The Well-Tempered Ear
The third LunART Festival celebrates Black women in the arts with FREE streaming concerts and events this Saturday night, Oct. 10, and next Saturday night, Oct. 17
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
The LunART Festival is back for its third season, continuing its mission to support, inspire, promote and celebrate women in the arts, with a special presentation, “Human Family,” available via two FREE video livestreams on LunART’s website and Facebook page on Saturday, Oct. 10, and Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. CDT.
The events will be co-hosted by LunART founder and flutist Iva Ugrcic (below top), and by vocalist and art administrator Deja Mason (below bottom).
In response to the most recent and ongoing racial inequality and in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, LunART will present the “Human Family” virtual festival featuring art created by Black women.
These FREE streamed events will feature a palette of emerging and established artists drawn from Madison’s rich arts scene, while also celebrating those who have paved the way for generations to come.
Radical inclusivity has been part of LunART’s mission from its conception. While women have historically been underrepresented in the arts, we cannot deny that there are segments of women that have been doubly marginalized, including women of color, women in the LGBTQIA+ community, older women and women with disabilities.
Part of creating a more just, inclusive world means recognizing that even within the space of underrepresentation, there remain disparities.
Works from the past include Florence Price’s “Five Folksongs of Counterpoint” for string quartet (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom), which is deeply rooted in the African-American spiritual tradition; Margaret Bonds’ Spiritual Suite for solo piano, written in a neo-Romantic classical style infused by jazz harmonies and rhythms; Afro-American Suite for flute, cello and piano by Undine Smith Moore, based on authentic spiritual songs used to express and record everyday life of slaves in America.
Florence Price (below), Margaret Bonds and Undine Smith Moore all fought against both racial and gender discrimination throughout their lives. To be a woman composing classical music in the mid-20th century was unusual; to be a Black woman composer was even more so. And yet, these women forged ahead, making history and paving the way for the women who would follow them.
Along with these pioneers of the past, LunART will also celebrate contemporary Black women who are making a big impact in the world of arts, culture, advocacy and activism, following the footsteps of their predecessors.
“Voodoo Dolls” for string quartet by Jessie Montgomery (below in a photo by Jiyang Chen) is influenced by West African drumming patterns that are interwoven with lyrical motifs in the improvisatory style.
“Fanmi Imen,” a work for flute and piano by Valerie Coleman (below) — LunART’s 2019 Composer-in-Residence) — is based on a powerful poem by Maya Angelou, “Human Family.” Angelou calls for peace and unity, while acknowledging differences due to ethnic and cultural background in her famous refrain: “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
The chamber music will be performed by Madison’s finest musicians: Isabella Lippi, Karl Lavine, Peter Miliczky, Magdalena Sas, Marie Pauls, Satoko Hayami, Yana Avedyan and Iva Ugrcic.
Celebrating women’s creativity across many art forms has been a core component of LunART’s artistic mission from its inception, and this year is no exception. While music will create a sound painting, “Human Family” will also feature women who use words and movement to tell their story.
Enter a world of phenomenal talent with emerging singer-songwriters Danielle Crim and Akornefa Akyea performing their most recent original songs; magically moving poems and spoken-word pieces by Jamie Dawson and Shasparay Lighteard; and join dancer and choreographer Kimi Evelyn in self-exploration of what happens when the body and the soul are left in complete solitude through her powerful piece “Body, Sweet Home.”
To commemorate the Festival events, LunART has commissioned digital artwork (below) by local artist and activist Amira Caire, which is inspired by the “Human Family” concept. This stunning piece of art will be available for purchase in printed form on LunART’s website.
We are calling our community to eat local, drink local and support local. By supporting LunART, you are also supporting local nonprofits and small businesses.
This project would not be possible without the generosity of Madison’s creative media agency Microtone Media, The Piano Gal Shop from Sun Prairie, Dane Arts and a grant from the Madison Arts Commission at https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/planning/madison-arts-commission/1580/, with the additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Events are free and available for anyone to watch online, and donations are welcomed. For more details about the artists, events, programs and links, and donation methods, please visit https://www.lunartfestival.org
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Classical music education: The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras’ annual “Art of Note” gala next Saturday night, March 4, seeks to raise $85,000 for music education
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following public service announcement to post, and he is happy to do so because he believes there is no better investment you can make in the future of both classical music and adult success:
Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will hold its annual Art of Note Gala fundraiser, on Saturday, March 4, 2017 from 6 to 10 p.m., at Marriott West, 1313 John Q. Hammons Drive, in Middleton just off the Beltline on Madison’s far west side.
