The Well-Tempered Ear
Wisconsin Public Radio needs timely online playlists and other fixes
18 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
March 8 was International Women’s Day.
To its credit, Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) celebrated the event all-day long by airing music composed and performed by women.
The Ear heard some very memorable and noteworthy pieces that were new to him.
But when he went to the WPR website and looked for online listings to find out specifics about the composers, the pieces, the performers and the record labels, he found — nothing.
Today is March 15.
And one week later The Ear still finds nothing — no playlist for the March 8 broadcasts.
In fact, there are no online listings going back more than a month — to February 5.
You will find just a longstanding apology with a promise to fix it and some boilerplate warning about federal regulations that really have nothing to do with such a prolonged delay.
Take a look for yourself: https://www.wpr.org/classical-music-lists
That is disappointing and frustrating. Some might even say unacceptable.
The digital technology fixes that have been promised and, one assumes, already paid for can’t be THAT difficult to implement. WPR used to post the playlist information as soon as the piece started airing. (And, curiously, the non-WPR overnight service still offers that.)
Why not again? Technological updates are supposed to make things work better, not worse.
Fixing the playlist is especially important right now because WPR and its outstanding hosts have taken on the admirable mission of exploring music of women composers and performers; of composers and performers of color; and of neglected composers and works.
But without a playlist to consult, that mission remains unfinished. How else is the unfamiliar supposed to become more familiar?
That is not the only troubling thing at WPR.
The station did a superb job during the pandemic with home broadcasting.
But ever since then, there seems to be more dead air, miscues, interruptions and repeated programs than ever before.
Yet you also hear many more promotions and pleas for public financial support in between quarterly membership drives than ever before.
WPR would be wise to attract and serve its supporters and listeners by focusing on completing the fixes, whether it requires hardware, software or staff training.
And correcting the disservice of not posting daily playlists online seems an excellent place to start. After all, The Ear was told that the problem of incompatible software “would be rectified soon.”
That was over a year ago.
And if it can’t be corrected?
Hope they kept the receipt.
Do you miss WPR’s daily online playlists?
Have you noticed other problems at WPR?
What about WPR would you like to praise? To criticize?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HighTechnology, #NeglectedComposers, #WomenComposers, admirable, African American, air, apology, Arts, asian, audience, black, blog, Broadcast, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, computer, Concert, connection, criticize, daily, dead air, delay, digital, disappointment, disservice, explore, Facebook, familiar, FCC, federal, financial, fix, frustration, Hardware, hi tech, host, Indian, Indigenous, International Woman's Day, interruption, Jacob Stockinger, Latino, Latinx, march, member, membership, memorable, miscue, mission, Music, Native American, neglected, NPR, online, opera, Orchestra, people of color, performer, Piano, piece, place, playlist, praise, problem, program, promise, promotion, Radio, receipt, regulation, repeat, share, software, Sonata, start, symphony, tag, task, technology, The Ear, training, unfamiliar, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, warning, Website, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, women, WPR, YouTube
Classical music: On Fridays in July, the critically acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players will offer both past performances and some new performances to be live-streamed
Leave a Comment
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
The Ear has received the following public announcement to post from the Willy Street Chamber Players (below), a terrific chamber music group that he named as “Musicians of the Year” in 2016.
For more details and to subscribe to their email list, go to: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
WE MISS YOU!
Today — July 10 – would have been the day of our first concert of 2020.
Although it’s sad to think about what could’ve been, we look forward to new beautiful experiences with all of you in the years to come.
In the meantime, we have some exciting news!
We didn’t want you to go without your weekly Friday evening Willy Street Chamber Players fix this July, so we have put together some video memories that we’ll be sending out over the next few weeks.
Check your inbox on Fridays this month — you may want to add us to your email address book — for a weekly archived performance.
This week would’ve been one of our favorite events: our annual admission-free Community Connect performance at the Goodman Community Center.
