WMV Music Web Log

Ben Redwine, our clarinetist, sends this post:

I'm looking forward to meeting the BannerArts/Washington Musica Viva crowd for the first time this Monday evening! After reading the Banner's website, talking to them about their vision, and participating in several rehearsals, I am very excited about being a part of this vital organization. Playing in rehearsal with Carl, Jodi and Elizabeth has been a true pleasure. Our rehearsals have gone for 4 hours and I'm never ready to quit when they are over! Playing with such great musicians always makes a musician's day.

As you know, on the concert is the Brahms Trio, for cello, piano and clarinet. Brahms came out of retirement to write four pieces for his friend, the clarinetist Richard Muhfeld. These last four compositions have been called Brahms' swansong. The trio is a bit lighter than the quintet and the two sonatas, but is full of great Brahmsian melodies.

We're also playing four songs written by local composer, Janet Peachey. These are very modern, very interesting, very fun pieces. I'm sure you will enjoy them as much as we have learning them. It was very nice to rehearse the other day with the composer. A performer always gets a much better perspective into how to perform a piece when the composer is there to coach us. I'm certain that she will attend the concert, so make it a point to talk to her on Monday.

I really owe my meeting with Carl to my good friend, John Stephens. He conducts a clarinet choir in which I play in Washington, D.C. and I've commissioned a composition from him that I premiered about a year ago. Subsequently, I've recorded this piece for John and performed it again as a featured artist at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, just last month. I'm not a huge fan of 12-tone technique, which John uses, although not religiously. However, every piece that John has written, I like. We're playing his trio for cello, piano, and clarinet Monday evening as well. We get to have our first rehearsal with him tomorrow (Saturday, 16 July, 05). His wit and intelligence are two of the reasons that I like him so much and I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about the piece that we have been learning for the last several weeks. Be sure to take advantage of the fact that Dr. Stephens will be in attendance at the concert Monday evening. Hopefully, his wife, Barbara, will be in attendance too. She is a delightful person and quite an accomplished print artist.

Again, I want to say how great this experience has been with Washington Musica Viva. I look forward to meeting every one of the audience members very soon! Please don't be shy, I love meeting new people!

Ben Redwine

Ben & Leslie Redwine
owners, RedwineJazz, LLC
1642 Cliff Drive
Edgewater, MD 21037
410.798.8251
www.redwinejazz.com
www.xilema.net

Be sure to check out Ben's first compact disc, just released on the MapleShade Records label. http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/reviews/10632.php