The Well-Tempered Ear
Here are winners of major international music competitions in 2023. What’s next?
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
Which young, up-and-coming classical musicians should you keep an eye on during the coming year?
Which ones, if any, will be booked in coming years to performance locally, say, at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Wisconsin Union Theater; or at the Salon Piano Series; or as a University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music guest artist?
One guide to 2024 and beyond might be to review the winners of the international music competitions held in 2023.
Thanks to The Violin Channel, here is a list of many such winners who may go on to establish more prominent careers. If you click on the names of the competitions, posted in red, you will be linked to fuller stories about the competitions, many of which you have probably never heard of. The Ear follows many contests but had never heard of many of these.
Here is a link:
You can find out about histories of the competitions, other prize winners, places they are held and how often, jury members and contest rules and formats, and more. And you can hear excerpts from some prestigious competitions including the Bischoff Chamber Music competition and a competition for young child prodigy violinists in Italy.
At the bottom of the story, you can hear a YouTube video with the 19-year-old, Asian-American pianist Magdelena Ho in her contest-winning performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland. She looks to have a promising future.
The winners came all continents — Asian, Africa, North America, South America and Europe.
And the competitions were held in many different places and focused on many different kinds or genres of classical music: violin, viola, cello, double bass and guitar; piano; saxophone;mharp; percussion and drums; chamber music and symphonic music; conducting; singing; and early music.
At the bottom is a vibrant performance of a familiar Bach suite by Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee who won Finland’s Paulo Competition and also took first prize at the Pablo Casals Competition on 2022.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Up-and-Coming, #YouTubevideo, 2023, 2024, Africa, African, America, American, Android, Ann Arbor, Apple, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Bischoff, blog, Bonn, Boston, brass, Canada, Canadian, Cello, Chamber music, Child, children, China, Chinese, choral music, Clara Haskil, Classical, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, continent, contralto, double bass, drums, Early music, Europe, Facebook, Finland, Finnish, format, France, French, future, genre, geography, German, Germany, Google, guest artist, guitar, Hanover, harp, History, Ho, international, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kim, kind, Korean, Leonid Kogan, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mac, MacBook, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts, Mead Witter School of Music, Michigan, Mozart, Music, music competition, Musician, North America, opera, Orchestra, OS, Overture Center, PC, Penderecki, percussion, perform, performance, Pianist, Piano, Poland, Polisy, prize, prodigies, prodigy, Romania, Romanian, rules, Russia, Russian, Salon Piano Series, Saxophone, Serge Koussevitsky, share, singer, Singing, Sonata, song, soprano, South Africa, South African, South America, South Korea, South Korean, stream, strong, study, Suite, Swiss, Switzerland, symphony, tag, Teacher, The Ear, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, Violin Channel, violinist, violist, vocal music, Wee, win, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, won, year, young, young artists, YouTube
The new Apple Music Classical app is now available for Android users
5 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 new Apple Music Classical app (logo is below) — before now available exclusively for Apple Music subscribers and the Apple OS operating system — is now available for Android operating systems and PCs through the Google Play store.
The streaming app, which costs about $10 a month (you need just a subscription to one of the music apps to get both), has been generally praised and highly rated by both professional critics and ordinary consumers. Most point out the wide variety of repertoire, performers and recordings, both current and historic or out-of-print; the quality of the sound; and the use of background documents about the music, the composers and the performers.
Here are links to two stories about Apple Music Classical for Android.
The first one, from TechCrunch, is the more general and comprehensive article.
The second story, briefer and written more for audiophiles, is from The Verge and contains more specific background information and technical specifications.
The Ear uses both Apple Music and Apple Music Classical, and will share his reactions to them in a future posting.
In the meantime, he wants to know:
Do you subscribe to Apple Music or Apple Music Classical?
Do you like it?
Dislike it?
Why?
Would you recommend Apple Music Classical or Apple Music to other listeners?
