The Well-Tempered Ear
Meet Kevin Chen, who just won the 17th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition is one of the most prestigious keyboard competitions in the world.
It ranks right up there with the Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Leeds and Van Cliburn competitions.
It takes place every three years in Tel Aviv, Israel. And this year, it started on March 14 and wrapped up just a week ago, on April 1.
This was the 17th Rubinstein Competition.
And it was won by an 18-year-old Chinese-Canadian pianist from Calgary.
He is Kevin Chen (below). He also composes and seems well on his way to a major career, especially since last year he also won the Geneva piano competition and was the youngest winner ever of the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest.
Winning the Rubinstein has launched many major career from Emanuel Ax, the first winner in 1974, to Daniil Trifnov in 2011.
At the bottom is a YouTube video with a recital by Chen along with a recital by the Georgian pianist who placed second: Giorgi Gigashvili. Chen’s performance of Chopin’s 12 Etudes, Op. 10, for example, begins at 2 hours, 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
You can also find a YouTube video of Chen’s prize-winning performance of Mozart’s last piano concerto, No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595; and a wonderful recital from the Geneva competition. And more solo videos from the Rubinstein are sure to be posted soon.
Here is a fine story, with lots of personal details, from Chen’s hometown newspaper:
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/kevin-chen-piano-arthur-rubinstein-competition
Here is a story about all the winners:
Israel’s Rubinstein Piano Competition Announces 2023 Winners
And for much more background about the competition’s history, the jury members for this year’s contestants, the past winners, repertoire requirements, mandatory stages, rules and so forth, go to:
https://arims.org.il/competition-2023-homepage/jury-2023/
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #InternationalTchaikovskyCompetition, #TchaikovskyInternationalCompetition, #YouTubevideo, Arthur Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, blog, Budapest, Canada, Canadian, Chamber music, China, Chinese, Chopin, Chopin International Competition, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, Concours de Genève, etude, Facebook, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Franz Liszt Competition, Geneva, Georgia, Gold medal, Haydn, History, hometown, Hungary, Israel, Jacob Stockinger, jury, Keyboard, keyboard music, Leeds, Leeds Competition, link, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mandatory, Mozart, Music, Newspaper, Orchestra, Piano, Piano concerto, prestigious, recital, repertoire, Republic of Georgia, rules, share, solo, Sonata, Suisse, Switzerland, tag, Tchaik, Tchaikovsky, teenager, Tel Aviv, The Violin Channel, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, winner, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world, YouTube
Is it pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals for the Super Bowl?
15 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today — Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023 — is Super Bowl LVII.
Or as we say in ordinary English — “57.”
(It airs at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Fox.)
The Ear thinks it is pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals, which are esoteric and incomprehensible to many members of the public.
Does anyone else think so?
Using the Roman numerals in sports also seems unpractical.
Imagine the NBA using the same antiquated number system to record LeBron James’ new record for a lifetime basketball score — 33,388 points. According to Google, it would be XXXIIICCCLXXXVIII.
How convenient! And silly, no?
It seems the same kind of pretentious authenticity The Ear hears too often in Classical music where authentic foreign pronunciations often seem a sort of status symbol that says “Look at what I know and you don’t, but should.”
Not exactly the kind of effort at reaching out that classical music needs to draw bigger and younger audiences.
It’s like when non-Hungarian, American speakers say “Budapesht” when in English it is simply Budapest. And this often comes from the same people don’t usually say München for Munich, or Roma for Rome, or Paree for Paris.
Can American speakers just speak plain American English for the sake of clarity and simplicity?
And can the NFL just use either English numbers or, like the Olympics, the year to show which competition it is?
Anyway, despite such preciousness and pretentiousness, we can enjoy today’s 57th or 2023 Super Bowl championship game in Phoenix between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here’s another easier equivalency: a beautiful long pass and a beautiful javelin throw.
Which why The Eater is offering the classical music piece “Javelin” in the YouTube video at the bottom, played by Yoel Levi conducting the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
Written on commission for the Atlanta Olympics by the Wisconsin-born composer Michael Torke, it soars with a grace and an energy that is made all the more understandable and moving for its lack of words and numbers.
Whatever quarterback does it, winner or loser, here’s to the thrower of the most beautiful pass today.
What do you think of the music? And of the comparison between passing a football and throwing a javelin?
And what do you think about using Roman numerals is sports and foreign pronunciations in classical music
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #MunichGermany, #ParisFrance, #RomeItaly, #YouTubevideo, American, Arizona, Arts, athlete, athletic, Atlanta, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, audience, basketball, beautiful, big, blog, Budapest, championship, clarity, Classical music, clear, commission, Competition, composer, conductor, energy, English, esoteric, Facebook, football, game, Georgia, Glendale, grace, Hungarian, Hungary, incomprehensible, Jacob Stockinger, Javelin, Kansas City Chiefs, language, LeBron James, lifetime, loser, Michael Torke, moving, Munich, Music, National Basketball Association, National Football League, NBA, NFL, numbers, Olympics, Orchestra, ordinary, Paris, pass, Philadelphia Eagles, Phoenix, Plain, precious, pretentious, public, quarterback, record, Roman numerals, Rome, score, share, simple, simplicity, Sports, Super Bowl, symphony, tag, The Ear, throw, understand, video, winner, Wisconsin, words, Yoel Levi, young, YouTube
Classical music: This weekend pianist Emanuel Ax helps conductor John DeMain celebrate his 25th anniversary season with the Madison Symphony Orchestra
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below top, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) will open its season by celebrating the 25th anniversary of its music director and conductor John DeMain, who will collaborate with renowned pianist Emanuel Ax (below bottom, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco).
