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CONCERT REVIEWCO CERY REVIEW

Gunther Schuller's 75thBirthday ConcertA Star-Studded Performance

TheMIT MusesA Ciassu Ac:

memorable in its energy and arrangement aswell as its excellent solo by Vanessa Speed'03. In general the group, directed by NinaHeinrich '02, kept tight control of the rhythmand ensemble of each song, although therewere occasional lapses in intonation.

Showing off an edgier side of the Museswas "There You Go" (Pink) with ConcettaMaratta '03 providing a skillful solo with abeguiling amount of attitude. The song, likeprevious songs of the evening, suffered from alack of proper balance in volume betweensolo and ensemble due to difficulties in thesound equipment. In general, though, theissues with balance were not problematic.

The Muses provided a change of pace in"Kiss Him Goodbye" (Steam) as well as in"How High the Moon" (the Muses' alumni

song) which featuredthe entire group ratherthan singling out asoloist. As is custom-ary, "How High theMoon" was performedwith the Muses' alum-ni in attendance joiningthe group at the frontof the room. This ges-ture of solidarity andtradition was well-appreciated by theaudience.

Ending the concert was their now-classicrendition of "The Thong Song (Muses Style)"(Sisqo) with a rockin' arrangement and fantas-tic booty-shaking solos by Gloria Choi '03and Toni Ferreira. It was great to see thegroup drop their almost stand-offish eleganceand really loosen up, even more so than theydid in ''There You Go." In "The Thong Song(Muses Style)" the group displayed more ofthe raucous fun of groups like the BinghamtonCrosbys, which consequently received anenthusiastic response from the audience. Thesong was also refreshing in that it contributedto the amount of variety among their songs, asthe group tends to focus on songs by intro-spective female singer/songwriters.

The evening showed audiences that theMuses are definitely a strong a cappella groupon campus. With creative arrangements,effective percussionists (such as Eileen Kelly'Ol)~ and skilled solos (such as senior CathyGutierrez's kick-ass performance on "Kindand Generous" by Natalie Merchant), thegroup has succeeded in capturing all the greatelements of a cappella singing. In addition,the concert demonstrated that the group, whileperhaps most comfortable in performingsongs by female singer/songwriters, can stillspice things up with some attitude andhumour through songs from different genres.

The Muses seem to have grown muchsince last year and with so many new mem-bers this year it will be fascinating to watchthem improve even more in future semesters.Hopefully, we won't have to wait long fortheir forthcoming CD, due out next semester,which will no doubt prove to be one of theirbest recordings to date.

By Fred CholSTAFF WRITER

he MIT Muses' fall concert, held in 6-120 this past Friday, November 17,2000, certainly inspired the respect andadmiration of all who attended. Eye-

catching in red and black, the members ofMIT's all-female a cappella group werepoised and confident throughout the evening.They performed their highly enjoyable ten-song set with skill, ease, and grace, along withoccasional humour and sly, conspiring winks.

The fall concert opened with five songsfrom the Crosbys, an all-male a cappella guestgroup from Binghamton University in NewYork. The Crosbys were full of rambunctiousenergy and good-humoured fun. Their open-ing song, Electric Light Orchestra's "Don'tBring Me Down," wasa hilariously choreo-graphed showpiecethat featured amusingshifts between sectionsand strong vocals byJeremy Honig. Theirfinal song, "I'm aMan" was in a similiarlight-hearted vein andincluded crowd-pleas-ing references to suchclassics as Spider Manand The Addams Fam-i/y. One of the definite highlights of their setwas "All for Leyna" (originally recorded byBilly Joel), made memorable by the hyper-emotive antics of its rock-out soloist GabeLander. Rounding out the set was a fantasticversion of Shais "If I Ever Fall in Love,"with Chris Sheppard providing impressivevocals on the solo, and the swprisingly mov-ing performance of Mariah Carey's "AgainstAll Odds" with solo by Scott Eckers.

After a brief pause after the Crosbys' per-formance, the Muses took the stage. Thegroup easily surmounted the difficulties of fol-lowing an all-male group, which is naturallylouder and more resonant, by opening with"I've Committed Murder" by Macy Gray. Thesong was energetic and full of character withfeatured soloist Toni Ferreira '04 and backupsingers Anastasia Rodriguez '04 and Priscilladel Castillo '04. The trio avoided singing thesomewhat morbid song with an aggressiveattitude, instead conveying charming "Whome?" mock-innocence to accompany theirwell-executed harmonies. The song was oneof the few of the evening that featured chore-ography, which was minimal yet effective.

