The Trumpeter, December 2014

December 2014 THE TRUMPETER BY LETEM PLAY

1

Happy holiday season! Now that it’s socially acceptable to play and admit your enjoyment of Christmas songs, everyone’s lives will be getting a little more musical. Concert preparation undoubtedly continues for most musicians in Spokane – try to take in a holiday concert this year, whether from the Spokane Symphony or a local high school wind ensemble. See our Events Calendar on page 2 for a start.

Of course, there is really only one thing on our mind here at LETEM Play – our annual fundraising event, LETEM Play Takes Spokane, which is happening this year on Saturday, December 6. Please see page 4 for a comprehensive list of locations and an explanation of what donations we are prepared to accept on Saturday. Even if you can’t donate, please consider visiting our volunteers and offering support as they brave the cold to bring music to children in Spokane!

You can also support LETEM Play Takes Spokane by assisting our “media blitz” this week. If you haven’t liked our Facebook page already, please do so and consider sharing posts to your followers.

We also have trivia contests throughout the week, so pull up that Google tab on your preferred browser and hunt down some answers to win prizes. Look for some potential big press in local newspapers and on TV in the coming week as well! (Continued on Page 2)

The Trumpeter

What’s Inside

Event Calendar – 2

College Spotlight - 3

LETEM Play Takes Spokane- 4

Stereotypes – 4

WIBC– 5

Conductor Spotlight- 6

Human Interest- 7

Music History- 8

Letter from the Founders

Volume 2, Issue 3


2

In other LETEM Play news, development is very much underway in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Philip already has an established Board of Directors for our new branch, and that body is currently trying to identify a set of core goals as the organization enters its first few months. In Cambridge, Katy has developed a comprehensive plan to set up a Board of Directors and begin marketing and fundraising in the first few months of 2015.

We are always looking for opportunities to open new branches through high schools and colleges across the United States – if you have a relative or friend in high school or at university somewhere across the country that is passionate about music and interested in making a difference, please have them contact us! We provide all the resources to set up another branch of LETEM Play and spread music to more kids across America.

We hope you have a wonderful December and holidays – please consider giving this season, whether to our organization or to another worthy cause, and help all of us in the non-profit field make the world a better place.

Best,

Katy Dolan & Philip Howard

Executive Officers, LETEM Play

Lil Smokies (Progressive Bluegrass)

Thursday, December 4th at 8pm The Bartlett

EWU Holiday Jazz Concert Sunday, December 7th at 7:30pm

Central Lutheran Church

Spokane Symphony Holiday Pops

Sunday, December 21st at 2pm Martin Woldson Theater

A Christmas Carol: The Musical

December 5th -20th Spokane Civic Theater

Gonzaga Candlelight Christmas Choir Concert

Friday, December 12th at 7:30pm St. Aloysius Church

Spokane Symphony: Beethoven’s Ninth

Wednesday, December 31st at 7:30pm

Martin Woldson Theater

Spokane Symphony and Street Ballet: The Nutcracker

December 5th -7th Martin Woldson Theater-The Fox

Whitworth Christmas Festival: O Come, All Ye Faithful

Saturday, December 13th at 8pm Martin Woldson Theater

(Continued on Page 3)

November Events Calendar Compiled by Jessica Todd


3

On November 7, Arturo Sandoval, a world renowned and Award winning jazz trumpeter, was a guest artist to the Jazz Ensemble from Whitworth University. Every year Whitworth will host a musical artist to accompany their Jazz band and put on an amazing concert. This gives the students the experience of working with a professional musician, while also giving the audience the chance to appreciate a truly great concert.

The Jazz Band played a variety of styles of jazz in their set and performed them all with excellence. These styles included Swing, Latin, Blues, Bebop, Ballads, and a stylistically intriguing piece titled Salt Peanuts! While the Band was incredible, watching Arturo was definitely a sight to see.

Arturo Sandoval has played trumpet nearly all of his life, starting at age 12, and has been playing in bands all around the world ever since. This was his second Whitworth Jazz Ensemble concert as a guest performer, and he loves it every time. His presence fills the room whether it is wailing on a trumpet, melting your heart on the piano, or tearing it up with his great scat singing, he can truly captivate a crowd.

