The Well-Tempered Ear
Soprano and UW-Madison graduate student Sarah Brailey wins a Grammy Award
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By Jacob Stockinger
Soprano Sarah Brailey (below), a native of Wisconsin — who now lives, works and studies in Madison — won a Grammy Award last night.
Brailey received the prestigious award (below) in the category “Best Classical Solo Album” category. It was for her role in the long-neglected, opera-like choral symphony “The Prison” by English composer Dame Ethel Smyth on the Chandos label. (You can hear an excerpt from the Brailey recording in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Brailey’s win is especially noteworthy because it comes early in her career.
Although she has toured nationally and internationally, and has established herself as a professional singer of note, Brailey is a busy graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where she is finishing her doctoral degree.
Here is a link to her website: https://sarahbrailey.com
Brailey is also one of the city’s busiest and most respected musicians.
During the pandemic year, she explained and help spark benefit concerts and fundraising for musicians whose livelihoods suffered due to cancelled performances. Here is a link: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=sarah+brailey
She also hosts the Sunday morning radio show “Musica Antiqua” – which features early music — on WORT-FM 89.9.
Recently, Brailey became the artistic director of “Grace Presents,” a series of free concerts at the downtown Grace Episcopal Church across from the state Capitol.
An avid early music performer, Brailey — who won and now directs the annual Handel Aria Competition — also co-founded and co-directs the free monthly series of Just Bach concerts (below, second from right), the lastest of which takes place this Wednesday, March 17. She sings solos, greets listeners and viewers, and often leads the final sing-along chorale from a Bach cantata.
You can hear many of her performances duing the Just Bach concerts on the Just Bach channel on YouTube.
Leave your own congratulations and thoughts about her performances in the Coment section.
The Ear will post a complete list of the classical music Grammy Award nominees and winners later this week.
PS: Another native of the Madison area was nominated for a non-classical Grammy is Bill Rahko, who co-produced the album “Everyday Life” for the rock band Coldplay. The album was nominated for Album of the Year, but lost to Taylor Swift’s “Folklore.”
Here is a link to a story on NBC 15 about Rahko, who attended Middleton High School: https://www.nbc15.com/2021/03/14/madison-area-native-up-for-grammy-award-for-album-of-the-year/
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Classical music: Flutist and activist Iva Ugrcic is Musician of the Year for 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger
The classical music scene in Madison is so rich that it is always a challenge to name a Musician of the Year.
There are just so many deserving candidates. One obvious example is conductor John DeMain, who is completing his 25th year of outstanding stewardship in directing the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Opera.
But part of the intent behind such an honor is not just to recognize well-known figures. It is to encourage a broader awareness of those people who do a lot for local classical music but who often fly under the radar for many people.
That is why The Ear is naming flutist and activist Iva Ugrcic (below) as the Musician of the Year for 2018.
As both a performer and entrepreneur, Ugrcic is always very busy broadening her varied career. Being both a player and an activist, she is making a difference, musically and socially, that deserves to be recognized and supported.
Serbian by birth and educated in Belgrade and Paris, she came to Madison where she completed her doctorate in flute performance and also took business courses at the UW-Madison Business School.
She is a first-rate performer who has won a national prize for performing. While at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, she won both the concerto competition (below) and the Irving Shain competition for wind instruments in duets. (You can hear her amazing technique in the YouTube video at the bottom. In it Ugrcic performs “Voice” for solo flute by the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.)
She now plays with the Black Marigold Wind Quintet and Sound Out Loud, both of which are based in Madison and both of which devote themselves to contemporary composers and new music.
This year, Urgcic also soloed with the Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by John W. Barker), performing to critical acclaim a relatively unknown concerto by 19th-century composer Carl Reinecke.
This year, Urgcic also took over as artistic director of the Rural Musicians Forum, which brings classical music, jazz, world music and ethnic music, played by outstanding performers to the Spring Green area, often at the Taliesin compound of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
But perhaps her most long-lasting contribution is her founding and now directing the LunART Festival that, in the same year of the Me Too movement, sought to present an all-women event that featured composers, performers, visual artists and writers.
Such was its inaugural success in 2018 that it won a national prize from the National Flute Association and a second festival will take place from June 9 through June 9, 2019.
2019 will also see the release of her second solo recording devoted to the music of the contemporary Romanian composer Doina Rotaru, even while she is working on a recording of “Beer Music” by contemporary American composer Brian DuFord.
And all that is just the beginning for such a promising talent. We will be hearing much more from her and about her in years to come.
To see her impressive biography, as well as updated activities, video and audio clips, photographs and other information, go to: https://www.ivaugrcic.com/bio
Here is one more thing that speaks to The Ear. It feels important, even necessary, to recognize the positive contributions of an immigrant at a time when the current “America First” administration under President Donald Trump seems so paranoid and negative, so xenophobic and afraid of foreigners.
The U.S government should be less intent on condemning or stigmatizing immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, and should put more emphasis on their contributions and on the long and distinguished history they have in the United States.
Iva Urgcic is yet another example of the talent we Americans stand to lose if we do not accept and encourage the gifts that immigrants bring in so many ways — from the arts, medicine, education and technology to everyday life and work.
Please join The Ear is expressing gratitude and congratulations to Iva Urgcic.
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Classical music: Can the annual Handel Aria Competition be improved? Here are two modest proposals from a fan. What do you think?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a guest posting by George Savage, a blog follower who is a self-described musical amateur. In his youth he sang in choirs and had a bit solo part of Morales in his college production of Bizet’s Carmen. Then, a long musical hiatus until his 60th birthday celebration, when he sang Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah,” black hat in hand, knees on floor.
Most of his adult life was spent teaching literature and composition at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, specializing in the American Renaissance. To the extent he has stayed connected to the world of music, it is through his daughter Kelly Savage, who has a D.M.A in harpsichord from Stony Brook University and now teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
By George Savage
As my bio indicates, I am a musical amateur, meaning simply that I am a lover (French amateur) of music. For the past three years, I have had this love rekindled through the annual Handel Aria Competition in Madison, Wisconsin.
The vocal quality has consistently been high — especially this year! — and it is fun to vote for the Audience Favorite, even when the judges disagree with your assessment.
(Editor’s note: This year the Audience Favorite was mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger, below top, while the three judges awarded First Prize to soprano Suzanne Karpov, below bottom. Here is a link to story about all the winners: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2018/06/11/classical-music-here-are-the-winners-of-friday-nights-sixth-annual-handel-aria-competition/).
My heartfelt congratulations go to Dean and Carol “Orange” Schroeder (below) for establishing this annual competition in 2013 and for the many supporters who have made this competition a success.
I have two modest proposals, though, for improvement, one minor and one major.
A minor proposal: Unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of opera — and I know that some people reading this have that knowledge — you will not know the context of the arias.
I propose that the program notes contain a brief context for each of the arias. Alternatively, the singers – below are the seven finalists this year — could introduce their songs with a similar brief context.
A major proposal: As I listened this year to Handel piece after Handel piece after Handel piece, I wondered: “Could there be some variation?”
I started to think of other festivals that started with a single-artist focus but then gradually expanded, such as the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, or, closer to home, the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Both summer theater venues began with a single focus – Shaw and Shakespeare — but then evolved while at the same time staying true to their precipitating muse.
There is still lots of Shaw at the Shaw festival and lots of Shakespeare at APT. The same is true of the Carmel Bach Festival, which started with Bach but now has expanded to include many other forms of classical music. The same holds true for the famous Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, which continues to expand its repertoire beyond Mozart.
In that spirit, I wonder if the singers at the Handel Competition, back up by the period-instrument Madison Bach Musicians, could in future events sing two selections — the first an aria by Handel and the second a non-Handel Baroque aria of the singer’s choice.
I think many singers would welcome the expanded repertoire and the audience would appreciate the added variety. The judging would be murkier, but it would be a good kind of murky.
I hope these proposals will engender a discussion: Should the competition be tweaked, or should it stay the same?
Your thoughts on these two proposals would be appreciated as well as other suggestions of your own.
Tags: #AmericanLiterature, #AmericanPlayersTheatre, #AmericanRenaissance, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BaroqueSingingStyle, #BlogPost, #CarmelBachFestival, #ChoralMusic, #GeorgeBernardShaw, #GeorgesBizet, #HandelAriaCompetition, #LeonardCohen, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MostlyMozart, #MostlyMozartFestival, #NewYorkCity, #Niagara-on-the-Lake, #PeriodInstruments, #SanFrancisco, #SanFranciscoConservatory, #ShawFestival, #SpringGreen, #StonyBrookUniversity, #UnitedState, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityofWisconsin-Whitewater, #WilliamShakepseare, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, amateur, American, Arts, Baroque, birthday, Bizet, blog, Canada, celebration, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Competition, composer, Composition, congratulations, Early music, earlymusic, finalists, floor, French, George Bernard Shaw, Hallelujah, hand, harpsichord, hat, judge, judges, literature, Love, Madison, major, Mezzo-soprano, minor, Mostly Mozart Festival, Mozart, muse, Music, New York City, opera, professional, proposal, repertoire, Shakespeare, singer, Singing, song, soprano, success, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world
Classical music: University Opera’s “La Bohème” proves a complete success on all counts – from the staging and the costumes to the singing and the orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Opera Guy for The Ear went to the University Opera’s performances of “La Bohème” on Friday and Saturday nights so he could sample both student casts. He filed this review, which is accompanied by photos taken by Michael R. Anderson for the University Opera.
