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Practice, Practice, Practice
Finding a path to one of the world's most renowned concert venues.
By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
July 21, 2003
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A street poster lists Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, and the Berklee group on the same bill. |
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Photo by Erin Patterson |
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There's an old joke that begins with someone in the streets of New York asking a local how to get to Carnegie Hall. Everybody knows the punchline that follows, but now there's a new answer to that question, and it's no joke: Enroll at Berklee, and maybe you'll get there.
That's the answer you might get from the 33 students in the Berklee String Chamber Orchestra (BSCO) who performed at Carnegie Hall with jazz bassist and composer Charlie Haden last month. According to String Department Chair Matt Glaser, the concert was a perfect example of the sort of education the college provides.
"If Berklee is patterned on a real-life model, trying to replicate situations similar to challenges of being a real musician in the real world, what could be more of a replication of that than the real thing?" says Glaser, who conducted the group at Carnegie Hall. "It's the ultimate trial by fire, playing at a world-famous venue with world-famous musicians. You either live or die on your own work that you put in and if you're up to the gig or not. And they proved themselves capable of doing that."
To say the least. Haden himself, who requested the group make the trip after it accompanied him in Boston last December, was enthusiastic after the Carnegie performance, titled "American Dreams," after Haden's 2002 recording by the same name.
"[Haden] was totally thrilled with the job. He said, 'This is the best this music has ever been played,'" says Glaser.
At Carnegie, the BSCO accompanied Haden, saxophonist Michael Brecker, pianist Kenny Barron, and drummer Rodney Green on 11 pieces from American Dreams, which Glaser described as mostly "lush Americana with jazz quartet and soloing." The recording ranged from jazz compositions like Ornette Coleman's "Bird Food" and Pat Metheny's "Travels" to popular standards such as "America the Beautiful."
The BSCO, which is usually conducted by Associate Professor of Strings and cellist Eugene Friesen, performed in one other high-profile concert prior to the two Haden shows. The group backed faculty member and saxophonist Joe Lovano in April 2002 in a well-received performance of compositions from Stan Getz's Focus.
Haden's invitation to bring the BSCO to Carnegie Hall prompted Glaser to schedule 19 hours of rehearsals, more than he had ever rehearsed a student ensemble for any single performance. Since the rehearsals and concert were held after the end of the spring semester, many students had to return to Boston from homes as far away as England and Japan, a demonstration, Glaser says, of the students' dedication.
"The kids took it with a level of seriousness that I have not seen them take with anything else," Glaser says. "I wanted to use every possible moment, as long as I could think of anything that could be improved...I have learned a tremendous lesson from this about the need to be devoted around the clock to making it as good as humanly possible at every point. So the kids taught me that lesson in a certain respect."
The hours of extra preparation became all the more critical when traffic between Boston and Carnegie Hall on the day of the concert made the students two hours late. As a result, the group missed the only scheduled rehearsal with Haden and the quartet, and were forced to squeeze in a quick run-through during soundcheck. (See "Cello Traveler," a student's eye view of the Carnegie experience written by cellist Erin Patterson '05).
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| String Department Chair Matt Glaser (standing, with arm raised) runs the Berklee String Chamber Orchestra through rehearsal at Carnegie Hall. |
| Photo by Erin Patterson |
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Glaser began the Carnegie rehearsal with a piece he knew the group would play well and says Haden's quartet was immediately impressed. "Kenny Barron said, 'I didn't even know Berklee had a string department. I'm going to tell everybody that these cats can really play,'" Glaser says.
The success at Carnegie represents the fulfillment of Glaser's longtime desire to build a contemporary string program at Berklee.
"I've been teaching at Berklee for 26 years trying to get a string department that's a little bit off the beaten track and an alternative kind of contemporary American string program going. After that concert, I felt like 'this is finally happening now,'" says Glaser, whose own eclectic violin playing fuses jazz, bluegrass, celtic, and other styles, and has won him accolades as both a solo performer and as the leader of Wayfaring Strangers.
While the BSCO appears to be an extension of the way Glaser views contemporary music, he is quick to credit Friesen with steering the group's evolution to its professional-quality level. [Friesen] has whipped them into very fine shape playing a variety of styles of music," Glaser says. "Improv-based stuff, fiddle-based stuff, world music—based stuff. So he's trying to create a string orchestra that can play conventional classical stuff, can function as a studio orchestra, and can groove."
The challenge of playing at Carnegie helped the group take its playing to an even higher level.
"The fear factor of playing at Carnegie Hall on the same bill with Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden and Michael Brecker, knowing that everything is riding on this, can make people really achieve in a short space of time," Glaser says. "They learned more about the details of playing in a section, matching vibrato speed, getting all bowings absolutely synchronized, using different bow speeds, fingering patterns so that every timbral thing was consistent.
"They're now ready to play in a string section anywhere, especially contemporary charts," Glaser says. "The thing that we're trying to do is create string players who have a feel for contemporary music and understand it better than a strict conservatory player would understand it. There are rhythmic distinctions that a Berklee string player might understand that a regular conservatory player might not. We're trying to get them technically up to the same level as a conservatory player and at the same time have them conversant with groove and improv-based styles and be able to function musically."
Those words make it clear that Glaser feels the group has more to learn. But the BSCO's list of credits—including performances with the likes of Haden, Lovano, and Brecker—make it clear the group has already come a long way. One thing's for sure: these student string players won't have to ask anyone how to get to Carnegie Hall.
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