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By Jacob Stockinger
Think of it as a well-deserved, heart-felt homage that one longtime and generous patron of classical music is paying to another patron who also happened to be a close personal friend and a professional colleague.
The public is invited to join in the one-hour, FREE all-Schubert memorial concert at Oakwood Village West (University Woods), at 6205 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall, at 7 p.m. TONIGHT, Oct. 19.
Here is an invitation from retired University of Wisconsin-Madison chemist Kato Perlman (below) about the concert she is sponsoring and funding in memory of her close friends:
“Join flutist Iva Ugrcic (below top) and pianist Thomas J. Kasdorf (below middle) for a FREE All-Schubert Evening and enjoy the music from one of the greatest composers of the 19th century, Franz Schubert (1797-1828, below bottom).
“This concert is in memory of the late Irving and Millie Shain. Irv Shain (below) was a chemistry professor and then a long-serving Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and a great supporter of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
“He played the flute himself and these Schubert pieces belonged to some of his favorites for the flute.
“He also established, in addition to his long-running annual Beethoven piano sonata competition, a woodwind and piano competition. Both Iva Ugrcic and Thomas Kasdorf are previous winners.”
The program is:
Sonata in A Minor, D. 821 (“Arpeggione”)
Introduction and Variations on “Trockne Blumen” (Withered Flowers) from “Die Schöne Müllerin” (The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter), D. 802 (Op. 160)
Ständchen (“Serenade”) from Schubert’s final song cycle Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D. 957 (heard in the YouTube video below)
CORRECTION: Today, Saturday, April 14, at 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall — NOT yesterday as was mistakenly listed in the early edition of yesterday’s post — is the annual FREE concert by the UW’s Perlman Trio (named after benefactor Kato Perlman).
It will perform piano trios by Franz Joseph Haydn and Robert Schumann, and a piano quartet by Johannes Brahms. A reception will follow. For more information about the student performers and the full program, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/the-perlman-trio/
By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon is a good time to remember three men whose musical legacies continue to survive after their deaths and decades after they made their contribution.
At 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the three winners of the 33rd annual Beethoven Sonata Competition will perform a FREE recital.
The competition was started by chemistry professor and former UW-Madison Chancellor Irving Shain, who once contemplated a career as a flutist and who died at 92 in March.
The 2018 winners (with photos below the names) are:
ANNA SIAMPANI
MICHAEL MESSER
ERIC TRAN
One interesting and unusual aspect of the concert is that the same piano sonata — the beautiful and soulful, theme-and-variations Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 — will be performed twice by two different winners. The Ear thinks that is a first in the history of the competition. (You can hear Richard Goode play the sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A reception will follow the concert.
Here is the program:
Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 — Anna Siampani
Sonata No. 7 in D major, op.10, no.3 — Michael Messer
— INTERMISSION—
Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 — Eric Tran
Adds the Mead Witter School of Music’s website: “We bid farewell to former Chancellor Irving Shain (below), who died on March 6 at the age of 92. Chancellor Shain was a champion of the piano, founding both the Shain Piano/Woodwind Duo Competition (that concert was on March 4) and the Beethoven Piano Competition.
“His contributions to the School of Music were significant. We have missed his presence at these concerts and we remember him with fondness.”
Read more about Chancellor Shain here:
https://news.wisc.edu/former-uw-madison-chancellor-irving-shain-dies-at-92/
EDGEWOOD COLLEGE
At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, Edgewood College will also mark a special event: a FREE celebratory concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra.
The program, under the baton of Blake Walter (below), features audience favorites, such as the Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite and the Overture to the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
There is no admission charge, but donations to the Edward Walters Music Scholarship are accepted. The scholarship fund directly benefits Edgewood College students participating in ensembles.
A reception will follow the concert in the Washburn Heritage Room.
Adds Edgewood College (below) in a press release: “Founded in 1993 through a generous endowment established by Edgewood College benefactors William O. Hart and Vernon Sell, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra fulfills a unique role at Edgewood College and in the Madison community. (Sorry, The Ear could not find photos of either William O. Hart or Vernon Sell.)
“Hart and Sell envisioned hosting a permanent in-house chamber orchestra that would provide Edgewood College students and community members access to high-quality performances and unique educational opportunities.