By Larry Wells
I attended the first two of the three performances of University Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Bohème.” This production made use of the expansive and technically advanced Shannon Hall in the Wisconsin Union Theater. Deservedly, the hall was nearly full for both of the performances I attended.
Director David Ronis decided to update the setting to Paris in the mid-1920s primarily using posters, wigs and wonderful costumes to suggest the decade. Joseph Varga’s beautiful and clever single set incorporated ingenious slight changes act by act to suggest the opera’s various settings. Along with Sruthi Suresan’s subtle lighting design, the production was a visual delight.
Ronis’ able hand was evident in the players’ acting. The cast was consistently believable, and consequently I was drawn into their world and suffered along with their despair over love’s inconsistencies and death’s sting. Using my acid test for a performance’s success, I never glanced at my watch either night. I was fully engaged.
The orchestra was a marvel. Conductor Chad Hutchinson let it soar when it was appropriate, but the orchestra never overshadowed the singers. In fact, the key term that kept occurring to me both evenings was balance. The acting, the back-and-forth between the singers, and the interplay between the orchestra and the singers were consistently evenhanded.
As for the singers, the primary roles were double cast. Friday’s Mimi was Shaddai Solidum whose first aria “Mi chiamano Mimi” was a lesson in the mastery of legato. Saturday’s Mimi was Yanzelmalee Rivera who possesses a bell-like voice of remarkable agility.
Benjamin Liupaoga as Rodolfo sang a fine opening aria – “Che gelida manina” – with finesse and credibility. José Muñiz’s Rodolfo was initially restrained, but soared to great heights in the second act. (Below are Jose Muniz and Yanzelmalee Rivera as Rodolfo and Mimi.)
The interactions between Mimi and Rodolfo were believable, touching, and musically magical. The duet at the end of the first act “O soave fanciulla” was uplifting both evenings. I always marvel at the Wagnerian chord progression. The audience was so enthusiastic Saturday night that its applause nearly drowned out Mimi and Rodolfo’s offstage “Amor! Amor!”
I feel that Musetta is the hardest role to convey successfully. She has to come off as a combination of carefree and needy in the second and third acts and then compassionate and vulnerable in the final act. Katie Anderson and Claire Powling both handled the acting and the vocalizing with aplomb. The singing in the ensemble after Musetta’s Waltz at the end of the second act was outstanding. Below foreground are, left to right: Claire Powling (Musetta), Michael Kelley (Waiter), Jake Elfner (Alcindoro)
Matt Chastain’s Marcello was dark and brooding while James Held’s was more carefree and pragmatic. Both were able singers, and I found their ensemble work exceptional. In fact, the duets, trios, quartets and ensemble scenes throughout the opera were uniformly terrific.
The minor characters and the choruses were all excellent. But special praise must go to Benjamin Schultz-Burkel as Colline whose small aria in the fourth act (below) was a true showstopper. In the death scene finale of Act 4, left to right, are: James Held (Marcello), Claire Powling (Musetta), Jose Muniz (Rodolfo, kneeling), Yanzelmalee Rivera (Mimi), Benjamin Schultz-Burkel (Colline, standing)
My major piece of advice to the singers would be to trust their training. Some of the singers seemed initially tentative, but when they let themselves go they were fantastic. (Below is Yanzelmalee Rivera as Mimi.)
The program lists “Into the Woods” as University Opera’s production next spring in conjunction with the UW theater department. Although I personally look forward to it, I wonder about the blurring between opera and musical theater.
In any event, I was very pleased by both performances and give my heartfelt congratulations to the casts and staff for a memorable musical and theatrical experience. But I had to laugh at the supertitle for one of Mimi’s lines: “I wish the winter would last forever.”
Tags: #GiacomoPuccini, #LaBoheme, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #RichardWagner, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #WisconsinUnionTheater, 1920s, acid, acid test, acting, advanced, agility, aria, Arts, balance, believable, bell-like, carefree, cast, Chad Hutchinson, choral music, chord, Chord progression, Classical music, compassionate, composer, congratulations, costume, credibility, critic, David Ronis, death, decade, delight, design, despair, drama, evening, final, finesse, Friday, hard, hardest, height, inconsistencies, inconsistency, interplay, Into the Woods, Jacob Stockinger, laugh, lighting, Love, Madison, magical, memorable, Musetta's Waltz, Music, musical, Musical theater, needy, opera, Orchestra, Paris, performance, player, Poster, production, progression, Puccini, remarkable, review, role, Saturday, set, Shannon Hall, singer, singers, sting, suffering, supertitle, symphony, technical, tenttive, test, theater, touching, training, trust, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, visual, vocal music, vocalizing, voie, vulnerable, Wagner, Wagnerian, Waltz, watch, wig, winter, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, world
Classical music: It is commencement weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at many other schools. Here are two pieces by Brahms and Elgar to celebrate the event
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By Jacob Stockinger
School is out!
