The Well-Tempered Ear
A biopic about Vivaldi is in the works
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.
By Jacob Stockinger
The baroque master and violin virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741, below) composed the most recorded piece of classical music of all time: “The Four Seasons.”
The work was composed around 1720 and published in 1723, but because Vivaldi died in poverty and his music fell into obscurity, it was not rediscovered and recorded until 1939. And scholars are still finding manuscripts and rediscovering works by the prolific composer who has some 500 concertos and 40 operas to his credit.
The Roman Catholic priest with flaming red hair who was admired by J.S. Bach and who taught at an orphanage for girls in Venice, Italy, has been the subject of numerous biographies, critical studies and even novels, including mystery novels.
But now — after a 20-year delay since the script was completed and submitted — Vivaldi is about to hit the Big Screen in a biopic.
Last year saw “Maestro” about Leonard Bernstein and his wife. And a movie about opera diva Maria Callas is in the works with Angelina Jolie in the title role.
It seems a trend that might perhaps help attendance as concert organizations still are struggling to recover from the Covid pandemic. One wonders if we will see more Vivaldi programmed in response to his increased visibility and publicity his music will get thanks to Hollywood.
For more background and details, here is a link to the story on Classic FM:
Which is your favorite of the four violin concertos that make up “The Four Seasons”?
And what about Vivaldi’s other pieces, including the glorious “Gloria”?
The Ear particularly likes Vivaldi’s concertos for two violins. It is in A minor, RV 523, and you can hear the first movement played by Simon Standage and Collegium 90 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Do you recommend a particular work by Vivaldi?
What is your favorite piece — choral, operatic, instrumental — by The Red Priest?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, academy, Android, Angelina Jolie, Antonio Vivaldi, Apple, Arts, attendance, audience, background, Baroque, biography, biopic, blog, British, Cello, Chamber music, Chandos, Chandos Records, choral music, Christianity, Classic FM, Classical music, Collegium 90, Collegium Musicum 90, composer, compsition, Concert, concerto, Concerto for Two Violins, covid, critical study, death, delay, details, die, director, double concerto, duckduckgo, Early music, Emmy, Emmy award, Facebook, fall, favorite, film, Four Seasons, girls, Gloria, glorious, Google, Google Alert, Google Alerts, Google Search, hear, Hollywood, instrumental, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Ottman, Leonard Bernstein, link, Madison, Maestro, manuscript, Maria Callas, Master, Microsoft, Microsoft Bing, movie, movie news, Music, music news, mystery, mystery novel, news, novel, obscurity, opera, operatic, Orchestra, orphanage, OS, Oscar, Overture Center, pandemic, particular, piece, popular, post, posting, poverty, priest, producer, program, prolific, publish, Radio, recommend, recorded music, recording, recover, red hair, Red Priest, rediscover, Religion, Roman Catholic, RV, Rwitter, scholars, screenplay, script, share, Simon Standage, Sonata, Spring, summer, symphony, tag, Teacher, The Ear, The Well-Tempered Ear, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Venetian, Venuce, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, visibility, Vivaldi, vocal music, want, Well-Tempered, winter, Wisconsin, WordPress, Wordpress.com, work, works, X, YouTube
How do you rank Beethoven’s five piano concertos? Which is your favorite set of recordings?
16 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
Lately, The Ear has been listening to the five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven (below).
That, of course, is not counting the composer’s rarely performed piano transcription of his own violin concerto.
The five concertos are so different but so consistently great that they are always in demand for programming and always a pleasure to listen to as well, I imagine, to play.
Lately I have been sampling two new complete recordings that have received high praise from critics: one (below top) by the Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang, who won the Van Cliburn competition in 2009 and recorded his set, including a cadenza by him, with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Nathalie Stutzmann; and the other, a complete live set (below bottom) by the American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the winner of the 1970 Chopin competition, recently recorded at the Grand Teton Festival.
Both are fine recordings and well worth listening to.
They made me once again recalculate my personal ranking of the five piano concertos. I don’t mean a ranking by quality or which one is the best, but simply which individual concertos I prefer to listen to by frequency. Here is any order: 4, 3, 5 (Emperor), 1, and 2.
How would you rank these five masterworks?
