The Well-Tempered Ear
Too bad the Wisconsin Union Theater didn’t book a great pianist for next season
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By Jacob Stockinger
“We are living in a Golden Age of pianists,” famed concert pianist, Juilliard teacher and frequent Madison performer Emanuel Ax (below) has said.
He should know. But you would never guess that from the recently announced next season at the Wisconsin Union Theater (below).
The WUT has not booked a solo pianist for the 2022-23 season.
Here is a link to the lineup for the next season:
https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/seasonevents/
Is The Ear the only one who has noticed and is disappointed?
Who else feels bad about it?
After all, this is the same presenting organization that brought to Madison such legendary pianists as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ignaz Jan Paderewski, Percy Grainger, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Dame Myra Hess, Guiomar Novaes, Egon Petri, Robert Casadesus, William Kapell, Claudio Arrau, Alexander Brailowsky, Gary Graffman, Glenn Gould, Rosalyn Tureck, Byron Janis, Misha Dichter, Peter Serkin, André Watts, Lili Kraus and Garrick Ohlsson
It is the same hall (below) in which The Ear has heard Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Angela Hewitt, Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Valentina Lisitsa, Andras Schiff, Joyce Yang, Yefim Bronfman, Jeremy Denk, Ingrid Fliter, Richard Goode, Leon Fleisher, Simone Dinnerstein, Wu Han and so many other great and memorable names including, of course, Emanuel Ax.
What a history!
As you can see and as The Ear likes to say, the Wisconsin Union Theater is “The Carnegie Hall of Madison.” For over 100 years, it is where the great ones play.
One irony is that many of those former bookings of pianists took place when the University of Wisconsin School of Music had many more pianists on the faculty and provided a major alternative venue for piano recitals.
Another irony is that so many young people take piano lessons (below) and are apt to want to attend, probably with their parents, to hear a live professional concert piano recital. You would think the WUT would also see the advantages of having such community outreach links to the public and to music education, especially since the WUT has hosted Open Piano Day for the public. (See the YouTube video of a Channel 3000 story in February 2020 at the bottom.)
From what The Ear reads, there are lots of up-and-coming pianists, many affordable names of various winners of national and international competitions. They should be affordable as well as worthy of being introduced to the Madison public.
But that seems a mission now largely left to the Salon Piano Series.
Plus, so many of the new pianists are young Asians who have never appeared here, which should be another draw for the socially responsible and diversity-minded WUT.
But that is another story for another day.
What do you think of the WUT not presenting a solo pianist next season?
Maybe there will be a pianist booked for the 2023-24 season.
What pianists would you like see booked by the WUT student programming committee?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Check out the 2022 classical music Grammys for trends and suggested listening
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By Jacob Stockinger
No doubt you have already heard about the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which were awarded last Sunday night.
But chances are you haven’t heard much about the classical music Grammys.
That’s just not where the money and publicity are for major record companies and for the music industry in general, compared to other, much more profitable genres such as hip-hop, rock and pop.
But the classical Grammy nominations and winners can be a good source about what composers, performers and music you might want to check out via streaming or by buying a CD.
You can also get a good idea of trends in classical music.
Contemporary or new music is big again this year, dominating the old standard classics.
Just like local, regional, national and international performers, both individuals and groups, the Grammys show an emphasis on female composers and performers, and a similar emphasis on rediscovering composers and performers of color from both the past and the present.
You might also notice that the New Orleans-born, Juilliard-trained jazz pianist and singer Jon Batiste (below) — who plays on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and directs the house band Stay Human and who seems a one-man Mardi Gras — was nominated for a record 11 Grammys and won five in other categories, seems to be the new Wynton Marsalis. Like Marsalis, with whom Batiste worked, Batiste seems perfectly at home in classical music as well as jazz, soul, blues and pop. And his original classical work Movement 11 was nominated for a Grammy this year.
Social activism, in short, has finally brought diversity and inclusion into the Grammys in a way that seems permanent.
Below are the nominations and winners of the 2022 classical music Grammys. Winners are boldfaced. I have also offered a few examples of those musicians who have performed in Madison and for what venue, although there are many more connections than indicated.