Unsurprisingly, many of the highlights ofthe concert were songs which had been select-ed by the group to be performed at GBIS, theshowcase of MIT's a cappella groups whichoccurred last month in Kresge. Among thesewas "I Can't Make You Love Me" (BonnieRaitt), an expressive performance coupledwith a strong arrangement by the backingensemble. Nina Heinrich '02 gave an emo-tionally evocative and vocally powerful soloperformance. In addition, the more upbeat"Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac), . 'lady

Blake, appeared on the stage wearing abright green blazer and a pair of white tennisshoes. It was truly a hilarious scene. Manypeople in the audience were amused by it.However, the entire audience was quicklysilenced as he sat down to play the piano,because what he played was purely genius.It was quite a-performance. The audienceloved it. .

The next performance on the programwas the violin concerto Song and Dance pre-sented by the MIT Wind Ensemble, conduct-ed by Frederick Harris, Jr., and with guestviolin soloist Young-Nam Kim. The windensemble was great in accompanying thesoloist; however, Kim was truly the centerof the performance. The piece was dividedinto two movements: Quiet Music and Fid-dle Music. As Schuller described it, QuietMusic is "a chorale-like declamation in theensemble and a song-like response by thesolo violin." On the other hand, FiddleMusic, which represents the "dance" part of

~ 'the work, is "fiddle---------- ... ~ .... ~- music in a contempo-

rary chromatic lan-guage." The tech-niques required forFiddle Music areextremely difficultand are comparableto pieces written byPaganini. However,Kim played throughthe music not onlywith ease but alsowith master musi-cianship. It is not sur-prising that he wasnoted by The NewYork Times -' for"sparkling virtuosity,strong colors, andintense lyricism. "

Throughout the rest of the evening, theMIT Jazz Chamber Orchestra and guestartists Kenneth Radnofsky, John McDonald,Ricky Ford, Bruce Gertz, Joe Hunt, and Sue-Ellen Hershman- Tcherepnin all playedmusic composed by Schuller on stage. Theconcert ended with a standing ovation forboth Gunther Schuller and MIT as the MITWind Ensemble, directed by Frederick Har-ris, finished playing Blue Dawn into WhiteHeat with the power and dignity that the'music of Schuller deserves.

As an MIT student, I was truly privilegedto hear a wide range of Schuller's music pre-sented by so many gifted musicians. Howev-er, the most memorable part of the eveningfor me was not just listening to the musicbut also when the audience, who were not apart of MIT, started to express their amaze-ment at the high level of musicianship here.Overall, it was a fantastic concert for bothGunther Schuller and MIT.

By Gua~Jong ChenSTAFF WRITER

Last Saturday, the MIT Wind Ensem-ble, MIT Chamber Society, MIT JazzChamber Orchestra, and a few guestmusicians presented a concert cele-

brating the 75th birthday of renowned musi-cian and composer Gunther Schuller. In allrespects, the concert' was very specialbecause all the works presented were com-posed by Schuller and the caliber of themusicianship at the concert was extremelyhigh.

Schuller had an amazing career as a com-poser, conductor, educator, historian, andmusic advocate. .Schuller's works have beenpremiered by numerous musical groupsaround the world and recognized with manyprestigious awards, such as the PulitzerPrize and the MacArthur Genius Award. Hisworks represent both the music of post-warjazz and 20th century American music. Theconcert's program included Music for YoungPeople: Five Charac-teristic Pieces forstring quartet, violinconcerto Song andDance, Sonata forAltoSaxophone and Piano,Blue Dawn into WhiteHeat for wind ensem-ble, and various otherpieces from the guestmusicians.

Music for YoungPeople:Five Charac-teristic Pieces was thefirst piece that wasperformed in the con-cert. It is a quartet forviolin, cello, flute, andpiano. Four perform-ers from the MITChamber Music Soci-ety played in this quartet: Margy Glasner Gon flute; Laurel Smith G on violin; AlandeLespinasse on cello; and Tilman Bauer Gon piano. The musical piece is comprised offive movements: The Thinker; The Fiddler;The Swan; The Ghost; and The Clown. Themusicians did a wonderful job. It was aflawless performance. Also, each movementtruly reflects the character that it is describ-ing. In The Fiddler and The Ghost, manyspecial effects involving both the musiciansand instruments were applied, such as snap-ping of the fingers and tapping on the instru-ments. Through these effects, unique soundswere produced, which made for a vivid por-trayal of the characters in the movements.From just this piece of music, it is not diffi-cult to see the brilliance and the genius ofGunther Schuller.

After the performance by the' quartet. from the MIT Chamber Music Society, guest

artist and Gunther's old colleague, Ran

The evening showedaudiences that the

Muses are definitelya strong a cappellagroup on campus.

The most memorable partof the eveningfor me wasnot just l~tening to the .

music but also when theaudience, uho were not a

part of MIT, started toexpress their amasemeni

at the.high level ofmusicianship here.