The Well-Tempered Ear
Meet the 2024 winners of the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai, UAE
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By Jacob Stockinger
Did you know that the fourth and final round of a major international piano competition was taking place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates this past week?
The Ear didn’t — until now.
That when he saw the nine 2024 winners (below), chosen from 70 participants, named in a post on The Violin Channel website.
The third edition of Classic Piano International Competition — which started during the 2017-28 season — makes sense when you think about it.
Dubai has lots of oil money but not a lot of Western culture or prestige. But Piano World contains more than enough competitors and venues for the event — even after such top-ranked, career-boosting competitions as the Tchaikovsky in Russia, the Arthur Rubinstein in Israel, the Leeds in the UK, the Chopin in Poland and the Van Cliburn in the United States.
So why not a major piano event for the Middle East and the Arab world? (Readers: Do you know if any other music competitions take place in that area?)
Its format is unusual.
Pianists cannot apply directly. Instead, they have to participate in the early rounds that are held in countries around the world. Those who finish in the Top Five of a preliminary competition get invited to the final round in Dubai.
The competition’s preliminary rounds took place in the USA, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Kazakhstan, Poland, UK, Armenia, China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Spain.
Here is some general background:
And here are details including the jury members, the various prizes, and the restricted and required repertoire that the pianists must select from:
https://classicpiano.eu/competition
Russian and Asian pianists dominated this year, with veteran Andrey Gugnin of Russia (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom) taking home the first prize of 100,000 Euros ($108,300) plus 10 concert dates and a 50,000-Euro honorarium for performing with two different orchestras: the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. Gugnin, who protested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now lives in Croatia.
Here is a link to the story with the complete list of winners:
Like many major music competitions these days, Dubai’s was live-streamed. Its global media partners are medici.tv; euronews; and bachtrack. You can or will soon be able to find various artists and rounds of the competition on YouTube.
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TONIGHT at 7:30 the UW-Madison offers free but conflicting online concerts of opera and percussion music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight – Tuesday, Nov. 24 – at 7:30 p.m. the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music will offer two FREE but competing events online.
You would think with so many empty spots in the events calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic that such conflicts could be avoided.
In any case, whichever concert you choose to watch – or perhaps to toggle back and forth between the two – here are the details:
OPERA SCENES
The first concert, done by University Opera, is Opera Scenes.
According to the website description: “What was to be Opera Workshop’s Fall Opera Scenes program has morphed in a delightful way.
“This term, each singer undertook an in-depth study of one particular operatic role. We’ll be presenting the fruits of that study – excerpted recitatives and arias from The Coronation of Poppea, Don Giovanni and Orfeo ed Euridice – staged in each student’s adapted habitat, and filmed by the students themselves.”
Here is the program with specifics about the singers and the selections as well as other aspects such as direction and accompaniment:
UW-Madison Opera Workshop: Professors Mimmi Fulmer, Thomas Kasdorf and University Opera head David Ronis (below) are the directors; William Preston and Molly Schumacher are the TAs.
“Batti, batti” and “Vedrai carino” from “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Zerlina: Maria Steigerwald
Directors: Molly Schumacher and David Ronis
Pianist: William Preston
“Chiamo il mio ben così” and “Che farò senza Euridice” from “Orfeo ed Euridice” by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orfeo: Emily Quartemont
Director: David Ronis
Pianist: Thomas Kasdorf
“Or sai chi l’onore” and “Non mi dir” from “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Donna Anna: Sachie Ueshima
Director: Mimmi Fulmer
Pianist: Thomas Kasdorf
Excerpts from Act I, Scenes 3, 4, and 10 from “L’incoronazione di Poppea”by Claudio Monteverdi. (Below is a photo by Michael R. Anderson of a previous fully staged production in 2018 by University Opera of the Monteverdi opera.)
Poppea: Molly Schumacher
Director: Mimmi Fulmer
Pianist: William Preston
Here is a direct link to the one-hour production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANcPY9sLGls
UW CHAMBER PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
Also tonight is a concert by the UW-Madison Chamber Percussion Ensemble (below), directed by Anthony Di Sanza and Thomas Ross.
It takes place in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center, and will run from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. No in-person attendance is allowed.
The UW-Madison Chamber Percussion Ensemble is dedicated to the performance of significant and engaging works for the Western percussion ensemble tradition. Repertoire from diverse trends in 20th and 21st century chamber composition is explored with an emphasis on new compositions for percussion.