This weekend is Commencement Weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin System and many other colleges and universities across the nation.
Undergraduates will graduate in Camp Randall Stadium (below) today starting at noon.
And continuing students can at last put the hard work of classes and final papers and semester-end papers behind them.
So some celebration seems in order.
The Ear knows of two pieces that are surefire in the way they capture the spirit of the event.
For overall mood, The Ear thinks it is hard to top the upbeat energy of the “Academic Festival” Overture — heard below conducted by Leonard Bernstein in a YouTube video — which Johannes Brahms wrote on the occasion of receiving an honorary degree. It even includes an old Latin student drinking song.
The other piece is the “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 1 (of 5) by Sir Edward Elgar — heard below in a YouTube video with a chorus singing “Land of Hope and Glory.”
Sure, it is overplayed for everything from elementary school to graduate school. But that is only because it fits the occasion so perfectly and captures the stately poignancy of the moment when you leave one life behind and turn to face another.
Are the two pieces “warhorses”?
Probably.
Make that certainly.
But The Ear thinks some old standards remain standards because they are just that good, not just that old.
Yet if you have other favorite works or you know of other worthy pieces – say, Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Oxford” Symphony that he wrote when he received an honorary degree –please leave word and a YouTube link in the COMMENT section.
Cheers and congratulations to all!
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: For reviving and securing Bach Around the Clock, The Ear names Marika Fischer Hoyt as “Musician of the Year” for 2017
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By Jacob Stockinger
Regular readers of this blog know how much The Ear likes to recognize community-based initiatives, amateur participation, and events that are affordable or free to the public and so help build and widen the audience for classical music.
On all those counts, the Musician of the Year for 2017 goes to Marika Fischer Hoyt (below) who revived Bach Around the Clock and has given it a seemingly secure future.
In Madison, Bach Around the Clock was originally sponsored and put on for several years by Wisconsin Public Radio’s music director Cheryl Dring. But when Dring left for another job five years ago, WPR ended the event, which got its national start in New Orleans and is now celebrated in many other cities to mark the March birthday of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Yet it is not as if Fischer Hoyt didn’t already have enough on her plate.
She is a very accomplished and very busy violist.
As a modern violist, she plays with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member of the Ancora String Quartet (below), with which she still plays after 17 seasons. She is also a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
As a specialist on the baroque viola, she is a member (below far left) of the Madison Bach Musicians who also plays for the Handel Aria Competition and the Madison Early Music Festival.
In addition, she is a private teacher who finds time to attend early music festivals around the country.
To get an idea of what she has done to put Bach Around the Clock (BATC) on a stable footing here, read the update posting from a couple of days ago:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/classical-music-bach-around-the-clock-2018-is-set-for-march-10-here-is-a-year-end-update-with-more-impressive-news/
Not only did Fischer Hoyt obtain the participation of some 80 performers — students and teachers, amateurs and professionals, individuals and groups– she also got cooperation, facilities, performers and help from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street, on Madison’s near west side.
She obtained donations of money and even food to stage the event.
She herself played in the event that drew hundreds of listeners.
She lined up local sound engineers who recorded the entire event, which was then broadcast in parts by Rich Samuels (below) on WORT-FM 89.9 and streamed live as far away as London.
She served as an emcee who also conducted brief interviews about the music with the many performers (below right, with flutist Casey Oelkers)
Recognizing she can’t keep doing so much by herself, the energetic Fischer Hoyt has turned BATC into a more formal and self-sustaining organization with a board of directors.
She has sought advice from experts about Bach and Bach festivals.
She applied for and won one of five national grants from Early Music America in Boston.
She has consulted legal help to make BATC a nonprofit charitable organization, which should help guarantee a steady stream of funding.
And artistically, she has added a back-up mini-orchestra to accompany singers and instrumentalists.
The event this year is on Saturday, March 10, a little early for Bach’s 333rd birthday (March 31, 1685) but a smart decision to avoid spring break in the schools and at the UW, and to help recruit the many performers who are also important, if secondary, Musicians of the Year.
But the center of the event, the force holds it all together, is Marika Fischer Hoyt and all the hard work, done over a long time, that she has invested in making Bach Around the Clock a permanent part of Madison’s classical music schedule and cultural scene.
If you didn’t go last year, try it this year. It is wonderful, inspiring and enjoyable.
Please join The Ear in congratulating Marika Fischer Hoyt for making Bach Around the Clock the success it now is and giving it the future it now has. Leave your comments about her and BATC in the COMMENT section.
To celebrate, here is a YouTube video of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach:
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