The program opens with the “Fanfare Ritmico” by Jennifer Higdon, the contemporary American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner. Then comes a special suite of favorite movements, cobbled together by DeMain, from the ballet score for “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev. The grand finale is the monumental Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms.
Performances will be held in Overture Hall, 201 State Street, on Friday night, Sept. 28, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, Sept. 30, at 2:30 p.m.
Jennifer Higdon’s “Fanfare Ritmico” celebrates the rhythm and speed of life. Written on the eve of the new millennium, the work reflects on the quickening pace of life as time progresses.
Higdon (below) herself notes, “Our lives now move at speeds much greater than what I believe anyone would have imagined in years past. As we move along day-to-day, rhythm plays an integral part of our lives — from the individual heartbeat to the lightning speed of our computers. This fanfare celebrates that rhythmic motion, of man and machine, and the energy which permeates every moment of our being in the new century.”
Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev (below) originally wrote the Romeo and Juliet Suite in 1935 for the titular ballet produced by the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theatre. In addition to the somewhat standard instrumentation, the ballet orchestration also requires the use of tenor saxophone, a voice that adds a unique sound and contributes to the sense of drama prevalent in Shakespeare’s original tragedy.
For this performance, John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) has hand-picked the best excerpts from across the work to create one orchestra piece.
The epic Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 83, is separated by 22 years from Johannes Brahms’ first piano concerto and is dedicated to Brahms’ teacher Eduard Marxsen. It was premiered in 1881 in Budapest, Hungary, with Brahms (below) playing the piano solo.
The work was an immediate success and demonstrates Brahms’ ability to blend beauty with fire, tenderness with drama. (You can hear the unusual and fiery Scherzo movement, played by Krystian Zimmerman and Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Emanuel Ax (below) is considered one of the best-known concert pianists of the 21st century. As the Seattle Times reports, “[Ax’s] touch is amazing. The keys are not so much struck as sighed upon — moved as if by breath. There is no sense of fingers or hammers or material mechanisms…[it] simply materializes and floats in the air.”
Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize four years later. In 1975, he made his Madison solo recital debut at the Wisconsin Union Theater and he has frequently performed here since then.
Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and new music, and he has given three world premieres in the last few seasons: “Century Rolls” by John Adams; “Seeing” by Christopher Rouse; and “Red Silk Dance” by Bright Sheng. He has also received Grammy awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas and has made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano.
Emanuel Ax (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco) is currently a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Music, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of Yale University’s Sanford Medal.
One hour before each performance, MSO retired trombonist and longtime program annotator J. Michael Allsen will lead a 30-minute Prelude Discussion in Overture Hall to enhance concertgoers’ understanding and listening experience. It is free to ticketholders.
Allsen’s program notes for the concerts are available online at this address: http://www.allsenmusic.com/NOTES/1819/1.Sep18.html
The MSO recommends that concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations, and so they can experience the Prelude Discussion.
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert.
