UW-Whitewater’s Light Recital hosted the second Sonict Ensemble of the academic year on March 4. The event showcased contemporary music and allowed students and faculty to collaborate on pieces. The goal was to perform various recently-composed pieces that expressed different emotions.
“We’re hoping to expand what people would think of as music,” music director Matthew Sintchak said. “I want them to experience something that they’ve never experienced before so that they can get wowed or maybe even confused, because it helps you as a listener or artist to start to decide what you like and don’t like.”
Sintchak made a comparison to Spotify by saying how when you listen to one artist, it will recommend similar artists so your music taste stays static. With this ensemble, they intended to hit you constantly with 180-degree turns. It was an experiment that was received well by the audience.
Throughout the show, seven songs were played. The first song was “Improvisation I” (1972) by Ryo Noda, a renowned saxophone player and teacher. The improv was inspired by the late Jean-Marie Londeix. Sintchak played it as a solo alto saxophone act, and the tempo of the song changed drastically, along with the range of notes.
“Ellis Island” (1981) and “Phantom Waltz” (1989) followed, both by Meredith Monk. “Ellis Island” was written for a short film about immigration to New York City and “Phantom Waltz” was composed for a dance-theater work “Dreams Within a Dream.” Dr. Rob Hodson and student Mitchell Falcon performed a two-piano act for these songs.
The fourth song played was “Memories of Xiaoxiang” by Lei Lang, which was also performed live by Sintchak. The song is about a woman whose husband was murdered by a Chinese official. Since the woman knew where the Chinese official lived, she stayed in the woods behind his house and cried to drive him crazy and increase his sense of guilt. Sintchak commented that his role on the alto saxophone was to act as the voice of the woman crying and that he thinks about that backstory while performing.
Next up was a performance by Dr. Carson King-Fournier of “White Knight and Beaver” (1984) by Martin Wesley-Smith, a reference to the “Alice in Wonderland” novel. He used a Fairlight CMI, a digital synthesizer that made sample music still used today in hip-hop music and popular culture.
Emma Yeakley played “Body, Mind, and Heart” (2023) by Eris DeJarnett on the flugelhorn. This was a meditative piece that allowed the audience to join in and relax after the wild ride of the previous song.
The final performance of the night was a saxophone quartet, performed by Anton Saucedo, Ashlyn Syrett, Mitchell Falcon and Dawson France. The song they played was “Trapped” (2024) by Clare Cope. These four students have been close friends over the last three years and have been playing quartets together since. Their chemistry on stage was apparent and a joy to watch.
Falcon was the only student who played two instruments during the ensemble.
“I’ve been playing piano since I was four or five. At this point in my college career, I’ve played saxophone more since it’s my primary instrument, but I play almost as much piano,” Falcon said.
Falcon highlighted the humor of it all, how he got to, “walk out and play piano, walk off and a couple songs later walk back out with a saxophone,” to play that with his three other closest friends.
Falcon expressed his nice experience of getting to intertwine his love for the two styles. The overall goal of the Sonict Ensemble was to bridge the gap between faculty and students.
“When I get to perform with a student, I’m getting to teach them a lot, and I’m also learning about how they work on things besides me just teaching them. When students play with a faculty member, it’s a different vibe,” Sintchak said.
Between playing a wide assortment of songs and meshing students and faculty into performances, the Sonict Ensemble is a lighthearted experiment that allows both the audience and the musicians to try new things.
