CYO & Billy Jonas @ CSU 3/12/11
If you’re at all familiar with Billy Jonas or his music, then you’ll know what this concert with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra was all about. There were 14 individual songs and two prolonged suites, plus one work in which he joined the orchestra. The CYO performed solo on one work — Mars: the Bringer of War by Holst. This is the sort of piece that could have been written for the CYO, as it allows all the young musicians to experience the full orchestra surround sound. Music Director Liza Grossman, as always, kept everyone tightly together while allowing the brasses, especially, to show their stuff. The basses, too, were exceptional as was the percussion that provided the marching rhythms so necessary to Mars.
The other mostly orchestral piece was Ravel’s Bolero, which a good many of us do not find boring, even in its original guise. Mr. Jonas wrote mostly clever lyrics to accompany it, along with his three-piece group that oohed and aahed and swayed to the seductive dance beat. Adding a multi-media touch was dancer Sahirah Badr who alternately twirled a shawl or a sword as her voluptuous, tattooed body undulated up and down the aisles of Waetjen Auditorium at CSU on Saturday evening. (The program was repeated on Sunday afternoon.) The final chorus allowed the audience to participate with the Kazoos that were handed out to everyone, along with the admonition to “blow in the bigger end!”
And after all that, there was even an encore! This featured guest artist Isabela Moner, who was beyond fantastic — at 9 years old. Remember that name, you’ll certainly be hearing a lot about her in coming years! (To make it easier for you to do that, her website is: http://www.IsabelaMoner.com.) Miss Moner had also been featured earlier in the Wake Up Suite — or, how to get your youngster up and ready for school, accompanied by appropriate music or coaxing by a parent. Gotta Get Up found the sleeping child encouraged to do so by the William Tell Overture; Two Minute Shower was set to the rhythm of Beer Barrel Polka; Brush Your Teeth (this was also the encore) incorporated a huge brush so that everyone could be sure of what was happening; Eat Something in which we learned not to eat anything to which we’ve formed an emotional attachment, but mac-and-cheese is always good, and finally Totally Ready to Go found the young student ready to head off to school, leaving a worn-out parent behind.
Mr. Jonas believes in making or finding music wherever one goes, especially by being observant and incorporating everyday things into the music. Buckets, bells, sticks, feet, hands, heads and so forth. It’s all very high energy and sometimes laugh-out-loud amusing. The orchestra and Ms. Grossman participated in everything on the program in arrangements made especially for them. During the many audience-participation segments, Ms. Grossman could be seen dancing on the podium!
Many members of the orchestra performed especially well in solo roles: Concertmaster Gabriel Rothman, harpist Olivia Tse, and in the winds and brass sections: flutes—Catherine Holt and Grace Teeter; clarinet—Laura Hundert and Emily Horvath; A clarinet—Carolyn Holt; oboe—Joshua Lauretig; tenor sax—Aaron Mancini; soprano sax—Kevin Moehring; bassoon—Rachel Jensen; piccolo—Alice Catanzaro and Grace Teeter; trumpet—Eric Fahler; trombone—Paul Stroud; and the essential snare drum—Eric Poe. Bravos to all!
CYO has announced its final concert of the season will be Sun 6/5 at Nautica Pavilion and will feature Jefferson Starship in its annual Rock the Orchestra concert. Tickets will be on sale through Ticketmaster early in April. For more information visit the CYO’s website: http://www.cyorchestra.org.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print later this year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!Actually, I’ve just re-issued my very first published book (from Berkley in NY 1993) Secret Shores which is available now in print, plus print and as a Kindle.
By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well and have a line of photo greeting cards. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there’s always been the writing. I can’t imagine my life without it.
And now, after more than a few requests, I’ve started a blog about writing. You can find it here.
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