If you want to see the nominations and winners in other categories, here is a link:
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/03/1090342877/2022-grammys-full-list-winners-nominees
75. Best Engineered Album, Classical
- Archetypes — Jonathan Lackey, Bill Maylone and Dan Nichols, engineers; Bill Maylone, mastering engineer (Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad and Third Coast Percussion)
- Beethoven: Cello Sonatas – Hope Amid Tears — Richard King, engineer (Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax)
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 — Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck, Mendelssohn Choir Of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
- Chanticleer Sings Christmas — Leslie Ann Jones, engineer (Chanticleer)
- Mahler: Symphony No. 8, ‘Symphony Of A Thousand’ — Alexander Lipay and Dmitriy Lipay, engineers; Alexander Lipay and Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (Gustavo Dudamel, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Luke McEndarfer, Robert Istad, Grant Gershon, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, National Children’s Chorus, Pacific Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic)
76. Producer Of The Year, Classical
- Blanton Alspaugh
- Steven Epstein
- David Frost
- Elaine Martone
- Judith Sherman (below, who also recorded the UW-Madison Pro Arte Quartet’s centennial commissions)
CLASSICAL
77. Best Orchestral Performance
- “Adams: My Father Knew Charles Ives; Harmonielehre” — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor (Nashville Symphony Orchestra)
- “Beethoven: Symphony No. 9” — Manfred Honeck, conductor (Mendelssohn Choir Of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
- “Muhly: Throughline” — Nico Muhly, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)
- “Florence Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3″ — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Philadelphia Orchestra (below)
- “Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra; Scriabin: The Poem Of Ecstasy” — Thomas Dausgaard, conductor (Seattle Symphony Orchestra)
78. Best Opera Recording
- “Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle” — Susanna Mälkki, conductor; Mika Kares and Szilvia Vörös; Robert Suff, producer (Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra)
- “Glass: Akhnaten” — Karen Kamensek, conductor; J’Nai Bridges, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Zachary James and Dísella Lárusdóttir; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
- “Janáček: Cunning Little Vixen” — Simon Rattle, conductor; Sophia Burgos, Lucy Crowe, Gerald Finley, Peter Hoare, Anna Lapkovskaja, Paulina Malefane, Jan Martinik & Hanno Müller-Brachmann; Andrew Cornall, producer (London Symphony Orchestra; London Symphony Chorus and LSO Discovery Voices)
- “Little: Soldier Songs” — Corrado Rovaris, conductor; Johnathan McCullough; James Darrah and John Toia, producers (The Opera Philadelphia Orchestra)
- “Poulenc: Dialogues Des Carmélites” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Karen Cargill, Isabel Leonard, Karita Mattila, Erin Morley and Adrianne Pieczonka; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
79. Best Choral Performance
- “It’s A Long Way” — Matthew Guard, conductor (Jonas Budris, Carrie Cheron, Fiona Gillespie, Nathan Hodgson, Helen Karloski, Enrico Lagasca, Megan Roth, Alissa Ruth Suver and Dana Whiteside; Skylark Vocal Ensemble)
- “Mahler: Symphony No. 8, ‘Symphony Of A Thousand'” — Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Grant Gershon, Robert Istad, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz and Luke McEndarfer, chorus masters (Leah Crocetto, Mihoko Fujimura, Ryan McKinny, Erin Morley, Tamara Mumford, Simon O’Neill, Morris Robinson and Tamara Wilson; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, National Children’s Chorus and Pacific Chorale)
- “Rising w/The Crossing” — Donald Nally, conductor (International Contemporary Ensemble and Quicksilver; The Crossing)
- “Schnittke: Choir Concerto; Three Sacred Hymns; Pärt: Seven Magnificat-Antiphons” — Kaspars Putniņš, conductor; Heli Jürgenson, chorus master (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir)
- “Sheehan: Liturgy Of Saint John Chrysostom” — Benedict Sheehan, conductor (Michael Hawes, Timothy Parsons and Jason Thoms; The Saint Tikhon Choir)
- “The Singing Guitar” — Craig Hella Johnson, conductor (Estelí Gomez; Austin Guitar Quartet, Douglas Harvey, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Texas Guitar Quartet; Conspirare)
80. Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
- “Adams, John Luther: Lines Made By Walking” — JACK Quartet
- “Akiho: Seven Pillars” — Sandbox Percussion
- “Archetypes” —Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad and Third Coast Percussion
- “Beethoven: Cello Sonatas – Hope Amid Tears” — Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax (who have frequently performed individually and together at the Wisconsin Union Theater)
- “Bruits” — Imani Winds
81. Best Classical Instrumental Solo
- “Alone Together” — Jennifer Koh (below, who has performed with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra)
- “An American Mosaic” — Simone Dinnerstein
- “Bach: Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas” — Augustin Hadelich (a favorite of the Madison Symphony Orchestra)
- “Beethoven and Brahms: Violin Concertos” — Gil Shaham; Eric Jacobsen, conductor (The Knights)
- “Mak Bach” — Mak Grgić
- “Of Power” — Curtis Stewart
82. Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
- Confessions — Laura Strickling; Joy Schreier, pianist
- Dreams Of A New Day – Songs By Black Composers — Will Liverman (who has sung with the Madison Opera); Paul Sánchez, pianist (below at in the YouTube video at the bottom)
- Mythologies — Sangeeta Kaur and Hila Plitmann (Virginie D’Avezac De Castera, Lili Haydn, Wouter Kellerman, Nadeem Majdalany, Eru Matsumoto and Emilio D. Miler)
- Schubert: Winterreise — Joyce DiDonato; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, pianist
- Unexpected Shadows — Jamie Barton; Jake Heggie, pianist (Matt Haimovitz)
83. Best Classical Compendium
- American Originals – A New World, A New Canon — AGAVE and Reginald L. Mobley; Geoffrey Silver, producer
- Berg: Violin Concerto; Seven Early Songs and Three Pieces For Orchestra — Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; Jack Vad, producer
- Cerrone: The Arching Path — Timo Andres and Ian Rosenbaum; Mike Tierney, producer
- Plays — Chick Corea; Chick Corea and Birnie Kirsh, producers
- Women Warriors – The Voices Of Change — Amy Andersson, conductor; Amy Andersson, Mark Mattson and Lolita Ritmanis, producers (below)
84. Best Contemporary Classical Composition
- “Akiho: Seven Pillars” — Andy Akiho, composer (Sandbox Percussion)
- “Andriessen: The Only One” — Louis Andriessen, composer (Esa-Pekka Salonen, Nora Fischer and Los Angeles Philharmonic)
- “Assad, Clarice and Sérgio, Connors, Dillon, Martin & Skidmore: Archetypes” — Clarice Assad, Sérgio Assad, Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore, composers (Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad and Third Coast Percussion)
- “Batiste: Movement 11′” — Jon Batiste, composer (Jon Batiste)
- “Shaw: Narrow Sea” — Caroline Shaw, composer (Dawn Upshaw, Gilbert Kalish and Sō Percussion)
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Music con Brio starts an annual Black Composers project with a FREE virtual concert
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from Carol Carlson, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Madison-based Music con Brio (below), who is a violinist and holds a doctorate in music from the UW-Madison:
Hello friends,
Happy summer! I hope you are able to enjoy some rest, relaxation and fun in the sun.
