck Season Program!

OUR 2009 CMFS PROGRAM!!! Check it out!

http://www.saugatuckmusic.org/program.htm

And our write-up in the Grand Rapids Press: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/04/andrew_le_jenny_walvoord_to_le.html

Goldberg, Russian Festival, Les Adieux

Much has happened over the past few weeks, the biggest of which is, perhaps, the close of my eighth semester at Hope and the bittersweet commencement of a number of my students. As excited as I am for them to begin the rest of their lives and pursue their dreams and goals, having worked so intensely and productively makes me feel reluctant to let them go. :( Alas, this transition is always a difficult one to negotiate every year, and I'd like to believe that I get better at it each time.

To begin this wonderful month of May, Sally gave an stupendous junior recital (yes, JUNIOR recital) of Bach's Goldberg Variations, Rachmaninoff's Op. 39 no. 5 Etude, and Beethoven's Les Adieux Sonata. It was, indeed, a remarkably mature performance which demonstrated her control of a wide range of styles. Her magical, elegant, poignant, magnificent, brilliant, sparkling Bach was simply mind-blowing. Her Rachmaninoff certainly placed her in the same league as John D., and her Les Adieux was a huge, huge personal accomplishment. Can't wait to see how she progresses at Aspen this summer!

Then, this past Tuesday, Sally, John, and James played in a masterclass for Yuri Rozum, as part of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra's Russian Festival week. Fun!!! Here's a news article on James (which includes a short video clip) from this masterclass:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/295018329729057.bsp


(in descending height order...unintentionally. haha.)

Brown Bag #7!

If this photo is any indication of how my past couple of weeks have been like...phew!

But, briefly: tomorrow is the seventh Brown Bag concert! 12 noon at the Holland Area Arts Council, 150 E 8th St in downtown Holland. The program will be...

Three Preludes, Op. 18 for unaccompanied flute by Robert Muczynski
Sarah Brown, flute

Harvesting Dance by Aaron Parks
Michael Hobson, guitar
Ben Oegema, drums
Zach "the Zachel" Pedigo, double bass
Larry Figueroa, piano

Jeux d'eau by Maurice Ravel
Brent Smith, piano

Leise, leise (From Der Freischutz) by Carl Maria von Weber
Sarah Ashcroft, soprano
Jennifer Wolfe, piano

The Man I Love (from Seven Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin) by Earl Wild
Larry Figueroa, piano

Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 by Robert Schumann
(I. Allegro brillante)
Victoria Baar, violin
Michael Naughton, violin
Jennifer Bockstege, viola
Kirsten Peterson, cello
Brent Smith, piano

It's Been a While!

The end of the semester has truly robbed me of time to write!

Just a couple more days of class, then exams...then it's summer, which means I'll be engrossed, along with my wife, in preparations for the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck. (See our most recent Grand Rapids Press article, which gives a readers a first glimpse of our season.) Fun, fun!

Last weekend, I also had the privilege of being able to play in the Holland Symphony Orchestra's/Holland Chorale's/Hope College Choruses' production of Verdi's Requiem. (See a couple of the Holland Sentinel's articles, here and here.) I can't fully express what an enormously satisfying experience this was for me. Of course, the work itself is beautiful and moving beyond words, but getting to perform this with some of my own students (in the chorus) and my father-in-law (also in the chorus) was super fun.

Tonight was a concert double-header: my student Joy's senior recital and the Wind Symphony's final concert of the year. The Wind Symphony was stupendous; their program was enormous (I don't know how Gabe Southard, their director and my colleague, managed to pull it off). They also premeired a new work by Steve Talaga, also my colleague at Hope (who you may know from all the Brown Bags he volunteered to perform on). Joy has come such a long way, and I am unable to express fully how proud I am of her. Her program (Bach's C minor Prelude and Fugue, Beethoven's Tempest Sonata, Zwilich's Lament, and Chopin's G minor Ballade) was so HER, and everything was musically and convincingly performed. Stage fright -- and old enemy of hers -- was nowhere to be seen. Awesome! This, after last year's gorgeous Op. 109 performance and this year's admission to both her top-choice schools (where she received the highest-awarded assistantships), really put a nice cap on her career at Hope. Go, Joy!