The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The sixth National Summer Cello Institute and “Feldenkrais for Performers” will take place over the next two weeks at the UW-Madison School of Music. The event culminates in a FREE cello choir concert on June 12.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Our friends at the National Summer Cello Institute have informed The Ear about the upcoming programs at the UW-Madison School of Music:
For complete information about “Your Body is Your Strad” Summer Program Events, under artistic director and UW cello professor Uri Vardi, visit www.yourbodyisyourstrad.com
Following the success of five previous seasons, the Your Body is Your Strad summer programs are open for auditors and concert-goers in 2015.
This includes events during the Feldenkrais for All Performers program (May 30-June 3) and the National Summer Cello Institute (May 30-June 12). The programs focus on the connection between body awareness and technical proficiency, artistic expression, effective teaching and injury prevention.
The workshops feature husband-and-wife musicians and Feldenkrais practitioners Uri Vardi and Hagit Vardi (below with a student), with other faculty including Paul Katz of the New England Conservatory and Tim Eddy of the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory.
There will also be featured presentations by specialists in Integrative Health, Authentic Performance, Mind-Eye Connection, Stage Anxiety and Improvisation.
All events will take place at the Humanities Building at 455 N. Park St. in Madison, Wisconsin unless noted otherwise.
The following presentations are open for auditors and audience members for a fee of $25:
Saturday, May 30, at 3:15 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” presented by Artistic Director Uri Vardi (below), a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Sunday, May 31, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Seminar with Dr. Deborah Zelinsky: ‘The mind-eye connection'” — presented by Dr. Zelinsky, a specialist of neuro-optometric rehabilitation and visual processing
Monday, June 1, at 2 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the second presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Monday, June 1, at 4:30 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Susan Sweeney: The Imaginative Voice” — presented by Susan Sweeney, Head Voice and Text Coach for the American Players Theatre with extensive coaching experience on an international scale
Tuesday, June 2, at 3:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Presentation by Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, MD: The Art of Self Care” — presented by Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, MD in the Integrative Medicine Division of the UW Health system
Wednesday, June 3, at 3:30 PM in room 1321: “Seminar with Matt Turner on Improvisation” — presented by Matt Turner, one of the world’s leading improv cellists, who will lead participants in an improv session
Thursday, June 4, at 4 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class with Paul Katz” — a performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at Boston’s New England Conservatory
Friday, June 5, at 2 PM at Capitol Lakes Retirement Center (FREE): “Outreach Concert” — a performance by the participants of the Your Body is Your Strad programs, selected on a national scale through audition
Friday, June 5, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the third presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method (below is student Micah Cheng, on left, with Uri Vardi)
Friday, June 5, at 8 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Paul Katz” — led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at New England Conservatory, who will cover topics of musicianship and wellness
Saturday, June 6, at 9 AM in Morphy Hall: “Master class with Paul Katz” — the second performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at Boston’s New England Conservatory
Sunday, June 7, at 2 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the fourth presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Monday, June 8, at 10:15 AM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the fifth and final presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Tuesday, June 9, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master Class with Tim Eddy” — a performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Tim Eddy (below), Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory
Wednesday, June 10, at 8 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master Class with Tim Eddy” — the second performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Tim Eddy, Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory
Thursday, June 11 at 2 PM at Fair Trade Coffee (FREE): “Outreach Concert” — a performance of cello ensembles at the Fair Trade Coffee Shop on State Street
Thursday, June 11 at 8 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Tim Eddy” — led by Tim Eddy, Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory, who will cover topics related to musicianship and wellness
Friday, June 12 at 8 PM in Mills Hall (FREE): “Final Concert” — the culminating concert of the National Summer Cello Institute, featuring solo performances of the Institute’s talented participants and the NSCI Cello Choir led by Kyle Knox (below).
The program for the final concert is partially set: the first half will be solo performances by participants of the National Summer Cello Institute, and the after intermission will be pieces for the NSCI Cello Choir. The solos will be decided through audition next week, but the rep for the Cello Choir is decided.
