In Performance: Guitar Festival, Emerson, and the NOI

In today's Washington Post:

Guitar Masters Ramp It Up at Ibero-American Festival, by Aaron Grad.

Emerson String Quartet Brings Life to "Death," by Joe Banno.

Web-only review:

Boot Campers Make Time for Chamber Music at the NOI
by Tom Huizenga

About 100 young musicians from across the country are engaged in what amounts to an orchestral boot camp at the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute (NOI). Although intensive training preps students for life as rank and file orchestra players, the four-week program also makes room for chamber music.

Sixteen NOI students performed in Friday’s chamber music recital at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Although the musicians have known each other barely two weeks, that didn’t preclude some surprisingly polished playing.
(read more after the jump)

A clear standout was 20-year-old flutist Henrik Heide, from Verona, Wis. He has a rich, gleaming tone and the confidence of a pro.

Heide joined three other strong players in Elliott Carter’s "8 Etudes and a Fantasy for Woodwind Quartet," which places technical conundrums within pleasing music. Timbres overlapped effectively in one etude, creating new instrumental sounds; but in another, too many open seams weakened Carter’s subtle color shifts.

With 22-year-old violist Alexander Volonts and 24-year-old bassist Nicholas Jones, Heide gave a first-class performance of Erwin Schulhoff’s folksy Concertino, switching effortlessly from flute to piccolo. Heide had the spotlight, but Volonts and Jones made their parts shine equally with fluttery solo runs and peasant dance rhythms.

Other performances were less successful: a movement from Mendelssohn’s Op. 13 String Quartet was spirited but suffered from unpredictable intonation; and a movement from Smetana’s E minor String Quartet sounded like four separate players trying to get through their parts.

"Seven Bass Duos" by David Anderson scored honest points for humor, including a sarcastic march and ending with a squeak of double bass flatulence and comic winces from bassists Jones and Brent Edmondson.

NOI events continue through June 27.

--Tom Huizenga

By Anne Midgette  |  June 22, 2009; 6:30 AM ET  | Category:  local reviews
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