There are so many excellent recordings of these glorious works. I have listened to individual concertos and complete sets by Claudio Arrau, Emanuel Ax, Alfred Brendel (who has recorded them three times), Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Daniel Barenboim, Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andnes, Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein (who recorded them twice), Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jan Lisiecki, Rudolf Buchbinder, Krystian Zimerman, Yefim Bronfman; and on and on. It is hard to pick just one favorite and the idea of a “definitive” performance is impossible.
And truth be told, I generally turn to different performers for different concertos. Martha Argerich has not recorded all five but I love her performances of Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3. I admire the late Nelson Freire in the Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”). And I am very moved by Krystian Zimerman’s playing of the inspired and unconventional middle movement of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
But overall the most consistent sets I continue to like are classics by the late Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode, who completely understands and captures what is special about Beethoven, as he demonstrated in his pioneering complete set of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.
How would you personally rank the Beethoven pianos concertos as your favorites by appeal and listenability?
Which pianist in Beethoven’s five piano concertos do you listen to and like the most often?
Is there a complete set you find irresistible and recommend to others? Or a particular recording of a particular concerto?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, Alfred Brendel, America, American, appeal, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Beethoven, blog, China, Chinese, classic, Classical music, Claudio Arrau, complete, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, critic, critical, critical acclaim, Daniel Barenboim, definitive, demand, different, Early music, Emanuel Ax, Emperor, Emperor Concerto, Europe, European, Facebook, festival, Garrick Ohlsson, Glenn Gould, Grand Teton Music Festival, Haochen Zhang, impossible, Jacob Stockinger, Jan Lisiecki, Krystian Zimerman, Leif Ove Andnes, Leon Fleisher, link, list, listenability, Ludwig van Beethoven, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Murray Perahia, Music, Nathalie Stutzmann, Nelson Freire, Orchestra, particular, personal, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, pioneer, play, pleasure, popular, popularity, praise, quality, rank, rating, recording, Richard Goode, Rudolf Serkin, Rudolph Buchbinder, sample, set, share, Sonata, symphony, tag, The Ear, transcription, U.S., Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Violin, Violin concerto, Vladimir Ashkenazy, winner, Yefim Bronfman, YouTube
Pianist Jeremy Denk combines first-rate playing with innovative programs. He performs a virtual online recital this Friday night for the Wisconsin Union Theater
1 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.
By Jacob Stockinger
Jeremy Denk (below) is not only one of the top pianists on the concert stage today. He is also one of the most interesting and thoughtful pianists when it comes to original, innovative and eclectic programming.
Denk will display his talents again when he performs his third solo recital in Madison this Friday night, Dec. 11, for the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The concert of music by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Missy Mazzoli is at 7:30 p.m. and will be preceded by a public Q&A at 7 p.m. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, both the discussion and the concert will be virtual and online.
Access to the online posting is $20 for the general public, $17 for Wisconsin Union members, and $10 for students.
Denk’s performance, which is part of the Theater’s 101st Annual Concert Series, will include “Papillons” (Butterflies), Op. 2, by Robert Schumann; Three Romances, Op. 21, by Clara Schumann; “Bolts of Loving Thunder” by the contemporary American composer Missy Mazzoli (below); and Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119, by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear Denk play the lyrically introspective first intermezzo of Brahms’ late Op. 119 in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
To purchase tickets to Denk’s performance, visit https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/jeremy-denk/
Ticket buyers will receive an email from the box office approximately 2 hours before the event begins that will contain their link to view the performance. Anyone who purchases a ticket within 2 hours of the event’s start time will receive their email within 15 minutes of purchase.
To The Ear, Denk’s well-planned and fascinating program seems like a probing contrast-and-compare, narrative exploration of the musical styles and close personal relationships – a kind of love triangle — between Robert and Clara Schumann (below top); between Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, whom Robert Schumann championed; and between Brahms and Clara Schumann, who also championed Brahms (below bottom) but rejected him as a lover and suitor after the premature death of her husband Robert.
One of America’s foremost pianists, Denk is a winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the Avery Fisher Prize, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In the United States, Denk has performed with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra and frequently performs at Carnegie Hall. Internationally, he has toured with the world-famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and performed at Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.
Denk’s talents include writing about music. Some of his stories about music have been featured on the front page of The New York Times Book Review as well as in The New Yorker, The New Republic and The Guardian. Many of those writings form the basis for a forthcoming book.
His passion for composing both music and writing compositions is evident in his music-based blog “Think Denk” — “to think” in German is “denizen” — which dates back to 2005.
