Fallis and faculty hit on ‘New Orleans’
Mardi Gras isn’t the only piece of Louisiana to hit Logan in the last week.
Monday night’s 13th annual faculty performance, “New Orleans,” brought a little “n’awlins” flavor to the world of classical music.
Todd Fallis, the organizer for the event, has been running faculty recitals every year since 1991, and for a good reason.
“Performing a recital gives me the opportunity to perform literature for the trombone and an opportunity to model performance technique for my 12 trombone students,” Fallis said.
The evening’s players included Fallis on bass trombone, his wife Liz on the flute, Mike Christiansen on guitar, Moragh Morrison on piano, Josh Skinner and Lars Yorganson on bass, Dennis Griffin on drums, newcomer Jon Gudmundson on barisax and Cindy Dewey as a vocal soprano. The performance drew upon each of their talents through its unique music.
“This recital is entitled ‘New Orleans’ as it is centered around the influence of jazz on classical music,” Fallis said.
Most of the pieces had at least a little jazz flavor and three, according to Fallis, were “straight ahead jazz standards,” including “Stardust”, “I’ve Got a Crush on You”, and “Ide’s Side”.
Kaylynn Shakespear, a sophomore majoring in community health, and Kirsten Shakespear, a junior majoring in political science, joined with nearly 100 people in attending Monday night’s performance. Both went on assignment for classes: Creative Arts and Arts Symposium.
Kirsten, though pleased with the performance felt that the title, “New Orleans”, was a kind of misnomer.
“My overall impression was that the title did not fit the music,” Kirsten said. “For most of the music they played, you really had to look to see a jazz influence on it.”
Her sister also enjoyed the concert, but admitted that some parts were better than others.
“The first half of the concert I didn’t enjoy as much,” Kaylynn said. “But during the second half they brought out quartets instead of just doing duets. Also, I didn’t particularly enjoy the trombone-piano duet, but I liked the guitar.”
One of the major concerns of those in attendance was that the concert itself wasn’t very well publicized.
“I was really impressed with the skills of the performers, especially the flute player, but I don’t think I would have known about the concert if it weren’t for my class,” Kirsten added.
Fallis, who’s been playing trombone since the fourth grade, arrived at USU in 1991, at a time when there were only three university trombone teaching positions available nationwide.
“It’s a great gig and I have been here ever since,” Fallis said. “I recently received full professor so I am sure that I am doing something right. I enjoy the dept here at USU and everyone is very supportive and very busy making music and teaching their students.”
Fallis was also pleased with Monday night’s recitals for obvious reasons.
“Music is my life,” Fallis said. “I practice about two hours a day, teach trombone and music classes about 20 hours per week and play as many concerts, both jazz and classical, as I can make time for.”
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu