- So, are they ready for this?
- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
We're all ready for this!
*
- It's an amazing experience!
- I do this for fun and it's really fun.
- I love it so much and I would not trade it for the world. - Yeah!
- It's really cool to be able to sing
with a whole bunch of kids
from all over the state
that are super talented and super passionate.
- Some of them may be at the top,
they may be the best musician in their ensemble
and they're wanting more.
and this is their more.
- Stop my heart! That is so beautiful.
- The music is so much more challenging,
and you're challenging yourself.
- I'm completely convinced
that the interrelationship
between the performers and the conductor:
the better that relationship is, the better the music will be.
- My school doesn't have an orchestra,
so it's-- it's really nice to be able to play in an orchestra
with a lot of people who have the same interests
and who all want to do their best.
- I love this program.
I'm really proud of it, and I'm really proud of the students.
- I feel like I've learned a lot.
I wouldn't trade being here for the world.
- I think it's going to be a great concert.
- Funding for the 2017 State Honors Concerts
is provided, in part, by
A. Paul Jones Charitable Trust,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
[applause]
[triumphant orchestral music]
*
[cheers and applause]
- Students are coming from all different backgrounds,
small towns, the big city.
- My name is Noah Struby. I'm from Mount Horeb.
- Weyauwega, Wisconsin. - Reedsburg.
- Rice Lake. - Stevens Point.
- Oconomowoc. - Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- They come together and they're able to
have this wonderful experience of a lifetime
working together with other students
just as passionate and gifted as they are
to make this wonderful music
under the direction of a nationally-known conductor.
- Students come together
in the summer for about three or four days
with the clinician-- with the guest conductor--
and prepare the music from scratch
with that conductor.
And then we go our separate ways
and then we come back together in October
here in Madison,
and we rehearse, really, about a good solid day,
and then present an evening performance.
- There are many, many schools throughout Wisconsin
that have fabulous music programs,
but when you bring them together,
it's amazing what they can do.
It just makes me very proud of the students
and watching them do what they love to do,
and at such a high level.
*
* Tis you that are the music, not your song
* The song is but a door which, opening wide
* Lets forth the pent-up melody inside
* Your spirit's harmony, which clear and strong
* Sings but of you
* Tis you that are the music, not your song
* The song is but a door which, opening wide
* Lets forth the pent-up melody inside
* Your spirit's harmony, which clear and strong
* Sings but of you
* Throughout your whole life long
* Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
* This perfect beauty, this perfect beauty
* Waves within a tide, waves within a tide
* Or single notes
amid a glorious throng
* The song of earth has many different chords
* Ocean has many moods and many tones
* Yet always ocean
* So this is my music, so this is my music
* With a thousand cadences, a thousand cadences
* A thousand cadences
* Tis you that are the music, not your song
* The song is but a door which, opening wide
* Lets forth the pent-up melody
* Tis you that are the music
* Lets forth the pent-up melody inside
* Your spirit's harmony, which clear and strong
* Sings but of you
[applause]
- The great thing about wonderful music
is that it's elastic.
Pieces can go at different tempos,
pieces can have different dynamic levels,
pieces can have different interpretations.
There' a lot of freedom for ideas.
* If I ever had to choose between
- Oh, my God! That was so perfect.
Could you hear it?
And ultimately it doesn't matter to the music,
as long as they're convicted about their belief.
And once they're convicted,
there is an energy level that comes through the music
that is much more powerful
than if I simply prescribe it for them.
And I would venture that ten years from now
they won't all remember what the notes or words were
but they'll remember how they felt when they did it.
They'll have an emotional or even a spiritual memory
of what making that music was like
and how special it was.
That process, to me,
is what this entire endeavor is about.
[bright piano music] * Inflammatus et accensus (Aflame and on fire)
* Per te Virgo sim defensus (May I be defended by you Virgin)
* In die judicii (On the day of judgement)
* Inflammatus et accensus (Aflame and on fire)
* Per te Virgo sim defensus (May I be defended by you Virgin)
* In die judicii (On the day of judgement)
* Fac me Cruce custodiri (Let me be guarded by the cross)
* Morte Christi praemuniri (Fortified by Christ's death)
* Confoveri (Cherished)
* Confoveri gratia (Cherished by grace)
* Confoveri (Cherished)
* Confoveri gratia (Cherished by grace)
* Confoveri (Cherished)
* Confoveri gratia (Cherished by grace)
* Confoveri (Cherished)
* Confoveri gratia (Cherished by grace)
[bright piano music]
*
[melancholic piano music]
* Quando corpus morietur (When my body dies)
* Fac ut animae donetur (May my soul be granted)
* Paradisi gloria (The glory of paradise)
* Quando corpus morietur (When my body dies)
* Fac ut animae donetur (May my soul be granted)
* Paradisi gloria (The glory of paradise)
*
* Amen
* Amen, amen
* Amen
* Amen, amen, amen
* Amen
* Amen, amen, amen
* Amen
[applause]
- Band, choir, orchestra...
Those programs create this safe haven
for a student to be who they are
and to experience importance and individualism.
There's no classicism in Band.
This piece doesn't work unless we have great second clarinets.
This kid who plays second clarinet
can come into your band room
and feel important because they are contributing
to the whole
and they feel like they have an important job
and without them, that ensemble would be less.
Nice try. [students laugh]
Here we go.
Two before 19.
With everyone in the room playing.
