The Well-Tempered Ear
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.
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Classical music: The Ear asks again — why hasn’t an opera about Martin Luther King Jr. been written? What classical music should be played to honor him?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is an important and, in some parts of the United States, still controversial holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Such an occasion and its artistic celebration assumes even greater importance now that we are on the verge of the Trump Era, which starts this coming Friday with the Inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Once again The Ear looked for classical music to mark the occasion and the holiday. But the results he found were limited. Do we really need to hear Samuel Barber’s famous and sadly beautiful but overplayed “Adagio for Strings” again on this day?
So The Ear asks the same question he asked two years ago: Why hasn’t anyone written an opera about the pioneering civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968 and would today be 88?
Here is a link to that more extended post that asks the same question:
If you know of such an opera, please let The Ear know in the COMMENT section.
Or perhaps a composer could write something about King similar to Aaron Copland‘s popular “A Lincoln Portrait.” King certainly provided lots of eloquent words for a inspiring text or narration.
And if there is classical music that you think is appropriate to mark the occasion, please leave word of it, with a YouTube link if possible.
In the meantime, in the YouTube video below The Ear offers the first movement from the “Afro-American Symphony” by the underperformed black American composer William Grant Still (1874-1954):
Tags: -elect, A Lincoln Portrait, Aaron Copland, Activism, Adagio for Strings, African Americans, Afro-American, Arts, assassination, beautiful, beauty, Civil and political rights, civil rights, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, era, inauguration, inspiration, Jacob Stockinger, Martin Luther King Jr, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Music, narration, Nobel Peace Prize, opera, Politics, President-elect, sad, Samuel Barber, symphony, text, Trump, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, William Grant Still, Wisconsin, words
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