The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Madison Choral Project performs “Finding Our Path” this Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Plus, the Madison New Music Ensemble performs a FREE concert this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, the critically acclaimed Madison Choral Project (below) will give two performances – in two different venues this year — of its seventh annual holiday program.
The MCP was founded and is directed and conducted by Albert Pinsonneault (below), who taught at Edgewood College and now works at Northwestern University. The group’s stated goal is to inspire, enhance and improve life through music. (You can hear them singing the Octet from Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In keeping with a format that you often find in places of worship — think Scripture and hymns — the MCP once again uses a holiday formula that remains popular and works very effectively by combining the spoken word with choral music.
This year’s theme is “Finding Our Path” and features music and texts on the theme of feeling adrift, seeking guidance and finding our path.
Performances are on this Friday night, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive; and this Saturday afternoon, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
Noah Ovshinsky (below), the news editor at Wisconsin Public Radio, will once again serve as the narrator.
Unfortunately, The Ear has seen no word about the works or composers in the musical part of the program, except that two commissions, including a world premiere by MCP composer-in-residence Justin Merritt, will be performed.
PREFERRED SEATING has a limit of 20 per concert. A reserved seat is in an acoustically “prime” spot in the house (center, about a third of the way back from the stage) and costs $40.
GENERAL ADMISSION is $28 purchased in advance and online or $32 at the door.
STUDENT TICKETS are $10 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. Please show valid student ID at will-call to redeem the ticket.
To purchase tickets online, go to: http://themcp.org/tickets
For more information, including a list of other concerts this season as well as recordings and videos, go to: http://themcp.org/concerts-2
MADISON NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE
This Friday night, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. the Madison New Music Ensemble (below) will perform a FREE concert at the Capitol Lakes Auditorium, 333 W. Main St., in downtown Madison, two blocks off the Capitol Square.
Parking is available in the ramp across from Capitol Lakes.
The concert features music by Joseph Koykkar (below), a Madison-based composer who teaches at the UW-Madison; Gabriela Lena Frank; Gareth Farr; Astor Piazzolla; and Paul Harvey.
Performers in the Madison New Music Ensemble are: Danielle Breisach, Amy Harr, Xinyi Jiang, Elena Ross, Joseph Ross and Bethany Schultz.
For more information, go to the Madison New Music Ensemble on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonnewmusicensemble/
Or go to the YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oehEnNWbA0Q
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Classical music: Meet UW-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon who performs with the Willy Street Chamber Players on Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Who is Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill)?
This week, he is the bassoonist who will perform Franz Danzi’s Quartet for Bassoon and Strings in D minor, Op. 40, No. 2 (ca. 1820), this coming Friday night, July 19, with the acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players (below), who will also be joined by pianist Jason Kutz and violist Sharon Tenhundfeld..
(The concert is at 6 p.m. in Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1021 Spaight Street. The program includes: the Allegretto for Piano Trio by Ludwig van Beethoven (1812); “Dark Wood” by American composer Jennifer Higdon (2001); and the rarely heard String Quartet No. 1 (1948) by Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera. Admission is $15.)
A native of France, Vallon is one of the busiest musicians in Madison. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where he also performs individually, with faculty and student colleagues, and as a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet. He also frequently performs and conducts Baroque music with the Madison Bach Musicians.
Vallon attended the Paris Conservatory, where he won first prizes in bassoon and chamber music, and also earned a philosopher degree at the Sorbonne or University of Paris.
A versatile musician, Vallon played with famed avant-garde French composer Pierre Boulez and for more than 20 years was the principal bassoon of the well-known Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. He has also performed with major modern orchestras and conductors as well as with many period-instrument groups.
He gives master classes worldwide and also composes.
For a more extended and detailed biography, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/faculty/marc-vallon/
Vallon recently did an email Q&A interview with The Ear:
What drew you to the bassoon (below) over, say, the piano or singing, over strings, brass or other woodwinds?
I played the piano as young kid but was not very interested in the mechanics of it, even if I had a strong passion for music. It was the day that my piano teacher brought to my lesson a friend of his to do a bassoon demo that I found the right medium for my passion.
I started practicing like a maniac and knew by the age of 14 that I was going to be a professional bassoonist.
What would you like the public to know about the bassoon, perhaps about the challenges of playing it and about the repertoire for it?
The bassoon does not offer more challenges than other wind instruments, but it is safe to say that an absolute perfectionist person should probably not play it.
It is an instrument capable of true beauties, yet it has its own character. You don’t conquer it, you work with it like you would work with a wonderful but temperamental colleague.
Bassoonists sometimes complain that our solo repertoire is not as rich in masterpieces as the clarinet’s or the flute’s. True, but in its 350 years of existence, the bassoon has amassed enough wonderful music to keep us busy for several lifetimes.
What would you like to tell the public about the specific Bassoon Quartet by Franz Danzi that you will perform, and about Danzi and his music in general?
The bassoon and strings quartet became popular in the last decades of the 18th century, a trend that lasted well into the Romantic era.
Sadly, many of these quartets are basically show-off pieces for the bassoonist while the strings players have to suffer through some often very dull accompaniment parts.
I like this one by Danzi (below) because it features the strings on the same musical level as the bassoon, creating an enjoyable musical conversation rather than a cocky bassoon monologue. (You can hear that musical conversation in the opening movement of the Bassoon Quartet by Danzi in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
As a performer and conductor, you are well–known for championing baroque music as well as modern and contemporary music. Do you have a preference? Do they feed each other in your experience?
What I always have enjoyed about playing contemporary music is the possibility to work with living composers because I often realized how flexible they are with their own music and how much they like the performer’s input. They’re often ready to compromise and veer away from the strict notation.
The approach when playing composers from the past is actually very similar in the sense that we have to remember how approximate music notation is. Baroque composers are not here anymore obviously, but the 17th and 18th centuries sources tell us clearly how much flexibility we, modern performers, have in our approach to their music.
When it comes to music pre-1800, we basically have a sketch on our music stands. I always want to remember this. (Below is a manuscript page of a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.)
Do you have big projects coming up next season?
Always! I am putting together a contemporary program on March 27 in our new concert hall on campus. It is called ”Opening Statements” and will feature early works from major 20th-century composers.
On period instruments, I have Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and more Bach on my calendar.
Is there something else you would like to say?
A big Thank You to you, Jake, for being such a relentless and informed advocate of the Madison musical scene!
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Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s organ concert on Tuesday night features two male singers in music from oratorios and operas
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By Jacob Stockinger
This coming week, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will present organist Samuel Hutchison (below) and acclaimed singers Andrew Bidlack and Kyle Ketelsen performing as a trio in vocal and instrumental music from oratorios and operas.
The concert is Tuesday night, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, 201 State Street.
Principal Organist and Curator for the Madison Symphony Orchestra Samuel Hutchison joins forces with two outstanding singers in the first half to perform a program of favorite arias and overtures from Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater.
Opera will be the focus of the second half, featuring arias and selections from Bizet’s Carmen, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Gounod’s Faust.
For the full program, go to: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/organopera
Featured by Opera News as one of their top 25 brilliant young artists, tenor Andrew Bidlack (below) — who is replacing David Portillo — makes his debut in Overture Hall following performances at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Welsh National Opera and London’s Covent Garden.
Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen (below, in a photo by Dario Acosta), who lives in nearby Sun Prairie, has sung with major opera companies throughout the world including The Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the State Opera of Berlin. He is praised for his vibrant stage presence and his distinctive vocalism.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Kyle Ketelsen sing the role of Don Escamillo in a Barcelona, Spain, production of Bizet’s “Carmen.” He is singing the same role in the Metropolitan Opera’s current production of “Carmen.”
General Admission for each Overture Concert Organ performance is $20. Tickets can be purchased at madisonsymphony.org/organopera, (608) 258-4141 or the Overture Center Box Office.
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 $10 tickets.
This performance is sponsored by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund.