“Jeremy Denk is one of the greatest pianists of our generation,” says WUT director Elizabeth Snodgrass. “While many pianists specialize in a particular period or composer, Jeremy is a musical omnivore whose wide-ranging interests span centuries and styles, and he is exceptional at playing all of them. As The New York Times said, he is ‘a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs.’”
Proof of that can be found in the program “c. 1300-c. 2000” he toured with and recorded last year for Nonesuch, which features a sampling tour of 700 years of keyboard compositions.
Said a critic for the Boston Globe: “Denk has “an unerring sense of the music’s dramatic structure and a great actor’s intuition for timing.”
This performance was made possible by the David and Kato Perlman Chamber Music Endowment Fund.
Learn more about Jeremy Denk at: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website
For more information and a video clip of Denk playing different Brahms, go to: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/jeremy-denk/
Tags: #AcademyofSt.MartinintheFields, #AmericanAcademyofArtsandSciences, #AmericanComposer, #AveryFisherPrize, #BBCProms, #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoltsofLovingThunder, #BoxOffice, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #ClevelandOrchestra, #ConcertStage, #ConsortLoanProgram, #Contrast-and-Compare, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DavidandKatoPerlmanChamberMusicSeries, #DramaticStructure, #ElizabethSnodgrass, #EmailAddress, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Fridaynight, #FrontPage, #GeniusGrant, #HomeWebsite, #husband-and-wife, #InstagramPost, #JacobStockinger, #JeremyDenk, #JohannesBrahms, #LastYear, #LosAngeles, #LosAngelesPhilharmonic, #LoveTriangle, #MacArthurFellow, #MacArthurFoundation, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MissyMazzoli, #MusicalStyle, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkPhilharmonic, #NewYorkTimes, #NewYorkTimesBookReview, #NonesuchRecords, #OnlineConcert, #PersonalRelationship, #PianoIntermezzi, #PianoMusic, #RecordedMusic, #RobertSchumann, #RoyalAlbertHall, #SanFranciscoSymphony, #StartTime, #TheEar, #TheGuardian, #TheNewRepublic, #TheNewYorker, #TheU.S., #TheUW, #ThinkDenk, #UnitedStates, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VirtualConcert, #WiscnsinUnionTheater, #World-famous, #YouTubevideo, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, access, Actor, American, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Arts, audience, Avery Fisher Prize, basis, BBC, BBC Proms, beautiful, best, blog, Bolts of Loving Thunder, Book, box office, Brahms, butterflies, Carnegie Hall, centuries, Chamber music, champion, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Clara Schumann, Classical music, Cleveland, Cleveland Orchestra, clip, compare, composer, compositions, Concert, concert stage, concerto, contemporary, contrast, coronavirus, David and Kato Perlman Chamber Music Series, Denk, discussion, display, drama, dramatic, Early music, eclectic, Elizabeth Snodgrass, email, event, evident, exceptional, exploration, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fascinating, form, forthcoming, forward, Friday, front page, generation, genius grant, German, great, greatest, handful, hear, home website, husband, information, innovate, innovative, Instagram, interesting, interests, intermezzo, international, introspective, intuition, investigation, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, Johannes Brahms, Kato Perlman, Keyboard, last year, late, learn, like, link, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Love, love triangle, lover, loving, lyrical, MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation, Madison, Mazzoli, Mead Witter School of Music, member, minutes, Missy Mazzoli, Music, musical, musical style, narrative, New Music, New York City, New York Philharmonic, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, night, Nonesuch Records, omnivore, online, original, pandemic, Papillons, particular, Passion, perform, performance, period, personal, personal relationship, Pianist, Piano, piano music, pieces, playing, post, posting, precede, probing, program, programming, public, purchase, Q&A, question-and-answer, receive, recital, record, recorded music, reject, relationship, rhapsody, Robert Schumann, Romance, Royal Albert Hall, sample, sampling, San Francisco, San Francisco Symphony, Schumann, sense, share, solo, spans, specialist, specialize, start, story, structure, Student, style, suitor, tag, talent, The Ear, The Guardian, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Think Denk, thoughtful, time, timing, tour, triangle, Twitter, U.S., unerring, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, view, virtual, want, Website, well-planned, wife, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, writing, WUT, you, YouTube
Classical music: Bach Around the Clock 2020 goes virtual and wants your audio-video contribution. Plus TONIGHT, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra streams its Dec. 27 concert at the UW
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.
