Night in Paris Wind Recital Excerpts
Maranatha Alumnus Jeremiah Willson recently gave a collaborative recital entitled “Night in Paris” at Maranatha Baptist University. The concert was divided into three sections, each with Jeremiah performing on his flute with a different group.
For the concert’s first section, the wind quintet Jeremiah drew together performed the 7-movement Le Cheminée du Roi René by French composer Darius Milhaud. Cassandra Ruplinger played oboe in the quintet, April Vach played clarinet, Micah Lancaster played horn, and Mark Vach played bassoon with Willson on flute. This quintet had a unique beginning as it was gradually formed through connections Jeremiah had with various local musicians.
The second section of the recital consisted of four pieces for flute and harp. Jeremiah and harpist Serena Kamps chose the music for this segment of the concert together. As they were browsing repertoire, they realized that a large number of the great works for flute and harp are French, so they chose 4 pieces by French composers to perform.
Jeremiah performed the final section of the concert accompanied by his wife Amber at the piano, who is also an MBU alumna. “The perks of being married to a fantastic pianist certainly involve performing fun music together,” Jeremiah remarked. “It was a no brainer to get Amber involved.” Amber and Jeremiah performed Soir Dans Les Montagnes by Eugene Bozza and two works by French composers.
A major highlight of the concert was the performance debut of the newly formed wind quintet and harp/flute duo. Both groups hope to collaborate much more in the future.
As Jeremiah reflected on his time at MBU and his preparation for the concert, he shares the following: “I have had many opportunities to perform since graduating from MBU. As a student, I recall thinking that learning my scales and arpeggios, playing by ear and transposing, mastering a large amount of repertoire all at the same time, and other things like that seemed excessive in the grand scheme of things. However, now that I am performing somewhat regularly, I have experienced so many benefits from all of those skills I learned in school. I often don’t have long to prepare for performances, so being able to practice efficiently and effectively has made a huge difference for me. Being able to sight-read challenging music is possible because I had to work so hard on scales and other technical drills. Learning to listen and respond to other musicians developed over time from playing in band and orchestra and singing in choirs and summer teams. All in all, even though I didn’t necessarily see it at the time, I am so grateful for how God, through MBU, prepared me for my future. Now that Amber and I have been accepted into graduate school this Fall, we hope to further develop these skills. Our desire is to continue to bless others through music and to inspire our students and audiences to strive for musical excellence.”
Excerpts from the recital are below.