Well, here is my very first blog post!

The months of May and June have been a whirlwind of activity. I drove to DC from Utah after the spring semester at SUU ended. I made stops in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Texarkana, and Tuscaloosa. It was amazing to visit with family, friends, and students along the way!

Once back in DC, I performed a Memorial Day concert with the Virginia Grand Military Band and performed a chamber recital with my sweet friend Mary Shaffran. I spent time with my friend and mentor, Chuck West. He showed me how to make and adjust clarinet reeds. Our sessions were very informative and fun.

I also began rehearsals with my lady’s quartet, Voix des Femmes. The members of this fabulous group are Melissa Lander, Donna Noyes, and Jenn Everheart. We decided last year that we wanted to record a submission for the 2023 ICA ClarFest and wanted our program to feature all female composers. We found it challenging to find original works for clarinet quartet by female composers, so we enlisted the help of Tim Holtan (Colonel, U.S. Army, retired) and Artistic Director of the Maryland Winds. He knew of a talented composer, Nadine Silverman, who is currently studying composition and clarinet at Rutgers University. We contacted Nadine and she agreed to write a piece for us. The piece would be in four movements and each movement would reflect each members’ personality. In our initial phone call, she asked me to describe each member in the group. My initial thought was each of us is a mother, daughter, wife, sister, educator, servicemember, and business professional. We wear so many hats as we navigate our daily life.

Movement 1 is titled “Strength” and represents bass clarinetist Jenn Everheart. Jenn embodies the very definition of strength. This movement begins with the warm and dark tones of the bass clarinet. The other Bb clarinets join in with foreshadowing triplets and 16 th notes that lead to a lively and groovy middle section. The main theme returns after a grand pause and ends with a coda that showcases the extensive range of the bass with a lovely cadenza.

Movement 2 is titled “Meditation” and is written for Melissa. Melissa has a gorgeous clarinet tone and the long, beautiful musical lines suit her perfectly. The other three of us are in a supportive role and work collectively to give Melissa all the freedom she needs to express her musical thoughts. I love this movement because there is such flexibility in the tempo. We rely on our non-verbal communication to give the movement an organic feel and almost completely devoid of time and space.

Movement 3 is titled “Dance” and features Donna on Eb clarinet. The form is in the style of a lively minuet and trio. The Eb clarinet dances across all the registers in the minuet and trades off a lovely melody with the bass clarinet, while the 2 Bb clarinets provide an eighth note accompaniment that sounds like an off-kilter merry-go-round in the trio. It’s a mad dash to the finish as the minuet returns with a final flourish!

Movement 4 is titled “Adventure” and was written for me. I love to mountain bike and I’m very outdoorsy if not slightly impulsive LOL! I begin the movement with a simple melody accompanied by the bass clarinet. After the brief introduction, the movement takes off on a wild adventure in 6/8 time with triplets and oodles of noodles of notes that pass from instrument to instrument. There’s a 7/8 section that sounds a little like the “X-Files” before returning to the calm melody from the beginning. Then it’s down the trail again, this time in a 7/8, 5/8, 6/8-time pattern that sounds like movie music from Harry Potter! The music makes a driving, mad dash to the end that leaves us breathless, yet satisfied!

With our busy schedules, we created a google document to keep track of rehearsals. We also scheduled a zoom meeting with Nadine so she could hear the piece in progress and make changes as necessary. We scheduled our recording session on June 15 th . We started at 1:30 pm and decided to record Nadine’s piece first. Next, we recorded movement 1 of Ida Gotkovsky’s clarinet quartet for 3 clarinets and bass clarinet. There are many sustained passages, so counting was a real challenge. I read my part from the overall score so I could slightly conduct the others on entrances. This worked well and we were able to finish this track quickly. Finally, we recorded Yvonne Deportes “French Suite” for 4 Bb clarinets. We recorded this piece last so Jenn could switch to Bb clarinet from the bass. This is a staple in the clarinet quartet repertoire and is in six short movements. We were running out of time and fatigue was setting in, so we recorded the hardest movements first. We managed to finish the piece at 5pm on the nose! What a sense of accomplishment to see this project from start to finish. I can’t wait to hear the final product! We plan to schedule a couple of recitals in the fall so stay tune for upcoming performances!