ALERT: TONIGHT, March 27, at 7:30 p.m., the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will be streaming its sold-out premiere performance (below) on Dec. 27 in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall at the UW-Madison’s new Hamel Music Center. If you couldn’t get seats for the in-person performance, you can tune in for FREE tonight.
The program is: “Poet and Peasant Overture” by Suppe; the Introduction and Allegro appassionato, Op. 92, by Robert Schumann with pianist Jason Kutz; the Overture to “Orpheus in the Underworld” by Offenbach; the “Habanera” from the opera “Carmen” by Bizet and “What a movie” from the opera “Trouble in Tahiti” by Leonard Bernstein, both with mezzo-soprano Kitt Reuter-Foss; and the Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61, by Saint-Saens with Rachel Barton Pine. WCO music director Andrew Sewell conducts.
For a link and portal to the streamed video, go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/about/wisconsin-chamber-orchestra-live/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following message from artistic director Marika Fischer Hoyt (below) about the decision to make this year’s Bach Around the Clock a virtual event with a call for community submissions:
The BATC Board of Directors shares the keen disappointment that all music lovers feel at the sudden, shocking collapse of the current concert season.
The BATC 2020 Festival was fully booked, and we had looked forward to 12 hours of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by musicians ranging from young students to adult amateurs to seasoned professionals, all to celebrate the composer’s 335th birthday.
Sadly, that was not to be.
But thinking outside of the box, the Board has decided to try something new: the BATC 2020 Virtual Festival.
We invite local musicians to submit video or audio recordings of themselves singing or playing a selection by Bach. If you’d like, you can also talk at the beginning of your recording, explaining what music by Bach (below) means to you, and why you chose this particular piece. Or feel free to write your thoughts on this subject, and we’ll include that text with your recording.
We reach out especially to those who were scheduled to perform at this year’s festival, and those who have performed with us in the past. But we are very happy to include newcomers to our BATC community as well.
Performers can click on Performers Guide for Media Submissions to find instructions for audio or video file submission.
We request that files be of musical selections 20 minutes or less. If a piece is longer than that, please record the piece in two files.
Our tech team will preview clips for technical quality, upload them to the BATC YouTube channel, and post them on our website and then on our Facebook page, for everyone to enjoy.
BATC plans to launch the Virtual Festival this Saturday, March 28, at 10 a.m., the time the original in-person Festival was scheduled to begin.
We will add new videos every day at 10 a.m., as long as submissions keep coming in. (Below are the Suzuki Strings of Madison performing during a past BATC.)
The BATC Board hopes this Virtual Festival gives local musicians an outlet for sharing their talent and passion with the warmly appreciative local community.
Live music nourishes the soul of performer and audience member alike, and the transcendent, life-giving joy woven into the music of Bach is something we need, now more than ever. (Below is a performance from last year’s Bach Around the Clock.)
For more information, go to: https://bachclock.com and https://www.facebook.com/batcmadison
Tags: #AmateurMusician, #AndrewSewell, #ArtisticDirector, #BachAroundtheClock, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoardofDirectors, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ConcertSeason, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Fridaynight, #GeorgesBizet, #HighTechnology, #HomeWebsite, #InstrumentalMusic, #IntroductionandAllegroAppassionato, #JacobStockinger, #JacquesOffenbach, #JasonKutz, #JohannSebastianBach, #KittReuter-Foss, #LeonardBernstein, #LiveMusic, #LocalMusicians, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MusicDirector, #MusicLover, #OperaMusic, #OriginalEnding, #OrpheusintheUnderworld, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #PoetandPeasantOverture, #ProfessionalMusician, #RachelBartonPine, #RobertSchumann, #SaturdayMorning, #SoldOut, #SuzukiMethod, #SuzukiStringsofMadison, #TheEar, #TroubleinTahiti, #TuneIn, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinConcerto, #VirtuosoViolinist, #VocalMusic, #WhataMovie, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YouTubeChannel, add, adult, amateur, Andrew Sewell, appreciate, appreciative, Artistic director, Arts, audience, Audio, Bach, Bach Around the Clock, Baroque, beginning, Bernstein, birthday, Bizet, blog, Board of Directors, booked, Box, Camille Saint-Saëns, Cantata, Carmen, Cello, Chamber music, channel, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, click, collapse, community, composer, Concert, concert season, concerto, conduct, conductor, disappointment, Early music, enjoy, explain, exposure, Facebook, festival, file, forward, Franz von Suppe, free, Friday, full, Georges Bizet, guide, Habanera, home website, in person, include, information, instructions, instrumental music, introduction, Introduction and Allegro