Brett's viola blog: “Nicolo, Jimi, John” Concerto for Viola, integrat...

Brett's viola blog: “Nicolo, Jimi, John” Concerto for Viola, integrat...: “Nicolo, Jimi, John” November 11, 2013 Three years ago I was invited to be the guest soloist with the String Orchestra of the R...

“Nicolo, Jimi, John” Concerto for Viola, integrated electronics and orchestra

“Nicolo, Jimi, John” November 11, 2013

Three years ago I was invited to be the guest soloist with the String Orchestra of the Rockies in celebration of their 25th anniversary season where we presented the world premiere of Atlanta composer Mark Gresham’s “Three Essays for Viola and String Orchestra.”  During my week there I reconnected with an old friend from my Eastman days, composer Charles Nichols.  He just happened to be the professor of composition at MU and we had a great time reconnecting and immediately started talking about possible projects.  To get our feet wet, it was decided that Charles would write a solo viola work for me first.  He composed a killer work called,”The Blues is Crying” inspired by the Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and his seminal work,”The Sky is Crying.” I premiered it on a concert series in Sioux City later that season to a very positive reception.  Charles and I immediately hit it off as collaborators and the initial success of that first piece fueled our mutual desire to up the ante and Charles began writing a full blown viola concerto.  The result turned into the most daring and challenging concerto Ive ever tackled.

I love going to Missoula because Montana is so expansive. The air is clean and invigorating.  The hotel is located right on the banks of the river where the movie “A River Runs Through It” was filmed.  There is nothing quite like waking up and having breakfast looking out onto the river while taking in the breathtaking view of snow capped Mt. Sentinel as geese fly in for a water landing literally 20 yards from your window.

Charles is such a sensitive artist and his insight and experience performing rock, being a classically trained violinist and composing electronic music for the concert stage inspired him to write a concerto that focused on three instrumental virtuosi in history.  While the musical language was all Charles, this concerto would “nod” to the influence of three great soloists: Italian 19th century violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini, 20th century legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and perhaps the greatest jazz sax player of all time, John Coltrane.

But there was a twist: Not only would I have to learn the actual notes Charles wrote down for me (something that, with my concert schedule would take about six months to accomplish) but I would also have to somehow evoke the spirit and style of these great masters. Paganini was not difficult to do as my violin background and endless hours learning his caprices, violin concerti and  chamber music provided plenty of insight into his genius for expanding technique.  The other two movements were a different matter.  While I love all styles of music I had never really performed other styles in public, let alone two sold out concert halls.  This was a challenge I really enjoyed.  It was surprisingly a “freeing” experience for me.

But there was “another” twist: I would have a microphone attached to my viola and connected to Charles’ laptop where he would create various electronic effects.  This was definitely new for me and quite possible the first of its kind.  During the first movement, when I performed crazy runs in thirds and octaves and what seemed like endless arpeggios and harmonic passages, Charles would manipulate my sound to create an “echo and delay” effect adding even more excitement. During the second movement, Charles would alter my viola sound to imitate an electric guitar using “fuzz”, distortion, and wah.”  The second movement was for me the “soul” of the work.  It is so colorful and evocative and when the psychadellic electric guitar cadenza would take place, I felt like I was driving the loudest bad a-- Harley Davidson on the planet. It was such a liberating experience to play my viola like a rock guitar. Studying Hendrix’s live performances on Youtube taught me a lot about his version of precision and “letting loose.” The final movement was also very exciting and evoked Coltraine’s penchant for running angular lines in a loose swing style.  In this movement, Charles would literally add double stops to my single line using intervals of 2nds then 3rds, and so forth. The middle section of this exciting ride was more relaxed and trance-like where Charles would build on top of my part by adding extra voices giving the impression of a full chorus of violas!

These effects I first experienced the day of our first rehearsal with the orchestra.  Charles hooked up a mic to my viola and plugged me into his laptop so I could hear and experience the various kinds of distortions and effects I would be dealing with as I navigated this already challenging work.

The next step was to try these effects in the hall and get used to the large space and iron out any technical glitches before our first rehearsal that night.

Of course one of the biggest thrills about performing any concerto is the collaborative process working with the orchestra and its conductor.  In this instance I found the Missoula Symphony to be wonderful partners on this crazy journey. It was very risky for them to program this piece. Their director, Darko Butorac, is a rising star in the conducting world and he was so much fun to work with. He was very responsive to both composer and soloist and proved to be a wonderful colleague!

                            

I particularly enjoyed the pre concert talks with the audience. Darko was so captivating and entertaining as he explained the music to be performed, and he invited Charles and I to field questions and explain the history of how this extraordinary work came to be.

Both performances came of very well, but I think during the second performance on Sunday afternoon we all really found our groove and the music flowed and was so free.  Everyone was really letting loose and it was one of the most “rides” Ive had.  At the intermission of both performances I met with countless audience members in the lobby and most very gratified to hear how excited they were to have been a part of something this new and exciting.  From start to finish, this was an incredible journey for all participants: composer, soloist, conductor, orchestra and audience, one that I doubt  anyone will soon forget.