What do you think of other classical music apps such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, Idagio, Presto — if you use them?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, alphabet, Amazon, Amazon Music, Android, app, Apple Classical Music, Apple Music, article, Arts, audience, Audio, Audiophile, available, Bach, background, Baroque, Beethoven, blog, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, composer, composers, computer, Concert, concerto, consumer, critic, dislike, documents, Early music, exclusive, Facebook, future, Google, Google Playstore, Idagio, Internet, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, like, link, listen, listener, listeners, Ludwig van Beethoven, Microsoft, Mozart, Music, Newspaper, opera, operating system, Orchestra, ordinary, OS, out-of-print, PC, performance, performer, performers, Piano, presto, professional, quality, rated, reactions, recommend, recording, repertoire, share, Sonata, Sound, store, story, streaming, streaming service, symphony, tag, TechCrunch, technical, The Ear, The Verge, Tidal, variety, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Can American film director Ron Howard make a sensitive and accurate biopic of Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang? Or is it a cultural appropriation that deserves to be condemned?
6 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 self-appointed PC diversity police have struck again.
This is getting silly and tiresome, insulting and embarrassing.
Some advocates of cultural diversity are crying foul over the latest project of the American and Academy Award-winning Hollywood film director Ron Howard: making a biopic of the superstar Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang (below).
The script will be drawn from the pianist’s bestselling memoir “Journey of a Thousand Miles” — which has also been recast as an inspirational children’s book — and the director and scriptwriters will consult with Lang Lang.
It seems to The Ear a natural collaboration, as well as a surefire box office hit, between two high-achieving entertainers. Check out their bios:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Lang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard
But some people are criticizing the project in the belief that because Ron Howard (below) is white and Western, he cannot do justice to someone who is Chinese or to Asian culture.
Here is an essay, found on the website of Classic FM, by one objector. She is Chinese film director Lulu Wang (below), who says she has no interest in doing the project herself: https://www.classicfm.com/artists/lang-lang/pianist-biopic-ron-howard-faces-criticism-lulu-wang/
Talk about misplaced alarm over “cultural appropriation.”
Don’t you think that Lang Lang will have a lot to say about how he is depicted?
Do you wonder if Wang thinks cultural appropriation works in reverse?
Should we dismiss Lang Lang’s interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Bartok simply because he is non-Western and Chinese rather than German, French or Russian?
Of course not. They should be taken on their own merits, just as the interpretations of any other Asian classical musician, and artists in general including Ai Weiwei, should be.
But however unfairly, cultural appropriation just doesn’t seem to work in reverse.
Mind you, The Ear thinks that cultural appropriation is a valid concept and can indeed sometimes be useful in discussing cross-cultural influences.
But it sure seems that the concept is being applied in an overly broad and even misdirected or ridiculous way, kind of the way that the idea of “micro-aggressions” can be so generously applied that it loses its ability to be truthful and useful.
Take the example of the heterosexual Taiwanese movie director Ang Lee. He certainly proved himself able to depict American culture in “The Ice Storm” and the gay world in “Brokeback Mountain.”
Let’s be clear. The Ear is a piano fan.
But if he objects to the project, it is because he doesn’t like Lang Lang’s flamboyant playing, his Liberace-like performance manners and showmanship, and his exaggerated facial expressions.
Yet there is no denying the human appeal of his story. He rose from a young and suicidal piano student (below) who was emotionally abused by his ambitious father – shades of the lives of young Mozart and Beethoven and probably many other prodigies – to become the best known, most frequently booked and highest paid classical pianist in the world.
Yet not for nothing did some critics baptize him with the nickname Bang Bang.
Still, the Curtis Institute graduate does all he can to foster music education, especially among the young and the poor.
And there is simply no denying his virtuosity. (See Lang Lang playing Liszt’s Paganini etude “La Campanella” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So there is plenty to object to about Lang Lang the Piano Star besides the ethnicity of Ron Howard, who also did a biopic of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, in telling his story.
What do you think?
Is it culturally all right for Ron Howard to direct a film about Lang Lang?
Do you look forward to the movie and seeing it?
