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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW More snow headed for the high mountains ... SOU professor joins Oregon Humanities board of directors ... Rogue Valley Symphony showcases Christopher Theofanidis ... More snow headed for the high mountains ... SOU professor joins Oregon Humanities board of directors ... Rogue Valley Symphony showcases Christopher Theofanidis ... ASHLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL Ashland Middle School band to play original composition in Eugene AMS band to perform original piece by local composer Jacobs at education conference Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@ADTsports DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@ADTsports Posted Jan. 13, 2016 at 8:52 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@ADTsports Posted Jan. 13, 2016 at 8:52 PM » Social News Jenifer Carstensen swayed with the music as she waved her arms to and fro in time, directing some 70 Ashland Middle School students through the peaks and valleys of the sheet music which sat before them. The band’s 55-minute practice Tuesday afternoon was riddled with fits and starts as Carstensen and co-director Travis Moddison tweaked and greased the dozens of levers and pulleys which make up the giant musical machine. At one point, during a break in the action, Carstensen smiled. She liked what she’d heard. “I think,” Carstensen shouted, “that you are finally hearing the domino effect.” That’s significant because the middle school band has been working on this particular piece — a challenging composition titled “Labyrinth Moon” — since October, and time’s running out. On Saturday, the AMS band will perform a five-song set that will include “Labyrinth Moon” before a full house of music educators as one of the guest of honor bands at the Oregon Music Education Association conference in Eugene. The performance qualifies as historically significant for AMS on at least two fronts. For one, the band’s “Labyrinth Moon” performance will be a world premier for the work, which was written by local composer and SOU professor Dr. Mark Jacobs. For another, Carstensen says that during a recent meeting with other Southern Oregon music teachers, nobody could remember the last time a band or choir from the Rogue Valley was asked to perform at the annual event. And if that isn’t enough to get the band members excited, the conference will be held at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, where renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed only five weeks ago. “I’ve been playing saxophone since I was in third grade and I still get nervous,” said eighth-grader EJ Holland, who plays tenor, alto and baritone saxophone. “It was kind of exciting when (Carstensen) told us.” “We weren’t really expecting it — it just kind of came out of nowhere,” said eighth-grader Amelia Kahn, who plays the flute. “We were like just getting ready for our winter concert and then suddenly we have to keep practicing. Usually after the winter concert we can kind of relax a little bit, but then we had to go even harder practicing all the time. I feel like we’re ready.” The OMEA conference is held every January in Eugene, and usually the bands that perform audition or apply for the opportunity. The AMS band bypassed those hurdles, however, when conference organizer Todd Zimbelman was invited to lead a clinic at the middle school, accepted, and was impressed enough by what he heard to add the AMS band to the festival’s schedule. Zimbelman told Carstensen of his decision in June and Carstensen was then left to determine how best to use the band’s allocated 30 minutes of stage time. Two months later Carstensen had an epiphany. What if Jacobs, who wrote a piece for the middle school three years prior, penned another composition specifically for the event, something that could premier in Eugene. “(Jacobs) is a very intricate, really cool, clever, quirky writer,” Carstensen said. Jacobs liked the idea, too, and agreed to do it, but after a month went by and Carstensen still didn’t have any music in hand she started to get a little nervous. Whatever Jacobs wrote would be one of five songs that the band would play, but Carstensen knew it would probably be the most challenging. “We had lots of other music to work on,” Carstensen said, "but I did start to be like, ‘We’re going to have to look at that music, Mark. I’m sure it’s going to be really hard.’” Jacobs, meanwhile, was busy sculpting his latest work. Writing for amateur musicians, he says, presents a unique challenge. “I got some reference material about early grades music,” he said, “the ranges and techniques that are typically under the fingers of younger players, and the usual information about the instruments that composers use. And then I just tried to find things that I think that they’ll enjoy playing that are maybe pushing them just a little bit in their technique.” Jacobs began delivering “Labyrinth Moon” in mid-October in increments, and from the beginning he played a key role in fine-tuning the finished product, dropping by band practice about every other day to listen, critique, alter and occasionally break out his trombone – in addition to his work as a composer, Jacobs is the principal trombonist in the Rogue Valley Symphony and has also played extensively for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In the AMS band room, “Labyrinth Moon” became a collaboration. Carstensen and Moddison knew what each of the band members could handle, and Jacobs was open to altering his work as needed. “Like,” Carstensen said, “If the oboe plays this high it’s going to be kind of screechy — can we bring the oboe part down? Or, are these really the notes you want here? … He was very receptive to the process.” The almost-finished product, Jacobs says, is much improved over the “Labyrinth Moon” of October. “Oh, it’s a wonderful experience to hear it really grow,” he said. “There are things that I wrote that I thought would be challenging, but they’ve lived up to those challenges. They’ve just learned the ropes, I guess you could say. “It’s always been my opinion — as was true in my case, too, when I was a junior high kid — that the music that students play really stays with them their whole musical lives, so it’s important to have challenging things to do and things they like. It all comes together in the full musical experience in education.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@ADTsports DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@ADTsports Posted Jan. 13, 2016 at 8:52 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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