The Well-Tempered Ear
Looks like there will be no live concerts for the rest of the 2020-21 season and maybe until early 2022
3 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
Some important things for classical music fans to know happened over the weekend, even as Dane County continues to break records for new cases of coronavirus.
Three high federal health officials, including director of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield and his colleague Dr. Anthony Fauci, have testified that it is highly unlikely that vaccines for the coronavirus will be widely available to the public until May 2021 at the earliest and may well be delayed until early 2022 or later.
President Donald Trump says they are wrong, but the public health officials are standing by their estimates.
Adding to the concern is that the rate of people who say they will not get the hurried vaccine continues to rise from 35 percent to 50 percent or more.
In addition, there are reports of logistical problems because the vaccines will be difficult to distribute as they require cold temperatures.
This amounts to bad news for a long list of local arts presenters.
The net effect is that mass gatherings – such as concerts – will not be safe to attend for the rest of this season and perhaps until the beginning of 2022.
That means that many groups that have planned on reopening by January or February are likely to cancel or postpone events for the remainder of this season, and perhaps also for next fall – just as they planned for doing this concert season.
Instead there will probably be more virtual and online events substituted for in-person events — if anything at all is offered.
Among the major groups who have announced earlier reopening and be affected by the new deadlines are: the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below top); the Madison Opera; the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below bottom, in a photo by Mike Gorski); the Wisconsin Union Theater; the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music; the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO); and the Middleton Community Orchestra.
We can all hope that live music starts happening sooner. But The Ear suspects that alternative plans are already being drawn up and will be announced shortly.
What do you think about the estimates of the delays in vaccine accessibility and acceptance?
What do you think music groups will do – or should do in –in the wake of the public health crisis?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: "Music After the Fall", #AnthonyFauci, #ArtsPresenters, #BadNews, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentersforDiseaseControl, #ClassicalMusician, #ConcertSeason, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DaneCounty, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HealthCrisis, #JacobStockinger, #LiveMusic, #MadisonOpera, #MassGathering, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #NetEffect, #NewsReports, #OnlineConcert, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentTrump, #PublicHealth, #RelatedEvent, #RobertRedfield, #TheEar, #ThePresident, #TheUW, #VirtualConcert, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, 2021, 2022, acceptance, accessibility, adueince, alternative, announce, Anthony Fauci, Arts, arts presenters, attend, avaioale, bad news, beginning, blog, cancel, cases, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Classical music, classicalmusic, cold, Concert, concert season, coronavirus, crisis, Dane County, delay, delayed, difficult, director, distribute, doctor, earliest, early, estimate, event, Facebook, fall, fans, Fauci, February, federal, forward, group, happen, Health, high, hurried, in person, Jacob Stockinger, January, like, link, live music, logistics, Madison Opera, major, mass gathering, Mead Witter School of Music, Middleton Community Orchestra, net effect, new, news, next, official, online, pandemic, People, performer, perhaps, plan, planned, post, posting, postpone, President, President Donald Trump, problems, public 2020, Public health, rate, reader, reopening, reports, Robert Redfield, safe, Season, share, shortly, sooner, start, subscriber, suspect, tag, temperature, testify, The Ear, Trump, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, vaccine, virtual, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, wrong, WYSO
Classical music: The prize-winning critic Alex Ross grieves to Brahms. What composer and piece would you choose to mourn the tragedies of the past week?
6 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
This past week feels like a week that deserves mass grieving.
Of course, there was the life-changing, historic landmark of surpassing, in only a few months, more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
There were the spikes in new COVID-19 cases and deaths following the opening up from lockdowns and the mass gatherings over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, such as the party at the Lake of the Ozarks (below) in Missouri.
Then there was the tragic, racist death — an alleged murder — of George Floyd by the police and the ensuing rioting, violence and additional death in Minneapolis as well as the seven shootings among protesters in Louisville.
And depending of your political point of view, there were the incidents of White House threats against social media, especially Twitter, for simply telling the truth or at least directing viewers to it.
So what can one say about these sad events and sad times with music?
Well, not too long ago Alex Ross (below), the prize-winning and internationally respected music critic for The New Yorker magazine, wrote an engaging and moving essay about why he finds Brahms to be the perfect composer for grieving and mourning.
He mentions other composers as possibilities, including Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.
