Let the Madness Begin!

You know the person walking down the isle is headed straight for your section and instant panic sets in. You’re next. Finally all of the months of hard work, practice two to three maybe even four times a week, all for the next two minutes and twenty-one seconds of Donna Summers and Pitbull. The flashlight waves over your group and everyone takes off. Everything that happens next is a blur; a blur of tricky lifts, formation changes, and sparkly jackets.

The 36^th annual Chi Omega’s March Madness dance competition took place on March 24^th at 7:30pm. Every sorority and fraternity participated in March Madness not only to get their chance on stage, but to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation.  The Make A Wish Foundation grants the wished of children who have terminal medical conditions. Some of the wishes include traveling, meeting famous people, or simply helping them do something they would have never had the chance to do on their own. When my cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 12 he had to spend a lot of his time in the hospital and he was slowly falling behind on his schoolwork. The Make A Wish Foundation stepped up and bought him a computer so he could keep up with his homework and continue with his passion of writing stories. The guest of honor for the night was a 16 year old from the Bloomington-Normal area that recently received the wish of a lifetime. She was able to spend a week full of surprise and opportunity at the Winter Olympics. Her whole family stood on stage and thanked Chi Omega and the Make A Wish Foundation for giving them the chance to forget about the illness for a week.

This year Chi Omega picked the theme Opposites Attract, which would guide the sororities and fraternities in their music choice. The evening kicked off with an exhibition act by none other than the women of Chi Omega. There were many other exhibition acts including the Acafellaz and ISU Competitive Dance. Throughout the night six fraternities and nine sororities battled it out onstage for the first place title. After an intense competition the last sorority preformed their dance and everyone held their breath for the results. But before the results were announced we were all reminded that no matter our letters we are all still Greek. The All Greek Dance included a couple members from each house that participated. It was good to be reminded of the common bond between chapters. Finally the results were announced. Taking first place for the fraternities was also the winner of the best representation of the theme; Sigma Phi Epsilon. They danced to a mix of Luke Bryan and Nelly.  Gamma Phi Beta won first place for the sororities with a fantastic dance to the mix of the songs Barbie Girl and Space Jam. The whole night was a huge success and a great reminder of the importance of giving back.

Food, Fun, and Football

I’m sure many of you have scene a football game on TV, but have you actually gone to one? Going to a game is a completely different experience, especially in college. In high school I went to many football games, it was the “hangout place” on Friday nights for many students. I would dress up in my school colors, go to my school, and cheer on the team.  Typically I would get a few snacks in between and socialize with my friends, then go home or just hang out at a friend’s house. However, in college this experience is a lot more then just sitting in the bleachers and watching your school play. The only football game I went to this year was during homecoming, and that is something that I will remember for years to come. Since I’m I freshman I wasn’t sure what to expect during the homecoming football game. I figured everyone would be out and cheering on our team and then everyone would just leave and go back to doing their normal routine. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I found it what exactly homecoming was like. Many students and even parents wake up early Saturday morning and park their cars in all the parking lots around the food ball field, tents are put up, grills and lawn chairs are taken out. People come as early as 6 or 7 in the morning, and the game doesn’t even start till 3p.m. The hours in between are not only spent with friends but also family.  That surprised me because back in high school if parents came it was only to watch their sons playing football. In college parents come just to join the fun and food.  

While I didn’t wake up as early as most I still had plenty of time to enjoy the day. My friends and I picked the closes parking lot and just started walking through the crowd of red, white, and black (ISU colors).  There were cars and people everywhere, while music had filled the air. There were tables of food set up, people playing games of bags and everyone just having a good time. My first experience of homecoming was incredible and I know it won’t be my last.

