The halls of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Bower School of Music were quiet Friday afternoon but for the bright sound of flutes fluttering from a rehearsal space like the music of fairy tales.
The school’s wind orchestra was rehearsing for Monday's performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — also the stuff of fairy tales for many students.
“It’s a really great opportunity, and it shows that the program is growing,” said senior Paul Berlinsky, a trombone player for the wind orchestra. “I mean it’s D.C., one of the best cities in the country and one of the best stages in the world, so I’m excited.”
The 50-person orchestra has been planning the trip, which included a stop in Fairfax, Virginia, for a Father’s Day performance for high school students, for a year now.
The piece, "Requiem Dances for Children," was commissioned by the school on behalf of one of its donors. Written by composer James M. Stephenson, the work is energetic to emulate children but also features more sorrowful moments to pay homage to the lives lost.
Many of the students’ favorite of the four pieces is "Requiem Dances," for its emotion and meaning. For Berlinsky, who also favors the piece, it is also personal.
“I’m from that area. ... I've been to that school for band performances and marching band stuff,” he said. “During the performance I think it gets really emotional. The piece is really well-written. It covers a lot of ranges of emotion, and it’s fun to play, but it’s also very sorrowing to play.”
That the piece will be debuted at the Kennedy Center is perhaps fitting — when the center debuted in September 1971, the first performance was of a Requiem mass honoring President Kennedy, commissioned by famous composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Preparing "Requiem Dances" and the other three pieces has been hard work, said senior Manessa Abraham, a general music major. The orchestra had other concerts to prepare for during the semester, which ended in May, so even though the group has known they would be performing at the Kennedy Center since January, little time could be dedicated to the performance during the semester.
But that hasn’t made the experience any less exciting.
“The end goal for a lot of us here is to be able to make money just playing our instruments,” Abraham said. “There’s other people who are business majors or majoring in a science, and they have what their career will be already set for them, but when you're majoring in music you have to make it work and find things to do.”
Jones is careful in choosing what performances and trips the orchestra will participate in, as he strives to give his students the most educationally viable experience he can.
The orchestra previously performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2015, which was how they were offered the opportunity to play at the Kennedy Center. They went to New York with the Manhattan Concert Productions Tour Group, which was so impressed by the orchestra that it invited the group to play at the Kennedy Center.
Normally groups would submit a recording of their playing and wait to be selected, he said.