Milestones

     This weekend was a weekend of milestones.

     The first milestone was my daughter’s. She moved out of her dormitory and into an apartment in December on her own. A friend of hers is studying abroad for a semester and Sarah’s sub-letting her one-bedroom apartment. John and I have never seen “the apartment,” so we were relying on GPS, a campus map from the visitor’s center, and directions from Sarah via cell phone to find her new digs.

Sarah Stark at her new apartment near WSU.

      Just a block away from the President’s house, nestled in among fraternity and sorority houses, her apartment is one of four in a huge, 1920-30s (?) house. We carried our bags up onto her welcoming front porch, up one flight of stairs, and she turned the key to let us in.  

       The door opened to reveal vintage character: high ceilings, spacious rooms, white mission style moldings framing generous wide doorways into each room. Tall windows let light pour in. Her bedroom is bigger than her bedroom at home, and looks out on the street. The kitchen, once the back porch, overlooks the town of Pullman. We went shopping and found a little half-moon bistro table with two stools so she can sip her tea at breakfast and greet the day. There’s a fire escape at one window, so I told her she’d definitely have to watch West Side Story.

       The wooden floors are painted navy blue and the walls are beige. The silver old-style radiators are ornate. She’s got a good eye for decorating and the pictures and bedding she brought from her dorm fit perfectly. It was comfortable and warm with an old European style.

       She had planned for our visit. There were cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and all kinds of loose tea for us to choose from. She’d also gotten a key made for us, so we could come and go while she was in class.

        Johnny’s milestone happened Saturday night. In December, he found out that he had won the Washington Idaho Young Composer’s Competition. His piece, March, made its world premiere on January 29, 2011 at the Domey/Gladish Auditorium in Pullman, Washington. The auditorium filled as we sat front and center, anticipating the big moment. The orchestra tuned. The lights dimmed. The conductor introduced Johnny, then raised his baton, and the hall was filled with the sound of his piece, March.  

Composer John K. Stark.

        Johnny’s explained in the program notes:

March was originally written for solo piano. Most marches in America are upbeat pieces written for wind band, and are not normally played in the concert hall. I wanted to compose a different kind of march, one that stepped outside the norm. The idea of playing a march in a concert setting instead of the typical outdoor venue intrigued me. I also wanted to create a ‘darker’ sounding march as a contrast to most American marches. Inspired by Russian-style marches, March was written for orchestra rather than band to utilize the vast color palette and dynamic range of the orchestra.      

           

After the final note was played, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Johnny beamed. We all did: family, and friends, many who had traveled across the state for this special night. 

Composer John K. Stark with his parents: John and Laura Stark.

Throughout the night, at intermission, and later in “the yellow room,” people told Johnny how much they enjoyed his piece. Most said that they didn’t think they were going to like it because it’s a modern piece, but after they heard it, they were surprised that they really enjoyed it. The funniest comment was from a gentleman in his 70s. He told Johnny that he liked March, asked if he’d ever been to Russia, then asked Johnny if he was a dirty Commie.

       Later that night we toasted Johnny in celebration. He wisely noted that even though his piece was recorded and we’d be able to listen to it on DVD, there was nothing like hearing it played by an orchestra, live, the only way that composers like Beethoven’s and Mozart’s works were originally heard. He thanked us all for coming to share the debut with him.

       We fell asleep in Sarah’s apartment with the background sounds of a frat party going on across the street reminding us of our college days. 

       When we woke up, all was quiet, and it was snowing! Silver dollar sized flakes sifted down covering campus. As a true West-sider, I was excited, and had a sense of wonder about the falling snow! From her air mattress and sleeping bag in the living room, Sarah looked up out the window, and sleepily observed, “If the flakes are that big, then it’s not really that cold out.” Three semesters at WSU and she’s a seasoned East-sider.

        Five days later, Johnny was at a campus coffee shop when a professor approached him. He recognized Johnny from the concert, and told him that he takes his four year old son to classical music concerts all the time. He said that his son doesn’t usually say anything about the music, but after hearing Johnny’s song, he exclaimed, “I really liked that song!”

        This week at WSU the Music Department is holding their FOCAM music festival. Johnny had two of his compositions for clarinet and flute played. A few days before FOCAM, a reporter from The Daily Evergreen, the WSU student newspaper, interviewed him. “’Most professional performing groups tend to play old music,’ Stark said. ‘It’s hard to get people to play new music because the public mainly likes music from the Classical or Romantic periods. There needs to be a forum for contemporary music.’”

        Two major milestones for our two “children” making their way in the world.

---DVD’s and Blu-Rays of the Washington Idaho Symphony with March are available from Skeeterbuggins Productions. Web: http://www.skeetrbuggins.com/iwashjan2011.htm. 

---You can see the article “Annual art and music festival starts today” in the 2/3/11 edition of The Daily Evergreen. Their website is: http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/33694.

Laura Keolanui Stark has quite a stack of programs from the Washington Idaho Symphony. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.