Versatile violinist Zach De Pue will return to Blue Lake on Sunday, June 29, 2008, at 7:30 PM, as soloist with the Festival Band, under the direction of Kent Krive. The concert will take place at Stewart Memorial Shell and will be broadcast live on Blue Lake Public Radio.
Mr. De Pue, recently appointed concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, will perform a piece entitled The Fiddler’s Contest, composed by his father, Dr. Wallace De Pue. Dr. De Pue is retired from the faculty of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and holds the rank of Emeritus Professor.
In addition to his duties with the Indianapolis Symphony, Zach De Pue is one of the founding members of Time for Three, a group of three classically-trained string players who perform in a wide range of styles, including classical, jazz, bluegrass, and folk. Mr. De Pue also actively performs with his three violin-playing brothers, who concertize together as The De Pue Brothers. Zach toured Europe in 1993 with Blue Lake’s International Youth Symphony Orchestra.
“I am looking forward to coming up there this summer,” says De Pue. It’s been 15 years since I went there. Unreal!”
Mr. De Pue remarked of his IYSO tour, “[It was] my first time overseas. That and Fritz Stansell’s demand for musical excellence made the experience very memorable.”
“Mr. Stansell was the first musician-teacher that came into my musical life that demanded musical excellence,” Zach continues. “My dad of course has always been this way, but to have a musician that was not related to you demand this was a whole different thing. Mr. Stansell's unwillingness to accept anything other than your best was very scary at the time, but looking back now, very rewarding. You could tell that he only wanted the best for you as a student and for you to reach your full potential.”
Zach De Pue’s return to Blue Lake was initiated by the Festival Band’s conductor, Kent Krive, who has been a faculty member since the camp began in 1966. Including a violin soloist on a band concert might initially seem a bit unusual, but Mr. Krive says Mr. De Pue’s participation followed logically out of both a concert given by Time for Three in Muskegon in March 2007 and a chance meeting at camp during the Summer 2007.
“A connection with my distant past was made at the Blue Lake 2007 Finale Concert which honored Dr. H. Owen Reed, Head Emeritus of the Composition Department of Michigan State University,” says Krive. “Present in the audience, and later at the reception which followed, was one of [Reed’s] former students, a gentleman who looked vaguely familiar to me. [He] turned out to be Dr. Wallace De Pue, from whom I had taken a composition class during work on my Master of Music degree. During our re-acquaintance conversation, he mentioned his initial efforts to write music for the wind band medium, after writing hundreds of compositions for other mediums. When I expressed interest in new works by ‘local’ composers, he mentioned a work for violin and band, stating, ‘I know just the person who could be the soloist!’ When I realized that the person I had met and heard during the appearance of Time for Three was not only Wallace's son, but also the newly hired Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.”
Composer Wallace De Pue says that The Fiddler’s Contest was written for essentially practical reasons.
“All four of my sons are both virtuoso violinists and prize winning fiddlers,” says Dr. De Pue. When they were from five to ten years of age, they had no place to perform except in fiddle contests and talent shows. A fiddler's contest requires three pieces: a hoedown (or reel), a waltz, and a tune of choice, perhaps a polka. If there is a tie, a fourth piece is needed. All four of my sons are fiddle contest veterans.”
Dr. De Pue continues, “The Fiddler's Contest was composed for my second son, Alex, the current international fiddling champion, years ago, but was arranged for wind ensemble very recently. Any of my sons can play it at will. Zach did the violin solo premiere with the Bowling Green State University Wind Ensemble, Dr. Bruce Moss, Director, in April 2008.
Kent Krive adds, “I would characterize [The Fiddler’s Contest] as being entertainment-oriented, while featuring scholarly compositional attributes. Given that the violin part is ‘fiddler’ based, one would expect to hear aspects of what is primarily a ‘recreational’ violin genre. What is of particular interest and value to young violinists such as will be in attendance at the performance, is that a pedagogically-correct approach to violin playing is most likely to produce the best results, no matter what the style of the music.”
