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by Mike Telin
Cleveland composer Margi Griebling-Haigh has written a new piece on commission from Cleveland Orchestra assistant principal bassoonist Barrick Stees. Sortilège will have its premiere on Mr. Stees concert, “Instrument of Enchantment: the Supernatural Bassoon” in Tucker Hall of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights on Friday, May 6 at 7:30 pm.
Ms. Griebling-Haigh comes from a family which boasts three generations of composers, including her father, her mother, her sister and her daughter.
A native of Akron, she began music study with her parents and before graduating from high school, had already won awards for her compositions from BMI and the National Federation of Music Clubs. An oboist, she took her Bachelor’s degree from Eastman, studying with Robert Sprenkle, and Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory, studying with Marc Lifschey.
In addition to the commission from Barrick Stees, she has been asked to compose for other Cleveland Orchestra soloists, including principal hornist Richard King and the late principal oboist, John Mack. Other commissions have come from organist Karel Paukert, the Schenectady Symphony, the Greater Akron Music Association and the Cleveland area chamber ensemble Panorámicos.
Her daughter Gabrielle (Gabby) is following in the tradition. Currently training to be a classicist at Clare College, Cambridge, where she sings soprano in the Chapel Choir, her Symphony No. 1 was premiered recently by the Monterey Symphony Orchestra.
We spoke with Margi Griebling-Haigh by telephone to talk about her career as a composer, her remarkable family and about the new work she has written for Barrick Stees.
When we at ClevelandClassical.com first discussed writing about our “standouts” of the 2009-2010 concert season, I thought it was a great idea. What could possibly be difficult about this task? However when I really began to think about the 65 concerts that I attended between September 2009 and the first week of June 2010, the simple task quickly became daunting. For me, there are so many reasons for one to enjoy, or not to enjoy a concert. These reasons accompanied by the fact that each organization and or ensemble have their own missions guiding how they choose to fill a role in Northeast Ohio’s vibrant classical music scene, too often led me to feel that I was comparing apples to oranges. Therefore I have chosen to write about my own “standouts” in two distinct sections. First, is an overview of concerts that I feel deserve a big hand of applause, and second, my own picks of complete performances by an artist or ensemble that for one reason or another are still engraved in my musical memory.
I begin by giving hearty congratulations to James Feddek and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, Christopher James Lees and the Akron Youth Symphony, and Joanne Erwin and the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the performances of these young musicians. They are our future performers and more importantly our future audiences. These ensembles also have a lot to say musically. Read the rest of this entry »
by Daniel Hathaway
Sue Heineman, Ben Kamins & Kathleen McLean
After the prizes were handed out, the third joint concert of the weekend on Sunday evening, January 17, brought the 2010 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.
Sue Heineman of the National Symphony must have been a bit breathless, having flown in only that afternoon to judge the final round and play the first segment of the final concert, but none of that showed in her performance of Bach’s Partita (originally for solo flute). Heineman has incredible lungs, chops and stamina, and played with remarkable lyricism. After the Bach, she was joined on stage by Samantha Brenner, Thomas Schneider & Nicholas Cohen for George Sakakeeny’s arrangement of the Andante from Tchaikovsky’s Second String Quartet (“we refer to it as Tchaikakeeny”). This was a beautiful little piece played with affectionate lyricism and creamy tone. Read the rest of this entry »
by Daniel Hathaway
Sunday afternoon’s final round on January 17 offered a good-sized Warner Concert Hall crowd some great bassoon playing by the five finalists — as well as a couple of white knuckle moments and one session which ended abruptly when time was called. So it goes in the heat of competition.
As the audience took their seats, a special twelve member Oberlin string orchestra was tuning up under conductor and harpsichordist Webb Wiggins. The final rounds would require contestants to play the whole of Vivaldi’s 26th Concerto from memory as well as the last movement of Libby Larsen’s Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano and a piece of each contestant’s choice. Read the rest of this entry »
by Mike Telin
It was a grand night for the bassoon last evening (Saturday, January 16) when five outstanding judges and clinicians from the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Bassoon Competition and Symposium came together to perform the second of three Joint Recitals of the weekend in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory.
