You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

New clarinet ensembles to perform Tuesday

By John Andert '10
April 3, 2008

New to the music faculty this year, Assistant Professor of Music Jun Qian wasted no time in creating opportunities for St. Olaf College students and young people from around the Twin Cities to hone their clarinet skills. The two new ensembles he formed -- the St. Olaf Youth Clarinet Ensemble and St. Olaf Virtuosi Chamber Winds -- will join the St. Olaf Clarinet Choir for a performance on Tuesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be streamed live online.

VirtuosiLarge
The St. Olaf Virtuosi Chamber Winds
The first half of the program will feature the Clarinet Choir and the Clarinet Youth Ensemble performing an original clarinet choir piece by Gordon Jacob, along with famous transcriptions by Claude Debussy, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and many others. The second half of the program will feature Mozart's "Wind Serenade, K.375," one of the most famous wind chamber music pieces ever written.

"Though the members from the three groups are at different levels, they all love and enjoy playing music together," Qian says. "Like me, everyone is donating their time to make everything happen ... the passion of music around the campus is what brings us together."

St. Olaf Youth Clarinet Ensemble
The St. Olaf Youth Clarinet Ensemble
Two new ensembles
Qian founded the St. Olaf Youth Clarinet Ensemble and the Virtuosi Chamber Winds because he wanted to create opportunities for high school students in grades 9-12 to perform with St. Olaf wind students. The St. Olaf Youth Clarinet Ensemble meets for one hour every Sunday on the St. Olaf campus to receive coaching from Qian. Currently, there are eight members of this audition-based ensemble who attend five different high schools.

The Virtuosi Chamber Winds was founded in February of this year. This ensemble consists of the top wind players on campus, selected through a behind-screen audition. This group explores highly demanding chamber music for eight to 13 players.

St. Olaf Clarinet Choir
The St. Olaf Clarinet Choir
"The level of playing is one of the highest, I can say, because of the excellent music program of our school. It is a blessing for me to teach those talented young musicians at St. Olaf as well as work with my great colleagues," Qian says. In the future, Qian hopes to invite music professors to play with the group.

Former St. Olaf clarinet professor Jo Ann Polley standardized the St. Olaf Clarinet Choir in the early 1980s. After Qian conducted the Clarinet Choir during Sunday chapel services and at a pre-Christmas Fest concert last semester, he knew he wanted to continue the strength of the college's clarinet music not only by exploring more solo repertories for each student, but also more chamber and ensemble repertoires for them. Lauren Cook '09, a member of the Clarinet Choir, says the ensemble is "like a family." Working with the newly formed Clarinet Youth Ensemble has been a rewarding experience, she says.

"I always love collaborating with other groups, especially young players, because I remember being in their shoes and I appreciated the challenge of playing more difficult repertoire," Cook says.

About Qian
Qian earned a B.M. degree from Baylor University and a M.M., Performance Certificate and D.M.A from the Eastman School of Music. He has taught at many colleges and universities, including Nazareth College, Houghton College, New York State University at Fredonia, Eastman School of Music, and Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China. He has won awards in the International Clarinet Association Young Artist Competition, Texas Young Artists Competition, and the Baylor Symphony Concerto competition. In 2001 he made his Carnegie Hall debut performing Weber's Clarinet Concert No. 1 with the Asian American International Orchestra.

For more information about Qian's St. Olaf Clarinet Studio, please visit his Web site.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.