Meulink Featured At Next Symphony Concert
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
At the Symphony’s last concert of the 2014-15 season April 18, Meulink will be featured on the marimba during the first movement of “Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra” by Paul Creston.
The theme of the concert is “The Master and his Pupil.”
The concert will start at 8 p.m. April 18 at Rodeheaver Auditorium, Winona Lake. Adult tickets are $15, students ages 13 to college are $10, and children 12 and under are $1.
“We had an event back in February that Ben competed in, which was our Young Artist’s Competition. And part of that is just our dedication to education, where we had nine high school players come in and competed against each other to get a chance to perform their work with the Symphony,” said Tom Stirling, music director and conductor of Symphony of the Lakes. “We want to highlight the fact that music education is really important.”
The pieces of music chosen for the concert – by composers Ludwig Van Beethoven and Franz Joseph Haydn – tie in to the theme of the concert.
Stirling said, “Beethoven was a student of Haydn, so we’re trying to bring everything together as far as the importance of how music teachers affect their students, and then with the event we had, the Young Artist’s Competition.”
Besides “Concertino,” the other pieces to be performed will include “Egmont Overture” by Beethoven, “Symphony No. 45, ‘Farewell’” by Haydn and “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor” by Beethoven.
The nine students who competed in the Young Artist’s Competition came from different high schools, Stirling said. “They all played something different. It was kind of left up to them in the sense of what they wanted to play. They just had to make sure it was a piece with orchestral accompaniment because the winner then would play with the Symphony on this April concert.”
Meulink said he performed Creston’s “Concertino” on the marimba for the competition.
“He’s written music for a lot of different instruments, but this is the one he wrote for marimba. There’s not a lot of marimba music out there especially for the orchestra, but this is a solid piece and I played the first movement from it,” Meulink explained.
“One of the things that I found that was really great about the competition was that we had such a wide variety of participation, like Ben Meulink,” Stirling said. “You don’t really always associate marimba, a solo instrument, with the orchestra, but there’s a lot of variety like that so that was partially what was unique about it.”
Stirling said Creston is a 20th century composer so the piece is very different in the sense that it’s not a typical classical music sound. “It’s very modern in the sense of how it’s written. Very, very difficult. Not your typical melodic passages in the sense of like what you might hear in a movie theme or any of the classical literature. It’s a very, very difficult piece and Ben basically played the whole thing flawlessly. I have to commend him for his work that he did on this to be prepared enough. He did it from memory, which was also something that stood out in his performance,” he said.
“Whoever comes to this concert will get a real treat to hear Ben play this because it’s extremely difficult. A lot of professional percussionists perform this piece, so to have someone like Ben with his ability to play that is going to be really exciting,” Stirling continued.
“I was definitely nervous, but I had played the piece before for (Indiana State School Music Association),” said Meulink of his competition performance. ISSMA has solo and ensemble competitions, and Meulink played “Concertino” at district and state competitions where he won Gold. “So I was fairly confident that I would be able to do it, but obviously everyone gets jitters before a performance. So I just had to control those and perform the piece as best as I could.”
To get ready for the April 18 concert, Meulink said he’s been rehearsing the piece by himself. “The most interesting and new thing I’ll have to work around is playing it with an actual orchestra instead of a pianist. That’s obviously a lot of people to be working with, and obviously we’ll have to pay attention to each other especially. It’ll be a fresh experience for me and in turn hopefully that will turn into a better experience for the audience,” he said.
Meulink has invited people to the concert, and many from his church have congratulated him on winning and said they will be at the concert.
“Especially in Warsaw, it seems like such a small town, a lot of people know about it,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do is build something here at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts that really focuses on education. And this is one of the many things that we have planned. We hope many people will come that evening not just to support Ben but to support the symphony and the many things we want to do,” Stirling said.
People will have the opportunity to make donations to the symphony at the concert, Stirling indicated. All the money will go back toward programs like the Young Artist’s Competition.
“Something to go along with that is we have a new sponsor for our concert, which is the Kosciusko County Community Foundation,” Stirling said. “So with their generous support, we can put on this concert.”
He said they’re also working with some local dining establishments to offer some discounts to dinner or lunch that day so people can make an evening or day of it. Those details will be released soon, he said.
“We just want people to come out, have a wonderful time. The concert will run about 80 minutes with about a 15-minute intermission, so it won’t be too late of a night for families,” Stirling said.
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts box office at 574-267-8041 or by visiting wagonwheeltheatre.org
For a video of the entire interview with Stirling and Meulink, visit the free video section of the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com[[In-content Ad]]
At the Symphony’s last concert of the 2014-15 season April 18, Meulink will be featured on the marimba during the first movement of “Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra” by Paul Creston.