I am emailing you because Music con Brio embarked on an exciting new project this year, and I want to share it with you.
In an effort to diversify our repertoire and guest artists, we have launched our new “Music by Black Composers” project. Last winter, our staff chose four pieces of music by Black composers and made student-accessible arrangements of them.
We then taught these new pieces during our online lessons this spring. On May 8, we gathered together outside at the Goodman Community Center, with four phenomenal local Black guest artists, to professionally record all four pieces.
And now, in lieu of our regular Community Concert Series this year, we are thrilled to present our first-ever Virtual Community Concert!
Click on the link to YouTube video at the bottom to watch and hear the 12-minute performance. Once there, click on Show More to see the composers, pieces and performers.
We are incredibly proud of our students and staff for all their hard work making this so successful. I’m sure you will enjoy their performance!
Please do feel free to pass the video along to anyone else you think might be interested in watching it.
And if you feel so inclined, we would really appreciate a donation in support of this work, which we plan to do every year from now on. To support Music con Brio and our Black Composers project by making a secure, tax-deductible donation, go to: https://www.musicconbrio.org/donate/
Thank you so much for your support! We hope to see you at a live concert again sometime soon!
If you wish to know more about Music con Brio, go to: https://www.musicconbrio.org
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Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will build a new $25 million home on East Washington Avenue
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following major announcement to post:
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) has announced plans to construct a new $25 million-building in the 1100 block of East Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin.
The new home will occupy three lots and will replace the historic Avenue Bar (below)
The new music center will continue WYSO’s vision to expand instrumental music education and performance opportunities for young people of diverse backgrounds and inspire excellence and a lifelong connection to music.
More than 500 young musicians from communities throughout southern Wisconsin currently participate in WYSO’s programs.
This 500 percent growth in student numbers since the organization’s founding is driving the need for facilities large enough to support both the organization’s programs and its mission of providing transformational musical experiences and opportunities.
For more information about WYSO, go to its home website: https://wysomusic.org
The purchase of the property and the kick-off of WYSO’s capital campaign have been made possible by two lead gifts totaling $18 million from Pleasant Rowland and Jerry Frautschi, who have long been supporters of the organization.
The planned 40,000 sq. ft- building will provide state-of-the-art rehearsal spaces sized for full orchestras; a room designed for percussion including a world-class array of percussion instruments; rehearsal rooms perfect for ensembles and chamber music; a piano laboratory; and small teaching studios for private lessons.
The building will also hold all of WYSO’s current orchestra and Music Makers programs, administrative offices, a music library— and provide opportunity to grow.
But the building will NOT contain public performance spaces. WYSO will continue to rent and use venues that already exist.
Since the fall of 2020, the organization – which used to be located in the UW-Madison School of Music — has been without a home base and has pieced out its program in different facilities throughout the Madison area. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the WYSO Youth Orchestra give a virtual and socially distanced performance last year of the finale of Rossini’s Overture to “William Tell.”)
This new building will allow all of WYSO’s programs to thrive under a single roof and provide the space, location, resources and connections necessary for WYSO to become a key collaborator in a growing youth arts community.
WYSO’s new home will be around the corner from the newly constructed Madison Youth Arts (My Arts), creating a vibrant youth arts synergy on the near east side. (An architect’s renderings of the exterior and interior theater are below.)
Located on a major transit corridor for easy access with adequate parking, the building will be in proximity to area performing arts venues, with space for WYSO’s programs and community events.
Says WYSO’s Executive Director Bridget Fraser: “Thanks to the incredible generosity of Pleasant Rowland and Jerry Frautschi, musicians of all ages will have state-of-the-art rehearsal facilities to call home. It’s a dream come true!”
WYSO has partnered with Urban Assets, city planners with experience in real estate development; Strang, an integrated architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm with a history of designing for the civic and cultural sectors; Talaske Sound, experts in architectural acoustics; and J.H. Findorff & Son, a local construction firm passionate about youth education and the arts.
