Utah and the Southwest

James, Chelsea, Bob and Lisa enjoying the Downtown Farmer’s Market

Having been away for seven of the last eleven months, it felt good to be home in Salt Lake City. Our home had been well cared for by Colleen and Tucker Weathers, the recent newlyweds. We enjoyed seeing our daughter, Chelsea, and her husband James. Chelsea spent time interviewing for a job with the Salt Lake Women’s Clinic and a possible job as an Ob/Gyn. We enjoyed time at the Farmer’s Market and at home. We’ll be crossing our fingers, hoping she’ll return to Utah following her residency in Columbus, Ohio.

Being on sabbatical means you can go hear a concert versus performing in one. We took advantage of that opportunity by going to hear the Utah Symphony with Kristin Chenoweth up at Deer Valley. Our seats were high up the hill, but Ms. Chenoweth was in excellent form. Her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was really beautiful and the duet from “Wicked” that she sang with a surprisingly talented audience member was especially memorable. 4,999 other people seemed to agree. Colleen and Tucker shared the blanket and experience with us. It’s fun having a picnic under the stars!

Kristin Chenoweth concert at Deer Valley

We also made it up to Deer Valley to hear the orchestra again, this time with Diana Krall. She and her five-member band were terrific! I loved her version of “Do It Again” and “Let’s Fall in Love”. My violin-playing colleague for the past 35 years, Tom Baron, was playing his final concert with the orchestra. His wife, Carolee, and a visiting Ron Holdman (former timpanist with the Utah Symphony) joined us on the hillside. Diana Krall’s program had both variety and emotion. I also noticed some beautiful oboe playing from Lissa Stolz.

When you are away from home for long periods, the changes you see can be dramatic. New apartments are popping up in several locations, and the Sugarhouse area is now home to many new restaurants and a fancy new movie theater. We went to see “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” in the newly remodeled movie theater. The seats were luxurious and the movie was a lot of fun. One of the scenes involved the Vienna State Opera House where we had seen Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” just three month ago. Tom Cruise helped save the day from an assassin who used a rifle disguised as a bass flute. The security guard should have known what Lisa stated to me, “There’s no bass flute in Turandot!”

Bob in his studio

Between visits to three major oboe dealers in Los Angeles, Paris and London, I felt motivated to buy a new oboe. Last week, that’s what I did! The same shop in Los Angeles that supplied me with my first instrument 50 years ago, did so again. With a couple of weeks to go before the new orchestra season begins, I’m breaking it in slowly, testing notes with a tuner, making new reeds and running the humidifier. I played the instrument at home, with Lisa, at the University of Utah and on stage at Abravanel Hall. The real test will be when I’m “tooting my own horn” while surrounded by 85 other musicians. That’ll be fun!

Beautiful Moab

Lisa and I make a yearly trip to Grand Junction, Colorado to have her flutes worked on by an excellent repair person, Sherry Lee. This particular trip included travelling along the scenic byway near Moab and seeing the “Needles Overlook”. It reinforced the idea that Utah is a beautiful state. We enjoyed a nice stay at the Doubletree Hotel and found a delicious Japanese restaurant, Suehiro, on Main Street in Grand Junction.

We continued the drive south to Prescott, Arizona to see my mother. A couple of miles before my mom’s home on Ruth Street we could hear the intermittent roar of cicadas. This chubby insect with translucent wings spends most of its life underground. I’m talking up to 17 years! Their mating call from the surrounding treetops appears carefully orchestrated. One morning I awoke before 7:00am. It was quiet, but already warming up. At exactly 7:03am the first roar of cicadas began. The giant collective crescendo is enough to cause you to cover your ears. A few stragglers hang on at the end of the rising and falling love call before it all begins again. This goes on all day!

