The Well-Tempered Ear
This Saturday afternoon, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir presents a free online parking lot concert of “Car Carols” with an emphasis on African-American composers
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
Join the Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) this Saturday afternoon, Dec. 12, at 2 p.m. for Car Carols, a unique holiday concert featuring live, socially-distanced performances of music by African-American composers and seasonal favorites.
Choir members will sing from their individual cars using wireless microphones (below), listening to the sound of the whole choir via their car radios. The audience is invited to join our Facebook event or listen in live on YouTube.
There is no charge to view the live-stream, but donations would be welcome.
You can find the concert on this Saturday, Dec. 12, a 2 p.m. via the following links: live on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ZonVn1cvgb8, or on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1561155960751974/
This unusual concert format was necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the WCC is grateful for the opportunity to continue singing together in safe ways.
Since September, the choir has been rehearsing as a Parking Lot Choir, generating local media coverage from WKOW-TV at https://wkow.com/2020/10/13/wisconsin-chamber-choir-making-adjustments-to-prepare-for-performance/ and Madison Magazine, whose story was headlined “Forget tailgates, parking lots are for choir practice: https://www.channel3000.com/forget-tailgates-parking-lots-are-for-choir-practice/
This past September and October, smaller groups from the WCC assembled on Saturday mornings at the Warner Park Pavilion to rehearse in widely spaced formations.
They wore specially designed singers masks, and occasionally harmonized with nearby sandhill cranes that seemed unsure what to make of the a cappella music floating through their habitat.
Recordings by five distinct small ensembles — minus the cranes — will be aired during the Dec. 12 Car Carols broadcast, in addition to live singing by the Parking Lot choristers.
The Car Carols repertoire highlights music by African-American composers spanning nearly a century. Idiomatic pieces in the style of spirituals and contemporary gospel alternate with “non-idiomatic” motets and anthems by Nathaniel Dett (below top), William Dawson, Undine Smith Moore (below middle) and Carlos Simon (below bottom, with an oral self-portrait in the YouTube video at the bottom).
The remainder of the Parking Lot Choir selections consists of carol arrangements by WCC favorites — the late Stephen Paulus (below) and Peter Blotch — and feature virtual harp and violin accompaniment.
Live and virtual performers will also unite to sing Craig Hella Johnson’s moving arrangement of the songs I Love You and What a Wonderful World.
Interspersed between the live Car Carols will be a wide variety of pre-recorded selections, including the world premiere of WCC member Linda Palmer’s arrangement of Sussex Carol, plus music by Johannes Brahms, John Rutter, 17th-century female composer Chiara Cozzolani (below), and Tleycantimo choquilia, a carol from colonial-era Mexico, sung in Spanish and Nahuatl.
Founded in 1998, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Brahms; a cappella works from various centuries; and world-premieres.
Artistic director Robert Gehrenbeck (below), who heads the choral program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has been hailed by critics for his vibrant and emotionally compelling interpretations of a wide variety of choral masterworks. WCC members have acknowledged Gehrenbeck for his intrepid conducting in freezing temperatures during Parking Lot Choir rehearsals.
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Classical music: Rediscovering the music of composer Florence Price is a great way to start the celebration of Black History Month
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By Jacob Stockinger
February is Black History Month.
There are a lot of African-American performers and composers to emphasize during the month. Check out this exhaustive listing – conveniently organized into categories such as composers, conductors and pianists — in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:African-American_classical_musicians
But this year one of the best ways to mark the event is to rediscover the composer Florence Price (below, in photos from the University of Arkansas Libraries).
Much of her work was until recently hidden in 30 boxes in her abandoned and dilapidated summer home located 70 miles south of Chicago.
A good introduction to Price (1887-1953) – who was famous in her day and was the first African-American woman composer to be performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — can be found in the Deceptive Cadence blog of National Public Radio (NPR).