The Wonderful World Of Water

"World Water Week", presented by Delta Sigma Theta, UNICEF at Illinois State and the H20 relief group. These great groups held a whole week's full of fun activity's around the campus of ISU and made a definite impact on how people think of water usage and the places that need it the most. I attended two of their great events, The water walk on March 24th and the water pong tournament on March 25th, they were both great events. The water walk was a very fun event, we all gathered at Ropp building and as a large group we walked about  two miles to a creek and filled up jugs of water and walked back to the water tower. It showed me that some people have to do this everyday and don't have plastic jugs to use, they use cracked bowls or baskets. It really opened my eyes to how easily we can access our  water and how others aren't so lucky. The other event I attended was Water Pong Tournament which was a blast, you chose a partner and played other teams to get further and further into the tournament. Unfortunately due to my partner lacking a certain finesse for the game, we were knocked out relatively early. The goal of this project was to raise enough money to build a well in a town in Africa, the estimated amount was thirty-five hundred dollars. With that money they would have clean and easily accessible water for the next twenty to twenty five years, in short, it would change their lives. This was a great gathering of mostly ISU students and faculty members and even some members of the community. All in all it was a fun event that if you couldn't make you missed out, but that doesn't mean you cant still help, you can still donate and help change a whole towns standard of living forever, isn't that worth a few dollars or a few hours of your time?

Up Late @ State

Up Late @ State is an activity held at 10 pm until 1 am at the Horton Field House for those who want to have a FREE good time without going out and partying. This event ended up being really boring. The laser tag was pointless. It wasn't dark enough and there was only one type of blow up thing to hide behind. They had a couple of games here and there such as twister and a giant game of operation. They also had a mini basketball hoop set up.  The one thing that everyone wanted to do was make a T-Shirt with a picture on it. The problem with that was that the line was way to long since everyone had wanted to do that. It was not even worth the wait. Throughout the night, they threw out some free t-shirts and mini basketballs which was nice. The food was kind of in a hidden corner so you couldn't even tell what it was. This event could of used a lot more fun activities. Also, they need more activities in general. There was not enough to do. I was bored from start to end. I ended up leaving early, which means I was there for only an hour,  because it ended up to be not what I expected. Hopefully next year things will be different.

ISU Basketball Game

On January 28^th, I attended an Illinois State University basketball game.  ISU versed Southern Illinois University of Carbondale.  The game was played at the Doug Collins Court in Redbird Arena.  We were looking pretty good this year so I was anxious and excited to go see the Redbirds play.  Before the game officially started,  the announcer read off the starters. The game started off really well for the Redbirds.  Jackie Carmichael (Junior) dunked the ball almost anytime he had possession.  He scored the first 7 points for the Redbirds.  Then a three-pointer was made to make the score 10-6 with around 14:00 left til the half.  From then on, the Redbirds continued to score. 

            At halftime, a woman on a unicycle was flipping bowls on her head, which probably sounds weird and strange, but it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.  She ended up flipping 12 bowls on her head.  It took so much concentration on her part, I honestly thought she would mess up, fall off, or drop all the bowls from her head, but she didn’t! I was really impressed and nervous for her the whole time.  I enjoyed the halftime performance.

            After halftime, the game continued.  The redbirds were moving farther ahead Southern.  Both teams continued to score, but at a certain point, the Redbirds kept scoring, but Southern didn’t put up without a fight.  Illinois State ended up winning 60-40.  It was a good game, but Southern could have done a lot better.

Chi Omega March Madness

Saturday night, March 24^th 2012, I attended the Chi Omega March Madness philanthropy event.  As I walked into the Braden Auditorium I was surprised to hear the chanting of the sororities and fraternities that we would soon be watching.  March Madness is hosted by the Chi Omega sorority, and is the philanthropic event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Thousands of friends and families to the sororities and fraternities entered the dark auditorium.  We all waited in anticipation to watch the Greeks perform to the theme of  “Opposites Attract”. This theme was the requirement for the fraternities and sororities to have two opposing music artists to come together. 

In the beginning of the event, the Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator introduced the event and were excited to announce that they had now raised over one hundred thousand dollars to date.  Then there was a short video, which led into the special guest of the evening, Katie.  Katie is a sixteen-year-old happy girl who had endured several surgeries due to a tumor in her brain.  It was great to hear her speak and see how the Make-A-Wish foundation has helped her forget about her illness for a short time. 

