Surround sound rained down at crown cathedral

Published 4:01 am Monday, July 23, 2007

By Staff
KALAMAZOO – Lots of music and a little baseball.
Let's start July 15 at the Cathedral of Christ the King, for which ground was broken 40 years ago in 1967.
It cost $1,653,729.81 to complete the cathedral I've often gaped at whizzing by on I-94, wondering what it was like inside.
The first worship service took place May 4, 1969. Yet Rector Cynthia Black's Episcopal congregation finished there July 22.
The cathedral has been sold to another church and the parish will henceforth worship in the Bronson Athletic Club atrium.
The word cathedral is derived from the Greek word "Kathedra," meaning seat. A cathedra is described in the dictionary as "the official throne of a bishop."
A cathedral is the church building which houses the bishop's chair, symbolizing his or her authority as chief pastor in the diocese.
The Rt. Rev. Charles Bennison was the bishop responsible for building this cathedral, which is even more interesting inside.
Architect Irvin Colburn of Chicago in 1964 received the American Institute of Architects' award for the finest church building.
The Rt. Rev. Bennison envisioned a strong dynamic center "housing at its heart the altar, with the various related aspects of the total mission of the church going going out as spokes from the altar hub to all parts of the cathedral building and from there out to the world."
So on this 38th Seminar Sunday, Jordan and other members of Steve Wolfinbarger's Seminar Brass Choir and James Bass' Concert Choir from Western Michigan University were arrayed above and around us in lofts, the heavenly surround sound raining down on the congregation in the round.
That was the second of four trips to Kalamazoo for Seminar, WMU's summer high school music program, including July 20 for the Large Ensemble Showcase and July 21 for the concluding Chamber Music Festival.
Western received 124 applications from students in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Kansas and Puerto Rico.
Friday night in James W. Miller Auditorium we listened to a string orchestra, a concert choir, the chamber winds and the Leonard Meretta Wind Ensemble, in which Jordan was one of five trombonists, rooming for two weeks in Henry Hall with Harley-riding Pentwater tuba player Thomas Pascale.
I didn't expect to see anyone I knew, but Candis Schonekas, Jenna Huffman-Winchester and Jake Bjork came to listen.
Double bassist Justin Waalkes of Grand Rapids Forest Hills is the son of former Dowagiac residents, Jim and Lisa (Hippensteel) Waalkes.
Her brother Tim, a Seminar alumnus, and I shared Dowagiac's 1975 John Philip Sousa Award.
In 1973 I spent a month touring the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Germany with Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Band.
I can particularly appreciate going from being a big fish in a small pond to wanting to set down my saxophone and just listen during the Gershwin medley or Richard Wagner's "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" because they sounded so good and I knew they would never miss me.
Where Jordan contends with Zachary Land of Kalamazoo and Matt Evans of Loy Norrix, I sat two chairs away from Renee Dunnette, whose solo on Maurice Whitney's "Introduction and Samba" brought crowds to their feet and admirers to the stage bearing flowers.
I devoted my senior year of high school to mastering that difficult song and performing it accompanied by the DUHS band, my accomplishment undimmed when, years later, my old friend Phil Barham sightread it with St. Joseph Municipal Band and informed me as he left the band shell, "That's what it's supposed to sound like."
The caliber of musicians we heard at Western is frighteningly high.
Two weeks ago they had never played this music or played together and now they're making recordings for sale in the lobby. It made me rummage up my black vinyl '73 record.
It was good to hear Renee Dunnette again.
Trumpeter Connie Wray also represented Dowagiac. I met Pat Maxey as a member of this band years before she came here to teach.
This is the 56th year for the WMU summer music program.
Portage violinist Gina Cosgrove, who showed us how her fingers have become longer on one hand than the other, still has a year of high school left.
Jordan, who will be at Southwestern Michigan College this fall, was one of 21 matriculated seniors. Most will attend WMU, but they are also bound for the University of Nebraska, the University of Michigan, Baker University in Kansas and Denison University in Ohio.
After two weeks of intense practice, Jordan played better than I have ever heard him in a brass quintet with trumpets Mason Henderson of South Bend, Ind., and Bonnie Beebe of Gobles, Mike Krawczak of Sturgis on horn and Mark Mercer of Portage Northern on tuba – and they had to follow percussionists who first played bells, then shape-shifted into a steel pan band.
Dowagiac directors Josh Bartz and Katie Hahn were in Saturday's audience.
Jordan studied piano. Others took guitar lessons.
They listened to a staggering amount of music when they weren't playing.
Since July 8 they had been the core audience for 16 concerts, during which they heard 85 performances representing works by 72 different composers.
As for baseball, July 22 was my Father's Day. Jordan and Savannah got me tickets to a Tigers game – my first trip to Comerica. I took Jordan to the next-to-last game at Tiger Stadium in 1999 when he was Logan's age.
It was Logan the Little Leaguer's first Major League game ever.
It was the 12th straight sell-out with more than 42,000.
Comerica has averaged more than 36,000 attendance per game – the most in club history, with the 1984 world champions second at 32,985. Being the defending American League champions hasn't hurt.
Logan tore around the bases after the game. I was an adult reporter with a press pass before I ever got on the field.
The Kansas City Royals won, 5-2, but we saw Nate Robertson pitch, Craig Monroe homer and Magglio Ordonez double in the ninth for his 81st RBI.
Ordonez, Monroe and Curtis Granderson patiently signed autographs right up to game time.
I happened to be in Detroit 40 years ago watching Mickey Mantle and the Yankees on the Sunday when a police raid at an after-hours bar on the west side boiled over, 43 lives were lost and it took National Guard and U.S. Army troops to quell the violence.
I could see smoke over the outfield wall, but we didn't yet know the city was at war.
I also happened to tour Fox Theatre during its restoration and went to the Rolling Stones concert at Ford Field five years ago, so I can appreciate this vibrant new area along Woodward.
Comerica reminds me of the Mall of America except there's a ball diamond in the middle instead of a roller coaster.
There are rides – Logan rode the Ferris wheel with baseball coaches – and all these entertainment venues and shopping.
Promotions are relentless, like minor league baseball.
Here we were, glued to the scoreboard watching a doughnut and a bagel race, as if we cared. Even the Aerosmith song played for the seventh inning stretch had a sponsor. Obviously, I need to get out more.