2005 WASBE Conference

Download the official program book

A Composer’s View of Four Concerts of New Music

UK composer Adam Gorb has written a review of four concerts presented by Asian bands at this year’s conference. This is not your typical review, however. Gorb writes about his reactions to the compositions from a composer’s point of view.

Repertoire-Sessions in Singapur — ein Highlight!

Neuere und neuste Blaesermusik aus aller Welt:

  1. aus Nod- und Suedamerika (12)
  2. fuer Schul- und Amateur-Orchester (10)
  3. aus Asien, Australien und Neuseeland (9)
  4. aus Europa (7)

…organisiert, koordiniert und praesentiert vom neu gewaehlten Vorstandsmitglied Jim Cochran(shatamus@li.net)

In 4 hervorragend organisierten Sessionen wurden insgesamt 38 ! neuere und neuste Werke fuer Blasorchester vorgestellt; davon die meisten in voller Laenge und teils mit Spitzen-Formationen. Die Orchester waren:

  • University of Florida Wind Symphony (David Waybright),
  • Hong Kong Musicians (Lam Wing-Tsan),
  • Senzoku Gakuen Symphonic Wind Orchestra (Gyochi Yoshida), und
  • Chinese Youth Corps Band Taiwan (Yeh Shu Han)

In beinahe jeder Session reichte der Schwierigkeitsgrad von Grad 2 bis Grad 6 – Kompositionen. Fuer die Orchester war das eine Herausforderung der besonderen Art. Diese haben sie alle mit enormem Engagement und grossem Respekt vor der jeweiligen Musik mehr als nur angenommen.

Einmal mehr kam die Kammermusik viel zu kurz. Es ist zu hoffen, dass anlaesslich der naechsten WASBE-Konferenz 2007 in Killarny / Irland, diesem wundervollen Genre mehr Rechnung getragen wird. Nichts desto trotz kehren wir mit einem reichaltigen Fundus neu entdeckter Werke fuer Blasorchester zu unseren Wirkungsstaetten zurueck. Somit geht der groesste Dank an Jim Cochran und all die Dirigenten und MusikerInnen, die uns dieses grossartige Erlebnis erst ermoeglicht haben.

Fei Chang Xie Xie Ni
Vielen Dank und
Mit freundlichen Gruessen,

Peter Bucher


Thanks To Our Contributors

by Anthony Reimer, WASBE Web Editor

An effort like this cannot be successful without the contribution of a large number of people. First, I want to thank our writers, without whom this page would have been nothing more than a list of events. Some commited early; some responded to our last-minute requests. These people all made a contribution to what is certain to be an excellent archive of the Conference’s events:

  • Peter Bucher, Switzerland (in German)
  • Marc Crompton and members of PSWE, Canada
  • Evan Feldman, USA
  • Gregg Gausline, USA
  • Adam Gorb, United Kingdom
  • Bruce Herriman, Australia
  • Tian Tee Lee, Singapore
  • Tony Makarome, Singapore
  • Ingrid Martin, Australia
  • James Ripley, USA
  • Oliver Waespi, Switzerland (in German and English)

It was important to have a large group of writers like this — particularly the regular contributors like Marc and Tony — because I was back in Canada and unable to “fill the gaps” myself.

Much of the credit for the completeness of the coverage must go to John Stanley, our original web editor, who now takes on special projects like this. He did the coordination on the ground in Singapore and made sure that coverage was as complete as possible. It was especially useful to have him there when technical difficulties were occuring early in the week. John answered the call with his usual generous spirit and this web site is richer for it. Thanks, John.

I would also be remiss if I did not thank Mohli Sing for sending regular batches of photos from the concerts, as wel as all the Singapore Committee members I met in Jönköping and Chicago (particularly Ai Lin and Steven). But my last word of thanks is left for Lolita Tang, the webmistress of the Singapore Committee site, “wasbe2005.com.” Of the past three conferences, this conference had the most web coordination between the organizing committee and WASBE and I think the results showed that. We decided early on that the Singapore Committee would be the focal point for web coverage prior to the Conference and that the WASBE web site would keep its readers updated on what was new on the wasbe2005.com site — this let members get all the information they needed in one place. Lolita was always diligent in sending me the latest updates and I responded in kind by keeping the WASBE new page current. Since the actual Conference days are so busy, the daily updates during the Conference (an idea we initiated at the 2003 Conference) were posted on the main WASBE web site. Lolita was responsible for arranging computer and internet access for our writers at the venue (and with the strict security backstage in the concert hall, you will know that this was quite a task!). So special thanks to Lolita — you have helped create a successful model that we can carry forward to future Conference web sites.

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