Ocotillo Winds performs fast-paced recital at ASU

WHAT: Faculty Artist Recital featuring Ocotillo Winds

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., April 22

WHERE: Organ Hall, Music Building, 40 E. Gammage Parkway, Tempe

TICKETS: Free admission, no tickets required; doors open at 7 p.m.

INFORMATION: 480-965-TUNE (8863)

The woodwind ensemble, Ocotillo Winds, performs a fast-paced, one-hour concert as part of the Faculty Artist Recital series in the Herberger College School of Music at ASU. The recital is Monday (April 22) at 7:30 p.m. in the Organ Hall of the Music Building on the Main ASU campus at 40 East Gammage Parkway in Tempe.

Ocotillo Winds - a trio of Martin Schuring, oboe, Robert Spring, clarinet and Jeffrey Lyman, bassoon - has been touring and performing for the past three years. The trio has appeared in concert throughout the U.S., and also been featured as clinicians in universities and at music educator's conferences. The music to be performed in this recital consists of pieces performed on a tour taken last fall throughout the Midwest.

A highlight will be the trio's performance of Prelude to an Elaboration by J.B. Smith, a member of the School of Music faculty. "The piece was written for the group, and is a five-minute tour de force of technical demands for the performers," says Spring. "J.B., who has written a great deal of music in the electronic medium, demands almost constant playing for this period of time."

Another program selection is Rustiques pour trio d'anches by Joseph Canteloube. "Canteloube, known primarily for his vocal music, brings this lyricism into this work," explains Spring. "Aside from its technical and musical demands, each performer has an extended melodic solo, exploiting the lyrical qualities of each instrument."

The group also will perform Habanera by Paquito D'Rivera, a Cuban immigrant, whose clarinet performing and recording garnered him a Grammy Award. "His jazz playing and Latin style of performing is taken over into this small gem," says Spring. Another selection is Trio Sonata by John 
Harbison, " a short, water color of music. "Each movement brings out a different color or set of sounds. In total it is about five minutes long!" notes Spring.

The final piece is "Sonatina by Michal Spisak. "This piece is a technical masterwork for the trio," says Spring. "We all expected to play near impossible sections, which fit together like a fine puzzle."

Ocotillo Winds Biographies
Martin Schuring, assistant professor of oboe, has held orchestral positions with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. Since 1980, Schuring has been a regular participant at the Grand Teton Music Festival, playing English horn and oboe in the Festival Orchestra as well as making frequent appearances on the Festival's chamber music series. In other summer activities, he has participated in the Bach Aria Festival, served as professor of oboe at the Londrina Music Festival in Brazil, and performed as principal oboe of the Orchestre Philharmonique Rhodanien and professor of oboe at the Academie Europeénne de Musique in Tournon-sur-Rhône, France. Schuring has recorded for Philips, Koch International, MMC, and Summit Records, both as soloist and as an orchestral player, including the world premiere recording of Oboe Concerto, Op. 57 by Eric Funk with the Prague Radio Symphony on the MMC label.

Robert Spring, professor of clarinet, has been described as "one of this country's most sensitive and talented clarinetists", Arizona Republic, "dazzled his audience...flawless technique," The Clarinet Magazine, and "a formidable soloist...played with great emotional life," Politiken, Copenhagen. Spring's recording of Grawemeier Award winning composer Joan Tower's works for clarinet was described by The Clarinet Magazine as "truly outstanding...one would be hard pressed to find better performances of contemporary music...first rate music performed with the highest professional standards." The Instrumentalist Magazine says of his recording, Dragon's Tongue, a CD of virtuoso music for clarinet and wind band, "His musicality and technique make this recording a must for every CD collection." Fanfare Magazine says of a new CD, Tarantelle, music that the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz recorded on violin, being performed on clarinet, "This recording was meant to amaze and, man, it succeeds." Spring has performed as a recitalist or soloist with symphony orchestras and wind bands in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America, and has been heard in the United States on National Public Radio's, Performance Today. He frequently serves as clinician and adjudicator and teaches on the faculties of several summer music festivals. Spring is also principal clarinet of the ProMusic Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio.

Jeffrey Lyman, associate professor of bassoon, is known throughout the double reed world for his unique programming and dynamic recitals. As a soloist and orchestral player he has appeared often on the international festival circuit, most notably at the Moscow Autumn Festival, Le Festival d'Ainay-le-Vieil (Berry, France), the Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto, Italy), the Academie Européene d'Été de Musique (Tournon-sur-Rhone, France), the Colorado Music Festival, Vermont Mozart Festival and the Saint Bart's Music Festival. He has held positions with orchestras across the U.S., including those of Savannah, Grand Rapids, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Michigan Opera Theater. Lyman is well known as an advocate of both new and early music, and has many publications and commissions to his credit. These include a chamber concerto by the Russian Yuri Kasparov, a setting of the cowboy tune Goodbye, Old Paint by John Steinmetz and a work for bassoon, chamber ensemble and electronics based upon Yaqui Indian music by David Gompper. Lyman appears on Summit, Le Chant du Monde, New World, Brasswell and Koch International recordings.

Media Contact:
Mary Brennan
480-965-3587
mary.brennan@asu.edu