In honor of that, we’d like to share a fun tidbit from 2017’s performance – Astor Piazzolla’s invigorating “Four, for Tango!” (Editor’s Note: You can see it and hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We hope this short preview will get you excited for archived performances from Immanuel Lutheran Church in the coming weeks.
We’ll also be announcing some special live-streamed performances happening later this summer. We can’t wait to share what we have in store!
Tags: #AddressBook, #AstorPiazzolla, #BBCYoungMusicianoftheYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ClassicalMusician, #CommunityConnect, #CommunityOutreach, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #FacebookPage, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GoodmanCommunityCenter, #HomeWebsite, #ImmanuelLutheranChurch, #JacobStockinger, #LiveStreaming, #LutheranChurch, #ModernComposers, #MusicEducation, #MusicianoftheYear, #NewMusic, #SendOut, #SpecialEvent, #TheEar, #WilliamsonStreet, #WillyStreetChamberPlayers, #YouTubevideo, acclaimed, add, address, admission, announce, announcement, annual, archive, Arts, audience, Ástor Piazzolla, Baroque, beautiful, blog, Book, Cello, Chamber music, check, Christian, church, Classical music, classicalmusic, community, Community Connect, community outreach, composer, Concert, connect, coronavirus, critically acclaimed, dance, details, Early music, editor, email, evening, event, experience, Facebook, Facebook page, favorite, first, fix, forward, four, free, Friday, fun, Goodman, Goodman Community Center, happen, Home, home website, honor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, inbox, invigorate, invigorating, Jacob Stockinger, July, later, like, link, live-stream, live-streamed, livestream, look, Lutheran, Madison, memories, memory, modern, month, Music, Music education, Musician of the Year, new, New Music, note, online, out, pandemic, performance, Piano, post, posting, preview, public, receive, sad, send, send out, share, short, special, store, stream, subscribe, summer, tag, tango, terrific, The Ear, think, tidbit, today, United States, video, Viola, Violin, wait, Website, week, weekly, Williamson Street, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, year, YouTube
Classical music: This Saturday the acclaimed German tenor Jonas Kaufmann returns to the Metropolitan Opera in Puccini’s “Girl of the Golden West. It’s the second “Live from The Met in HD” production this season
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR SHARE IT (not just “Like” it IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE”) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
This Saturday, Oct. 27, the second production of this season’s “Live From the Met” in HD series will be broadcast worldwide: It is Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” (Girl of the Golden West), his last work that, for some reason, has never achieved the popularity of “La Boheme,” “Tosca,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Turandot.”
The production features acclaimed superstar German tenor Jonas Kaufmann (below top), who is returning to the Met stage after four years. Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek (below bottom) plays the gun-slinging title role.
The hi-definition broadcast of a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera (below) in New York City starts at 11:55 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. with two intermissions.
The encore showings are next Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The opera will be sung in Italian with supertitles in English, German, Spanish and Italian. (You can see the trailer preview in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Tickets are for Saturday broadcasts are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors and children under 13. For encore showings, all tickets are $18.
The cinemas where the opera can be screened are two Marcus Cinemas: the Point Cinema on the west side of Madison (608 833-3980) and the Palace Cinema (608 242-2100) in Sun Prairie.
