Los Alamos Community Winds Director Ted Vives, center, leads the concert band in a rehearsal Tuesday night at Crossroads Bible Church. The LACW will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the church, which will feature guest artist Andrian Harabaru on cello, front, left. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

Los Alamos Community Winds’ pianist Julian Chen, left, and Director Ted Vives rehearse Tuesday night at Crossroads Bible Church in preparation for Saturday’s concert. Chen will perform a solo during the concert. Courtesy/LACW

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Music is more than notes on a page or sounds being issued via instruments. There are emotions and personal revelations behind the music.

The community can experience that complexity first-hand during the Los Alamos Community Winds’ (LACW) “From Hammer to Bow” concert 7 p.m. Saturday at the Crossroads Bible Church.

The program will feature two soloists: LACW’s own Julian Chen on piano and guest artist Andrian Harabaru on cello.

Chen will perform Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16” while Harabaru will debut LACW Director Ted Vives’ original composition, “Concerto for Cello and Concert Band”. Also on the program is Gioacchino Rossini’s “Overture to La Gazza Ladra”.

Vives explained that he met Harabaru, who is also a conductor, at a symposium a few years ago.

“I found out in the process that not only is he a good conductor, but he is also an outstanding cellist,” Vives said. “So, I said, you gotta come out and perform …”

As for Chen, he has been a member of LACW since 2015. Vives said he has been a featured soloist in several concerts.

“He’s one of our own and just a tremendously gifted pianist,” he said.

Harabaru said he is from Moldova but studied in Bucharest, Louisiana State University and the University of Delaware for the cello and conducting. He lives in New York with his daughter and wife, who plays the violin and viola.

Outside of music, Harabaru said he has an interest in technologies and innovations but even that interest gets incorporated into music.

For instance, he mentioned during Saturday’s concert he will experiment with cello amplification.

“It is an acoustic cello amplified with a microphone,” Harabaru said. “I’m very curious how it is going to go.”

This won’t be the only innovation of the night; Vives’ composition will make its world premiere Saturday.

Vives said it is unique because there is little work that features cello and concert bands.

“There is kind of a hole in the repertoire in that there is very little works for cello and concert bands,” he said. “There are arrangements of songs, arrangements of existing music for that … but nothing originally for that instrumentation. It just seemed like something that needed to be added to that repertoire.”

Combining cello and concert band seems logical, Vives added.

“I think it makes a good match sound-wise … cellos have been retained in the concert band instrumentation … not as a solo work but as an additional sound in the ensemble … (because) the cello is unique in that it has a tremendous wide range for an instrument and it is probably the closest instrument to the human voice in terms of the expressive quality of it … and by the human voice I mean all voice ranges from bass to soprano. It has a lot of qualities that wind instruments don’t have at least by an individual instrument themselves … in order to cover the same territory so to speak that the cello covers, you have to use multiple instruments to get there.”

Chen said a brand-new piece by Vives plus having a professional cellist “(is) what I’m very excited about.”

He added, “I think it is relatively rare to have a … composer in residence here in town or in the region. I think it is always fun to play a brand-new piece, and I think Ted takes quite a bit of pleasure seeing how it translates from the score to the actual sound we get when we play it.”

In turn, Harabaru said he is eager to hear the Grieg piece that Chen will perform.

“I’m very excited about the (Edvard Grieg piece) it is always a pleasure to listen to that work,” he said. “It’s a fascinating composition and challenging, I look forward to listening to the arrangement. I got to perform it as a conductor with a soloist some time ago and I am looking forward to this new sound and of course I think it does (have a) great mix menu … I think the concert provides that – the melodicity … the language and the harmonical choices that Ted uses for the cello concerto are also a novelty in of itself … the diversity of notes … it is a really great contrast for the repertoire itself, I am really looking forward to that.”

Vives added he is pleased to work with a talented pool of musicians.

“I am very fortunate that we have musicians in this town that are not only capable of realizing new pieces like this but are eager to do it – they seem to enjoy it and for a composer to be able to have, to some extent, an ensemble at his beck and call to be able to do that with, for me it is an ideal kind of situation … it affords me an opportunity that many composers don’t have that I am extremely grateful for because I can try new things … It has allowed me to grow as a composer.”

Having everyone collaborate – from the musicians to the conductor – makes impactful art, Harabaru said.

“It is a beautiful collaboration,” Harabaru said. “I think we all have to collaborate … because nothing comes from nothing. We, the performers, need material, conductors need a reference, a mirror, an interpretation because until then it is all up there (in your head). It’s fascinating how this happens.”

Composers are sharing something about their lives through their music, he added.

“Sometimes you learn just about human existence because music is nothing less than the expression of life … my hope is that once an audience hears that, it sparks in them some emotional contact …”

Vives agreed.

“For myself, music is not just the creative process of coming up with notes and rhythms and putting that down … it’s what the composer does from his own experience to let that music breathe and have emotion,” he said. “The composer translates those feelings into the notes on the paper and communicates that to the performers and how they take their personal experience and emotion and communicate that to the listener – that’s the collaboration that makes music the important part of our culture that it is. Because performing together and taking that information that you see on the printed page and converting it into sound that has meaning and depth to the audience is, in my personal opinion, one of the greatest things humanity has ever created.”

This personal expression is a gift to the community and Vives said hopefully the public will turn out to receive it Saturday.

The concert is free but there is a suggested $15 donation. To learn more, visit www.lacw.org.

Scene from Los Alamos Community Winds rehearsal Tuesday night. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com

Guest artist Andrian Harabaru rehearses Tuesday night with the Los Alamos Community Winds. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com