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/21/686622572/revisiting-the-pioneering-composer-florence-price
Here is a link to an excerpt from a new Albany recording of her two violin concertos:
And if you want to hear more of what her music sounds like check out the YouTube video at the bottom that has excerpts from the new Naxos recording, in the American Classics line, with her Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4.
You can also find quite a bit more of Price’s music, including a piano concerto, a piano sonata and orchestral suites, on YouTube.
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Classical music: Prize-winning UW-Madison conductor Chad Hutchinson talks about the FREE and unusual all-American, all-20th century concert he will perform with the UW Symphony Orchestra this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Chad Hutchinson (below) is starting his second season at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music by putting his own stamp on programming with an intriguing, all-American and all-20th-century concert that combines music for the concert hall with music for plays and films.
The FREE concert by the UW Symphony Orchestra is in Mills Hall this Friday night, Oct. 12, and starts at 8 p.m. with an informal pre-concert talk by Hutchinson (below) at 7:30 p.m.
Hutchison recently won one first prize and two second prizes from The American Prize for work he did – in opera conducting, orchestral conducting and orchestral programming — at the University of Minnesota and the University of South Dakota.
For more details, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-3/
The Ear asked Hutchinson how, after his first year, he feels about the UW-Madison.
He answered: “What makes the UW-Madison special is the camaraderie and support of the students, faculty and staff across the numerous disciplines within the Mead Witter School of Music.
“I’m thrilled to be back working with the orchestra (below), opera and conducting students and collaborating with the amazing faculty here. Seeing the “light bulb” moments when students realize and achieve a new level of competency for themselves and the ensemble is the best part of the profession.”
Here are his thoughts about the program:
“The UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra opens the 2018-2019 season with a program of three influential American composers. This concert will highlight the juxtaposition of traditional classical music and compositions heavily influenced by folk, jazz and the blues.
“A common thread throughout the concert is the idea of firsts and exploring new ideas as a composer.
“The Overture to “The School for Scandal” (1931) of Samuel Barber (below) was the first piece that he composed for full orchestra and is based on the Restoration comedy by Richard Sheridan.
“This performance will be the debut of one of the Symphony Orchestra’s new doctoral conducting students Ji-Hyun Yim (below). Ji-Hyun (Jenny) comes to Madison after completing a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of North Texas.
“The second piece on the program is one that I have wanted to program for quite some time. The “Afro-American” Symphony (1930) of William Grant Still (below, in a photo by Carl Van Vechten), his first symphony, is widely regarded as the first large-scale piece of symphonic repertoire composed by an African-American and performed by a major symphony orchestra.
Each movement’s title is influenced by short poems by the 20th-century African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (below, in 1890).
“Since the Barber and Still were composed within one year of each other in 1930-1931, I wanted to show the dichotomy of the straight-ahead classical world and the other side of classical music in the late 1920s and 1930s that was being heavily influenced by the more popular music of the time.
“Lastly, we feature the first and only film music that Bernstein composed. “On the Waterfront” (1954), an Oscar-winning film directed by Elia Kazan that starred Marlon Brando (below) and Eva Marie Saint, shows Bernstein writing simultaneously for the symphonic hall and the big screen.
“This work will feature UW-Madison professor of saxophone and composition Les Thimmig (below) and will showcase many soloists within the orchestra. While not programmed as often as his music from West Side Story or On the Town, I believe that Bernstein’s unique use of color, rhythm and melody in this work – heard in the YouTube video at the bottom — speak for themselves.”
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Classical music: When it turns hot and humid this weekend, YOU MUST HEAR THIS: “Summerland” by William Grant Still
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By Jacob Stockinger
Early August is bringing another blast of summer this weekend.
Here come the heat and humidity again.
The Ear loves certain music and composers who seem particularly listenable and enjoyable in summer.
One is the French master Francis Poulenc, whose works often have a certain light, airy and playful quality to them.
But recently, on Wisconsin Public Radio, The Ear heard another winner to hear in hot weather.