Tickets can be purchased in the following ways:
- Single Tickets are $18-$93 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/axthrough the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
- Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $15 or $20 tickets. More information is at: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
- Subscribers to 5 or more symphony subscription concerts can save up to 50% off single ticket prices. More information is available about the season at: https://madisonsymphony.org/18-19
- Flex-ticket booklets of 10 vouchers for 18-19 symphony subscription concerts are available. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/flex
NOTE: Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 93rd season in 2018–2019 and its 25th season under the leadership of Music Director John DeMain. Find more information about the rest of the MSO season at madisonsymphony.org
The Presenting Sponsors for the September concerts are: Joel and Kathryn Belaire. Major funding is provided by: The Wisconsin State Journal and Madison.com; the Irving and Dorothy Levy Family Foundation, Inc.; the Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation, Inc.; Rosemarie and Fred Blancke; and David and Kato Perlman. Additional funding is provided by Jeffrey and Angela Bartell, Martin L. Conney and the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tags: #21stCentury, #AmericanAcademyofArtsandSciences, #AmericanComposer, #ArthurRubinstein, #AveryFisher, #BalletScore, #BrightSheng, #BudapestHungary, #CenturyRolls, #ChristopherRouse, #ConcertArtist, #EduardMarxsen, #EmanuelAx, #FacultyMember, #FanfareRitmico, #FranzJosephHaydn, #Fridaynight, #GrammyAward, #JenniferHigdon, #JohannesBrahms, #JohnAdams, #JohnDeMain, #JuilliardSchool, #KatoPerlman, #KIrovTheatre, #KrystianZimerman, #LeonardBernstein, #LivingComposer, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #ManandMachine, #MariinskyTheatre, #MusicDirector, #NationalEndowmentfortheArts, #NewMusic, #OvertureCenter, #OvertureHall, #PianoConcerto, #PIanoRecital, #ProgramNotes, #PulitzerPrize, #RedSilkDance, #RomeoandJuliet, #RussianComposer, #SanfordMedal, #SaturdayNight, #SeattleTimes, #SergeiProkofiev, #SilverAnniversary, #Sovietcomposer, #SovietUnion, #StateOfWisconsin, #Sundayafternoon, #TelAviv, #ViennaPhilharmonic, #WilliamShakespeare, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #WisconsinStateJournal, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WorldPremiere, #YaleUniversity, #Yo-YoMa, #YouTubevideo, 21st century, anniversary, Arthur Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, Arts, Avery Fisher, ballet, beauty, Beethoven, being, Bright Sheng, Budapest, Cello, Century Rolls, Chamber music, Christopher Rouse, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, computers, concerto, conductor, dance, debut, discount, discussion, drama, Eduard Marxsen, Emanuel Ax, energy, epic, eve, excerpt, faculty member, Fanfare, Fellow, fire, funding, Grammy Award, group, Haydn, heartbeat, Hungary, instrumentation, Jacob Stockinger, Jennifer Higdon, Johannes Brahms, John Adams, John DeMain, Julliard School, Kato Perlman, Kirov, Krystian Zimerman, Leonard Bernstein, life, lightning, live, Living composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, Machine, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, man, Mariinsky, millenium, movement, Music, National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, New Music, Orchestra, orchestration, Overture Center, Overture Hall, past, performance, Pianist, Piano, Prelude, prize, program notes, public #ArthurRubinsteinInternationalPianoCompetition, Pulitzer Prize, recital, red silk, rhythm, Romeo and Juliet, Sanford Medal, Saxophone, Scherzo, Season, Seattle, security, senior, September, Sergei Prokofiev, Shakespeare, silver anniversary, solo, Sonata, Sound, Soviet, Soviet Union, speed, sponsor, Student, success, Suite, symphony, Tel Aviv, tender, tenderness, tenor, time, tragedy, Trombone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna Philharmonic, Viola, Violin, weekend, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Union Theater, Yale University, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players open their new “Vignettes” season with concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
Leave a Comment
A CORRECTION: The Ear wants to apologize for and correct an error he made in yesterday’s blog post. The correct time and address for the all-Schubert concert by the Mosaic Chamber Players is on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) will begin their 2018-2019 season series “Vignettes” with concerts on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 16, at 2 p.m.
The concerts will both be held at the Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors 62 and over; and $5 students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com or call (608) 230-4316 for more information for individual and season tickets.
Once again, the group will explore largely new or unknown composers and neglected music.
Each program of the 2018-19 series will focus on how composers create specific themes to tell stories, and represent emotions, places or characteristics to enhance the listening experience.
Central to the program is poetry and narration paired with music that will feature Boston-based guest soprano Mary Mackenzie (below). She has been described by The New York Times as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration,” and the Boston Globe as “sensational.”
Mackenzie is a passionate performer of contemporary vocal music, and has appeared with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and The Knights.
American composer Byron Adams (below) was commissioned by renowned American clarinetist Yehuda Weiner to set Nightingales, a poem by British Victorian poet Robert Bridges, as a memorial to his brother. The composer chose a quartet of soprano, clarinet, cello and piano to evoke the breathtaking beauty of the natural world that is overlaid with a sense of loss and longing.
By contrast, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon (below, in a photo by Candace DiCarlo) set four poems that have titles that reference roses by James Whitcomb Riley for the combination of flute, soprano and piano.
Bentley Roses was written as a surprise tribute for the retirement of her former music teacher, Judith Bentley. The settings are sunny and accessible, the music weaves around the words with swirling energy, coy interactions, and graceful interplay.
The yearning Vocalise by conductor, composer and pianist Andre Previn conveys emotion using the voice without words as a chamber instrument. The combination of soprano, cello and piano carries the shifting harmonies and sinuous melodic line through a series of subtle yet powerful transformations. (You can hear Previn’s beautiful “Vocalise,” with soprano Barbara Bonney and the the composer at the piano, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A second piece by Previn (below) piece puts the cello and soprano in conversation with his setting of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison’s poem Stones.
American film composer and bassoonist Charles Fernandez (below) wrote Quatuor Parisienne (Parisian Quartet) for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. It consists of three movements: a tongue-in-cheek march; a gracefully flowing reflection: and a farcical musical conversation with a dash of merriment.
Budapest-based clarinetist and composer Endre Szervanszky (below) wrote his Quintet No. 1 in 1953. Audiences will hear some characteristics similar to the writing of Kodaly and Bartok. It is a pleasing four-movement work that shows his strong understanding of each of the instruments, demanding both melodic expressiveness and technical panache.
