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
Here is a chance for music lovers to combine civic duty with private pleasure.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music is looking for volunteers of any kind to help “tune” the two new concert halls in the soon-to-open Hamel Music Center (below), located at 740 University Avenue next to the Chazen Museum of Art’s newer wing. The official opening celebrations for the $56-million building are Oct. 25-27.
“Tuning” the hall is the term that acousticians apply to the process of adjusting the hall to how it will sound when audiences are in attendance. Halls sound very different from when they are empty to when they are occupied.
The School of Music team is looking for volunteers to help tune the larger concert hall on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and the smaller recital hall on Friday, Sept. 20, from 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Volunteers can be from the university of from the general public. Two halls are involved: the larger Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, which can seat up to 662; and the smaller Collins Recital Hall (below, in an architect’s rendering), which can seat up to 299.
Volunteers can study, work quietly on computers, check out the new facility, use the time as quiet time or sample for free some of the UW’s performers. Individuals and groups will be performing during the adjustments being made by the sound engineers.
Visitors will be asked to remain silently in their seats while the “commissioning” for a particular setting is in process. Breaks are scheduled for people to come and go. Start and stop times are approximate.
The musicians and kinds of music include: a symphony orchestra; a choir; brass, wind, percussion and string ensembles, including a string quartet; solo piano; and jazz.
Volunteers can attend as many sessions as they want, but they are asked to arrive 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time they wish to attend and sign up for.
For more information, including schedules and details about the kind of music to be performed and how to behave, here is a link to a story and schedules: https://www.music.wisc.edu/tuning/
If you go, use this blog’s Comment section to let The Ear know what the experience was like – even though he may also see you there.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in
Classical musicTags:
#ArchitecturalRendering,
#BlogPost,
#BlogPosting,
#BrassMusic,
#ChazenMuseumofArt,
#CheckOut,
#ChoralMusic,
#CivicDuty,
#CollinsRecitalHall,
#ConcertHall,
#FacebookPost,
#FacebookPosting,
#HamelMusicCenter,
#JazzMusic,
#MeadWitterFoundation,
#MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall,
#MeadWitterSchoolofMusic,
#MusicLover,
#PercussionEnsemble,
#PercussionMusic,
#PrivatePleasure,
#RecitalHall,
#SchoolofMusic,
#SoloPiano,
#SoloPianoMusic,
#SoundEngineer,
#StringQuartet,
#SymphonyOrchestra,
#TheEar,
#UniversityAvenue,
#UniversityofWisconsin-Madison,
#VocalMusic,
#WindEnsemble,
#WindMusic,
acoustician,
acoustics,
adjust,
adjustment,
approximate,
architect,
architectural,
arrival,
arrive,
Arts,
attend,
audience,
behave,
blog,
brass,
brass music,
breaks,
building,
celebration,
Chamber music,
chance,
Chazen Museum of Art,
check out,
Choir,
choral music,
civic,
civic duty,
Classical music,
classicalmusic,
comment,
computer,
Concert,
concert hall,
details,
different,
drawing,
duty,
empty,
engineer,
ensemble,
experience,
Facebook,
facility,
forward,
free,
go,
group,
groups,
hall,
Hamel Music Center,
individuals,
involve,
Jacob Stockinger,
Jazz,
kind,
know,
large,
larger,
like,
link,
looking,
lover,
Madison,
Mead Witter Foundation,
Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall,
Mead Witter School of Music,
million,
Music,
music lover,
new,
occupied,
October,
official,
opening,
Orchestra,
percussion,
performer,
Pianist,
Piano,
pleasure,
private,
private pleasure,
process,
public,
quietly,
reader,
recital,
recital hall,
remain,
render,
rendering,
schedule,
School of Music,
seat,
see,
September,
session,
setting,
share,
silent,
small,
smaller,
solo,
soon-to-open,
Sound,
sound engineer,
start,
stop,
story,
String quartet,
study,
subscriber,
symphony,
symphony orchestra,
tag,
team,
The Ear,
there,
time,
tune,
United States,
university,
University Avenue,
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music,
University of Wisconsin–Madison,
UW-Madison,
Violin,
vocal music,
volunteer,
wind ensemble,
wind music,
Wisconsin,
work
By Jacob Stockinger
Well, it has happened again.
The great University of Wisconsin-Madison, which was recently once again named one of the best public schools in the country and the world, shows more and more signs of being privatized.
As of July 1, the official name of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music is now the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
That’s an ungainly mouthful to say and write.
But The Ear doesn’t blame the School of Music and its directors for having to take such steps.
To The Ear, the renaming means that the state legislators and the state government have once again been negligent in preserving and bettering this great institution that generations of ordinary Wisconsin citizens supported through taxes, and then benefitted from through “The Wisconsin Idea” that the university serves the public that supports it.
Underfunding goes along with the Republicans’ anti-education and anti-intellectual agenda of imposing steep budget cuts, undermining tenure, alienating faculty who then leave and implementing other measures that hurt this great state university.
So, The Ear objects to the move, much as he did with the selling of the Law School; with the renaming of the Elvehjem Museum of Art to the Chazen Museum of Art; and with the Wisconsin Union Theater, which was renamed Shannon Hall (below top).