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Wisconsin Ensemble Project’s string quartet program to benefit the United Way of Dane County debuts online this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Friday night, May 14, the Wisconsin Ensemble Project will present a recorded concert (below, in an image by Katrin Talbot) in partnership with United Way of Dane County (UWDC).
This is their second in a series of performances to benefit local and international organizations.
This production offers viewers a meaningful program that leads to direct impact with a focus on housing stability and family well-being. You will hear the story and see the face of UWDC woven throughout a chamber music performance.
The program of works for string quartet includes “Park” by Daniel Bernard Roumain (below top); the “Heiliger Dankgesang” (Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving, which you can hear played by the Alban Berg Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom) from Beethoven’s Opus 132; and selections from Five Folksongs in Counterpoint by Florence Price (below bottom).
WE Project members and performers are local, professional musicians who work together in the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra: violinists Leanne League and Mary Theodore; violist Jen Paulson; and cellist Karl Lavine.
“The WE Project is rooted in the quartet’s desire not only to delve deeply into chamber music repertoire, but also to address some of the many pressing social justice issues of our time,” says member Mary Theodore.
When exploring organizations to partner with for their second project, the quartet was inspired by the work of United Way of Dane County. The WE Project approached United Way out of their concern over housing security, with the understanding that one of UWDC’s key goals is to help more individuals and families find pathways out of poverty through housing and employment initiatives.
The recorded production will be available by registering at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wisconsin-ensemble-project-spring-benefit-concert-registration-151923670789 from 6 p.m. this Friday, May 14, for 72 hours. Admission is free and contributions are strongly encouraged.
Contributions can be made through the website and will help to cover basic production costs and get funds directly into the hands of this very worthy organization which, most importantly, brings aid to the people they serve.
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Can American film director Ron Howard make a sensitive and accurate biopic of Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang? Or is it a cultural appropriation that deserves to be condemned?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The self-appointed PC diversity police have struck again.
This is getting silly and tiresome, insulting and embarrassing.
Some advocates of cultural diversity are crying foul over the latest project of the American and Academy Award-winning Hollywood film director Ron Howard: making a biopic of the superstar Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang (below).
The script will be drawn from the pianist’s bestselling memoir “Journey of a Thousand Miles” — which has also been recast as an inspirational children’s book — and the director and scriptwriters will consult with Lang Lang.
It seems to The Ear a natural collaboration, as well as a surefire box office hit, between two high-achieving entertainers. Check out their bios:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Lang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard
But some people are criticizing the project in the belief that because Ron Howard (below) is white and Western, he cannot do justice to someone who is Chinese or to Asian culture.
Here is an essay, found on the website of Classic FM, by one objector. She is Chinese film director Lulu Wang (below), who says she has no interest in doing the project herself: https://www.classicfm.com/artists/lang-lang/pianist-biopic-ron-howard-faces-criticism-lulu-wang/
Talk about misplaced alarm over “cultural appropriation.”
Don’t you think that Lang Lang will have a lot to say about how he is depicted?
Do you wonder if Wang thinks cultural appropriation works in reverse?
Should we dismiss Lang Lang’s interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Bartok simply because he is non-Western and Chinese rather than German, French or Russian?
Of course not. They should be taken on their own merits, just as the interpretations of any other Asian classical musician, and artists in general including Ai Weiwei, should be.
But however unfairly, cultural appropriation just doesn’t seem to work in reverse.
Mind you, The Ear thinks that cultural appropriation is a valid concept and can indeed sometimes be useful in discussing cross-cultural influences.
But it sure seems that the concept is being applied in an overly broad and even misdirected or ridiculous way, kind of the way that the idea of “micro-aggressions” can be so generously applied that it loses its ability to be truthful and useful.
Take the example of the heterosexual Taiwanese movie director Ang Lee. He certainly proved himself able to depict American culture in “The Ice Storm” and the gay world in “Brokeback Mountain.”
Let’s be clear. The Ear is a piano fan.
But if he objects to the project, it is because he doesn’t like Lang Lang’s flamboyant playing, his Liberace-like performance manners and showmanship, and his exaggerated facial expressions.
Yet there is no denying the human appeal of his story. He rose from a young and suicidal piano student (below) who was emotionally abused by his ambitious father – shades of the lives of young Mozart and Beethoven and probably many other prodigies – to become the best known, most frequently booked and highest paid classical pianist in the world.
Yet not for nothing did some critics baptize him with the nickname Bang Bang.
Still, the Curtis Institute graduate does all he can to foster music education, especially among the young and the poor.
And there is simply no denying his virtuosity. (See Lang Lang playing Liszt’s Paganini etude “La Campanella” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So there is plenty to object to about Lang Lang the Piano Star besides the ethnicity of Ron Howard, who also did a biopic of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, in telling his story.
What do you think?
Is it culturally all right for Ron Howard to direct a film about Lang Lang?
Do you look forward to the movie and seeing it?
What do you think of Lang Lang as a pianist and a celebrity?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AcademyAward, #AGermanRequiem, #AiWeiwei, #All-Russian, #AmericanCulture, #AngLee, #ArtsandEntertainment, #AsianCulture, #BangBang, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrokebackMountain, #Children'sBook, #ChinesePianist, #ClassicalPianist, #ClassicFM, #ConcertPianist, #CulturalAppropriation, #CulturalDiversity, #CurtisInstitute, #EmotionalAbuse, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FilmDirector, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzLiszt, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #HighAchieving, #HumanAppeal, #IceStorm, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #LangLang, #LGBTQrights, #LGBTRights, #LookForward, #LucianoPavarotti, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #LuluWang, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicCritic, #MusicEducation, #NiccoloPaganini, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PhysicalAbuse, #PianoConcerto, #PianoStudent, #PoliticallyCorrect, #PopularSuccess, #RobertSchumann, #RonHoward, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #SmashHit, #TaipeiTaiwan, #TheEar, #TheIceStorm, #ThePolice, #VirtuosoPianist, #WesternCulture, #Wikipediabiography, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, ability, abuse, abused, Academy Award, accurate, advocate, Ai Weiwei, alarm, ambitious, American, Ang Lee, appeal, applied, artists, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Asia, asian, Asian culture, audience, autobiographical, autobiography, award, award-winning, Bach, bad, Bang Bang, baptize, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, bestselling, bio, biography, biopic, blog, Book, booked, box office, Brahms, broad, Brokeback Mountain, Business, celebrity, children's book, China, Chinese, Chopin, Classic FM, Classical music, classical pianist, collaboration, composer, concept, Concert, concerto, condemn, criticize, criticizing, critics, cross-cultural, Cry, cultural, cultural appropriation, Curtis Institute, Curtis Institute of Music, deny, depicted, depiction, deserve, discuss, diversity, do, draw, embarrassing, emotion, emotional abuse, emotionally, entertain, entertaining, Entertainment, essay, ethnic, etude, exaggerate, exaggerated, example, expression, extreme, Facebook, facial, fan, fanatic, father, film director, flamboyance, flamboyant, forward, foster, foul, France, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, gay, generously, German, Germany, graduate, Haydn, hear, herself, heterosexual, high achieving, highest, Hollywood, homosexual, human, human appeal, ice, ice storm, insulting, interest, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, journey, justice, Lang Lang, LGBT, LGBTQ, Liberace, life, like, link, Liszt, lives, look forward, Luciano Pavarotti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lulu Wang, manner, market, memoir, merit, micro-aggression, miles, misdirected, misplaced, movie, Mozart, Music, music critic, Music education, natural, nature, Niccolo Paganini, nickname, non-Western, object, objects, opera, Orchestra, overly, Paganini, paid, Pavarotti, PC, People, performance, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, physical abuse, Pianist, Piano, piano student, pic, playing, police, politically correct, poor, popular, post, posting, prodigies, prodigy, profit, profitable, project, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, recast, reverse, ridiculous, rise, Robert Schumann, Ron Howard, Russian, say, Schubert, Schumann, script, scriptwriter, see, seem, self-appointed, sensitive, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, shades, share, showman, showmanship, silly, smash hit, Sojourner Truth, Sonata, storm, Student, suicidal, superstar, surefire, symphony, tag, Taiwan, Taiwanese, Tchaikovsky, The Ear, The Ice Storm, think, thousand, tiresome, truthful, unfair, United States, use, useful, virtuosity, want, Western, white, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wonder, work, world, young, YouTube
The Madison New Music Festival launches the Wisconsin Composers Project with a virtual online concert this Friday night, Sept. 25
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
The Madison New Music Festival is pleased to announce the launch of the Wisconsin Composers Project.
Both a community resource and annual series, the project consists of a database and a virtual concert meant to increase composers’ visibility and encourage local curators and performers to collaborate with their neighbors.
We invite all Wisconsin-affiliated composers to sign up to be included in the database on our website: https://madisonnewmusic.org/aboutwcp
Please join us for the live streaming event of the Wisconsin Composers Project Concert on this Friday night, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. CDT on our website at https://madisonnewmusic.org and enjoy new music from all over Wisconsin from the comfort and safety of your home.
The pre-recorded concert will profile five Wisconsin-based composers (below) and performances of their works, one of which refers to the pandemic quarantine.
Audience members will hear directly from the composers about their music and influences, and enjoy the diversity of the Wisconsin musical community.
Featured composers and their works include:
Brent Michael Davids (above, top left): In Wisconsin Woods, performed by the composer. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the UW-Whitewater Chamber Singers and the Medicine Bear Singers perform “Sanctus: Singing for Power” from Davids’ Requiem for America.)
Jerry Hui (above, top right), a UW-Madison graduate who now teaches at UW-Stout: Quarantine Canzonets, performed by soprano Jennifer D’Agostino and baritone Michael Roemer.
Laura Schwendinger (above, bottom left), an internationally recognized and prize-winning composer and UW-Madison professor: All the Pretty Little Horses, performed by cellist Trace Johnson.
Asha Srinivasan (above, top center): Dyadic Affinities, performed by tubist Tom Curry.
Lawren Brianna Ware (above, bottom right): Borealis, performed by the composer.
