The Well-Tempered Ear
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.
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Classical music: June is Gay Pride month. How many LGBTQ classical composers and performers do you know about? Which ones are your favorites or most surprise you?
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ALERT: This Sunday, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s Virtual Chamber Music Festival begins online. It is called “Bach’s Lunch” and will send out short concerts every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through Sunday, June 28, when a grand finale is planned. It is FREE. But you have to sign up by emailing crownover@bachdancinganddynamite.org
By Jacob Stockinger
This past week the Rainbow flags (below) have started flying, including at the Wisconsin state Capitol.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of the riot or uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that eventually gave birth to a worldwide movement to insure that queer people deserve and will receive human rights.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Pride, which started with parades and marches to celebrate that initial victory and the start of a global gay liberation movement that continues and widens today.
On this first weekend in June 2020, it seems fitting to recall the many LGBTQ composers and performers in classical music.
The gay rights movement has opened the closet doors not only of individual lives today but also of historical figures. When The Ear was taking piano lessons and started going to concerts and listening to recordings, and learning about classical music, the subject remained shrouded in silence and secrecy.
You could read and hear about Tchaikovsky (below top) and Leonard Bernstein (below bottom, in a photo by Jack Mitchell) – to take a very popular composer and a renowned composer-conductor — but no one mentioned the role of homosexuality in their lives and careers.
So here are several lists that may teach you something new about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer musicians – both composers and performers.
Some of the calls seem very iffy to The Ear. For example, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom) lived at a time when a homoerotic friendship did not necessarily mean a queer sexual identity. But one way or the other, historical proof and documentation can be hard to come by. And clearly there is much more to find out about the past.
Take a look. No longer is such information a rarity. From both the quantity and quality of the entries, at least you will see how scholars are taking new looks and undermining the heterosexual assumption that has wrapped so many historical and even contemporary figures in a wrong or mistaken identity.
Freedom, acceptance and respect are not zero-sum games in which one party can win only if another party loses. There is enough of each to go around.
So enjoy the information, whether it is new or not, and the respect it should inspire for the central role of LGBTQ people in the arts both past and present.
Here is a pretty comprehensive alphabetical list from Wikipedia of LGBT composers, both living and dead. It includes Chester Biscardi (below), who did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. You don’t have to click on each name. Just hover the cursor arrow over the name and you will see a photo and biographical blurb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_composers
And here is a list, also in alphabetical order and also from Wikipedia, of LGBT musicians and performers, not all of them classical. It works by clicking on sub-categories that include nationality – though one wonders if musicians from extremely homophobic countries and cultures are included:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_musicians
Here is a similar list from QueerBio.com that also includes links to similar lists for rock, country, hip-hop, jazz, Christian music and more:
https://queerbio.com/wiki/index.php/LGBTQ_Classical_Music_Composers
Here is a more selective list from The Advocate, an LGBT magazine, of 18 queer composers who made history and you should know about:
And here is a similarly selective list from radio station WFMT in Chicago of 15 LGBT composers — including Corelli, Handel (below) and Lully — you should know about:
https://www.wfmt.com/2015/06/25/15-queer-composers-know/
From Arts Boston, here are 10 contemporary composers who are queer:
http://artsboston.org/2018/06/21/10-contemporary-lgbtq-composers-you-should-know/
Finally, here is a list from the Spotify streaming service that features many samplings of actual pieces by historical and contemporary queer composers:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX75gMjYMWCsk
Which names most surprised you?
If you have questions, comments or additional names and information to add — The Ear doesn’t see the acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk listed — please leave word in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Happy Pride, everyone!
