Pat Finken - City Magazine

Feature
Symphony Salutes Teddy Roosevelt
By Tom Regan
Next month, the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony
Orchestra and the Theodore Roosevelt Center at
Dickinson State University will pay musical tribute
to the Rough Rider president and the time he
spent in North Dakota’s Badlands. The orchestra
will premiere “In Cowboyland,” a symphonic work
for narrator and orchestra composed by Chris
Brubeck, at Bismarck’s Belle Mehus Auditorium
on Oct. 22. The orchestra will perform it again at
DSU on Oct. 28 as part of the Theodore Roosevelt
Center’s 6th Annual Symposium. Bismarck’s Clay
Jenkinson will narrate the piece.
“The BMSO is the official commissioning
organization, but we’re doing it in partnership
with the Theodore Roosevelt Center,” explained
Beverly Everett, the orchestra’s music director
and conductor. “DSU is contributing a significant
amount and supporting the project in other ways.”
Everett met New York composer Chris Brubeck
three years ago when she conducted the Bemidji
Symphony Orchestra in a performance of his
“Quiet Heroes,” a piece for narrator and orchestra
that honors Iwo Jima hero Ira Hayes. “Chris has a
gift for merging history,
the spoken word and
music, in such a way
that a terrific narrative
is told about these great
historical figures,” said
Everett. The composer
will be in Bismarck
to help prepare the
symphony for the
performances of his work.
Brubeck, who has
also composed pieces
commemorating Mark
Twain and Ansel Adams
(The Adams opus was
penned with his father,
jazz icon Dave Brubeck),
researched Roosevelt’s life
in preparation for writing
“In Cowboyland.” “I had
to zero in on his time in
the Badlands and find out
what circumstances drove
him to that place,” said Brubeck. “I wrote the piece
based on biographies I have read and also based on
some of Clay’s (Jenkinson’s) writings.”
Roosevelt spent part of each year ranching in
North Dakota between 1883 and 1887. He once
said he would never have been president of the
United States were it not for his experience in the
West. “His time in the Badlands helped prepare
Roosevelt for the challenges of leading America,”
said Brubeck. “Roosevelt discovered his true grit,
sleeping on the ground gazing up at the stars with
the tough men who lived closest to nature.”
“To combine Chris’ and Clay’s geniuses is
going to be an explosion of super-sonic artistry and
intellect,” said Everett. “To conduct a musical work
that is a result of such talent and such a special
collaboration is, I think, ‘once in a lifetime.’”
Visit www.bismarckmandansymphony.org;
www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org.
Tom Regan, a former editor of City Magazine, has been a
media professional for over 40 years.
44 thecitymag.com