The suggested donation to stream this concert is $15 per person.
For more information, please visit our website at madisonnewmusic.org or find us on Facebook (@Madison New Music Festival) or Instagram (@madisonnewmusic).
Tags: #AllthePrettyLittleHorses, #AshaSrinivasan, #BaritoneSinger, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrentMichaelDavids, #CelloMusic, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #CityofMadison, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #Fridaynight, #HomeWebsite, #InstagramPost, #JacobStockinger, #JenniferD'Agostino, #JerryHui, #LauraSchwendinger, #LawrenBriannaWare, #LiveStreaming, #LivingComposer, #MadisonNewMusicFestival, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MedicineBearSingers, #MichaelRoemer, #Musicfaculty, #NativeAmerican, #NativeAmericanmusic, #NewMusic, #Prize-Winning, #RequiemforAmerica, #Self-Isolation, #SignUp, #SopranoSinger, #StateOfWisconsin, #TheEar, #TheUW, #TomCurry, #TraceJohnson, #TubaMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UW-WhitewaterChamberSingers, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinComposersProject, #YouTubevideo, affiliation, affinity, all, America, announcement, annual, Arts, Asha Srinivasan, audience, baritone, blog, Borealis, Brent Michael Davids, canzonet, canzonetta, cellist, Cello, cello music, celo, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, collaborate, community, composer, Composition, Concert, coronavirus, curators, databse, diverse, diversity, donation, dyad, encourage, enjoy, Facebook, faculty, faculty member, featured, forward, Friday, graduate, home website, horse, includ, include, increase, information, Instagram, international, invite, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jennifer D'Agostino, Jerry Hui, launch, Laura Schwendinger, Lawren Brianna Ware, like, link, little, live streaming, live-stream, livestream, Living composer, local, Madison, Madison New Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, medicine, Medicine Bear Singers, Michael Roemer, more, Music, music faculty, musical, Native American, Native American music, neighbors, New Music, night, online, Orchestra, pandemic, performer, performers, post, posting, power, pre-recorded, pretty, professor, profile, recognized, Requiem, Requiem for America, resource, Sanctus, series, share, sign-up, singers, Singing, soprano, stream, subscriber, suggested, tag, The Ear, Tom Curry, Trace Johnson, Tuba, tubist, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater, UW-Whitewater Chamber Singers, virtual, visibility, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Composers Project, Woods, works, YouTube
Classical music: This summer the Token Creek Festival goes online. The music starts TODAY at 4 p.m. Concerts run daily through Sept. 15 and remain up for this month
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By Jacob Stockinger
The annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival normally occurs in the final weeks of summer, just before Labor Day, in the welcoming rustic comfort of the beautifully converted barn (below) located on the rural farm property of composer John Harbison and violinist Rose Mary Harbison.
With its normal concert season canceled due to Covid-19, the festival is pleased to announce an alternative for the summer almost ended.
Slightly later than usual, “MUSIC FROM THE BARN” is a two-week virtual season, a retrospective of concert compilations from 30 years of performances.
The topical programs will be released daily over the period Sept. 1–15 at 4 p.m. (CDT), and will remain posted and available to “attendees” throughout the month. From anywhere in the world, you can revisit whole programs or individual pieces.
The goal of the series has been to achieve the broadest possible representation of repertoire and artists who have graced the Token Creek stage since the series began in 1989.
To festival-goers, it will come as no surprise that the virtual season emphasizes music of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, vocal music, works by artistic director John Harbison and his colleagues, and, of course, jazz.
In addition to the welcoming beauty of the barn and festival grounds, with sparkling creek and abundant gardens and woods, and the convivial intermissions at every concert, one of the features most beloved by audiences is the concert introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and MIT professor John Harbison (below) that begins each program. Happily, these remain a feature of the virtual season as well.
Season Schedule
Tues., Sept. 1: Welcome and introduction from the artistic directors (below and in the link to the YouTube video at the bottom)
TODAY, Wed., Sept. 2: Founders Recital
Thurs., Sept. 3: Haydn Piano Trios
Fri., Sept. 4: Bach I: Concertos
Sat., Sept. 5: A Vocal Recital (I)
Sun., Sept. 6: Beethoven
Mon., Sept. 7: Contemporaries
Tues., Sept. 8: Early Modernists
Wed., Sept. 9: A Vocal Recital (II): Schubert and Schumann
Thurs., Sept. 10: Jazz 2003-2019
Fri., Sept. 11: Neo-classicists: Pizzetti, Martinu, Stravinsky
Sat., Sept. 12: Schoenberg and His Circle
Sun., Sept. 13: Mozart
Tues., Sept. 14: John Harbison: Other Worlds
Wed., Sept. 15: Bach II: Preludes, Fugues, Arias, Sonatas
Programs will be posted on Token Creek’s YouTube Channel, accessible from the festival website (https://tokencreekfestival.org), which will also host concert details: works, artists, program notes and other information.
All concerts are FREE and open to the browsing public.
In addition to the virtual concert season, the Token Creek Festival is pleased to release two new CDs.