The program concludes with poetry by British writer Roald Dahl, known for his darkly humorous children’s stories. Composer Martin Butler (below, in a photo by Katie Vandyck) incorporated The Pig, The Tummy Beast, and The Crocodile into his piece Dirty Beasts for narrator, piano and woodwind quintet. Butler mirrors the acerbic wit of the text with clever effects, closing out the program with some unexpected twists and turns.
Guest performers are soprano Mary Mackenzie, pianist Joseph Ross (below top) and oboist Laura Medisky (below bottom).
They join Oakwood Chamber Players members Marilyn Chohaney, flute; Nancy Mackenzie, clarinet; Amanda Szczys, bassoon; Anne Aley, horn; and Maggie Darby Townsend, cello.
This is the first of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2018-19 season series entitled Vignettes. Remaining concerts will take place on Nov. 24 and 25; Jan. 12 and 13; March 2 and 3; and May 18 and 19. For more information about the Oakwood Chamber Players and their new season, go to: https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who play with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation.
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #AndrePrevin, #BarbaraBonney, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BostonGlobe, #BritishPoet, #BudapestHungary, #ByronAdams, #CampRandallStadium, #ChamberMusic, #ChameleonArtsEnsemble, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #CollageNewMusic, #ContemporaryComposer, #ContemporaryMusic, #DaCapoChamberPlayers, #EndreServanszky, #FilmComposer, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FranzSchubert, #FulcrumPointNewMusicProject, #JamesWhitcombRiley, #JenniferHigdon, #JesusChrist, #LivingComposer, #LutheranReligion, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MartinButler, #MaryMackenzie, #MosaicChamberPlayers, #MusicTeacher, #NaturalWorld, #NewMusic, #OakwoodCenterforArtsandEducation, #OakwoodChamberPlayers, #OakwoodVillage, #OakwoodVillageWest, #OperaMusic, #PianoQuintet, #PulitzerPrize, #RoaldDahl, #RobertBridges, #TheKnights, #TheNewYorkTImes, #ToniMorrison, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VictorianAge, #VictorianPoet, #WestTowneMall, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WoodwindQuintet, #YehudaWeiner, #YouTubevideo, #ZoltanKodaly, accessible, American, Andre Previn, Arts, audience, Barbara Bonney, Bartok, Bassoon, bassoonist, beast, beauty, blog, Boston, Boston Globe, British, Budapest, Byron Adams, Camp Randall Stadium, Cello, Chamber music, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, chapel, children, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, Collage New Music, composer, conductor, conversation, coy, crocodile, Da Capo Chamber Players, emotion, Endre Servanszky, energy, England, ensemble, experience, expression, expressive, film, film composer, First Congregational United Church of Christ, flute, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, harmony, Horn, Humor, Hungary, Jacob Stockinger, James Whitcomb Riley, Jennifer Higdon, Jesus Christ, Kodaly, listening, longing, loss, Lutheran, Lutheran religion, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, march, Martin Butler, melodic, melody, Mosaic Chamber Players, movement, movie, music teacher, Musician, narrator, natural world, nature, New Music, Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, Oakwood Chamber Players, Oakwood Village, Oakwood Village West, Oboe, opera, panache, Paris, Parisian, Passion, passionate, performer, Pianist, Piano, pig, poem, Poetry, post, professional, project, Pulitzer Prize, Quartet, quintet, reflection, Retirement, Roald Dahl, Robert Bridges, Schubert, singer, soprano, stories, story, Teacher, techique, technical, text, The Knights, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victorian, Violin, vocal music, vocalise, West Towne Mall, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wit, woodwind, Writer, Yehuda Weiner, YouTube
Classical music education: The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras’ annual “Art of Note” gala next Saturday night, March 4, seeks to raise $85,000 for music education
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following public service announcement to post, and he is happy to do so because he believes there is no better investment you can make in the future of both classical music and adult success:
Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will hold its annual Art of Note Gala fundraiser, on Saturday, March 4, 2017 from 6 to 10 p.m., at Marriott West, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive, in Middleton just off the Beltline on Madison’s far west side.
You can join dozens of major corporate underwriters and small business sponsors as well as individual attendees in helping WYSO to meet its goal of raising $85,000.
Study after study confirms that music education reaps lifelong benefits in academic and career success that go far beyond making music.
No single music educational organization in Wisconsin reaches more students or listeners than the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), which is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
WYSO has served nearly 5,000 talented young musicians from more than 100 communities throughout south central Wisconsin over the past 51 years.
WYSO provides over $50,000 in scholarships for students in need.
WYSO performs through the community and undertakes local concerts and TV appearances as well as international tours. International tours have included Vienna, Prague (below), Budapest, Argentina and Italy.
The Art of Note Gala garners community-wide support from those who are passionate about music education, ensuring that WYSO remains one of the top youth orchestra programs in the country.
The evening will feature live music performed by several WYSO student groups including the Brass Choir (below), Percussion Ensemble and Youth Advanced String Ensemble.