There were a total of fifteen different fraternities and sororities that competed in March Madness and also three non-Greek groups that performed in between.  First off was the exhibition performance of Chi Omega, which was a great kick-off to the event.  It was so entertaining to watch my roommate and friends dance on stage and show all their hard work off.   As we all watched both the sororities and fraternities compete with all they had, in the back of everyone’s minds were the awards. Each house danced their hearts out and they all looked awesome.  The last performance of the night was two or three people from each house in an All Greek dance.

Then it was the results.  In the end, the first place winners included Sigma Phi Epsilon for the fraternities, and Gamma Phi Beta for the sororities.  The sorority Phi Sigma Sigma, the winner for the past two years, came in a close second place.  All of the costumes were looked great and you could really tell that the fraternities and sororities worked hard to make this the event of the semester. Everyone had a great time, and I would recommend this event to anyone next year.  The money went to a great cause, the Make-A-Wish foundation and will be used to make a difference in a child’s life.

Open Mic what a Night

At 7 pm on a calm but chilly Thursday winter evening, a group of friends and I attended a soul inspired bombardment of meaningful lyrics and rhymes that explain a happy or hurt man’s heart and mind. As we walked into this soulful event created by Profound Pioneers Entertainment Group, which was located in the circus room at the bone, I saw everyone in their best dressed outfits. Music played from the speakers to set the atmosphere as conversation filled the room. We all waited patiently, eager to hear the poetic words from each artist who was soon to grace the stage. With all of our anxiety building up, the host got on the mic and hyped the already eager crowd even more; he made us laugh with a few jokes and then even threw in a few of his own lines to entice our hunger for lyrics. After his hyping up, he introduced the first act. The crowd gave a respectable applause then silence became of us as we waited to see what the artist had to say. He walked up with a retro styled outfit, fresh from head to toe and a clean snap back to top it off. As he got the mic he asked the crowd how we were doing and there was a minimal response. I could tell that he was pretty nervous and this could possibly be his first time. As he pulled out his iPod which contain all of his lyrics he took in a deep breath, and began to rhyme. The more he flowed the more the crowed felt his lyrics and the more comfortable I could see he became. The crowed snapped him off after he finished and the mc returned to the stage. After that performance everyone seemed ready to hear the next artist. But after the MC introduced the next artist the crowed seemed very displeased. His stage presence was not at all matching with the previous performer nor was his lyrics as substantial. This was not an issue though because afterwards the MC gave us a great laugh to build back the spirit of the crowed and from their on, we were bombarded by soulful lyrical poems that left us thinking after the artist were finish. The MC came out after the last artist was done and we were expecting to hear his conclusion so we could leave but instead he sang a song with his great voice. It left us all speechless. Then he spoke a poem that still leaves me thinking as I write this blog. It was an event that I will not soon forget. 

Stepping into the Marriott for Casino Royal with my friends was like walking into Prom night all over again. Illinois State really seemed to outdo itself; it was unexpectedly fancy, with many students dressed in their best and ready to gamble their free chips away. Walking down the hallway towards the main room, we were immediately greeted with the sight of students in funny hats and costumes, taking advantage of the free professional photos. After taking full advantage of it ourselves, we decided it might be time to see what else this event had to offer. A short walk, check in, and balloon arch later, we were frantically looking for an empty table to put our stuff in our hurry to get to the dance floor. Half of the large ballroom was dedicated to tables, food, and games, while the other half had a DJ, lights, and loud music. We ended up dancing almost the whole time, only stopping every now and then to enjoy the fruity punch or try some of the large assortment of snacks. There were cookies, hot dogs, meatballs, cracker jacks, and soft pretzels; along with different kinds of punch, pop, and even coffee. Servers were waiting in the background to take away empty cups and restock the refreshments. There were also carriage rides out front, which regrettably we didn’t find time for (which is sad, how often do you get the chance to ride in a horse drawn carriage anyway??). I also wish we had spent more time playing some of the many casino games set up near the prizes and drinks. There was blackjack, poker, and a roulette wheel, among other things. After winning chips in a game, you could exchange 10 chips for a raffle ticket to place into one of the many mystery prize bags. One friend won a bag with the title ‘Staying Warm at State’, which had a blanket, t-shirt, water bottle, and the first season of Game of Thrones. All in all, this was an amazing event to go to, and what made it even better was that it was completely free. If there are any future Casino Royal nights on the horizon, I will definitely be going to them!