With a gift from Pleasant T. Rowland, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) commissioned the Overture Concert Organ, which is the stunning backdrop of all MSO concerts.
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Classical music: Madison Summer Choir addresses current events with outstanding performances of great choral music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
For eight years, the Madison Summer Choir (below) has been giving an annual concert. This year’s, on Saturday night, under founder and conductor Ben Luedcke, was built around the theme “This is My Song! – Music in the Struggle for Peace and Justice.”
And, indeed, Luedcke (below) introduced most of the selections with pointed remarks, addressing issues faced today, and the need for making ours a better world.
The first part of the program began with the “big tune” from Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, set to English words. This was sung a cappella, while the four short items that followed had piano accompaniment.
Two of those pieces—by composers Stephen Chatman and Sven Lekberg—carried poems by Walt Whitman, while another, by Joan Szymko, set a text by Wendell Berry. But the gem of the set was a short partsong, An die Heimat (To my Homeland), by that truly great choral master, Johannes Brahms.
After the intermission, the chorus of 66 voices was joined by an orchestra (below) of 32, for the musical plateau.
Felix Mendelssohn is one of the handful of supreme choral composers (think of his oratorio Elijah!). As a warmer-upper, we were given his brief setting of Martin Luther’s translation of the Latin Dona nobis pacem as Verleih uns Frieden (Grant us Peace). (You can hear Mendelssohn’s beautiful “Verleih uns Frieden” in a YouTube video at the bottom)
But the true main event was a rousing performance of Mendelssohn’s unfairly neglected cantata, Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night). This sets a ballad by Goethe portraying a band of Druids arranging to celebrate a holy solstice rite in the face of newly triumphant Christian intolerance. By making an unholy racket, they drive away their persecutors and launch the myth of St. Walburga’s Night (Walpurgisnacht, on April 30) as an occasion of Satanic rumpus (think Goethe’s and Gounod’s Faust).
The work calls for three solo singers (below), this time contralto Jessica Timman Schwefel, tenor Dan O’Dea, and baritone Ben Li (of whom the tenor was the most impressive). This score is one of striking dramatic effect and musical force, but it is too brief to find a place in most concert repertoire.
Singers and players threw themselves into it with wonderful gusto under propulsive direction. We must thank Luedcke for giving us a rare chance to enjoy it.
The final piece was a movement from a choral symphony by Srul Irving Glick: making a truly splendid choral sound that, however, quite obliterated the uplifting words.
Overall, the program showed that Luedcke had nurtured, in a short time, a choir of nicely balanced and blended voices. With the best of their material, they made a wonderfully glowing sound.
One more example, then, of the quite stunning riches of Madison’s summer musical life!
Tags: a cappella, American Record Guide, Arts, baritone, Ben Luedcke, choral music, Christian, Classical music, contralto, Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, Druid, Elijah, Finlandia, Goethe, History, homeland, intolerance, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Sibelius, Joan Szymko, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, justice, Latin, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Summer Choir, Martin Luther, Medieval, Mendelssohn, Mezzo-soprano, Music, oratorio, Orchestra, partsong, peace, Piano, poem, Poetry, Satan, singer, Singing, songs, Srul Irving Glick, Stephen Chatman, Sven Lekberg, symphony, tenor, translation, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, voice, Walpurgis Night, Walt Whitman, Wendell Berry, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The UW-Madison Choral Union and Symphony Orchestra plus soloists turn in a “glorious” performance of the rarely performed choral symphony “Hymn of Praise” by Felix Mendelssohn.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
This weekend, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will bring us that giant among symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth. We now take that work so for granted as a musical summit by itself that we lose sight of its enormous impact on composers of the rest of the 19th century.
The introduction of solo and choral voices into an orchestral symphony score was radical, and inspired many responses. One was the efforts of Hector Berlioz to infuse the elements of opera into a symphonically structured work, resulting in that masterpiece, his “dramatic symphony” Romeo et Juliette. Richard Wagner, by contrast, built an entire career of casting operas in symphonic terms. The culmination of the “choral symphony” came with three of the symphonies by Gustav Mahler (Nos. 2, 3 and 8).
