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THE ELEGANT SAVAGES ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT!

THE ELEGANT SAVAGES ORCHESTRA IN THEIR NEWEST INCARNATION AS
"THE 1928 'CARNIVAL INCOGNITO' BAND"

OUT YONDER: THE ELEGANT SAVAGES ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT

TTU Celtic Ensemble

Sunday February 9 7:30pm

Hemmle Recital Hall

Guest artist: Evan Powell, keyboards

The Elegant Savages Orchestra
Dr Christopher Smith, director

Lauren Allen (dance, Color Guard); Brynn Bednarz (trumpet); Heather Beltz (flute [winds section leader, Ringleader]); Levente Bordas (percussion); Jaclyn Bush (voice, dance); Tabbi Carey (horn); Maria Cullum (dance); Aaron Davis (clarinet); Rachel Diaz (clarinet); Angela Filipelli (clarinet); Garrett Franks (bassoon); Alexa Frederick (oboe); Jessica Fuentes (flute); Karson Goggans (ASL interpreter); Hannah Gossett (voice, dance [section leader]); Courtney Gragson (trumpet [high-brass section leader]); Tess Greenlees (flute); Quinton Greschuk (guitar); Grey Haberl (flute, dance); Madison Haberl (horn, dance [dance captain]); Stephen Harrington (horn); Dalton Huebner (trombone [euphonium]); Fallon Huff (horn); Katie Jander (horn); Gavin Kohlenberg (saxophone [baritone]); Noelle LaGrone (voice, dance); Lilah Ma (double bass, acrobatics); Rachel Mammen (dance); AJ Musella-Gonzales (trombone [low-brass section leader]); Elysa Naranjo (dance, flute); Jamie Nielson (horn); Reynaldo Patino* (fiddle); Christian Pennington (saxophone [tenor]); Lilian Pham (flute, piccolo); Cedrik Rau (cello); Karyme Renteria (saxophone [alto]); Andrea Richardson (dance, acrobatics); Maria Rodriguez (fiddle); Marshall Rogers (tuba); Allison Sessom (flute); Stephanie Shelton (fiddle); Tobie Sherrill (Color Guard); Jaxon Stallings (clarinet [bass]); Steve Stallings (guitar [rhythm section leader]); Jacoby Stephens (cello); Christopher Stockdale (saxophone [soprano]); Katy Swecker (dance, voice); Clayton Thomas (trombone); Aissa Torres (saxophone [alto] [section leader]); Greg Tsalikis (drum-set [percussion captain]); Callie Watson (fiddle, voice [costumer]); Nick Watson (trombone [euphonium])  *denotes faculty

websites: www.ttucelticensemble.com a/k/a www.elegantsavagesorchestra.com

About Bassanda and the Elegant Savages Orchestra

Major inspiration for the Elegant Savages Orchestra, the “big band” version of the TTU Celtic Ensemble, comes from the fictional country of “Bassanda,” a creation of Taos-based musicians and VMC partners Chipper Thompson (chipperthompson.com) and Roger Landes (rogerlandes.com), who for purposes of our January 2014 debut assumed their Bassanda personae (“The Rev” and “The General”) as guest performers. We imagined the fictional “Elegant Savages Orchestra,” in which, as part of an “alternate-history” frame, it’s alleged that a Soviet satellite’s official state folkloric ensemble (the “Bassanda National Radio Orchestra”) mutates, after the fall of Communism, into a free-lance ensemble engaged in a Never-Ending Tour. The BNRO/ESO has thus been heard in many permutations and with widely variegated personnel, including “The Classic 1952 Band”; “The 1962 ‘Beatnik’ Band” (which nearly appeared on the cover of Life magazine under the headline “New Currents from Behind the Iron Curtain”); “The 1965 Newport Folk Festival Band,” who helped jump-start Bob Dylan’s notorious switch in that year from acoustic folk to electric rock & roll; “The Mysterious 1885 Victorian ‘Steampunk’ Band,” cast backward across time and space in a mysterious “Rift Accident”; “The Great Southwestern Desert post-Apocalyptic ‘Sand Pirates’ Band,” from a c1890 alternate reality; and “L'orchestre ‘vodun’ créole de la Nouvelle-Orléans 1912,” a/k/a “The Ghost Band.”

This season, we bring you “The 1928 ‘Carnivale Incognito’ Band,” the house band for the immersive, site-specific theatrical show Yonder, April 16-18 2020.

Other ways to get involved!

The ESO fields a Players’ Council (chair Steve Stallings), Inclusivity Caucus (chair Aissa Torres), and Imagineering Committee (chairs Lauren Allen & Jessica Fuentes). If you have skills and goals and would like to be involved, get in touch!

