YSU PIANO WEEK NPR airing for Dana concert?

The composer gave his work an American flavor by using folk song elements.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Only about 450 people will be able to attend the performance of Edward Largent's "Concerto Americana" by Youngstown State University's Dana Symphonic Wind Ensemble and pianist Caroline Oltmanns.
A million more may hear it on the radio if Oltmanns has her way.
The concert, which will be at 8 p.m. March 1, will launch the fifth Piano Week series at YSU's Dana School of Music. Oltmanns says a live recording of the event will be submitted to National Public Radio for possible broadcast on its "Performance Today" program.
"It will be incredible if we got chosen. It would be incredible for Dana," said Oltmanns. She is a member of the school's piano faculty, artistic director of Piano Week and an International Steinway Artist.
Hundreds of NPR stations carry "Performance Today," which has an estimated audience of 1.5 million. Locally, WYSU-FM 88.5 broadcasts it from 8 to 10 p.m. four nights a week and from 10 a.m. to noon Sundays.
What NPR looks for
Criteria for submitting recordings to "Performance Today" are listed on NPR's Web site. Producers want "significant or interesting repertoire, well played, and recorded in a way that allows the music to be heard clearly," according to the general instructions.
NPR won't receive a blind submission from YSU. "I'm trying to do some legwork ahead of time" by contacting producers and telling them what's happening here, Oltmanns said. Still, NPR's staff must decide whether they like this concert enough to air it.
Oltmanns likes what she's heard during rehearsals.
"It's really an awesome, professional sounding group," she said of Symphonic Wind Ensemble, a student-faculty group directed by Stephen Gage. The ensemble has made recordings in the past, so this is "the next step to take," Oltmanns said.
One purpose of Piano Week is to expand the repertoire for symphonic wind ensemble and piano. One new work is commissioned each year and performed during Piano Week.
Largent is professor emeritus at YSU and continues to teach composition, theory and analysis.
American folk sound
Oltmanns describes Largent's composition as listener-friendly, "rather virtuosic" and having elements of both Americana and neoclassical style. She's impressed by his ability "to make those rather simple American folk tunes sound so natural, but he made them up," she said.
"I wanted to make sure it was fairly interesting without being pretentious," Largent said of his work. Also, given the possibility of its use in a national radio broadcast, "I decided it should have an American flavor."
German-born Oltmanns is "a good interpreter ... she has a very high sensitivity to American folk music," Largent added.
Dana Symphonic Wind Ensemble and a high school band from New York also will perform Largent's concerto at 8 p.m. Monday in Edward W. Powers Auditorium.
As for the chances of a YSU group's being heard on "Performance Today," "They're besieged with recordings from concerts during the entire year," Largent said of NPR. "They select the best ones -- not just musically, but technically."
This isn't Oltmanns' only idea for raising the profile of Dana School of Music.
Last year, about 1,500 Piano Week brochures were printed. This year, Oltmanns ordered 10,000. They've been distributed among music departments in 10 states, including on the West Coast.
Most Piano Week listeners will be local residents, but such widespread promotion leads to awareness and helps with student recruitment, Oltmanns said.
shaulis@vindy.com