“I’ve done a lot of solo arranging for the guitar and a few arrangements over the years for personal use,” ?Wedeking said.
“But this is really the most intense arrangement that I’ve done for a large ensemble with scheduled ?performances.”
Late last August, the Latin American Music Center hired Wedeking to be one of the staff arrangers for the Latin American Popular Music ?Ensemble.
The ensemble course through the Jacobs School of Music is comprised of instrumentalists and vocalists that perform popular Latin American music.
Wedeking plays the guitar in the ensemble in addition to arranging the music.
At 8 p.m. Friday, Wedeking, along with the fellow LAPME members, will perform in their annual Valentine’s Day concert at the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center. The concert, titled “Me Quiere, no me Quiere,” will showcase arrangements of both love themed songs to represent Valentine’s Day and bad luck themed songs to represent Friday the 13th.
“We got different styles and within the styles we found contrasting pieces,” Daniel Duarte, musical director for LAPME, said. “For example, we decided to play some Tangos from Argentina.
“Within Tango, we had to find a piece that would be completely dark and related to Friday the 13th and one that would be romantic and beautiful related to ?Valentine’s Day.”
The concert will include five medleys, longer arrangements comprised of multiple songs.
Four of the medleys will include traditional Latin styles: Tangos, Choros, Boleros and Ranchera and Bossa Nova and Samba.
“We have the one side of lost love and then one side of love songs, so we wanted to mix those two ideas,” ?Wedeking said.
“Medleys seemed like a good way to do it because otherwise you end a sad song and start a happy song and we were going to do 20 songs. That makes for a really chopped up program, and we wanted to put stuff together.”
Wedeking said the final medley will include American songs because they wanted to include music that would be familiar to those who aren’t native Spanish speakers.
“It does a good job of educating the American public about what Latin American music and style really is,” Wedeking said. “Because if they hear a song that they’re familiar with and it’s done in a Latin American style, I think you can learn a lot from that.”
Additional programs will be provided at the concert for those who do not speak Latin American languages.
“Some the songs are in Spanish and some are in Portuguese,” Duarte said. “You’re going to get a program and then it’s going to come with the lyrics as well. So if you want to follow it then you can, but you don’t have to.”
Coordinator of the LAMPE Paul Borg said the they wanted to host the concert in the Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center as part of their outreach program.
“We keep trying to find appropriate venues for this concert, and we tried to have something off campus so it’s accessible to people who are not part of the University,” Borg said.
“We can schedule them here on campus, but we felt it was one way that we could reach out to the community.”
Wedeking said the audience can expect a really enjoyable experience with the layout of the concert.
“It’s not a rock show where the people will be jumping up and down, but I think some of the styles in particular will make for an electric atmosphere,” Wedeking said.
“I think they’ll be moved by each of the genres that we’ve selected, and I think those five genres will shape the mood.”
With two degrees in musical performance and none in composition, Wedeking said arranging music for the ensemble gives him experience that can help him with any aspect of music he chooses to pursue after graduation in the spring.
“I was really excited about the position, mostly because it pertains so heavily to my field,” Wedeking said.
“It has been a bit of challenge for me because I’m having to do more complex arranging than I’ve had to do previously, but it’s also something that I really enjoy doing.”
