Now it’s more than possible—it’s happening. On Sunday, Jan. 25, the North Coast Wind Ensemble, featuring 33 local community instrumentalists—university and high school music teachers, HSU Music graduates and players for the Eureka Symphony—presents its first concert, in Fulkerson Recital Hall.
“It’s a great group, and we’re having a lot of fun,” Ayoob said. “These are all accomplished musicians, and it’s a crackerjack ensemble. Audiences haven’t heard anything like this here before.”
The enterprise got started when clarinetist and former HSU Music student Heather Benson called Ayoob, also a clarinetist and her former HSU teacher. She wanted to explore the ensemble idea, and asked him to lend his name as potential conductor. He agreed, they traded names of possible players, and Benson started calling. Those who responded enthusiastically also suggested other names, and after an organizational meeting, rehearsals began.
The debut program is designed to show what a wind ensemble can do. “We want to showcase all the various moods and dynamics and sounds you can get from a wind ensemble,” Ayoob said. “A lot of people haven’t had the opportunity to hear that.”
This first evening features a masterwork of the wind literature (Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger), a prominent contemporary piece (Blue Shades by Frank Ticheli) and familiar melodies (such as selections from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.)
“And if you’re going to be a band, you have to do marches,” Ayoob said. Other selections include Reflections by California composer Roger Nixon, which features principal flautist Jill Petricca, and Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide.
Apart from the quality of the musicians, what makes this ensemble different is that there is one player to a part. “That makes for a real clarity—very clear textures and timbres, clean intonation and a lot of individual responsibilities,” Ayoob said. “Also it’s often more fun for the players when there’s just one to a part.”
“One of my hopes is that our audience will include high school and middle school and even college students who play wind instruments, so they can hear what this sounds like.”
As for the future of the new North Coast Wind Ensemble, Sunday’s audience may witness the beginning of what Ayoob hopes “will be a longstanding institution.” The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. $5 general, $2 students and seniors from HSU ticket office(826-3928) or at the door. Benefit for the HSU Music Department scholarship fund; Ken Ayoob, conductor. http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com.