Mary Stephenson, Bob and Lisa in Prescott, AZ

Chris Tarvin, one of my mother’s dearest friends, joined us in the garden for an evening performance of a duet I wrote for ceramic flute and oboe. The working title is “The Call of the Winds”. The outdoor setting is fitting, even with a few hundred cicadas in heat. The ceramic flute was made in Salt Lake City by Leslie Randolph and has a gorgeous sound. It probably helps that Lisa knows how to handle all its earthy eccentricities. We all enjoyed a “friendly” game of pool and catching up on each other’s lives.

Bob, Chris and a Cicada

For an 87-year old woman, my mom is doing pretty well. Her mental faculties are good and all her gardening keeps her especially active. She’s lost a lot of her peripheral vision, which means she has to watch her step, and her hearing may have gone down hill. The following is an exchange she had with Lisa:

Lisa: “So, have you had a lot of cicadas this year?”
Mom: “Oh yes. They’ve done really well.”
Lisa: “More than usual?”
Mom: “Yes. And we’ve enjoyed eating them.”
*silence
Lisa: “Are we talking about the same thing?”
Mom: “I thought you were asking about my potatoes.”
Lisa: “Oh, no. I was asking about the cicadas!”

We took about 12 hours to get back to Salt Lake City. Smoke from wildfires in the western states kept us company for the entire trip. We got back in time for Lisa to hear flute auditions at the University of Utah. It was a long day.

Vladimir, Maja Bogdanovic, Lisa and Bob enjoying coffee at Cafe D’Bolla

On his last day in Salt Lake City we met up with Vladimir Kulenovic and Maja Bogdanovic at Caffe d’Bolla. After conducting hundreds of concerts over a four-year period with the Utah Symphony, “Vlada” is off to Chicago and his Music Director post with the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra. For the 1200-mile trip he had a very big U-haul truck and a car filled to the top! I noticed a large collection of tuxedoes and tails hanging by the front passenger seat. Maja popped out of the trunk when we met them in the parking lot on 400 South. Lisa enjoyed a very expensive cup of coffee. I had tea. We wished them safe travels.

Flute choir performing for April Clayton and Chase Kimball’s wedding

We went to the wedding reception for BYU flute teacher, April Clayton, and her husband, Chase Kimball. Lisa played in a 16-piece flute choir and we met up with old friends, Erich Graf and Ricklen Nobis, two outstanding musicians. Erich played principal flute with the Utah Symphony for more than 30 years and Rick wrote an oboe d’amore concerto for me along with teaching two of my kids the piano. They both looked good. We’ll look to find Erich’s new book chronicling his life in music. April was a happy and beautiful bride.

Lisa with student Jacqueline Noel

We had a nice visit with Jackie Noel, former student of Lisa’s and mine. Unfortunately, for the oboe world, Jackie stuck with the flute and is now attending music school at McGill University in Montreal. After lunch, Jackie played for Lisa, revealing improvements in many areas. It’s nice when your students are successful.

The smoke outside may be lessening. Inside, I can hear the sounds of Lisa practicing. We’re still on a musical journey, and it’s time to continue breaking in a new oboe.

– Robert Stephenson and Lisa Byrnes

The Final Two Weeks in Sewanee, Tennessee

Wildlife in Sewanee

The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee has southern roots going back to the 1860s. There’s a slow pace and gentle rhythm to everyday life on this hilltop town. The grave sites of Confederate soldiers can be spotted in the cemetery I walk by on a daily basis. The slow and light traffic on campus allows for the sounds of nature to come through. Songbirds in the morning, musicians during the day and cicadas and croaking frogs at night give this small community their signature sound. There’s a wind that hits the leaves of the tallest trees that makes it sound like rain, even when the skies are clear. Carilloners perform recitals several times during the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and at the beginning of the month, an all-girl bluegrass band took time out to entertain those dining in the 1,000-seat cafeteria. When I asked the Pierce brothers, Jim and Joe, two avid bird watchers if they could tell they were in Sewanee by just listening, they both replied “Yes”.