But an earlier response was brought to us last Saturday night by the UW-Madison Choral Union and Symphony Orchestra (below). This was Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2, known as the Lobgesang or “Hymn of Praise.” It was composed in 1840, a mere 16 years after Beethoven’s Ninth was premiered.
Mendelssohn (below) did not simplistically imitate the prototype, but adapted its idea to his own purposes. In place of three elaborate and individual movements, the work’s No. 1, called “sinfonia,” is a set of three successive orchestral sections that flow with limited breaks one after the other, for a total of 15-20 minutes. Then follows a series of nine numbers constituting a cantata for soloists and chorus, running close to 60 minutes.
It sets either Scriptural or devotional texts pertaining to faith in and celebration of the Almighty, with thematic references made to material in the preliminary “sinfonia.” This “choral finale” alone is in the line of sacred choral works, many on Psalm texts, that the composer wrote recurrently.
This cantata may lack the etherial daring of Beethoven’s choral finale, but it is far more idiomatically vocal and choral than what late Beethoven had come to. With its inclusion of Lutheran chorale elements and fugal counterpoint, it is in a class with Mendelssohn’s glorious oratorio Elijah. (Below is a photo of the performance by Margaret Barker.)
Because of the extra-orchestral resources the work calls for, it is not often performed, so that it has not become as familiar, and therefore as well-loved, as the composer’s popular Symphonies 3, 4, and 5, the so-called “Scottish,” “Italian” and “Reformation” symphonies. Some might find No. 2 less than top-drawer Mendelssohn, but it is certainly high-quality Mendelssohn, and readily rewards the hearing. (You can hear an excerpt featuring Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
This was the sole work on this Choral Union program. With the absence of regular conductor Beverly Taylor, who is on sabbatical this semester, the podium was assumed by the splendid James Smith (below), who seemed altogether comfortable drawing magnificent sounds from the large chorus, while working his usual wonders with his student orchestra.
There are parts for three soloists. The main soprano was Elizabeth Hagedorn (below top, left), whose wide vibrato and squally high range represented for me the one disappointment of this performance. The reliable Mimmi Fulmer (below top, center) was drawn in only for a two-soprano duet: I wish she had been given the top assignment. Thomas Leighton (below bottom) is not the most lyrical of tenors, but he conveyed honestly the spiritual searching of his solos.
Here, then, was the Choral Union at its best. It offered stirring choral singing, while giving us an opportunity to experience an unfairly neglected but wonderful score.
Tags: Arts, Beethoven, Beethoven's Ninth, Berlin Philharmonic, Berlioz, Cantata, choral music, Choral Symphony, Chorale, Classical music, Claudio Abbado, counterpoint, Dane County, duet, Elijah, fugue, Gustav Mahler, Isthmus, Italian Symphony, Jacob Stockinger, liturgical music, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lutheranism, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Medieval history, Music, oratorio, Orchestra, Psalms, Reformation Symphony, Richard Wagner, Romeo and Juliet, Scottish Symphony, soprano, symphony, tenor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Choral Union, UW Symphony Orchestra, vocal music, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Choral Project celebrates the holidays and the winter solstice with “A Light in the Darkness” concert this Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The recently formed Madison Choral Project (below) will perform “A Light in the Darkness” concert this Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the First Congregational Church, 1609 University Ave., that features traditional holiday music combined with secular pieces focusing on the theme of light and darkness to mark the winter solstice — which falls on the same Saturday.
Perhaps Madison’s newest choral ensemble, the Madison Choral Project, is a fully professional 17-voice ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Albert Pinsonneault (below), who teaches and conducts at Edgewood College. You can hear the new choral group performing a work from Felix Mendelssohn‘s oratorio “Elijah” live in a concert this past May in a YouTube video at the bottom.
MCP is a professional chamber choir dedicated to bringing international-caliber choral performances to southern Wisconsin.
