Living in Los Angeles, many students have had the opportunity to see musicals. So what happens when the actors, set and dialogue are all subtracted? Left with only the music, the story is still successfully and emotionally unfolded.
Today, the UCLA Wind Ensemble will present a concert centered around the works of American composer Leonard Bernstein.
Bernstein composed a diverse variety of music, ranging from Broadway musicals to symphonies.
One of his most famous pieces was “West Side Story,” which will be a featured piece in the wind ensemble concert. The arrangement the band is doing is one of the closest to the actual score of the Broadway show.
Rather than stopping between famous songs like “Maria” and “Tonight,” it continues to flow without pause, much in the way the Broadway performers continue to sing with no spoken dialogue in the show.
As it goes, the arrangement weaves the story of two lovers who are not supposed to be together because of their social cliques.
“”˜West Side Story’ is my favorite piece for so many reasons,” said Andrey Astaiza, a graduate student in French horn performance and a wind ensemble teaching assistant.
“One (reason) is that it is absolutely in the staple of repertoire. Second, it represents the current and always-happening antagonism between races and cultures and status. It’s like a Romeo and Juliet story, so it’s always fresh. It’s always there,” he added.
The theme allows the music to resonate with listeners on a personal level, as almost everyone can sympathize with at least one of the controversies portrayed in the music.
Conducting doctoral student Leo Sakomoto will be directing “West Side Story,” while Thomas Lee will be conducting the rest of the pieces. “It affects the audience really deeply if it’s pulled off correctly,” Sakomoto said.
“It’s more about getting beyond the notes, beyond the score, and actually getting the music out of the score. A lot of times, the notes are just a guideline, and it’s up to us as a group of musicians to interpret that in a musical way that might elicit some sort of emotional response from the audience and even from us when we’re listening to it,” he added.
Because of the very nature of the piece and songs like “Cool,” which features quick melody transfers bouncing from section to section, the arrangement puts emphasis on each individual in the wind ensemble.
“You can’t fall through the cracks in an ensemble; you’ll stick out. People have to do their individual work, but more importantly, everybody’s parts have to fit together so that we can really make the music and not just the notes and the rhythms,” said Jessica Swift, a graduate student in horn performance.
“If you can’t play the parts, it’s more obvious than in orchestra because you’re dealing with wind instruments. You can hide behind a string instrument a little easier than you can a wind instrument,” she added.
Though the smaller size of the ensemble can make the pressure level on the students rise, it also allows the distinct personalities of the band members to be showcased in the style of play.
“Everybody in band has an attitude ““ a good attitude. … Band is always this thing that goes together with society and with sports and with camaraderie, and there’s some fearlessness about playing a wind instrument, and it takes a lot of air, so to speak, to do that type of thing,” Astaiza said.
The repertoire, which includes pieces by Spaniola, Persichetti, and another Bernstein work titled “Mass,” is not only indicative of the courage and talent residing within UCLA’s music programs, but it also is extremely easy to understand for the average audience member, due in part to the Broadway connection of “West Side Story.”
“Musicals in America are the American opera, so people understand musicals. Most people have seen a musical, if not several, and it’s a pretty popular genre,” Swift said.
Whether interested in musicals or not, attending the wind ensemble concert is a way of seeing what fellow UCLA students are striving for.
“It’s a night with music. Normally students go to parties or study. (Going to a concert is) not the usual. It’s a chance to not only hear great music but to see and hear how hard their classmates work,” Sakomoto said.
“It just exposes everyone to what we do here, the work and the results that come out of it. Friends and college students can support each other in that. The band works and cares a lot about this whole thing. … The concert is a culmination of that effort. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s not perfect, but this whole process ““ this educational process, this performance process ““ is worth it,” he added.