(In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a WYSO orchestra under retiring music director James Smith, perhaps part of the suite from the opera “Carmen” by Georges Bizet.)
The event will have an Italian theme to food, drinks and decor to bring back memories of WYSO’s most recent tour of Italy.
Fundraising events include silent and live auctions of more than 100 items that include everything from fine wine and restaurant gift certificates to holiday getaways, jewelry and tickets to major sporting and arts events.
To see the auction items, go to: http://www.wysomusic.org/artofnote/the-live-and-silent-auction-2017/
Of special note are the recycled violins that have been hand-painted and transformed into works of art by local artists. They are currently on display at Goodman Jewelers, 220 State Street. (Below top is the violin by Ellie Taylor, and below bottom by Margaret Andrews.)
Individual admission is $125 in advance, $135 at the door ($85 tax-deductible as a charitable donation per person). You can also purchase a table of four for $450, a table of 8 for $900 and a table of 10 for $1,100.
For reservations and more information about attending or sponsoring the gala, donating auction items as well as WYSO’s overall program and upcoming concerts, visit WYSO’s home website for the fundraising event at www.wysomusic.org/artofnote. You can also call (608) 263-3320, ext. 2.
For more general information about WYSO and its programs, go to: www.wysomusic.org
NOTE: If you are a WYSO student, a WYSO parent or a WYSO donor or supporter and have encouraging words to help others decide about attending the WYSO “Art of Note” fundraiser, please leave them in the COMMENT section.
Tags: adult, Argentina, Art of Note, Arts, auction, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Bizet, brass, Budapest, Business, Carmen, Cello, Chamber music, charity, Classical music, Concert, concerto, corporate, decor, donation, drinks, events, food, fundraiser, gala, getaway, Holiday, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, jewelry, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Middleton, Mozart, Music, Music education, opera, Orchestra, percussion, Prague, scholarship, small business, Sonata, Sports, strings, success, Suite, symphony, tax, tax-deductible, taxes, Television, ticket, tour, travel, TV, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vacation, Vienna, Viola, Violin, Wine, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WYSO, Youth, YouTube
Classical music: On the eve of his performance at The Proms, meet Ivan Fischer – a modest maestro who gets great results from his orchestra
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
In less than a week from now, on this coming Friday night, Hungarian maestro Ivan Fischer (below) will make his debut at the famed British BBC Proms with the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
In an age of jet-set, millionaire celebrity maestros, The Ear finds that the modest Fischer – a pianist by training who is also the music director of the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Germany — shows a refreshing lack of ego and ambition.
Fisher — who has also challenged the conservative right-wing government of Hungary –seems to have a healthy perspective on making music, which depends on taking the long view, with the acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra (below), which he founded and still leads.
Fischer is also extremely thoughtful and articulate in words as well as music, as you seen in his insightful remarks about the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Fischer is also well know for his recorded interpretations of Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, Antonin Dvorak, Peter Tchaikovsky, Bela Bartok and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
In short, Ivan Fischer seems a model non-superstar musician.
The Ear hopes you agree.
Here is a terrific profile that appeared in The Guardian newspaper in the UK:
Tags: Arts, Bartok, BBC Proms, Beethoven, Berlin, Brahms, Bruckner, Budapest, Budapest Festival Orchestra, choral music, Classical music, concerto, conductor, Dvorak, Germany, Hungary, interview, Ivan Fischer, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Maestro, Mahler, Music, Orchestra, Piano, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, symphony, Tchaikovsky, The Guardian, UK, United Kingdom, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) closes out its existence this Friday night.
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear notes with sadness the passing of a fine and inspiring institution that has fostered music education.
It is the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (below), also known as MAYCO, and this Friday night it will give its 10th – and final – performance.
The concert is this Friday night at 8 p.m. (NOT 7:30 p.m. as originally announced) in the Artrium auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison (NOT Music Hall). Admission is $10 for the public, with students getting in for a free-will donation.
Much about the final concert follows a familiar pattern.
For one, old classics will be mixed with new music.
In this case, the old classics are the Overture to the operas “The Barber of Seville” by Giachino Rossini and the famously forceful Fifth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. (You can get a taste of both the symphony and MAYCO in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The new work is the world premiere of “is a is a is b is” by Ben Davis (below), a graduate of the UW-Madison.
Also in keeping with MAYCO’S past, it will conducted by its founder and music director Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below), who founded it while he was still a student at East High School in Madison.
Since then Utevsky graduated this past May from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, where he majored in viola, conducting and singing, even appearing in baritone roles in several University Opera productions and giving a lieder recital.
All that plus he proved a talented reviewer and writer for this blog, especially when he chronicled tour of Vienna, Prague and Budapest by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) several years ago. You can read his writing by using the search engine in this blog. Just type in his name.
Why is MAYCO coming to an end?
Utevsky says simply and without bitterness that it is time for him to move on. He is taking off a year before pursuing graduate studies.
