The Well-Tempered Ear

Music con Brio starts an annual Black Composers project with a FREE virtual concert

July 1, 2021
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from Carol Carlson, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Madison-based Music con Brio (below), who is a violinist and holds a doctorate in music from the UW-Madison:

Hello friends,

Happy summer! I hope you are able to enjoy some rest, relaxation and fun in the sun.

I am emailing you because Music con Brio embarked on an exciting new project this year, and I want to share it with you.

In an effort to diversify our repertoire and guest artists, we have launched our new “Music by Black Composers” project. Last winter, our staff chose four pieces of music by Black composers and made student-accessible arrangements of them. 

We then taught these new pieces during our online lessons this spring. On May 8, we gathered together outside at the Goodman Community Center, with four phenomenal local Black guest artists, to professionally record all four pieces.

And now, in lieu of our regular Community Concert Series this year, we are thrilled to present our first-ever Virtual Community Concert!

Click on the link to YouTube video at the bottom to watch and hear the 12-minute performance. Once there, click on Show More to see the composers, pieces and performers.

We are incredibly proud of our students and staff for all their hard work making this so successful. I’m sure you will enjoy their performance!

Please do feel free to pass the video along to anyone else you think might be interested in watching it.

And if you feel so inclined, we would really appreciate a donation in support of this work, which we plan to do every year from now on. To support Music con Brio and our Black Composers project by making a secure, tax-deductible donation, go to: https://www.musicconbrio.org/donate/ 

Thank you so much for your support! We hope to see you at a live concert again sometime soon!

If you wish to know more about Music con Brio, go to: https://www.musicconbrio.org


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Here are the Top 10 online concerts to stream in March, according to critics for the New York Times

March 2, 2021
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ALERT: The online live-streamed concert by the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet — scheduled for this Friday night, March 5 — in the all-Beethoven cycle of string quartets has been canceled and postponed until next year. The Friday, April 9 installment of the Beethoven cycle will be held as Installment 7 instead of 8.  

By Jacob Stockinger

Classical music critics of The New York Times have once again picked their Top 10 online concerts for the month of March.

The Ear has found such lists helpful for watching and hearing, but also informative to read, if you don’t actually “attend” the concert.

If you have read these lists before, you will see that this one is typical.

It offers lots of links with background about the works and performers; concert times (Eastern); and how long the online version is accessible.

Many of the performers will not be familiar to you but others – such as pianist Mitsuko Uchida (below, in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for the Times), who will perform an all-Schubert recital, will be very familiar.

But the critics once again emphasize new music and even several world premieres – including one by Richard Danielpour — and a path-breaking but only recently recorded live performance of the 1920 opera “Die Tote Stadt” (The Dead City) by long-neglected composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (below), who is best known for his Hollywood movie scores but who also wrote compelling classical concert hall music. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear soprano Renée Fleming sing “Marietta’s Song.’)

But some works that are more familiar by more standard composers – including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Ravel and Copland – are also included.

The Times critics have also successfully tried to shine a spotlight on Black composers and Black performers, such as the clarinetist and music educator Anthony McGill (below top), who will perform a clarinet quintet by composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (below) and music in the setting of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

No purists, the critics also suggest famous oboe and clarinet works in transcriptions for the saxophone by composer-saxophonist Steven Banks (below).

Also featured is a mixed media performance of words and music coordinated by the award-winning Nigerian-American novelist, essayist and photographer Teju Cole (below), whose writings and photos are irresistible to The Ear.

Here is a link to the story in the Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/arts/music/classical-music-streaming-concerts.html

Are there other online concerts in March – local, regional, national or international – that you recommend in addition to the events listed in the Times?

The Ear wants to hear.

 


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This Saturday afternoon, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir presents a free online parking lot concert of “Car Carols” with an emphasis on African-American composers

December 11, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement to post:

Join the Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) this Saturday afternoon, Dec. 12, at 2 p.m. for Car Carols, a unique holiday concert featuring live, socially-distanced performances of music by African-American composers and seasonal favorites.

Choir members will sing from their individual cars using wireless microphones (below), listening to the sound of the whole choir via their car radios. The audience is invited to join our Facebook event or listen in live on YouTube.

There is no charge to view the live-stream, but donations would be welcome. 

You can find the concert on this Saturday, Dec. 12, a 2 p.m. via the following links: live on YouTube at  https://youtu.be/ZonVn1cvgb8, or on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1561155960751974/

This unusual concert format was necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the WCC is grateful for the opportunity to continue singing together in safe ways.

Since September, the choir has been rehearsing as a Parking Lot Choir, generating local media coverage from WKOW-TV at https://wkow.com/2020/10/13/wisconsin-chamber-choir-making-adjustments-to-prepare-for-performance/ and Madison Magazine, whose story was headlined “Forget tailgates, parking lots are for choir practice: https://www.channel3000.com/forget-tailgates-parking-lots-are-for-choir-practice/

This past September and October, smaller groups from the WCC assembled on Saturday mornings at the Warner Park Pavilion to rehearse in widely spaced formations. 

