The Well-Tempered Ear

Wisconsin Public Radio needs timely online playlists and other fixes

March 15, 2023
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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.


Starting TODAY, the First Unitarian Society of Madison offers three free, online mini-concerts at noon on Fridays to celebrate Women’s History Month

March 12, 2021
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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 announcement to post about three free, online mini-concerts to celebrate Women’s History Month through the Friday Noon Musicales at the First Unitarian Society of Madison.

The concerts start today:

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

•   To celebrate Women’s History Month, the First Unitarian Society of Madison will present three Friday Noon Musicales during March. 

•   All three will be guest produced by Iva Ugrcic. 

•   Iva Ugrcic (below) is Founding Artistic Director of the Madison-based LunART Festival, which supports, inspires, promotes and celebrates women in the arts.  

•   Each program will feature highlights from past LunART Festival performances.

•   Each program will be approximately 45 minutes long.

DATES AND PROGRAMS

Each video will become available at noon on the indicated date, and will remain available for viewing in perpetuity.

This Friday, March 12 — Works by living composers Jocelyn Hagen, Salina Fisher and Missy Mazzoli (below top), as well as Romantic-era composer Clara Schumann (below bottom, Getty Images).  Specific titles are not named.

Performers include: Iva Ugrcic, flute; Matthew Onstad, trumpet; Tom Macaluso, trombone; Elena Ross and Todd Hammes, percussion; Kyle Johnson, Jason Kutz, Satoko Hayami and Yana Avedyan, piano; Beth Larson and Isabella Lippi, violin; Karl Lavine, cello (below); ARTemis Ensemble.

Friday, March 19 — Works by living composers Linda Kachelmeier, Elsa M’bala, Doina Rotaru (below top) and Eunike Tanzil, as well as Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen (below bottom) and Romantic-era Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Specific works are not named. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear flutist Iva Ugrcic play Doina Rotaru’s haunting “Japanese Garden.”)

Performers include: Iva Ugrcic, flute; Jose Ignacio Santos Aquino, clarinet; Midori Samson, bassoon; Breta Saganski and Dave Alcorn, percussion; Satoko Hayami (below), Jason Kutz and Eunike Tanzil, piano; ARTemis Ensemble

Friday, March 26 — Alexandra Olsavsky, Edna Alejandra Longoria, Kate Soper and Jenni Brandon as well as post-Romantic era American composer Amy Beach (below bottom). Specific pieces are not named. 

Performers include: ARTemis Ensemble; a string quartet with violinists Isabella Lippi and Laura Burns, violist Fabio Saggin, and cellist Mark Bridges (below); Jeff Takaki, bass; Vincent Fuh and Kyle Johnson, piano; Jennifer Lien, soprano; Iva Ugrcic, flute.

THREE OPTIONS FOR ATTENDING

•   Website — https://www.fusmadison.org/musicales

•   Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/fusmadison

•   YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/fusmadison > “Playlists” > “Music at FUS”

ABOUT THE “FRIDAY NOON MUSICALES” RECITAL SERIES

•   The Friday Noon Musicales at First Unitarian Society is a free noon-hour recital series offered as a gift to the community. 

•   Founded in 1971, 2020-2021 is the series’ 50th season. 

•   The series has featured some of the finest musicians in the Midwest, who flock to perform in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Landmark Auditorium.

•   The music performed is mostly classical, but folk, jazz and musical theater styles are presented on occasion.

•   During the pandemic, the Musicales have largely been on hiatus.

JUSTICE AND MUSIC INITIATIVE (JAM)

•   The Justice And Music Initiative (JAM) at the First Unitarian Society of Madison represents a commitment to more socially equitable and earth-friendly music practices. 

•   This commitment includes music performed on our campus, both for worship and non-worship events. 

•   To help achieve our goal, we recognize and celebrate recognition days and months with our musical selections, such as Hispanic Heritage Month (9/15–10/15), LGBT History Month (October); Native American Indian Heritage Month (November), Black History Month (February), Women’s History Month (March), and African-American Music Appreciation Month (prev. Black Music Month; June).


