The inaugural performance of the city’s newest musical ensemble was such a hit that another concert is likely never to happen again.
The New Haven Vuvuzela Orchestra was comprised of whoever showed up at lunch time on the Green Thursday: about 40 people who received the dubious gift a free vuvuzela from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.
Soccer fans will recall that the cheaply made plastic trumpet-like instrument is of Zulu origin and in the mouths of hundreds of thousands of fans produced a cacophony that drove players, refs, and announcers nuts during the recent World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch how the pick-up orchestra of New Haven vuvuzelists tortured, er, performed, our national anthem.
The ad hoc volunteer conductor of the orchestra, William Boughton, who also conducts the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, pronounced the vuvuzela “more of a weapon than an instrument.”
The vuvuzelists received no instruction from Boughton beyond warnings that the instrument can cause deafness if blown too close to an ear, or droplets gathering at the bowl of the horn may cause viruses to spread throughout the community. They responded to Boughton’s call for a repeat performance of the anthem, but this time “fortissimo.”
Allan Appel Photo
The kids of the Shuler family, Sheldon, Tatiyana, and Shemar (left to right in photo), gamely complied, and seemed to have a good time.
Sheldon, who’s 8, confirmed that the instrument sounded like a trumpet. As a result of the experience, however, he said he concluded he wasn’t quite prepared to become a musician.
Boughton (pictured) said he was personally disappointed. He had hoped that the group might be up to performing either “Tannhauser” or “Firebird.”
Calling his performers to come in a little closer on the stage of the Green and to arrange themselves in two groups to create some antiphonal cacophony, the players played again.
This time, however, Barry Hancock, a New Havener with some background as a fifer and French horn player in college, produced a remarkably high note.
“Absolutely amazing,” said Boughton. “That man is a genius.”
A vuvuzela soloist was born. By then people’s ears hurt; the concert was mercifully terminated.
To a reporter’s musically untrained ear, the instrument, especially in the high register that Hancock had achieved, sounded somewhere in between the shofar blown on the Jewish High Holidays and, well, bovine rumblings.
Boughton was asked if he’d accept should he be invited to lead New Haven’s Vuvuzela Orchestra for an encore performance.
“Absolutely not,” he replied. Then he was seen zigzagging his way off across the grass to the nearest bar to drink himself into a stupor. (Not really.)
The event was the brainchild of the Arts Council Director of Communications David Brensilver. “We’re hoping this doesn’t send William’s career into a nose dive. He doesn’t deserve this,” Brensilver added in a moment of candor.
The event was a dry run for the council to explore new and more spontaneous ways to spread the word about an event using Facebook and Twitter.
It was, In Brensilver’s words, “a chance for the community to come out at lunch, to do something absurd, and annoy the neighbors.”
All those neighbors who hadn’t scattered immediately seemed to be having a good time.
Brensilver astutely arranged not to be photographed with his colleagues, Arts Council Executive Director Cindy Clair (left) and outreach coordinator Olashola Cole, both fellow culprits.
What did Clair want people to take away from the event other than a headache?
“Fun” she answered.
"Fun" is the right answer!