What do you think of Lang Lang as a pianist and a celebrity?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AcademyAward, #AGermanRequiem, #AiWeiwei, #All-Russian, #AmericanCulture, #AngLee, #ArtsandEntertainment, #AsianCulture, #BangBang, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrokebackMountain, #Children'sBook, #ChinesePianist, #ClassicalPianist, #ClassicFM, #ConcertPianist, #CulturalAppropriation, #CulturalDiversity, #CurtisInstitute, #EmotionalAbuse, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FilmDirector, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzLiszt, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #HighAchieving, #HumanAppeal, #IceStorm, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #LangLang, #LGBTQrights, #LGBTRights, #LookForward, #LucianoPavarotti, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #LuluWang, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicCritic, #MusicEducation, #NiccoloPaganini, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PhysicalAbuse, #PianoConcerto, #PianoStudent, #PoliticallyCorrect, #PopularSuccess, #RobertSchumann, #RonHoward, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #SmashHit, #TaipeiTaiwan, #TheEar, #TheIceStorm, #ThePolice, #VirtuosoPianist, #WesternCulture, #Wikipediabiography, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, ability, abuse, abused, Academy Award, accurate, advocate, Ai Weiwei, alarm, ambitious, American, Ang Lee, appeal, applied, artists, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Asia, asian, Asian culture, audience, autobiographical, autobiography, award, award-winning, Bach, bad, Bang Bang, baptize, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, bestselling, bio, biography, biopic, blog, Book, booked, box office, Brahms, broad, Brokeback Mountain, Business, celebrity, children's book, China, Chinese, Chopin, Classic FM, Classical music, classical pianist, collaboration, composer, concept, Concert, concerto, condemn, criticize, criticizing, critics, cross-cultural, Cry, cultural, cultural appropriation, Curtis Institute, Curtis Institute of Music, deny, depicted, depiction, deserve, discuss, diversity, do, draw, embarrassing, emotion, emotional abuse, emotionally, entertain, entertaining, Entertainment, essay, ethnic, etude, exaggerate, exaggerated, example, expression, extreme, Facebook, facial, fan, fanatic, father, film director, flamboyance, flamboyant, forward, foster, foul, France, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, gay, generously, German, Germany, graduate, Haydn, hear, herself, heterosexual, high achieving, highest, Hollywood, homosexual, human, human appeal, ice, ice storm, insulting, interest, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, journey, justice, Lang Lang, LGBT, LGBTQ, Liberace, life, like, link, Liszt, lives, look forward, Luciano Pavarotti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lulu Wang, manner, market, memoir, merit, micro-aggression, miles, misdirected, misplaced, movie, Mozart, Music, music critic, Music education, natural, nature, Niccolo Paganini, nickname, non-Western, object, objects, opera, Orchestra, overly, Paganini, paid, Pavarotti, PC, People, performance, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, physical abuse, Pianist, Piano, piano student, pic, playing, police, politically correct, poor, popular, post, posting, prodigies, prodigy, profit, profitable, project, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, recast, reverse, ridiculous, rise, Robert Schumann, Ron Howard, Russian, say, Schubert, Schumann, script, scriptwriter, see, seem, self-appointed, sensitive, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, shades, share, showman, showmanship, silly, smash hit, Sojourner Truth, Sonata, storm, Student, suicidal, superstar, surefire, symphony, tag, Taiwan, Taiwanese, Tchaikovsky, The Ear, The Ice Storm, think, thousand, tiresome, truthful, unfair, United States, use, useful, virtuosity, want, Western, white, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wonder, work, world, young, YouTube
Did Beethoven and his Fifth Symphony foster racism, exclusion and elitism in the concert hall? The Ear thinks that is PC nonsense. What do you think?
8 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
Controversy has struck big among classical music critics and fans — just in time for the Beethoven Year that will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth this December. Plans call for celebrations by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, and others.
At question is what seems yet another fallout and dust-up from the Black Lives Matter movement and the current struggle to foster social justice and racial equality.
In some ways, it all seems inevitable.
