By SARAH DEASON

smd025@latech.edu

 

Low brass musicians celebrated Octubafest at Tech for the first time last weekend in the Recital Hall of the Howard Auditorium, Center for Performing Arts.

Dr. Joe Alexander, an assistant music professor, was responsible for bringing Octubafest to campus and wanted to give low brass musicians an opportunity to play together in an ensemble.

“[Octubafests] are done all over the place, but this is the first Octubafest at Tech,” Alexander said. “It is the traditional low brass recital.”

Alexander created the Louisiana Tech Low Brass Ensemble when he was hired in the fall of 2001.

“My goal is to have smaller ensembles,” Alexander said. “It forces everyone to improve really quickly.”

Music majors were not prepared to publicly perform together in small ensembles at that time because the music program was slanted toward the larger marching band, Alexander said.

“[There is a] totally different way of playing in an ensemble than a marching band,” he said. “The marching band doesn’t give any solo or duet experience.”

That is when he decided to broaden his students’ experiences by giving each student an opportunity to perform solo, in a duet or an ensemble.

“They did a very nice job for the first performance of the year,” Alexander said, referring to Octubafest. “That performance was the culmination of all the work the [low brass ensemble] has been doing.”

Students in Alexander’s low brass class have been preparing for Octubafest since the beginning of fall quarter by reading music and practicing different songs.

“The tuba folks read a lot of music at the beginning of the quarter and chose the pieces they performed,” Alexander said.

The ensemble performed seven pieces for Octubafest, “Negro Spiritual Medley,” “Dorian Folk Song,” “Five Movements for the Tuba,” “Quartet for Tuba,” “Londonderry Air,” “Suite for Two” and “Power.”

The ensemble was joined by Tech alumnus Tracy Bedgood, a tuba player, and April Valentine, a French teacher at Grambling, on trombone.

Jess Skinner, a trumpet player and a junior music major, was impressed by the ensemble’s performance.

“I thought they did a really good job performing considering the amount of time they’ve had to work on it,” Skinner said.

Skinner agrees with Alexander that smaller ensembles are instrumental to music education as a learning tool.

“The whole point of an instrument is to perform, and these ensembles give us a chance to do that,” Skinner said.

“Any holes that are in a piece are much more obvious in a smaller group, so a bad or good performance could be more evident in a small ensemble.”

Casey Conway, who performed at Octubafest on trombone, said playing in smaller ensembles improved the quality of her music education.

“With the amount of time we had to prepare, we surprised ourselves,” Conway, a senior music major, said.

“A couple of years ago, it would have taken a year [to perform at Octubafest].”

Smaller ensembles make musicians better performers because it makes the musicians aware of themselves and other performers around them, she said.

“Smaller ensembles make you a better performer because you have to hear yourself,” she said. “Everything is more exposed.”

In addition to the obvious benefits of playing in a smaller group, peer review is another outlet for learning that is provided by this situation.

“Playing in a smaller group means there isn’t always an instructor to point out our mistakes,” Conway said.

“It’s easier to learn from each other in a smaller group.”