You can see what an achievement MAYCO provided – with lists of repertoire, composers and performers –by going to its home website:
http://www.mayco.org/#!concerts/cnnz
Tags: Arts, Bach, Barber of Seville, baritone, Baroque, Beethoven, Ben Davis, blog, Budapest, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, concerto, conduct, Education, Fifth Symphony, Franz Schubert, Graduate School, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mikko Utevsky, Mozart, Music, Music education, New Music, opera, performer, Piano, Prague, repertoire, Rossini, sing, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, Vienna, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world premiere, Writer, YouTube
Classical music: Puccini makes us all bohemians. Madison Opera scores a big heart-rending success with “La Bohème.” The final performance is this afternoon.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Loyal readers of this blog know very well the name of Mikko Rankin Utevsky. The young violist, baritone and conductor is a senior at the University of Wisconsin School of Music, where he studies with Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm, plays in the UW Symphony Orchestra, and sings with the University Opera.
Utevsky, who has won awards and impressive reviews for his work in music education since his days at Madison’s East High School, is the founder and conductor of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO – www.MAYCO.org), which will perform its sixth season this summer. He also directs a local community orchestra, The Studio Orchestra (www.disso.org).
You can check out his many honors and projects by typing his name into the search engine on this blog site.
Utevsky offered The Ear a guest preview review of this past weekend’s performance of “La Bohème” by the Madison Opera.
I immediately took him up on the offer. After all, he is a fine and perceptive writer who, you may recall, has done other opera reviews and who blogged for this post when he was on tour with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) tour to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.
Here is the review by Mikko Utevsky (below):
By Mikko Rankin Utevsky
Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème” is perhaps the most beloved of all operas, adored by newcomers and veterans alike for its richly Romantic melodies, subtly shaded score and sheer vocal magnetism. (Performance photos are by James Gill for the Madison Opera.)
This weekend’s production anchors Madison Opera’s writer-themed season, which continues with Mark Adamo‘s “Little Women” in February and Jacques Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffman” (The Tales of Hoffmann) in April.
The famous numbers in “La Boheme” — the first-act arias “Che gelida manina” by the poet Rodolfo (Mackenzie Whitney) and “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” by Mimi (Eleni Calanos), and the following duet “O soave fanciulla” in particular — are familiar showstoppers, and were well sung Friday night. (You can hear Jussi Bjorling and Renata Tebaldi sing the arias and duets in the YouTube video at the bottom. Can you not be moved?)
But the indisputable star of this production was Maestro John DeMain (below in a photo by Prasad), whose flexible leadership in conducting united a remarkably even cast and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, whose lush, supple sound filled Overture Hall to the rafters with a powerful reading of Puccini’s rich and colorful score.
One was struck by the tightness of composition. For a composer often accused of pandering to popular tastes, sacrificing musical integrity for cheap emotional tricks, the score to “La Bohème” is densely motivic and self-referential.
As in Mozart or Verdi, the orchestra often represents the subtext or the emotional undercurrents of the scene, with snatches of remembered melody drifting throughout the drama. The only complaint must be that we sometimes heard a bit too much of this lovely orchestra, to the detriment of balance with the singers.
Among the cast, the sense of camaraderie between the members of the male quartet — Marcello, Rodolfo, Colline and Schaunard — was palpable, by turns rowdy and rambunctious and in the fourth act deeply moving.
Whether this was the result of some special chemistry between the singers (Dan Kempson, Mackenzie Whitney, Liam Moran, and Alan Dunbar) or something drawn out by director David Lefkowich (below), it brought the ensemble scenes to life marvelously, and drew the audience into the lives of the four friends quite powerfully.
Dan Kempson (below) deserves special praise as the painter Marcello, a somewhat unsympathetic role, both for humanizing the jealous lover and for his rich and warm singing throughout the evening.
Tenor Mackenzie Whitney brought a clear and smooth tone to the role of Rodolfo, shining brightest in ensemble singing.
Evan Ross, in the buffo roles of Benoit and Alcindoro, brought humor, but not enough sound to be consistently heard over the orchestra, leaving the audience chuckling at his mannerisms and the supertitles rather than what he actually sang.
Soprano Emily Birsan (below), a favorite of local audiences and a UW-Madison graduate, who recently graduated out of the Ryan Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, made an excellent showing as the flirtatious Musetta, whose gentle side in the fourth act was extraordinarily poignant.
And Eleni Calenos’ Mimi (below, second from right) was both credibly fragile and vocally excellent, with warmth to spare and the ability to draw the audience into the intimate final moments of her life.
Sets from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City made subtle but evocative use of perspective, drawing the eye where it needed to be without drawing attention away from the action. (I was particularly fond of the Cafe Momus.)
The city beyond the garret was subtly shaded by Connie Yun’s lighting design. And Anthony Cao’s chorus, together with the Madison Youth Choirs, brought the necessary sense of spectacle to the outdoor scenes in Act II.
All in all, despite some balance issues early on, the gorgeous playing of the orchestra alone makes this a production worth hearing, and the largely young cast brings Puccini’s “verismo” (realistic) masterpiece vividly to life.
It’s another feather in the caps of artistic director John DeMain and general director Kathryn Smith of the Madison Opera.