Doing My Part for the Community

For my community event I decided to do volunteer work.  The title of the volunteer work is called “Recess Buddies”.  This was not my first time doing this type of volunteer work, as I have done this activity almost every Friday of the first semester.  I would have continued to do it on a weekly basis through this second semester but my English 101 class goes right through the middle of it.  But lucky for me I was able to go one Friday due to the fact that our English class became optional for that day.  The job description of this event is to go to an elementary school near campus and play with the kids during their recess.  (This is an athlete only volunteer work event).

            Three other athletes and I walk to the front of the building not knowing what kind of day it would be with the kids.  I have done this many days before but we never have two days that are exactly the same.  As we reach the yard the kids are already at play, spread out across the entire playground, blacktop, and grass field area.  Just looking at the kids reminds me of my days at recess when I was a kid.  It was easily the best part of my day, just watching the clock tick, waiting for recess to begin.

            As us athletes begin to walk around kids begin to come up to us with curiosity.  They begin by asking us question after question about our respective sports.  This is nice and is quite humbling as many of these little kids look up to us athletes.  After the introductions we try to get some sort of game going with the kids, whether its basketball, football, or “chase” the athletes around the playground.  On this gorgeous afternoon we decided to play basketball because we happened to be on the court at the time.  We athletes begin by splitting up the kids into even groups.  As we break our teams huddle with a “team work” the ball is dropped into play.  The game quickly becomes a chase for the ball as the kids run up and down the court.  The kids do not exactly understand the rules of the game.  The only rule they follow is try and get the ball into the basket. So the kids pretty much excluded the traveling rule and dribbling the ball.  But our job as the athletes is to try and evenly spread the ball amongst our team to let everyone get an opportunity.  Throughout the game we stay positive and encourage the kids to keep trying even with failure.  As our game came to an end so did the recess period.  The kids were sent to their line up lines and were brought inside.  Our day was over, and it was time for a nap.

By: Matt Cotiguala

            

This picture is from Recess Buddies but from another day.

Missouri Valley Conference 2012

On March 4^th 2012, I attended was the Missouri Valley Conference basketball game with ISU playing against Wichita State.  The night before the game, I was talking to one of my friends and he asked me if I wanted to go down to St. Louis for the weekend to see the game.  Since he had an extra ticket, I thought it would be a great idea.  Later that morning, we drove down to St. Louis and the tournament was held at the Scottrade Center.  When I got to the center, I was shocked by how huge the building was.  It was like walking into an airport terminal.  Walking to my seats, I knew this was an important game for Illinois State to win.  Winning this game will advance Illinois State to playing other teams for the championship.  Just walking into the stadium you could feel the energy of everyone cheering for his or her team.  This wasn’t just any other basketball game, but this was an important game that everybody goes all out dressing up for each other’s team colors.  When I got there I was all out in red, with a school shirt that I brought that could differentiate me from the opposite team.   Everyone, especially with the group that I was in was screaming the whole game cheering for Illinois State whenever they made a basket. Throughout the whole game, the point deficit was little to none.  If Illinois State made a mistake, then the whole game could be turned around and they would have ended up throwing the game away.  When Illinois State started pulling ahead of Wichita State, I enjoyed the blare of energy that other Illinois State fans contributed to.  I may not be the biggest fan of basketball for our school, but when I was there, I felt like I made a difference in supporting my team.  It was a fun experience, watching players from our basketball team shoot three pointers, dunking, and defending.  Overall, I thought the game was really fun and I enjoyed going out with a bunch of my friends to support our basketball team.  To watch them advance through the bracket was fun and it was disappointing to see them lose in the next round.  If I had another opportunity to see the Missouri State Conference tournament, I would definitely take the opportunity and encourage anyone else who may be considering it to go because it is a fun time and great opportunity to support your school.

