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Jazz Gains a Presence in Spoleto By ADAM BIRNBAUM
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| Juilliard jazz musicians (from left
to right): Adam Birnbaum, Victor Goines (director of the Juilliard Jazz Studies program), Matthew Rybicki, Carl
Maraghi, Brandon Lee, and Michael Dease (drummer Ulysses Owens
not shown) rehearse in Spoleto. |
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This past summer marked a change
in the long-running Festival dei Due Mondi
in Spoleto, Italy. For the first time in the prestigious festival's 45-year history,
its roster included a small jazz ensemble in addition to an orchestra. The six
musicians selected to represent Juilliard Jazz at Spoleto had the difficult task
of introducing the genre to a festival not traditionally associated with jazz
in any way. Our goal was to make our presence memorable enough that, in future
years, the festival would not hesitate to invite us back.
The musicians comprising the Juilliard
Jazz Sextet were Brandon Lee, trumpet; Carl Maraghi, saxophones; Michael Dease,
trombone; Adam Birnbaum, piano; Matthew Rybicki, bass; and Ulysses Owens, drums.
Upon arrival at the festival, the expectation was that we would be performing
four times a week during our two-and-a-half-week stay in Spoleto. However, we
soon discovered that this would not be the case. While the orchestra was called
on to play six nights a week, performing Wagner's Lohengrin
and Zemlinsky's Eine Florentinische Tragödie
five times each, the jazz ensemble had a total of five performances, one of which
was a 10-minute portion of a chamber-music concert. While we would have liked
to perform more, this did give us ample time to prepare fully for each of our
concerts.
Our two main performances of the
festival were the Monday night concerts of June 30 and July 7. These performances,
which took place outdoors in front of the picturesque Duomo of Spoleto, were led
by Victor Goines, the director of Juilliard's Jazz Studies program, who joined
the sextet on tenor saxophone. These concerts were full of energy and were received
very enthusiastically by large crowds. In the July 7 concert, orchestra members
David Wong (bass) and Omar Butler (trumpet) joined the band, showing that the
barriers between jazz and classical can easily be torn down.
But, in the end, we were left unsure
as to whether jazz would be brought back to Spoleto. One of the events most telling
of the ambiguity of the festival's stance toward jazz took place in the afternoon
chamber-music concert on Friday, June 11. Just after giving an award to Juilliard
in appreciation for the orchestra's fine work in the festival—an award which
was certainly merited—emcee and founder of the festival Gian Carlo Menotti was
surprised to find that he was to introduce the jazz ensemble next. In his introduction,
Mr. Menotti admitted to not liking jazz, but added that perhaps we would change
his opinion. We then gave one of our better performances of the festival, during
which Mr. Menotti could be seen backstage, tapping his feet and smiling. As to
whether we truly made enough of an impression on him, it appears we will have
to wait until next year to find out.
Pianist Adam Birnbaum graduated with an Artist's Diploma in Jazz Studies last May.
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