Concordia - a great alternative to the major university music program

If you are considering Concordia alongside a major university, please consider the following:

Especially if you've already auditioned at a major university, there are some obvious differences between the big music departments and Concordia. I'd like to take this opportunity to explain some not-so-obvious things that hopefully make Concordia a strong alternative.

School size: Concordia is a small school. If you would like to have a significant music education but don't want to be swallowed up in a "factory" of music students, Concordia is the place for you. If you want to be able to take a short walk to the music building to practice in the middle of the day, that is no problem. Our campus is small and and the music buildings are accessible, which is not the case at many major universities. Of course this means that you won't be competing against dozens of motivated musicians on your instrument. In most cases, you'll be one of a few music majors on your instrument. If you are the type of student that has intrinsic motivation, the lack of massive competition won't keep you from being a high achiever. And the close-knit nucleus of music majors who have similar goals as you will become your best friends as you share many experiences.

Becoming a seasoned performer: The flip side of our small size is that you will have numerous high-pressure performance opportunities. You'll be able to compete for the principal chair as a freshman (if you are a particularly strong player) and you won't have to beat out a whole studio of graduate students to get it. Even if you are not the principal player in your section in the Concordia Wind Orchestra, our policy of not doubling parts unless it is necessary for balance (mainly in the clarinet section) means that you will have a playing experience more like what is common in a symphony orchestra - you'll be singularly responsible for your part. The result is freedom to phrase and express your part and make decisions about how to do this. Therefore, you'll be expected to think and execute a high level of musicianship and your part will be very exposed - each performance is high stakes! And our repertoire is advanced college music.

At Concordia, you will become a very seasoned performer. The Concordia Wind Orchestra performs nearly 30 times per year, its associated chamber ensembles perform anywhere from 2-15 times per year. Also, as a soloist you will be expected to perform a piece in a noon recital twice per semester. Students who achieve the 300 level in applied study by their sophomore year are eligible to present a half recital (app. 30 minutes). Juniors give a half recital and seniors give a full recital. And our music department's close association with worship provides an additional layer of performing for soloists and chamber groups. If you want to become a great performer, you'll have plenty of practice at Concordia!

Private Study: Concordia is located in one of the most musician-dense populations in the entire world. When a position becomes available, we have an unbelievable pool of talented candidates. Concordia's teachers are some of the finest in Southern California. Their resumes attest to that (you can read them at www.cuimusic.com/privatestudy.html).

Instrument Access: If you are an instrumentalist that needs access to more than your own instrument, we can accommodate. Percussionists can view our extensive list of outstanding instruments, including a Musser 5-octave marimba at www.cuimusic.com. Trumpet players can check out a C trumpet, piccolo trumpet, D/Eb trumpet, or a flugelhorn. Clarinetists can check out an Eb clarinet, bass clarinet, alto clarinet, or an A clarinet. And we have a new contrabassoon for bassoonists. And all of these instruments are less than 4 years old, and they are top-of-the-line professional models. There are not many schools our size that can boast such a collection of instruments.

Degree: Concordia offers a Bachelor of Arts in music. One of the emphases that you can select is performance. We don't offer a Bachelor of Music degree, which requires more units than a Bachelor of Arts (although many music majors far exceed the number of required music units to graduate). However, a Bachelor of Arts degree fully educates you. Sometimes students are nervous about majoring in music because they are afraid that they are locking themselves into a particular career path. Not so with a bachelor of arts. You will develop your non-musical skills fully - the skills of communication, writing, and thinking. Make no mistake about it, these skills help you stand out in a very competitive fields.

Faith-centered Music: And finally, the most significant thing that makes Concordia distinctive against major universities - Christian ministry. We hear a lot about spiritual connections with music, but at Concordia music affords a spiritual connection with the Lord. Many concerts take sacred themes, and most of our groups perform regularly in worship.

If you want to play music at a high level in a uniquely faith-based way, please consider Concordia. Our facilities may not be as spectacular, but the Concordia Experience more than makes up for this.

What I am looking for in an audition

If your music scholarship audition is coming this month, you are probably wondering what your auditioner is looking for? This is an important question to consider, the answer may surprise you.

