Jan 20 2008
CollageConcert
Yesterday, I went to the 31st Collage Concert staged by the University of Michigan’s Music School at the venerable Hill Auditorium. The format of these concerts is unusual - the last note of one piece overlaps with the first note of the next piece, no break for applause between pieces, with each piece being different, sometimes wildly different, from its predecessor. For example, the first few pieces of last night’s concert were:
- Overture to Colas Breugnon by Dmitri Kabalevsky, performed by the Symphony Band
- Kaddish from Deux Mélodies Hebraiques by Maurice Ravel, performed by a soprano with piano accompaniment
- Samsara, performed with two sitars, bansuri and tabla
- Gloria from The Masque of Angels by Dominick Argento, performed by a massed choir and symphony band.
I had not heard of any of those works either, but the list illustrates the wide range of music presented. There was some familiar music, but much of it was performed on unexpected instruments. For example, Bach’s famous Partita No. 3 for solo violin, was performed (fantastically) last night on a marimba. There were also jazz ensembles, some dance, Shakespeare, musical theater, and some things completely unclassifiable. The whole concert lasted around and hour and half, with an intermission about halfway through.
U-M’s Music School is one of the top schools around. All of the students enrolled there are going to careers in music, theater or dance, so the level of musicianship is very high. This is a great concert to take people who don’t go to concerts, because there is a lot going on and it is wildly diverse.