The Well-Tempered Ear
UW-Madison alumna Kathryn Lounsbery gives a FREE virtual online talk this Tuesday night about how musicians can develop and market new skills during COVID
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By Jacob Stockinger
It is no secret that the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic have been especially hard on gig workers and artists worldwide – hurting musicians financially and professionally as well as psychologically and artistically.
But this Tuesday night, Nov. 10, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. UW-Madison alumna Kathryn Lounsbery (below) will give a FREE virtual and interactive talk about developing marketable skills that can help carry musicians through the pandemic and beyond.
There is no in-person attendance. But here is a link to the live-streaming session of YouTube video: https://youtu.be/me1tC0LfEVU
Here is more information from the Mead Witter School of Music:
“Pure talent does not always equal a paycheck. Now, more than ever, musicians need to be savvy and employ out-of-the-box thinking with regards to their careers.
“Kathryn Lounsbery — a graduate of the UW-Madison School of Music — has taken her two classical piano degrees and crafted a life in music that includes teaching, performing, comedy, workshops, music-directing, cabaret and more.
“In this interactive session, she will pass on ways in which musicians can craft creative and rewarding careers for themselves, all while making a living.
“Lounsbery is a Los Angeles-based pianist, vocal coach, educator, comedian, music director, composer, arranger and educator. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California (2004) and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000).
“She has served on the faculty of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for a decade. Many of her former students are currently on Broadway and have been in feature films and television shows. Prior to her tenure at AMDA, she was on the faculty at Sonoma State University.
“Lounsbery is endorsed by Roland Pianos and frequently gives concerts and clinics on their behalf across the U.S. and abroad.
“For seven years, she served as a Keyboard Editor at Alfred Music Publishing, the world’s largest educational music publisher.
“Lounsbery has worked alongside entertainment industry greats including David Foster, Jim Brickman, Evan Rachel Wood, Travis Barker, Kathy Najimy, Charlotte Rae, Laura Benanti and Aubrey Plaza to name a few. She has been a music coach for HBO, Showtime and ABC series.
“As a comedian, Kathryn was featured on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and has appeared at The Laugh Factory and The Improv, and has headlined at The World Famous Comedy Store. Her musical improv skills lead her to hold the position of music director at the famed Second City in Chicago for several years.
“Lounsbery is the creator and director of “Authenticity and Bad-Assery,” a popular performance-based workshop in Los Angeles. There is currently a waitlist to participate.
“She has toured the country with her solo show “Kathryn Lounsbery Presents Kathryn Lounsbery.” Her comedy videos have garnered millions of views and have been shown at film festivals around the world. (You can see a comedy beefcake video based on Beethoven’s “Pathetique” piano sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“She is also the music arranger on “The Potters” an animated feature to be released through Lionsgate in 2021.”
Tags: #AlfredMusicPublishing, #AmericanMusicalandDramaticAcademy, #AnimatedFeature, #ArtsandEntertainment, #AubreyPlaza, #AuthenticityandBad-Assery, #Bachelor'sDegree, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BroadwayMusicals, #CharlotteRae, #ChicagoIllinois, #ClassicalPianist, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CreativeArts, #DavidFoster, #EntertainmentIndustry, #EvanRachelWood, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #FeatureFilm, #FilmFestival, #GigWorker, #HBOTV, #JacobStockinger, #JimBrickman, #KathrynLounsbery, #KathyNajimy, #LastComicStanding, #LauraBenanti, #LosAngeles, #LosAngelesCalifornia, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #Master'sDegree, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicCoach, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #MusicEducator, #NewRelease, #NewYorkCity, #OnlineTalk, #PathetiqueSonata, #PianoSonata, #RolandPianos, #SecondCity, #SheetMusic, #ShowtimeTV, #SonomaStateUniversity, #TelevisionShow, #TheEar, #TheImprov, #TheLaughFactory, #ThePotters, #TheU.S., #TheUW, #TravisBarker, #TVShow, #UnitedStates, #UniversityofSouthernCalifornia, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VirtualTalk, #VocalCoach, #VocalMusic, #WorldFamousComedyStore, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, ABC, ABC-TV, abroad, Alfred Music Publishing, alumna, AMDA, America, American Musical and Dramatic Academy, animated feature, animation, arranger, artistic, Arts, attendance, Aubrey Plaza, audience, Authenticity and Bad-Assery, Bachelor's degree, badass, beefcake, Beethoven, Beethoven piano sonatas, beyond, blog, bloh, Broadway, cabaret, California, career, Charlotte Rae, Chicago, Classical music, classical piano, clinics, coach, comedian, comedy, comic, composer, Concert, concerts, country, covid, Craft, creative, David Foster, decade, degree, develop, editor, educator, emoloy, endorse, Entertainment, equal, Evan Rachel Wood, Facebook, factory, faculty, feature film, festival, film, film festival, financial, gig, gig worker, give, graduate, greats, hard, HBO, ILLINOIS, industry, Jacob