Tribute to Skitch Henderson

Impossible as it is to believe, we have just entered our sixth and final week of NYSMF's premiere season.

This previous week has been fantastic. The Chamber Orchestra has been working overtime, rehearsing madly for the upcoming "Tribute to Skitch Henderson" concert, which will feature tunes that the New York Pops Orchestra would have performed under the late maestro.

Skitch was a tremendous friend of the people here at NYSMF, working every year with our Jazz Ensembles director Dr. Sherrie Maricle (also the Education Director of the NY Pops) and our Executive Director, Jungeun Kim. Sadly, Mr. Henderson passed away less than a year ago, but we wanted to ensure he remained a part of the magic here at the NY Summer Music Festival with this tribute.

The concert is at 3pm today, Sunday, July 30, 2006. If you can make it, please come on out and share our homage to a great friend and a great musician: Mr. Skitch Henderson.

NYSMF/YAMAHA SILENT STRING PREMIERE

This past Saturday, July 8, at 3 pm, the New York Summer Music Festival premiered an exciting new work by our very own Sean Neukom, a Teaching Assistant in violin. The piece was entitled "Tango for Silent Strings", and was conceived, created, and completed in less than a single week! (Click the photo to play the video!)

Sean took the initiative to compose a piece especially for our set of Yamaha Silent Electric Strings - two violins, viola, cello, and bass - which we received from the Yamaha Corporation, completely free of charge and free of obligations.

"We want to get these instruments into the hands of the people who would get the most out of them," Ken Dattmore, the Marketing Manager of Orchestral Strings at Yamaha, told me after awarding the Silent Strings to NYSMF.

I'd say we fulfilled Yamaha's hopes extremely well! And in less than two weeks, too. Click the link below to see -- and to hear! -- the world premiere of Sean Neukom's "Tango for Silent Strings", performed last Saturday at the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, New York.

And if that's not enough ... we at NYSMF already have ANOTHER world premiere on tap for next weekend, starting Friday, July 21st.

• An all-NYSMF-student ensemble has commissioned Sean Neukom to write a SECOND original composition for its premiere during that set of concerts.
  
• One of our NYSMF students has chosen to use the Silent Electric Cello in his jazz combo -- or is it a chamber group?
• Our Musical Theatre Workshop, which already distinguishes itself from all similarly named programs by writing an ORIGINAL musical theatre show every two weeks, will be using the Silent Strings as important story elements in its upcoming presentation (Friday, July 21, 6:30pm).

For NYSMF's complete concert schedule, please visit our online calendar at http://www.calendar.yahoo.com/nysmf. And come on out to enjoy the finest in all kinds of great music -- not only do we have world premieres going on all the time, we also have some incredibly good orchestras, bands, wind ensembles, jazz ensembles, chamber music, and much, much more.

NYSMF ain't just another band camp. We're mighty proud of our students!

Photos from NYSMF Session 1 (June 25 - Jul 8, 2006)

I've been very busy in my myriad roles here at NYSMF, but I wanted to make sure to post photos and video whenever I can to share the wonders of our first few days and weeks at SUNY Oneonta.

NYSMF VISITING ARTIST SERIES

• July 1 Master Class with the legendary violinist AARON ROSAND
  
• June 28 with the fantastic drummer John Riley.

Both visiting artists also performed special concerts just for NYSMF students and staff; those photos are on the second pages of their photo series.

NYSMF / YAMAHA SILENT STRINGS
These photos document the very first time that these instruments were removed from their cases and actually tried out by NYSMF students. The youngest was 12 years old; the oldest was 23; and none of them had ever used these types of instruments before.

We've tons of other photos available on our website at http://www.nysmf.org/photographs/2006/index.html. Photos are all copyright ©2006 by Keisuke Hoashi; all rights are reserved for Keisuke Hoashi and the New York Summer Music Festival. You may use the photos on the site for your own personal use; if you wish to use them for any commercial purpose, please contact me at info@nysmf.org and we'll work something out.

Otherwise, enjoy seeing the results of our extremely successful Session 1 of NYSMF!

Keisuke
NYSMF Director O' Communications

Now THAT'S How to Have a First Session!

It's 1:30 in the morning, and we at NYSMF have just brought our first session ever to a thunderous conclusion.

Just over twelve hours ago, we began our day of concerts with the winners of our Student Recital Series. All of these young musicians had won the privilege of performing solo before a live audience, and they were all marvelous, of course. A huge succession of groups followed: the Symphonic Band, the Lab Jazz Ensemble, the Jazz Choir, the Select Choir, Cello Ensemble, Saxophone Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and so on, filling our day with nearly eight hours of almost nonstop music.

A very special treat for me (and for all the audience) was the Intergalactic premiere of the NYSMF/Yamaha Silent Electric Quintet, performing an original piece by our very talented NYSMF violinist Sean Neukom -- the "Tango for Electric Strings".

We know we're onto something really, really good here. I spoke with parent after parent today, congratulating us at NYSMF for creating such a rich, varied, and opportunity-laden program.

Photos are online at http://www.nysmf.org/photographs/2006. Check them out! I'm too tired to type anymore, but I'm feeling immensely proud of what we have accomplished here. As a parent said to me, we really built this entire massive program from nothing, and have created something very special for young musicians.

And now we get to do it all again! Second Session begins in only eight hours. I really should try to get some sleep before then. Good night, and good morning to all.

Keisuke

Some Fun Jazz

Proof that you can make a great jazz combo out of ANY moderately recognizable tune! This great little performance is from the Staff (Counselor/Teaching Assistant) recital last week. Enjoy.

WEEK ONE!

It's been an incredible week here at NYSMF. Our first year, first season, first everything. A year of firsts is unavoidable, but we are making sure that it's more than just a linguistic irony.


FIRST VISITING ARTIST: JOHN RILEY
Shown here with NYSMF jazz bassist Bob Sabin, Mr. Riley (http://www.johnriley.org) arrived this past Wednesday, safely navigating all of the broken roads and flooded highways filling central New York. He gave an extraordinary Master Class (free of charge for NYSMF Students) and followed up with a concert rivaling any top jazz group you could find anywhere in the world.


Here's another shot of Mr. Riley with the percussion students attending NYSMF's first session.

There's much, much more to come. Stay tuned!

Keisuke
NYSMF Director of Communications