First of all, I care a lot less about note accuracy than you probably do. An audition is a one-time shot at showing how capable you will be in a college ensemble. Note correctness provides little information to determine this. Of course, it is important, and a sloppy performance might say something negative about your capability. However, your capability to be a successful collegiate ensemble member will show more clearly in several other (more important) areas. Here are five:

1. Musical Poise - In the Concordia Wind Orchestra, we operate with a minimal amount of doubled parts. This means that it is really a big chamber group. This might be different than your high school band, where you may be one of four or five players on the 2nd trumpet part. Here, we only will use 1-2 players on that part (depending on the piece). I want to see that musicians can handle themselves independently and confidently. I want musicians who make critical judgments about how music ought to sound and then put it into action. When you play your excerpts, for example, don't ask me how to play it. Using your experience, look at the markings on the page, the title of the piece, and the note patterns. Determine the style to the best of your ability, and then execute it.

2. Expression - Music is not just notes. Cognitive research shows that developing musicians are so preoccupied with note and rhythm accuracy that there is little room for them to focus on elements of expression and style. If you play with a tasteful and wide dynamic envelope, and if you add subtle expressive detail from note to note on a journey to complete a phrase, I know that you are moving on in your musical development. And since the Concordia Wind Orchestra has controlled instrumentation, I know that you will add a noticeable expressive element to the ensemble (every individual is magnified in our setting). So, don't just pick a piece that runs you through a lot of fast passages. I'm not listening for the notes, I am listening for how you get from one note to the next. Choose a solo that offers you the chance to express yourself.

3. Control - Expert ensemble playing is a special art. I am listening to how you sustain notes - does your airstream waver, does the sound change unexpectedly, does the intonation shift? An expert ensemble player can play very softly without any of these happening. He also can shade his tone quality, use variable vibrato to make the note expressive, and can release it pristinely. Consider how important control of individual players is - if one member of the ensemble can't taper his sound into the cutoff and can't hold it steady, his deficiency will cover the excellence of the other members. For these reasons, I'll be listening far more carefully to the long notes than the short and fast ones.

4. Intonation - The average person notices timbre more than any other musical element (again, this comes from leading cognitive research). An out-of-tune player changes the timbre of his section from pure to spread and shaky. Any audience member will notice this (even if many of them can't describe the effect). If you show that you can handle the out-of-tune tendency notes on your instrument, I know that you have an intimate procedural knowledge of performance on your instrument. To learn more about intonation tendencies on your instrument, Google it (trumpet intonation tendencies, for example).

5. Who you are - This is critical at Concordia University. We are thinking about paying you through a music scholarship to represent the university. Members of our ensemble interact in significant ways with outsiders. When we go on tour, for example, you will share meals with church members, sometimes sleep at their houses, and you'll have many opportunities to interact with children. I want to make sure my ensemble projects a positive image of Concordia and a positive image for music. Kids don't hear a lot of live music - their interaction with us will be a shaping experience. They'll want to become musicians based on how we perform AND how we carry ourselves. So, briefly, I want players in my ensemble who project a caring and warm personality - a Christian demeanor.

Finally, enjoy your audition!  Why not?  You have invested hundreds to thousands of hours developing your musicianship.  Don't worry, I'll notice what you've invested.  You'll have a chance to play and to discuss music and college life with me.  You are on the brink of a new, very exciting stage in life!

FAQs About College Music

If you are soon to be in college and you are a musician, please take 10 minutes to read this excellent article by Dr. Scott Harris. Although it addresses the perspective of a percussionist, it applies to any musician.

1. FAQs About College Music / Percussion

2. Now, I have a few comments to help you understand Concordia's music program...

Should I major in music ed or performance? Another issue to keep in mind is that the typical student working toward a performance career will get a master's degree and often a doctorate in their performance area. Having a broader approach to your undergraduate study will keep more doors open.

But I really want to perform. Do I lose performance opportunities as an education major? At Concordia, most music majors give a senior recital, and many also give a junior recital. It isn't required, but it is rather common regardless of an emphasis in performance, music education, or church music. On top of that, once you achieve the "300 level" on your instrument, you can give a recital - some students get there before their junior year, allowing them to give 3 undergraduate recitals.