A Life in Concert (below) features music written for Rose Mary Harbison by John Harbison, and performances of diverse music by the two of them. It includes the world premiere recordings of Harbison’s Violin Sonata No. 1 and Crane Sightings: Eclogue for Violin and Strings, inspired by frequent encounters with a pair of sandhill cranes at the Wisconsin farm.
Wicked Wit, Ingenious Imagination (below) offers four piano trios by Haydn, a beloved genre the festival has been surveying regularly since 2000. CDs will be available at the festival website by mid-September.
For more information, go to: https://tokencreekfestival.org
https://tokencreekfestival.org/2020-virtual-season/welcome/#
Tags: #ALIfeinConcert, #AmericanJazz, #ArnoldSchoenberg, #ArtisticDirector, #AtonalMusic, #BachCantata, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BohuslavMartinu, #ChamberMusic, #ClassicalRecording, #ConcertSeason, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CraneSightings, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #GeniusGrant, #IgorStravinsky, #InstrumentalMusic, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHarbison, #LaborDay, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MacArthurFellow, #MacArthurFoundation, #MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology, #Musicfaculty, #MusicFromtheBarn, #MusicProfessor, #NeoClasssicalMusic, #NewMusic, #OnlineConcert, #PianoTrio, #ProgramNotes, #PulitzerPrize, #RobertSchumann, #RoseMaryHarbison, #SandhillCranes, #StateOfWisconsin, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TokenCreekChamberMusicFestival, #TokenCreekFestival, #TwelveTone, #UWProfessor, #ViolinSonata, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #Wicked Wit, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, A Life in Concert, abundant, alternative, announce, annual, anywhere, aria, Arnold Schoenberg, Artistic director, artists, Arts, atonal, attendee, Bach, barn, Baroque, beautiful, beauty, Beethoven, blog, Bohuslav Martinu, broad, browsing, canceled, Cantata, CDs, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, channel, co-artistic director, colleagues, comfort, compilation, composer, concert season, concerti, concertos, contemporary, converted, convivial, coronavirus, crane, creek, daily, details, diverse, diversity, early, Early music, Eclogue, emphasize, encounter, end, Facebook, faculty, farm, feature, festival, festival-goers, forward, founders, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, free, fugue, Garden, gardens, genius grant, goal, grace, grounds, Haydn, Holiday, Igor Stravinsky, imagination, individual, information, ingenious, Ingenious Imagination, IngeniousImagination, instrumental music, intermission, introduction, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, Labor Day, later, life, like, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Martinu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, modern, modernists, month, Mozart, Music, Music From the Barn, music professor, neoclassical, neoclassicists, New Music, normal, normally, occur, online, online concert, open, other, pair, pandemic, performance, period, Piano Trio, piece, Pizzetti, pleased, post, posting, Prelude, program, program notes, property, public, Pulitzer Prize, recipient, recital, recording, release, remain, repertoire, repertory, representation, retrospective, revisit, Robert Schumann, Rose Mary Harbison, rural, rustic, sale, sandhill cranes, schedule, Schoenberg, Schubert, Schumann, Season, sell, September, share, sighting, singer, Singing, Sonata, sparkling, stage, Stravinsky, string music, strings, summer, surprise, tag, The Ear, today, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Token Creek Festival, topical, twelve tone, two, usual, Viola, Violin, Violin Sonata, violinist, virtual, vocal, vocal music, week, welcome, welcoming, whole, Wicked, Wisconsin, wit, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Woods, works, world, world premiere, years, YouTube
Classical music: Grace Presents HD offers a free virtual online concert by the acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players this Saturday at noon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Cellist and UW-Madison graduate student James Waldo has sent the following announcement about a FREE virtual online concert by Grace Presents, which he coordinates.
The hi-def, one-hour concert by the critically acclaimed and popular Willy Street Chamber Players (below) is at noon (CDT) this Saturday, Aug. 22.
Says Waldo:
“This is a pre-recorded event, and as such, I had the singular pleasure of sitting in the room while these fantastic musicians recorded their program. This event is not to be missed!
“Grace Presents HD brings you free, crystal-clear performances by local Madison musicians in the nave of historical Grace Episcopal Church – located downtown on the Capitol Square — from the comfort and safety of your own home.
“The Willy Street Chamber Players will have a video premiere that will be available on the Grace Presents YouTube channel on this Saturday, Aug. 22 at noon CDT. (This virtual concert is available for a limited time only!)
You can see and hear a preview of the concert in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Artists in the Willy Street Chamber Players are: Paran Amirinazari, artistic director, violin and viola; Eleanor Bartsch, violin and viola; Mark Bridges, cello; and Lindsay Crabb, cello, five-string cello.
You can find more information about the chamber music ensemble, including a link to a post in which The Ear named them as Musicians of the Year for 2016, at: http://willystreetchamberplayers.org
As is typical for The Willys, the program reflects diversity and includes both classical masters and contemporary composers:
Schubert: String trio in B-flat major, D. 47
Tania León (below) – Four Pieces for Solo Cello: II. Prayer
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber – Passacaglia
George Walker (below) – “Bleu”
J.S. Bach – Solo Cello Suite No. 6 in D major: I. Prelude and IV. Sarabande
Kimo Williams (below): “Quiet Shadows”
Beethoven: String Trio in G major, Op. 9, No. 1 / I. Adagio-Allegro
“We will be hosting a Zoom meet-and-greet with our guest artists following the performance. If you’d like to attend this virtual gathering, please RSVP to Grace Presents Program Coordinator James Waldo (gracepresents@gmail.com) for more information.