You can join dozens of major corporate underwriters and small business sponsors as well as individual attendees in helping WYSO to meet its goal of raising $85,000.
Study after study confirms that music education reaps lifelong benefits in academic and career success that go far beyond making music.
No single music educational organization in Wisconsin reaches more students or listeners than the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), which is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
WYSO has served nearly 5,000 talented young musicians from more than 100 communities throughout south central Wisconsin over the past 51 years.
WYSO provides over $50,000 in scholarships for students in need.
WYSO performs through the community and undertakes local concerts and TV appearances as well as international tours. International tours have included Vienna, Prague (below), Budapest, Argentina and Italy.
The Art of Note Gala garners community-wide support from those who are passionate about music education, ensuring that WYSO remains one of the top youth orchestra programs in the country.
The evening will feature live music performed by several WYSO student groups including the Brass Choir (below), Percussion Ensemble and Youth Advanced String Ensemble.
(In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a WYSO orchestra under retiring music director James Smith, perhaps part of the suite from the opera “Carmen” by Georges Bizet.)
The event will have an Italian theme to food, drinks and decor to bring back memories of WYSO’s most recent tour of Italy.
Fundraising events include silent and live auctions of more than 100 items that include everything from fine wine and restaurant gift certificates to holiday getaways, jewelry and tickets to major sporting and arts events.
To see the auction items, go to: http://www.wysomusic.org/artofnote/the-live-and-silent-auction-2017/
Of special note are the recycled violins that have been hand-painted and transformed into works of art by local artists. They are currently on display at Goodman Jewelers, 220 State Street. (Below top is the violin by Ellie Taylor, and below bottom by Margaret Andrews.)
Individual admission is $125 in advance, $135 at the door ($85 tax-deductible as a charitable donation per person). You can also purchase a table of four for $450, a table of 8 for $900 and a table of 10 for $1,100.
For reservations and more information about attending or sponsoring the gala, donating auction items as well as WYSO’s overall program and upcoming concerts, visit WYSO’s home website for the fundraising event at www.wysomusic.org/artofnote. You can also call (608) 263-3320, ext. 2.
For more general information about WYSO and its programs, go to: www.wysomusic.org
NOTE: If you are a WYSO student, a WYSO parent or a WYSO donor or supporter and have encouraging words to help others decide about attending the WYSO “Art of Note” fundraiser, please leave them in the COMMENT section.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) will give two FREE afternoon performances this Saturday and Sunday with the world premiere of a socially relevant piece by local composer Lawren Brianna Ware
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IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE 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 Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below) will present its ninth season this weekend, performing two free afternoon concerts.
Co-directed by the husband-and-wife team of conductor Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below left) and concertmaster Thalia Coombs (below back), the orchestra will perform music of Haydn, Wagner and Grieg, plus a commissioned work from local composer Lawren Brianna Ware.
Performances are Saturday, Aug. 3, at noon on the “Grace Presents” concert series at Grace Episcopal Church, located downtown at 116 West Washington Avenue on the Capitol Square; and on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Lobby of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, as part of “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.”
(Please note that Sunday’s concert is NOT in the Brittingham Gallery III due to space constraints.) Sunday’s performance will be live-streamed on the Chazen website. Here is a link to the portal for streaming: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen7/
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Utevsky and Coombs offer the following comments about the program:
We’re excited to be working with Lawren Brianna Ware (below) on a new work she composed for us, Un sueño aplazado (A Dream Deferred – a quote from the African-American poet Langston Hughes), which chronicles the emotional trajectory of a migrant’s journey from Central America to the United States.
Our two high school Conducting Apprentices, Luke Whittingham (below top) and Quinn Wilson (below bottom) will each conduct one performance of a movement from Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Whittingham conducts on Saturday and Wilson does so on Sunday.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is a luxurious tone poem for small orchestra that he composed as a love letter to his wife Cosima, first performed on the staircase of their villa in Switzerland on her birthday. Often chamber orchestras don’t get the chance to dig into the great German Romantic repertoire, but this gem is a notable — and unforgettably beautiful — exception. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We conclude our program with Franz Joseph Haydn’s final symphony, No. 104. Nicknamed the “London,” it is one of 12 symphonies he wrote for performances there late in his career, and it remains one of his finest essays in symphonic form.
MAYCO is made possible by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
For more information about the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, go to www.mayco.org or call (608) 514-5537.
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