On Saturday, May 9 at the Chism Recital Hall, the Whitman College Department of Music will present the Whitman Orchestra Spring Concert under the direction of Assistant Professor of Music Paul Luongo. 

The Spring Concert will be divided into two sections. The first section will exhibit the winner of the annual concerto competition. The winner of this year’s competition was senior Ryan Jacobsen, who will perform Brahm’s Violin Concerto in D Major. The latter half of the concert will feature a new, modern take on French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals.”

“Normally orchestras would just play the piece as is, which includes some 12 different animals. But we wanted to do a slightly take on it,” said Luongo. “The idea for this project was brought to us by [Assistant Professor of Piano and Theory] David Kim, [and] the idea is to involve as many different creative departments at Whitman as possible.”

The new take on Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” will strip some of the animal compositions featured in the original work and be replaced by compositions written by student composers. The Music Department in association with the Arts and Theatre Departments have been working together to create an interdisciplinary experience for its audience

“[This take was] something that I saw done in other places, and I thought it was a terrific way of reaching out and involving lots of folks in a collaborative project,” said Kim in an email. “The way we’ve imagined it has included the writers, print-makers, pianists, a speaker, as well as the orchestra, so this ended up being even bigger than I had originally imagined.”

Many of the musical compositions featured in the concert were composed by student composers. One composer, senior Will Hunt, used his imagination to simulate bug sounds. 

“I thought bugs would be kind of cool because it is a little easier to imagine how to make those different bug-like sounds,” said Hunt. “At some point, I listened to the ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from Manuel De Falla’s ‘El Amor Brujo,’ which has a lot of very insect-y, buzzy sort of sounds that helped me create my composition.”

Along with Hunt’s piece, the new “The Carnival of the Animals” will include the sounds of an orca, zookeeper, impala, a hungry cougar and some furry woodland creatures in addition to some of Saint-Saëns’s original works. 

“I feel a little nervous inviting a comparison between my music and Saint-Saëns’s music by having them be part of the same piece,” said Hunt. “[I]t would be almost kind of disrespectful to deviate from the overall tone that Saint-Saëns is going for in ‘The Carnival.’ I think ‘Bugs’ is definitely more dissonant and atonal than something that would have been written at that time, but I’m hoping that it still has a quirky, playful enough feel to fit in with the original.”

Along with the addition of the students’ compositions, student artists will provide a visual rendition, in the form of a wood-carving, of the same compositions. The artists created artworks that expressed their feelings about and inspirations from the concert compositions.

“We listened to a song to get a feel for the music, and then read the poems for more inspiration. I wanted to capture the essence of both while also making it my own,” said senior artist Franny Gardner.

The student poets provided new introductions, in which the students wrote poems that expressed their reactions or feelings towards the newly added compositions.

Putting on a concert of this magnitude allows for a more creative and free process, but it requires organization. Yet, different obstacles arose for different people in the preparation for the concert. Trying to install these three interdependent, supportive features (the musical, poetic and artistic features) produced different challenges for the associated people.

“For me, its finding the composer’s intent … I think that’s the challenge when you’re listening to new music, but it’s a really fun challenge because a lot of classical music is such a well-worn path that, for me, to reach some intent, I’m either going with or against hundreds of years of interpretations, and so the path has kind of been laid out,” Luongo said.

The Spring Concert is sure to bring an interdisciplinary approach with it, allowing for more creativity and freedom of expression and emotion.

“We’re always looking for ways to get involved with dance, with theater, with creative writing and with the visual arts, and this is, at least, a first step in that direction,” Luongo said. 

Show Title: ‘Carry The Zero”

Time: Tuesday 10–12 p.m.

Hosts: Jenna Rolle

Ever wanted to learn about the subgenres of rock ‘n’ roll and its artists as well as the political implications of their music? Every week, “Carry The Zero,” hosted by senior Jenna Rolle, focuses on a theme, usually a subgenre of rock, and traces its evolution from the ’50s to the present. Rolle has learned that many of the genres she has covered stems from the Beatles, and so she features many Fab Four musical pieces. Two of her favorite shows were on Low Fidelity and British Invasion music.

Rolle has always enjoyed music and began the show as a way to hear about new music and learn more about the musical genres. Each week consists of a researched music genre, and Rolle hopes of learning more about what ties the songs and artists together as well as the historical roots and context of their music.

“Carry The Zero” is the quick and dirty tour of musical genres and the artists who produce them, spanning from the 1950s to the present. Fascinated by the way music has shaped culture, Rolle tries to include as many little snippets of culture as possible, finding the roots to its contemporary form in a condensed way as to truly spot the similarities and differences between the early proponents of the genre and what it has become.

