USU's Logan Canyon Winds In Fall Concert

Logan Canyon Winds, Utah State University's faculty wind quintet, presents its fall recital Friday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Caine Lyric Theatre (28 W. Center) in downtown Logan. The quintet welcomes guest oboist Bonnie Schroeder for the performance.

 

Tickets are available at the door. General admission is $5, and USU students are admitted free.

 

Schroeder, the evening's guest performer, serves as principal oboist with the Orchestra on Temple Square and teaches oboe at Utah State University and Weber State University. She joins Logan Canyon Winds members Leslie Timmons, flute; Nicholas Morrison, clarinet; Craig Knutson, horn; and Carolyn Bodily, bassoon.

 

The program features three works for the full quintet as well as three works for smaller combinations of the instruments.

 

Opening the program is Suite for Woodwind Quintet by Texas composer Fisher Tull. The two outer movements of the work feature the entire ensemble, while the inner movements provide opportunities for each instrumentalist to present a characteristic solo — a "Gambol (frolic) for Clarinet," "Soliloquy for Oboe," "March for Horn," "Scherzo for Bassoon" and "Elegy for Flute."

 

Next is a work by French composer Eugene Bozza, who contributes Sonata for Flute and Bassoon, performed by quintet members Bodily and Timmons.

 

"In this charming work listen for Bozza's signature writing that is at once lyrical and devilishly fast," said Nicholas Morrison.

 

Sketches of China is a work for oboe and bassoon. Its composer, Mike Curtis, is at the forefront of modern composers who take world music as their inspiration for compositions for woodwind instruments, Morrison said.

 

"Equally at home in music of Africa, the Caribbean or Klezmer music, he works to bring the sounds of traditional cultural melodies and instruments to woodwinds," he said.

 

Providing a clue in its title, Airheads for Flute and Clarinet, provides a casual moment in the program. The composer, Gary Schocker, is himself a flutist and he approaches composition and performance with a sense of humor. Morrison said flutists in the audience might recognize snippets of music that appear to make fun of traditional flute exercises.

 

"Mr. Schocker always performs barefoot," Morrison said. "Audience members might want to kick their shoes off for this one as well."

 

Closing out the first half of the program is a work by the little-known Anatol Liadov.  The composer was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and one of Igor Stravinsky's teachers. His work, Eight Russian Folk Songs, provides vignettes of Russian life.

 

"From the humorous song I Danced with a Flea! to the ominous Legend of the Birds and concluding with a set of dances, these folk songs are steeped in the traditional sounds of Russia," Morrison said.

 

Following intermission, the Logan Canyon Winds presents one of the standard works in wind quintet literature, Quintet by French flutist and composer Paul Taffanel.

 

"Steeped in the tradition of the Paris Conservatory as both a student and professional, Taffanel's style relies on the virtuosic writing typical of the Paris Conservatory school of composition," Morrison said. "Long lines, quick tempi and writing for woodwinds that assumes the instruments have no technical limitations characterize the 'Quintet' that brings this evening's program to a close."