Derrick Rohl

Playing for the Composer

Derrick — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:42:48 +0000

I’ve played a number of organ/piano duets in recent years, both at Second Presbyterian Church of Bloomington and First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton. While others have been mixed in, the vast majority of these duets have been the work of composer Joel Raney. From feedback I get after playing his work, people seem to like it. A lot.

But, more importantly for me, his music is just plain fun to play. I played in a concert yesterday at called “Alive In God’s Grace”, which featured the Gargoyle Brass ensemble, as well as a number of First Pres friends/musicians playing organ, piano, and trumpet. David Lincoln and I played “In His Hands”, a seven-movement suite for piano and organ. We had previously played it at First Pres for the installation of our current head pastor. The exciting/out-of-the-ordinary part of this for me was that during our final rehearsal, Joel Raney came to listen and give us his feedback.

It was exciting to hear a composer share what he really wanted from each song. On a couple of occasions, he’d come up to the piano and play a little excerpt of a song so I could see exactly how he played it, and he had similar articulation feedback for David on the organ.

He had me slow down on the first movement and my solo, which helped me find even more to appreciate in the music. On another song, he told me he wanted it so detached that I don’t even touch the damper pedal. One piece of Joel’s feedback I made sure to write down was for a very aggressive movement:

The publishers wouldn’t let me have the articulation notes I really wanted… if they would have let me, I’d have made this one say ‘Bang the hell out of it’ for the piano.

So I happily took that feedback and put it into play yesterday. The final movement has always been a favorite of mine: it’s fast, loud, and very high-energy. For the final section of it, he shared with me where he got the idea for the piano part, so I think I’ll have to look back at some classical music and check that out.

All in all, Joel was very down-to-earth and complimentary of our playing. I was excited to receive feedback from him and I really think it added to our performance at the concert yesterday.

My grandma also reminded me this morning of the audience response throughout the piece: they were asked to hold applause until the end of the final movement, but after each movement I’d hear little “oh”‘s and gasps from the pews. Rumor has it the concert may find its way to YouTube. In the mean time, you can see some other pieces I’ve played at both churches that I’ve already uploaded.

Virtual Choir

Derrick — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:08:08 +0000

Tonight I had the treat of attending the IWU Collegiate Choir’s home concert at the end of their spring break tour. The concert took place at Second Pres, a very familiar venue for me!

I was excited for one of the songs in particular, “Lux Aurumque”. I had seen a TED Talk about Eric Whitacre’s project to bring vocalists from around the world together to sing the song via YouTube. The first time I saw the talk was about a year ago and someone sent it to me again within the past few weeks. I highly recommend that you watch the YouTube video of the final product below. While hearing the song in person is inspiring, the video is still very beautiful to listen to.

These are the kinds of random weeknight treats I’ll miss when I graduate from IWU…

New Orleans: Swamp Tour

Derrick — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:59:57 +0000

I went down to New Orleans with a group of guys for the better part of this week for Spring Break. On Tuesday, we headed about 45 minutes out of town to go on a swamp tour. We had read good things about a company called Cajun Pride and they did not disappoint. We survived a close encounter, so without further adieu, here are the photos:

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NACA 2012: Videos

Derrick — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:53:51 +0000

As promised, here are videos from a handful of the many performances offered at NACA 2012. They were all taken on my phone, so I apologize for the quality and the occasional sound of the phone vibrating when people texted me. But you get the idea!

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

NACA 2012: Day 4

Derrick — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:05:04 +0000

Day 4 of NACA was a marathon, and that’s putting it lightly. The day started and ended with block booking meetings and we were scheduled from 9 am until 2 am… yes, that’s 17 hours. In between those meetings, we had more showcases, educational sessions, and marketplaces than I could count. One performer to note was Leigh Nash, lead singer of Sixpence None the Richer. We also got to hear the Austin Renfroe Trio! At the Mid-America Conference last fall, I got to go on stage to accompany Austin on the piano for one of his songs, so it was cool to also hear how he sounded with the trio. I’m a big of his, so I’m going to shamelessly tell you to go get his new single on iTunes. It was just released while we were at the conference, so you’ll be among the first to enjoy it!