How long does the degree take to complete? At Concordia, students should be able to graduate in 4 years. Music Education students might be wise to take an extra semester to accommodate student teaching. This is an advantage of Concordia, since many universities are growingly unable to matriculate music majors in 4 years.

What should I play for an audition? Unlike the scenario explained in Dr. Harris' article, Concordia usually does not have the private teachers sitting in the auditions. However, his point about learning about the teacher you will spend 4 years with is very important. Please get to know Concordia's studio faculty. If you are considering the music major, please contact me about setting up a complimentary lesson with your potential studio teacher.

If I don’t major in music can I still take lessons and play in the band? Concordia is a different environment than what is explained in Dr. Harris' article. Here, many non-majors participate in the top groups and many not only take private lessons, but receive extra scholarship money (in addition to money provided to play in ensembles) to pay for them.

Do you have more questions? Go to www.cui.edu/music for a detailed overview of Concordia's music department. And don't hesitate to contact Concordia music faculty with questions.

Jay Mason and the Grammys

Concordia Adjunct Professor of Saxophone Jay Mason contributed to three Grammy nominated albums/songs this year:

 Category 14: Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, “The Sinatra Project”, Michael Feinstein.  Jay played lead alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, oboe, and bass clarinet. 

 Category 49: Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording, “Act Your Age”, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band.  Jay played baritone saxophone, flute, and bass clarinet. 

 Category 85: Best Instrumental Composition, “Hit the Ground Running”, track from “Act Your Age”, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band.

 Jay also contributes to two high profile current soundtracks, for the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Jay plays a baritone sax solo in one scene) and several United Airlines commercials for the Olympics and Super Bowl.

Music Career Outlook

The U.S. Dept. of Labor maintains statistics for music careers.  

2008-09 Handbook report for Musicians, Singers, and Related Workers

"Overall employment of musicians, singers, and related workers is expected to grow 11 percent during the 2006-16 decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Most new wage-and-salary jobs for musicians will arise in religious organizations." (from the Job Outlook section)

More detailed information for Music Directors and Composers (including Music Educators):

Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2007

    

Long-lost Renaissance Mass for up to 60 Parts Found

From Sibelius Notes (May 2008):

One of the highlights of the 2008 Berkeley Festival & Exhibition, presented by Cal Performances and the UC Berkeley Department of Music, is the American premiere of Alessandro Striggio's 16th-century long-lost Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices, the largest known contrapuntal choral work in Western music. UC Berkeley musicologist, renowned harpsichordist, and Sibelius user, Davitt Moroney, discovered the work in 2005 at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France after a two-decade search. Professor Moroney translated the piece into modern notation using Sibelius software and will conduct the musical performance at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, CA on June 7 & 8.

Some very interesting information about this work can be found at these links:
Video Program Notes
Moroney's Lecture explaining the history of this work and its role in European politics
Striggio bio

• Striggio traveled to major musical centers in Europe and influenced Lassus in Munich and Tallis in England (who likely was inspired to compose his 40-part Spem in Alium after hearing Striggio's work).
• Striggio played a critical diplomatic role on behalf of the Medici family from Florence.
• He collaborated musically with Vicenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei, the astromer), and may have been a part of the Florentine Camerata.
• His son (also named Alessandro Striggio) wrote the libretto for Monteverdi's Orfeo.
• This work has been "lost" since the early 1700s - in a Paris library! To put it simply, it was miscatalogued - but the story is really more complicated than that. Read Moroney's lecture and you'll probably gain a little more respect for the challenges librarians can face!

Music History is far from being settled. Someone like Striggio doesn't make many history textbooks, but we are now finding out that he was a catalyst for large polychoral music throughout Europe. And we learn about the political role he played. With this discovery in place, and it triggering more puzzle pieces of history to be connected, will Striggio become a part of the canon of Western Music in textbooks of the future? He probably deserves to be. Now imagine that some of Indiana Jones' rivals wanted to find this work in the library before him...

Long Beach Press Telegram Previews CWO Concert

The Long Beach Press Telegram published a feature article about Francis Johnson and Steve Charpie's attempt to promote his legacy. The article was timed to help promote Steve's concert with the Concordia Wind Orchestra on Feb. 17. Read the article