So you have this mixture;
multi-cultural, multi-everything.
And all those barriers break down
and everybody works to the common good
and again feels important in that.
*
[applause]
- Music is about human emotion.
Composers pour their hearts and souls into the music
and now we are recreating that.
And the students are living that in a way that is truly unusual
and we are so fortunate that we get to do something like this.
I preach gratitude.
And I tell these students, "How lucky are we
to be able to share this experience together?"
And they're responding really, really well.
They get it."
Can you guys really commit now at the end?
Really commit. Big!
Fabulous!
So we had a rehearsal moment this summer
when we were working on this next piece,
and it just wasn't hanging together.
And a bright light bulb went off and I said,
"You're going to do this without a conductor."
And they looked at me like, "What?!?
No way." Right?
Well what you're about to witness is a pretty tough piece
where it doesn't even stay in the same tempo.
And they're going to play it without conductor
by using their ears, their eyes,
and their good orchestral sensibilities.
So I'm going to go back and listen.
Here's Dvorak's "Slavonic Dance, No. 8."
[upbeat orchestral music]
*
[cheers and applause]
- People who aren't musicians see conductors
and they sort of perceive that it's a one-way conversation,
and that the conductor is constantly giving information,
whether that's through gesture or through speaking to them.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
A great conductor is one who is in constant conversation,
receiving as much information
as they are giving information.
Good.
If you sing it through an 'oosh face'
it will be beautiful.
So I have a passionate conviction about how I believe
the music should be sung,
but they come with their own preparation.
And so as I'm listening, I'm melding what they bring to it,
to what I conceive the music to be.
And so there's this marvelous dialogue
of collaboration.
How can we conceive of this music together
and make a powerful statement through it?
[ethereal music]
* Alone
* Alone in the night
* On a dark hill
* With pines around me
* Spicy and still
* And still
* And a heaven
* A heaven full of stars over my head
* Topaz and misty red
* Myriads with beating hearts of fire
* The aeons cannot vex or tire
* And a heaven full of stars over my head
* And myriads with beating hearts of fire
* Heaven full of stars
* Ah Ah
* Oh Mm
* I know
* I am honored
* To be witness
* Of so much majesty
* Majesty
*
[applause]
- I've always said,
"You ever sit next to somebody that's better than you?
What happens?"
And they say, "It makes me a better player."
Absolutely. It's like a magnet, it pulls you along.
So I say to the student, "Well, why don't you be the magnet in this piece?
You be the magnet that pulls everybody."
It doesn't just change their perspective on music.
It changes their perspective on life.
And what they may be able to achieve.
*
[cheers and applause]
- I hope that they always remember the experience.
The dedication and commitment to their passion,
and to their instrument or their voice.
I hope that they keep that with them
and that they see that they can always be one--
one step better than maybe where they were before,
and that they can always reach that higher level.
*
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* There ain't no grave can keep a sista underground
* Oh, I will listen for the trumpet sound
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* There ain't no grave can keep a sista underground
* I will listen for the trumpet sound
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* You know they rolled a stone on Jesus
* And then they tried to bury me, they tried to bury me
* But then the Holy Ghost, he freed us
* Came and freed us
* So we could live eternally
* Sista, you betta get your ticket
* If you wanna ride
* In the morning, when Jesus calls my number
* I'll be on the other side
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* There ain't no grave can keep a sista underground
* Oh, I will listen for the trumpet sound
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* Ain't no grave is gonna hold me
* Ain't no man is gonna bury me
* Ain't no serpent gonna trick me
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* I will [stomping and clapping on beat]
* Fly to Jesus
[stomping and clapping on beat]
* In the morning
[stomping and clapping on beat]
* When I die
[clapping on beat]
* I know
[stomping and clapping on beat]
* He will take me
[stomping and clapping on beat]
* Home to live with
[stomping and clapping on beat]
* Him on high [clapping on beat]
* I will fly with Jesus in the morning
* Don't look here, I'll be way up in the sky
* Soon one day, He's gonna call me up to heaven
* For a chariot ride
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* There ain't no grave can keep a sista underground
* Oh, I will listen for the trumpet sound
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* There ain't no grave can keep a sista underground
* I will listen for the trumpet sound
* Ain't no grave can hold my body down
* Ain't no grave
* I said no, no, no, no, no, no, no
* Ain't no grave
* Ain't playin', no grave could hold me
* Ain't no grave
* No grave could hold my body
* Ain't nobody can hold me
* Ain't no grave
* Ain't no grave dug deep enough to hold me
* Ain't no devil that's slick enough to trick me
* Ain't no grave digga man enough to bury me
* You can't hold me down
* Ain't no grave can hold me down
* You can't keep me underground
* When the silver trumpet sounds
* Ain't no grave can hold me down
* No grave, no grave ever been dug, dug so low
* No grave digga ever been born so, so strong
* No grave, no grave ever been dug, dug so low
* No grave digga ever been born so, so strong
* No grave, no grave ever been dug, dug so low
* No grave digga ever been born so, so strong
* Ain't no man that can
* Ain't no devil can
* Ain't no grave
* Can hold
* Me
* Ain't no grave
* That goes so
* Low
* Ain't no grave dug low enough
* Down
[choir vocalizing]
[cheers and applause]
- Funding for the 2017 State Honors Concerts
is provided, in part, by
A. Paul Jones Charitable Trust,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.