March Madness

As I walked into Braden Auditorium I was filled with surprise to see that it was packed to the brim with thousands of people, all crammed together in the dark and very hot area. On Saturday, March 24th, I attended a campus event called March Madness. This is an event hosted by the sorority, Chi Omega, and is a philanthropy event in order to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation. This is a fundraiser in which many of the Greek life participants create and choreograph dances and compete against other sororities and fraternities to win the title. March Madness began with a brief description of why we were all there and where the proceeds were going. A young girl from the Bloomington area arrived on the podium and explained to us her story. This 16-year old girl has suffered multiple surgeries and spent ever year holiday of each year in a hospital trying to recover from an illness that has affected her spinal cord. It was deeply moving and everyone in attendance responded with a well-deserved standing ovation for the young girl. In addition, I inquired, and was happy to find out, that all of the tickets were sold and every seat was occupied. In this dance competition, there was one requirement of each team, and that was to make the music to your dancing follow the theme of "Opposites Attract." Each dance should be composed of two musical artists of different genre. After an excruciatingly intense competition, the winners were crowned. The winning sorority was Gamma Phi Beta, who did the clashing theme of Barbie and Space Jam, and the winning fraternity was Sigma Epsilon, whose theme was composed of Luke Bryan songs, and the artist Nelly. All of the money raised at this philanthropy event was donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation, providing kids with a chance to have small wishes fulfilled that are impacted by serious diseases in their lives. I was happy to be a part of the event with my sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, and am proud to say that I contributed to the Make-A-Wish foundation. I left the event with a new found respect for those people who struggle with disabilities and the realization to never take small things for granted in life. This event was a big eye-opener and a fun experience for family, friends, and supporters of the Make-A-Wish foundation to attend.

March Madness 2012

On March 24th, 2012 at 7:30pm my buddies and I went to support my friend in Chi Omega's 36th Annual March Madness. March Madness is an annual event where all the sororities and fraternities of Illinois State University come together to raise money for the Make-A- Wish Foundation. Every year this event is organized by the Sorority Chi Omega. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit organization that grants wishes to children between the ages of 2 and 18 who have life threatening medical conditions. The program started 36 years ago after a member of the Chi Omega sorority passed away after a long battle with Leukemia.  The previous year the a record $16,262.87 was raised. Since the year 2003 the sorority has raised over $90,000. The event takes place in the Braden Auditorium where each frat and sorority compete in a dance off.  The theme of this year's performances was opposites attract, meaning they had to incorporate two different genres of music into one collaborated dance. For example, the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon (the frat my friend is in), mixed together country and rap. More specifically they used songs from the country artist Luke Bryan and collaborated them with rap songs from Nelly.  There was a combined total of fifteen sororities and fraternities, which each act lasting about two to three minutes. In between performances there were three exhibition acts. One of the acts was performed by the Acafellaz who are ISU's premier A cappella group. The other two acts were performed by the Noir which was directed towards a theme of hip hop dancing, and ISU's Competitive Dance Team who did a combination of different dances. Each team got their own choice of costume, most of which were homemade. The guys costumes were basically just t-shirts or some just wore their suits. The women's costumes were all glittered up.  The entire show ran from about 7:30pm to 10:30pm. The last performance of the night was a group dance with two members from each sorority and frat.  After that the judges announced the winner. The sorority and frats were each judged separately. The winner for the fraternities was Sigma Phi Epsilon and the winner for the sorority was Gamma Phi Beta.  Sigma Phi Epsilon also was voted number one for the best use of theme by their selection of mixing country with rap. My favorite performance was Sigma Phi Epsilon. It was really cool to see my friend win something that him and his fraternity brothers practiced so hard for.  All the groups did an amazing job and you could tell that a lot of time and effort that went into this event. The money went to a good cause and benefited a lot of people in need.  I would highly recommend going to this event next year. You are guaranteed to have a great time. 

Icebox Athlete: Increasing Athletes Mental Toughness

Spencer Wood

 “AWESOME, an 8 pm meeting this Wednesday, my off day”, that was my reaction to the news I had to attend an all student athlete seminar. On Wednesday, February 15th, I attended a mental toughness training session titled, “Icebox Athlete”. The seminar was located at Redbird Arena, and had roughly 400 student athletes. This presentation was on mental toughness, it’s aim was to teach athletes skills on how to increase their mental toughness in all aspects of performance. The skills and techniques we were taught prove to be helpful in the mind of a student athlete .The speaker, who also happens to be the president of the organization, was Spencer Wood. Wood is an internationally renowned speaker and dynamic trainer of athletes and coaches in the areas of cutting-edge Mental Skills & Toughness. Wood’s credibility and experience in the field of sports psychology made this seminar one of the professional levels. 

