{"id":7447,"date":"2018-04-20T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/?p=7447"},"modified":"2024-04-22T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T18:37:10","slug":"spring-fetter-concerts-feature-david-kim-student-conductors-and-into-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/2018\/04\/20\/spring-fetter-concerts-feature-david-kim-student-conductors-and-into-the-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Fetter Concerts Feature David Kim, Student Conductors, and Into the Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do the\u00a0musical<\/span>\u00a0Into The Woods<\/em>, an experimental student orchestra, and a cello\/piano sonata have in common? These are just a few performances featured in the Fetter concert series, which will run from\u00a0April 20 through April 28<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Professor Michael Johns has been coordinating the Fetter Program since 2001. The program, originally called \u201cPollard Scholarship Funds,\u201d debuted in 1975. As Professor Johns explains,<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2001, the program, which had initially supported a single string quartet, was renamed the Elizabeth Pollard Fetter Chamber\u00a0Music<\/span>\u00a0Program and expanded to support the coaching of multiple chamber\u00a0music<\/span>\u00a0groups. Funding continues to be enhanced by successive generations of the Fetter family. Students wanting to participate in the Fetter Program need to audition, and the time commitment is two hours a week: one hour with an assigned professional coach, a second hour-long rehearsal by the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fetter Program has earned recognition beyond Swarthmore. Ellen Liu \u201918, who will be performing in the first concert of the Fetter series, is taking part in the program for the first time this semester, after a four-year break from\u00a0music<\/span>\u00a0classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about the program prior to coming to Swarthmore, because I had planned on getting involved in the\u00a0music<\/span>\u00a0department from the beginning,\u201d says Liu. \u201c…last semester, one of my friends, who has played in a chamber group for all his time here, encouraged me to reach out to the department and see how I could get back into it. I was put into this group and I honestly couldn\u2019t be more excited to be able to play again…I hadn\u2019t played piano seriously in a long time and I was really happy to be able to return to\u00a0music<\/span>since it was such a big part of my life before college.\u201d Liu will be performing a Beethoven trio for flute, bassoon, and piano – a rarely-seen combination.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Fetter concerts feature a variety of\u00a0musical<\/span>\u00a0pieces and instrumental combinations. Rebecca Rosenthal \u201920, another first-time participant in the Fetter series, will be singing and playing the role of the Baker\u2019s Wife in the opening from Stephen Sondheim\u2019s acclaimed\u00a0musical<\/span>Into The Woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got involved when [a friend] asked if I would be interested in learning the piece…It’s been a lot of fun \u2014 besides learning the difficult\u00a0music<\/span>, which has a ton of moving parts and a lot of tricky spots, we spent last weekend actually staging the 15-minute sequence. So I had to learn how to act, too! Channelling your emotions is an integral part of so many\u00a0musical<\/span>performances and is often overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all Fetter students are first-time participants: this is Kevin Lai \u201918\u2019s fifth semester participating in the program; four previous Fetter concerts have not dampened his enthusiasm or energy. He will be performing the Grieg Sonata on the piano, accompanied by Kyle Yee \u201819 on the cello.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think last semester’s Fetter concert was by far my best. I really enjoyed the\u00a0music<\/span>, and the crowd was entertained by our playing,\u201d says Lai. \u201cFor me, if we please the crowd and play as well as we do in rehearsals, then that makes me extremely happy. I have worked with the same coach for 4 semesters now, so at this point, we have developed an amazing working relationship. Our coach pushes us to not only nail all the notes but also bring out the emotions and feelings from the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Fetter performance to watch out for is the Lab Orchestra, a group launched in Fall 2016 to give student conductors some practical experience. Shira Samuels-Shragg \u201920, one of this year\u2019s conductors, explains that \u201cmusicians<\/span>\u00a0in the ensemble are paid to rehearse on Saturday mornings with two student conductors. Andrew Hauze brilliantly coaches us [the conductors], suggesting changes and pointing out problem areas. In that sense, Lab rehearsals function as conducting lessons. Since fall 2017, Andrew Kim \u201818 and I have been the two conductors of Lab, so each of us rehearses for an hour with the ensemble every week…this semester we\u2019re conducting Bach\u2019s Violin concerto in E Major with soloist David Kim, and that has been such a blessing. He is simultaneously a world-class violinist and an incredibly generous and kind collaborator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the Fetter students expresses excitement for their upcoming concerts. Audience members can enjoy a variety of performances, from a Renaissance vocal quintet to jazz improvisations. As Samuels-Shragg sums it up,\u201cthe Fetter concerts are a wonderful break from end-of-semester craziness. It\u2019s always exciting to see what other groups in the\u00a0music<\/span>department having been working on over the past several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lab Orchestra and David Kim will be playing in the second Fetter concert, on Sunday April 22nd at 7:30 PM. The other Fetter concerts will be on April 20th, 27th, and 28th, at\u00a08:00 PM<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in Lang Concert Hall.<\/p>\n

Emilie Hautemont ’20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do the\u00a0musical\u00a0Into The Woods, an experimental student orchestra, and a cello\/piano sonata have in common? These are just a few performances featured in the Fetter concert series, which will run from\u00a0April 20 through April 28. Professor Michael Johns has been coordinating the Fetter Program since 2001. The program, originally called \u201cPollard Scholarship Funds,\u201d debuted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":7394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7448,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7447\/revisions\/7448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}