Along with spoken texts, narrated by Noah Ovshinsky (below), assistant news director of Wisconsin Public Radio, the evening weaves together an eclectic range of old and new designed to be both balm and hope, joy and inspiration, on the darkest day of the year, December 21, the Winter Solstice.
A world premiere performance (of a work by David Evan Thomas, below (will be featured among favorite composers such as Herbert Howells, Henry Purcell, Charles Ives, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Moses Hogan. (Update: The world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Jerry Hui has been taken off the program.)
Tickets are $20 general admission and $5 for students (with valid ID), and can be purchased online at www.themcp.org or at the concert.
The program, arranged into four groups, includes:
Long, Long Ago (Herbert Howells) ; Silent Night (arr. Malcolm Sargent); Angels We Have Heard on High (arr. Matthew Culloton) ; Hear My Prayer (Henry Purcell); The Celestial Country: Double Chorus A Cappella (Charles Ives)
Prepare the Way (arr. Margareta Jalkeus); A Christmas Carol (Charles Ives) ; In Dulci Jublio (arr. Matthew Culloton); Jingle Bells (arr. David Moore)
“From Light to Light: Earth” by J. Aaron McDermid; and the WORLD PREMIERE of “Confirmatum est” by David Evan Thomas.
Go and Tell John (arr. Carolyn Jennings) ; Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom Op. 31, No. 12 “We Hymn Thee” (Sergei Rachmaninoff); This Little Light of Mine (arr. Moses Hogan) ; Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King (arr. Moses Hogan)
Tags: Charles Ives, choral music, Congregational Church, David Evan Thomas, Edgewood College, Elijah, Felix Mendelssohn, Henry Purcell, Herbert Howells, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Jerry Hui, John Chrysostom, Madison Choral Project, Malcolm Sargent, Moses Hogan, oratorio, Sergei Rachmaninoff, winter solstice, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: Meet Kathy Esposito, the new concert manager and director of public relations at the University of Wisconsin School of Music. She has big plans to help the school, from securing a new s concert hall to overhauling the website, starting a blog and connecting with other local music groups and media outlets.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the first day of classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
That makes it a perfect time for students, both music students and others, to make the acquaintance of Kathy Esposito. Esposito is the new concert manager and director of public relations for the UW School of Music. (That also makes it a good time to subscribe to this blog and to the UW School of Music’s “Fanfare” blog if you are a new or returning student or faculty member.)
Esposito was hired toward the end of last season and has been furiously and energetically on the job all summer, preparing for the fall by redesigning the website at www.music.wis.edu, producing a season brochure and starting the blog “Fanfare” among other accomplishments. This promises to be a year of big challenges, from a new department director to new teachers, at the School of Music.
I asked Esposito to give an interview and to introduce herself.
Here is the introduction she wrote:
“I guess all I would say about me is that I developed my music appreciation through my two sons who are now classical musicians.
“I was a freelance journalist and communications specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for years, but while doing so, we three immersed ourselves in music and theater.
“We listened to CDs at home, attended productions in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, and the two boys took violin lessons. They eventually auditioned into the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO, below, in a photo by Cheng-Wei Wu).
“Music for me is completely cathartic. I understand well the intense dedication required to excel, and I am always impressed by the maturity of these young players who by some miracle develop an appreciation of something fairly sophisticated.
“I love the classics and believe these should be our foundation, but also understand that some are interested in taking their passion to a different, more contemporary place (whether composing or performing), something untried and not wholly formed, and the university is a perfect place to do that.
“My goal is to present their efforts before the Madison community and beyond, not only to bring bodies into our halls (it’s no fun to play to an empty hall) but also to demonstrate that the music school is as deserving of donor support as any other program on campus.
And here is the lengthy and detailed email Q&A that Kathy Esposito (below, in a self-portrait) did for The Ear:
Why did you want the job of concert manager and director of public relations?
My two sons, Ansel and Alex (below), were in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) and my elder son Alex graduated from UW as a violinist studying with Professor Felicia Moye and is now at Texas Tech. (As a high school student, my younger son Ansel studied with UW-Madison trumpet professor John Aley. He is now a senior at Northwestern University and also studies with the principal trumpet player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.)