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Classical music: Madison Youth Choirs will perform immigrant music in “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora” this Saturday and Sunday

May 3, 2016
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A REMINDER: Subscribers to the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s current season that just ended have until May 5 — this Thursday — to renew and save their current seats. New subscribers can receive up to 50 percent off and other discounts are available. For more about the programs of the 2016-17 season and about subscribing, visit:

http://www.madisonsymphony.org/16-17

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following notice from the Madison Youth Choirs about three concerts this coming weekend:

On this Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8, 2016, in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center for the Arts, the young singers of Madison Youth Choirs (below, at the winter concert in 2014) will bring to life the musical creations of several groups who have left their homelands throughout history, under a variety of circumstances.

Madison Youth Choirs Winter Concert 2014

How do we keep our traditions in a place where they may not be tolerated? How do we maintain our identities in the face of great change? How do we preserve our stories and our history for future generations?

We invite you to ponder these questions with us as we explore the rich choral work of the African-American, Indian, Cuban, Arabic, Irish, Jewish and additional musical traditions as well as several works based on the biblical diaspora as told in Psalm 137.

At the Saturday evening performance, MYC will also present the Carrel Pray Music Educator of the Year Award to Dan Krunnfusz (below), former artistic director and conductor of the Madison Boychoir and a longtime choral and general music teacher in Madison and Baraboo public schools.

Dan Kronnfusz

MYC Spring Concert Series: “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora.” Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts201 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin

Saturday, May 7, 2016, 7 p.m.: Boychoirs

Sunday, May 8, 2016, 3:30 p.m. Girl choirs; 7:30 p.m. High School Ensembles

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students ages 8-18. Children 7 and under receive free admission but a physical ticket is required for entry. AUDIENCE MEMBERS WILL NEED A SEPARATE TICKET FOR EACH CONCERT.

Tickets are available through Overture Center Box Office, and may be acquired in person at 201 State Street, Madison; via phone at (608) 258 – 4141; or online at http://www.overturecenter.org/events/sounds-like-home-music-in-diaspora

This project is generously supported by American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, the Green Bay Packers Foundation, the Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation, the Madison Community Foundation, the Madison Gas and Electric Foundation, the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, and Dane Arts with additional funding from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation. This project is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Madison Youth Choirs (MYC, see below in a photo by Jon Harlow on its tour to an international festival in Scotland in 2014): Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 1,000 young people, ages 7-18, through a wide variety of choral programs in our community.

Cultivating a comprehensive music education philosophy that inspires self-confidence, personal responsibility, and a spirit of inquiry leading students to become “expert noticers,” MYC creates accessible, meaningful opportunities for youth to thrive in the arts and beyond.

Madison Youth Choirs Scotland Tour CR Jon Harlow

Here is the repertoire of the MYC 2016 Spring Concert Series “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora”

Saturday, May 7, 2016, Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts

7 p.m. Concert (Featuring MYC Boychoirs)

Purcell

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child…Traditional spiritual, arr. Burleigh

Hashivenu…Traditional Hebrew, arr. Rao

Rolling Down to Rio…Edward German

Britten

The Minstrel Boy…Traditional Irish, arr. Benjamin Britten

Super Flumina Babylonis…Giacomo Carissimi

Duke’s Place…Duke Ellington, arr. Swiggum/Ross

Holst

As by the Streams of Babylon…Thomas Campion

A Miner’s Life…Traditional Irish, arr. Houston

Combined Boychoirs (below, in a photo by Joanie Crump)

The Riflemen of Bennington…Traditional, arr. Swiggum

Babylon…Don McLean

Madison Youth Choirs Boychoir Spring Concert - Joanie Crump

Sunday, May 8, 2016, Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts

3:30 p.m. Concert (Featuring MYC Girlchoirs, below in a photo by Karen Brown)