Now the history-denying advocates of cancel culture are suggesting that Beethoven (below) and his music – especially the popular Fifth Symphony (you can hear the famous opening in the YouTube schematic video at the bottom) – fostered white privilege and the rise of racism, sexism and homophobia in the concert hall.
That seems like quite an accusation for a single composer and a single piece of music that was premiered in 1808.
The assertion is food for thought. But not much.
In the end The Ear finds it a stretch and a totally bogus argument. He thinks that Beethoven attracted far more performers and audiences than he repelled. Others, including famed critic Norman Lebrecht in his blog Slipped Disc and a critic for the right-wing newspaper The New York Post, agree:
https://slippedisc.com/2020/09/beethovens-5th-is-a-symbol-of-exclusion-and-elitism/
The Ear also thinks it is political correctness run amok, even for someone who, like himself, advocates strongly for diversity of composers, performers and audiences – but always with quality in mind — in the concert hall.
Just because Beethoven was such a great creative artist is hardly cause to blame him for the inability of other artists to succeed and for non-white audiences taking to classical music. Other forces — social, economic and political — explain that much better.
Yes, Beethoven is a towering and intimidating figure. And yes, his works often dominate programming. But both musicians and audiences return to him again and again because of the originality, power and first-rate quality of his many works.
Beethoven himself was deaf. That would certainly seem to qualify him as inclusive and a member of an important category of diversity.
No matter. The writers are happy to blame Ludwig and his work for exclusion and elitism. They argue that people of color, women and LGBTQ people have all felt alienated from classical music because of Beethoven’s legacy.
Of course, there is elitism in the arts. People may be equal, but creative talent is not.
And clearly, Beethoven was a towering and intimidating figure – more for the quality of his music than for the simple fact that it exists. Such exclusion and elitism have to do with other factors than the composition of the Fifth Symphony.
If The Ear recalls correctly, when he died Beethoven was given the largest state funeral up to that time for a non-royal, non-politician or non-military person.
And how do you explain that Beethoven’s music, so representative of Western culture, appeals deeply to and attracts so many Asians and Asian-Americans, and became both banned and symbolically central to those opposed to Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China?
But these days being provocative can become its own reward.
You can read the analysis and decide about its merits for yourself, then let us know what you think in the Comment section.
Here is a link to the opinion piece in Vox Magazine, a free online journal: https://www.vox.com/switched-on-pop/21437085/beethoven-5th-symphony-elitist-classism-switched-on-pop
What do you think about the idea that Beethoven played a large and seminal role in fostering an elitist and exclusive culture in classical music?
Did you ever feel alienated from classical music because of Beethoven or know others who have?
What is your favorite Beethoven composition?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AsianHistory, #BeethovenYear, #BlackLivesMatter, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CancelCulture, #ChairmanMao, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #ConcertHall, #CreativeArtist, #CulturalRevolution, #DigitalMedia, #DisabilityRights, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FifthSymphony, #FoodforThought, #GenderEquality, #JacobStockinger, #LGBTQrights, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaoTse-Tung, #MaoZeding, #MeadWitter, #MusicCritic, #NormanLebrecht, #OperaMusic, #OrchestralMusic, #People'sRepublicofChina, #PianoSonata, #PieceofMusic, #PoliticalCorrectness, #ProArteQuartet, #RacialEquality, #RightWing, #SlippedDisc, #SocialJustice, #StateFuneral, #StringQuartet, #SymphonicMusic, #TheEar, #TheNewYorkPost, #TheOther, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #VoxMagazine, #WesternCulture, #WhitePrivilege, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YouTubevideo, accusation, advocates, agree, alienate, alienated, amok, analysis, anniversary, appeal, applause, argument, artist, Arts, Asia, asian, Asian American, attract, audience, banned, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, being, big, birth, Black Lives Matter, blame, BLM, blog, bogus, cancel culture, category, cause, celebrations, Chairman Mao, Chamber music, China, choral music, civilian, Classical music, classicalmusic, clothing, comment, commentary, composer, Composition, Concert, concert hall, concerto, conservative, controversry, creative, Cultural