JESSICA ONI
Staff Writer
Products of passion, perseverance and never-ending practice, the members of Pepperdine’s University Orchestra admit that their talents were not born overnight.
Senior guitarist and composer Jonathan Roth said he strives to improve his talent continuously.
“It keeps building,” he said. “Each opportunity keeps getting better and better. Throughout my college career my goal has been to get more and more defined.”
The Fine Arts Division will host the annual performance of the University Orchestra tonight in Smothers Theatre.
Professor Tony Cason will conduct the orchestra, which will feature solos by Roth and the other four winners of the recent Concerto Competition: Sarah Chambers, Cosima Luther, Su-Jin Song and Miranda Yoo.
About 13 students participated in the competition, which involved performing a solo selection in front of a panel of three judges.
Often spending as much as three to five hours a day practicing, senior violinist Cosima Luther, another of the winning soloists, said the orchestra requires “a lot of individual preparation.”
Luther has been playing the violin for 15 years.
“I got a violin as a Christmas gift when I was five, started taking lessons when I was six and started performing when I was seven. I’ve been playing ever since,” she said.
It wasn’t until Roth’s senior year of high school that he became certain of his calling to be a musician.
“I really didn’t have any other ambitions,” he said.
Tonight’s concert will include a variety of both classical and modern pieces.
The soloists will perform the same selections they performed at the Concerto Competition.
Sophomore flutist Sarah Chambers, another of the competition’s finalists, will be playing “The Concertino” by Chaminade. Chambers said the selection is “a French romantic piece; a good, kind of flashy piece to do with the orchestra.”
Having played the flute for over eight years, Chambers said her love for music continues to increase.
“My mom played flute,” she said. “I found it under her bed.”
Though she began taking lessons in the sixth grade, Chambers said she didn’t completely succumb to her love of music until this semester, when she decided to drop her double major in biochemistry to focus on her music major.
Luther said she had a similar experience her first couple years at Pepperdine.
She started out double-majoring in business and music, but dropped her business major her sophomore year.
“It’s been a long process of deciding,” she said.
Roth, whose solo guitar performance will be a modern selection by film composer Elmer Bernstein, was also a winner in last year’s Concerto Competition.
“It a chance to get students playing with a full orchestra in front of people on a stage,” he said. “That’s the prize, no money or ribbon or anything.”
The soloists each have their own preferences when it comes to solo versus group performances.
“I prefer playing chamber music with just me and one other person,” said Luther. “The most intimate kind of classical music.”
Chambers said she sees both ups and downs to solo performances.
“Concertos are a good opportunity to let soloists pick their own music and put that on showcase,” she said.
She also said that solo performances put a lot of added pressure on the shoulders of musicians.
Roth said he believed orchestras and concertos required “two different skills.”
“By yourself, you have freedom to push and pull tempo as you please,” he said. “But with a huge machine that is an orchestra, you have to follow the conductor.”
The orchestra has undergone several changes this year, including the addition of conductor Tony Cason, former conductor of the National Army’s band.
“A top notch guy,” Chambers said. “A teddy bear … He’s helped the program grow. He’s a big recruitment guy.”
Luther, who has performed in the orchestra the past four years, said she agreed.
“[He] has made a huge difference. He’s a real conductor and teacher and has done a wonderful job,” she said.
According to Chambers, who also performed in the orchestra last year as a freshman, the soloists who were chosen this year are different than last year’s winners.
“There are two flute solos,” she said. “You usually don’t have two flute solos because they are bright, flashy sounds. Last year there were two guitars.”
The group said they had all chosen their selections at different times and for different reasons.
Roth, who plans to continue on to a professional music career after his graduation this spring, said he started learning his Bernstein piece, which he later performed at the Concerto Competition, last summer and has been working on it ever since.
“You can’t cram for performing,” he said.
In reference to her selection, a contemporary movement by Samuel Barber, Luther said, “it’s one of my favorite pieces of music in the world.”
Chambers said she first attempted her selection four years ago with less than perfect results.
“I tried playing it at a recital … and I choked and burned,” she said.
A few years later, Chambers took the selection out again, memorized it, and performed it at two competitions in a row, winning both.
The first competition was Pepperdine’s Concerto Competition, and the second, the Brentwood Concerto Competition.
The soloists said tonight’s performance is sure to offer a memorable evening even for people who aren’t music aficionados like themselves.
“It’s a chance to experience something that’s very pure and complex and beautiful and out of the ordinary,” Roth said.
The University Orchestra will perform tonight in Smothers Theatre.
Tickets cost $10. Student, faculty and staff tickets are free with I.D.
03-23-2006
