Word: boudreau
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...Conductor Robert Boudreau and his rather grandly named American Wind Symphony Orchestra are bringing something precious to the river towns of Appalachia, the Kentucky bourbon belt and the Mississippi Valley. Essentially, Boudreau has a barge and an idea. The barge is an old coal carrier he got 15 years ago and converted into a floating concert hall. The idea has been with him ever since he graduated from Manhattan's Juilliard School in 1952 and found that there were just not enough jobs available for brass and woodwind players. Being a trumpeter, he understood the problem firsthand...
...Boudreau's winds have stirred up the whole area; now housewives in town after town do much of the door-knocking for him. He gives his audiences rousing toe-tappers: selections from My Fair Lady, Stars and Stripes Forever and, predictably, Down by the Riverside. He stages a fireworks display at show's end to hold the very young. But he has greater ambitions than that. His programs are heavily laced with contemporary works like Penderecki's Pittsburgh Overture, Badings' Armageddon and Mayuzumi's Concerto for Percussion-just three of the 200 scores...
...Certainly there is no organization quite like the fine 50-piece orchestra that Boudreau builds anew each summer with young (average age: 23) wind and percussion players from all over the U.S. and, this year, Japan and Canada. It may not match the luxurious silkiness of the Philadelphia Orchestra, but then it has no strings attached. Drawn from 300 to 400 auditioners a year, the orchestra is a crisp, vibrant sounding ensemble that can give its conductor just about anything he wants. What Boudreau wants is as much style and excitement in an electronic-and-live composition...
...Visual Delights. At Ravenswood last week, Boudreau unveiled yet another newly commissioned work, Report, by an up-and-coming Czechoslovak composer named Lubos Fiser (pronounced Fish-er). Report is a mesmerizing symphonic tattoo in which marchlike rhythms blend effortlessly with geometric splashes of sound. It was hardly a hit with the audience, though. "That doesn't matter," says Boudreau. "As long as they're sitting there, they're absorbing it, getting used to the sound of today." The rapt attention now given "favorites" by Penderecki and Badings seems proof enough of that...
...barge itself is a motorless wonder. While the orchestra members travel overland by bus, Boudreau moves the barge from stop to stop, like a kind of riverside hitchhiker. All the tow captains know the Point Counterpoint, as the barge is officially known, and willingly put a towline aboard and move it on to the next town. That saves the orchestra $12,000 to $15,000 a summer in tow charges. Placed against the orchestra's annual $90,000 budget, the saving is substantial...