UI Symphony and Concert Band alumni return to Iowa City to commemorate the opening of the new Voxman Music Building’s crown jewel: its 700-seat concert hall.
By Isaac Hamlet
The new Voxman Music Building opened its doors during the summer to great fanfare from the community, whose members were eager to celebrate the return of yet another landmark that had been washed away in the floods of 2008.
But today, a few months after it opened, there is still one section of the building most people haven’t been able to see.
Two University of Iowa music students, trombonist Eriq Vazquez and flautist Anya Egense, said construction on the building’s concert hall — its literal and spiritual core — has only just finished, and the space is still, technically, not open to the public.
“I peeked into the hall, and it’s really beautiful,” Egense said. “Don’t tell anyone.”
At 7:30 p.m. today, the doors of the long-awaited concert hall will allow for more than a peek when the School of Music welcomes an audience to the hall’s inaugural concert performance. The evening will mark the public’s first chance to hear the University Symphony and Concert Bands in the comfort of the 700-seat hall.
The hall itself — the larger of the building’s two predominant performance venues, the other being a 200-seat recital space — is, in many ways, its own work of art. Designed, along with the rest of the building, by Seattle-based LMN Architects, the yawning white expanse looks almost as if it wishes it could contain infinity.
The geometric ceiling pieces and streaks of white against the back wall evoke the sense that if one were to knock the structure down, one would find an eternally expanding white space beyond its walls. It is striking to imagine the scene when a full concert band, dressed in black dresses and black tuxedos, is juxtaposed against the blinding whiteness of the cavernous space.
But no one — neither the public nor the performers — will have to settle for imagining this scene for much longer. Now, after three years of construction, members of the music school are finally able to get settled in their new home, and they are eager to make the space their own.
That all begins with today’s concert.
“The theme of the [program] this year is coming home,” said Mark Heidel, the director of bands. “The first selection, ‘A Glimpse of the Eternal,’ was commissioned specifically for our first concert in the new concert hall.”
“Glimpse” — a three-minute fanfare based on a poem of the same name by Iowa-born poet Ted Kooser — was composed by Aaron Perrine. Having earned a Ph.D. in composition from the UI, Perrine, who is currently a composer in residence at Cornell College, was contacted by Heidel for the composition once the date for the concert was set.
“I wanted to write something that sounded different from a [standard] fanfare,” Perrine said. “[Glimpse] starts with this bubbling texture in the woodwinds, then, it comes in with the brass on top of that with a more typical fanfare sound. The result is this cool mixture of sounds.”
To further enhance this theme of homecoming, various pieces performed throughout the night will feature UI band alumni. Myron Welch, the director of bands from 1980-2008, has been brought back to conduct one of the pieces.
“[Welch] selected Celebration Overture, by [Paul] Creston, as his piece to conduct because it was the first work he performed on his first Symphony Band concert,” Heidel said.
Another piece, Pines of Rome, will feature a brass ensemble composed in part of UI alumni. Symphony Band members Vazquez and Egense noted their favorite aspect of the show has been working on Pines.
“[It] offers a little of everything that’s good,” Vazquez said. “You have this really energetic first movement, a second movement that is really dark and mysterious, then the third is beautiful, and the fourth is this march-fanfare that is really powerful.”
The selection was intended to be performed by a full orchestra, meaning that parts originally written for strings had to be redistributed and made to fit with the instruments available.
“When you hear the beginning, it’s very busy so it’s easy to freak out and be completely overwhelmed,” Egense said. “But it’s not too hard once you put it together. You’re trying to get these colors out of the band that’s not as natural, but it’s really cool when it happens.”
The piece Heidel thinks has proved most challenging to master is a concerto for piano and wind instruments by Igor Stravinsky. The piece is one that he has planned to do for years with Ksenia Nosikova, a UI music professor, and he was especially excited to include in the program when Voxman finally opened.
“Several of the pieces are quite difficult, but the rhythmic demands of the Stravinsky piano concerto are formidable and have posed challenges for all involved,” Heidel said “[It’s] a real tour de force of a composition.”
Talking to everyone, excitement is the most prevalent emotion: excitement about the new building, excitement about performing in a new concert hall, and excitement about challenges the pieces pose.
While Heidel feels all of this, there’s one particular aspect he’s been looking forward to the most.
“I’m especially excited about bringing a new work to life with the première of ‘A Glimpse of the Eternal,’ ” he said. “I’m a big supporter of Aaron Perrine, and I could not be more proud of the musical relationship we’ve developed over the past several years. He has recently earned significant recognition as a composer, and I’m most glad he’s a Hawkeye.”