Michael Webster and Leone Buyse make music on household items: vibrating soda straws, fastened together to form a double reed, and a partially filled water bottle are the instruments of choice for elementary school programs. Tonight's performance at the Hopkins Center with pianist Robert Moeling will feature the renowned artists on their more traditional instruments: the clarinet and the flute, respectively.
The recital is the final culminating event of the Webster Trio's week-long residency at the College. Aside from simply participating in masterclasses and class visits, the three virtuosi have made a terrific contribution to the arts scene in their own particular style: intimate residence hall performances, a visit to the Kendal Home and a presentation of one of Webster's arrangements, an "operatic potpourri" of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" for school children.
"You have to catch them when they're young," Webster said. "Our mission as musicians has to be to bring [music] to children."
That is precisely what the Trio does with unmatched enthusiasm and imagination. Webster's version of "The Magic Flute" is an arrangement that features "the greatest hits" of Mozart's comic opera, intertwined with a narration of the story.
"Kids like music," Michael said, "they just have to be exposed to it."
His career, for one, stands as a living testament to his claim. He has loved music his whole life, largely due to his early exposure to music as the son of legendary pianist Beveridge Webster.
Outreach and education is a large component of the Trio's work, in an effort to make music and the other arts a national priority.
"You can't take a 30-year-old adult, who has never been to the theater, to [a performance of] Macbeth, and expect them to like it," said Webster.
Early music education and frequent attendance at performances (such as the Department of Music's free Vaughan Recital Series) is one way to develop a listener's musical understanding. Just as in any other art form, music demands intellectual and emotional involvement and development on the part of the performers, as well as the audience.
"People have to know music, they have to love it, they have to be educated," Moeling said at the Wheelock House performance.
The academic environment has always been a hub for artistic activity.
"Essentially this is patronage," Robert said of the Trio's residency.
The Wheelock House gathering on Wednesday night was a cozy evening, providing chamber music the way it ought to be -- nestled in the living room, with the audience on sofas -- no chalk boards, no desks. A warm intimacy replaced the usual formality of such events.
The Trio played samples of tonight's performance, as well as pieces that concertgoers will not be fortunate enough to hear. The program will be a mix of Webster's "wearing your heart on your sleeve" transcriptions of Romantic composers (including Debussy-Webster's "Petite Suite") and newer works commissioned and composed expressly for the Trio.
Leone, an amazing flute virtuoso and former Boston Symphony Orchestra principal flutist, is particularly excited about Schulfoff's "Flute Sonata," a flavorful eastern European piece. Libby Larsen's "Barn Dances," a set of country tunes written by the American composer for the Trio, should add some homegrown Texas spice.
The final selections for tonight's program are from Webster's transcriptions of Gottschalk's works. The American's "Grande Tarantella" was a truly explosive success on Wednesday, with its flourishes and Robert's Chico Marxx-like style. The artists and composer Martin Amlin, whose "Clarinet Sonata" will be premiered, will be available for a spotlight discussion this evening at 7 p.m. in the faculty lounge.