Revolution, culture, days, deaf, death, December, decide, digital, disability, diverse, diversity, dominate, dust-up, economic, economics, elite, elitism, elitist, equality, exclusion, Facebook, fallout, famous, fans, favorite, Fifth Symphony, figure, first-rate, food, forces, foster, funeral, gender, gender equality, great, hear, homophobia, idea, inability, inclusive, intimidating, Jacob Stockinger, large, legacy, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGTB, like, line, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mao, Mao Tse-Tung, Mao-Zedong, Mead Witter School of Music, merits, military, mind, movement, Music, music critic, Musician, Newspaper, noise, non-military, non-royal, non-white, nonsense, Norman Lebrecht, online, Op-Ed, opening, opera, opinion, Orchestra, orchestral music, original, originality, other, PC, People, performer, Piano, piece of music, plans, political, political correctness, Politics, popular, post, posting, power, premiere, Pro Arte Quartet, programming, provocative, quality, question another, race, racial equality, racism, racist, read, reader, recall, repel, return, reward, right-wing, rise, role, royal, schematic, seminal, Sexism, sexist, share, silence, single, Slipped Disc, social, social justice, Sonata, state funeral, story, stretch, String quartet, strong, subscriber, succeed, symbol, symbolically, symphony, tag, talent, The Ear, The New York Post, the other, think, thought, towering, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Vox Magazine, want, Western culture, white privilege, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, woke, work, year, you, yourself, YouTube
Classical music: What can you do if your subscription to The Well-Tempered Ear has been dropped – and not by you?
5 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear is looking for readers to help him with a problem that some readers of The Well-Tempered Ear have encountered.
It seems some readers have had their subscription ended — WITHOUT them ending it.
That is discouraging for the readers and The Ear, who broke the 1,000 subscriber mark not too long ago and who would love to break 1,100.
Some readers ask The Ear (below) to put them back on the active list. But unfortunately, The Ear has nothing to do with that part of the operation.
And he too doesn’t know why it happens.
But he has his suspicions.
It could be that there is a new software update on the part of either the reader or the part of the blog host, WordPress.
It could be a newer version of an operating system for readers’ computers, such as OS for Apple Macs or Microsoft Windows for Dell and other PCs.
How can you solve it?
How can you renew your subscription?
So far the best suggestion seems to be this: Unsubscribe and then re-subscribe.
But maybe there are better ways that some readers have discovered.
And maybe WordPress, who is responsible for subscription services, will read this and have explanations and suggestions or outright solutions.
In the meantime, The Ear wants to hear how often the problem has happened and how it was solved.
Please leave word about both frequency and solutions to this problem of cancelled subscriptions in the COMMENTS section.
Thank you for this, and for supporting this blog with your subscriptions as well your reading and replying. They all encourage The Ear to carry on.
Tags: Apple, Apple Inc., Arts, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, computers, Dell, Early music, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, operating system, PC, Personal computer, Subscription business model, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Windows, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Union Theater
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 
Did incompetence and political correctness kill the UW Choral Union?
19 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
It’s time for some answers.
The taxpaying, music-loving public is owed that much.
But for the past two weeks, administrators in the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music have stonewalled concerns expressed by the public and alumni.
The school has continued its censorship of social media with a dismissive silence, and offered no specific explanation or reason why the campus-community, town-and-gown UW Choral Union (below) needs to be killed off after 130 years.
But ever since The Ear broke the story, which has only drawn outrage and anger, sources — who asked to remain unnamed — have offered reasons for the very unpopular move by a public university. The Ear can say now that multiple sources agree in their allegations.
If you need to catch up, here is a link to the original blog posting and comments on June 12:
So the time has come to pass along what the sources say to the general public.
Now it is up to the School of Music to confirm or deny that what the sources say is true.
IS IT INCOMPETENCE?
Everyone who works with her or studies and performs under her has nothing but praise for Mariana Farah (below), the new Director of Choral Activities, as a person, colleague and teacher.
