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The Birmingham Music Club Guild’s Scholarship Competition was held on Friday, March 26, at Birmingham-Southern College, in Hill Recital Hall.  A panel of Judges selected winners from the auditions of 35 college students from schools across Alabama.  Scholarships were given in four categories; piano, voice, instrumental, and organ.  The Walter Sechriest Best Overall Performance prize was also awarded.  Since 1941, the Music Club has given over $500,000 in scholarships to music students attending Alabama Colleges and Universities. The Competition event was chaired by Vera Britton. 

First place scholarship winners will be honored and will perform for the Guild’s program at their Spring Luncheon at the Country Club of Birmingham, April 9, 2010.

For reservations, please call Kay Clark, 802-7873.

 

The scholarship winners for 2010 are:

 

 MILDRED VOLENTINE GREEN PIANO SCHOLARSHIP
 First place ($1,500) Benjamin Rollings, University of South Alabama.

 Second place ($1,000)  Laryne Williford, University of Alabama
 
 PENELOPE CUNNINGHAM VOICE SCHOLARSHIP
 First Place ($1,500)  Katelyn Perkins, University of Montevallo
 Second Place ($1,000) Leslie Procter, University of Alabama

 STUART MIMS INSTRUMENTAL SCHOLARSHIP
 First Place ($1,500)  Benjamin Stephenson (Marimba), Auburn University
 Second Place tie:   ($750) Elisha Benjamin (Flute), University of Alabama
                                ($750) Corinth D. Young (Flute), University of Alabama
 
 ORGAN SCHOLARSHIP
 Second Place ($1,000) Joshua Bullock, Samford

 WALTER SECHRIEST BEST PERFORMANCE AWARD ($1,000)
 Benjamin Rollings, Piano, Univ. of South Alabama

 

Sunday, Alys Stephens Center
Presented by Birmingham Music Club

By PHILLIP RATLIFF

The Boston Brass deserves a lot of credit for programming. Over the years, they have curated a body of rousing arrangements that are well-matched to the peculiarities of that most monochromatic of chamber music configurations, the brass quintet.

The audience at the Alys Stephens Center Sunday probably caught on to the ensemble's most effective trick at creating musical color -- the use of alternative instruments. The group adeptly expands the brass quintet's normal palette by doubling (and occasionally tripling) on instruments that might be considered branches, maybe even twigs, on the brass family tree. Both trumpeters grabbed flugelhorns (think Chuck Mangione) to match the trombonist's dark-hued passages, executed on his secondary instrument, the euphonium. Such use of oddball instruments made what could have been a tedious musical experience vivid, full of surprises and pretty darned fun.

Not so fun was the between-numbers banter. The Boston Brass stated in their program profile that their jokes help bridge the gap between their music and their audience. One could easily argue that the quintet's joyous, near perfectly executed music, does just fine on its own.

About that music: The concert at the Stephens Center focused on two styles -- Latin American music from both the popular and classical realms, and jazz numbers from bop and swing eras. Standouts from the Latin American group included a wailing arrangement of "Malaguena" and a set of tangos by Astor Piazzolla. Big band fans had their pick of several fabulous numbers, from Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" to an artful reimagining of Glen Miller's "In the Mood."

One tune, Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca," bridged the worlds of jazz and Latin music. And as effective odd men out, the Brass wailed on a fleet rendition of Mozart's Overture to "The Marriage of Figaro."