The Well-Tempered Ear

Four local classical musicians perform Black women composers in a virtual holiday concert to benefit the health of Black women

December 23, 2020
1 Comment

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By Jacob Stockinger

The Wisconsin Ensemble (WE) Project, a quartet of local classical musicians, has announced that it will host a holiday concert to support Dane County-based non-profit, the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (FFBWW, below).

The concert will be the first in a series of performances to benefit local and international organizations working for social justice and human interest. 

This unique effort is rooted in the quartet’s desire to not only delve deeply into chamber music repertoire, but also to address some of the many pressing social justice issues of our time. 

This recorded, virtual YouTube concert will be available at https://wisconsinensembleproject.com from 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 25, through 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 3. — times are CST — where contributions will be accepted via PayPal.

Viewers will hear the story and see the face of the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness woven through quality chamber music by Black women composers performed by WE Project artists violinists Leanne League and Mary Theodore (below ends, in a photo by Katrin Talbot); violist Christopher Dozoryst (second from right); and cellist Karl Lavine. The four play together in the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Pieces they will perform include Strum (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom) and Voodoo Dolls by Jessie Montgomery (below top, in a photo by Jiyang Chen); Modes by Dorothy Rudd Moore (below center); and String Quartet in G Major by Florence Price (below bottom).

“This production offers viewers a meaningful program which leads to direct impact,” says WE Project member Mary Theodore who has been working with Foundation staff to coordinate the benefit over the last few weeks.

”We felt strongly about the work of the Foundation as we learned more about their mission to eliminate the startling health and economic disparities Black women face in our community,” adds Theodore. “When you donate and tune in to our concert, you will be helping to cover basic production costs and getting funds directly into the hands of this very worthy organization”. 

Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness CEO Lisa Peyton-Caire (below), who launched the Black women’s health advocacy organization in 2012, says the concert is a beautiful example of how community and organizations can partner to drive social change together. 

“We are elated that WE Project chose us as their first benefit recipient, and that our mission and work to transform Black women’s health in Wisconsin resonated with them,” said Peyton-Caire. “We know that ultimately it takes all of our effort to solve the inequities in our community, and this benefit concert is a beautiful example of the loving and creative ways we can join forces to do this.” 

To learn more about the concert, visit https://wisconsinensembleproject.com, where you can contribute via PayPal anytime beginning now through Jan. 3.

To listen to a recent morning coffee chat between members of the two organizations, go to: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=431169757916539&ref=watch_permalink. Click on individual profiles to hear them.

To learn more about The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, visit https://ffbww.org


Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: American pianist Kenneth Broberg survives into the final concerto round of the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Performances start being live-streamed on Tuesday morning

June 23, 2019
1 Comment

IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE 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

It started with 25.

Then there were 14.

And now there are seven.

And American pianist Kenneth Broberg (below), 26, is among the seven pianists who have survived into the concerto finals of the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. (Competitions, some in Saint Petersburg, are also taking place in violin, cello, voice, woodwinds and brass. You can see the official preview in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Broberg, the silver medalist at the 2017 Van Cliburn Competition performed a recital in Madison last season as part of the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos.

The other American, 32-year-old Sara Daneshpour (below), was eliminated during the semi-finals that finished yesterday.

Each finalist must perform a Tchaikovsky piano concerto, either the famous No. 1 or the much less familiar Piano Concerto No. 2, plus another concerto of their choice. Usually there is also a lot of Rachmaninoff and often Prokofiev.

So far, The Ear hasn’t seen what concertos Broberg will play or on what day he will perform. When he finds out, he will let you know. If you find out, please leave the information in the comment space.

The concerto concerts will be live-streamed for FREE on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. because of the eight-hour time difference with Moscow. (Below the logo is the historic Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, where the concerto performances, like the solo recitals, are held.)

To follow the concertos, go to: https://tch16.medici.tv/en/

If you hover the cursor over PIANO and then CONTESTANTS you can also find out a lot, and also hear the preliminary and semi-final recitals that Broberg performed. Here is a link to his biography and  background plus his two performances in Moscow:

https://tch16.medici.tv/en/competitors/kenneth-broberg-/

There are suggestions that there was some disagreement among the international panel of judges. The original 25 contestants were supposed to be reduced to 12, but ended up being 14. Then there were supposed to be six finalists, but they named seven.

The other finalists are: Konstantin Emelyanov, 25, of Russia; Mao Fujita, 20, of Japan; Alexandre Kantorow, 22, of France; Alexey Melnikov, 29, of Russia; Dmitry Shishkin, 27, of Russia; and An Tianxu, 20, of China.

All were impressive during the first two solo rounds and received enthusiastic applause, but Mao Fujita received the only standing ovations over 39 solo recitals. The archived performances of all of them are also worth checking out.


Posted in Classical music
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