They wore specially designed singers masks, and occasionally harmonized with nearby sandhill cranes that seemed unsure what to make of the a cappella music floating through their habitat. 

Recordings by five distinct small ensembles  — minus the cranes — will be aired during the Dec. 12 Car Carols broadcast, in addition to live singing by the Parking Lot choristers. 

The Car Carols repertoire highlights music by African-American composers spanning nearly a century. Idiomatic pieces in the style of spirituals and contemporary gospel alternate with “non-idiomatic” motets and anthems by Nathaniel Dett (below top), William Dawson, Undine Smith Moore (below middle) and Carlos Simon (below bottom, with an oral self-portrait in the YouTube video at the bottom).

 

The remainder of the Parking Lot Choir selections consists of carol arrangements by WCC favorites — the late Stephen Paulus (below) and Peter Blotch — and feature virtual harp and violin accompaniment.

Live and virtual performers will also unite to sing Craig Hella Johnson’s moving arrangement of the songs I Love You and What a Wonderful World

Interspersed between the live Car Carols will be a wide variety of pre-recorded selections, including the world premiere of WCC member Linda Palmer’s arrangement of Sussex Carol, plus music by Johannes Brahms, John Rutter, 17th-century female composer Chiara Cozzolani (below), and Tleycantimo choquilia, a carol from colonial-era Mexico, sung in Spanish and Nahuatl. 

Founded in 1998, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Brahms; a cappella works from various centuries; and world-premieres.

Artistic director Robert Gehrenbeck (below), who heads the choral program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has been hailed by critics for his vibrant and emotionally compelling interpretations of a wide variety of choral masterworks. WCC members have acknowledged Gehrenbeck for his intrepid conducting in freezing temperatures during Parking Lot Choir rehearsals.

 


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Classical music: Here is the complete concert program for the Madison Opera’s Digital Opera in the Park. It premieres online TONIGHT at 8 and stays up until Aug. 25

July 25, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

The 2020 edition of the Madison Opera’s annual summer event Opera in the Park (below, a photo from the past) will be virtual and online due the coronavirus pandemic and the COVID-19 public health crisis.

The concert – which can be viewed indoors or outdoors, anywhere in the country or the world — begins at 8 p.m. CDT TONIGHT, Saturday, July 25. It will remain available online until Aug. 25.

Here are links to the portals where you can watch and listen to the opera program and also join the post-concert Q&A with performers: https://www.madisonopera.org and https://vimeo.com/437164679

For more information about the 90-minute concert, and related events, as well as the performers and the donors, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/classical-music-madison-operas-virtual-opera-in-the-park-goes-online-for-free-this-saturday-night-and-stay-up-until-aug-25-listen-to-it-indoors-or-outdoors-to-enhance-the-experience/

HERE IS THE COMPLETE PROGRAM FOR THE EVENING

Overture | The Marriage of Figaro (W.A. Mozart; 1786)

Suzanne Beia, violin; John DeMain (below) and Scott Gendel, piano

“Quel guardo, il cavaliere” | Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti; 1843)

Jasmine Habersham, soprano (below); Rolando Salazar, piano

“Un’aura amorosa” | Così fan tutte (W.A. Mozart; 1789)

Andres Acosta, tenor (below); Marika Yasuda, piano

“Ernani, involami” | Ernani (Giuseppe Verdi; 1844)

Karen Slack, soprano (below); Laura Ward, piano

“Vision fugitive” | Hérodiade (Jules Massenet; 1881)

Weston Hurt, baritone (below); Bethany Self, piano

“Aber der Richtige” | Arabella (Richard Strauss; 1933)

Jasmine Habersham, soprano; Karen Slack, soprano; Scott Gendel, piano (below)

“Au fond du temple saint” | The Pearl Fishers (Georges Bizet; 1863)

Andres Acosta, tenor; Weston Hurt, baritone; Scott Gendel, piano

“Deh vieni, non tardar” | The Marriage of Figaro (W.A. Mozart; 1786)

Jasmine Habersham, soprano; Rolando Salazar, piano

“Il balen del suo sorriso” | Il Trovatore  (Giuseppe Verdi; 1853)

Weston Hurt, baritone; Bethany Self, piano

“Anvil Chorus” | Il Trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi; 1853)

Madison Opera Chorus via Zoom (below); Anthony Cao, conductor and piano

“Vissi d’arte” | Tosca (Giacomo Puccini; 1900)

Karen Slack, soprano; Laura Ward, piano

“Asile héréditaire” | William Tell (Gioachino Rossini; 1829)

Andres Acosta, tenor; Marika Yasuda, piano

“Meditation” | Thaïs (Jules Massenet; 1894)

Suzanne Beia, violin (below); John DeMain, piano

Spiritual “Scandalize My Name” | arranged by Johnnie Dean

Jasmine Habersham, soprano; Karen Slack, soprano; Scott Gendel, piano

“No puede ser” | La Tabernera del Puerto (Pablo Sorozabal; 1936)