Plus, there is the new music building and performance center (below bottom), which sees a groundbreaking in late October, named — not renamed — for the Hamel family.
Such naming and renaming by big private money blurs the distinction between a donation or a gift and a purchase. Call it branding, naming, PR, advertising, whatever – The Ear doesn’t like it. What is public should remain public.
Do the egos of the wealthy really know no bounds, especially during these days when the political talk is of wealth inequality and income distribution?
So The Ear says a deep and hearty thank you to the Mead Witter Foundation of Wisconsin Rapids for its help.
But he sure wishes its corporate ego had been satisfied with a hall or a building being named after it, and with perhaps a big bronze bas-relief plaque containing a history about its fortune in the paper industry and an appreciation of its generous philanthropy.
But to rename an entire school that has more than a century of history behind it?
Sorry. That’s over the top.
It is overkill and seems downright tacky.
To The Ear it will always be the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, just as it has for the past century-plus.
If you want more background and details, here are three official UW links, with the most recent ones coming first
https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/a-new-name-for-the-school-of-music/
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/12/03/mead-witter-foundation-gives-25-million-to-uw-madison-school-of-music/
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2014/12/05/new-music-performance-center-named-in-honor-of-the-hamel-family/
What do readers and the tax-paying public think and say?
Do you agree or disagree with The Ear?
The Ear wants to hear.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in
Classical musicTags:
Arts,
Chamber music,
Classical music,
government,
income,
inequality,
Jacob Stockinger,
Madison,
Mead Witter,
Mead Witter Foundation,
Music,
Orchestra,
philanthropy,
Piano,
state legislature,
United States,
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music,
University of Wisconsin–Madison,
wealth,
Wisconsin
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The UW-Madison School of Music seeks volunteers to help “tune” two new concert halls all-day this Thursday and Friday in the soon-to-open Hamel Music Center
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
Here is a chance for music lovers to combine civic duty with private pleasure.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music is looking for volunteers of any kind to help “tune” the two new concert halls in the soon-to-open Hamel Music Center (below), located at 740 University Avenue next to the Chazen Museum of Art’s newer wing. The official opening celebrations for the $56-million building are Oct. 25-27.
“Tuning” the hall is the term that acousticians apply to the process of adjusting the hall to how it will sound when audiences are in attendance. Halls sound very different from when they are empty to when they are occupied.
The School of Music team is looking for volunteers to help tune the larger concert hall on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and the smaller recital hall on Friday, Sept. 20, from 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Volunteers can be from the university of from the general public. Two halls are involved: the larger Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, which can seat up to 662; and the smaller Collins Recital Hall (below, in an architect’s rendering), which can seat up to 299.
Volunteers can study, work quietly on computers, check out the new facility, use the time as quiet time or sample for free some of the UW’s performers. Individuals and groups will be performing during the adjustments being made by the sound engineers.
Visitors will be asked to remain silently in their seats while the “commissioning” for a particular setting is in process. Breaks are scheduled for people to come and go. Start and stop times are approximate.
The musicians and kinds of music include: a symphony orchestra; a choir; brass, wind, percussion and string ensembles, including a string quartet; solo piano; and jazz.
Volunteers can attend as many sessions as they want, but they are asked to arrive 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time they wish to attend and sign up for.
For more information, including schedules and details about the kind of music to be performed and how to behave, here is a link to a story and schedules: https://www.music.wisc.edu/tuning/
If you go, use this blog’s Comment section to let The Ear know what the experience was like – even though he may also see you there.
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #ArchitecturalRendering, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #CheckOut, #ChoralMusic, #CivicDuty, #CollinsRecitalHall, #ConcertHall, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HamelMusicCenter, #JazzMusic, #MeadWitterFoundation, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicLover, #PercussionEnsemble, #PercussionMusic, #PrivatePleasure, #RecitalHall, #SchoolofMusic, #SoloPiano, #SoloPianoMusic, #SoundEngineer, #StringQuartet, #SymphonyOrchestra, #TheEar, #UniversityAvenue, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #WindEnsemble, #WindMusic, acoustician, acoustics, adjust, adjustment, approximate, architect, architectural, arrival, arrive, Arts, attend, audience, behave, blog, brass, brass music, breaks, building, celebration, Chamber music, chance, Chazen Museum of Art, check out, Choir, choral music, civic, civic duty, Classical music, classicalmusic, comment, computer, Concert, concert hall, details, different, drawing, duty, empty, engineer, ensemble, experience, Facebook, facility, forward, free, go, group, groups, hall, Hamel Music Center, individuals, involve, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, kind, know, large, larger, like, link, looking, lover, Madison, Mead Witter Foundation, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, million, Music, music lover, new, occupied, October, official, opening, Orchestra, percussion, performer, Pianist, Piano, pleasure, private, private pleasure, process, public, quietly, reader, recital, recital hall, remain, render, rendering, schedule, School of Music, seat, see, September, session, setting, share, silent, small, smaller, solo, soon-to-open, Sound, sound engineer, start, stop, story, String quartet, study, subscriber, symphony, symphony orchestra, tag, team, The Ear, there, time, tune, United States, university, University Avenue, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Violin, vocal music, volunteer, wind ensemble, wind music, Wisconsin, work