On Oct. 28, 2023, students of the Moorpark College music department unveiled remarkable performances in the annual instrumental showcase, “A Dynamic Evening of Music.”
Director Brendan McMullin led two instrumental groups on the Performing Arts Center Main Stage; Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble. Despite the performance being the same night as the Moorpark Raiders’ final home match, the department received an excellent turnout from the local community.
The performance began with an Orchestra set consisting of three songs, “English Folk Song Suite,” “Symphony Fantastique” and “The Firebird Suite.” McMullin spoke about his experience conducting the fourth movement of “Symphony Fantastique” titled “March to the Scaffold.”
“I can’t emphasize how fortunate that they are able to perform this piece,” McMullin said. “This is an amazing piece of music which actually helped kick start the romantic period in the early 1800s.”
Throughout the night, McMullin shared the meaning behind each piece with the audience, letting attendees understand the story of the music.
Adam Perez, a clarinet player in the Moorpark College Orchestra, shared his favorite and most challenging piece he performed in the showcase.
“I have to say it’s probably the ‘Danse Infernale’ was a really good one, it was simple but also so beautifully well written that you can just fall in love with it so easily,” Perez explained. “Definitely ‘March to the Scaffold’ was the most challenging one, especially since for the clarinet register for the first chair was like way up the air, so there were some rhythms that I couldn’t get out in time.”
After flawlessly finishing their performance, the orchestra transitioned to the Jazz Ensemble as McMullin started their engaging eight-song performance. McMullin also allowed soloists in each of the music pieces to be applauded, as members had the chance to individually showcase their talents to the audience.
Shakir Ramsey, a pianist of the Moorpark College Jazz Ensemble, soloed in the piece ‘Invisible Touch’. After the performance, Ramsey shared the difficulties of playing these intense pieces of music.
“Keeping to the rhythm, and in that song [‘Invisible Touch’], I’m leading and guiding the feel, so if my rhythm is off then the song breaks down,” Ramsey explained. “There is something called a ghost note, it’s the note that is not played, that’s the biggest note and that’s the hardest part.”
Ramsey has played solos before, but this was his first time being part of the communal experience in music. He explained that there was so much to learn about teamwork in a band, because it’s not just about one person, it was about listening and also being there for the other players that are having a rough spot.
“Sometimes there’s a moment of pure joy where you’re all doing something that you could never do by yourself, so [being on a] team is everything,” Ramsey said.
Ethan Strubbe, a Moorpark College student who plays in the Jazz Ensemble as a pianist, shared his post-performance thoughts after the show and what pieces he hopes to see next semester.
“I feel good, it was pretty fun, pretty quick, but some of them are really quite fun,” Strubbe said. “I’m hoping next semester we can do a couple more modern pieces because a lot of these are a lot of standards of the old golden era of jazz, a lot of 30s and 40s big bands standards, so I’m hoping we could add in more contemporary stuff [music pieces] to next semester.”
This was the music department’s first instrumental show of the year, as more instrumental music will be featured on Dec. 2. For more information on Moorpark College’s music department, click here.