It is the piano piece “Summerland” by William Grant Still (below in a photo by Carl Van Vechten), which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom. It is a relaxing and dreamy work, beautiful and very summery with suggestions of the blues and Debussy.
William Grant Still (1895-1978) was a very successful and major African-American composer of classical music as well as a conductor. He has been experiencing a long overdue revival lately.
Here is a link to his biography, which features a lot of awards and distinctions, in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Grant_Still
And you can find many more large works, including several symphonies, and miniatures on YouTube, which also has other several settings of “Summerland.”
Here is “Summerland” in a version for solo piano:
If you like this music, link or forward or share this post.
Enjoy!
Stay cool!
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Classical music: The Festival Choir of Madison will perform Slavic music – including several U.S. and world premieres — under a guest Spanish conductor this Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Festival Choir of Madison (below) will perform the program “The Slavic Soul” this coming Saturday night, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive.
The Festival Choir will have guest conductor Nikoleta Popova for the event, who is coming from Spain to conduct a program comprised of songs either by Slavic composers or inspired by Slavic music. More about the conductor is below.
Several U.S. premieres are marked with an asterisk and there is one world premiere.
Tickets are $20, $15 for seniors 65 and over; and $10 for students. For information and tickets, go to: https://festivalchoirmadison.squarespace.com/concerts/2018/5/theslavicsoul
Here is the complete program:
THE SLAVIC SOUL
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) – Four Slovak Folk Songs (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1908-1975) – Two Russian Folk Songs. With Anya Gubenkova, alto
Alexander Davidenko (1899–1934) – “At Ten Versts From the Capital”* with Ted Reinke, piano, and Dan Broner, organ
Vera Nasha (Our Faith)* Serbian Folk Song, arr. Yónatan Sánchez Santianes with James McKenzie, percussion
Szymon Godziemba-Trytek (1988) Agnus Dei (World Premiere) with Ted Reinke, organ
Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998) – “A Wondrous Birth”; “Balalaika”; and “Reveille.” With Anya Gubenkova, alto
Dobri Hristov (1875–1941) – “Rachenitsa”
Todor Popov (1921–2000) – “Stara Sa Maika” (The Old Mother)*
“Kalinka,” a Russian Folk Song arranged by Vadim Prokhorov
The guest conductor is Nikoleta Popova (below) of Bulgaria and Spain. She is a renowned specialist in Eastern European and Bulgarian music and has offered seminars and master classes all over the world.
Currently, Popova is Professor in Conducting at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias in Las Palmas, Spain, where she is also music director of the conservatory orchestra and choirs. She has appeared as guest conductor in Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the U.S., as well as her native Bulgaria.
Born in Dobrich, Bulgaria, Nikoleta Popova received her education as a conductor from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, and from Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz. Among her teachers are Eric Whitacre, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Alex Schillings, Klaas Stok, Marco Antonio Da Silva Ramos, and others.
In 2011 Nikoleta Popova received her Ph.D. from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with a dissertation on the performance of the black spiritual. Since 2012, she has published three books in Spanish with in-depth analysis of the problems that singers and conductors face in the interpretation of African-American spirituals.
Tags: #AgnusDei, #AlexanderDavidenko, #AmericanPremiere, #BelaBartok, #Bulgarianmusic, #DmitriShostakovich, #DobriHristov, #EasternEuropean, #EricWhitacre, #FestivalChoir, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FolkMusic, #GeorgySviridov, #NikoletaPopova, #PercussionMusic, #RussianMusic, #SaturdayNight, #SerbianMusic, #SlavicCulture, #SofiaBulgaria, #SpanishLanguage, #TodorPopov, #UnitedStates, #VeraNasha, #WorldPremiere, African American, African-American music, Agnus Dei, Alexander Davidenko, alto, analysis, Arts, Austria, balalaika, Bartok, birth, Bulgarian, choral music, Classical music, composer, conductor, conservatory, Dmitri Shostakovich, doctorate, Eastern European, Eastern European music, Eric Whitacre, Festival Choir, Festival Choir of Madison, folksong, interpretation, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mother, Music, Nikoleta Popova, Orchestra, organ, percussion, PhD, Piano, Poland, premiere, professor, Saturday, Seminar, singer, Singing, Slavic, Slovak, Sofia, song, soul, Spain, Spanish, spiritual, U.S., Vera Nasha, wondrous
Classical music: What composers and what pieces give you shelter and sanctuary during troubled times?