But Ross still finds Brahms more suited for several reasons. He even cites a favorite performance of a Brahms short, late Intermezzo by the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu. (You can hear that performance in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a link: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/grieving-with-brahms
What composers – and what pieces or performances – do you find best for grieving? For marking loss?
Read the essay, listen to the music.
Then let us know in the comment section what music – perhaps Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings? – that you would want to listen to during sad occasions.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AdagioforStrings, #AlexRoss, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ClassicalRecording, #COVID-19, #DonaldJ.Trump, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #LakeoftheOzarks, #LouisvilleKentucky, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MassGathering, #MemorialDay, #MinneapolisMinnesota, #MusicCritic, #NewYorkCity, #OpeningUp, #PianoMusic, #PoliceOfficers, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentTrump, #Prize-Winning, #PublicHealth, #RaduLupu, #SamuelBarber, #SocialMedia, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TheNewYorker, #TheNewYorkerMagazine, #TheU.S., #UnitedStates, #WhiteHouse, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, Adagio for Strings, Alex Ross, alleged, American, Arts, audience, Bach, Barber, Beethoven, blog, Brahms, Chamber music, Classical music, comment, composer, Concert, coronavirus, critic, death, engaging, essay, event, Facebook, favorite, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, gathering, grief, grieve, grieving, Haydn, historic landmark, History, Holiday, intermezzo, internationally, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, lake, Lake of the Ozarks, landmark, late, life-changing, like, link, listen, lockdown, loss, Louisville, Ludwig van Beethoven, magazine, mass, mass gathering, Memorial Day, Minneapolis, mourning, moving, Mozart, murder, Music, music critic, New York City, New Yorker, occasion, opening up, Orchestra, Ozark, pandemic, party, past, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piano music, police, post, posting, President, protester, Public health, racist, Radu Lupu, reason, recording, respect, riot, sad, sadness, Samuel Barber, Schubert, share, shooting, shootings, simple, simply, social media, spike, string, strings, surpass, tag, tell, The Ear, The White House, threat, tragedy, Tragic, Trump, truth, Twitter, U.S., United States, violence, Website, week, weekend, White House, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: What will the fall concert season will look like? And what will the post-pandemic concert world be like?
3 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
This past week, The Ear listened to and read a lot of news about COVID-19 and the arts.
And it got him thinking: What will happen this fall with the new concert season? And even later, what will a post-pandemic concert world look like? (Below is the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a photo by Peter Rodgers.)
As you may have heard, the Tanglewood Festival, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been canceled this year. So too has the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Locally, American Players Theatre in Spring Green also just canceled its summer season.
So far, the summer season seems to be one big cancellation for the performing arts.
True, there are some exceptions.
The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival has yet to announce its plans for August.
One also has to wonder if crowds of up to 20,000 will feel safe enough to attend the Concerts on the Square (below), now postponed until late July and August, by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra?
Will people still want to attend the postponed Handel Aria Competition on Aug. 21 in Collins Recital Hall at the UW-Madison’s new Hamel Music Center, assuming the hall is open?
Fall events seem increasingly in question.
Last night on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that sports events and concerts will be among the last mass gatherings to take place safely, probably not until next spring or summer or even later, depending on when a vaccine becomes available.
Some public health experts also offer dire predictions about how easing up lockdown restrictions too soon might lead to an even worse second wave of the coronavirus virus pandemic this autumn and winter, despite all the happy talk and blame-shifting by Team Trump.
So, what do you think will happen beyond summer?
The Ear wonders what the fallout will be from so many music groups and opera companies turning to free online performances by solo artists, symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles.
Will season-opening concerts be canceled or postponed? What should they be? Will you go if they are held?
Will at-home listening and viewing become more popular than before?
Will the advances that were made in using streaming and online technology (below) during the lockdown be incorporated by local groups — the UW-Madison especially comes to mind — or expected by audiences?
In short, what will concert life be like post-pandemic and especially until a vaccine is widely available and a large part of the population feels safe, especially the older at-risk audiences that attend classical music events?
Will larger groups such as symphony orchestras follow the example of the downsized Berlin Philharmonic (below, in a photo from a review by The New York Times) and play to an empty hall with a much smaller group of players, and then stream it?
Will some free streaming sites move to requiring payment as they become more popular?
Live concerts will always remain special. But will subscriptions sales decline because audiences have become more used to free online performances at home?
Will most fall concerts be canceled? Both on stage and in the audience, it seems pretty hard to maintain social distancing (below is a full concert by the Madison Symphony Orchestra). Does that mean the health of both performers – especially orchestras and choral groups – and audiences will be put in jeopardy? Will the threat of illness keep audiences away?
