New and Different Sounds: Milwaukee Premiere of Stacy Garrop’s ‘Alpenglow’

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Image: UWM Peck School of the Arts

UWM Alpenglow concert

The saxophone is a relatively new orchestral instrument having been invented in 1840 by the Belgium instrument maker Adolphe Sax. In the 19th century it was mostly used in bands. Its use in jazz bands in the early 20th century and then in smaller groups increased its popularity. Slowly classical music compositions were written for orchestras and chamber groups.

Classical composers now included saxophones when writing operas, symphonies, concertos and chamber works. However, when one thinks of quartets or quintets, people usually think of strings or woodwinds. That is slowly changing. The tonal combinations of brass instruments produce a brilliant sound that penetrates to one’s core. New music is being written for the saxophone including sonatas, quartets and duets as in the program at UW-Milwaukee on April 1.

The double concerto, Alpenglow, is by Stacy Garrop, a freelance Chicago composer. This is what she had to say about alpenglow—which she saw for the first time more than 30 years ago at a music camp in the Rocky Mountains.   

An alpenglow is an optical phenomenon that is visible on high altitude mountains. It happens twice daily, right before the sun rises and right after it sets. The earth’s atmosphere scatters the sun’s light, allowing particular wavelengths of light through and blanketing the mountains in rich hues of peach, pink, red, and purple.

Nicki Roman and Andy Smith are the featured soloists in this Milwaukee premiere with the UWM Wind Ensemble conducted by John Climer.

Roman is an assistant professor at UWM and recent first prize winner of the North American Saxophone Alliance Solo Competition. She received her DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts Degree) from the Eastman School of Music and their prestigious Eastman’s Performers Certificate.

Smith is an adjunct professor of music at UWM. He won his position with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2012 and has performed with symphonies throughout the Midwest including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

I talked with Roman about saxophones and how she got started and learned that playing sax was something her grandmother always wanted to do so we know whom to thank. She explained that while the fingering on the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone horns is essentially the same, it takes years of experience to switch from one to the other and of course there are nuances. She chose to specialize on the soprano in graduate school.

She explained that many colleges limit their music curriculum to strictly orchestral music and instruments and others that do offer saxophone programs may make a clear distinction between classical and jazz. At UWM both genres are available within the same studio. I also learned that the jazz saxophone players tend to use a different mouthpiece, even a different neck. Roman studied jazz sax with Bunky Green at the University of North Florida.

There aren’t many pieces written for sax and tuba and UWM is part of a larger consortium of soloists and ensembles that will premiere works of this sort over the next several months.

In the second half of the program, Scott Corley will conduct the UWM Symphony Band in a performance of Immersion by composer Alex Shapiro. It’s an impressionistic representation of three seascapes inspired by the Pacific Northwest.

If you love the sea and nature and have more than a moment, I recommend visiting Shapiro’s web site: alexshapiro.org. Writing about herself, she says that

(she) aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few will actually sound good next to each other.

They do, but you’ll have to hear for yourself.

The concert takes place in the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts Helen Bader Concert Hall, 2419 E. Kenwood Boulevard, 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 1, 2022.

For more information, visit uwm.edu/arts/event/wind-ensemble-symphony-band-concert-2.