West Virginia Wesleyan College - Murmurmontis Yearbook (Buckhannon, WV)

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EUROPEAN STUDY-TRAVEL (MUNICH, SALZBURG, INNSBRUCK) (2) 35 093 01 Hamner Elements of German history, life and customs, empfiasis on south-German Austrian art, music, and architecture: German legal and educational systems. — Become acquainted with some fundamentals of German and Austrian culture. Travel period January 9-26 Ivlorning classes, guest lecturers, visits to museums, pal- aces, villages, schools. Most afternoons and weekends free (optional weekend in Italy). Pass fail evaluation Pased on full participation. Prerequisites: None (all instruction in English) Enrollment: 15 Meeting Time: Evening, January 9, at Kennedy Airport Special Costs: $770 p lus spending money. Jan. Term in Germany Wesleyon and the World 25

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24 Wesleyan and the World

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Romania Revisited — Romania IVlania iUEST :; uiRGinin ' IDESLEVnn :ONCEl T Dt 3AZZ On Tuesday, May 15, 1979, the West Virginia Wesleyan College Jazz Ensemble set foot on Romanian soil for the second time in less than a dec- ade. Having traveled to Romania in 1 973 and Poland in 1 974. we auditioned and gladly accepted an invitation from Friendship Ambassadors to perform in Jazz Celebration II in Sibiu, Romania, Thus Romania-Mania became a fact of life on the Wesle yan Campus, Fund raising began almost immediately We pooled our resources, with many students contnbuting the entire amount while others offered as much toward the individual total as their families could afford Using the services of the Wesleyan Computer Center, we traced addresses of Wesleyan band alumni and wrote each of them The band alums were able to send the equivalent of three passages to Romania, Finally, as we came near to our goal, Wesleyan's president, Fred Harris gave the band a green light and Romania-Mania was launched officially. Several problems were encountered almost immediately. Our students had to arrange to lake their final exams about a week early, and seven had to miss their own commencement ceremony. Fortunately, faculty and administration cooperation was outstanding and all went well for our May 1 4 departure. Still, another problem had to be solved, Buckhannon. West Virginia, is nearly 500 miles from New York, making a one day trip to the airport nearly impossible. To solve the problem, we arranged an overnight concert engagement on May 13, the night before departure, in Woodbury, New Jer- sey, the home of one of our trombonists, B, J, Brazier, The students were housed in Woodbury homes on Sunday night, played an early Monday morning assembly program and left immediately for the airport. On Tuesday. May 15th, early morning, we landed in Bucharest and met our guide, Mihaela Fislioc. Our next three weeks were to represent the most profound impression in the lives of our student players. We established last- ing friendships, meaningful relationships, and heard many excellent Roma- nian musicians Our hosts, BTT did an outstanding job in arranging our per- lormances and tours. On our first full day m Bucharest, we exchanged per- formances at the George Enescu High School for Mucic, where we heard soloists of fantastic musicianship. In nearly every city; Brasov, Alba lulia, Tirgu Mures, we met Romanian Id .' players and in many cases, shared the stage in concert. In every per- formance, our ensemble was greeted by a packed house, rhythmic applause, and a presentation of beautiful flowers. The Romanian people are justly proud of a beautiful country. We were dazzled with the grandeur of the snow-capped Carpathian Mountains during our stay in Busteni. the beautiful Black Sea coast at the International Student Hotel at Costinesti and the splendor of dining atop Mount Timpa at the Pano- ramic Restaurant high above the city of Brasov. While in Busteni. the Wes- leyan band and a group of Russian tourists were entertained by an outstand- ing folk dancing group from Ploiesti. the L'Ensemble Folklorique Prahova. One of the highlights of our lour occurred after an extremely gratifying concert in Cluj. We were treated to a slide presentation featuring the West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble on lour in Cluj in 1973. Hopefully, we can return in a few years and see slides of the 79 band! Of course, the absolute highlight of our Inp was the festival in Sibiu. Jazz Celebration II. Fortunately, it was scheduled at the end of our tour because everything after would be anti-climactic. Lectures were presented on a vari- ety of subjects including ' Romanian Folk Music in Jazz , the ' 'History of the Development of Romanian Jazz Clubs , and the ' 'History of the Swing Band Era , the latter presented by Fred Kaufman, director of our sister American group, the Eastern Montana State College Jazz Ensemble, from Billings, Montana, We chose as our lecture topic. The Influence of Odd and Changing Metered Music in American Big Band Repertoire . using as examples the works of Don Ellis. Hank Levy, Bob McConnell, Roger Neumann and Bill Holman Jazz Celebration II lasted three days: each of the first two nights saw sev- eral Romanian groups and one of the American groups. Standing room only audiences were the rule of the festival. The third and final night, the Gala featured as a prelude, a film of last year's festival. The concert included most of the groups from the past two days, and as a highlight, a jam featuring several Romanian soloists and groups with the Montana and then, the West Virginia groups. The Gala began at 6:30 PM with the film and was still going strong at 1 1 00 PM! We were treated to rhythmic applause throughout the concert and if chops could hold up. it seemed that we could have kept the full audience all night. II was at the festival that our Wesleyan players understood what I meant icon'lonp 81