University Daily Kansan
Arts/Entertainment
Thursday, April 9, 1987
7
Concert to feature soloists
By JERRINIEBAUM
Staff write
When Dave Cooper, Leavenworth senior, was in fourth grade, he thought playing the trombone would rake him taller.
And his father, a junior high and high school band teacher, wanted him to play in the band.
He wanted to be tall because he wanted to play basketball. He thought trombone players were shorter than the drummer to stretch to play the instrument.
"Hewas probably my first tolerator," Cooper said about his father his first trombone teacher.
Cooper will play a trombone solo with he Concert Band at 8 p.m. Monday in Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Kurthy Hall. He will be one of two featured student soloists. Cynthia Mitchell, Kansas City, Kan, senior, will play a trumpet solo with the University Band.
"I got a 'one', " he said. Then he smiled and said, "I got a new horn."
Playing the trombone didn't make Cooper taller, but it gave him something to work on. He remembered practicing one and a half hours a day during the week and three hours a day on weekends when he was a seventh grader. He wanted to do well in a music contest.
Cooper didn't plan to major in music when he came to the University, but after performing in every ensemble a trombone player can play in at KU. Cooper decided to major in fine arts with an emphasis in trombone performance.
Cooper has directed the Jazz
Ensemble II since August and has composed several pieces for jazz bands. "A Little Rain" was performed by the Jazz Ensemble I on an album that it produced last year. He hopes to hear "Doc's Baby Blues," a song he dedicated to the band director's new baby earlier this year, on the group's next album.
Ron McCurdy, assistant professor of music and director of Jazz Ensemble I, said Cooper was a "rare gem" in the music world.
He said Cooper's natural talent and his desire to write, arrange and perform good music would make him a successful musician.
"The sky is his limit," McCurdy said.
Cooper has spent the past two summers in Florida performing with the Walt Disney World All-American College Marching Band. Two years ago he played his trombone for the five daily performances, and last year he was assistant director.
In February, Cooper auditioned for a year-long internship with the Epocet Institute of Entertainment Arts. He hopes to get the job, but if he doesn't, he will start auditioning for military bands.
In addition to working toward his degree, Cooper loads boxes for the United Postal Service in Lenexa.
"That's work," Cooper said. "You don't sweat when you play trombone, unless you're in front of the Magic Castle or something. . . You're not working. You're entertaining."
Cooper, 26, isn't sure what he'll
Amy Rhoads/KANSAN
Cynthia Mitchell Kansas City, Kan., senior, practices for her trumpet soli. Mitchell will perform Monday evening with the University Band.
"There's nothing like hearing what you've written or arranged played," he said.
be doing next year, but he says he wants to perform and write music.
Cooper will perform a trombone solo in "Turn Yourself Around," a bossa nova pop tune by Dave Wolpe, in Monday's concert.
'You don't sweat when you play trombone, unless you're in front of the Magic Castle or something. You're not working. You're entertaining.'
— Dave Cooper trombone soloist
Mitchell will perform Clifton Williams' "Dramatic Essay," a solo she said was a popular piece that many trumpet players aspired to play.
She performed the piece during spring break at an audition with the United States Air Force band in Nebraska. Her performance earned her a four-year paid position in the Air Force Band of the Golden Gate in San Francisco beginning this summer.
"I'll have to go through basic training." she said.
She said having the opportunity to play in a band would make the training worth it.
"Whenever I have time, I just pick up my horn and play, wherever I am," she said. "It's not work. It's fun."
Mitchell started playing the trumpet in fifth grade. She chose to play the drums, but her school instructor wanted Mitchell and the other beginning drummers to play the bells before they learned to roll and beat the drums.
"I didn't want to play bells. I wanted to play drums." she said.
So she decided to play horn. She said that she didn't remember exactly why she chose the trumpet.
"I think maybe one of my friends was playing trumpet, and I wanted to sit by him." she said.
Now Mitchell, 23, is a third-year member of the KU Orchestra and a member of the Kansas Brass Quintet, an ensemble of University faculty members. Mitchell earned a degree because of her musical ability.