Appassionato, invite, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Offenbach, Jason Kutz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joy, Kitt Reuter-Foss, Leonard Bernstein, life-giving, like, link, live, live music, local, lover, Madison, Marika Fischer Hoyt, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, meaning, media, message, Mezzo-soprano, morning, movie, Music, Music director, music lover, musical, musicians, need, new, newcomer, newcomers, night, opera, original, Orpheus, Orpheus in the Underworld, outlet, Overture, page, participate, participation, particular, Passion, past, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piece, playing, Poet and Peasant Overture, portal, post, posting, premiere, professional musician, program, quality, Rachel Barton Pine, recording, request, Robert Schumann, Saint-Saens, Saturday, schedule, Schumann, seasoned, seat, selection, share, shocking, Singing, sold-out, something, Sonata, stream, students, subject, submission, sudden, Suppe, Suzuki, Suzuki Strings of Madison, tag, talent, talk, team, tech, technical, technology, text, thinking, thoughts, time, tonight, transcendent, Trouble in Tahiti, try, tune in, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, video, Viola, Violin, violinist, virtual, vocal music, WCO, Website, What a Movie, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, you, young, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Brian Jefferies on Classical music: A major reass… |
 | welltemperedear on What made Beethoven sick and… |
 | rlhess5d5b7e5dff on What made Beethoven sick and… |
| welltemperedear on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
 | Robert Graebner on Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Watch ‘The Last Repair Shop’ — the Oscar-winning short documentary about music education
2 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
The beautiful and animated face of the young girl comes on the screen with a violin, smiles and says simply, “I love the violin.”
And we as viewers fall in love right then and there.
“The Last Repair Shop” just won the 2024 Oscar for Best Short Documentary. The 40-minute film, released in 2023, is now available to watch on YouTube.
It is a feel-good, feel-guilty story about the last shop to repair free musical instruments offered students in the Los Angeles public schools. But it is also a meditation on things that are broken– and not just musical instruments but also people, schools and politics.
It is really a story about growing up; about adults making art matter to young people; about the role of public education at a time when it keeps getting attacked by ideologues as well as stingy legislatures, city councils, school boards and, ultimately, voters.
Here is a capsule summary: “Since 1959, Los Angeles has been one of the few United States cities to offer and fix musical instruments for its public school students at no cost.
“Those instruments, numbering around 80,000, are maintained at a Los Angeles downtown warehouse by a handful of craftspeople.
“The film profiles four of them, each specializing in an orchestra section, as well as students whose lives have been enriched by the repair shop’s work. The film concludes with a performance by district alumni.”
It sounds irresistible — and it is.
Here are some more background and particulars — including other awards and honors — from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Repair_Shop
If you don’t have time right now to watch the whole film, the two-minute trailer is at the bottom. But if you go to YouTube yourself, you can also read the heart-warming and perceptive comments from other viewers:
What do you think of the movie?
How did you react?
And what do you think about the importance of music education in schools?
The Ear wants to hear
Share this:
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, 2023, 2024, Academy Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, adult, Africa, alphabet, alumni, America, AMPAS, animarted, Apple, Arts, Asia, asian, attack, audience, available, award, Bach, background, Baroque, beautiful, beauty, Beethoven, Best Short Documentary, Bing, black, brass, broken, capital, Cello, Chamber music, childhood, China, choral music, cinema, city councils, Classical music, comment, composer, Concert, concerto, Craft, craftspeople, documentary, downtown, Early music, Education, Europe, face, Facebook, feel, feel-good, feeling, film, fix, free, globe, good, Google, Google Alert, growing up, guilt, guilty, hear, heart-warming, Hollywood, honor, ideologue, importance, instruments, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Johann Sebastian Bach, LA, Latino, Legislature, link, live, lives, Los Angeles, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Meditation, Microsoft, movie, Mozart, Music, Music education, musical instruments, now, opera, Orchestra, Oscar, particular, People, perceptive, percussion, Piano, Politics, profile, public education, public school, react, read, recorded music, recording, repair, school, school boards, screen, share, shop, short documentary, society, Sonata, South America, state legislature, stingy, students, symphony, tag, teachers, The Ear, The Last Repair Shop, time, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, Viola, Violin, vocal music, voter, want, warehouse, watch, Wikipedia, winds, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world, WYSO, you, young girl, young people, YouTube