Stockinger, Jim Brickman, Kathryn Lounsbery, Kathy Najimy, Keyboard, Last Comic Standing, laugh, Laura Benanti, like, link, Lionsgate, live-stream, livelihood, living, Los Angeles, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, market, marketable, masters degree, Mead Witter School of Music, millions, movie, Music, music coach, Music director, Music education, music educator, music-directing, Musician, NBC, NBC-TV, New York City, online, out-of-the-box, pandemic, participate, Pathetique Sonata, paycheck, performance, performing, Pianist, Piano, Piano sonata, popular, post, posting, psycholoigcal, puyre, regard, release, rewarding, Roland pianos, savvy, Second City, series, serve, session, share, sheet music, Showtime, skills, solo, Sonata, Sonoma State University, Student, tag, talent, talk, teaching, Television, television show, tenure, The Ear, The Improv, The Laugh Factory, The Potters, thinking, tour, Travis Barker, TV, TV show, U.S., United States, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, USC, UW, UW-Madison, views, virtual, vocal, vocal coach, vocal music, waitlist, Wisconsin, worker, workshop, world, World Famous Comedy Store, years, YouTube
Classical music: What kinds of classical music and classical composers do the presidential candidates like?
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ALERT: This Sunday night’s concert of new music for woodwinds and piano composed by UW-Madison professor of saxophone Les Thimmig, with UW-Madison pianist Jessica Johnson, has been CANCELLED.
By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight is the last debate for the Republicans before the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. It takes place at 7 p.m. CST in Manchester, and will be broadcast on ABC-TV.
This past week also saw both a town hall meeting and a debate between the Democrats – their last before the primary election (below, in a photo by Getty Images).
Here’s a question no one has asked them during the debates: What kind of classical music do you like?
I know, I know. The question has little relevance and little popularity.
But still.
The Ear is happy that the famed New York City radio station WQXR listed such preferences in its blog.
The Ear notes a couple of trends.
No specific pieces were named.
No sonatas or concertos, no symphonies or operas.
All the names of composers were extremely mainstream except for Arcangelo Corelli by Dr. Ben Carson (below), who also named Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. Others mentioned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS HEALTH)
Bernie Sanders’ preferred composer echoes his own populist and defiantly anti-establishment, even rabble-rousing, sentiments. Can you guess which composer he favors?
Why is The Ear not surprised that Hillary Clinton remains vague about composers and pieces, but says YES of course she likes classical music and even has it on her iPod.
And former businesswoman Carly Fiorina (below, in a photo by Politifact) surprises one with her youthful plan to be a professional musician, a concert pianist. Does she still play? The Ear wants to ask.
The Ear also wonders:
Does Evangelical Ted Cruz consider classical music frivolous or even sinful?
Does the Cuban background of Marco Rubio feel ethnically distant from European classical music?
And what about Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and especially Donald Trump?
The Ear bets that country music, rock and pop music draw many more voters and gets many more votes.
But doesn’t anyone else think that the irresistible opening thee of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony would be a great dramatic call to arms for a candidate?
But who knows for sure?
Anyway, here is a link tot he WQXR story:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/classical-music-presidential-campaign-trail/
Now, The Ear doesn’t expect that this survey will change anyone’s vote.
Still, it is interesting as a sidelight to the much bigger and much more important issues confronting the candidates and the electorate.
And perhaps more specifics about their taste in music will emerge during the rest of the primary campaign and the then the general election.
Their individual culture quotients must matter for something.
What are your reactions?
What do you think?
Let us know.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: ABC-TV, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Carly Fiorina, Chamber music, Chris Christie, Classical music, composer, Corelli, culture, debate, Democratic, Donald Trump, Election, Fifth Symphony, General election, Jacob Stockinger, Jeb Bush, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Kasich, List of classical music composers by era, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Manchester, Marco Rubio, Mozart, New Hampshire, New Music, New York City, opera, Piano, President, presidential candidates, primary, Republican, Republican Party United States, Saxophone, Sonata, symphony, Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven), Ted Cruz, town hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, woodwinds
Classical music: Oscar got it wrong for the Best Picture in 2006, but that Academy Awards mistake has been corrected and now, for a couple of months, you can hear the new opera version of “Brokeback Mountain” for FREE.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Tomorrow, on Sunday night, March 2, the annual Oscars, the 86th annual Academy Awards, will be given out starting at 6 p.m. CST on ABC-TV, which will also stream the awards broadcast live.
