Lisa Oberlander’s ‘The American Clarinet’ to feature CSU’s top students, faculty

Lisa Oberlander will take the stage for a faculty recital of American music for clarinet on Thursday.

The concert will feature the music of Bernstein and Copland, and Oberlander has chosen some of her favorite works from each composer.

For the finale, Oberlander will be joined by a chamber orchestra of 13 students and colleagues to play Copland’s famous “Appalachian Spring.”

It’s no coincidence that the American concert falls within just a few days of the 16th anniversary of Sept. 11. Oberlander wanted to express the beauty of collaboration between Americans and musicians from all over the world — as evident in the multicultural chamber orchestra she’s put together for “Appalachian Spring.”

Oberlander recently corresponded with Sunday Arts reporter Carrie Beth Wallace to discuss the upcoming concert’s repertoire, details about the artists joining her on stage, and more about her motivation for programming the concert in such a thematic way.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What led you to put this program together?

A: I have loved Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” since I was a kid. It’s a masterpiece and incredibly rewarding to perform, but getting 13 busy people together to rehearse can be a challenge. I started asking colleagues of mine and decided that if anyone said no, I would change course. But everyone said yes. And luckily my colleague Jamie Nix, the Hal J. Gibson Distinguished Chair in Conducting, agreed to conduct.

Q: You are performing with the new piano professor, Eric Zuber. What has the rehearsal process been like?

A: It has been fantastic. He is so talented and such a nice guy that it feels like we have been working together for years. I can’t wait for Columbus to hear him — he’s a terrific pianist and musician.

Q: The program is so close to 9/11, and you’re performing American music. I’m curious, are all of you American? What are the individual backgrounds of the performers?

A: There are many international faculty and students performing on the concert — there are performers from Israel, Russia, Korea, China, Russia, Bulgaria and Poland. And of course the Americans on the program all have different backgrounds — my ancestors are Germans from Russia who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s. Interestingly, the two composers on the program, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, were both children of immigrants, and both are known for writing the very best “American” sounding music. People might know Leonard Bernstein from the music he wrote for the musical “West Side Story,” and Copland is probably most famous for his “Fanfare for the Common Man.” I think the whole concert is a microcosm of the best of America — people from different backgrounds coming together to make something wonderful.

Q: What is your favorite piece on the program?

A: That’s like asking someone to name their favorite child — impossible. But if I was forced to choose, I’d choose “Appalachian Spring.”

Q: What is the most challenging thing about putting a concert together with new faculty members arriving?

A: Scheduling rehearsals. I was keeping my fingers crossed that we wouldn’t be rehearsing at midnight. But we managed to find times that worked for everyone, including the new folks.

Q: Are any students playing with you?

A: Yes! Eight of the performers are students, but the lines between students and faculty disappear as soon as you start rehearsing. We’re all working together to make the best possible experience for the audience and ourselves.

Q: Audience members will likely recognize the Copland piece. Is there anything you’d like for our readers to specifically know about that piece?

A: Copland wrote “Appalachian Spring” as music for a ballet by Martha Graham, although many people (including myself) have never seen it with the ballet — the music is so good that it stands on its own, which is how we’ll be performing it. Symphony orchestras play a large arrangement of it, but our smaller chamber orchestra be performing the original version, just 13 instruments. It premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1944 and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Q: Which Bernstein selections are you performing?

A: Eric Zuber and I will be playing Bernstein’s first published work — it’s simply titled “Clarinet Sonata.” Legend has it that he wrote it while riding a bus from New York to Miami, and sections of it evoke the perpetual motion of the bus and the scenery going by out the window. It’s a great piece that foreshadows his later, more famous works. The year 2018 is the 100th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth, so there will be a lot of Bernstein programmed in the near future.

Q: Are there any other composers you’re featuring for the concert? Or just Bernstein and Copland?

A: Just Bernstein and Copland. It really is an all-American concert. The whole program should last just about an hour.

Q: Anything else our readers should know?

A: It’s a free concert, and it’s in the most beautiful hall I have ever played in, Legacy Hall in the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. I perform all over the world and am always thrilled to come home and play in “my” hall. There’s no place that sounds better.

This story was originally published September 3, 2017 at 5:20 AM with the headline "Lisa Oberlander’s ‘The American Clarinet’ to feature CSU’s top students, faculty."