By David Fortier
He gets emotional.
That’s how Kyle Camerato describes fellow Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble member Rich Theriault, who will be directing his final concert with the ensemble this weekend.
“When he’s out there and he’s feeling the music, he gets choked up,” said Camerato, who has been assistant director with the Brass and Wind Ensemble for the past two years. “He shows it, and I am close enough to him where I can see that.”
Theriault’s last concert, the ensemble’s Spring Pops Concert, which is free to the public, will be at Bristol Eastern High School, this Sunday, April 21, at 3 p.m.
“Seeing that in a lot of the pieces we do, I think,” Camerato said, “just shows how he feels connected with the music and connected with the group, to me that’s always a special moment.”
That emotion connection is not the only thing Camerato will inherit from Theriault, when he takes over as director.
Theriault, who is originally from Rhode Island and hails from a musical family–his father and brother, either played instruments, performed with bands or on their own–taught for 35 years in the Bristol School System, mostly at Bristol Eastern, the same place Camerato teaches now.
Camerato has been with the brass and wind ensemble for five years. He said he looks forward to what Theriault has begun, right down to the military marches, which have been important to Theriault, who himself is a veteran.
Members of the Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble at Tuesday’s final rehearsal before the free Spring Pops Concert, where director Rich Theriault will conduct his final performance with the ensemble. | Laura Bailey
There are also the collaborations with the Bristol Chorale, which Theriault has directed for the past two years along with his service to the ensemble, that Camerato said he looks forward to.
“You don’t see a lot of groups like this in local areas,” Camerato said, “a group that’s been around as long as ours, that is playing the kind of music that we are playing, that’s having the kind of impact on the community that we have.”
The ensemble might not always get looked at that way, Camerato said, but it’s Theriault’s contribution that has helped the ensemble develop its own community, and a strong one at that.
“It’s his understanding of how important (the ensemble) is, and how he shows that through the way he leads the group,” Camerato said.
For his part, Theriault, at 77, his birthday was last month, is ready to step down, not that he won’t be available to fill in at practices from time to time.
“All together it’s been about 55 years of directing bands,” he said, “so it’s time to slow down a bit and retire.”
There were his 35 years in education, a stretch with the 102nd Army Band, which he retired from when he was 60 and his 15 years with the ensemble and two more with the chorale.
Fifteen years ago when he showed up to sign on as a player with the brass and wind ensemble, the powers that be had something else in mind.
“They were interested in having me be their director and taking over,” he said, and added that he has loved directing the whole time.
At the end, he said, through it all, he is doing well, but there is that emotional part.
“I find that I get a little emotional now when I do certain pieces,” he said. “So it’s (the concert is) going to be tough.”
Concerts, he said, especially the springtime concert, have been filled with pop-type music, such as marches, and the last concert will be featuring the same with John Williams’s “Superman March.”
And all the rest, will include pieces that he loves and that he has done with different groups over the years–and each has a story.
For instance, Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” was introduced after he heard the theme while watching a movie and had to chase down the arrangement by contacting England “and the hold nine yards.”
“Spain” by Chick Corea is a favorite because of the jazz connection. Theriault plays the saxophone but will not be playing but directing the piece. Persichetti’s “Pageant” comes from his years with the 102nd Army Band, he guessed, from 15-20 years ago. “Jupiter” by Holst became a favorite five or six years ago.
Clifton Williams’s “Sinfonians,” takes him all the way back to his own high school years in Rhode Island, when he made all-state.
“That was one of the things that happened in my life,” he said, “that made we want to be a director.”
Theriault said that he will be playing saxophone for Lovland’s, “You raise me up,” as “a dedication to the band, to the people in the band and how much I love them.”
Members of the Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble at Tuesday’s final rehearsal before the free Spring Pops Concert, where director Rich Theriault will conduct his final performance with the ensemble. | Laura Bailey
“Balladair,” by Erickson, he said, is a piece he used to do after the march band season ended during the high school year, when he wanted to calm the students down and get them in the mind of concert performances.
“I chose that piece because that’s the piece I started with,” he said. “I’m ending the concert with that as well.” “
For that piece, he will be inviting his granddaughter, Abigail, buddies Keith Wilson and Jim Santucci to join him.
“It’s going to be very special,” he said.
Wrapping the evening will be Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” with its “piccolo obbligato,” since there are members of the ensemble who play the piccolo and are up to the challenge.
“My approach to rehearsal is not just to play notes but to play music and to convey emotion and we do that,” Theriault said. “We have some wonderful players in this band.”
He said that what makes the ensemble unique is that it is made up of people who volunteer their time, from several professionals and a dozen or so music teachers from area schools to those who just love to play.
More recently, he said, a younger element, meaning 20- and 30-years olds, that he is happy about.
He is grateful for the board who runs the ensemble for its support as well as Camerato, who will be taking over.
Through it all, he said, his approach to music has not changed.
As an example, he pointed to a recent experience, interviewing students for a high school scholarship competition.
One of the students that he wanted to be a music director.
“I tried to convey to him that age has nothing to do with it,” Theriault said. “I am still directing the same way I did in my twenties, jumping up and down on the podium. It’s the only way I know.”
It’s gotten to the point where he has a chair by the podium. He will sit for 20 or 30 second and then he is ready to go again.
“There has to be a certain energy,” he said. “There has to be a certain excitement about the music you are playing.”
“I think that’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t think my conducting has changed since I was back in those days. It’s just stayed the same. You have a certain way of approaching the music, a love of the music that is always there.”
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