Besides the active birds in Sewanee, the campus mascot, who I call “Shaggs”, roams the area around the Stirling’s restaurant. Shaggs has a heavy coat that is usually wet from his walks in a nearby stream. His gray whiskers and happy spirit blend in with the timeless atmosphere. Pepe and Paco LePugh, two neighborhood skunks, patrol the bridge my students must cross on way to their lessons and studio class. Fortunately, I don’t hear about any students needing a tomato juice bath! Squirrels play “tag” between the giant trees and deer and bunny rabbits are a common sight. Fat bugs and a variety of colorful butterflies add to the Sewanee experience.

Sewanee, Tennessee has an unusual distinction. It is the only town in North America that is classified as a rain forest! Eight days with rain helped it live up to it’s reputation, and when it comes down it can be drenching. Timing your trips between buildings can be important. The weather app saved me several times!

The weather was good enough for the students to perform an outdoor concert at the Sewanee Inn and Country Club. My students, Katrina Kwantes and Jenna Sehmann, played beautifully in the Haydn Symphony No. 100. Haydn’s “Military” symphony takes on a special quality when the snare drum and tympani aren’t confined to the walls of a concert hall.

Bob Stephenson performing Telemann Taffelmusik

My own performances include the music of Georg Philipp Telemann, the Hindemith Woodwind Quintet and the Ludwig Thuille Sextet. The stage is hot, but the collaboration with my gifted colleagues is always fun. Someday we can look forward to the air-conditioner being fixed.

The studio class and summer experiment proves to be a big success. My twelve students are introduced to 21 points of musical expression and in front of several other faculty members they all perform in a convincing style. The woodwind faculty begins discussing an expanded version that we can use next summer. In a year my hope is that all the young musicians who play flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon will have ideas about phrasing that will highlight their musicianship. I keep telling them “It has to be about more than just getting the notes!”

The oboes all went out for Mexican food at Mi Casa. The chips and salsa are worth the trip. Many of them have trouble “leaving work at the office”. There was plenty of talk about the oboe.

The class recital was another highpoint. Their performances contained some special moments. SSMF alumni, Wilson Harmon, returned to offer his keyboard skills. For two of the young oboists it was the first time they had ever played a solo in public!

Sewanee Oboe Class Recital

The student orchestras performed many works, including Symphonic Metamorphosis by Hindemith and Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. There is always that youthful enthusiasm and satisfaction in hearing them do well. I enjoyed reporting back to Lisa about her student from the University of Utah, Cindy Chen, who sailed through the Hindemith in expert fashion. It was nice to see and hear Memphis Symphony Music Director, Mei-Ann Chen, lead the Sewanee Symphony through a challenging program. The repertoire, which included Scheherazade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn and “Blue Cathedral” by Jennifer Higdon was played with precision and expression. Her leadership in conducting five concertos was especially good, and having a twelve year old cellist win the “competition” gives everyone hope for the future.

Students in Dvořák Serenade

The end of the festival means faculty, staff and students head off in every direction. My floor-mate, violinist Shi-Hwa Wang from Utah, heads to the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria for an 18-day music festival. Because Lisa and I were there two months ago, I shared pictures on my iPhone that Shi-Hwa quickly identified. I tell him how jealous I am to be playing in a place where many of Haydn’s works were played for the first time! For a second year in a row, on the morning after the final concerts, I had a choice of any seat in the cafeteria. The cafeteria staff is very friendly, and since I never missed a meal, they got use to my bearded face. I tell them all “I’ll see you in eleven months!”

Flutist Cindy Chen and Oboist Jenna Sehmann in Sewanee Woodwind Quintet

Upon returning my tray I’m pretty sure I can hear a songbird announcing a new day. It’s that or a young piccolo player getting in a last session of practice before a flight home. Hopefully, the 180 students who called Sewanee home for four weeks leave this special place with an added dose of inspiration.

– Robert Stephenson and Lisa Byrnes