On the evenings of Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, the Diablo Valley Music Department performed a pair of instrumental music concerts in the Performing Arts Building. The Friday performance of the DVC Wind Bands, featured a pair of soloists who joined the students and Conductor Monte Bairos on stage for a night of the “Grand and Sublime” classical styling of composers. The music of Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith, Ron Nelson and Bernard Gilmore flooded the acoustically refined space, creating a timeless and tangible sense of calm and gratification.
The production opened with a brief but poignant introduction of Hindemith’s “Morgenmusik” or “Music for Use”. The piece was originally composed for students, intended to provide them with the scale and practice needed to improve, while conjuring a sense of dawning and new beginnings. The up-tempo and high-energy brass of the piece was intended to wake sleeping civilians in the German tradition.
Vocal soloist Esther Renee Rayo lent her operatic soprano to a collection of folk songs inspired by the folk recordings of Theodore Bikel. Rayo’s melodic voice, paired with the fully realized sound of the collected orchestra proved transcendent. Rayo was followed closely by flutist Alan Kingsley who clearly displayed the talents and skills of an artist who has dedicated a lifetime to his craft. Each soloist performed with a different group of musicians, changing from one band to the next with the practiced ease that only hours of rehearsal and attention to detail can yield.
On a night where so many students were stressed and exhausted from ongoing transfer application struggles and finals, the Music Departments’ performances came as a welcome relief from the stresses of student life. It was easy to get caught up in the emotion of the event. When Bairos reached the penultimate piece in the arrangement, “Aspen Jubilee”, the band and conductor finished with such a flourish that Bairos spiked his baton on stage with the last note, with all the enthusiasm and energy of a triumphant sports star.
The collection and arrangement of the performance flowed seamlessly from one song to the next, captivating the audience in the purity of music. The ambiance that pervaded the event, proved to be the perfect medicine for academic stress, simultaneously broadening cultural horizons and sharing in the soul that exists within the classical and timeless core of music. These events provide entertaining and informative cultural experiences for students that are too priceless to be missed.