I’m writing from the airport in Atlanta, with one more flight between me and Bloomington. Looking back, this has been an incredible week. We’ve done a lot of booking for the near future on campus, and I’m really excited about the business we were able to get done. Once I get back to campus, I’ll work on getting as many videos posted as I can! Check back here for a new post later this week!

NACA 2012: Day 3

Derrick — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:57:49 +0000

We started day 3 off with a showcase emceed by Overboard, an awesome 5-person a cappella group (videos to come). After a quick break for lunch, we were back at it with another showcase, fun in the marketplace, dinner, an awesome showcase including a Blue Man Group-type performance, and a magician we’ll be bringing to campus next fall.

Andy Grammer performs at the end of mainstage showcase 4.

Last but not least, Andy Grammer closed out the showcase! I have a couple of video clips on the way, including “Gotta Keep Your Head Up.” The night ended with one more marketplace and we headed back to the hotel to attempt to get a normal amount of sleep… Now it’s time for day 4!

NACA: Day 2

Derrick — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:33:10 +0000

Day 2 of NACA was amazing! I got to hear Matt Roloff (the dad from TLC’s “Little People, Big World”) give a short lecture, followed by Zach Wahls, who I had also heard at the Mid-America conference in November. Zach will be visiting our campus later in the spring. At the end of an evening showcase, Bowling for Soup played a set! I took several videos and I plan to post them in the next couple of days.

Bowling for Soup performs in Day 2's evening showcase.

Day 2 was great and we took care of booking a performance for next year’s Family Weekend. The showcases were really great, and we got to close off the evening with NBC’s Stand Up For Diversity event, which was filled hilarious comics. I’m keeping this post short because I have to head back to the convention center. Day 3 update coming soon!

NACA 2012: Day 1

Derrick — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:17:04 +0000

Well, NACA is officially under way! It’s just past midnight in Charlotte and the first day of NACA 2012 was a blast! Even though I couldn’t fall asleep until 2 last night and woke up after a whopping 2 hours of sleep, our travels went smoothly, Bri realized that North Carolina counts more as “the south” than “east coast,” and we quickly began to experience southern hospitality. At some point during the day, someone asked me about Illinois, with the ‘s’ at the end very pronounced, leading me to realize we’re definitely not at home anymore.

There have been some familiar faces at the conference, but for the most part, we’ll be seeing a new crew of performers from the ones at the NACA Mid-America regional conference last fall.

With two showcases and two marketplace sessions under our belts, we’re off to bed for an even fuller day tomorrow in Charlotte! For now, I’ll leave you with a clip of one of the bands covering “Moves Like Jagger” earlier today:

NACA 2012: Here we come!

Derrick — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 06:19:49 +0000

It’s past midnight… I can’t sleep. Probably because I’m excited for NACA 2012! In less than 4 hours I’ll be waking up and getting ready to head to Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ll do my best to post photos and updates and you can rest assured I’ll be tweeting a lot over the next few days! For now, I have everything packed and laid out for when I wake up. Tomorrow will be the first of several long, fun-filled, unforgettable days!

2PC Chancel Choir

Derrick — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:29:31 +0000

Tonight was exciting for me because it was my first “official” night working with the youth of the Second Presbyterian Church’s Chancel Choir as their accompanist. This has been several weeks in the making, but now it’s officially under way, and I’m thrilled. I’ve been singing with the Chapel Choir (another of the church’s six choirs) and playing keyboard/piano for the contemporary worship band at the church, but my friend Amanda and I have now filled in two vacant positions to work with the high schoolers (she’s the almighty director).

The past week or so have been really exciting as we’ve started to pick a lot of the music we’ll be working on this semester. There are piles of music all over my room, but that’s not a bad thing. We’ve got one particular song I’m extremely excited about (and that’s a complete understatement) in the works, but I’ll hold off on posting it until a little later; we won’t be singing it in church until April.

As far as the position, I’m accompanying the choir, so I have some more time at the piano each week, which I’m loving already. I’ll also be an adult counselor (and the accompanist) for their Choir Tour in June… I’m learning more and more each day what an impressive operation this tour is, so you can expect all sorts of updates once the tour starts to come around.

For now, I’m off to bed after a great rehearsal with the youth… I know this semester is going to be awesome!