The band finished up a great concert with one of Arturo Sandoval's most famous tunes, my personal favorite, A Night In Tunisia. This was a perfect closer that truly exemplified the excellence of Arturo, and the Jazz Ensemble from Whitworth. If you are a musician looking for a college to meet your musical needs, whether you enjoy playing jazz or not, I recommend applying to Whitworth University.

Christmas in New York- Spokane Jazz Orchestra

Featuring Vocalist Charlotte Carruthers

Saturday, December 6th at 7:30pm The Bing Crosby Theater

Sammy Eubanks Blues Christmas

Saturday, December 20th at 8pm

The Knitting Factory

College Spotlight: Whitworth University Featuring Arturo Sandoval

By Billy Elliott


4

This is a very exciting week for LETEM Play: we are pleased to announce our biggest event of the year! December 1-6 is LETEM Play Awareness Week, concluding in LETEM Play Takes Spokane. A weeklong social-media blitz is followed by our most important donation and advertising day on Saturday, December 6, 2014.

Every day from December 1 to December 5 we will be posting trivia questions on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/justletemplay) as a part of our social media blitz week. Anyone who follows our posts daily and answers all of the trivia questions correctly will be entered into a drawing to receive a LETEM Play T-shirt and a $10 Starbucks gift card. Who doesn’t love free coffee?

Concluding our fun-filled week will be our day dedicated to publicity and awareness. THIS SATURDAY, you can come to various locations in Spokane and be greeted by a volunteer or one of our board members. We can be found at the following locations:

Walgreens at Sprague & Sullivan

Walgreens on Pines

Walgreens Liberty Lake

Walgreens on Argonne

Walgreens on the South Hill

Walgreens on the North Side

River Park Square, AMC area

Pence Union Building (PUB), Eastern Washington University

Like and follow our Facebook page to find specific addresses and see our daily posts about this event. We will be collecting instrument and monetary donations to benefit our organization from 9-4. So go look through those attics and storage closets and find any dusty old instrument (remember we take any instrument in any condition, except pianos); we’ll fix it up and get it to a student in need! We encourage everyone to come to one of these locations and show your support. This event is meant to be rewarding, informational, and lots of fun; we are extremely grateful for any donation and the support you show!

Thank you and we hope to see you all there!

Sincerely, the LETEM Play Board of Directors

LETEM Play Takes Spokane


5

This previous month myself, and several other members of the LETEM Play board, were given the incredible opportunity of playing with the Western International Band Clinic honor bands. These bands were made of up hundreds of excellent high school musicians from around the western United States, as well as other countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. They were instructed and conducted by renowned college professors, and some prolific composers; this year, WIBC hosted David Holsinger and Robert W. Smith. We also performed with the incredible flute soloists Marianne Gedigan and Jim Walker.

WIBC has been providing high school musicians with the opportunity to experience honor bands, advanced music, and professional clinicianship for over 35 years. Musicians’ tryout by submitting a musical audition, and those selected are placed in one of four honor bands. They then spend four days and three nights in Seattle practicing over six hours a day with their band. They are treated to concerts in the evening from premier ensembles from around the United States. The convention concludes with each band performing their pieces, as well as cooperative pieces with another band.

I was happy to talk briefly with Jim Walker about his musical experience after our concert. He claimed that while he was a WIBC-quality musician in high school, he didn't experience much positive reinforcement in his 20s, and it was difficult to continue in music. He felt like his biggest hurdle was himself, but he overcame his struggles, his fears, and became one of the greatest flute players in modern music. His work on the flute can be heard in hundreds of movies, including the Star Wars films and Disney Pixar films. He commented that he didn’t truly feel he had achieved his dream until about 10 years ago. Walker continues to play flute for clinics and in guest-appearances at roughly 15-20 events per year. When asked about advice on how to continue in the

music world he said, "live within yourself ". If you are interested in learning more about WIBC, look up their

website at www.bandworld.org/WIBC . Music can be accessed for practice at any time of the year, and while the honor band is fairly expensive, they do offer various financial aid to low-income musicians. WIBC is an incredible experience, and I would recommend it to any music student.