Andres Acosta, tenor; Marika Yasuda, piano

“Vanilla Ice Cream” | She Loves Me (Jerry Bock; 1963)

Jasmine Habersham, soprano; Rolando Salazar, piano

“Some Enchanted Evening” | South Pacific (Richard Rodgers; 1949)

Weston Hurt, baritone; Bethany Self, piano

“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” | arranged by Margaret Bonds

Karen Slack, soprano; Laura Ward, piano

SING-ALONG FINALE: It’s a Grand Night for Singing | State Fair (Richard Rodgers; 1945)

 


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Classical music: This Saturday at noon Grace Presents offers a virtual HD concert of organ and violin music

July 21, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from Grace Presents to post:

Grace Presents’ HD Virtual Concert Series continues with its new series, with its next installment premiering here on YouTube this Saturday, July 25, at noon CDT.

The free and public one-hour program will feature organist-composer Mark Brampton Smith (below top) and violinist Carol Carlson (below middle), both veterans of the Grace Presents series and the Madison music scene. A virtual meet-and-greet will follow the concert.

(The Willy Street Chamber Players will be featured in a virtual concert premiering on Saturday, Aug. 22, at noon CDT. More details on this concert are forthcoming soon.)

Here is the program for this Saturday’s organ and violin concert, which you can sample in the YouTube video at the bottom:

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962): “Praeludium and Allegro (In the Style of Pugnani)”

Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798): Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 7 No. 2. 1. Andantino

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Sonata in D Major, K. 288; Sonata in G Major, K. 328

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003 III. Andante

Johann Sebastian Bach: “Little” Fugue in G minor, BWV 578

Jules Massenet (1842-1912): Meditation from the opera “Thaïs”

Clarence Cameron White (1880-1960): “Bandanna Sketches,” Op. 12. 1. Chant (“Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen”)

Felix Borowski (1872-1956): “Adoration”

Mark Brampton Smith (b. 1954): “It Is Well With My Soul” (Philip P. Bliss)

Vittorio Monti (1868-1922) Csardas

 


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Classical music: Today is the Fourth of July. Here are two extended playlists of American masterpieces

July 4, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

Today is Independence Day – the Fourth of July holiday.

It is a good occasion to listen to classical music by American composers (below), which you can hear much of the day on Wisconsin Public Radio.

But here are two other extended playlists of American classical music:

Here, thanks to a California radio station, is a list with complete performances of some of the best American masterpieces, including the “New World” Symphony by Antonin Dvorak, the “Afro-American” Symphony by William Grant Still (below), “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin and “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein:

https://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2019/07/04/playlist-american-classical-music-for-your-fourth-of-july/

And thanks to Minnesota Public Radio, here are four hours of patriotic music for the holiday: https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2018/06/29/celebrate-the-fourth-of-july-with-our-4hour-patriotic-classical-playlist

Finally, in the YouTube at the bottom is the “American” String Quartet by Antonin Dvorak (below), who summered in Spillville, Iowa. He loved hearing and tried to capture sounds of nature, including bird songs, traditional Black spirituals and music by Native Americans.

The Ear especially likes it because it is proof that just as Americans have been influenced by European composers, European composers, European composers have been influenced by American composers.

Do you have a special or favorite piece of classical music to help celebrate the Fourth of July?

What do you like about it?

Leave a comment with a YouTube link if possible?

The Ear wants to hear.

 


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Classical music: In two FREE concerts on Sunday afternoon and evening, the UW Wind Ensemble celebrates Black History Month and the guest duo Bridge of Song celebrates Nordic song

February 13, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

On a weekend with a lot of live music, two FREE concerts also take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new Hamel Music Center, 740 University Ave., on Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening. Details are below:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

At 2 p.m. in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the UW Wind Ensemble (below) will celebrate Black History Month with a FREE concert.

The conductor is director Scott Teeple (below).

Also participating is the Madison-based Mt. Zion Baptist Church Gospel Choir (below), with director Leotha Stanley.

The program is:

Adolphus Hailstork (below): “American Guernica” (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
Armando Borolo: “Last Breaths”
DaSean Stokes, soloist
Aaron Copland: “A Lincoln Portrait”
Traditional/arr. Reynolds: “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Stephen Newby:  “When I See His Glorious Face/Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus”
Omar Thomas: “Of Our New Day Begun”

For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-wind-ensemble-7/

NORDIC SONG

Then at 6:30p.m. in the Collins Recital Hall, there is a FREE concert to promote Nordic song by Bridge of Song.

Bridge of Song is a voice and piano duo. It features soprano Kathleen Roland-Silverstein (below top) and pianist Collin Hansen (below bottom).

Songs will be performed in three languages — Swedish, Finnish and English. For a complete program of composers and works – unfortunately, with no translations of the foreign-language titles – as well as extended biographies of the performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/bridge-of-song/

 


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