Choraliers

Babylon…Don McClean

Beidh Aonach Amarach…Traditional Irish, arr. Dwyer

Ani Ma’amin…Traditional Hebrew, arr. Caldwell/Ivory

Gospel Train…Traditional spiritual, arr. Shirley McRae

Alhamdoulillah…Traditional Arabic, arr. Laura Hawley

Con Gioia

Folksong arrangements (2, 3, 4)…Gideon Klein

Hope is the Thing with Feathers…Marye Helms

Wild Mountain Thyme…Traditional Irish, arr. Jay Broeker

Stadt und Land in stille Ruh…Traditional German canon

Capriccio

Mi’kmaq Honor Song….arr. Lydia Adams

Thou Shalt Bring Them In…..G.F. Handel

Iraqi Peace Song…..Lori Tennenhouse

Bring Me Little Water, Silvy…..credited to Leadbelly, arr. Moira Smiley

Capriccio, Cantilena, and Cantabile

Across the Water (world premiere)…  UW-Madison alumnus Scott Gendel (below)

Scott Gendel color headshot

7:30 p.m. Concert (Featuring High School Ensembles)

Cantilena

We Are…Ysaye Barnwell

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child…Traditional spiritual

Jai Bhavani…arr. Ethan Sperry

Hej, Igazitsad…Lajos Bardos

Ragazzi

An Wasserflüssen Babylon…Michael Praetorius

Uz mne kone vyvadeji (from folksong arrangements)…Gideon Klein

Son de Camaguey…Traditional Cuban, arr. Stephen Hatfield

Loch Lomond…Traditional Scottish air, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams

Cantabile

In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles (from Alarcón Madrigals)…Roger Bourland

Riawanna…Stephen Leek

Barchuri Le’an Tisa…Gideon Klein

Kafal Sviri…Traditional Bulgarian, arr. Liondev

Cantabile and Ragazzi

O, What a Beautiful City…Traditional spiritual, arr. Shawn Kirchner

Madison Youth Choirs Combined Girlchoirs Spring Concert 15 CR Karen Brown


Classical music: The critically acclaimed vocal group Cantus sings about four kinds of love at the Stoughton Opera House this Saturday night. The Stoughton High School Concert Choir is a special guest performer.

March 30, 2016
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received word about an intriguing and appealing performance this weekend:

On this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., Cantus (below top, in a photo by Curtis Johnson), the critically acclaimed, nine-voice men’s vocal ensemble based in the Twin Cities, will perform at the Stoughton Opera House (below middle and bottom), known for its historical restoration and its fine acoustics.

Cantus Railing Clustered

Stoughton Opera House ext

StoughtonOperaHouse,JPG

Love has been the inspiration for artistic expression since the dawn of time. It is such a complex idea that the ancient Greeks broke it down into four different kinds: romantic, familial, friendly and unconditional or spiritual love.

Weaving together repertoire and interstitial remarks, Cantus regards this unquantifiable emotion from all sides.

The program spans multiple historical eras and cultural traditions.

It features music by Francis Poulenc, Edvard Grieg, Ludwig van Beethoven and Bobby McFerrin.

Each of those works is paired with newly commissioned works exploring each of the four loves (romantic, familial, friendly and spiritual) by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang (below top, in a photo by Peter Serling) as well as Roger Treece (second below), Joseph Gregorio (third below) and Ysaye Barnwell (below bottom).

david lang CR peter serling

Roger Treece

Joseph Gregorio

Ysaye Barnwell

The program brims with Cantus’s trademark programming juxtaposition, including pairing the Beach Boys’ “Their Hearts were Full of Spring” with  “Wedding Qawwali” by the Grammy Award- and Academy Award-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman (below) and Michael McGlynn’s setting of the traditional Gaelic “Ceann Dubh Dilis (Her Sweet Dark Head)” in a set about romantic love.

A. R, Rahman

While seemingly disjointed on its face, the variety of repertoire throughout blends seamlessly and highlights the universality of Love – our greatest and most fragile gift.

For more information about Cantus, including biographies, photos, videos and audio samples, visit this link:

http://www.allianceartistmanagement.com/artist.php?id=cantus&aview=dpk

Here is a YouTube video about the program, with musical samples, to be performed in Stoughton:


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