Western International Band Clinic: Featuring Jim Walker

by Andrew Matheison


6

Spokane is incredibly fortunate to have the local Spokane Symphony as a part of its culture, and we are even more blessed to be able to have such a passionate and talented conductor at the head of it. Eckart Preu is currently celebrating his fifth highly acclaimed season with the Spokane Symphony. Eckart was born and raised in Germany, and first became involved in music when he was very young. He came to the United States as a winner of the National Conducting Competition for graduate studies in 1996. He earned his master’s degree while studying both in Germany and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in France. Eckart also serves as the music director of the Stamford Symphony, has been an Associate Conductor for the Richmon Symphony, served as Resident Conductor with the American Symphony Orchestra, and was a music director of the Orchestre

International de Paris. He is also a father to two wonderful little girls, Sophia and Victoria. Despite all of these qualifications what is most inspiring about Eckart is the moment he steps up to his pedestal and raises his hands. The room is filled with his passion as it surges through the Symphony. He pours himself into the performance, and you can see the music through his hands. When he talks to the audience, despite his sometimes overpowering accent, he automatically emits a feeling of love for music and the dedication he has towards it. Eckart has managed to transform the Spokane Symphony into a force to be reckoned with, and anybody who has seen the Symphony would know what I mean. Taking the time to go watch the Spokane Symphony will be well worth it, if not only to see such a passionate man lead an incredible group of musicians. I can promise if you go it will be an experience you will not stop thinking about for a while.

Possibly one of the most interesting, and certainly the most unique, type of orchestra comes from Vienna. This orchestra, as you may have guessed from the name, does not play with traditional instruments. Instead, all of the members perform using fresh or dried vegetables. The orchestra was founded in February of 1998, and has become quite popular. Since their foundation, the group has released three CDs: Gemise (1999), Automate (2003) and Onionoise (2010). Along with recording CDs, the group also performs live in multiple countries. (Cont.)

Conductor Spotlight: Eckart Preu by Caitlin Shirley

The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra by Ellie DeReu


7

The musical style of the vegetable orchestra ranges from contemporary music to beat-oriented House tracks, to jazz, as well as many other genres. To create the various textures and sounds required for so many genres, the group not only uses vegetables, but they also use various utensils such as record players or power drills.

The group creates all of their instruments using drilling machines, sharp knives, kitchen tools, and vegetables. They are constantly creating new instruments and finding innovative ways to use vegetables. After creating their unique instruments and performing with them, a portion of the vegetables go into a soup that is served to the audience after each concert. The other vegetables are either given to the audience or composted as organic waste.

It is incredible to see what a tremendous impact that innovation, creativity, and vegetables can have on the world of music

Have you ever had a song you just can't get out of your head? Have you found yourself wondering what the fox says? Or even who, indeed, let the dogs out? Experts say the culprits are earworms (or "ohrwurms," as they're called in Germany). No, they're not parasites that crawl into your ear and lay musical eggs in your brain, but they are parasitic in the sense that they get lodged in your head and cause a sort of "cognitive itch" or "brain itch" -- a need for the brain to fill in the gaps in a song's rhythm.

When we listen to a song, it triggers a part of the brain called the auditory cortex. Researchers at Dartmouth

University found that when they played part of a familiar song to research subjects the participants' auditory cortex automatically filled in the rest. In other words, their brains kept "singing" long after the song had ended. The only way to "scratch" these brain itches is to repeat the song over and over in your mind. Unfortunately, much like mosquito bites, the more you scratch the more you itch, and so on until you're stuck in an unending song cycle.

There are many other theories about why songs get stuck in our heads. Some researchers say stuck songs are like thoughts we're trying to suppress. The harder we try not to think about them, the more we can't help it. Other experts claim that earworms are simply a way to keep the brain busy when it's idling. The number theories is as great as the number of names this phenomena is associated with, such as "repetunitis" or "melodymania."

