There is strength in collaboration. Michael Formanek?s world-premiere work, “The Open Book for Improvising Soloists and Orchestra,” has been written to highlight the virtuosity of the Peabody Concert Orchestra in conjunction with members of the Jazz Orchestra.
“Any time you try to mix jazz and classical [performing], it?s difficult notes,” said Formanek, director of the Peabody Jazz Orchestra. “But the idea is to make [the musicians] work together.”
“There is a good crossover of the jazz and classical,” music director Hajime Teri Murai said. “The strengths of each compliment each other.”
The concert, performed at Peabody, begins with Darius Milhaud?s Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58. Influenced by the popular music of Brazil, the piece was written as a symphonic ballet in collaboration with Jean Cocteau.
Ira Gershwin?s “An American in Paris” is a classic piece that deftly recounts the nostalgia of a romantic living in the City of Light. Here, Murai pointed out, the jazz orchestra “plays the blues wonderfully.” Of the Concert Orchestra, he added that “it is another style, another idiom, and the students need to have that.”
The program closes with Formanek?s piece.
“The students are out of their comfort zones,” he said of the work, which includes the classical and the jazz elements.
Benjamin Kramer is a fifth-year double major in jazz bass and recording arts and sciences.
“I think ?Open Book? is a good marriage of jazz and classical [that] gives us a chance to solo and get into the groove,” he said.
That marriage prepares the students for life?s experiences, Formanek contends, especially as jazz and classical training are completely different. “Some of the students may go on to studio work or Broadway,” he said. “They must be realistic, they need to branch out.”
IF YOU GO
Peabody?s Jazz and Concert Orchestras together
» Venue: Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, Peabody Institute, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore
» Time: 8 p.m. today
» Cost: $18/$10 for seniors and $8 for students
» Info: 410-659-8100 ext. 2
