When asked to compose a concerto for world-renowned trumpet player Rex Richardson, James Stephenson knew just what to do. He wrote a ridiculously difficult piece that combines jazz and classical style along with mind-numbing technique
Richardson was definitely up to the task, said Stephenson, a composer-in-residence for the Lake Forest Symphony since 2010.
Richardson will perform Stephenson’s concerto May 14 and 15 with the Lake Forest Symphony at the College of Lake County in Grayslake. The symphony will also perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony under the direction of conductor Vladimir Kulenovic.
Stephenson, who lives in Lake Forest, calls the trumpet concerto the “Rextreme Concerto.” It’s the second trumpet concerto he’s written.
“He challenged me as a composer and this challenges him as a soloist,” he said. “He’s played it 30 times all over the world on five different continents — and it’s part of him now. “
Stephenson and Richardson have been friends for a long time, and Stephenson also studied trumpet in college, which helped him write the piece. He also played trumpet for 17 seasons with the Naples Philharmonic in Florida.
Stephenson has been commissioned to write concertos and symphonies for such renowned groups as the Chicago Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony and the United States Marine Band.
When Richardson was invited to be a guest soloist in Australia in 2010, he was looking for a piece that could represent everything he can do, Stephenson said. “There’s really no limit to what he can do. Specifically, he can play both classical and jazz, which is rare in the trumpet world. The concerto is a piece that highlights all of that for him.”
Written in three movements, the concerto starts out “stormy, but then immediately goes into a laid-back jazz feel.” The second movement calls for a flugelhorn, a more mellow-sounding trumpet. “He has the most beautiful sound on flugelhorn,” Stephenson said of his friend.
“The third movement is just crazy. There’s a spot when the whole orchestra stops playing and he improvises a cadenza, which is different every time. He makes it up on the spot on how he feels. It always brings the house down.”
Richardson also “does this crazy thing called circular breathing. His technique is just ridiculous, jumping all over the horn from the high notes to the low notes. You can’t believe a trumpet can do that.”
More Top Picks Tools
Richardson teaches trumpet, jazz improvisation and chamber music at Virginia Commonwealth University and holds the title of International Tutor in Trumpet at the Royal Northern College of Music in England.
As the symphony’s composer-in-residence, Stephenson writes one piece that gets performed annually at a concert. Nearly all of his solo brass works have been professionally recorded, and his catalog for all instruments are on more than 30 CDs.
Lake Forest Symphony: Shostakovich 5
When: 8 p.m. May 14; 2 p.m. May 15
Where: James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, College of Lake County, 19351 Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: $35-$59
Information: 847-543-2300; www.lakeforestsymphony.org