(Continued on Page 8)

The Cognitive Itch: Never Ending Music by Matthew Peterson


8

Unfortunately, there's no tried and true way to get songs out of your head once they're stuck in there. They can stick in your brain for anywhere from a few minutes to several days, long enough to drive even the sanest person batty. Most earworms eventually crawl out on their own, but if a song is nagging you to the brink of insanity, here are a few tricks you can try:

1. Sing another song, or play another melody on an instrument.

2. Switch to an activity that keeps you busy, such as working out.

3. Listen to the song all the way through (this works for me).

4. Turn on the radio or a CD to get your brain tuned in to another song.

5. Share the song with a friend.

6. Picture the earworm as a real creature crawling out of your head, and

imagine stomping on it.

Now don't worry if you keep getting songs stuck in your head, it means that your brain is working the way it's supposed to. Now if you actually hear music that isn't there you may want to see someone about it. But other than that just keep humming to your heart's content, because if you’re lucky you might even discover what the fox really says.

As families prepare for this wonderful holiday season, many traditions seem to unfold. One of these traditions is listening to Christmas music. Music plays a particularly important role in summoning the spirit that accompanies these magical winter holidays. Many bands, orchestras, and choirs are beginning to prepare for their annual Christmas concerts by playing many of these spirited songs.

As a musician, I often wonder where these magical carols came from-- where their journey began. One of my favorite, and one of the most famous, carols is “Silent Night”. The words were written by Josef Mohr and the music was composed by Franz Gruber. Imagine a perfectly silent night, as you stand on a high hill top and look upon the peaceful snow-covered village of Oberndorf, in Austria. Reveling in majestic silence of the wintry night, you realize that you have written a poem with words that perfectly illustrate the . . . (Continued on Page 9)

Silent Night: A Beloved Christmas Carol by Sara Keenan


9

beauty and picture of this scene. These were the thoughts of pastor Josef Mohr in 1818 after he had decided to take the long way home after experiencing a private performance from a band. The St. Nicholas’ church organ had stopped working, and would not be fixed in time for Christmas. The Christmas presentation had to be done in someone’s home. This performance, which centered around the night of Jesus Christ’s birth, caused Mohr to have deep thoughts as he ventured home. When pondering the words he’d written years before, he decided they would make the perfect words to a Christmas Carol for his congregation during their Christmas Eve service. Mohr payed a visit to the church organist, Franz Gruber, the following day. Within hours of receiving the words from Mohr, Gruber composed music to “Silent Night” using his guitar, since the organ was broken. On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.

Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived in Oberndorf to fix the organ in St. Nicholas church, and had the opportunity to hear Gruber play Silent night on the organ. He loved the carol so much that he brought it back to his own village, Kapfing. Many musical performers were captivated by the new carol and began to perform it all over Northern Europe. Twenty years after "Silent Night" was written, the carol was brought to the United States, and sung at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside of the New York City Trinity Church. In 1863, nearly 50 years after its composition, it was translated into English. Today, the words of "Silent Night", are sung in more than 300 different languages around the world.

Stories like these inspire our organization to continue moving forward because they emulate our belief that small acts can spread like wild fire. We only hope that our organization can grow and flourish with the same spirit and captivation that this Christmas carol did. Music touches everyone, and it is our wish that it will touch you this holiday season.

“Silent night, Holy night

Shepherds quake, at the sight

Glories stream from heaven above

Heavenly, hosts sing

Hallelujah.”


10

Thanks for Reading The Trumpeter!

Who are we? LETEM Play is a 501(c)(3) non-profit in Spokane, Washington that is committed to making music accessible for low-income students in our

community. We are 100% youth led, and in two years have had a $25,000 impact in our community. We accept instrument/monetary

donations at any time, and would love to partner with your organization to start a music program there.

Tell us how we’re doing or find out more at:

To request distribution of The Trumpeter to your email address, social media site, or office, email [email protected].

Have a suggestion? Story idea? Letter to the editor? Something musically awesome that we should be aware of? Email our Newsletter Coordinator

at [email protected] – we’d love to hear your input.

www.letem.org

@letem_play

/justletemplay

The Trumpeter, December 2014

Documents

Transcript of The Trumpeter, December 2014