“Here is biographical background: The Willy Street Chamber Players (WSCP) are dedicated to creating community through classical music. Established in 2015, the group has become a fixture of the Willy Street neighborhood’s vibrant cultural scene.
“Recently awarded a gold medal in Madison Magazine’s prestigious “Best of Madison” reader poll, WSCP has received numerous accolades for its accessible and exciting performances, intelligent and fun programming, and community partnerships.
“Today, the group consists of four core members. Led by Artistic Director and violinist Paran Amirinazari, each player brings a fresh, imaginative take to classical music.
WSCP convenes each July – this summer’s concerts were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic — to present their popular summer concert series at Immanuel Lutheran Church (below) on Spaight Street. For these programs, the group has collaborated with many well-known guest artists from Madison and beyond.
“In addition, WSCP presents an array of events throughout the year including the admission-free Community Connect series that aims to bring classical music to inclusive spaces.
“WSCP has also performed at many other popular Madison venues including Marquette Waterfront Fest; Summer Serenades at Memorial Union Terrace; the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin compound in Spring Green; the Madison New Music Festival; and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA).”
OTHER DETAILS
Video recording and editing has been done by: https://www.microtonemedia.com/
Audio engineering has been done by Bruce Kasprzyk.
Grace Presents is supported in part by generous project grants from Dane Arts, the Madison Arts Commission, the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) and the Grace Episcopal Development Fund Trust as well as individual gifts and in-kind support.
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Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Did Beethoven and his Fifth Symphony foster racism, exclusion and elitism in the concert hall? The Ear thinks that is PC nonsense. What do you think?
8 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
Controversy has struck big among classical music critics and fans — just in time for the Beethoven Year that will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth this December. Plans call for celebrations by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, and others.
At question is what seems yet another fallout and dust-up from the Black Lives Matter movement and the current struggle to foster social justice and racial equality.
In some ways, it all seems inevitable.
Now the history-denying advocates of cancel culture are suggesting that Beethoven (below) and his music – especially the popular Fifth Symphony (you can hear the famous opening in the YouTube schematic video at the bottom) – fostered white privilege and the rise of racism, sexism and homophobia in the concert hall.
That seems like quite an accusation for a single composer and a single piece of music that was premiered in 1808.
The assertion is food for thought. But not much.
In the end The Ear finds it a stretch and a totally bogus argument. He thinks that Beethoven attracted far more performers and audiences than he repelled. Others, including famed critic Norman Lebrecht in his blog Slipped Disc and a critic for the right-wing newspaper The New York Post, agree:
https://slippedisc.com/2020/09/beethovens-5th-is-a-symbol-of-exclusion-and-elitism/
https://nypost.com/2020/09/17/canceling-beethoven-is-the-latest-woke-madness-for-the-classical-music-world/
The Ear also thinks it is political correctness run amok, even for someone who, like himself, advocates strongly for diversity of composers, performers and audiences – but always with quality in mind — in the concert hall.
Just because Beethoven was such a great creative artist is hardly cause to blame him for the inability of other artists to succeed and for non-white audiences taking to classical music. Other forces — social, economic and political — explain that much better.
Yes, Beethoven is a towering and intimidating figure. And yes, his works often dominate programming. But both musicians and audiences return to him again and again because of the originality, power and first-rate quality of his many works.
Beethoven himself was deaf. That would certainly seem to qualify him as inclusive and a member of an important category of diversity.
No matter. The writers are happy to blame Ludwig and his work for exclusion and elitism. They argue that people of color, women and LGBTQ people have all felt alienated from classical music because of Beethoven’s legacy.
Of course, there is elitism in the arts. People may be equal, but creative talent is not.
And clearly, Beethoven was a towering and intimidating figure – more for the quality of his music than for the simple fact that it exists. Such exclusion and elitism have to do with other factors than the composition of the Fifth Symphony.
If The Ear recalls correctly, when he died Beethoven was given the largest state funeral up to that time for a non-royal, non-politician or non-military person.
And how do you explain that Beethoven’s music, so representative of Western culture, appeals deeply to and attracts so many Asians and Asian-Americans, and became both banned and symbolically central to those opposed to Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China?
But these days being provocative can become its own reward.
You can read the analysis and decide about its merits for yourself, then let us know what you think in the Comment section.
Here is a link to the opinion piece in Vox Magazine, a free online journal: https://www.vox.com/switched-on-pop/21437085/beethoven-5th-symphony-elitist-classism-switched-on-pop
What do you think about the idea that Beethoven played a large and seminal role in fostering an elitist and exclusive culture in classical music?
Did you ever feel alienated from classical music because of Beethoven or know others who have?
What is your favorite Beethoven composition?
The Ear wants to hear.
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