Students at Shippensburg University have weaved in and out of music classes in recent years.
They have explored and learned about the musical styles and dynamics of classical music, American popular music and various other forms.
It is a guarantee that these students have worked closely with or bumped into Mark Hartman, an assistant professor of music at SU.
Hartman experienced the typical childhood of a music enthusiast. He started playing in bands in fourth and fifth grade, and remembered a specific friend who had “the most amazing ears,” teaching Hartman and his brothers every note from their favorite songs.
A few years later, the group was accurately reproducing the songs.
However, Hartman’s focus in music changed in high school, when his choir director encouraged him to read music, “learning all things of a trained musician.”
He discovered the violin and immediately went from playing in rock bands to being a music major in college. Knowing how to play guitar gave him an advantage, making the violin come easily to Hartman.
He attended college in North Carolina, studying high levels of violin playing.
It was there that he met the violin guru, Elaine Richey, who had won major competitions in New York.
“Without her, I would not have made it,” Hartman said. “I always look back to what she gave me, and see how she patiently taught me through all steps.”
Hartman later went on to be a freelance violinist and also played guitar for a professional jazz band.
His venues ranged from wedding receptions to random events, but it was his long contributions to two professional orchestras that gave Hartman the true experience of delivering a classical repertoire.
“My ability to conduct today comes from playing in those orchestras,” Hartman said.
Since 2008, Hartman has used the tools he learned from Richey, and passed those very tools on that to his students.
With a doctorate in violin, he has trained music students of all kinds.
Students experience a higher and more sophisticated level of practices that they may or may not have experienced previously.
Additionally, students have had the unique opportunity to iron out songs and compositions they will perform on stage.
“Meeting with them on my own time is where the true connection is made,” Hartman said. “The most rewarding thing is to be able to connect with students, in a learning academic aspect.
“Sometimes it has to do with being able to communicate in training with students who are excited because they haven’t had this level of training,” Hartman said.
While students learn the pieces to perform, Hartman focuses on conducting and organizing the orchestra’s events.
The orchestra performance is a combination of students and community players. To accelerate the practice needed for delivering complex pieces of music, professionals are brought in to extend a hand. Often, these professionals fill in the gaps needed to complete the ensemble.
“We almost never have a student bassoonist,” Hartman joked. “Rehearsing with professionals makes it fit together.”
The students, he added, must have the expectation that they are in a professional environment; “You have to have solid training.”
Hartman is much like the orchestras he conducts. Having to balance the musical expressions of rock, jazz and classical has been a joy for him.
Though he is a conductor at Shippensburg University, he is also a player on his own time.
A man who likes to “innovate and improvise” can have enormous rewards for the students who are learning.
They can gravitate toward different aspects of Harmtan’s personality, pushing themselves to the potential that Hartman brings to the surface.
“I think, often as musicians, we look to those individuals who have brought us something special,” Hartman reflected. “At the end of the day, we then hand down something that the students will find special. It takes it to a new level.”
The Shippensburg Community Orchestra has a general theme for every performance. Last semester was a Spanish tango, featuring exotic accompaniments. In the fall of 2014, the pieces centered around jazz and movie scores.
“I try to put things together thematically so that the program can be presented in a single way,” Hartman said.
In typical orchestra fashion, a soloist is showcased, adding another layer to the already complex sound. For the fall 2015 show, award-winning cellist Elizabeth Anderson will be playing the lyrical and virtuosic piece, “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Anderson will also play the solo cello part from Vivaldi’s “Violin Concerto in B minor,” featuring violinists James Tung, James Nguyen, Lori Zeshonski, and SU student concerto competition winner Lucy Carter.
To perform in a concerto is a rarity. Carter is the first student performer in years to play in a concerto highlighted during the orchestra show.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Symphony No. 25” from the film, “Amadeus” and Ottorino Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 1” will also be played.
The show will be on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. in the Luhrs Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.
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