“Their dream remains vital today, as the ensemble contributes directly to the advancement of music students by giving them the rare opportunity arrange for the ensemble, perform with the group as selected soloists, and to conduct the ensemble. It also provides students and the community exposure to world-class soloists and distinctive programming.”
By Jacob Stockinger
If you go to the official website (http://www.music.wisc.edu) and the A Tempo blog (https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music — and you really should do so regularly if you are a classical music fan in the Madison area — you are likely to see a lot of photographs taken by Michael R. Anderson.
So who is he?
And what does he say about his photographs, which feature striking compositions and a fine sense of animation?
You can judge for yourself from the new exhibition of his images at the Lowell Center, 610 Langdon Street, phone (608) 256-2621. It went up last Sunday, but has its official opening and reception this Sunday afternoon — with refreshments and with the photographer present — from 1 to 3 p.m.
The free exhibit runs through April 30 at the UW-Extension Building At some future time, according to UW School of Music officials, some of Anderson’s images will be put on display outside Mills Hall and Morphy Hall.
For more information, visit:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/photo-exhibit-mike-anderson/
Michael R. Anderson (below) kindly spoke to The Ear about his photo show:
Can you briefly introduce yourself to readers and tell them about your personal and professional interests?
I was born and raised in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970 with a degree in Chemistry. After teaching for nine years, I returned to school, earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering and subsequently worked for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. When we retired, my wife and I returned to Wisconsin.
How and when did your interest in photography start and what drew you to music as a subject matter?
In 1966 I went to summer school in Germany. An aunt lent me her Kodak Instamatic to take with me. I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed trying to capture that summer in pictures. I’ve enjoyed photography as a hobby ever since. Since my wife and I like to camp and hike, landscape and nature photography is a favorite subject.
Our older son, Eric, is a UW-Madison School of Music graduate. He’s now the band director at Verona Area High School and he also conducts the Verona Area Concert Band. My first real attempt to photograph musicians was when he asked me to take pictures of the Concert Band for their website. That turned out to be more fun than I had anticipated, and I’ve photographed them several times over the past few years.
How did you get started taking pictures for the UW-Madison School of Music?
Kathy Esposito, who manages Public Relations for the School of Music, placed an ad in a local photography newsletter seeking a volunteer to take pictures that she could use to update the school’s website. One of the joys of retirement is having time to volunteer for jobs like this, so I contacted her.
Do you have favorite areas of interest or subject matter —portraits, action shots, rehearsals or performances, individuals or groups?
Candid shots of the musicians rehearsing or performing are my favorite, especially those of individuals or small groups. Trying to capture their energy, emotion and concentration as they play is an interesting challenge.
Do you see any parallels between photography and music?
They’re both food for the right side of the brain. Life would be rather boring without the arts to inspire us.
Do you care to share any technical information (camera, lenses, flash, processing software, printer, paper) for those who are interested?
Photographers like to say that the equipment is not important. Nevertheless, many people, even other photographers, are interested. All but one of the photos in this exhibit were taken on a Canon 7D with a Canon 70-200 f/4L or a Canon EF-S 17-85 f/4-5.6 lens. Lightroom and Photoshop were used to process the RAW files and the pictures were printed on Red River Polar Matte paper with an Epson Stylus Photo R2000 printer.
What do you most enjoy about making photos of music? What aspect do you least enjoy or find most challenging?
Photography gives me a chance to describe an aural experience with a visual language. That’s an interesting task. The difficult part is that classrooms are not photo studios with plenty of bright lights. I often have to use slower shutter speeds and higher ISOs (film speeds) than I would like.
How many images to you generally shoot during a typical concert to arrive at a “keeper” shot?
This can vary quite a bit, depending on the type of scene I’m trying to capture as well as the lighting and other factors. But it’s not unusual to take 10-20 photos to get one I like. One is never enough, of course, so it’s easy to take several hundred during a concert to get a selection of final images that cover various phases of the performance.
What else would you like to say?
These photos capture just a few moments in time but the music lives on through the excellent programs and performances at the UW-Madison School of Music.
If your readers have additional questions, there will be an open house for this exhibit at the Lowell Center (below), 610 Langdon St., on this coming Sunday, March 8, from 1 to 3 p.m. At 2 p.m. I will make a few comments about the exhibit and answer questions.