It is sung in Italian with projected English supertitles. The final performance, with two intermissions, will be this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center.
Tags: aria, Arts, Budapest, chamber orchestra, Chicago, choral music, chorus, Classical music, David Lefkowich, death, duet, Giacomo Puccini, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Offenbach, John DeMain, Jussi Bjorling, Kansas City, La bohème, Little Women, Love, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Youth Choirs, Mark Adamo, Metropolitan Opera, Mozart, Music, opera, Overture Center, Prague, Puccini, realism, Renata Tebaldi, Romantic, Romantic music, Tales of Hoffmann, tour, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Verdi, Verismo, Vienna, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, YouTube
Classical music: Percussion ensemble Clocks in Motion joins UW-Madison ceramic artist in making an MFA installation a “smashing success.”
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Loyal readers of this blog know very well the name of Mikko Rankin Utevsky. The young violist, baritone and conductor is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, where he studies with Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm, plays in the UW Symphony Orchestra, and sings with the University Opera.
Utevsky, who has won awards and impressive reviews for his work in music education since his days at Madison’s East High School, is the founder and conductor of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO — www.MAYCO.org), which will perform its fifth season this summer. He also directs a local community orchestra, The Studio Orchestra (www.disso.org).
You can check out his many honors and projects by typing his name into the search engine on this blog site.
Utevsky offered The Ear a guest preview review of this past weekend’s performance by Clocks in Motion.
I immediately took him up on the offer. After all, he is a fine and perceptive writer who, you may recall, blogged for this post when he was on tour with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) tour to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.
Here is the review by Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below), who also took the performance photos:
By Mikko Rankin Utevsky
On Sunday, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music graduate percussion ensemble Clocks in Motion performed as part of artist Jeannine Shinoda’s MFA Exhibition “The Collector’s Set” in what can only be described as a smashing success.
Shinoda’s exhibition consisted of a room filled with ceramic plates, cups and dishes suspended from the ceiling by strings (below), which the attendees were invited to cut, sending the dishes crashing to the concrete floor.
The performance took place in an adjacent room, where it was counterpointed by the occasional crunching noise from the exhibition.
The four core members of Clocks (below) played an assortment of bowls, plates, cups, spoons and ceramic-shard wind chimes in a four-movement composition – his Opus 1 — by music director Sean Kleve. Composed as a set of rhythmic patterns and relative pitches before the instruments were chosen, the creatively scored work was orchestrated cooperatively by the ensemble for this eclectic assortment of pottery, played mostly with chopsticks.
It was structured in four movements. I quite enjoyed the lively second one in particular. A slightly eerie third movement made use of threaded metal rods that were scraped along the edges of the instruments to produce a sustained tone, and wind chimes made of broken plates and ceramic spoons (below).
One of the curiosities of the piece was discovering the range of sounds that can be produced from kitchenware — in particular, the gradual acclimation of the ear to the variety of pitches produced. The music seemed to coalesce out of the clatter of dishes and smashing china from the other room, emerging in minimalist rhythmic patterns and creative imitative passages.
All four parts were of equal importance, and each player could be seen taking the lead at various points — a sense of equality that is a hallmark of Clocks performances.
The fourth movement introduced a couple of small gongs, as though signaling that the grand finale was at hand. As the rest of the ensemble played, Dave Alcorn solemnly crossed in front and began the ritualistically choreographed conclusion — slowly and deliberately smashing the instruments.
The other three joined in with equal gravitas, sending plates and cups and bowls alike crashing to the ground. (The performers and audience, seen below, were equipped with protective eyewear for this portion of the work.)
As the last of the instruments were reduced to shattered fragments, the four musicians — straight-faced among stifled laughter from the audience — produced brooms and proceeded to sweep the remains into a single pile in the center of the stage, leaving the rooms silently when finished. They returned moments later to a standing ovation.
Here in his first work, Kleve demonstrates a sophisticated ear for texture and a shrewd understanding of pacing, both key to crafting a musically satisfying work that does not leave the listener feeling that the whole thing was just a setup to the final gambit of breaking dishes — an admitted risk with such a performance piece.
One of the wonderful gifts of Clocks in Motion is its ability to focus the ear on the sounds of “found objects” — whether they are plates or brake drums or cow jawbones — and provide a framework for listening to them as musical.
And, as is so often the case with Clocks in Motion, their strength of commitment and musical integrity is such that the enthusiastic audience is drawn into the fabric of even the most outwardly implausible works — their striking “Percussion is Revolution” program in September 2013 was a powerful example.
It is a testament to Madison’s musical community and to the School of Music percussion program that we continue to host such a remarkable performing ensemble, and this innovative performance is just the latest feather in their collective cap.
A PERSONAL NOTE:
Clocks in Motion will be joining my own ensemble, the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) on June 20 to open our fifth season, “Concerto Grosso!” It features the world premiere of UW-Madison graduate composer Jonathan Posthuma’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 in E minor for Percussion, Piano and Strings.
The performance will be at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, and tickets are $7 at the door with students admitted by donation).