Even when it becomes safe to attend mass gatherings, will ticket prices fall to lure back listeners?
Will programs feature more familiar and reassuring repertoire to potential audiences who have gone for months without attending live concerts?
Will expenses be kept down and budgets cut so that less money is lost in case of cancellation? Will chamber music be more popular? (Below is the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet during its suspended Beethoven cycle.)
Will fewer players be used to hold down labor costs?
Will imported and expensive guest artists be booked less frequently so that cancellations are less complicated to do?
Will many guest artists, like much of the public, refrain from flying until it is safer and more flights are available? Will they back out of concerts?
Will all these changes leave more concert programs to be canceled or at least changed?
There are so many possibilities.
Maybe you can think of more.
And maybe you have answers, preferences or at least intuitions about some the questions asked above?
What do you think will happen during the fall and after the pandemic?
What do you intend to do?
Please leave word, with any pertinent music or news link, in the comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #60Minutes, #AirTravel, #AmericanPlayersTheatre, #BeethovenStringQuartets, #BerlinPhilharmonic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonSymphony, #BudgetCuts, #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #ChoralMusic, #CollinsRecitalHall, #ConcertHall, #ConcertSeason, #ConcertsontheSquare, #COVID-19, #DonaldJ.Trump, #DonaldTrump, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FederalReserve, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GuestArtist, #HamelMusicCenter, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HappyTalk, #HighTechnology, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JeromePowell, #LaborCosts, #LastNight, #LiveMusic, #LiveStreaming, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MassGathering, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicReview, #NewYorkTimes, #PerformingArts, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentTrump, #ProArteQuartet, #PublicHealth, #RaviniaFestival, #SecondWave, #shelter-at-home, #SixtyMinutes, #SocialDistance, #SocialDistancing, #SpringGreen, #Stayathome, #StringQuartet, #SymphonyOrchestra, #TanglewoodFestival, #TheEar, #TokenCreekChamberMusicFestival, #TokenCreekFestival, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YouTubevideo, 60 Minutes, air travel, American Players Theatre, answer, aria, artists, Arts, at home, at-risk, attend, audience, August, Autumn, Beethoven, Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, blame, blog, Book, Boston Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, budget, budget cuts, cancel, cancellation, CBS, CBS-TV, chairman, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, choral music, Classical music, Collins Recital Hall, comment, Competition, complicated, composer, Concert, concert hall, concert season, Concerts on the Square, coronavirus, cost, costs, do, Donald J. Trump, downsize, empty, ensemble, event, expense, expensive, Facebook, fall, fallout, familiar, Federal Reserve, flight, fly, forward, free, George Frideric Handel, guest artist, Hamel Music Center, Handel, Handel Aria Competition, happy talk, happy', Health, Home, illness, imported, intend, intuition, Jacob Stockinger, jeopardy, Jerome Powell, July, labor, labor costs, large, last night, like, link, listener, live music, lockdown, Ludwig van Beethoven, lure, Madison, Madison Symphony Chorus, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mass, mass gathering, Mead Witter School of Music, MSO, Music, music review, new, New York Times, news, older, online, opera, Orchestra, pandemic, PAQ, part, past, payment, performer, Performing arts, pertinent, photo, Piano, players, popular, population, post, posting, postpone, postponement, preference, President Trump, price, pro arte hamel, Pro Arte Quartet, Public health, question, Ravinia Festival, read, reassuring, relevant, repertoire, repertory, require, restrictions, safe, safely, Season, second wave, section, share, shift, site, Sixty Minutes, social distance, social distancing, solo, Sports, Spring Green, Spring Green Wisconsin, stage, sting quartet, stream, streaming, subscriber, subscription, summer, suspend, symphony, tag, talk, Tanglewood Festival, team, technology, Television, The Ear, think, threat, ticket, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Trump, TV, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, Violin, vocal music, Website, week, winter, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wonder, world, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Ronnie on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Polly Kuelbs on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
| welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Ann Boyer on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: This summer’s Token Creek Festival is CANCELED. Plus, a teenager’s piano “practice journal” on Instagram is instructive, entertaining and encouraging
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.
