Notebook

Dominic Teresi, bassoonist and historical performance practice specialist of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra gave a masterclass and period instrument demonstration at the Puerto Rico Conservatory Monday, Feb. 4. Tafelmusik performed in San Juan at Centro de Bellas Artes Sunday night and again at the conservatory Monday morning. Mr. Teresi demonstrated and spoke about baroque affect while working with students from the conservatory. It was an extremely interesting class and we thank Dominic for his time.

I’m very excited to announce that the newly redesigned International Double Reed Society website, IDRS.org has finally launched. I have been maintaining the homepage for 4-5 years now and was responsible for its design but the enormous amount of research, files and information that had accumulated over the 13 years of IDRS.org’s existence was in desperate need of a complete renovation. Yoshi Ishikawa, the site’s Editor and I worked to segment the different facets of the site into manageable and easily understandable/rememberable sections. We also revamped the login process providing better access to members-only sections of the site like score downloads and videos. The process by which users join the IDRS online, edit their account information and renew their membership was completely rewritten.

I worked to create a design that was simple, easy to read and elegant. I reworked the logo a bit and tried to keep the look uncluttered.

Though there is still a lot of work to be done converting thousands of pages of html into the new XHTML/CSS/PHP framework I think we’ve laid the groundwork for a successful ongoing system.

Go to the site now, IDRS.org. If you’re not a member of IDRS, join.

Ingo Reuter, Solo Bassoonist of the Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra gave a masterclass at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music Monday, January 14th. Mr. Reuter is in Puerto Rico with the Staatskapelle to perform orchestra and chamber music concerts as part of an outreach tour with performances, classes and open rehearsals. Select students were given the opportunity to perform in the orchestra along side Staatskapelle members.

On Sunday, October 21st I had the pleasure of performing the world premiere of a new work for bassoon and bongo by the Puerto Rican composer Alfonso Fuentes (b. 1954). Maestro Fuentes is on faculty at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music where he teaches piano and composition. His extremely creative and unique works are well known in Puerto Rico and it is my hope they will gain popularity abroad. Listen to the performance.

Program notes from the performance by the composer.

Mejunje del fagobongo, written in 2006, is a commission of Saxton Rose to whom the composer has dedicated the work. This instrumental combination, used for the first time, demands an ample technical dominance from both instrumentalists. While the bassoon explores the extremes of its sonorous reach with passages that go from slow to very fast, the bongo drum uses a rumba bongo style at times and techniques such as independent doubling and redoubling.

The states of the sonorous relief define different atmospheres or sections that lie interconnected between, with or without transition, like part of the general organic thematic development. This relief is part of a polytonal harmony in the sense that it contains pitch and pan-tonal spaces together with poly-rhythmical activity. The name of the work was inspired by the “collage” of elements in the piece, “mejunje” meaning collage or mix in Spanish.

The pianist, composer and poet Alfonso Fuentes (1954) is a member of the faculty of the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico.

Mejunje del Fagobongo, escrita en 2006, es una comisión de Saxton Rose a quien el compositor dedica. Esta combinación instrumental, utilizada a saber, por primera vez, exige un amplio dominio técnico de parte de ambos instrumentistas. Mientras el fagót explora los extremos del alcance sonoro y pasajes que van desde lentos hasta muy rápidos, el bongó, tratado en ocasiones a la usanza de los bongoseros rumberos, utiliza técnicas que incluye el redoble doble independiente.

El pianista, compositor y poeta Alfonso Fuentes (1954) es miembro de la facultad del Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.

From May 28 to June 16, 2007 I taught and performed at the Harlaxton International Chamber Music Festival in Lincolnshire, England. It was a wonderful festival with great faculty and some really talented students. As this was its inaugural year, there were some little bumps along the way, but by all accounts was an enormous success.

The festival’s home is Harlaxton Manor, a 19th century mansion located three miles from Grantham, England and 110 miles North of London. Grantham, home of Sir Isaac Newton is near Nottingham and Lincoln. It’s really the perfect venue for a music festival such as this one as it has beautiful performance facilities as well as housing accommodations. More photos of the manor

The festival is the collective effort of a consortium of schools; the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, Converse College and Samford University. Enrollment for next year is open to college and graduating high school students from anywhere in the world. Students have fantastic performance opportunities of chamber and solo repertoire at a variety of venues in addition to Harlaxton Manor including Lincoln Cathedral, Belvoir Castle and St. Martin in the Fields of London.

If you are interested or know of a motivated college student or gifted high school graduate who would be interested in participating in the festival, see http://www.converse.edu/harlaxton/ or contact me directly.

The 2007 installment of the Double Reed Festival I have been hosting for the last few years took place at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music January 19th-21st, 2007. The invited guests were oboist and english hornist, Pedro R. Díaz and bassoonist Whitney Crockett, both of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Events included master classes, reed making classes and a concert. The event was a great success and it was a privilege for me to work and perform with such excellent musicians.