We made a point of attending music and theater performances in Madison and elsewhere, and I am quite passionate about the marvelous impact that it has had on all our lives. Both are continuing in music and have promising lives as people, not just musicians. That’s what music can do for people.
Because of these connections, I knew there was much good stuff going on under the roof of the Mosse Humanities Building that others didn’t know about, and it bothered me.
When people think of classical music in Madison, what comes to mind? The Madison Symphony Orchestra. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Concerts on the Square. The Bolz Young Artists Competition. Why is that? It’s because of marketing — plain old honest “getting the word out” any way possible. In this regard, the UW School of Music can do much better.
We offer a hundreds of mostly FREE concerts each year, often featuring the exact same musicians and guests artists who appear elsewhere in town, plus college students about to launch professional careers of their own. (At bottom is a YouTube video of the UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Beverly Taylor performing “He Watching Over Israel” from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah.”)
But we don’t have a budget for paid advertising, which means we need to be more creative with our publicity: telling people about the accomplishments of students and faculty and offering them a reason to care and be excited about what they will see.
Meanwhile, the School of Music (SOM) offers great training and opportunities for music students, within an environment that is friendly and supportive, allowing these high school grads to mature as people while improving skills. That’s an important point, as some schools are so competitive that students can actually be damaged in the process. (Below is Music Hall, where the University Opera stages its productions, at the foot of Bascom Hill.)
I felt that I could help. I have a background in journalism and more recently in business marketing and digital media, and I know the importance of telling stories and being creative, which, nowadays, includes the Internet world as well as print. This new world is a huge, huge area, and I don’t claim to be able to do all of it well, but the truth is that many people who grew up in the world of print are totally overwhelmed by what’s needed now.
So the upshot is that I felt strongly that I had an overall resumé that matched what the SOM needed, and I wanted to help.
What major projects and changes do have in the works, including the website, web streaming for audio and video, spreading the word about the new building and outreach programs, and the like??
We plan to completely overhaul our music school website and will feature prominently the audio tracks that we’ve accumulated over the years, so that when you arrive at our site, your eye will fall upon a “Hear our Sound!” display box that will invite you to listen to one of several performances.
That might include an orchestra, the Perlman Trio (below), the wind ensemble, a jazz septet, a concerto competition winner, or a new piece by one of our resident composers; so many I don’t know how we can possibly choose among them. This is blow-your-socks-off great music.
Our current website has never had a page for news; it was fairly “static,” as web designers say. To address this in the absence of a new site, I recently started a blog, “Fanfare,” that provides a place to publicize recent accomplishments, and we also are making great use of our Facebook page. I invite all your readers to sign up for the blog (it’s a free subscription) and to become our Facebook fans.
Future plans include acquiring equipment to video-record and live-stream some concerts, so that parents and alumni (and possible donors) around the country and world can watch in real-time. I know how special this is because my sons perform out-of-town, and I have been able to watch them play from the (relative) comfort of my computer chair. It’s the next best thing to actually sitting in the concert hall seat.
Regarding the new music building, to be located on the open lot on University Avenue most recently occupied by several bars: We are about half way toward our goal of raising about $46 million. The project is actually part of a bigger UW plan that includes the entire East Campus Gateway, so the UW Foundation is in charge of the lion’s share of fundraising, which includes soliciting the largest donations. My role now is to continue to raise the school’s profile so that prospective donors can feel their efforts are going to very good use.
Of course, anyone is welcome to donate to the new performance fund, no matter the size of the contribution.
What are the major challenges you see confronting you and the UW School of Music?
Our biggest challenges right now are securing more money for tuition scholarships and for our new performance space. Of course, better publicity will help here; people are more likely to donate if they see their money being put to good use.
College scholarships are critical. A young violinist may want to study with Felicia Moye (below top), or a young percussionist with Tony di Sanza (below bottom with UW piano pedagogue Jessica Johnson), but if she or he gets an offer from a competing music school that includes funding, and we can’t match it, where do you think that student will go? And yet we want to be considered a top music school, just as UW is tops in so many other ways. And graduating with a degree in violin or trumpet performance but with $30,000 in debt is extremely unwise.