NEWS ALERT: This summer’s Token Creek Festival (TCF) — with the chamber music theme of Legacy to run from Aug. 21-Sept. 6 –has been CANCELED. Organizers say they hope to launch a virtual online season of archived performances at the end of the summer. Also, once modestly sized gatherings are safe again, the TCF hopes to hold an off-season event. For more information and an official statement from TCF, go to: https://tokencreekfestival.org
By Jacob Stockinger
Somewhere in New York City is a young Chinese piano prodigy who can help you get through what is often the most challenging and discouraging part of piano lessons: practicing.
His name is Auston (below) – no last name is given – and you can find him, in T-shirts and shorts, on Instagram at Auston.piano.
Auston is quite the prodigy. A 13, he plays difficult and dramatic repertoire: the Nocturne in C minor, the Scherzo No. 1 in B minor and the Ballade No. 1 in G minor, all by Chopin.
You can also hear him play the Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, by Johann Sebastian Bach; the fiendish Toccata by Sergei Prokofiev; and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
One day, The Ear expects, Auston might well be among the impressive amateurs and, later, professionals who compete in international competitions.
But more than listening to him playing, his frequent social media entries – sometimes he posts two or three times a day — allow us to hear him practice. We even hear him practicing scales – so-called Russian scales that combine scales in parallel and contrary motion.
This week, he hit 100 video posts. Just yesterday Auston started sight-reading the “Winter Wind” Etude of Chopin, Op. 25, No. 11, which many consider to be the most technically difficult of all Chopin’s etudes. (You can hear the etude – played by Maurizio Pollini – and see the note-filled score in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Starting out, he often plays hands separately (below) and sight-reads the score very, very slowly, making mistakes and working out fingering. He also uses a metronome at a very slow tempo. He gets frustrated but he never gives up. He just starts over again and provides an excellent role model for aspiring piano students.
But this young man is also fun to read. In his one-minute or less entries of his “practice journal” – which he also calls his “practice journey” — he is witty and self-deprecating in his commentaries about the music and especially about himself when he makes mistakes. As seriously as he takes the piano and practicing, he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
All in all he can even encourage others – including The Ear –to persevere and go through the same frustrations of practicing and learning a new piece.
In this case, it is the piano, but the postings could easily apply to practicing any other instrument or even to singing.
Check it out.
You will be impressed.
You will admire him.
You will laugh along with him.
And you just might practice more.
If this practice journal is a pandemic project, it succeeds way beyond what you — and probably Auston himself — might expect.
Happy listening!
And patient, productive practicing!
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GiveUp, #HomeWebsite, #InstagramPost, #InstagramVideo, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHarbison, #LastName, #MassGathering, #MaurizioPollini, #MusicEducation, #NewsAlert, #NewYorkCity, #PianoConcerto, #PianoLessons, #PianoMusic, #PianoVirtuoso, #PracticingMusic, #PublicHealth, #RoleModel, #RoseMaryHarbison, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninov, #SocialMedia, #TheEar, #TheWell-TemperedClavier, #TokenCreekChamberMusicFestival, #TokenCreekFestival, #WinterWind, #YouTubevideo, 100, admire, alert, all, amateur, archive, Arts, Asia, asian, aspiring, audience, auston.piano, available, Bach, Ballade, Baroque, blog, canceled, challenge, challenging, Chamber music, China, Chinese, Chopin, Classical music, commentary, Competition, composer, concerto, coronavirus, correct, discouraging, Early music, encourage, end, entry, etude, event, Facebook, festival, fiendish, fingering, frequent, frustrated, frustration, fugue, fun, gathering, give up, hand, hands, happy', Harbison, himself, home website, impress, impressive, information, Instagram, ironic, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, journal, journey, last, last name, launch, lessons, like, link, listening, mass gathering, Maurizio Pollini, metronome, mistake, mistakes, modest, Music, music educaiton, name, never, New York City, news, nocturne, notes, off-season, one hundred, online, organizer, pandemic, patient, performance, persevere, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff), piano lessons, Pollini, post, posting, practice, practicing, Prelude, prodigy, productive, professional, project, Prokofiev, provide, Public health, Rachmaninov, role model, Rose Mary Harbison, safe, Scherzo, score, Season, self-deprecating, separately, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, seriously, share, shorts, sight-reading, social media, start, statement, Student, succeed, summer, T-shirt, tag, teenage, Tempo, The Ear, The Well-Tempered Clavier, theme, toccata, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Token Creek Festival, United States, virtual, virtuoso, Website, Winter Wind, Wisconsin, witty, working, young, YouTube