The Kalamazoo Philharmonia’s concert at 7:30 pm on Saturday, May 31 honors a unique anniversary suggested to music director Andrew Koehler by KPhil founder Barry Ross. “Copland at K” remembers an occassion when Aaron Copland’s visited Kalamazoo College to receive an honorary degree 60 years ago. Hosted at the Light Fine Arts Building, the concert promises a blend of Copland’s music and contemporary American voices, including the world premiere of a new bassoon concertino by Michigan composer Philip Rugel.
In a conversation with Cara Lieurance, Koehler says that Larry Smith, a faculty member at the time of Copland’s visit “gave me a few little anecdotes that I’ve recreated in the program notes—about Copland’s warm, unpretentious personality,” adding, “It just felt so richly connected to something that often feels abstract to us—this history, these composers that we may or may not really understand how they were in person.”
The concert will open with Copland’s Outdoor Overture and close with his well-known ballet suite Billy the Kid. “They were written in the same year, even—1938,” Koehler notes. In between are pieces written by living American composers, including
the world premiere of Philip Rugel’s Concertino for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra.
A Kalamazoo resident, Rugel reflects on his roots: “I grew up in Michigan, in the suburbs of Detroit. I started out writing mostly bassoon duets when I was young—mostly so I wouldn’t have to play my etudes at my lessons,” he jokes. He eventually studied composition at Interlochen and Eastman, developing what Koehler describes as “a really distinctive voice… There is a little bit of this kind of slightly unsettling energy sometimes to Philip’s voice—in the best way—something that really draws you in.”
The concert also includes a humorous neo-Baroque work by composer Viet Cuong called “Extra (Ordinarily) Fancy,” which calls for two oboe soloists to take on roles of very different characters. Oboe Kaethe Durham describes it as "kind of a snarky banter," with Luke Conklin playing "the proper way" and her answering with challenging, "extra fancy" techniques. "We're dueling oboes," she says, "and it's a good-natured banter and really fun because it kind of fits our personalities."
More information is available at philharmonia.kzoo.edu.