Here is a link to the Marcus website for addresses and more information. You can also use them to purchase tickets:
http://www.marcustheatres.com/movies/met-aida-live
Here is a link to the Metropolitan Opera’s web site where you can find the titles, dates, casts, production information and video clips of all 10 productions this season, which includes operas by Bizet, Wagner, Donizetti, Saint-Saens, Puccini, Cilea and Poulenc plus a new work, “Marnie,” by Nico Muhly:
https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/
Here is a review from The New York Times, which right now has a technical glitch that makes loading it difficult (the Times said the problem should be fixed soon):
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/arts/music/review-jonas-kaufmann-met-opera-puccini-fanciulla.html
And here is a more positive review from Opera Wire:
http://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2018-19-review-la-fanciulla-del-west-jonas-kaufmann-edition/
Here is a link to a synopsis and cast list:
Here is a link to other information about the production of “Girl of the Golden West,” including photos and audiovisual clips:
https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/la-fanciulla-del-west/
And here is a Wikipedia history of the broadcast series that gives you more information about how many cinemas it uses, the size of the worldwide audience – now including Russia, China and Israel — and how much money it makes for The Met.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_Live_in_HD
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #ConcertSeason, #EnglishLanguage, #Eva-MariaWestbroek, #FacebookPost, #FrancisPoulenc, #GaetanoDonizetti, #GeorgesBizet, #GermanLanguage, #GiacomoPuccini, #GirloftheGoldenWest, #Hi-Definition, #ItalianLanguage, #JonasKaufmann, #LaBoheme, #LaFanciulladelWest, #LiveFromtheMetinHD, #MadamaButterfly, #MarcusTheatres, #MetropolitanOpera, #MetropolitanOperaLiveinHD, #MusicReview, #NewYorkCity, #NicoMuhly, #OperaCast, #OperaMusic, #OperaWire, #PalaceCinema, #PointCinema, #RichardWagner, #SpanishLanguage, #SunPrairieWisconsin, #SuperstarTenor, #TechnicalGlitch, #TheMet, #TheNewYorkTImes, #TheWest, #TitleRole, #Wikipediaentry, #YouTubevideo, admission, adult, Arts, Baroque, Bizet, Broadcast, cast, Cello, children, China, choral music, Cilea, cinemas, Classical music, composer, date, Donizetti, encore, English, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Facebook, fix, Francis Poulenc, German, Girl of the Golden West, gun, hi def, History, intermission, Israel, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, Jonas Kaufmann, La bohème, La Fanciulla del West, Live From The Met in HD, Madama Butterfly, Madison, Marcus Theatres, Metropolitan Opera, Music, music review, new, New York City, New York Times, Nico Muhly, notes, opera, Opera Wire, Orchestra, Palace Cinema, performer, Point Cinema, Poulenc, problem, production, Puccini, Russia, Saint-Saens, Saturday, Season, senior, showing, singer, Singing, soprano, Spanish, stage, star, stars, Sun Prairie, superstar, synopsis, tenor, the Met, The New York Times, title, title role, Tosca, Turandot, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wagner, web site, Website, Wednesday, west, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, worldwide, YouTube
Classical music: When you need a quick shot of music, go to “60 Seconds of Classical” on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Sometimes a minute is all the time you have.
Or all you want or need.
But a quick moment of classical music can still provide the perfect mini-break or pick-me-up or shot-in-the-arm.
Kind of like those Daily Affirmations some people use.
Thanks to gentle nudging by a friend, The Ear has discovered just how to get that mini-fix of music.
It is a site on the social media site Instagram (below).
And the site is called 60secondsofclassical (below), which you can also find in somewhat different formats on Facebook and YouTube
It has terrific diversity and variety, top-quality performers, great music and excellent editing.
It is, in short, a lot of fun.
Almost like a game.
You can subscribe to it and also let the site know what entries you really like or even love.
Don’t read the caption at first.
See if you can identify the performer.
See if you can identify the composer.
See if you can identify the piece.
And see if you know what comes before and after the one-minute snippet.
Anyway there is a full menu of great music, great performers and great performances.
So take a minute — or two or three — and try it.
Check it out.
Then let us know what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: 60 seconds of classical, 60secondsofclassical, affirmation, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, Beethoven, brass, caption, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, daily, daily affirmation, diversity, Early music, Facebook, fix, format, Franz Schubert, game, George Frideric Handel, great, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, like, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mini, minute, Mozart, Music, need, opera, Orchestra, People, percussion, performance, performer, Piano, piece, snippet, social media, Sonata, strings, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, variety, Viola, Violin, vocal music, want, winds, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, woodwinds, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 