The theme of the concert is “The Master and his Pupil.”
The concert will start at 8 p.m. April 18 at Rodeheaver Auditorium, Winona Lake. Adult tickets are $15, students ages 13 to college are $10, and children 12 and under are $1.
“We had an event back in February that Ben competed in, which was our Young Artist’s Competition. And part of that is just our dedication to education, where we had nine high school players come in and competed against each other to get a chance to perform their work with the Symphony,” said Tom Stirling, music director and conductor of Symphony of the Lakes. “We want to highlight the fact that music education is really important.”
The pieces of music chosen for the concert – by composers Ludwig Van Beethoven and Franz Joseph Haydn – tie in to the theme of the concert.
Stirling said, “Beethoven was a student of Haydn, so we’re trying to bring everything together as far as the importance of how music teachers affect their students, and then with the event we had, the Young Artist’s Competition.”
Besides “Concertino,” the other pieces to be performed will include “Egmont Overture” by Beethoven, “Symphony No. 45, ‘Farewell’” by Haydn and “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor” by Beethoven.
The nine students who competed in the Young Artist’s Competition came from different high schools, Stirling said. “They all played something different. It was kind of left up to them in the sense of what they wanted to play. They just had to make sure it was a piece with orchestral accompaniment because the winner then would play with the Symphony on this April concert.”
Meulink said he performed Creston’s “Concertino” on the marimba for the competition.
“He’s written music for a lot of different instruments, but this is the one he wrote for marimba. There’s not a lot of marimba music out there especially for the orchestra, but this is a solid piece and I played the first movement from it,” Meulink explained.
“One of the things that I found that was really great about the competition was that we had such a wide variety of participation, like Ben Meulink,” Stirling said. “You don’t really always associate marimba, a solo instrument, with the orchestra, but there’s a lot of variety like that so that was partially what was unique about it.”
Stirling said Creston is a 20th century composer so the piece is very different in the sense that it’s not a typical classical music sound. “It’s very modern in the sense of how it’s written. Very, very difficult. Not your typical melodic passages in the sense of like what you might hear in a movie theme or any of the classical literature. It’s a very, very difficult piece and Ben basically played the whole thing flawlessly. I have to commend him for his work that he did on this to be prepared enough. He did it from memory, which was also something that stood out in his performance,” he said.
“Whoever comes to this concert will get a real treat to hear Ben play this because it’s extremely difficult. A lot of professional percussionists perform this piece, so to have someone like Ben with his ability to play that is going to be really exciting,” Stirling continued.
“I was definitely nervous, but I had played the piece before for (Indiana State School Music Association),” said Meulink of his competition performance. ISSMA has solo and ensemble competitions, and Meulink played “Concertino” at district and state competitions where he won Gold. “So I was fairly confident that I would be able to do it, but obviously everyone gets jitters before a performance. So I just had to control those and perform the piece as best as I could.”
To get ready for the April 18 concert, Meulink said he’s been rehearsing the piece by himself. “The most interesting and new thing I’ll have to work around is playing it with an actual orchestra instead of a pianist. That’s obviously a lot of people to be working with, and obviously we’ll have to pay attention to each other especially. It’ll be a fresh experience for me and in turn hopefully that will turn into a better experience for the audience,” he said.
Meulink has invited people to the concert, and many from his church have congratulated him on winning and said they will be at the concert.
“Especially in Warsaw, it seems like such a small town, a lot of people know about it,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do is build something here at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts that really focuses on education. And this is one of the many things that we have planned. We hope many people will come that evening not just to support Ben but to support the symphony and the many things we want to do,” Stirling said.
People will have the opportunity to make donations to the symphony at the concert, Stirling indicated. All the money will go back toward programs like the Young Artist’s Competition.
“Something to go along with that is we have a new sponsor for our concert, which is the Kosciusko County Community Foundation,” Stirling said. “So with their generous support, we can put on this concert.”
He said they’re also working with some local dining establishments to offer some discounts to dinner or lunch that day so people can make an evening or day of it. Those details will be released soon, he said.
“We just want people to come out, have a wonderful time. The concert will run about 80 minutes with about a 15-minute intermission, so it won’t be too late of a night for families,” Stirling said.
Tickets can be purchased by calling the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts box office at 574-267-8041 or by visiting wagonwheeltheatre.org
For a video of the entire interview with Stirling and Meulink, visit the free video section of the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com[[In-content Ad]]
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