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By Jacob Stockinger
A week ago, The Ear went to the inspired all-Mozart program given by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet with guest cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau (below center) and guest clarinetist Alicia Lee (below right), who was making her debut as a new UW faculty member.
He expected a fine performance and he was not disappointed. Indeed, he shares the same very positive reactions that critic John W. Barker expressed in his review for this blog. Here is a link to that review:
But something else happened too.
The sublime music of Mozart (below) – especially the Larghetto slow second movement of the late Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, but also the other movements and the String Quartet in G Major, K. 387 -– took The Ear into another world, into a parenthesis in time.
(You can hear a live performance in Japan by Yo-Yo Ma and others in the Larghetto movement, plus the rest of the Clarinet Quintet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For a brief time – perhaps a total of about 80 or 90 minutes – The Ear was totally transported. He temporarily blocked out the political strife in Washington, D.C. and the Trump White House; the government turmoil here in Madison and around the world; and the terrible, deadly natural disasters of floods, hurricanes and wildfires in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe.
He just let the transcendent music and the performances wash over him, refreshing him with their beauty before he reemerged onto the street and into the painful reality of current events after the concert ended.
So The Ear offers a deeply felt thank you to the performers for planning and playing such a timely and therapeutic program. He needed that more than he knew. And he hopes more such concerts are in store. The times demand such balm, not as escapism but as a reminder of great good things that endure.
So here is The Ear’s question: What other composers and what other pieces or works do you find offer the same kind of sanctuary or shelter?
Leave a COMMENT with a link to a performance on YouTube if possible.
Tags: African-American music, Alicia Lee, America, Arts, Asia, balm, beauty, blog, Campus, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Clarinet Quintet, Classical, Classical music, composer, critic, curent events, current, current events, D.C., dead, deadly, debut, Donald Trump, endure, escape, escapism, event, faculty, flood, global, globe, good, good thing, good things, government, great, Hurricane, inspiration, inspired, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, John W. Barker, late, live, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, movement, Mozart, Music, natural disaster, New York City, parenthesis, performance, piece, planning, play, political, Politics, positive, President, President Donald Trump, President Trump, Pro Arte Quartet, program, Quartet, quintet, review, sanctuary, shelter, strife, String quartet, sublime, terrible, therapeutic, therapy, time, timely, times, turmoil, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, video, Viola, Violin, Washington, White House, wildfire, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, world, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: Singer-scholar Emery Stephens HAS CANCELLED his return to coach students about and to perform a FREE recital of African-American songs and spirituals on Tuesday night at UW
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ALERT: Please IGNORE the posted dates and times below. Professor Emery Stephens has CANCELLED his appearances this week at the UW-Madison due to illness. According to the UW-Madison, Stephens will try to reschedule his master classes and recital layer this spring. The Ear apologies for any misunderstanding or inconvenience, but he just heard about the cancellation.
By Jacob Stockinger
The last time Professor Emery Stephens (below) visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, it was in 2015 and he lectured about “African-American Voices in Classical Music.”
(You can hear Emery Stephens narrate “The Passion of John Brown” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Now this week – today and Tuesday – the acclaimed scholar and baritone singer returns to the UW.
This time he will spend Monday coaching UW voice and piano students.
Then on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, Stephens plus the voice and piano students and UW collaborative pianist Martha Fischer will perform a FREE recital of African-American songs and spirituals. Also included are some solo piano works by African-American composer Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949, below).
Here is a link not only to more information about Stephens’ recital, including the program, but also to information about his last visit and about a performance on Wednesday from 1:20 to 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union by the Black Music Ensemble.