Here is a direct link to the live-streamed concert, with more information about the program and the names of the players if you click on “Show More”: https://youtu.be/iZKO8pZmomA
And here is the program of the mostly new music:
Living Room Music (in the times of Covid) (1940) by John Cage and heard in the YouTube video at the bottom.
I. To Begin
II. Story
III. Melody
IV. End
Spanesque Oscillations (2003) by Steve Riley
For High Hats (2017) by Matt McBane
INTERMISSION
Marimbaireachd (1997) by Matthew Welch
The Lonelyness of Santa Clause (1994) by Fredrik Andersson
Metric Lips (1988) by Bela Fleck (arr. Steinquest)
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Classical music: This Friday brings a FREE concert at noon of cello and violin sonatas by Beethoven. At night, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra explores rarely heard works and composers plus the “Jupiter” Symphony by Mozart
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ALERT: This Friday’s FREE Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features the Mosaic Chamber Players performing a one-hour, all-Beethoven concert in honor of the Beethoven Year, which celebrates the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The program is: Cello Sonata, Op. 5, No. 1; and two violin sonatas, Op. 12, No. 3, and Op. 30, No. 2. For more information, go to: http://www.mosaicchamberplayers.com
By Jacob Stockinger
Can you tell the difference between the real Mozart and the “Swedish Mozart”?
You’ll have the chance to find out this Friday night, Feb. 21, if you go to the concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below, in a photo by Mike Gorski) at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
That is when you can hear the Symphony in C-Sharp Minor, VB 140, by Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1791, below), an 18th-century German-born, short-lived composer who, as an exact contemporary of Mozart, spent most of his career at the court in Stockholm, Sweden, and became known as the “Swedish Mozart.”
(You can hear the opening movement of the Kraus symphony, played by Concerto Koln, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is more about Kraus (below): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Martin_Kraus
The Kraus symphony opens the WCO concert.
Then for the purpose of comparison, the concert closes with Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551. It is often cited as Mozart’s most accomplished work in the symphonic form, and is renowned for its melodies and harmonies, and for the masterful, even spectacular, counterpoint in the last movement.
But that kind of discovery and approach to programming is not unusual for WCO maestro Andrew Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz), who has a penchant for exposing audiences to rarely heard works and composers as well as to well-known masterpieces.
For this concert, Sewell will be helped by the return of guest violin virtuoso Giora Schmidt (below in a photo by David Getzschman), who has been acclaimed for his technique, tone, lyricism and riveting interpretations. He played the Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor by Sergei Prokofiev with the WCO in 2018.
Schmidt will solo in two rarely heard works for violin and orchestra: the 16-minute Violin Concerto, Op. 48, by the Russian composer Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987); and the 8-minute Romance by the Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen (1840-1911).
For more about Kabalevsky (below), go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Kabalevsky
For more about Svendsen (below), who was a conductor and violinist as well as a composer, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Svendsen
To purchase tickets ($10-$77) and to read a detailed biography of soloist Schmidt and find out more about the concert, go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-ii-5/
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Classical music: Flutist and activist Iva Ugrcic is Musician of the Year for 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger
The classical music scene in Madison is so rich that it is always a challenge to name a Musician of the Year.
There are just so many deserving candidates. One obvious example is conductor John DeMain, who is completing his 25th year of outstanding stewardship in directing the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Opera.
But part of the intent behind such an honor is not just to recognize well-known figures. It is to encourage a broader awareness of those people who do a lot for local classical music but who often fly under the radar for many people.
That is why The Ear is naming flutist and activist Iva Ugrcic (below) as the Musician of the Year for 2018.
As both a performer and entrepreneur, Ugrcic is always very busy broadening her varied career. Being both a player and an activist, she is making a difference, musically and socially, that deserves to be recognized and supported.
Serbian by birth and educated in Belgrade and Paris, she came to Madison where she completed her doctorate in flute performance and also took business courses at the UW-Madison Business School.
She is a first-rate performer who has won a national prize for performing. While at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, she won both the concerto competition (below) and the Irving Shain competition for wind instruments in duets. (You can hear her amazing technique in the YouTube video at the bottom. In it Ugrcic performs “Voice” for solo flute by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.)
She now plays with the Black Marigold Wind Quintet and Sound Out Loud, both of which are based in Madison and both of which devote themselves to contemporary composers and new music.
This year, Urgcic also soloed with the Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by John W. Barker), performing to critical acclaim a relatively unknown concerto by 19th-century composer Carl Reinecke.
