[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [pensive music] ♪ - There's something about creating sound from within you that is so joyful and so expressive.

I can access part of me that I can't with words and I can't with my voice.

I can access, like, emotions that I can't express with words, but I can express with music.

- This program was put together to welcome our new colleague, Dr. Patterson, our new bassoon professor, and very quickly evolved into a program that featured a lot of female composers.

We loved being very open to new music, and in this case, it was the music of a lot of fantastic women composers.

- I grew up in Brazil, all my teachers were male.

And coming to this country, all my teachers, again, were male.

- And one of the things that Tadeu said was, we spent all this time practicing Mozart and Brahms and Beethoven like rehearsing these things.

And he wanted to make sure that we spent the same amount of time on these new composers to give the same amount of value to their works as we have to these other standards.

[suspenseful music] - Rubispheres is in a way like a pictures at an exhibition like Mossorgsky's piece essentially, he's describing scenes of the Lower East Side jazzy scenes of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the first and third Rubispheres.

And the second is some sort of night song of Washington Heights.

So, that she tries to describe that at night mode in the second Rubisphere, while the outer two movements are jazzy and lively.

So, there is a sense of liberty and freedom to experiment and freedom to be wild in some instances.

- We had a lot of rehearsals.

We spent a lot of time looking at the score, working on phrasing and how we wanted to make things musically come across to the audience.

When you play in a chamber group, you are one unit.

You're not three soloists, you are one performer playing three instruments.

So, we needed to have the same concept of the piece.

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So, it's like the voice you're born with for you could say, "Oh, I was born with this tenor voice or baritone voice."

I mean, you don't question it, you don't particularly love it or hate it, it's your voice.

So, clarinet for me is my voice, my voice to communicate.

As a teacher, to me to develop that voice, that unique voice of my student is very important.

At the same time, we have the responsibility of communicating to the audience what the composer wrote and requires being aware of the context and the performing style of the time.

[solemn music] [solemn music continues] - So Isabella Leonarda's "Sonata Terza" is one of the earliest Baroque pieces that we have by a woman composer.

And it's really important to me to play music by women, because I can identify with the composer, but also these composers were ignored for centuries.

"Sonata Terza" is an example of a really early piece by a woman that probably wasn't performed very much, but has just as much musical value and like pedagogical value, but also, just expressive value for us as performers.

So, playing it was like seeing the Baroque world, but through the lens of a woman instead of a man, which is something we don't get very often.

- Isabella Leonarda is one of the few representatives, sadly, of the music of that period, but it is an amazing type of music.

And then the emotionality of that music compared to, let's say the music of Vivaldi, or a Handel, or a Bach, is completely different.

And once you dig in and you start really playing and knowing the details and finding out what is the direction, the emotional direction, that this music is taking me.

You know, and what were the tools that she was able to have during her lifetime in order to compose something very, very unique?

And why haven't we really devoted more attention to this?

Why only Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, or all the other Baroque composers.

There is something that I think the public is really yearning for is that individuality and that female aspect on how they feel the emotionality in their music.

[solemn music] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [vibrant music] [solemn music] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [vibrant music] [vibrant music continues] [vibrant music continues] [vibrant music continues] [mournful music] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [lively music] [lively music continues] [lively music continues] [solemn music] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [solemn music continues] [lively music] [lively music continues] [mournful music] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [lively music] [lively music continues] [lively music continues] [lively music continues] [lively music continues] [pensive music] - UNCSA is like everyone is following some kind of passion of that they have, they're doing what they want to do and maybe that doesn't check all of the normal boxes, but it's like we can create our own checklist of what we need to do.

And I think the students see that too.

The students see these performers that are like doing what they wanna be doing, and they get inspired.

And I'm just, it's so amazing to see my colleagues doing it, to see the students see the colleagues do it, and like have that fire.

- I keep practicing, I keep studying, I keep researching, because of all the resources we have, because of the talented students that keep us motivated and challenged to keep becoming better and better.

So, the environment is conducive to keep learning and keep improving.

So, I think I've improved a lot, matured a lot, learned a lot over the past 12 years while at UNCSA.

- What's special about this school is how creative the students are, and how creative the faculty are, and that there's a space to make something new and not just play the old, same music we've been playing forever.

[solemn music] [solemn music continues] - So, a "Brokenvention" is a piece that was written by Alyssa Morris.