Roger Stoner, associate professor of music, plays trumpet in the quintet and gives Mitchell private trumpet lessons.
He said that Mitchell had a combination of range, endurance, flexibility and style that was unusually mature for her age.
"She can make it sound like it's great music as opposed to an exercise." Stoner said.
Stoner said that Mitchell's position with the Air Force would provide her with enough pressure to become an exceptional musician.
"She'll have that horn on her face three hours every day," he said.
In addition to playing in the orchestra and the quintet, Mitchell played with the Symphonic Band for three years and the Marching Band for two years. She had to stop playing with the two groups because she didn't have enough time to perform in all of the groups and graduate on time. She will receive a bachelor's degree in fine arts, with an emphasis in trumpet performance, this spring.
Dave Cooper, Leavenworth senior, will play a trombone solo with the KU Concert Band at 8 p.m. Monday in Murphy Hall.
Amy Rhoads/KANSAN
KU bands prepare for a musical week
Staff writer
By JERRI NIEBAUM
The Symphonic Band, the top KU concert band, will perform at 3:30 p.m. Sunday under the direc- tors of the Orchestra, director and professor of bands.
The performance will feature Charley Oldfather, professor emeritus of law and a local actor, with a group of 70 students in a rendition of Aaron Copland's "A Lincoln Portrait." Oldfather will narrate the words of Abraham Lincoln as the band plays.
Sunday's concert also will feature Zuohuang Chen, associate professor and director of
orchestra, as he directs the band in his final performance at the University before returning to China to direct the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of Beijing Chen has been an instructor at the University for two years.
University in Springfield.
Chen will direct the band to the "Overture to the Marriage of Figaro." He also will direct the KU orchestra in the University Theatre and music and dance departments' production of the opera this weekend.
A third feature of the Symphonic Band's performance will be a world premiere of "Symphony for Winds, Opus 19," by John Prescott, a KU graduate. Prescott received his doctorate degree in music last spring and now directs music at Southwest Missouri State
At 8 p.m. Monday, the Concert Band, under the direction of Thomas Stidham, assistant director of bands, will perform in a concert that also will feature the University Band, under direction of James C. Barnes, assistant director of bands.
The Concert Band of about 70 students will perform a fairly traditional band concert with "Boys of the Old Brigade," "Incapitation and Dance" and "Light Cavalry Overture."
The University Band of about 65 students will stipend tradition with "The Texans." a composition of old cowbones tunes that Barnes wrote for Texas' 150th birthday last year.
They also will play an Irish tune
called "Ye Banks and Braes O'Bonnie Doon," a slower "Serenata," and a John Phillips Sousa march, "The Fairest of the Fair."
The University Band is the youngest of the three concert bands and is comprised mainly of non-music majors. In the early 1970s, the band broke away from the other two bands and started playing lighter, easier tunes for the novice musicians.
In February, the Symphonic Band and the Concert Band performed at a Kansas Music Educators Association annual convention in Wichita. They were the only bands chosen from a taped audition in a state competition.
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TEMPLIN CASINO PARTY
Saturday, April 11, 1987 8:00 P.M.-1:00 A.M.
A Formal Gambling Event Featuring Dance Music and Live Entertainment
GREGORY SANDOW
MODERATOR
PANEL DISCUSSION
Catch the Fever of the New Music Movement Philip Glass Virgil Thomson Gregory Sandow
A meet the Composer/Mid-America Art Alliance Program
Panel Discussion Living Composers Communicating With Their Musicians and Audientes.
1:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 12, 1987
Liberty Hall, Lawrence
Free and Open to the Public
This Program is made possible by the support from the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, through their participation in the Mid-America Arts Alliance, a regional arts organization, and Meet the Composer, Inc
Don't Forget:
The Kronos Quartet in Concert
8.00 p.m., Sunday, April 12 1997
Cratton-Preyer Theatre Tickets
on sale in the Murphy Hall
Rest Office
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Presented by the University of Kansas Concert and Chamber Music Series