This March, Interlochen Arts Academy students are hitting the road and going on tour.
After a kickoff performance in Interlochen, they’ll then travel to Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston.
The tour is called Imagine US: Celebrating America at 250.
The tour program includes the premiere of a new cello concerto, composed by Wynton Marsalis and featuring Yo-Yo Ma as the soloist. The students are also performing the Symphony no. 4 by Charles Ives and RE|Member, a work by Reena Esmail.
In each city, Arts Academy Orchestra members will play alongside professional musicians from the host cities' orchestras: the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Classical IPR has invited two Interlochen Arts Academy students to serve as tour ambassadors, giving us regular dispatches as they prepare for the tour. They’ll send updates from the road once they’re on tour, and then we’ll talk with them after they return to find out how it all went.
Last week, we met our first ambassador, Sydney Kassekert. This week, we meet our second ambassador, Ryan Crawford.
Ryan Crawford
Ryan Crawford is a sophomore at Interlochen Arts Academy, studying the bassoon.
He's playing in the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra in three very challenging and different pieces of music on the upcoming Imagine US tour.
Ryan was chosen for this orchestra after a competitive audition process where eligible student musicians performed for Interlochen Arts Academy's woodwind faculty members.
They got right to work on the music once the orchestra was finalized. Immediately after recording this interview with IPR, Ryan was headed to a woodwind sectional rehearsal.
"This last school week, we've had individual practice sessions so that we come to the sectional knowing our parts so we can have a more efficient rehearsal," he explained. "We're making sure everything fits together nicely in the woodwind section, and we really get to know each other's parts too."
Ryan is especially looking forward to playing in the orchestra with professional musicians in each city. He's hoping that one of them is Conrad Cornelison, principal bassoon of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and an Interlochen Arts Academy graduate.
Ryan says he really does enjoy playing the Symphony no. 4 by Charles Ives despite its difficulty. An incredibly challenging and complex piece that most professional orchestral musicians have never even played, Ryan and his Arts Academy Orchestra colleagues are learning it for the tour.
It's a very, very layered piece," he explained. "There's so much that's happening at one time."
To master those difficult rhythms, Ryan says he practices very slowly and in very small sections.
"I might even take just two notes at a time just so I know what one note sounds like after the other time-wise," he said.
Look for new dispatches from Classical IPR's Imagine US tour ambassadors Sydney Kassekert and Ryan Crawford every Monday online first thing and on air at 8:30 a.m.
