Thursday evening’s concert in Jamestown Community College’s Scharmann Theater was the culmination of a very hectic two days, in which composer Eric Ewazen made a residency on the campus.

The concert lasted more than three hours, and the composer himself, who both discussed his music and performed some of it on the piano, described the evening as ”the most comprehensive evening of my music which I have ever attended.”

On the program were seven lengthy works by the composer, created in a wide variety of styles, and performed by a number of guest artists, each of whom is one of the finest instrumentalists in our area. Also on the program was the world premiere of ”Sonata for Euphonium and Piano,” by Neil Flory, the coordinator of music at JCC, and the principal organizer of the composer’s residency.

The guest artists were Lauren Smith, horn; Esther Efthimiou, flute; Sharon Johnson, piano; Stephen Cledgett, trombone; Elizabeth Martindale, piano; Victoria McIlvain, soprano; Cathy Gagliano, piano; Matt Glover, trumpet; Erik Lundquist, euphonium; Ron McEntire, piano; James Beal, tenor; Jacob Swanson, soprano saxophone; and Jim Welch, piano. All did a very fine job.

Beal is a member of the music faculty at JCC, and has been a personal friend of the composer. He has been given credit for convincing Ewazen to spend some time in Jamestown. With the composer at the keyboard, the tenor sang a song cycle called ”A Summer Journey,” in which Ewazen has set the same poems which were used by Franz Schubert, in his song cycle, ”Winterreise,” or ”Winter Journey.” The one difference was that Ewazen set the poems by such poets as Muller, Goethe, and Leitner in English, while Schubert set them in German.

Beal sang four of the songs by Ewazen, alternating the last two between the Ewazen setting and the Schubert one.

Ewazen is a very visual composer, and some of his finest work involves painting an image or a portrait in music. A fine example was ”Down a River of Time,” which was performed by Jacob Swanson, on soprano saxophone, and Jim Welch on piano. The composer explained that he had originally composed the work for oboe, but it had been transcribed for tenor sax by Dan Knorr. The work imagines a river, flowing through time. The first movement evoked hopes and dreams, the second movement evokes sorrows, and the final movement portrayed dreams of tomorrow. Swanson performed with a buttery smooth tone quality on his very difficult instrument, maintaining throughout, the finest quality. Welch’s accompaniment stayed perfectly with the soloist, despite a knuckle-busting set of technical demands.

Lundquist performed both Ewazen’s ”Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Ensemble,” and Flory’s world premiere of ”Sonata for Euphonium and Piano.” The two couldn’t be more unlike, but Lundquist gave each the qualities it needed. Bravo.

McIlvain performed ”Three Lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay,” each evoking the poet’s love of nature. Her diction was flawless, and the fact that the work was written rather low in a soprano’s voice range didn’t cause a moment’s problem.

Glover was commanding on ”Sonata for Trumpet and Piano,” able to lay out lyricism and elegance, or to sound out like Gabriel himself.

In the program, the audience was directed to note the composer’s latest recording, with the title ”Shadowcatcher.” Among the elements of interest is that the title work on the disk is conducted by Mark Gould, of the faculty of Juilliard and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Gould is an area native, who graduated from Maple Grove High School in 1977.

I wish there was room to say more. It was a long, but very exciting evening.