About the 1928 “Carnivale Incognito” Band

Not much is known of the rag-tag 1928 American Southwest collective called, in the Bassanda corpus, the “Carnivale Incognito” Band. Drawn from an especially wide but very poorly-documented range of prior experiences, its members were, in their threadbare costumes and vehicles, perhaps less impressive than better-known or -paid contemporaneous circus organizations. But occasionally, beneath the dust and burlap and canvas, the deferential mannerisms and body language, a glint of something more powerful would shine forth. James Lincoln Habjar-Lawrence, writing about the wandering Bassandan folk-theatrical troupes called Mjekë sia Trego (Eng: “medicine show”) which were one influence upon the Incognito Band, has this to say:

The Mjekësia Trego, in its brightly-painted pony-drawn caravans and featuring small traveling casts of multi-talented singers, players, dancers, acrobats, magicians, and comic actors, was a beloved feature of rural life which provided multiple generations their first performance training. Small hints of its vibrancy are captured in the first Tableau of Stravinsky’s Petrushka (set in “primitive Russia,” but containing key elements, and not a few tunes, “borrowed” from Bassandan tradition) and in the folkloric elements of his L’histoire du soldat and in Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. In turn, its improvised musical/theatrical elements, decades later, informed the BNRO’s collaboration on a 1961 Ballyizget production of The Tempest, set in the Gulag, in which many Band luminaries appeared. But there are other, possibly more fanciful tales told about the 1928 Band, and about their rather more far-flung sources, inspiration, and recruiting…

Related correspondence, personal biographies, timelines, galleries & archival commentary can be found at: www.elegantsavagesorchestra.com; likewise search Facebook for “Elegant Savages Orchestra.”

Special thanks as always to Director Kim Walker, Clark Preston, Neemias Santos, and the students, faculty, and staff of the Texas Tech University School of Music.

You can always check in on Vernacular Music Center events at the live Google calendar:

http://www.vernacularmusiccenter.org/calendar.html

ASL interpreter: Karson Goggans

Brewmasters: Milhouse Brewing Co.

CG seamstress: Jilian Johnstone

Marketing: Mikayla Van De Waal

Live-sound consultant: Jonathan Smither

Unit patch designer: Payton Massey

Videographer: Tess Greenlees

VMC Movement Director: Anne Wharton

VMC photographer: Melissa Arnold

Websites:

http://ttucelticensemble.com
http://vernacularmusiccenter.org

http://elegantsavagesorchestra.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elegantsavagesorchestra/

The Vernacular Music Center Scholarship at Texas Tech University
The competitive Vernacular Music Center Scholarship at Texas Tech University, which provides financial assistance to a student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts who is a practitioner of one or more traditional performance idioms. For more information, please be in touch with Dr Christopher Smith at christopher.smith@ttu.edu

Can I participate?

Yes! If you are interested in participating in one of the VMC ensembles or partners (Celtic Ensemble, Early Music Ensemble, Elegant Savages, Mysterium (free improvisation), Tango Orchestra, Mariachi Los Matadores, or other), feel free to contact their respective directors (see vernacularmusiccenter.com/ensembles.html). Auditions typically occur in the first weeks of each academic semester.

VMC Staff

Founding Director: Dr Christopher J Smith

Associate Director: Roger Landes

Administrative assistant: Heather Beltz

Follow us on Social Media at

“vernacularmusiccenter”

 

#notyourclassicalorchestra

 

Radio Broadcast & Television Recording

We are recording live today, and we appreciate your participation and your patience! However, because of this, we ask you to power-down (e.g., completely shut-off) electronic devices including cell phones, and to avoid any extraneous noise during the performance.

Notice Regarding Electronics
Please refrain from use of flash photography during this concert. Such use is an infringement of TTU copyright policy and represents a safety hazard for performers. Thank you for your consideration.

The Vernacular Music Center at the TTU School of Music
The mission of the Vernacular Music Center is to provide a center for in-depth and comparative research, study, teaching and advocacy on behalf of the world's vernacular musics and dance—their construction, history, and role in defining cultural life in human communities—in all cultures and historical periods. The VMC is dedicated to the study of the process by which music is taught and passed on within a community, as well as assisting in the ongoing cultivation of arts on the South Plains. The VMC partners with its 501c3 partner, the Roots Music Institute (
rootsmusicinstitute.com)

Become a Friend of the VMC! 
Visit us at 
vernacularmusiccenter.org for more information!
Donations: 
http://www.give2Tech.com/, search “Celtic Ensemble VMC Gifts”

Be on the lookout for these upcoming VMC events!

Mon Feb 24         Collegium Musicum “Concert of Consorts”—St John’s 7pm

Tues Mar 10        Caprock English Bagpipe Consort—Hance 7:30pm

Mon Apr 6           Balkan Ensemble—Hance 7:30pm

Apr 13-16            Yonder site-specific immersive theatre show—Wallace Theater, Levelland

Thu Apr 23          Mariachi—Lubbock High School 6:00pm

Sun Apr 26           Celtic/ESO spring concert—Hemmle 7:30pm

Fri May 1              Tango spring concert—ICC 6pm


[From an unpublished interview conducted for the March 17, 1928 edition of the Lubbock Avalanche newspaper]:

Where do you come from? Where are you going?

Everywhere. Nowhen. Here. Now.

Why don’t you all just tell people who and what you are?

What if we knew that people wouldn’t believe what they're told?

Sometimes humans have to be tricked into accepting assistance.

And besides, when things get bad,

Sometimes you need a steadfast friend, more than you need a superhero.

Can’t somebody be both?

They’d reject a “god.”

Besides, a little humility isn't the worst attribute for a deity.

Most gods are too self-engrossed, anyway.


yondershow.com

 

 

Posted:
1/27/2020

Originator:
Chris Smith

Email:
christopher.smith@ttu.edu

Department:
School of Music

Event Information
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Date: 2/9/2020

Location:
Hemmle Recital Hall, TTU campus


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