Onyx Coffee Lab & Higdon

 It's only Wednesday, and I already am missing Spring Break... 

I was fortunate to spend the first half of my break down in Fayetteville, Arkansas attending the SHE: Festival of Women in Music hosted by the U of A. It was a weekend of presentations and performances celebrating the music of non-male composers & performers, not to mention a lot of good Southern food. I went with fellow University of Iowa doctoral student Sara Remoy who is a proud Arkansas alumna, so I had an expert source to finding the best spots in Fayetteville. My favorite coffee shop we stopped by was the Onyx Coffee Lab. 

Onyx was rather busy, but still managed to maintain a quiet enough atmosphere to have a conversation or get some work done on your own. At first sip, it was easy to see why this roaster has won so many awards (one of their former baristas & now wholesale director Lance Hedrick has a great YouTube channel for learning more about coffee brewing & equipment reviews). Their mission is a combination of producing a high quality product, while at the same time further educating their consumer (which feels not too far off from what we strive for as performers). I had a great time at my first SHE Festival, and you can best be sure I will be stopping here multiple times when I'll be back for SHE 2024. 

So because I was traveling with a proud Arkansan, we spent an extra day in town after the festival was over to see the sights (my catchphrase of the trip). This worked out perfectly for me because this gave me the opportunity to see the University of Arkansas' faculty brass quintet's spring recital. The recital featured works by Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Scheidt, Robert Paterson, and a world premiere performance of a new work by Jeff Cortazzo. While all of the works were masterfully played, my favorite piece was the opener: Higdon's Fanfare Quintet. 

I first was introduced to Jennifer Higdon's works in my undergraduate studies, as she also attended Bowling Green State University (go falcons!) and was the featured composer for the New Music Festival my junior year. She has won many prestigious prizes such as the Pulitzer and multiple Grammys. Higdon is one of the most frequently performed living composers (especially her orchestral work blue cathedral).

Higdon's Fanfare Quintet (2002) is a movement from the composer's larger work Ceremonies Suite (2001) which is for organ & brass quintet (though the full quintet is not used in every movement). The full Suite has 7 movements and takes about 25 to 35 minutes to perform in its entirety. It was commissioned in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

The Fanfare Quintet is based on the third movement from the Ceremonies Suite titled Fanfare which is originally for solo horn and organ. The solo horn part remains the same from the original work, while the organ part is dispersed amongst the other four voices. The piece functions as a great concert opener with exciting sixteenth note passages and a great dynamic variety. Like much of Higdon's other works, the piece features approachable chromaticism and is very audience friendly. I highly recommend anyone preparing a quintet recital to check this work out!