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NEWS | March 16, 2016

323rd Army Band 'Fort Sam's Own' woodwind quintet named best in Army

U.S. Army North Public Affairs

The 323rd Army Band’s woodwind quintet was named the Army’s top woodwind ensemble in this year’s Musical Performance Team of the Year competition.

The quintet, consisting of Staff Sgt. Michael Becker on flute, Staff Sgt. Kayla Eskander on oboe, Spc. Martin Van Klompenberg on bassoon, Spc. Nathan Scott Owen on French horn and Sgt. Joe Samuel on clarinet, received the honor for their performance of a Beethoven piano sonata arranged for woodwind quintet.

The Musical  Performance Team of the Year competition is an online competition for all Army musicians worldwide. Ensembles in eight different categories submit videotaped performances to be judged by their peers.

“Army Music puts the videos on their portal, and everybody in the career field gets to rank their favorite. We came out on top in our category,” Eskander said.

The piece of music the quintet submitted was arranged by Van Klompenberg and had its origins in a very somber event.

“I originally arranged the piece for the Jan. 5 memorial service of Lt. Col. Brandon Darby,” said Van                                    Klompenberg, referring to the Army North deputy intelligence officer who passed away suddenly in December.

“We don’t get asked to do memorial services often and we don’t have a lot of music for that,” he added. “We got together and brainstormed what we could do to honor him and his tremendous service.”

“Something else that was unique about that piece of music was we had just come off of block leave and our horn player (Owen) was brand new to the unit,” Becker said. “We only had one or two rehearsals to get ready for the memorial service, and then only one more rehearsal before we recorded it. It came together really beautifully.”

Since the entries were music videos judged online, the quintet pulled out all of the stops in the recording of their performance.

“We went down to the First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio because they have such a beautiful venue,” said Samuel, who oversaw the audio and visual recording and production of the video. “It wasn’t just a straight performance. We added some creative elements to the video.”

“Our audio quality and visual presentation was probably the best quality and I think that was probably the key feature to us being top-voted ensemble,” said Becker.

The 323rd Army Band has won the competition in the past with its brass band, but this was a first for “Fort Sam’s Own” in the woodwind category. The victory is particularly notable because of the numbers of instrumentalists and audio-visual recording specialists possessed by their competitors in the large bands such as the U.S. Army Band (“Pershing’s Own”) and the U.S. Army Field Band.

The win, however, should come as no surprise given the collective pedigree of the quintet’s performers. Van Klompenberg, known as “the Doctor,” holds a doctorate in music arts. Eskander and Owen completed master’s degrees before enlisting and Samuel holds a bachelors in music plus audio engineering training. Only Becker had no formal civilian music schooling after high school.

“I’m kind of a phenomenon in this career field. I originally joined the Army as a linguist… but I have always continued playing regularly. Even when I was in Iraq, I brought my instrument with me and was playing in the containerized housing units,” Becker said.

The quintet’s members all have one thing in common: every member had at least one family member who served in the military, infusing them with a commitment to serve combined with their love of music.

Despite winning Army music’s equivalent of a “Grammy,” the quintet has no intention of resting on its laurels. All of its members are excited about their future together.

“We’re very pleased with our new ensemble and how well we can gel and work together,” Becker said.