The Fredösphere

The Collage Concert is a showcase for ensembles and soloists of the University of Michigan School of Music (and Theater & Dance, as I must start calling it since that's what it's been called for years now). It began as part of the annual Michigan Music Educators conference, but has endured even as the conference has found a new home. Professor Emeritus Gustav Meier is credited with bringing the collage concept to Ann Arbor. As a student I performed in it but had not been back as a spectator ever, until last Saturday.

The concert's format is simple to describe, but terribly difficult to pull off: the final note of each piece overlaps with the first note of the following piece. Using light cues, the eyes of the audience are directed to various parts of the stage as (for example) wind ensemble is followed by piano soloist is followed by jazz band is followed by a marimba quartet is followed by choir is followed by brazilian singers and drummers are followed by the school's cast of Evita . . . etc., etc.

Think of the planning nightmares! There's the politically delicate task of choosing soloists and ensembles such that each department gets a chance to show off. Then there's the insane job of choosing music such that coincident starting and ending notes are consonant (yes, they do impose that requirement on themselves).

The show is simply the most densely entertaining thing I've ever seen, even more than a Michael Daugherty opera. It perfectly accommodates modern attention spans. Even music chosen from the most rigorous of the bleep-honk-snort schools of composition becomes a welcome diversion. And, if you truly hate what you're hearing, the consolation comes immediately to mind: this too shall pass, in about four minutes from now.

I'm already recommending next year's Collage to all my somewhat-but-not-very-classically-inclined friends. I hope I never miss another one.

Labels: local