Zach De Pue confirms this assessment.
“Classical music for a long time caused a rigidness in my violin playing. Embracing other styles has shown me that musical things we take so seriously in classical music, hardly matter in other genres, and vice versa. There is a looseness to playing fiddle music (especially stuff that you write yourself) that should influence your approach to the music of great composers.”
Although this is Dr. Wallace De Pue’s first time working with Mr. Krive and the Festival Band, he has a variety of experience of Blue Lake.
“[Kent Krive is] a truly excellent musician who has already taught me important things about ‘bandestration.’ When Zach played one of my works as a violinist in the Blue Lake [International Youth Symphony] Orchestra, I was invited to conduct. The orchestra played beautifully, in spite of me. Fritz Stansell and I were raised in Columbus, Ohio, and our paths crossed many times. Fritz and I even attended the same school, but in different grades. Alas, we didn't know one another until Zach was admitted to Blue Lake. What Fritz and his wife, Gretchen, have done for thousands of young musicians is legendary. Dr. James Niblock [the Vice-President of Blue Lake’s Board of Trustees], a great composer, also shared in the development of music at Blue Lake. [M]y impression of Blue Lake is one of awe.”
For his part, Zach De Pue relishes the opportunity to collaborate with his father on the Blue Lake performance of The Fiddler’s Contest as a peer musician.
“The collaboration has been very easy and a great joy for me. My dad is a composer that writes markings in his music as a guide for the musician, but not the end all answer. If I can put a phrase across with a different bowing, or different articulation, he is all for it. Performing the music has been exciting. It's not every day a string player gets to play with a wind ensemble.”
After beginning his violin studies with his father in Bowling Green, Ohio, Zach De Pue continued them with William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music and with Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute, from which he graduated in 2002. Mr. De Pue has given solo performances with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Mr. De Pue has participated in the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival and others, including Angel Fire, Saratoga, Sarasota, and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops both at Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem. He began his position as Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony in September 2007 and maintains an active performance schedule with Time for Three and The De Pue Brothers.
“My main focuses these days are split between the trio and the orchestra,” Zach says. “The brothers group has four individuals leading four individual careers that are very difficult to get together as a whole. I have played long enough with [Nick Kendall and Ranaan Meyer of Time for Three] that performing with them will be the closest thing to the feeling of performing with your brothers. The difference is that the brothers can capture that feeling tomorrow night if need be, and with very little rehearsal. It's truly amazing to perform with your family. You read each other like a book.”
With his musical activities pulling him in so many different directions, one wonders what Zach De Pue does with his “down time.” Considering the demands of his career, did he ever give serious thought to another one?
“I am very busy these days with my musical endeavors,” admits De Pue. “Between working as concertmaster with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and being a member of Time for Three, it's rare that I get to ‘let loose.’ When I do though, [things like movies, reading, and watching sports] provide a nice distraction from the musician's life. I did consider going to law school while I was even at Curtis, and while in high school all I wanted to do was play basketball. But my dad demanded from us that we play the violin, and play it well while we were growing up. I soon found my personal connection to the instrument and to music making soon after leaving home and going to college, and appreciate to this day my dad's diligence with me. I certainly was a problem child when it came to practicing.”
In addition to performing with the Festival Band, Zach De Pue will spend time working with Blue Lake’s string campers.
“I always try to make time for this,” Mr. De Pue says. “Young aspiring musicians are no different from myself. We are all on the same train, only I may be a few cars ahead. But the interest, energy, happiness, struggles, trials, and tribulations don't change. My interest is to share with students my experiences so far, but also to learn from theirs. At the end of the day, walking out on stage to perform in front of people is an exciting thing, but a challenging one.”
The Blue Lake Festival Band’s June 29 performance at Blue Lake’s Stewart Shell will be free of charge and open to the public. For more information about this concert and other concerts in Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp’s 2008 Summer Arts Festival, please call 231-894-1966 or 800-221-3796.
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