The pieces to be included in the public concert (which The Ear heard and loved last year) are:
Johann Sebastian Bach/arr. Akira: Adagio from the C major Sonata for Violin
Astor Piazzolla/arr. Villarejo: “Oblivion” (see the YouTube video at the bottom)
David Popper: Requiem
Kyle Price*: Requiem (movements 4 and 5)
Klengel: Hymnus for 12 cellos
*Kyle Price is the student composer and a Collins Fellow at the UW-Madison School of Music, studying cello as a Masters student with Uri Vardi. He is also an avid composer, and runs a music festival in upstate New York called Caroga Lake. The Requiem to be performed was written in memory of his aunt, a cellist who had attended NSCI in previous summers.
Tags: American Players Theatre, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, David Popper, Feldenkrais, Hagit Vardi, improvisation, integrative medicine, Jacob Stockinger, Juilliard School, Madison, Mannes Conservatory, mind-eye, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, New England Conservatory, New York City, Paul Katz, Piano, Piazzolla, Requiem, Sonata, stage anxiety, Tim Eddy, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Violin, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The United States advances in the World Cup of soccer and The Ear advances to another great moment in music by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
After its one-point loss to Germany, the U.S. soccer team will advance to the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup, which is being held in Brazil until July 13.
The next game for the U.S. is against Belgium on Tuesday.
Loyal fans of The Ear may recall that a week or so ago he decided the global soccer event being held in Brazil was a good opportunity to explore the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (below), whose music is beautiful and much too under-programmed and under-played here and elsewhere.
Here is a link to the original post that also featured the gorgeous Cantilena movement for soprano from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 that has been recorded by folk singer Joan Baez as well as opera divas Kiri Te Kanawa, Barbara Hendricks, Victoria de los Angeles and Kathleen Battle.
Here is another great moment in Villa-Lobos that I heard at the Cello Choir concert by the National Summer Cello Institute that was held this month at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
This moment comes from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 in a YouTube video below. It is the third movement, the finale, that happens in fugal form and again shows how Heitor Villa-Lobos tried to adapt the compositional techniques of Johann Sebastian Bach to the folk music and native dance rhythms of Brazil. That was an ambitious project, to be sure, and one in which The Ear thinks the composer was surprisingly successful.
Enjoy as you prepare to root for Team U.S.A.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Barbara Hendricks, Baroque, Brazil, Brazilian music, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, counterpoint, dance, diva, FIFA, folk, Folk music, football, fugal, fugue, harmony, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kathleen Battle, Kiri Te Kanawa, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, opera, rhythm, singer, soccer, soprano, Sport, Sports, tune, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victoria de los Angeles, Villa-Lobos, YouTube
Classical music: The FIFA World Cup of soccer is a perfect time to become acquainted with the astonishing music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Go ahead. Forget the scores.
I know, I know.
In the 2014 World Cup of championship soccer (below), this week the U.S. beat the odds-makers and won against favored Ghana while Spain disappointed the odds-makers when it lost to underdog Chile.
Nonetheless, The Ear is no jock.
But he knows a lot of people here and around the world will spend this weekend watching the competition.
So he got to wondering.
What would be good classical music to post in honor of the World Cup soccer championships that are taking place in Rio de Janeiro and many other stadiums (below) throughout Brazil between June 12 and July 13?
And then last Saturday I went to the Cello Choir concert (below), a free concert given by the “the National Summer Cello Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, and BAM!!! there was the answer.
Here is a link to the positive review I did of the concert:
It was there that I heard two totally absorbing works by the 20th-century Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Villa-Lobos (below) was a very prolific composer, writing over 2,000 works in his lifetime (1887-1959). Given such productivity it is not surprising that some works seems second-rate. What is more amazing is how many seem so memorable and so first-rate.
Boy, did that man ever have a sense of melodic line, of poignant harmonies, of contagious and fiery Latin African rhythms. His music seems as robust and straightforward as the portraits that show the beefy composer chomping away on big cigars.