Show: ‘Blast from the Musical Past’

Time: Mondays, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Host: Eric Anderson

History is filled with many influential musical artists and styles. For host of “Blast from the Musical Past,” first-year Eric Anderson, classic rock is one genre that has influenced his musical taste. Although his show focuses primarily on classic rock from the 1960s to the 1990s, he also tries to include more of the under-the-radar musical artists. Within each week’s show, Anderson aims to have one featured artist and his or her musical accomplishments, giving him a chance to explore new, unknown artists.

While Anderson has found new musical artists he did not know before, some common featured artists that come back to his show are Jimi Hendrix, B-52, Rush, Boston and Fleetwood Mac. Anderson’s show illustrates the influence of classic rock and will continue to explore its many hidden treasures.

On Saturday, April 25 in the Chism Recital Hall, the Whitman College Department of Music will present the Whitman Chorale and Chamber Singers under the direction of Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Riikka Pietilainen-Caffrey. 

The Chorale and Chamber Singers spent all semester practicing and rehearsing for the Department of Music’s annual Spring Concert. The theme this year is love of all kinds: young, romantic love, old love, tragic love, love that cannot be contained and how love changes as life moves forward.

“We’re really going in a full circle on human life and seeing what love really means … If you say love, people expect that it’s going to be happy songs, but love does not have to be happy. So we’ve kind of traveled, during the course of the semester, through an emotional journey,” said Pietilainen-Caffrey.

The musical compositions the students have been practicing were created by some of the most well-known classical- and romantic-era composers in history, like Mozart, Monteverdi and Brahms, all of whom wrote many pieces about love and loss. However, this year also features a composition by Whitman’s Adjunct Instructor of Piano Kristin Vining.

“I had heard some of her music and wanted her to write us a piece for the concert,” said Pietilainen-Caffrey.

Vining was very excited to compose a piece for Chamber Singers and was especially motivated to make the Spring Concert an enjoyable experience. 

“I love to compose, and I think that the work goes quickly when you have inspiring text and when you’re inspired to write for certain people,” said Vining.

The piece she created integrates piano, played by Vining, and cello, played by Adjunct Instructor of Cello and Bass Sally Singer, both of whom will accompany the choir. The text is fragments of Sappho poetry, which sometimes consists of only short phrases with really strong images.

“As far as composing goes, I tried to find out what that image or strong emotion was and then reflect that musically,” said Vining.

This is the first Spring Concert that Pietilainen-Caffrey is directing since the departure of former Visiting Professor Jeremy Mims last May. Although the two directors have different instruction styles, their approach for setting the concert was to build great expectations for the performance. 

“She’s brought a new energy to the choir, and I wouldn’t say a better energy, but just a different energy,” said senior Chorale and Chamber singer Lily Gibbs. “I loved Dr. Mims, but I also really appreciate what Dr. Caffrey brings. I think she brings energy and enthusiasm and commitment beyond belief to the choir. I think most students have responded to it and enjoyed her.”

Like in many performance productions, there were hurdles that the singers needed to overcome. One such difficulty for this spring concert was the language in which the song was written and would require the singers to perfecting the lyrics in its foreign language.

“We’re doing a Finnish piece that Dr. Vining composed, and it’s interesting because it has a very different sound to it then typical Western style of music. Getting the right sound and tone for the music as well as the memorization of another language was the most challenging part of the preparations,” said Gibbs.

The Whitman College Chorale and Chamber can offer students a unique experiences with diverse people while trying a new activity. Singing can expose students to new things, allowing them to grow and learn together through this concert.

“The theme is different and the group is always changing … Next year is a different group. Even if there are 100 singers, it’s a different feeling with different people, always keeping in mind what works for the current group,” said Pietilainen-Caffrey.

Show: ‘Vibe City’

Time: 8 a.m. – 9 a.m.

Host: Emily Jordan

The host of “Vibe City” hails from Southern California, and with her comes the influence of West-Coast music, featuring many genres that reflect Southern California vibes. Currently Jordan has been playing and listening to electronic and hip-hop as well as ’90s and early 2000s rap and R&B. There is always a wild card thrown into the mix. Jordan believes that the KWCW radio show is a chance for not only herself, but for others to experience the musical culture of Southern California.

Coming up with the show name on a whim, Jordan believes that the show name encompasses the character of the show, which is making sure that she puts good vibes on the air. To her, it is all about the mood she is trying to present within each show rather than sticking to a strictly selected genre-based radio show. With her unique taste in music, she hopes to influence others into the vibes she transmits through the air.

Show: ‘The Vinyl Vault’

Time: Mondays, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Host: Liam Tevlin

Following the vinyls that have been coming back into popular demand within the past few years comes Liam Tevlin’s  radio show, “The Vinyl Vault.” A vinyl enthusiast and collector, Tevlin shares KWCW’s record collection as well as some of his own for his listeners. Tevlin appreciates the record collection, which consists of a vault filled with music, especially by artists who are becoming antiquated and lost to time.

