Master Class Report

Last Friday, we had the amazing opportunity to perform in a master class for Mr. Alan Kay. It was a fantastic experience, and we wanted to share that experience.

We had the benefit of being second to perform, so we got to familiarize ourselves with Mr. Kay's style first. We immediately noticed that Mr. Kay seemed to do so little in order to get a large response, in both his playing and his teaching. He knew exactly what to do or say to get the precise outcome he wanted, no more and no less. It is something we are always striving for in our own playing, so it was really cool to see that expertise in action. In particular, we were struck by the fullness of his clarinet sound. It completely filled the room, and made us want to experiment with how we produce our own sounds.

We also admired how much he focused on performer he was working with. For those that haven't seen one before, a master class is sometimes described as a series of mini-lessons with an audience watching. Sometimes this means that the professor will spend a great deal of time using the performers as an example to get a couple of big points across to the audience, without really digging into what the performers need to improve. Mr. Kay did the opposite. While we were watching him work with the first student, we really did feel as though we were watching a lesson happen on stage. He would make an observation, give the student a way to fix it, and have them experiment with how it worked. He also spoke softly, giving the entire experience a very intimate feel. We felt that he really cared about the positive improvement of each performer he saw, which was greatly appreciated.

After practicing all last week to be extremely prepared for our performance, we were excited to play for Mr. Kay. We had chosen the second movement of the Carter Canonic Suite. We had been aiming for a very homogeneous sound, with almost a sleepy feel. Mr. Kay suggested that we should bring out the different textures and colors in our individual sounds in order to keep it interesting. Otherwise, the audience might actually fall asleep! He also identified a couple key places to bring out individual lines, such as Matthew's melody at the opening, and the passing quarter note figure throughout the piece. We had been listening and making decisions with our ears in the middle of the group. However, Mr. Kay made us realize that we ought to also listen from the perspective of the audience, to hear and feel what they will during our performance.

We are excited to put these ideas into action in the other pieces we are working on!