This seminar served as an overview of Spencer Wood's mental toughness program. In actuality, the Icebox program is a 26 day plan, but this workshop was only 2 hours. Spencer gave us a motivational speech that demonstrated the importance and helpfulness of mental toughness in the sporting world. The main advice given to us was how to handle your focus level in the toughest of situations, for instance, when the game is on the line. In order to demonstrate this, Spencer decided to conduct an activity.

Playing a college sport in front of a large audience can invoke a sense of stage fright, which affects your ability to perform. With students, parents, alumni, coaches and faculty members all watching, the feeling of failure in competition becomes worse in your mind. When the game is on the line, this problem worsens.

Midway through the seminar, Spencer randomly called a female athlete down to the stage, and told her she could not leave the stage until she recited the entire national anthem in front of the 400 people in attendance.  Spencer began to count down from 15. As any human would, this young lady got incredibly nervous. Sitting in the audience, everyone looked around in feeling of her embarrassment. Once the countdown had ended, the speaker informed the audience that this young lady did not have to sing the national anthem. The purpose behind this brief activity was to simulate the anxiety level involved in collegiate sports, and it clearly served its purpose.

At the completion of this seminar, my views on mental toughness in the sporting world had changed. This is something I benefited from, because I now recognize ways on how to increase my focus level in competition.

Chamber Winds Recital

On March 5th, 2012 at 8:00 PM, the first Chamber Winds Recital of the spring semester was held at Kemp Recital Hall.  The admission was free and the seats were roughly one-third full.  I particularly enjoyed it because it showcased many genres, styles, and instrumentations.  Also, musicians from freshmen to graduate students performed, including myself.  I performed the 1st movement of the Wilhelm Ramsoe Brass Quartet No. 4 towards the end of the recital.  However, I was able to be in the audience for most of the performances.  Generally, most of the groups that were involved in Chamber Winds last semester stuck with it this semester.  It was really cool to see how everybody has improved over the course of just a few months.  I was especially impressed with the very last performance of the night; The Wind Symphony Saxophone Quartet.  Hands down, they demonstrated the most improvement and the highest caliber of musicianship.  The piece they performed was modern, but it wasn't atonal by any means.  It was filled with complex rhythm and compound meters-- most of which was very fast.  I thought it was exciting and was executed very well.  Differentiating between this style and the styles of other groups is actually pretty easy.  This was modern and extremely intense music whereas the piece that my brass quartet performed was from the Romantic Era.  It was less 'in your face' (which isn't necessarily a good or bad thing.)  In my opinion, the part writing was more conventional than the saxophone piece.  The chord progressions and non-chord tones used were more common, but it didn't take away from the quality of the piece.  It had a fairly obvious resemblance of a Beethoven string quartet though.  This made the piece very challenging since this style is so uncommon for brass ensembles.  Anyway, it was a great experience to perform since brass players seldom get opportunities to play in this style.  If you enjoy instrumental music, I think this would be a wise event to attend.  The audience is not expected to stay for the entire duration because the recital lasts longer than two hours.  In general, it is a casual setting, there's no need to dress up, and everybody is welcome.  The second recital will take place on Monday, the 23rd of April.  I suggest stopping by for at least a portion of the event.  You could use it as a fine opportunity to take a break from homework and such to simply relax and enjoy the music.

