SCHENECTADY — Percussionist James Benoit, member of the Niskayuna High School Class of 2005, is coming home. He’ll debut on Sunday with the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra for a concert that has stirred up musical memories.
“I started in grade school with Mark Foster and in high school with Richard Albagli,” Benoit said from Pittsburgh, where he freelances. “The two of them is why I wanted to become a musician.”
Schenectady Symphony Orchestra
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady
HOW MUCH: $20, $12, free for 18 and under
MORE INFO: 346-6204, www.schenectadysymphony.org.
Benoit was also a member of the Empire State Youth Orchestra and its percussion and jazz ensembles.
“ESYO had a huge impact on me,” he said. “I was really lucky.”
Although he had aspirations to become part of the classical world, Benoit had substantial enough jazz chops to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston before getting his graduate degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with the percussionist from the New York Philharmonic, and his artist diploma from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Freelance performer
Since then, he has freelanced as timpanist and percussionist with orchestras in Boston, Miami, Albany and West Virginia, and at music festivals in London, Santa Barbara and Aspen as well as touring with the Lucas Films Production “Star Wars in Concert.”
As a jazz vibraphonist, he’s been a member of Phil Wilson’s Rainbow Band and WAITIKI 7. Currently, Benoit is a percussionist with the Sarasota Opera and in his second summer teaching at the Luzerne Music Center, where he works with “kids doing what I did in the ESYO.”
“Jim has a reputation as a really wonderful player,” said SSO music director Charles Schneider, adding that he always likes to feature local talent.
For this concert, Benoit will perform two vibraphone concertos that he’s never done before: Emmanuel Sojourne’s Concerto (1999) and Darius Milhaud’s Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra (1929-1930).
“The Sojourne has two movements,” he said. “The first is beautiful with some sections that sound like improvisation. The second is contemporary and flashy. It’s faster with some intricate techniques that are really cool.”
The Sojourne is for vibraphone, which has metal bars with a pedal that sustains the tones. Benoit will use different sticks and mallets and a bow that gives a voice-like sound rather than a pure pitch, he said.
The Milhaud, however, has him playing 15 different percussion instruments including timpani, tom tom, two kinds of cymbals, triangle, cowbell, tamborine, and wood block, along with bass, snare and kick drums.
Benoit will also use regular sticks, mallets, wooden and metallic beaters and timpani sticks. The concerto is heavily based in ragtime and only about eight minutes long.
New for orchestra
The two concertos are also new for the orchestra and for Schneider.
“The Sojourne is an extremely thrilling piece, although the last two movements are a bit troublesome because there are a lot of ad lib sections,” he said. “But it’s wonderful writing. He was the best player in the world and knew how to write for the instrument.”
The Milhaud piece is very much in contrast.
“It’s tritonal. It will sound like a lot of wrong notes with three harmonies overlapping each other. It will be harder for the audience,” he said.
Schneider has complemented these pieces with two by Jean Sibelius: “Finlandia” and his Symphony No. 2.
“I like to do chestnuts at the end of the season,” he said. “These are audience favorites.”
Schneider will not give his usual pre-concert talk, he said, because the orchestra will be rehearsing almost up to concert time.
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