Michael Rowlett
Contemporary musicians often perform works from others long gone or from the other side of the world.
The chances of finding a challenging work in your own backyard are slim, but University of Mississippi music professor Michael Rowlett found a piece of luck when he connected with UM music department retiree Gene Saucier.
Rowlett will perform Saucier’s work at the International Clarinet Association, an annual conference being held in Lincoln, Neb., that begins Wednesday and continues through Sunday. The conference includes recitals, master classes, lectures and presentations related to clarinet.
“Many of the top performers in the field and many of my colleagues from other universities around the world will be there,” Rowlett said. “The ICA actually has a chair for each country and each state in the U.S., and I am the state chair for Mississippi.”
Gaining recognition
Saucier retired from the University of Mississippi music department in 1993 after 33 years of service. He is a well-known clarinetist with much of his work published. However, as time marched on, his compositions, mostly issued in the ’70s and ’80s, seemed to fade.
It’s time, Rowlett said, for these works to come back and gain some much deserved recognition.
“Gene Saucier is a great guy,” Rowlett said. “He taught all the woodwinds at one time or another, and he has written books on woodwind pedagogy and music for a variety of different instruments.”
Rowlett has taught clarinet at Ole Miss since 2002 and also teaches introduction to music. He received his doctorate of music at Florida State University in 2001 and taught for a year as a visiting instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He has played with the Memphis Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Eroica Ensemble, a chamber orchestra based in Memphis.
“Clarinet is definitely the only instrument where I have any hope of being considered an artist,” Rowlett said. “I play all the members of the clarinet family — I most recently played bass clarinet when the Memphis Symphony performed Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’ last March. I also play some alto saxophone.”
Rowlett has played at the ICA three times before with others but this will be his first performance as a soloist. This time he will perform “Three Pieces for Clarinet,” written by Saucier.
“The pieces are dedicated to Benny Goodman, and Gene sent the pieces to Goodman, who accepted the dedication,” Rowlett said. “As you might expect, they are jazz-inflected. When I first played the pieces for Gene, he asked me if I had ever played in a jazz big band, which I haven’t, but it has been great fun playing in that style. The pieces are short, but quite virtuosic, and in spite of their jazz flavor, they use some sounds and timbres that are typical of 20th century classical compositions. I think they balance the two styles quite well.”
But Rowlett did not hear about the piece at Ole Miss. Word about this music spread to him because of studying in Florida.
“I learned about this piece from one of my teachers, Frank Kowalsky, at Florida State,” Rowlett said.
Rowlett introduced Kowalsky to Saucier at the Mississippi Clarinet Day which led to him learning more about the piece.
“When they met, the first thing Frank mentioned were these three pieces,” Rowlett said. “That sparked my interest. Gene subsequently sent me a copy of the music, and it has been a real pleasure learning and performing the piece.”
The piece was published by G. Schirmer, a major American music publisher. Much of Saucier’s other works are published locally from Opus 2 Publishing, Saucier’s firm.
“I don’t believe the piece has been played at the ICA conference before, and I hope it will reach an even larger audience and gain Gene even more recognition, which I think he very much deserves,” Rowlett said.
The piece has been performed all over the country from graduate recitals at Southern Illinois University to concert hall performances.
Saucier joined Ole Miss in 1960 and became area head of the wind/percussion/string division. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In 1957, he received the John Philip Sousa Memorial Award, which highlights the most outstanding band student in the country.
In 1981, his textbook, “Woodwinds: Fundamental Performance Techniques” was published by Schirmer Books in New York and Collier Macmillan Publishers in London.
‘Three Pieces’
Saucier wrote “Three Pieces for Clarinet” during a tumultuous time that ties it to Oxford’s history. As the riots surrounding James Meredith were taking over the campus in 1962, Saucier locked himself away in the music library in Meek Hall, only a few steps from the Lyceum and Circle.
“I will never forget,” Saucier said. “This is most unusual I thought. I had to switch rooms sometimes to escape the smell of that stuff (gas) they used.”
Much of his work has been dedicated and accepted by artists such as Goodman, Artie Shaw, Julius Baker, Eugene Rousseau and Jerry Hall.
Saucier said the association with the publishers opened doors for him but after about 12 years under contract with them, he took a chance on republishing on his own, starting his own company that he continues to run today.
Saucier excited
He is excited to have his work performed and keeps a file of programs of places it has been played. The challenge is that it is a difficult work though, and not many can play it.
“The works I write in chamber music are virtuoso pieces from men I have admired all my life and you try to write something that is worthy of them,” Saucier said. “It’s very climatic and very technical and there are not that many people who can actually perform it, to be honest with you.”
But Saucier said that Rowlett is one of the few people who can perform it and do it well.
“He is among those few, limited number of people who have a very open mind and is open to performing something, how do you describe it, in the contemporary style that reflects American Jazz elements,” Saucier said. “He has an open mind, that is what impresses me, plus the ability to play it.”
While humble about his own music, Saucier admitted he’s proud to see his work played with such great pieces.
“I would never try to equate myself with those giants, but I am delighted that my virtuoso piece is played alongside these people,” Saucier said.