A Conductor’s and Performer’s Guide to Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone - Chester Jenkins

89 I’ve always loved music. But I had no idea I would actually someday be able to give back. I was in the Michigan Marching Band. I had my own eight piece band from the end of high school through law school, it was great. JENKINS: Yeah GOURWITZ: I figured OK, that was my musical career. But, when I had the guts to ask about coming back to the band, you know, when Kevin finally stopped laughing and he knew that I was serious and that gave me the opportunity. If he hadn’t said yes, it took guts on his part too. And he made me promise, ‘You have to do everything the kids do and if you make it you make and if you don’t make it you don’t make it. You’ve got to show up every day’. And he said, ‘You’re going to drive up from your law firm every afternoon to be here?’ ‘I’ll be at every rehearsal.’ ‘You know we have a gig every weekend. A game, an away game, a something, a concert somewhere.’ ‘I do.’ So, I did, and I made it and it was great. And that’s led to us being here today. Kevin called…are you familiar with John Mackey’s Asphalt Cocktail? JENKINS: Oh yes, oh yes. GOURWITZ: I commissioned that piece. And Kevin called me one day. And he started off by saying. ‘I’m going to ask you a question, but you don’t have to say yes.’ He never asked me that type of question before. JENKINS: (Laughs) GOURWITZ: I always knew, if he asked something, that he would hope I would say yes. So I said, ‘What is it.’ ‘Well’ he said, ‘We’re going to give the main concert down at CBDNA at Kevin’s University of Texas next…’ Whatever it was. The next year. He said, ‘There’s this great young composer, and he wants to write an opener, and I know Howard, it’s going to be great. Are you willing to commission it?’ And I said to him, ‘Wow, Kevin you’ve never asked anything like this. I never knew how those things actually took place.’ So we talked about it. So, anyway, I said, yes. And then after saying yes, I said, ‘Kevin, how much does this cost?’ JENKINS: (Laughs) That’s the reverse order. LULLOFF: I’m buying the car! How much is it? GOURWITZ: He knew that too. But I had actually thought about it. Michael Haithcock actually wrote an article about commissioning music a number of years ago that I saved, but had never talked to anybody about. Right? And the commissioning fund at Michigan is named after H. Robert Reynolds, who is also a friend of mine. Bob and Kristen are.