By Jacob Stockinger
This Friday night, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, this season’s second SoundWaves event will take place. It is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
The curator of the unusual program that combines science and music is University of Wisconsin-Madison horn professor Daniel Grabois. Besides teaching, he also performs in the Gretzler band with his colleague UW trombonist Mark Hetzler, the Meridian Arts Ensemble and the Wisconsin Brass Quintet.
For some background about the program and the first concert-lecture in September, which featured songs by Gustav Mahler, here is a link to a terrific interview with Grabois on the UW School of music blog “Fanfare”:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/soundwaves9-26-2013/
Grabois (below) recently offered The Ear a Q&A about this week’s lecture-concert and about the program in general.
Here it is:
What is SoundWaves?
SoundWaves is a series I started last year. Each of our events takes on a theme, and explores it from various scientific angles (all aimed at the layman), then from a musical angle (I do that part), followed by a music performance relating to the theme.
The idea is for the public to learn about the world we live in, and to see how music fits in as well. Most of our presenters are UW faculty scientists and performers. At SoundWaves, they have an opportunity to share their knowledge in a non-technical way for people who are curious.
What kind of themes does SoundWaves tackle?
Our first event was called “Music to Our Ears.” We had a physicist talk about what sound is, a hearing expert talk about how the ear works, a neuroscientist discuss how the brain processes the ear’s signal, and a psychologist talk about how sounds affect our emotions.
We then performed the Horn Trio by Johannes Brahms (below), a patently emotional piece of music.
Doing that as our first event taught me that flow was really important: each lecture had to set up the next one. Other themes last year were Measurement, Tools, and Sequences. The theme of our October event is Groups and Their Behaviors.
Who is speaking and performing this Friday?
An entomologist will discuss bee communication. A mathematician will introduce us to group theory. A researcher from the Center for Complexity and Collective Computation (you have to love the UW!!!) will talk about his research regarding how groups of objects function in the physical world (through physics and chemistry), then what that tells us about group behavior in primates (including humans). And I’ll be talking about how musical groups function, specifically with regard to musicians’ body language.
After that, Linda Bartley (UW clarinetist, below top, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), Christopher Taylor (UW pianist, below bottom) and I will perform part of the Reinecke Trio for Clarinet, Horn (that’s me) and Piano. (A performance of Reinecke’s Trio on a YouTube video is at the bottom.)
Where is this project going?
Good question. I got a wonderful grant from the Chester Knapp Charitable Bequest to put on eight events this year, which I have to admit is a lot. But I’m having no trouble finding scientists to collaborate with, and I’m having a great time.
The biggest benefit for me is meeting all these great new people and learning lots of interesting stuff from them. Also, we’ve been having big audiences, and I love getting our School of Music faculty out of our building for performances in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building (below, in a photo by Jeff Miller of the UW). WID is located at the corner of Orchard and University and is an amazing building).
What other themes will you be taking on this year?
Color, newness, rhythm, wood, repetition and metal.
How do you come up with themes?
I just sit down and think, “What do I want to know?” It’s pretty easy, since there’s so much I don’t know! And, here at UW, there’s a scientist available to answer just about any question you could think to ask.
For example, the instrument I play, the French horn (below), is made out of metal, but when push comes to shove, I have basically no idea what metal is, how it is manufactured, why making instruments out of it is a good idea, and so on. The music for the event on metal is planned already, and when I am ready to start lining up scientists, I’ll head straight to the Materials Science department, then Chemistry, maybe Engineering, and so on.
Once the theme is chosen, my questions about the theme lead me straight to the right science people. And I have to tip my cap to Laura Heisler (the program director at WID), who knows tons of scientists and has put me in touch with many brilliant people.
Is the science hard to understand?
NO!!! Our basic ground rules are: no jargon, no technical stuff unless it’s absolutely necessary. Last year, a chemist explained what DNA really is, and I think we all got it!
Where can people get more information?
Go to http://www.warf.org/home/news-media/campus-programs/soundwaves/soundwaves.cmsx for a list of our events. They all start at 7 p.m. Everything is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. In the WID building, right in the middle of the giant ground floor is a big round space called the DeLuca Forum (below), where we have our events.
Why should people come?
The UW-Madison has brilliant scientists and musicians. Come hear what they have to say and play, and learn about our world.