Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, TX –
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.