Tags: #AlphabeticalOrder, #ArcangeloCorelli, #ArtsBoston, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BaroqueComposers, #BaroqueEra, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolSquare, #ChamberMusic, #ChesterBiscardi, #ChicagoIllinois, #ChristianMusic, #Classicalera, #ClassicalMusician, #ContemporaryComposer, #COVID-19, #EmailAddress, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #GayHistory, #GayLiberation, #GayPride, #GenderNon-Conforming, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #Hip-hopmusic, #HistoricalFigure, #HumanRights, #JacobStockinger, #Jean-BaptisteLully, #JeremyDenk, #JohannSebastianBach, #LeonardBernstein, #LGBTQrights, #LiveStreaming, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #ModernComposers, #MusicLessons, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PianoLessons, #PrideFlag, #PrideMonth, #RadioStation, #RomanticComposers, #RomanticEra, #SexualIdentity, #StateCapitol, #StonewallInn, #StonewallRiot, #StonewallUprising, #TheAdvocate, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VirtualConcert, #VladimirHorowitz, #Wikipediabiography, #Wikipediaentry, #YouTubevideo, 2020, acceptance, alphabetical, anniversary, Arcangelo Corelli, arrow, Arts, Arts Boston, assumption, audience, Audio, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, BDDS, Beethoven, Bernstein, biography, birth, Biscardi, bisexual, blog, blurb, Capitol, career, celebrate, Chamber music, Chester Biscardi, Chicago, Chopin, choral music, Christian, Classical, Classical era, Classical music, click, closet, composer, composer-performer, Concert, concerts, conductor, contemporary, Corelli, coronavirus, country, culture, cursor, dead, deserve, documentation, downtown, Early music, email, entry, Facebook, festival, figures, finale, forward, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, free, freedom, friendship, game, gay, gay liberation, gay Pride, gender, George Frideric Handel, global, globe, graduate, grand, Handel, heterosexual, historical, historical figures, History, homoerotic, homophobic, Homosexuality, Horowitz, human rights, identity, information, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jeremy Denk, Johann Sebastian Bach, June, Leonard Bernstein, lesbian, lesson, LGBTQ, life, like, link, list, listen, live, lives, living, longer, look, lose, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lully, lunch, Madison, magazine, march, Mead Witter School of Music, mention, mistaken, modern composers, month, movement, Music, nationality, new, New Music, New York City, no longer, non-conforming, online, opera, Orchestra, order, pandemic, parade, party, past, People, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, photo, Piano, piano lessons, pieces, popular, present, pride, Pride flag, proof, quality, quantity, queer, QueerBio.com, Radio, rap, rarity, receive, Recordings, respect, riot, Rock, role, Romaniticism, Romanticism, sample, sampling, Saturday, scholar, Schubert, secrecy, sex, sexual, sexual identity, share, shrouded, sign-up, silence, Spotify, Spotify.com, state, Stonewall, streaming, subject, Sunday, symphony, tag, Tchaikovsky, teach, The Advocate, The Ear, Thursday, time, today, transexual, transgender, transsexual, Tuesday, undermine, United States, University of Wisconsin School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, uprising, UW, UW-Madison, vategory, victory, video, Viola, Violin, virtual, Vladimir Horowitz, vocal music, weekend, widen, Wikipedia, win, Wisconsin, WMFT, work, world, worldwide, wrong, YouTube, zero sum
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: As Pride month comes to an end, let us proudly recall LGBTQ classical composers and musicians. Plus, you hear a concert of queer composers and performers
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By Jacob Stockinger
This past weekend, this whole past month, the Rainbow flags (below) have been flying openly and high.
We saw all sorts of major Pride parades for LGBTQ rights as well as the 50th anniversary of the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that eventually gave birth to a worldwide movement to ensure that queer people receive the human rights they deserve.
Since today is the last day of June, of Pride month, it seems fitting to recall the many LGBTQ composers and performers in classical music.
The gay rights movement has opened the closet doors not only of individual lives today but also of historical figures.
So here are several lists that may teach you something new about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer musicians.
Some of the calls seem iffy, unconvincing or overstated. Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin, for example, lived when homoerotic friendship did not necessarily mean a queer sexual identity. But one way or the other, historical proof and documentation can be hard to come by. And clearly there is much more to know about the past.
But take a look. At least you will see how scholars are undertaking new research and often undermining the heterosexual assumption that has wrapped so many historical and even contemporary figures in wrong or mistaken gender identity.
And if you find someone missing, please leave the name and appropriate information in the comment section.
Freedom, acceptance and respect are not zero-sum games in which one person or group can win only if another one loses. There is enough of each to go around. All can celebrate pride.
So enjoy the information, whether it is new or not, and the respect it should inspire for the central role of LGBTQ people in the arts both past and present.
Here is a pretty extensive and comprehensive list, in alphabetical order, from Wikipedia of LGBT composers, both living and dead. It includes Chester Biscardi (below) who did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Pauline Oliveros who did a residency at the UW-Madison several years ago. You don’t have to click on each name. Just hover the cursor arrow over the name and you will see a photo and biographical blurb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_composers
And here is a list, also in alphabetical order and also from Wikipedia, of LGBT musicians and performers, not all of them classical. It works by clicking on sub-categories that include nationality – though one wonders if musicians from extremely homophobic countries and cultures are included.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_musicians
Here is a more selective list from The Advocate, an LGBTQ magazine, of 18 queer composers — including Corelli — who made history and you should know about:
https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2017/2/08/18-queer-composers-who-made-music-history?pg=full
And here is a similarly selective list from radio station WFMT in Chicago of 15 LGBT composers — including Handel and Lully — you should know about:
https://www.wfmt.com/2015/06/25/15-queer-composers-know/
And in the YouTube video at the bottom is a Pride concert — 1 hour and 43 minutes long — recently held in New York City at the Greene Space, and hosted and recorded by radio stations WQXR and WNYC.
It features music by queer composers and performances by queer artists. Metropolitan Opera star Anthony Roth Constanzo performs. Also playing are pianists Steven Blier and Sara Davis Buechner, who have performed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, respectively. The New York Gay Men’s Chorus sings. The Ear found the concert timely and moving.
If you have questions, comments or additional names, please do leave word in the comment section.
Happy Pride!
The Ear wants to hear.
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