Sheboygan Falls High School Brass and Wind Ensemble’s Workshop at Concordia University

I had the opportunity to escort the Sheboygan Falls group. The students were in Chicago for fun and knowledge. The group was able to take in the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble performance at Pick Staiger on the Friday. The NU Ensemble performed one of my favorite pieces, Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland and they were directed by Mallory Thompson. Ms. Thompson is the director of bands, professor of music and coordinator of the conducting program at Northwestern. The evening’s performance of five pieces had Gerard Morris, doctoral assistant conductor taking the podium to conduct Commando March by Samuel Barber. It was a great evening and gave the students a topic of conversation to compare their styles and the pieces performed.

Sunday had the Sheboygan students in a workshop with Dr. Richard Fischer, professor of music and wind symphony conductor. Dr. Fischer is part of the faculty at Concordia University Chicago (River Forest). Visiting the Concordia campus early on a Sunday morning for the workshop had the student ready to perform right away. The ensemble performed A Movement for Rosa (Parks) and Watchman, Tell Us of the Night by Mark Camphouse. Camphouse (b.1954) of Oak Park, Illinois, has written primarily for symphonic winds and also for orchestra choir and chamber brass was formally trained at Northwestern.

The students were superb in their performance with positive comments from Dr. Fischer and unending praise for their professional sound. He admitted they needed a small amount of work, but they were delivering the performances in the upper caliber. The chaperon/parents were quite proud and supportive of their musical students. The students took the comments of Dr. Fischer and put them to use immediately realizing the comments had to do with feeling and delivery.

The Sheboygan Falls students enjoyed the weekend and their workshop. I get such a great feeling seeing high school student know and talk about symphonic pieces. In some school systems, music and art are not part of the curriculum. I can’t understand how you can not teach the enjoyment and appreciation of music and art to young people. A young person with a musical background will appreciate more things artistically.

I enjoyed escorting the group around during the weekend and it’s always a bonus for me when I get to hear performances of any kind. The Sheboygan Fall students are well on their way to greater appreciation of arts on all levels.