The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The second LunART Festival will spotlight women in the performing and creative arts. Here is Part 2 of 2 with more about new music, comedy and a full schedule
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ALERT: The second Van Cliburn Junior Piano Competition resumes today — Monday, June 3 — in Dallas at 2:20 p.m. CDT. The young players range from 13 to 17 and come from around the world, and they are terrific. Plus the quality of the live streaming is outstanding, especially for the camera work of the keyboard. It’s all FREE. If you want to see it, here is a link: https://www.cliburn.org. You might also be interested to know that among the jurors are Alessio Bax, who has performed in Madison at Farley’s House of Pianos, and Philippe Bianconi, who has soloed several times with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. All that and you get to vote for the Audience Award too!
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received a long and detailed announcement about the upcoming second LunART Festival. Here is Part 2 of two parts with more information about new music, comedy and a schedule of events. Yesterday was Part 1 — a link is below — with background and participants.
The LunART Festival, co-founded and co-directed by Iva Ugrcic and Laura Medisky, is back for its second season from this Wednesday, June 5, through Sunday, June 9, and will continue its mission of supporting, inspiring, promoting and celebrating women in the arts.
The 2019 season brings 10 events to eight venues in the Madison area, providing accessible, high-quality, engaging concerts and events with diverse programming from various arts fields.
The festival will showcase over 100 artists this season, including many familiar local artists and performers as well as guest artists hailing from Missouri to Texas, Minnesota to Florida and as far away as Peru.
LunART’s 2019 call for scores was open to women composers of all ages and nationalities, and received an impressive 98 applicants from around the globe. Scores were evaluated by a committee of 17 LunART Festival musicians and directors, and three works were selected to be performed at each of the Gala concerts.
The winning composers are Eunike Tanzil (below top), Edna Alejandra Longoria (below middle) and Kirsten Volness (below bottom). All three will be in attendance at the festival. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a piece for cello and piano, with the composer playing the piano, by Eunike Tanzil.)
The “From Page to Stage: Emerging Composers” educational program also returns, bringing six composers to Madison to work with flutist and composer-in-residence Valerie Coleman (below).
During the festival she will mentor participants in developing practical skills to express their creative ideas, cultivate relationships with performers and master the art of collaboration. The program culminates with a free public concert featuring their music on Saturday, June 8, at 2 p.m. in the Capitol Lakes Grand Hall, 333 West Main street, downtown and two blocks from the Capitol Square.
On Friday, June 7 at Overture Center in Promenade Hall, Meaghan Heinrich (below) presents her pre-concert lecture, “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman,” which explores what it means to be a woman artist in the 21st century, and how women’s experiences shape their artistic expressions.
Following the Friday gala concert is “Holding Court,” this season’s Starry Night event at Robinia Courtyard. This all-women comedy show features Midwestern comics Vanessa Tortolano (below top), Chastity Washington (below bottom), Vickie Lynn, Samara Suomi and Cynthia Marie who are blazing a trail of funny that will leave you gasping in their wake.
“The Multi-faceted Artist” panel discussion is for anyone interested in the ongoing trend and need for artists to wear multiple hats to succeed and thrive.
Coleman (composer and flutist) and Dr. Linda DiRaimondo (psychiatrist and aerial dancer, below top on top) serve as panelists along with Katrin Talbot (violist, poet and photographer, below bottom in a photo by Isabel Karp), and will lead the discussion on Saturday, June 8, at the downtown Madison Public Library’s Bubbler Room.
The festival wraps up on Sunday, June 9, from 10 a.m. to noon at Common Ground, 2644 Branch Street in Middleton, with “Mooning Around” poetry reading and artist mixer, featuring a performance of “One for Mileva Maric (Einstein)” by Andrea Musher, with special guests Sarah Whelan and Jackie Bradley, and poetry readings by The Line-Breakers: Andrea Potos (below), Eve Robillard, Rosemary Zurlo-Cuva and Katrin Talbot.
Everyone is welcome to come enjoy their morning coffee and pastries while making creative connections with other artists.
LunART Festival is supported by Dane Arts, the Madison Arts Commission, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Open Meadows Foundation; it also won first place at the 2018 National Flute Association C.R.E.A.T.E. Project Competition and second prize at the 2018 UW Arts Business Competition.