In general, the programming of bassoon recitals is problematic. Keeping the audience musically engaged for 90 minutes is not an easy task, however these five soloists chose works ranging from the unknown to staples of the bassoon repertoire, as well as transcriptions that brought out each individual performer’s unique personality and playing style. This, in addition to some brilliant programming co-ordination from Oberlin Professor of Bassoon George Sakakeeny, proved that a bassoon recital is able to provide audiences with a musically magical listening experience. Read the rest of this entry »
Announced this evening (Sunday, January 17) at 7:30 pm:
First Prize: Amanda Swain
Second Prize: Shuo Li
Third Prize: Briana Lehman
Honorable Mention: Julie Link & Laura Miller
by Daniel Hathaway
For those who love to watch how the real pro’s of the musical world operate, there’s nothing more fascinating than attending a good master class. Although these sessions, where musicians play or sing for a maestro du jour, are usually devoted to special interest groups, there’s a lot to be learned about music making that’s universal for all species.
On Saturday, January 16, the second day of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition at Oberlin Conservatory, we observed two bassoon master classes and heard ten players bare their musical souls to two master bassoon teachers and an audience of their peers — one of five such opportunities offered in the Symposium side of the 2010 Competition. Read the rest of this entry »
On Friday evening at 6pm, the co-founders of the competition announced the five finalists who will compete on Sunday afternoon at 3 in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory:
1) Briana Lehman (Rice University)
2) Shuo Li (Oberlin Conservatory)
3) Julie Link (Cleveland Institute of Music)
4) Laura Miller (University of Texas at Austin)
5) Amanda Swain (Northwestern University)
by Daniel Hathaway
Semi-final rounds of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition got underway early Friday afternoon as nine bassoonists took the stage in the Oberlin Conservatory’s Kulas Recital Hall. The nine (originally ten, but one withdrew due to injury) were chosen from a pool of 47 applicants through video submissions.
In order this afternoon, we heard Kelly Harrison (Oberlin); Laura Miller (graduate student, University of Texas at Austin); Shuo Li (Oberlin, from China); Marian Graebert (graduate student at the University of Akron), Amanda Swain (graduate student at Northwestern); Alex Zdanis (Colburn School); Briana Lehman (Rice); Julie Link (graduate student at CIM); and Micahla Cohen (graduate student at Yale).
Each contestant played three required pieces, cleverly chosen to demonstrate each individual’s technique and musicianship, interpretive skills and to measure how they projected their musical personality to an audience. Three judges would independently rank each player and cumulative scores would determine which five performers would advance to the finals on Sunday at 3pm in Warner Concert Hall.
By Mike Telin
The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Bassoon Competition and Symposium gets underway on Friday, January 15 at the Oberlin Conservatory. As background to the event, I reached Founders and Co-directors Kristen Wolfe Jensen and Nicolasa Kuster for phone interviews last week.
Kristin Wolfe Jensen
MQVC Co-Director Kristin Wolfe Jensen has been the bassoon professor at the University of Texas at Austin since 1995, and is also on the faculty of the International Festival Institute at Round Top, and the Eastern Music Festival, where she is Principal Bassoonist of the Eastern Philharmonic. Ms. Jensen is Principal Bassoonist with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and previously has toured Europe with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and served as Acting Principal Bassoonist of the Houston Grand Opera. The American Record Guide reviewer said of her solo CD Shadings, “…She has simply turned in the finest-played Bassoon recital I have ever heard… She obviously sees tone quality as the foundation for her fluent technique…It is a ravishing sound, siren-like in its attractive flair…Ms. Jensen could teach a lot about musicality to a number of famous violinists…”. Her other chamber music and solo recordings can be heard on the Cambria, Opus One, Klavier, and Centaur labels.
Mike Telin: How did the idea for this competition come about?
KWJ: Nicolasa and I were sitting in a Café in Buenos Aires at the 2001 International Double Reed Society Convention. We had been friends at Oberlin, and we were talking about how we would like to see more young women bassoonists empowered. It seemed as though the majority of bassoonists who were participating in International competitions for the bassoon were male although at least 50% of bassoon students enrolled in music schools were female; so why are female bassoon students not succeeding in International Competitions? We had to ask ourselves what was causing this to happen. I think at that time about 72% of principal bassoonists in orchestras in the United States were male, and why were the females not rising to the top? There has been some change in this in the past decade, which is good.