The program will also feature UW-Madison Professor and Pro Arte Quartet cellist Parry Karp in Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor; the American premiere of contemporary British composer Cecilia McDowall‘s “Rain, Steam and Speed”; and the Symphony No. 6 in D major (“Le Matin” or Morning) by Joseph Haydn. (You can hear the sound painting that gives the symphony its nickname in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Tags: Art, Arts, baritone, Budapest, Cecilia McDowall, Cello, Cello Concerto, ceramic, chamber orchestra, China, Classical music, Clocks in Motion, concerto, Concerto Grosso, installation, Jacob Stockinger, Jonathan Posthuma, Le Matin, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, MAYCO, MFA, Mikko Utevsky, morning, Music, Music director, opera, opus, Orchestra, percussion, Percussion Ensemble, Prague, Pro Arte Quartet, Robert Schumann, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, WYSO
Classical music: Madison Opera brings singing, acting and sets together to stage a memorably fun production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” You can hear the last performance this afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Loyal readers of this blog know very well the name of Mikko Rankin Utevsky. The young violist, singer and conductor is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin School of Music, where he studies with Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm and plays in the UW Symphony Orchestra.
Utevsky, who has won awards and impressive reviews for his work in music education since his days at Madison’s East High School, is the founder and conductor of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO), which will perform its fourth season this summer. He has been named the new Music Director of a local community orchestra, The Studio Orchestra. The ensemble has an out-of-date website here (www.disso.org).
You can check out his many honors and projects by typing his name into the search engine on this blog site.
Utevsky offered The Ear a review of this weekend’s two performances of Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” by the Madison Opera in Overture Hall at the Overture Center.
The Ear immediately took him up on the offer. After all, he is a fine and perceptive writer who, you may recall, blogged for this post when he was on tour three summers ago with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) tour to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.
Here is the review, with performance photo by James Gill, by Mikko Utevsky (below):
By Mikko Rankin Utevsky
Madison Opera’s production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” this Friday evening was delightful, entertaining, and well-sung throughout. The cast — mostly young — excelled in both their comic acting and singing, making for a performance that the company can be proud of.
As Count Almaviva (below top right and below bottom disguised as Don Basilio at the keyboard), John Irvin’s lush and youthful tenor shone throughout the evening, growing if anything more secure as the night went on. Emily Fons played a girlish and coy Rosina (below left) with impressive vocal flexibility and pure high notes.
Alan Dunbar was delightful as the imperious Doctor Bartolo; his aria “Un dottor della mia sorte” was both solidly sung and absolutely hilarious.
Soprano Chelsea Morris, a Madison Opera Studio Artist, made her company debut as the maid Berta. Her clear and focused tone rang effortlessly atop the ensemble writing, and her lone aria was morbidly funny.
Thomas Forde made for a hysterical Don Basilio from beginning to end, while Bryan Royston did the unbelievable — he stood out in a silent role as the servant Ambrogio with deft physical comedy throughout the night.
The star of the evening was the young baritone Will Liverman (below) in the title role of the barber Figaro. His voice has power and beauty throughout its impressive compass, including a ringing upper register to rival a tenor’s. Coupled with comic sensitivity and delightful physicality, Liverman must certainly be a singer to watch, and it is our fortune to hear him here. (You can hear his famous “Largo al factotum” aria sung by Thomas Hampson in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Perhaps above all, director Doug Scholz-Carlson should be commended for an absolutely hilarious staging that managed to balance the schticky and slapstick with some truly clever opera in-jokes.
The fourth wall is occasionally shattered to tremendous effect, and every singer is in full command of their comic timing and physicality.
This staging does not put Rossini on a pedestal — it acknowledges that this music is, above all, riotously funny stuff, and it makes full use of the modern stage’s arsenal of gags and tricks to remind the audience of this fact. Judging by the response in the hall, most in attendance agreed.
John DeMain led members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a clean and capable pit ensemble, with pacing and ensemble mostly tight (though the first act Finale lacked momentum — difficult to bring to so much static music). Scott Gendel provided imaginative accompaniment from the harpsichord, including a few clever musical jokes.
A lovely and versatile set — created by Peter Dean Beck for Opera Carolina — provided an evocative setting, with lighting by Marcus Dilliard including a very nice storm.
You can see it for yourself this afternoon at 2:30 in Overture Hall — and you should, if only to hear Will Liverman before the big houses snap him up for good. It is a thoroughly entertaining way to pass a Sunday afternoon.
Tags: Arts, blog, Budapest, chamber orchestra, choral music, Classical music, conduct, Figaro, Gioachino Rossini, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, opera, Opera Carolina, Orchestra, Overture Center, Pierre Beaumarchais, Prague, Rossini, sing, soprano, tenor, The Barber of Seville, The Barber of Seville (play), University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Viola, vocal music, Will Liverman, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Brian Jefferies on Classical music: A major reass… |
 | welltemperedear on What made Beethoven sick and… |
 | rlhess5d5b7e5dff on What made Beethoven sick and… |
| welltemperedear on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
 | Robert Graebner on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 