The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: A busy Sunday at the UW is highlighted by a FREE band concert and a public reception to mark the retirement of legendary band master Mike Leckrone
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ALERT: The Madison-based Avanti Piano Trio will give two FREE public concerts this weekend. The first one is TONIGHT at 7 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 West Main Street, off the Capitol Square; the second one is on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 302 Wisconsin Avenue. Members of the trio are violinist Wes Luke, cellist Hannah Wolkstein and pianist Joseph Ross. The program includes works by Leon Kirchner, Ernest Bloch, Claude Debussy and Johannes Brahms.
By Jacob Stockinger
As the semester and academic year come to a close, concerts usually get packed into the schedule.
This coming Sunday, April 28, is no different – except that one event is clearly the headliner.
Mike Leckrone (below, in a photo by UW Communications) – the legendary and much honored director of bands and athletic bands at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – is retiring after 50 years.
Sunday marks a last appearance. He will conduct the UW Concert Band one last time and then be honored with a public reception.
The athletes and athletic fans love him. The students and band members love him. The alumni love him.
And, yes, the School of Music loves him. After all, not many band directors do what he did when he asked the late UW-Madison violin virtuoso Vartan Manoogian to perform the popular Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with a band instead of an orchestra. But Manoogian agreed — and said he loved the experience.
Also, not many band directors could start an annual spring concert in Mills Hall with an audience of some 300 and then saw it grow decades later into a three-night extravaganza that packs the Kohl Center with some 50,000 people and gets seen statewide on Wisconsin Public Television.
One time years ago, The Ear — who was then working as a journalist for The Capital Times — interviewed Leckrone. It was a busy year when he and the Marching Band were going with the football and basketball teams to the Rose Bowl and the March Madness tournament.
Mike Leckrone was charming and humorous, open and candid. The interview was so good, so full of information and human interest, that it was picked up by the Associated Press and distributed statewide and nationally.
That’s how big Mike Leckrone’s fan base is. Other schools and bands envied him.
All honor, then, to this man of action and distinction who was also creative and innovative.
Here is more information – but, alas, no program — about the FREE band concert on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-concert-band-spring-concert-2/
For really detailed biographical background about Mike Leckrone and his achievements, go to:
https://news.wisc.edu/mike-leckrone-a-legendary-career/
And here is a statement by Leckrone himself about his approach to teaching and performing as well as his plans for retirement. (You can hear an interview Leckrone did with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
http://ls.wisc.edu/news/hitting-the-high-notes
Now you may think Leckrone can’t be followed.
But just this past week, the UW-Madison announced that Corey Pompey (below) is Leckrone’s successor. Here is a link to the official announcement, with lots of background about Pompey:
https://news.wisc.edu/new-marching-band-director-to-take-the-baton/
What else is there to say except: Thank you, Mike!
On, Wisconsin!
As for other events at the UW on Sunday:
At 4 p.m., in Mills Hall, University Bands will perform a FREE concert. Darin Olsen, O’Shae Best and Cole Hairston will conduct. No program is listed.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Madrigal Singers (below top) will perform a FREE concert. Bruce Gladstone (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) will conduct. No word on that program either.
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Classical music: Ken-David Masur, son of famed conductor Kurt Masur, is the new music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
Ken-David Masur (below), a critically acclaimed associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and son of the late German conductor Kurt Masur, has been named the new music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Masur, who was chosen after a 36-month international search to find the successor to Edo de Waart, will start his duties next season and expand the number of concerts he conducts the following season. His contract runs through the 2022-23 season.
Masur, who also performs new music, sounds appealing and accomplished. It makes The Ear hope that the Masur brings the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to perform at the Wisconsin Union Theater, as has been done in the past.
Here are some links to stories and web sites with more information about appointment of the Grammy Award-nominated Masur (below, in a photo by Beth Ross Buckley), which was announced Monday. (You can hear him conducting the dramatic opening of the “Romeo and Juliet” ballet suite by Sergei Prokofiev in the YouTube video at the bottom. His work is well represented on YouTube.)
Here is a long and very informative story, with a lot of detail and background, from the Associated Press: https://www.apnews.com/61dace4d8fe346cba3c36c9c25cd62ca
Here is a link to the online story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, along with spoken introductions he gave to performances in Milwaukee of the Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/arts/2018/11/12/milwaukee-symphony-names-ken-david-masur-its-new-music-director/1963446002/
And here is a link to his own web site: http://ken-davidmasur.com
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Classical Music: Today is Memorial Day 2018. What music would you play to honor those who died in service to their country?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2018, when those soldiers who died in war and military service to their country — in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or whatever other branch — are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best overviews and compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, California.
Here is a link:
http://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2018/05/25/classical-selections-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Another very good selection dates from last year and comes from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this playlist gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar— the famous and moving “Nimrod” Variation that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom — Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Finally, you can also hear some appropriate music for today on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them? Which ones?
Which music would you choose or add to mark today’s holiday?
Leave a title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 