This year, Urgcic also took over as artistic director of the Rural Musicians Forum, which brings classical music, jazz, world music and ethnic music, played by outstanding performers to the Spring Green area, often at the Taliesin compound of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
But perhaps her most long-lasting contribution is her founding and now directing the LunART Festival that, in the same year of the Me Too movement, sought to present an all-women event that featured composers, performers, visual artists and writers.
Such was its inaugural success in 2018 that it won a national prize from the National Flute Association and a second festival will take place from June 9 through June 9, 2019.
2019 will also see the release of her second solo recording devoted to the music of the contemporary Romanian composer Doina Rotaru, even while she is working on a recording of “Beer Music” by contemporary American composer Brian DuFord.
And all that is just the beginning for such a promising talent. We will be hearing much more from her and about her in years to come.
To see her impressive biography, as well as updated activities, video and audio clips, photographs and other information, go to: https://www.ivaugrcic.com/bio
Here is one more thing that speaks to The Ear. It feels important, even necessary, to recognize the positive contributions of an immigrant at a time when the current “America First” administration under President Donald Trump seems so paranoid and negative, so xenophobic and afraid of foreigners.
The U.S government should be less intent on condemning or stigmatizing immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, and should put more emphasis on their contributions and on the long and distinguished history they have in the United States.
Iva Urgcic is yet another example of the talent we Americans stand to lose if we do not accept and encourage the gifts that immigrants bring in so many ways — from the arts, medicine, education and technology to everyday life and work.
Please join The Ear is expressing gratitude and congratulations to Iva Urgcic.
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Classical music: Celebrate Commencement Day 2018 with Brahms and Elgar
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is The Big Day – Graduation or Commencement Day 2018 — at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The weather may be too rainy and too cold, but there is little choice as an alternative to the huge outdoor ceremony for thousands of graduates, plus friends and family, at Camp Randall Stadium (below) unless there is lightning or dangerous weather that could delay and cancel the ceremony.
Still, there is some great music to celebrate with and perhaps warm up with.
If you have a favorite suggestion for graduation music, leave the name of the composer and work, along with a link to a YouTube video if possible, in the COMMENT section below.
In the mean time, here are the two most famous works that will perhaps stir you or even warm you.
First is the Academic Festival Overture, which uses a student drinking song, that was composed by Johannes Brahms when he received an honorary degree.
And what would any graduation be without the traditional old standby that still never fails to touch most of those who hear it: the stately Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 — one of five composed and then used for a royal coronation –by Sir Edward Elgar
Congratulations to the Class of 2018.
This post is for you.
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Classical music: Kyle Knox is the new music director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras
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By Jacob Stockinger
Kyle Knox has been named the new music director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO).
Knox (below), who was a clarinetist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras and then studied conducting as a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will assume his duties on July 1.
Knox, will also conduct the Youth Orchestra (below), the most senior performing group in WYSO.
The move is likely to please many disappointed fans of Knox, who has won praise for conducting the UW Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the University Opera and the Middleton Community Orchestra but who was passed over as the successor to UW Professor James Smith (below) when Smith retired.
Smith was also the acclaimed longtime music director of WYSO. For the past year Randal Swiggum (below), the music director of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, has been the interim music director of WYSO and conductor of the Youth Orchestra.
In the latest WYSO newsletter, Knox, a longtime Madison resident who is married to Madison Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Naha Greenholtz, writes:
“I am so looking forward to my first year as Music Director at WYSO, beginning July 1, 1918. Even in the short time I’ve spent at Saturday rehearsals, it is clear this is a first-rate youth orchestra program. Top to bottom, each ensemble offers a special opportunity for music-making and artistic growth. I am lucky to be joining such a vibrant artistic and administrative team.
“Our 2018-2019 season will feature great orchestral and chamber works from all eras. In addition to our stellar roster of sectional and chamber music coaches, the students may have the opportunity to work with world-class guest artists and soloists. It should be an exciting season of music-making.
“As a teenager, music had a transformational effect on my life. I owe much of my personal and professional development to my time playing in youth orchestra and the many wonderful teachers I met as a result.
“Even now, almost 20 years later, the relationships I formed during those years continue to be among the most meaningful in my life. Something about sharing a stage with other people, working toward a collective goal, leaves a special imprint on my mind. (Below is Kyle Knox conducting the UW Symphony Orchestra.)
“For the students, I hope that your time at WYSO is enriching and helps add meaning to your lives, both as artists and people. It is an honor for me to be a small part of that journey.
“I look forward to getting to know everyone in the WYSO family over the coming months.”
For more background and information about WYSO, which is more than 50 years old and has reached thousands of students from more than a hundred communities in south-central Wisconsin, and about the upcoming spring concerts in May, go to:
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