Matt Jackfert, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

US Marine Band to Perform in West Virginia

The “President’s Own” United States Marine Band is kicking off its Fall tour with two concerts in the Mountain State. The first concert will be held in Morgantown at the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center on October 1st at 7:30 PM, while the second concert will be in Elkview at the new Herbert Hoover High School on October 3rd at 7:30 PM. This amazing ensemble will be sharing works ranging from marches by the 17th Marine Band Director, John Phillip Sousa, to selections of show tunes and everything in between.

This will be a little bit of a homecoming for some of the members of the band including WVU graduates GySgt Simon Wildman, tuba and SSgt Hannah Davis, vocalist, as well as MSgt Rachel Ghadiali, U.S. Marine Band Communication Strategy Chief, who graduated from Herbert Hoover High School.

Director LtCol Nowlin spoke with Classical Music’s Matt Jackfert about the Marine Band and their upcoming stops in WV and talked shop with Matt about composing and arranging for the “President’s Own”. Catch the interview above!

Playlist:

“Marines Hymn” performed by the U.S. Marine Band

“Stars and Stripes Forever” performed by the U.S. Marine Band

Lindsey Goodman Is Back With “In the Company of Music”

New Music champion and flutist, Lindsey Goodman, is back at it again with her 4^th album called “In the Company of Music” from the Navona imprint of Parma Recordings. In this album, Goodman, along with pianist Clare Longendyke, embarks on a music journey with pieces from 8 different living composers in this ambitious new album. She recently joined WVPB on Classical Music with Matt Jackfert to talk about the album and to play a track off the album (“Intermezzo” from Suite for Flute and Piano by Heidi Jacob) and perform one selection live (Lava by Mellisa D’Albora). You can catch that segment above!

Lindsey Goodman’s fourth album “In the Company of Music” from Parma Recordings

Sharon Isbin: New Album “Live In Aspen”, An Indian Music Collaboration

Guitarist Sharon Isbin has been prolific in live performances as well as album recordings but lately she hasn’t been up to her usual bag of tricks. Recently, she’s put out an album called “Live in Aspen” featuring a live performance with some incredible Indian performers including Sarod masters Amjad Ali Khan, his sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, and Tabla virtuoso Amit Kavthekar. This album starts with a solo performance from Isbin of Francisco Tárrega’s “Capricho Árabe” as well as collaborative performances of Indian raga music composed by Amjad Ali Khan with the aforementioned performers.

WVPB’s Matt Jackfert recently interviewed Isbin about the performance, recording, and release of the album. Check it out by clicking the link!

Silkroad Ensemble Brings Eclectic Stylings To W.Va.

WVPB’s Matt Jackfert speaks with harper, composer and producer Maeve Gilchrist. They discuss her compositions, the Silkroad Ensemble and the group’s upcoming performance.

The eclectic Silkroad Ensemble is bringing their talents to the stage in Morgantown, West Virginia this week. Founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, the ensemble brings together music from many cultures to spark cultural collaboration for a more hopeful and inclusive world.

The Silkroad Ensemble will be bringing this creative energy and spirit with them in their upcoming performance called “Uplifted Voices” to Morgantown at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24 at the Lyell B. Clay Theatre at the Canady Creative Arts Center.

As Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic Harpist and composer, says, the Silkroad Ensemble “is an incredible collection of musicians from all over the world.” Gilchrist brings a Celtic influence to the ensemble as Celtic harpists run deep in her family.

Her piece, “Far Down Far,” she says, is a deconstruction and reconstruction of a Scotts-Irish reel, inspired by what you would find in Irish communities in America at the turn of the century. In her piece, she claims she writes out much of the notation but also allows for improvisation and input from the performers, giving way for more personal nuanced inflections during performance.

Find out more about Gilchrist, her compositions, the Silkroad Ensemble and their upcoming performance in this interview with WVPB’s Matt Jackfert.

Music clips featured in the interview:

“Far Down Far” by Maeve Gilchrist
“Tamping Song” by Haruka Fujii

Click here to purchase tickets.

The Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble will visit Morgantown for a one-night performance on April 24, 2024.

*Photo Credit: West Virginia University College of Creative Arts*

From Classical Music Host Matt Jackfert: Wind Band Recording Giants Release Final Two Physical CDs

If you ever find yourself looking at or listening to a recording of a wind ensemble, the chances are the recording is of the University of North Texas Wind Symphony led by Eugene Corporon. Together with the late Recording Engineer, Bruce Leek, they have been releasing top-of-the-line recordings in this medium for decades. “When we started recording at the University of Cincinnati, where I taught previously… we said, ‘let’s make a CD, one CD’, and fast forward now to almost 150 discs,” Corporon says. “It always seemed like a great way to give ourselves a chance to evaluate our work. And it serves as a real educational purpose, so it’s followed me all along.”

Now they have released their final two physical CDs Respair and Closure via GIA Publications with some incredible works by modern composers and wonderful performances by UNT students and faculty alike. Recording Engineer Benjamin Blasko and Producer Jack Stamp pick up right where Leek left off in terms of crystal clear, well-balanced recordings. Of course, they have no plans to quit recording in the future; however, with the changing times, they have decided to move to an all-digital format in conjunction with live audio/visual streams and archives via YouTube.

UNT College of Music attends the TMEA 2023 convention in San Antonio on February 8-11.

In this interview with UNT Wind Symphony Conductor, Eugene Corporon and UNT Wind Orchestra Conductor, Andrew Trachsel, we learn more about the process of recording and some of the pieces themselves in these new albums including Flying Jewels by James M. David, the Euphonium Concerto by Edward Gregson, and Re(new)al by Viet Cuong.

Click on the audio file to hear the interview and these selected recordings!

Radiolab's Abumrad Talks Music Composition, Production, and Virtual Seminar 'Gut Churn'

Jad Abumrad is the host of WNYC’s radio show and podcast Radiolab, but he does a lot more than just host. He’s a producer, music composer, and has guided the show along for decades as one of its founders. Abumrad actually started out studying music at Oberlin to achieve his childhood dream of being a film composer. When that didn’t pan out the way he wanted to, he jumped into radio as it was a way to weave both words and sound into one art form.

The skills he learned in composition weren’t a waste at all; in fact, he used them to weave together a tapestry of music, sound effects, and dialogue in his radio shows and podcasts. Abumrad claims, “Telling a radio story, making a radio story is an act of compositon. And that actually the film composer I always wanted to be is actually a radio-maker…using journalism as my instrument.”

“I’ve begun to think of my job as a composer in a much more liberal way.” He sees music composition as giving order to sound, and so, in the same way in his radio shows, he gives order not just to sound but to dialogue, thoughts, and ideas. “I’ve begun to see my job as a music composer and my job as a storymaker as kind of the same job, you know, because you’re just composing relationships…You’re just giving order to things.” Of course, that is apparent in all of the work of the Peabody-award-winning and MacArthur Fellow radio host and producer.

Abumrad will be giving a virtual seminar called “Gut Churn” on Wednesday Sept. 16th at 7:30 PM for the WVU College of Creative Arts in collaboration with the WVU Reed College of Media and WVU Career Services about the role of negative emotions in the creative process. More here: https://ccarts.wvu.edu/pandemic-proof-artist-series

Check out the full interview here: