The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Starting Wednesday, the second LunART Festival will again spotlight women in the performing and creative arts. Here is the first of a two-part preview
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received a long and detailed announcement about the upcoming second LunART Festival. Here is Part 1 with background and participants. Tomorrow will be Part 2 with more information about new music and a schedule of events.
The LunART Festival is back for its second season from this Wednesday, June 5, through Sunday, June 9, and will continue its mission of supporting, inspiring, promoting and celebrating women in the arts.
The 2019 season brings 10 events to eight venues in the Madison area, providing accessible, high-quality, engaging concerts and events with diverse programming from various arts fields.
The festival will showcase over 100 artists this season, including many familiar local artists and performers as well as guest artists hailing from Missouri to Texas, Minnesota to Florida and as far away as Peru.
LunART’s inaugural 2018 season was a success on numerous fronts. From showcasing a wide variety of artists and arts disciplines to building lasting relationships and collaborations, LunART has distinguished itself from other arts events in Madison.
Both artists and audiences have commented that the LunART atmosphere is one of camaraderie, love and acceptance. Festival directors Iva Ugrcic and Laura Medisky (below right and left, respectively) have set this season to come back even stronger, with expanded dates and more diverse programming.
Like last year, the three ticketed evening gala concerts are centered on classical chamber music. Other art forms — including contemporary and aerial dance, poetry, spoken word and visual arts — are interwoven throughout the programs to create a unique atmosphere for performers, artists and audiences.
This year’s Grammy-nominated composer-in-residence is flutist Valerie Coleman (below), a former member of Imani Winds, who was described as one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by The Washington Post.
Coleman embodies LunART’s vision by challenging norms and being a strong advocate for diversity in the arts. Her rich compositional output infuses elements of jazz and African secular music into the Western classical tradition, creating a soundscape that honors both worlds. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Valerie Coleman playing her own composition “Fanmi Imen” at the 2018 convention of the National Flute Association.)
Coleman’s music will be featured throughout the festival among the works of other remarkable women who shaped music history, from Baroque composer Barbara Strozzi to Romantic composer Clara Schumann to living composer Missy Mazzoli.
Drawing from Madison’s rich arts scene and community, LunART 2019 features local artists including: former Madison poet laureate Andrea Musher (below); actor and theater artist Deborah Hearst; choreographers and dancers Liz Sexe and Kimi Evelyn; and aerial dancer Linda DiRaimondo.
Also featured are musicians from arts organizations such as Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Fresco Opera Theatre, Arbor Ensemble, Madison New Music Ensemble and Sound Out Loud Contemporary Music Collective. Under the direction of Edgewood College professor Kathleen Otterson, Madison’s only women’s choir ARTemis Ensemble returns in greater numbers and will present a work by LunART 2018 “From Page to Stage” alum Meg Huskin among others.
Visual art will have a stronger presence in the 2019 Festival. From May 11-July 7, Overture’s Playhouse Gallery will house “Women Against Hate United by Love,” a collaborative, traveling art exhibition and multi-step “anti-hate” campaign united against bigotry, intolerance and racism, created by J. Leigh Garcia (below), Rachael Griffin and Kelly Parks Snider.
A gallery reception on Wednesday, June 5, serves as LunART’s opening event, in which Snider will give a talk about the exhibit and her use of art to educate communities about targeted issues in the hopes of shaking up the status quo. This engaging and thought-provoking exhibit is meant to provide a meaningful and hopeful community experience for all who attend.
In collaboration with Studio 84 and ArtWorking, two nonprofit art studios specializing in the creative development of people with disabilities, the final Gala concert at First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, on Saturday, June 8, will showcase 40 artworks. This exhibit will feature 20 women artists whose works will be displayed, flanking the Atrium Auditorium stage as well as in the lobby.
Tomorrow: New music to be premiered, comedy and the full schedule of events
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Classical music: UW oboist Aaron Hill performs world premieres and little known composers in a FREE recital Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is Homecoming weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and it is busy on many counts, including several classical music concerts in the city on Sunday afternoon.
But one of the more intriguing is a FREE recital at 3 p.m. in Mills Hall by UW-Madison Professor Aaron Hill (below), who teaches oboe and also performs in the Wingra Woodwind Quintet.
Hill will be joined by collaborative pianist Daniel Fung (below), who is also a vocal coach at the Mead Witter School of Music at the UW-Madison.
Particularly noteworthy is the number of world premieres and relatively unknown contemporary composers on the program.
Here is the program:
“Poem,” for oboe and piano (1953) by Marina Dranishnikova (1929-1994, below). (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Oboe Sonata (1947) by Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
- Gently Flowing
- Sicilienne
- Allegro
Intermission
* Soliloquies (2013) by Andre Myers (b. 1973)
- To be or not to be
- There’s Rosemary, that’s for remembrance
- In the Month of May
- Spring Discourse
* world premiere performance
* After Manchester (2017) Aaron Hill and Michael Slon (b. 1982 and 1970, respectively) * world premiere performance
Four Personalities (2007) Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)
- Yellow
- White
- Blue
- Red
Here are some program notes by Aaron Hill:
“This program highlights five different ways to program previously unfamiliar music, as explained below.
“Poem” by Marina Dranishnikova came to me through our local community. Oliver Cardona, currently a junior music major at UW-Madison, initially brought it to my attention. The work was discovered and edited by my predecessor, Professor Marc Fink (below), during his travels in Russia.
I first heard the Oboe Sonata by Jean Coulthard (below) at the 2017 International Double Reed Society conference at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
Charles Hamann, the principal oboist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, edited and recorded it as part of a large project to bring international attention to masterpieces by Canadian composers.
Andre Myers (below) attended the University of Michigan with me and we first became acquainted when I performed one of his orchestral works. His beautiful writing for English horn started our friendship and 15 years later, he wrote his Soliloquies for me.
The first two are based on famous scenes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” The third is based on a poem by Minnesota’s first poet laureate, Robert Bly, which will be read aloud from the stage. The final movement is inspired by a dream vision he had of centaurs playing in a meadow.
“After Manchester” was originally a free improvisation I recorded and posted to social media in the wake of the terror attack at Ariana Grande’s concert on June 4, 2017.
Later in the summer, Professor Michael Slon (below), the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Virginia, transcribed my improvisation and wrote a piano part to transform it into a piece of chamber music. The work was completed just days before the violent events in Charlottesville.
Professor Alyssa Morris (below) currently teaches oboe at Kansas State University and her compositions have become widely performed as standard literature for oboists in recent years.
She wrote “Four Personalities” to perform in her own undergraduate recital at Brigham Young University and I first heard it while searching for oboe music on YouTube. The piece is based on the Hartmann Personality Test.
In her words, the colors correspond to the following types:
Yellow: Yellow is fun-loving. The joy that comes from doing something just for the sake of doing it is what motivates and drives yellow.
White: White is a peacekeeper. White is kind, adaptable, and a good listener. Though motivated by peace, white struggles with indecisiveness.
Blue: Blue brings great gifts of service, loyalty, sincerity, and thoughtfulness. Intimacy, creating relationships, and having purpose is what motivates and drives blue.
Red: Motivated by power. Red is aggressive and assertive. Red is visionary, confident, and proactive.
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Classical music: This afternoon is your last chance to hear twin-sister pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton play Mozart with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here are three reviews. There will also be poetry inspired by the Symphony No. 5 by Shostakovich, which is also on the program. Plus, a FREE concert of choral music takes place tonight at the UW-Madison
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ALERT: Tonight at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is a FREE concert of choral music by the UW-Madison group Chorale under its director Bruce Gladstone. Sorry, no word on the program.
By Jacob Stockinger
This afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear twin-sister, Madison-born pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton (below top) perform a Mozart concerto with the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below bottom). Works by Claude Debussy and Dmitri Shostakovich are also on the program conducted by MSO music director John DeMain.
The program has received fine reviews from the critics:
Here is a review written by John W. Barker for Isthmus:
http://isthmus.com/music/familial-spirit/
Here is the review by Greg Hettmansberger for his blog “What Greg Says”:
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/a-perfectly-timed-homecoming/
And here is a review written by Jessica Courtier for The Capital Times:
For more information about the concert and program, go to:
NEW MSO POETRY PROGRAM “COUNTERRPOINTS” DEBUTS TODAY
In addition, as a part of its 2016-17 season offerings, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will today launch The Counterpoint Readings, a special event series where poets will respond to a selected symphonic piece, culminating in a reading in Overture Center’s Promenade Lounge the weekend the piece is performed. It is scheduled to start after the performance, at around 4:30 p.m. today.
NOTE: There is a $10 admission charge to the poetry reading, which includes a wine and cheese reception. But because notice was given late, the original deadline of Nov. 10 for reservations will be overlooked.
The first reading focuses on Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 by Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (below), performed by the MSO as part of its “Paired to Perfection” concerts this weekend. (You can hear the famous finale of the Shostakovich symphony performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Counterpoint Readings debut will happen following today’s performance, beginning at approximately 4:30 p.m. Eight poets will perform original works— world premieres for each artist.
Coordinated by MSO violist and poet Katrin Talbot (below, writing poetry in a photo by Isabel Karp), the series seeks to expand the audience’s musical experience and bring Madison’s poetry into a new light. Another such music-based poetry reading, to take place in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, is scheduled for March, according to Talbot.
Katrin Talbot shares her vision of the how the power of words can respond to this significant historical composition, “Stalin is trumpeting out Soviet dominance. Yet somehow, he (Shostakovich) overcame it to generate art. Deception to get his voice heard.”
Among the poets slated to appear include MSO bassist August Jirovec, former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor, former Madison Poet Laureate Sarah Busse, Richard Merelman, Eve Robillard, Timothy Walsh, Marilyn Annucci and Rita Mae Reese.
Here is a preview: August Jirovec’s inspiration leading up to the reading:
“If there be meaning in this world askew,
let toils and rhyming gripes slide—disappear
your cross of blood drawn in the dirt austere
and lavish canvases of nascent hue
with brilliant visions! Let your whimsy brew
brash, crazen potions inspired by this tier
of music hefted from chests, as time’s spear
pierces the heart that must love art—through you.”
And here is a link to a long interview with Talbot by Lindsay Christians for The Capital Times:
For more information go to:
The Counterpoint Readings, direct link: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/counterpointreadings
Paired to Perfection concerts: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/naughtons
Tags: 20th-century music, Art, Arts, cheese, choral music, Christina and Michelle Naughton, Classical music, composer, concerto, counterpoint, critic, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Greg Hettmansberger, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Courtier, John W. Barker, Leonard Bernstein, Lindsay Christians, Madison, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, Overture Center, Piano, poem, Poet laureate, Poetry, reading, reception, review, sister, symphony, The Capital Times, twins, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, What Greg Says, Wine, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Wisconsin words and Wisconsin music will meet when the Rural Musicians Forum in Spring Green hosts state Poet Laureate Max Garland and noted UW-Oshkosh pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi performing Wisconsin composers on Monday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hillside Theater of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound Taliesin.
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ALERT: Two days ago, I offered reviews by John W. Barker of last weekend’s concerts by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below top) and pianist Frank Glazer (below bottom). Two more reviews, both by Greg Hettmansberger, have come to my attention. Hettmansberger writes his “Classically Speaking” blog for Madison Magazine. Here are links to his reviews:
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a press release about an upcoming unusual event tat mixes words and music from a low-profile group that deserves wider circulation:
“Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate, Max Garland (below), will visit the Wisconsin River Valley and Spring Green on Monday, August 12, as part of “Music for a Summer Evening,” the annual series of concerts sponsored by the Rural Musicians Forum. The concert of words and music, free with donations accepted, is at 7:30 p.m. in the hillside Theater of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound
“Garland has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of Wisconsin’s poetry landscape,” travelling the state for the next year, sowing seeds of knowledge and promoting the value of arts and culture. (You can hear him reading at the bottom in a YouTube video from the Wisconsin Book Festival in 2010. Garland read at Avol’s Bookstore in Madison.)
“The laureateship, announced in 2012 by the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Science, is the latest addition to Garland’s long list of honors, which includes a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, a James Michener fiction fellowship and two Wisconsin Arts Board literary fellowships.
“Garland is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a post he has held since 1996. Before entering the academic world, he worked at many non-academic jobs in his native western Kentucky, including 10 years as a rural mail carrier on the route where he was born, a route formerly run by his grandfather.
“This experience was drawn upon in his first book of poems, “The Postal Confessions” (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of the 1994 Juniper Prize for Poetry. The poems brought to the fore the unknown residents of his rural hometown. For Garland, the book was a tribute to a particular time and place in his home state of Kentucky.
“When Garland (below, reading) visits the Wisconsin River Valley this month as part of RMF’s summer concert series, he will read his poetry to honor the countryside and ordinary people of Wisconsin.
“At the Hillside School Theater presentation Garland and noted Wisconsin pianist, Jeri-Mae Astolfi (below), will capture the spirit of the state’s people, places, events and culture, making the connection between music and poetry.
“Astolfi is the soloist for the Wisconsin Soundscapes project, which features new piano music inspired by the people and places of Wisconsin, commissioned by the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
“Astolfi is a Canadian-born pianist whose repertoire, ranging from the Renaissance era through the present, expresses her keen interest in “new” music, which has led her to commission and premiere many new solo and collaborative works.
“Jeri-Mae Astolfi is currently a member of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Her concert appearance in Spring Green with Poet Laureate Max Garland is an extension of a 2012 state-wide tour made possible through the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers (WAC) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
“In Spring Green she will play original compositions by Wisconsin composers Geoffrey Gordon, UW-Madison composer Joseph Koykkar (below) and Donald Young. The compositions create musical maps of such places as Black Earth, Mineral Point and Spring Green (Geoffrey Gordon) for example, as well as streets and bridges (Joseph Koykkar) and scenes along the Root River (Donald Young).
“The composers themselves will be present for the concert.
“The August 12 concert goes to the heart of what Max Garland most wants to do in his term as Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, examining, as he says, “the life that quietly happens in our heads and hearts, and the connection of that life to places where we live, the roots of that life in the places we know and love.”
“Taliesin’s Hillside School Theater (below), part of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound, is located at 6604 State Hwy. 23 in Spring Green.
“There is no admission charge for the concert. However, a free-will offering assists in underwriting the concert series.
“The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Seating is limited.
“For further information on Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland or to see a schedule of his upcoming appearances, please visit www.wisconsinacademy.org/poetlaureate. For more information on the concert series see www.ruralmusiciansforum.org.”
Tags: blog, Classically Speaking, Frank Glazer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Greg Hettmansberger, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Johnny Appleseed, Kentucky, Madison, Madison Magazine, Max Garland, Poet laureate, University of Massachusetts Press, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, Wisconsin, YouTube
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