Schedule

Friday, January 19th

• 10:00am-12:00pm: Oboe and English Horn Reed Class with Pedro Díaz
• 10:00am-12:00pm: Bassoon Reed Class with Whitney Crockett
• 12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch Break - Pizza Provided
• 1:00pm-3:30pm: Bassoon master class with Whitney Crockett
• 3:30pm-6:00pm: Oboe and English Horn master class with Pedro Díaz

Saturday, January 20th

• 10:30am-1:00pm: Rehearsals

Sunday, January 21st

• 4:00pm: Concert with Pedro Díaz, Whitney Crockett, Saxton Rose, Frances Colón, Nermis Mieses, Brian Cole (director), Diana Figueroa (piano), Luis Hernandez (harpsichord) and a Double Reed Ensemble

Concert Program

• Sonata in d minor for 2 oboes, bassoon and continuo by Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688 - 1758)
  Pedro R. Díaz and Frances Colón Jiménez, oboes; Whitney Crockett, bassoon; Luis Hernandez, harpsichord; Saxton Rose, basso continuo
• Terzetto for oboe, bassoon and piano by Theodore Lalliet (1837 - 1892)
  Pedro R. Díaz, oboe; Saxton Rose, bassoon; Diana Figueroa, piano
• Last Tango in Bayreuth for bassoon quartet by Peter Schickele (1935 - )
  Whitney Crockett, Saxton Rose, Ion Serbenescu and Pedro Vazquez, bassoons
• Variations for 2 oboes & English horn in C major on Mozart’s ‘La Ci Darem La Mano’ by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
  Frances Colón Jiménez and Nermis Mieses, oboes; Pedro R. Díaz, english horn
• Sabre Dance by Aram Khatchaturian (1903 - 1968), arr. Marc Vallon
• Danse of the Swans by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
• Que Rico el Mambo by Dámaso Pérez Prado (1916 - 1989), arr. David Bourns
  Double Reed Ensemble, Brian Cole, director

Guest Artists

Pedro R. Díaz

Pedro Díaz grew up in Madrid Spain and San Juan Puerto Rico. He attended the “Escuela Libre de Musica” in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, a public school for the performing arts. He studied with James Gorton of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and John Mack of the Cleveland Orchestra. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Elaine Douvas. Mr. Díaz studied English horn with Louis Rosenblatt, Harold Smoliar and Felix Kraus. Pedro Díaz teaches and performs at the Aspen Music Festival, Le Domaine Forget in Quebec and at the FOSJA festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is on the faculty at the Juilliard School, where he teaches oboe.

Pedro Díaz was appointed Solo English horn of the Metropolitan Opera in 2005. prior to that he was principal oboe of the Filarmonica Jalisco in Guadalajara Mexico. Mr. Díaz also played English horn in the Orchestra of Galicia Spain, the Pittsburgh Opera and the Natal Philharmonic in South Africa.

Whitney Crockett

Whitney Crockett, Principal Bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1998, began his bassoon studies in his native Miami with Michael Finn and Luciano Magnanini. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Stephen Maxym. Prior to joining the MET Orchestra, he was Principal Bassoon of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra for six seasons, during which time he was on the faculty of McGill University. He has also served as Principal Bassoon of the Florida Orchestra, the South Florida Symphony, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of the Dominican Republic.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Crockett has recorded, performed and toured extensively with the New York Kammermusiker, a critically acclaimed double-reed ensemble. He can also be heard performing with his MET colleagues in their Carnegie hall series.

His summer activities have included appearances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Super World Orchestra of the Tokyo Music Festival, and the San Diego Mozart Festival. He has appeared as Soloist with the Montréal Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Violons du Roy. Mr. Crockett additionally serves on the faculties of the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music and the Domaine Forget Academy of Music and Dance in St. Irénée, Quebec.

Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 7:30 in the morning, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, next to the ocean; Joakim Pacheco Rose was born to two very very lucky people.

After a long labor, he came into the world weighing 8 lbs., 9 ounces and measuring 20 inches long - exactly the same as I did. His mother is recovering beautifully and was a champion in labor. Today the whole family came home and we’d love to hear from you.

We are indescribably thankful for all of your thoughts, prayers, gifts, visits, cards, comments, smiles, hugs, calls, emails, text messages and previously unmentioned well wishin’. Photos, Babyblog

I have added a music page with downloadable files in .mp3 format and video from past performances. Please let me know if you have any trouble listening or viewing.

I am very excited to announce that my wife Elizabeth and I are expecting our first child in November. We already know it’s a boy and are eagerly awaiting his arrival into our lives. I’ve created a blog called Grain of Rice chronicling the pregnancy.

Camerata Caribe, a faculty chamber ensemble at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music performed and taught as part of a 3-day residency at the Petrie School of Music at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina April 10th - 12th. The recital included works by Manuel G. Tavárez, Jack Delano, Roberto Milano, José Rodríquez Alvira, W. A. Mozart, Astor Piazzolla and Rafael Hernández and arrangements by ensemble members Benito Díaz and David Bourns. The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and the Petrie School of Music at Converse College launch a 3-year exchange program this year with students and faculty at both institutions participating in the program.

Camerata Caribe was founded in 1982 as a quintet in residence at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Its current members are David Bourns, oboe; Kathleen Jones, clarinet; Benito Díaz, horn; Saxton Rose, bassoon; and Diana Figueroa, piano. In addition to teaching at the conservatory, the wind professors are also the principals of their sections in the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. They have all apperared as solosits with the PRSO and have played recitals and given master classes on and off the island of Puerto Rico.