The Ear suspects that Villa-Lobos would have been a lot of fun to know and pal around with. He seems as outsized and rich in natural resources as his native country.
And so does his body of work.
So why isn’t Villa-Lobos better known and more often performed outside his native country? I can’t think of the last time a work of his was performed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra or by pianists and chamber music groups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Maybe some readers can.
And Villa-Lobos used his native land to inform his work and the effect can be enthralling and even magical. He is a sure remedy to Eurocentric programming, and especially with a growing Hispanic population. (I know: Portuguese, not Spanish, is the colonial culture and language of Brazil. But still.)
Anyway, there I was, sitting in Mills Hall and listening to two outstanding works performed by the choir of 16 cellos and one soprano in works designed to “Brazilian-ize” Johann Sebastian Bach and update his Baroque musical style -– which I think they succeed in doing. Bach goes ethnic!
The first work was the famous Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 –- with its soaring aria-like Cantilena that has been recorded by great singers from folksinger Joan Baez (below top) to opera divas such as Victoria de Los Angeles, Anna Moffo (below bottom), Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle and Barbara Hendricks.
The performance that I heard live featured the UW-Madison soprano Anna Whiteway, who was absolutely exquisite. She had fabulous pitch, big volume, smooth vibrato, great diction and lovely tone. She was superb, and the cellists and conductor thought so too.
Then there was the less famous Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1, which included a gorgeous second movement and fabulous fugal finale.
So below is a sample from YouTube, where you can find quite a lot of quality performances of music by Villa-Lobos.
And I think that during the month-long World Cup play in Brazil, we can’t do better than to listen to other samples of beautiful music by this prolific composer who seems to The Ear way, way underplayed and under-appreciated.
Personally, these days The Ear is checking out the Bachianas Brasileiras, the Choros and the chamber music, especially the cello sonatas and the string quartets.
But there is also much more in the way of piano music, guitar music and vocal music.
So from now to the end of the World Cup, I will periodically offer examples of music by Villa-Lobos.
And what do you think of Villa-Lobos?
Do you have a favorite piece that others should listen to?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Anna Moffo, aria, Arts, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Barbara Hendricks, Baroque, Brazil, cantilena, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, ethnic, Euro-centric, Eurocentric, FIFA, fugue, guitar, harmony, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Hispanic, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kathleen Battle, Kiri Te Kanawa, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, melody, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, opera, Piano, Portugal, Portugese, rhythm, soccer, Spanish, String quartet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victoria de los Angeles, Villa-Lobos, vocal music, voice, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, World Cup 2014, YouTube
Classical music: The annual National Summer Cello Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will hold a FREE memorial concert for Janos Starker this Sunday, June 9, at 8 p.m.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Do you speak cello? A great way to start is by attending a FREE concert on Sunday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
The purpose of the concert is to memorialize and honor the career of famed Hungarian-born cellist Janos Starker (below), who emigrated to the U.S. after World War II and taught at Indiana University. Starker, a survivor of the Holocaust renowned for his performing and teaching as well as his love of fine scotch and too many cigarettes, died last month at 88.
As you might expect there will be some solo Bach, duos by Bartok, trios by David Popper and lots of other solo and ensemble cello music including a cello choir of 12 cellists.
The FREE concert, part of the yearly National Summer Cello Institute for professional cellists (below, in Mills Hall) at the UW-Madison, will take place in Mills Hall on this Sunday June 9, at 8 p.m. Guest artists, including the cellist of the Orion String Quartet, will also perform. (By contrast, the similarly named National Cello Institute is for young people, not professionals.)
The concert has been organized by Uri Vardi (below), a professor of cello at the UW-Madison, who studied with Starker from 1972 to 1975.
For more details, here is a link to the excellent and comprehensive story on “Fanfare,” the new blog at the UW School of Music:
And for more information about Janos Starker, here is a link to the obituary story, with links to other remembrances and obituaries, that The Ear posted on this blog:
And here is a link to a YouTube video of Janos Starker himself playing Gabriel Faure‘s exquisite “Elegie,” which has been posted as a tribute to Starker:
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