Awea Duo produces unique music with flute and saxophone

SEELEY LAKE – From the first piece they played at the Oct. 21 concert sponsored by Alpine Artisans' 2 Valleys Stage, the Awea Duo made it known theirs was not going to be a typical classical music concert. Jennifer Brimson Cooper played the flute and Masahito Sugihara played the saxophone – not a typical duo combination to begin with. In addition, they played Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor," one of the most famous works composed for – pipe organ! Think Bela Lugosi, Dracula, and the organ music popping up in a host of other late-night horror shows.

During the concert's intermission, audience member Carolyn Lewis commented that the Toccata was one of her favorite pieces, one she has heard played many times, both on organ and the full orchestra version arranged by Leopold Stokowski.

Lewis said, "It's a huge bombastic piece! That's why it amazed me that Mas could take all those notes and put them into two lines [for just two instruments]. I was blown away!"

In fact, Sugihara arranged more than half the music the duo played at the concert. Cooper said they find pieces they really love and try bits of it on their instruments. If they like the resulting sound, Sugihara creates an arrangement which honors both their instruments and the original composition and yet creates its own music.

Sugihara said, "I really like an arrangement of music that sounds like it is being played by more than one instrument."

In addition to transposed classical pieces, the duo played snippets of blues and rag-time. Most impressive, however, were the pieces by modern composers.

As Sugihara put it, "It's really nice to be able to work with living composers. So we can talk to them and understand more of what the piece is about."

One of the pieces he referred to was "Lake," originally composed for two flutes by Lei Liang. Liang told them the inspiration for the piece was nighttime at a lake lit only by moonlight. Liang said a beaver or some other creature swimming in the water created a V-shaped ripple which continually expanded outward. Liang's resulting composition, as played by Cooper and Sugihara, evoked rippling water and the strange, unidentifiable but non-threatening sounds one hears on a lake at night.

Two of the pieces the Awea Duo played were commissioned especially for them. "Damier Material" (2014) began with shrieking, attention-grabbing sounds completely unexpected from either a flute or a saxophone. The piece continued with other sounds such as a sewing machine and a jet engine which challenged the range of the instruments and the virtuosity of the players.

Renowned modern composer David Ludwig created the other piece as a short companion piece to his monodrama "The Anchoress." Cooper explained the medieval anchoress was a woman who chose to withdraw from the world to devote herself to a life of intense prayer and contemplation. An anchoress was sealed within a small cell, usually built adjacent to a church wall. The cell might have small slot openings to the outside for reception of the Eucharist, the passage of food and to allow conversation with those seeking her wisdom, since an anchoress was believed to experience mystical visions and receive spiritual insights.

Titled "Three Anchoress Songs," the piece consisted of three parts imitating French medieval "fixed forms," each form involving a complex set pattern of verses and refrains. In accordance with Ludwig's directions, Cooper and Sugihara began playing offstage in the opposite side wings of the stage, gradually walking forward to meet in the center. In parallel manner, the piece ended with the two separating and slowly walking off, this time singing. Her soprano voice imitated the high, light tones of the flute. His alto voice imitated his alto saxophone.

Speaking of the concert overall, 2 Valleys Stage Director Kirsten McGlynn said, "I loved how sensitively both of them can play. I was talking to Jen a little bit about it and she said that's why she enjoys playing with Mas so much, because he can play so softly and they both can get those really nice lower dynamics. That's really impressive."

The next performance in the 2 Valleys Stage concert series will feature the University of Montana Jazz Ensemble Jan. 13, 2019 in the Seeley-Swan High School Auditorium.