Flagstaff Arizona July 2024 - Lonarc returns to perform at this summers IDRS convention by Joseph Sanders
making a promo film
Washed and polished and ready for Michael Whight to film/record clips of our Arizona IDRS pieces, Judy, Adrian Rowlands, Michael Elderkin and I, Lonarc’s USA Team, met up two days before at The Warehouse/Waterloo. We were joined by Edwin Roxburgh, who’d been supporting us so enthusiastically through the challenges of learning Shadow-Play over the previous weeks. ‘In conversation’, Edwin gave a fascinating personal account of the broader context and specific process of composing this extraordinary trio.
We’ve put it together as a short promo film to give a flavour of the wonderful music we were taking to America.
Lonarc back on the road
20 July Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 Wetherspoons: bubbles and English breakfast! Our bags were packed with clothes for the Arizona heat, alongside Johann Went’s delicious Quartetto and Edwin Roxburgh’s virtuosic Shadow-Play for Oboe Trio. Our journey begins!
nearly didn’t make it!
Our first stop was Dallas Airport. Judy pressed relentlessly through the check in queue for our connection to Flagstaff, the 3 of us following in her wake, apologising to all the gracious souls who let us push to the front of the ginormous line. We literally ran to the gate, and just made it, phew!
Hello Arizona
Flagstaff is 8 hours behind London, so the jet lag was intense, as were the altitude, the daytime heat and digs with no-air con.
Somehow we made it through these challenges, Adrian and I helped by a well stocked drinks trolley and evenings spent laughing off the stresses of the day on our rehearsal room sofas. That room, by the way, had a superb view of Flagstaff’s iconic mountains.We also bought a teapot from Walmart as well as herbal teas, honey, yoghurt, cream cheese and crackers....JP
meals in the canteen
We had our meals together in the canteen, joined most days by at least 1000 Mormons, or so it seemed. Nice to chat with other IDRS conference people of course. Take Big Kevin from Florida, whose big hugs set you up for the whole day. Now, have you ever heard 30 contras all playing together? We have, and now you can too...here is a short video of Kevin conducting their glorious performance.
And there was unstoppable Liz, fuelled by Diet Cokes and a deep-seated love for playing the oboe always so caring, generous, supportive, supplier of funds and coffees, photocopying and there at all our concerts and sound checks. Thanks Liz! Went Quartetto video taken by Liz on her iphone JP
meal out with the gang
Monday evening, my friend Stephen Caplan drove us all out to a pizza restaurant. I remember tequilas all round gave an extra swing to our dinner. This is the sort of thing conferences are for, reconnecting and chatting with old friends, plus making new ones too. Stephen is the principal oboist in Las Vegas Philharmonic and author of Oboemotions And after 13 years, I was able to meet up again with fellow Cor Anglais players Margaret and Lauren, whom I had first met on a Carolyn Hove Masterclass in Columbus, Georgia , which was lovely. We will try and stay more in touch via Skype. JP
Most of the rest of the time we worked hard on our concert repertoire.
Any spare time went to listening to a few of the many concerts, or to hanging around the trade hall and chatting to manufacturers - T.W. Howarth’s were there of course, always great to see Mike Britten and Gordon Hunt too, carrying his Honorary IDRS Award.
Well done Gordon! Renaud invited us all to the Marigaux party on Tuesday, thank you Renaud. We love you.
Lonarc on the World Stage again
Wednesday night we performed Edwin’s Shadow-Play in the gala concert. The piece before us was a serene, 17th century pavane for bassoon and continuo and the contrast of Edwin’s opening hushed double trills, the shimmering clouds of multi phonics, the virtuosic interplay of cascading notes and more chords, and the 1st oboe often riding high and intense over the top, could not have been more extreme. The audience roared their appreciation for Edwin’s glittering music, and (I like to imagine) the results our very hard work. Go us!
Excerpt from a review that will be published in full in the forthcoming Double Reed News by Dr Stephan Caplan
"Roxburgh masterfully exploits multi-phonic sounds to create textural variation and to more clearly delineate the shifting harmonic structure. The Lonarc Oboe Trio gave a nuanced performance that was expressive and engaging. The large audience of supportive double reed players responded to this finely crafted presentation with a thunderous ovation."
Thursday we performed Johann Went’s almost unknown and beautiful Quartetto Concertante in Bb major. I’d particularly enjoyed spending time in the close company of Went, as Michael and I, working with original manuscript parts from the Czech Republic, carefully prepared an ‘urtext’ score and parts in London.
A classic Flagstaff hail thunderstorm was brewing just before we hit the stage, breaking as we played the first movement, and the pressure at 7,000ft altitude was unfortunatly very effective at closing off the bottom of ones lungs JP
Road Trip to the Grand Canyon
Friday and free at last to roam, after the intense work of the past 5 days! Michael, who switched from playing the bassoon to driving us round Arizona, picked up our fabulously air-conditioned hire car from the airport with Judy. Yay! Adrian and I piled in the back seat and we headed south to gorgeous Sedona, a popular tourist spot set amongst weirdly-wonderful shaped mountains.
After lunch at Chipotle—Michael recommended the guacamole—we headed north towards the Grand Canyon National Park. We passed through a spectacularly noisy hail storm and really thought the windscreen was a gonna. We survived. Then, allelujah, our cabins in the pines had fabulously comfortable beds and fabulously cool air-con. Paradise at last! Brief siesta.