The Ear hopes that this time Oscar gets it right.
I recall one memorable year when they got it wrong.
That was in 2006 at the 78th annual Academy Awards.
Even the late, great and popular film critic Roger Ebert (below, in a photo by Vince Bucci), whose choices I usually admired and concurred with, got it wrong.
In 2006, two of the top contenders for Best Film were “Crash” and the heavily favored ‘Brokeback Mountain.”
“Crash” dealt with race and racial tensions in Los Angeles, and focused in interrelated stories that were well told and well acted by some fine names, including Thandie Newton (below left), Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon (below right) and Don Cheadle.
“Brokeback Mountain,” based on the short story by Annie Proulx that was first published in The New Yorker magazine, dealt with two young modern-day cowboys in Montana struggling to deal with and acknowledge their gay identity and their love for each other.
Late in the game, Roger Ebert came out in favor of “Crash” as the most deserving film to receive the Best Picture award. His influence may well have set the upset in motion.
But Ebert was wrong.
“Brokeback” deserved the honor. It was a moving film with great music and great cinematography. Most of all, its story and character study were very poignant and bittersweet, even heartbreaking. And it was masterfully acted by Jake Gyllenhaal (below left) and by the late Heath Ledger (below right).
Not that Crash wasn’t a fine film. It was. But race had been dealt with very well in a many other films over the years.
On the other hand, “Brokeback Mountain,” directed by the incomparable and eclectic Ang Lee, was a break-though work of art, a pioneering achievement that proved nothing less than revolutionary in the way it introduced gay subject matter and characters into mainstream Hollywood cinema in a sympathetic way.
And the current move of public opinion towards approving of marriage equality – or gay marriage or same-sex marriage – just goes to prove the point.
“Brokeback” did win three Oscars – but NOT the one for Best Picture, which went instead to “Crash,” a good movie but not a better movie than “Brokeback.”
But American composer Charles Wuorinen also found something inspiring in the story of two lonesome gay cowboys up on an isolated Montana mountain. So he asked the author to rework the story into an opera libretto while he went to work composing the music. (Below, in the title roles, are Tom Randle, left, and Daniel Okulitch, right):
The results are an opera based on the revised short story.
How good are the results?
Here is a balanced and insightful review of the opera’s world premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain, from senior music critic Anthony Tommasini for The New York Times, who rightly thinks a love story calls for a little more singing and melody. He seems to be saying: Right story, wrong composer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/arts/music/lyrical-cowboys-in-love-on-stage.html?_r=0
And here is an overview, with a link to a streaming site for the opera, from the famed radio station in New York City, WQXR-FM:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/brokeback-mountain-opera-critics-weigh/
But more to the point, you can judge for yourself. You can now hear the opera FREE via streaming for another 60 days or so thanks to Medici TV. (You can get a taste in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is link to the story on NPR’s “Morning Edition” that features an interview with Proulx (below) and also give some background as well as a link to the opera broadcast on Medici.
Here is a link to the NPR story:
So let’s hope The Academy gets the right movies for the right awards Sunday night.
Here is a link to much more information about the Oscars.
And you can return here tomorrow where you will find more Oscar-related stories about music top serve as background before you tune into the always endless live broadcast with this years; host, Ellen DeGeneres –- an out lesbian whose appearance attests to the prescience of “Brokeback Mountain.”
Tags: ABC-TV, Academy Award, Annie Proulx, Arts, Brokeback Mountain, Charles Wuorinen, Classical music, Daniel Okulitch, Heath Ledger, Hollywood, Jacob Stockinger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Madison, Madrid, Medeci.tv, Music, New York City, New York Times, New Yorker, NPR, opera, Oscars, Roger Ebert, Spain, Teatro Real, YouTube
Classical music Q&A: What makes for a good villain? Baritone Nmon Ford talks about playing Scarpia this weekend in the Madison Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Tosca.”
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By Jacob Stockinger
Few villains in opera are as villainous and hated by audiences as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini’s ever popular “Tosca.” (At bottom is a very popular YouTube video with over one million hits, that features soprano Angela Gheorghiu singing the opera’s most famous aria, done by Tosca, “Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amor” (I lived for art, I lived for love).
So The Ear thought it might be interesting and informative to ask baritone Nmon Ford what it takes to play a good villain on stage. He plays Scarpia, who tortures and kills for love, in this weekend’s two performances of the Madison Opera’s production of “Tosca.” (Below is a YouTube video of the “Te Deum” aria from “Tosca” that Ford sang at the Madison Opera’s “Opera in the Park” preview last July.)