She's a fabulous composer, and she wrote this short, charming work called "Brokenvention", and it's really a play on words.

Inventions are found throughout the history of music.

Several pieces are titled inventions.

I think the earliest invention we know of in classical music was written in like the mid 1550s, but the most well-known inventions that we kind of refer back to in the classical music world were written by Johann Sebastian Bach, who was a Baroque composer, wrote a series of inventions, short pieces for keyboard, which were really meant to be study pieces.

I think this piece "Brokenvention" kind of alludes to the history of the word and title invention throughout, you know, classical music.

And I think it also alludes to Johann Sebastian Bach, a Baroque composer, "Brokenvention".

This piece by Alyssa Morris is written in large part in five four.

So, there's like a weird awkward lilt to it.

It's almost symmetrical, but there's a extra beat added to every single measure, giving it maybe a Baroque feel.

There's a large portion of the piece where we have to channel earlier music, which is kind of more refined.

The saxophone is a very new instrument.

Johann Sebastian Bach didn't know what a saxophone was.

It wasn't invented until the mid 1800s to the 1840s.

So, the saxophone is a huge instrument in terms of the kind of output and the sound that it makes.

So, trying to kind of reign that in to sort of create a sound that's maybe more analogous to something you would hear in early music and try to channel that kind of Baroque-esque sound, that was a big challenge for me personally.

It didn't come very easily to me.

[joyful music] [joyful music continues] [joyful music continues] [joyful music continues] [joyful music continues] [joyful music continues] [joyful music continues] [pensive music] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [pensive music continues] [suspenseful music] [suspenseful music continues] When I'm playing the instrument, I mean, there's definitely a sense of fulfillment there.

You know, sometimes I still feel that same enthusiasm that I had as a young kid.

- I always feel nervous when I perform.

People talk about, you know, how to deal with being nervous, how to deal with stage performance anxiety, or stage fright, or whatever you call it.

For me, it's like there's been moments where my mind goes blank, but I've done the things so many times.

You know, we had so many rehearsals.

We had so many, I practiced so many times pretending I was performing that when I get on stage, it doesn't matter what my mind is doing.

I can just do it and I can focus on, you know, the emotion and what I wanna say, because I've sort of calmed that part of my body and learned to focus on that.

- Playing the flute meant that I had a voice.

I had something that I could somehow express myself in ways that perhaps I didn't have the vocabulary yet, or I didn't know about life experiences, but I had something in flute that allowed me to express something that I wanted people to hear.

I come to the realization now at this point of my life, where I accept my Latinx heritage, that I accept who I am, that I accept my background and the beauty of that background and how much I can enrich other people's life by sharing that background.

And now when I reflect back, I think it was the desire to share, to have a shared experience with people.

Not to play at them, not to play for them, but to play with them.

I have learned to get rid of the fear, to lose myself.

You know, early in your career you think, oh, I need to do this concert, oh, I need to do this thing, I need to do this recording, I need to put out this article, I need to have this many students, I need to do this, because you are trying to build your career and you think my career.

So again, the focus is on that individual thing.

As time goes on, that becomes less important in one's life.

And I believe in all aspects of our lives, but I will speak to the music aspect.

And when you learn that the important thing is not anymore you yourself, but your students, your colleagues.

How can I play, you know, in such a way that I can elevate Jaron, or Stephanie, or Deema, how can I make them sound good?

And to do that, to be able to do that with colleagues, that so happens that we really like each other.

So, it's a lot of fun.

It's like, it's a bliss.

It's just, it takes you to a different realm, different experience, and you're like, ah, yes, this is part of my job that I really, really love.

[solemn music] [solemn music continues] - Trio Toccata by Valerie Coleman is a really, it's just such a fun piece to play.

It's like kind of like you're playing jazz, and you're playing like soul, and you're playing a little bit of all these different genres of music, not just classical music in this piece.

Valerie Coleman is such a cool composer.

I really enjoy her voice and what she has to say.

And she actually worked with Deema and Jaron, the pianist and the oboist on this piece.

And so, we're playing it with them.

I got to sort of get this behind the scenes view of what they learned from playing it for her and working with her on this recording of it.

Valerie Coleman is trying to like reshape the way we look at woodwind music.

And so this piece, it's for a standard ensemble, you know, there's pieces by Poulenc and Previn and other composers for oboe, bassoon and piano.