She has been singled out especially for her excellent, outstanding work with small choirs — a cappella choirs and choirs that use piano accompaniment, like the UW Choral Union.
But sources say she has no experience or very little in conducting an orchestra in combination with a large choir.
That is why the Choral Union’s performance last April of Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “Laudab Sion” (Praise Zion) was conducted not by Farah, but by Oriol Sans (below), the highly praised conductor of the UW Symphony Orchestra. That also explains why the two shorter choral works were included in a symphony concert along with Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.
If that is true, it seems a major disqualification for her current position — an oversight, mistake or deliberate policy decision by the administration and the faculty search committee that is hard to understand.
If The Ear recalls correctly, the UW has never had a choral director who could not conduct orchestras and also teach graduate students to do the same.
If that is true, it seems like Farah is simply not yet experienced enough to lead a major choral program in a Big 10, world-famous university and a very highly rated music school.
Perhaps the school could arrange for conducting the Choral Union to go to Sans. But choral union members say he is more interested in the instrumental orchestra than in the choir. Besides, Sans has plenty of his own duties including teaching, rehearsing and conducting UW Symphony concerts, and accompanying the prize-winning opera program at the UW.
Or maybe the school could hire outside conductors — maybe bring back former director Beverly Taylor who is still working with the Madison Symphony Orchestra — to fill in, although that seems unlikely given budget constraints.
IS IT POLITICAL CORRECTNESS?
So what explains why Farah now heads the choral department at the UW?
Sources say much of the blame has to do with political correctness.
Farah was desirable because is Brazilian and a woman of color who is interested in exploring new and alternative repertoire — not the great chorus-and-orchestra masterpieces by “dead white men” like Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi and Brahms. And apparently that is what the School of Music wanted too when it hired her over other candidates.
These are serious allegations that the sources are making.
The timing is also unfortunate. This is the last week of duties for the current director of the School of Music, Susan C. Cook (below), who oversaw the hiring of Farah.
Her successor, Dan Cavanagh (below) from Texas, takes office this Saturday and will possibly walk into a major scandal or conflict that he will need to resolve right away.
In addition, some Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature are strong critics of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” in the academic world. And this move feeds right into their concerns about shortchanging students and the public when it comes to basic skills and customary benefits.
That means the UW School of Music might be facing even more severe budget cuts.
But if the allegations are true, the administrators at the School of Music will have brought their misfortune upon themselves.
The Ear and the public are waiting to hear what the School of Music says besides the ill-timed, secretive announcement and banal, vague generalities about resources and core mission that they first offered.
Do you know anything more about the situation?
Do you have an opinion as to whether the decision should be reversed and the Choral Union should continue to exist?
Leave a comment in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Tags: "Scandal", #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Prize-Winning, #YouTubevideo, academic, activities, administrator, allegation, alternative, alumni, announcement, answer, Arts, audience, Bach, bana;l, Baroque, Bartok, Beethoven, Bernstein, Beverly Taylor, Big 10, blog, Brahms, Brazil, Brazilian, budget, budget cuts, Campus, candidate, censorship, choral, choral music, Choral Union, Classical music, cofre, color, comment, community, composer, concern, Concert, Concert Choir, concerto, conductor, conflict, critic, Dan Cavanagh, dead white men, director, dismissive, diversity, Early music, equity, exist, experience, explore, express, Facebook, faculty, faculty member, famous, gender, generalities, great, Haydn, hire, inclusion, instrument, instrumental music, kill, Leonard Bernstein, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterpiece, Mead Witter School of Music, Mendelssohn, misfortune, mission, Mozart, Music, music school, opera, opinion, Orchestra, Oriol Sans, owe, PC, person of color, Piano, political correctness, public, rating, Republican, resolve, resources, School of Music, search, search committee, secretive, sex, share, silence, Singing, social media, sources, state legislature, Stonewall, story, Susan C. Cook, symphony, tag, The Ear, timing, town and gown, unfortunate, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW Choral Union, UW Concert Choir, UW Symphony Orchestra, UW-Madison, vague, Verdi, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, woman of color, worlod, YouTube