On Thursday, November 2, 2023, Gustavus Adolphus College had the honor of welcoming Maestro Óscar Navarro for a five-day residency during which he was featured as a special guest conductor and clinician for the 2023 Gustavus Honor Band Festival. During his residency Maestro Navarro also led rehearsals with both the Gustavus Wind Symphony and the Gustavus Wind Orchestra.
This year’s Honor Band Festival saw a record number of nominations and participants on account of Maestro Navarro’s international renown and popularity. Beyond being honored with numerous national and international composition awards, Maestro Navarro has had his music performed by premiere ensembles worldwide including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hollywood Studio Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, Banda Municipal de Valencia, and countless others.
Maestro Navarro’s residency at Gustavus marks the second collaboration between him and the Fine Arts Programs at Gustavus. The relationship between Maestro Navarro and music at Gustavus stretches back to J-term 2023 when the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. James Patrick Miller, toured Spain and France. While in Spain, the Orchestra had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Maestro Navarro in Buñol, Spain to rehearse and perform his piece “Paconchita”.
About this experience, Dr. Miller says, “The opportunity to meet Maestro Navarro on his home turf, and work with him to perform a piece he wrote inspired by and about his parents was life-changing. You could feel the intelligence and the passion for music just radiating from him. All students could feel it, and we all took a part of that home with us. It changed our approach to the music”
Working so closely with a musician as highly respected and celebrated as Maestro Navarro has been a transformative experience for the student musicians at Gustavus. Maestro Navarro brought with him a contagious enthusiasm, joy, fun, and passion that reinvigorated the rehearsals of each ensemble he worked with. Similarly, during this year’s Honor Band Festival, Maestro Navarro was able to find a connection within each ensemble to turn complete strangers into one of the most outstanding Honor Band Festivals Gustavus has seen in recent years.
Dr. Miller says, “Having Maestro Navarro here for the Honor Band Festival raised the bar for all our students and all the staff and faculty who were around to interact with him. Actually, not only did it raise the bar, it razed the bar –it completely obliterated our existing expectations and standards for ourselves across the board and elevated them to a new realm.”
Hosting Maestro Navarro allowed Gustavus to highlight the values and community we have here. Reflecting, Dr. Miller says “Maestro Navarro was really able to get a sense of who we are here at Gustavus and the kind of community we have and what we value. His deep and complete appreciation of everything –down to his admiration for the beauty of Christ Chapel– and his desire to maintain the connection between himself and our campus was a striking reminder that what we have here at Gustavus is really something special. Opportunities like these –to work with incredible internationally renowned and respected professionals like Maestro Navarro is what our Gustavus students deserve.”