The School’s mission is not just performance, but educational. And providing music education is expensive. We have many faculty who don’t play instruments but study the music of other cultures, or study the history of composition, and then we also have many classes that are very small: there is a faculty-student ratio of one. (These are called studio classes, where, for example, a college student studying the cello has a weekly lesson with Uri Vardi (below), one of our cello teachers.)
We have several wonderful patrons who understand this and have donated money to fund talented students through their undergrad and grad years. We’d love to discover more people like those. These grateful students have advanced to successful careers as performers and university faculty, and while still here, are more than happy to repay their patrons with private concerts.
Meanwhile, our concerts are presented in a building that is simply worn out, dated and dingy. We have one large hall, Mills Hall (below top) that seats over 700 people, too large for many concerts; and one smaller hall, Morphy Hall (below bottom) that seats about 150, too small for many concerts; and one hall (Eastman) that we don’t use because of problems. We have furniture in the basement Strelow Lounge that I refuse to sit in because the upholstery is so dirty. We have windows that are streaked with grime and cannot be opened or cleaned. It is a distinctly uninviting building.
How do you think you can get the concerts, master classes, etc. at the UW to draw bigger and younger audiences?
Well, there are many things we can do, all of which I am confident would have a cumulative impact.
The most difficult but also the most helpful is a successful story pitch to traditional media outlets like newspapers, TV and radio. We had great crowds here for two concerts this spring that made it into traditional print media: The 40th anniversary of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below top, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) and oboist Marc Fink’s farewell concert (below bottom). But media space has shrunk, and there’s a lot of competition. So we need to market ourselves, first and foremost, using all the tools of new and old media.
That means more fully utilizing the venues already available, such as this blog and others like it that are happy to announce or discuss our events. We also are now more active in the area of social media, especially Facebook, and have gained a hundred new fans in just the last month.
Second, I am interested in forming new partnerships that would bring SOM performers into new spaces, place them in front of new audiences, and send concert announcements to new venues.
Some of my ideas are probably crazy, but you have to start somewhere.
–I’d love to see joint WYSO/UW concerts of some sort: perhaps preface a WYSO concert with a UW piano trio or jazz octet.
–I’d like UW ensembles to perform outside of the music building, especially in the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (below)/Town Hall.
–I’d like to start an annual fall music concert that showcases the entire school, including recently written, more avant-garde works, jazz and vocalists.
–I’d like to partner with Wisconsin Public Television to tell a story about our school.
–I’d like to see the new music building include a family-friendly audience space, in the rear of the hall, with a one-way mirror and piped-in sound that would allow the children to watch a concert while being normal children: not always quiet! I’ve never heard of such a space in a concert hall, and we could make our mark here and bring lots of Dane County families in for free performances.
–I also would like the new music building to include a lighted marquee that announces the next night’s concerts, just as we see in larger cities. Now that would attract some notice!
–I’d like our local radio stations to update listeners about concerts just as a friendly service, not as paid underwriting (because we can’t afford it). Minnesota’s public classical music station has a host, John Birge, who very kindly will mention upcoming local concerts just as a part of his between-music banter. That’s part of how we as music lovers can support each other, just by being enthusiastic. (Below is a photo by James Gill of Wisconsin Public Radio host Anders Yocom in his studio.)
–We also can send concert announcements to school newsletters and music teachers, and emphasize the fact that 99% of ours are free.
–What ideas do you listeners have? I sure can’t think of everything!
Is there anything else you would like to say or add?
Well, I’m only one person, so I can’t say that I’ll be able to pull all of this off. However, I do feel committed to UW, committed to music in general as it has done so much for me and my sons, and I enjoy a good challenge.
Tags: Bascom Hill, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Elijah, Felix Mendelssohn, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, media, Northwestern University, Orchestra, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, WYSO, YouTube
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