It's sort of like a standard ensemble, but this piece is completely different from any of the other repertoire.

But the movement that actually I love the most now after reading her program note is the second movement, because she wrote it when her child had just been born and she was trying to meet a deadline, but she kept getting interrupted, 'cause her baby kept crying.

And as a mother that really like affected me, 'cause I was like, yeah, I would be practicing and trying to make reads or trying to study and my kid would cry and need me and I would be like in the zone trying to do things and then all of a sudden I have to like switch gears and be a mom for a minute.

And so, she's holding her baby in one arm and actually, writing with her other arm to finish the piece, because she had this inspiration from like rocking her child to sleep of making it a lullaby.

And it's just beautiful writing.

And I'm just so inspired by her being a mother and a composer writing this amazing music.

[jaunty music] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [somber music] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [somber music continues] [jaunty music] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [jaunty music continues] [mournful music] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [mournful music continues] [suspenseful music] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] [suspenseful music continues] So, one of my former students just won solo bassoon in Dusseldorf, Germany in the orchestra there, and I'm so proud of him and he has worked tirelessly and he was very talented.

So, you know, that's one kind of success is to have a student who wins like a traditional music job.

But I also have students who are, you know, teaching in the schools in Georgia and in Kansas with public school jobs in music.

I have students who studied bassoon and found their voice in music, but then went on other paths and are very happy people playing music, you know, part-time, but then have really creative careers helping other people in different fields.

So, I've always looked at every student as an individual and really tried to help them figure out what they want and then figure out how I can help them get that either through music or in other ways in their personal lives, and their academic lives, and their musical lives.

Just I'm trying to, to sort of help them grow, because students between the ages of 18 and 22, 25, you know, they're becoming who they are and I have the unique position of being able to work with them one-on-one and work with them on music, which is so personal to us.

It's what we, like I said earlier, it's where we find our voices.

- How do we make the individual to play the instrument as naturally as possible?

So, I become the student and then I have to solve that conundrum.

I try to play like the way the students doing, and sometimes I get lucky and it's like, whoa, this is better.

So, I'm learning with the students just trying to solve whatever challenges they're having.

You know, a student comes to me, "Oh, I'm just not motivated to practice."

So, we need to go deeper and find out what is discouraging, what is happening, how can I help that person look at that challenge, not as something that is a difficulty, something that they have to do for their exam, but to look optimistically into life again?

- My conviction as a teacher is to help my students and the students that I have, you know, close proximity to find their purpose.

Yeah, if you wanna be a professional saxophonist let's talk about that.

Let's try to put some tools together.

But really what I want to do is, you know, use the saxophone as a vehicle for these students to be successful at whatever career or part of the career that they want to jump into and try to find and give them the tools that they need to be successful.

- I want to think that I am always learning.

When I teach my students at UNCSA, first of all, I am challenged.

I'm challenged to be the best I can be.

So, I have to practice, I have to dig deep into areas that I feel would help this particular student.

I mean, nowadays students really learn from everywhere, YouTube, and colleagues, and, you know, there is so much information online nowadays that they will come up with very interesting information that I may not have been aware of.

So, they make me be on top of my game, number one, and then I may even learn from them.

- There are times that I don't have the answer.

I've had students just really simple musical things.

You know, sometimes I don't have the answer and I need to go talk to my mentors or talk to my friends who played bassoon and find the answer that way, or help the student find the resources to get the answer.

More often than not it's that there's something inside of the student that is blocking them from succeeding.

And so, we have to solve that problem.

And that is where I feel most vulnerable is that I wanna help them, but I can't do it for them, you know?

So, I need to help them find what it is that they need.

And sometimes that's really frustrating, because you can't always, sometimes people aren't ready to go around the obstacle, you know, they need to just sit and like meditate on it for a while, or like they need to fix another part of their life before they can go around this hurdle.

And so, I'm not afraid to admit that I don't know what they need, but I'm always gonna help them find what they need.

Finding that answer is like me learning, you know?

So, it's like me realizing, you know, there's what you know and there's what you know you know, and then there's all those things that you don't know, that you don't know.

And so, then you get a glimpse of that when you see a new challenge that you can't solve right away.

And so, then you get to go through the process with them and become a better teacher, and a better performer, and a better person, hopefully.

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