Performances are in Overture Hall at the Overture Center on this Friday night at 8 p.m. and this Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. “Tosca” will be sung in Italian with English surtitles. Maestro John DeMain will conduct members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. The stage director is A. Scott Parry, who returns to the same company where he directed acclaimed productions of Philip Glass’ “Galileo” and Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
Soprano Melody Moore sings the title role of Tosca, and tenor Scott Piper sings the role of her lover Mario Cavaradossi.
Tickets are $18-$121. Call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141 for information and reservations. The show runs 2 hours 45 minutes with two intermissions. For more information about the production and the entire opera season, visit:
http://madisonopera.org/performances-2013-2014/tosca/index.aspx
It is a special production as it will also give Madison audiences their first chance to sample Madison Opera’s general director Kathryn Smith in her first foray here into Puccini, one of the great staples of the opera repertoire.
The handsome articulate and charismatic Nmon Ford (below) – whose robust and unabashed physicality is featured regularly on the blog “BariHunks” — generously gave The Ear an email interview that comes after a link to his own website with details of his biography and career:
http://www.nmonford.com/home.html
What is it like to play The Bad Guy or The Villain? What is the best part and what is the least favorable part of playing such a role, the part you like and the part you dislike?
It’s a great deal of fun because I gravitate toward proactive characters that energize plot development, which the Bad Guy generally does. He’s usually the source of conflict, and therefore the source of forward motion in the story.
The best part is that the roles are written to reflect this sort of dramatic propulsion, which makes them vocally and dramatically more substantial; there’s more meat on the bones, so to speak.
Since villains normally aren’t constrained by rules, the roles themselves involve more freedom of interpretation, whereas a romantic lead is pretty much onstage the way he is the book, script, play, or score.
Moreover, my personal sense of justice is always served since most villains end up dead by the end of the opera, so I feel even more liberated to take their evil natures as far outside the box as possible.
The worst part is … well, as long as the role is reasonably well-written, there really isn’t a bad part.
Are there other singers or stars whose bad guys you admire? Do you have a special personal take on Scarpia for this production?
Joe Morton (Eli Pope) in the TV series “Scandal.” He’s clearly in it to win it; I see an Emmy in his future.
I see Scarpia the way he’s described in Sardou’s play: elegant, cultured and extraordinarily dangerous. Unless both his class and his depravity are represented, he becomes a boring caricature rather than the multifaceted figure he is.
For you, how does Scarpia compare to specific famous villains in opera? Have you played others and do you have favorites to sing or to listen to?
I’ve sung Iago, Tonio, Emperor Jones, Wotan, Macbeth (below, for the Long Beach Opera) and Don Giovanni. (The last three may not fit everyone’s definition of a villain, but they are definitely not good guys in my book.)
The main difference between Scarpia and other villains I’ve sung is that he makes no effort to disguise his nature; in fact, he’s a proud bully and everyone knows it. The other characters try to maintain at least a patina of decency, except for Wotan and Emperor Jones. So far, my favorite is either Iago or Scarpia, with Wotan a close third for his gorgeous music.
Are there secrets or tricks to making such a portrayal convincing and effective musically and dramatically?
My number one rule is “never settle”: however ruthless, mean, melancholy, violent, calculating or obsessed the character is on paper, that’s exactly what goes onstage. It’s not my job to make excuses for them, so I don’t.
I embody these characters as “anti-heroes,” rather than villains. They often possess the same traits as heroes — commitment, strength, drive, passion — but they’re dealing with some sort of internal psychological structure or conflict that renders them morally ambivalent.
One thing I always do — it’s just my thing — is to find something funny in any role I play, no matter what it is. Whether it’s intentionally or unintentionally comical, it’s my benchmark for the role’s humanity. (Below is an informal portrait of Nmon Ford by Guy Madmoni.)
Are there contemporary or modern real-life figures whom Scarpia represents -– perhaps Vladimir Putin or Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin or Saddam Hussein, Josef Stalin or Pol Pot?
Offhand, I can’t think of anybody whose behavior is sufficiently both violent and psychosexual to qualify.
Is there anything else you would like to say?
Come see the show. It’s gonna be GOOD!
Tags: "Scandal", ABC-TV, Angela Gheorghiu, baritone, Emperor Jones, Giacomo Puccini, Jacob Stockinger, Joe Morton, John DeMain, Kathryn Smith, Long Beach Opera, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Nmon Ford, opera, Overture Center, Scarpia, soprano, tenor, Tosca, villlain, YouTube
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