A Night at the New Music Festival

A recital hall on a Thursday night crammed to a point of absurdity. Kirby, Shawn, and I were forced to hug the wall to make our way down the stairs to the section with the few remaining seats in Kemp Recital Hall for the fourth installment of the Red Note New Music Festival on March 22nd. Kirby was here to visit and listen to a concert that was a bit out of his comfort zone. A professor comes up to introduce the festival and it’s goal to incorporate words and music. This was the theme. Shawn and I were here to hear our theory professor’s piece. Promptly, this is how the concert greeted us. Professor Magnuson’s piece brought a string quartet and two poets onto the stage. The words were the poets, the instrumentation was Magnuson’s, but the piece was everyone else’s enjoyment. It was the best example of text and music flowing into each other and in turn, extracting perfect explication. Shawn and I were very pleased by the piece. Even with our already high expectations it had set the standard for the night. The stage shifted from piece to piece. Tuyen Tonnu’s piano brought chill to Eric Roe’s “Frozen Rain, Summer Dreams,” Daniel Schuetz’s countertenor voice provoked protective thoughts from Timo Andres’ “Family Plays” and then we were faced with a more literal staging change. The lights went dark and two stage hands brought out a podium, and an American flag, but had seemingly forgot to bring out an explanation. This, without fail, caused confusion in the audience. We awaited what would happen sitting in the hall’s self inflicted darkness. Suddenly a man came out from the backstage to the whimpering pool of light that had appeared to surround the podium he was approaching. He began. As if a ritual was occurring the seemingly angered performer started to deliver a speech against music and a vile array of sound wafted over the audience from the speakers on either side. It was stressful, but attractive in the sense that it brought attention to an otherwise useless ignorance. Afterwards the man bowed and the lights went up. I quickly looked into the program notes to discover the text was from a Senator’s actual speech delivered in 1949. The words were harsh and threatened the music that I enjoyed so much. This idea carried with me for the last half of the concert. We sat and viewed Martha Horst’s “Shades of Silence” and almost in response, the women’s choir brought out the shades of Elizabeth Alexander’s “A Palette to Paint Us As We Are.” For the final performance Shawn and I sat with our eyes closed and let Timothy Kramer’s “Lux Aeterna” drape over us. It was never said aloud, but in that moment, Shawn and I knew how happy and fortunate we were to be where we were.

There are no words...

There are no words:

On March 19^th to the 23^rd in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University hosted the RED NOTE New Music Festival: Music & Words, Directed by Carl Schimmel Featuring performances by the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. This 4 day festival featured many different pieces either inspired by words or music that incorporated words in certain ways, but not in a normal lyrical way. This extravaganza of music included many different styles of music all the way from classical to experimental music. Many, but not all of these pieces were composed by many Illinois State Universities School of music faculty members including: Carl Schimmel, Martha Horst, Roy Magnuson, and Alexander Miller. I attended the concert on Monday March 19^th and Thursday March 24^th. This Festival is also a composition competition for High School Students. The winner this year with a nice folky composition by Bass Trombonist David Gerber from Peoria, IL entitled Concerto for Bass Trombone and Piano.

 The most interesting piece of March 19^th in my opinion was entitled “trust me.” This piece featured Karl Larson on piano and James Fusik on alto saxophone. Both musicians were incredibly talented, and this piece, a torrent of difficult rhythms, pitches, and uncharacteristic noises stood no chance against these capable performers. This song was incredible. The alto saxophone was asked to jump leap and skip through confusing yet entertaining patterns while the piano played back and forth with the saxophone and then expanded even further. The collaborative effort of these two performers was an amazing start to the festival and left the audience yearning for more.

My piece on March 23^rd was composed by my very own music theory teacher Dr. Roy D. Magnuson. The piece was entitled “…if we can still dance.” This piece was based off of a poem written by Shanny Magnuson, his wife, and their mutual friend Robbie Q. Teller. This collaborative effort was inspired with all of the hard experiences they all have had with the tragic consequences with Alzheimer’s Disease. To create this poem, they described what they intended to do was to create a poem that “forgets itself.” They asked many people with alzheimer’s disease what the most beautiful they have ever seen was, and used these answers to create their stirring poem. Already powerful, the mystical flowing dance music performed by the Quasari Quartet from the University of Illinois underneath these words and memories formed a surreal and ironically unforgettable product of music and words.

The Music & Words RED NOTE New Music Festival left me feeling a sense of sophistication that could only come from having your intellectual and musical horizons broadened to an extravagant point. They left me speechless.