Tags: African American, African Americans, African-American music, Arts, baritone, Classical music, coach, coaching, composer, Emery Stephens, Harry T. Burleigh, Jacob Stockinger, John Brown, Madison, Martha Fischer, Music, narrate, narrator, Passion, Passion of John Brown, Piano, professor, recital, scholar, singer, solo, song, spirituals, Student, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, voice, YouTube
Classical music: To celebrate Black History Month, let us now praise the influence of African-American composers on European classical music and learn about “Afric-classical” music more often than one month out of 12.
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By Jacob Stockinger
What is the best way to celebrate Black History Month, which ends on Wednesday?
One way is to recall some uncovered or previously neglected black or African-American composers of art music or concert hall music. Ever hear of Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier des Saint Georges? I hadn’t either. Maybe someday someone will program his music in concert. In the meantime, here is a clip:
Here is a link to a deeply informative website with several helpful pages about him and lists of all sorts of other neglected black composers of classical music, or so-called “Afri-classical” music:
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/history.html
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/others.html
And here is a link to a daly blog that has helpful information more than one month out of 12:
http://africlassical.blogspot.com/
Another approach is to recall that the influence that black music has had on American music and composers such as Aaron Copland. That may help to explain the burst of programs, local and national, featuring George Gershwin (below), who incorporated blues, jazz and spirituals into his early “crossover” music.
After all, incorporating black music in America was not unlike the way that Brahms incorporated Gypsy tunes and dance rhythms or the way that Haydn and Beethoven used peasant dances like the landler into European music or the way Chopin used Polish idioms such as the mazurka and polonaise.
But this year I decided I wanted to highlight the way that African-American music has influenced very well-known European composers of classical music.
Some obvious ones come to mind, including Antonin Dvorak (the “New World” Symphony), Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel (below) and Francis Poulenc. It’s curious how the French seem especially open to new and foreign cultural influences.
Anyway, the piece that has grabbed my attention this year is the captivating “Blues” movement from Ravel’s Violin Sonata, especially in a stunningly beautiful performance on the outstanding new Sony CD “French Impressions” by violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jeremy Denk. It is in the YouTube video below and starts at the 11-minute mark.
So as a salute to Black History Month, here is that performance, not from the actual CD but from the CD release party at the famous night club “Le Poisson Rouge” in New York City:
What pieces would you play to do the same?
The Ear wants to hear.
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New York Times music critics pick 10 MUST-HEAR online virtual classical concerts to stream for October
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ALERT: Tonight’s concert by the choral group Roomful of Teeth for the Wisconsin Union Theater at the UW-Madison’s Hamel Music Center has been canceled and postponed indefinitely.
By Jacob Stockinger
Increasingly the coronavirus pandemic seems surging out of control. So it comes as no surprise that also more and more concerts of classical music are taking place virtually and online.
There are many ways to choose among local, regional, national and international concerts.
But one good guide was published this last week and featured the choice of must-hear classical concerts by critics for The New York Times.
It is an interesting and varied selection, and includes times, links and brief descriptions.
It features concerts that emphasize Black composers such as Florence Price (below top) and women composers. It covers many genres from a solo piano recital by Jeremy Denk (below bottom) – who is supposed to perform here on Dec. 11 at the Wisconsin Union Theater – to chamber music, vocal music, orchestral concerts and operas.
Curiously, there is quite bit of new music but little early music, either Renaissance or Baroque. Perhaps more will appear around the holiday times, when that music is part of the traditional holiday celebrations.
You will find contemporary composers but also lots of certified, tried-and-true classics and masterworks.
Some are one-day only events but many run from a week through a month.
Here is a link to the story. PLEASE NOTE THAT TIMES ARE ALL EASTERN: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/arts/music/classical-music-stream.html
Please let The Ear know if you like this kind of listing and find it useful.
And please feel free to leave in the comment section other guides or events that the public should know about.
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