“The Vinyl Vault” is a time to discover new and old music, almost exclusively in vinyl format, and learn about the development of musical genre, songwriting and the music business as you relax to the sweet crackle of needle on vinyl. Tevlin even breaks a sweat as he constantly cues up the turn tables for the next song on the next record, but he loves the quality of the so much vinyl that he finds every drop worth the effort.

In his fourth semester as host of “The Zest,” sophomore John Reed ventures onward with his lifelong interest in R&B with his zesty radio show. The inspiration for this show came to him before his first year at Whitman when he got into DJ Road Chief, a side project of Mark McGuire who is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from Ohio. The idea of following pursuits similar to DJ Road Chief, having done several excellent R&B mixes for various magazines and radio stations, got Reed interested in pursuing an R&B radio show.

With the show’s title in mind, Reed likes to play a lot of zesty music, which itself means unstable and is constantly being rewritten, revised and revisited with its roots in R&B. Each show features music of traditional R&B, jazz, blues and R&B-heavy hip-hop, but recently has been changing it from week to week. At the current moment, Reed is playing grime type music, but making sure that the R&B influence always works its way into the show.

Show: ‘The Zest’

Time: Saturdays, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Host: John Reed AKA DJ Yung Tuggboat

Susan Pickett, the Catherine Gould Chism Chair of Music at Whitman College, discussed her recently released book on Wed., Mar. 11. The book, “Marion and Emilie Frances Bauer: From the Wild West to American Musical Modernism,”  provides the first comprehensive account of the lives and professional accomplishments of these two remarkable sisters. The Pioneer sat down with Pickett to find out more about the journey of her book.

The Pioneer: What led you to the decision to choose Marion and Emily Frances Bauer and write a book about them?

Dr. Susan Pickett: [About 25 years ago] I was looking for new music to perform [since] I am a violinist. I decided that I would focus on American composers, and so I went over to Penrose [Library] and there was a dictionary of American composers that was published in the late 1940s. It had many names of people I had never heard of, so I was browsing through to see if anyone had written anything for violin. I happen to cross the name Marion Bauer; it was very brief paragraph that said she was born in Walla Walla, and of course that caught my attention. She was also born on April 15 — my birthday … Over the years and years of research, I pieced her life back together … using hundreds and hundreds of different sources. My interest in her sister, Emily Frances Bauer, came later … There was a lack of information as well as misinformation out there, and I thought in the end, both sisters deserved to be recognized not so much for their Walla Walla roots, but because they were excellent musicians.

Photo of Doctor Susan Pickett by Halley McCormick.

Pio: What did you learn from the research process?

Pickett: Let me answer that in two ways. One is that I learned that even though Marion Bauer didn’t die so long ago — she died in 1955 — it took a tremendous effort to figure out who she was, what she did and what she composed. She seemed to almost be wiped off the face of the Earth after her death. It’s been extremely rewarding to me to find her manuscripts and figure out what her music sounds like, to encourage performers … to record some of her works and get her name out there again. Just as important for me was the fact that my curiosity about the very first woman composer I had ever heard of, led me to wonder about other women composers. Now I know that there were over 6,000 female composers who had been documented in the history of Western music, but almost none of whom are mentioned in mainstream texts.

Pio: How has writing this book affected you and your feelings on music history?

Pickett: My life was transformed the day I read that paragraph about Marion Bauer. I went through 10 years of college and read dozens of music history texts, and not one woman composer was ever mentioned. It was reading about Marion Bauer, who happened to be born here and who happened to share my birthday, that opened up the world of women composers to me. It showed me that what I have been taught throughout all of my degrees was a very narrow and biased perspective. It taught me to critically question every textbook I laid my hands on.

Pio: What message or theme did you want your readers to get at?

Pickett: At its core this book is about one woman composer out of the 6,000 who have been ignored. [I want] to show that this one deserves attention and that historians need to rethink music history.

Show: Routine Maintenance

Time: Fridays, 8 a.m.– 10 p.m.

Host: Nolan Bishop

KWCW gives first-year Nolan Bishop  the venue to explore the musical field. Bishop prefers to let the music do the talking during the show, but when he does talk, he explains the music of the artist and album. Last week he explained the chronology of Mark Kozelek and his movement from Red House Painters to Sun Kil Moon in-between each song.

Modern stylistic iterations of classic musicians such Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Townes Van Zandt feature prominently on the show. Bright Eyes, Dr. Dog, Iron & Wine and Cat Power are all regular presences in a playlist, as well as bands that deviate from these more digestible contemporary styles and take alternative approaches, such as Sun Kil Moon, The War on Drugs, Hiatus Kaiyote and King Krule.