Schedule of 2019 Festival events:
Wednesday, June 5
- 6-8 p.m.: “Women Against Hate United by Love” exhibition opening reception @ Rotunda Stage, Overture Center for the Arts (free event)
Thursday, June 6
- 9 a.m.-Noon From Page to Stage composition master class with Valerie Coleman @ First United Methodist Church (free event)
- 7 p.m.: Opening Gala Concert @ Maiahaus (402 E. Mifflin St.) (Tickets: $20 general/$10 students)
Friday, June 7
- 6 p.m.: “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman” pre-concert lecture by Meaghan Heinrich (free event)
- 7 p.m.: “Portraits of Josephine” Gala Concert @ Promenade Hall, Overture Center for the Arts (Tickets: $20 general/$10 students)
- 9 p.m.: Starry Night: “Holding Court” All-Women Comedy Show @ Robinia Courtyard (Tickets: $7 in advance/$10 at the door)
Saturday, June 8
- 10 a.m.-Noon: “The Multi-faceted Artist” Panel Discussion @ Madison Public Library Bubbler Room (free event)
- 2 p.m.: From Page To Stage: Emerging Composers Concert @ Capitol Lakes Grand Hall (free event)
- 7 p.m.: “Gaia” Closing Gala Concert @ First Unitarian Society of Madison Atrium Auditorium (Tickets: $20 general/$10 students)
Sunday, June 9
- 10 a.m.-Noon: “Mooning Around” poetry reading and artist mixer @ Common Ground, 2644 Branch St., Middleton (free event)
More information can be found at lunartfestival.org
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Classical music: The Madison Brass Quintet will perform a FREE holiday concert this Saturday at noon. Plus, pianist Olivia Mussat performs a FREE recital of works by Haydn, Liszt and Ginastera at noon on Friday.
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ALERT: This Friday’s FREE Noon Musicale, to be held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features pianist Olivia Mussat, who studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, in music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt and Alberto Ginastera.
By Jacob Stockinger
Grace Presents is currently in its fifth year of offering free public concerts on the Capital Square. The series features local musicians and is a lively and eclectic mix of genres each month.
This Saturday, as part of Grace Presents, the versatile Madison Brass Quintet (below) will perform a FREE holiday program from noon to 1 p.m. at the newly remodeled Grace Episcopal Church, 116 West Washington Ave., where it joins Carroll Street on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison.
The well-known regional ensemble has been performing throughout the Midwest since 1982 and featuring some of the finest musicians in Southern Wisconsin. The Madison Brass features custom-tailored programs for any event from their extensive repertoire, which encompasses music from the 1500’s to the New Millennium.
The Madison Brass Quintet will play traditional and contemporary holiday and Christmas favorites for their concert.
Here are samples you can listen to:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheImpactofBrass/featured
Website: http://www.sandylaclair.com (Click on Madison Brass)
Tags: Alberto Ginastera, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, brass, Brass quintet, Chamber music, Christmas, Christmas music, Classical music, Concert, concerto, Early music, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Haydn, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Midwestern United States, Music, Piano, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube
Classical music: It’s spring. Can you pass this quiz from NPR about flower songs in opera?
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By Jacob Stockinger
It’s a funny kind of spring where The Ear lives in the Midwest.
More than giving us a steady spring, the weather seems to bounce back and forth between winter and summer. One week we have high in the 80s. The next week — like the one coming up – we’re in the 50s or lower.
Add in all the rain and gust wind, and this spring has been hard on the flowers in my yard. The daffodils have hardly blossomed and are already shriveling up, while the newly sprouted tulips are already dropping petals.
Oh well, at least we haven’t had tornados—not so far.
But it is still worth s celebrating the greening out and other bright colors we see after the long, gray winter.
How well do you know your flowers from opera? (Below, in a photo by Cory Weaver, is mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili in a field of red poppies that was used in the production of the 19th-century Russian composer Alexander Borodin‘s opera “Prince Igor” by the Metropolitan Opera.)
Here is a seasonal puzzler — with only five multiple choice questions — from the exceptional blog Deceptive Cadence on NPR or National Public Radio.
The Ear found it not so hard but tricky.
Still, it seems that celebrating flowers in music is universal. At the bottom is a YouTube video with an excerpt from the Chinese opera “Jasmine Flower,” which is NOT included in the quiz.
But hard or not, the quiz was fun and educational.
See how you do and let The Ear know.
Tags: Alexander Borodin, Arts, Borodin, China, choral music, Classical music, daffodils, flowers, Jacob Stockinger, Jasmine, Jasmine Flower, Madison, Met, Metropolitan Opera, Mezzo-soprano, Midwestern United States, Music, NPR, opera, poppies, Spring, tulips, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, weather, YouTube
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