The Well-Tempered Ear
The Madison Bach Musicians host a virtual online Baroque Tour starting this Saturday, April 24, and lasting through May 8
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 Ear has received the following notice from Trevor Stephenson, the founder and artistic director of the Madison Bach Musicians (MBM), who will debut their season-closing concert live and online this coming Saturday night, April 24:
Stephenson (below) writes:
Since travel has been so very limited during the pandemic, Madison Bach Musicians is elated to conclude its 2020-21 season with a musical journey through both space and time, and invites you to join us from the intimacy and safety of your own home.
A Baroque Tour is a musical travelogue of instrumental masterworks from 17th- and 18th-century Europe. Luminaries like Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Buxtehude are in the mix on this program with their brilliant though lesser-known contemporaries such as Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (below top), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Andrea Falconieri (below bottom) and Francisco Jose de Castro.
A Baroque Tour will explore the glorious sonic landscapes of Italy, Spain, France, England and Germany.
Our ensemble for this program consists of five strings plus harpsichord, and we are thrilled that baroque bassoon virtuoso Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill), who teaches at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will join us for Vivaldi’s exuberant Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major. (You can hear the opening movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A Baroque Tour will be broadcast via live-streaming from the acoustically spectacular sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church on this Saturday evening, April 24. (Rebroadcasts will be available on demand through May 8.)
Tickets are $15 and available online at: https://madison-bach-musicians.square.site/product/a-baroque-tour-april-24-2021-livestream-on-demand-until-may-8/57?cs=true&cst=custom
If you wish to purchase tickets through the mail, use this downloadable form: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MBM-2020-21-Live-Stream-Ticket-Form-A-Baroque-Tour.pdf
Here is the schedule for the concert and related events:
From 7:30-8 p.m., in a pre-concert lecture, MBM artistic director Trevor Stephenson will discuss the composers, the repertoire and the historical instruments.
The performance will run from 8 p.m. until approximately 9:15 p.m.
The evening will then conclude with a live Question-and-Answer session with the musicians who will be socially distanced on the concert platform.
Listeners should submit their questions—in advance or during the broadcast—via email to Karen Rebholz at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com.
THE MUSICIANS are:
Marc Vallon – baroque bassoon soloist
Kangwon Kim (below) – baroque violin
Emily Dupere – baroque violin
Micah Behr – baroque viola and baroque guitar
Martha Vallon – baroque cello and viola da gamba
James Waldo – baroque cello (and tambourine)
Trevor Stephenson – harpsichord
THE PROGRAM is:
HANDEL – Sonata in A major for Violin and Continuo, HWV 361
CHARPENTIER – Concerto for Four Viols, H 545
PURCELL – Trio Sonata in C major, Z 795
VIVALDI – Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, RV 503
GUILLEMAIN – Sonata in A minor for Two Violins, Op. 5, No.1
BUXTEHUDE – Trio Sonata in G major, BuxWV 271
DE CASTRO – Trio Sonata in C major, Op. 1, No. 6
FALCONIERI – La Folia (Folías de España)
Here is a link to some brief biographies and interesting facts about these remarkable composers: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/april-24-a-baroque-tour-a-livestream-event/
Tags: #AndreaFalconieri, #AntonioVivaldi, #ArtisticDirector, #BaroqueBassoon, #BaroqueContinuo, #BaroqueMusic, #BassoonConcerto, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DietrichBuxtehude, #EmailAddress, #EmilyDupere, #EnglishComposer, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranciscoJosedeCastro, #Frenchcomposer, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GermanComposer, #GermanComposers, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #HarpsichordContinuo, #HenryPurcell, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #HomeWebsite, #InstrumentalMusic, #italianComposer, #JacobStockinger, #JamesWaldo, #JohannSebastaianBach, #KangwonKim, #KeyboardMusic, #LaFolia, #LiveStreaming, #Louis-GabrielGuillemain, #MadisonBachMusicians, #Marc-AntoineCharpentier, #MarcVallon, #MarthaVallon, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MicahBehr, #Musicfaculty, #OnlineConcert, #PeriodInstruments, #Pre-concertLecture, #RelatedEvent, #SaturdayNight, #SocialDistance, #SpanishComposer, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TheUW, #TrevorStephenson, #TrioSonata, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VioladaGamba, #VirtualConcert, #WoodwindInstruments, #YouTubevideo, acoustics, Andrea Falconieri, Antonio Vivaldi, April, April Fool, Artistic director, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, bassoon concerto, biography, blog, brief, brilliant, Britain, Broadcast, Buxtehude, Castro, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Charpentier, Christian, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conclude, contemporary, continuo, coronavirus, cost, demand, Dietrich Buxtehude, downloadable, Dupere, Early music, elate, email, Emily Dupere, England, English, evening, event, exuberant, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fact, Falconieri, form, forward, founder, Francisco Jose de Castro, French, George Frideric Handel, German, Germany, glorious, Grace Episcopal Church, Guillemain, guitar, Handel, harpsichord, help, Henry Purcell, historically informed performance practices, Home, home website, instrumental, intimacy, invite, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, James Walso, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, Kangwon Kim, Keyboard, keyboard music, La Folia, landscape, like, limited, link, livestream, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, luminary, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, mail, Marc Vallon, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Martha Vallon, masterpiece, MBM, Mead Witter School of Music, Micah Behr, mix, Music, music faculty, musical, Musician, notice, online, pandemic, performer, period instruments, post, posting, pre-concert lecture, professor, Purcell, Q&A, question-and-answer, related, remarkable, repertoire, repertory, safety, sanctuary, Saturday, Season, session, share, social distance, Sonata, sonic, space, Spain, Spanish, spectacular, string, string music, tag, tambourine, The Ear, thrill, ticket, time, tour, travel, travelogue, Trevor Stephenson, trio, trio sonata, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, video, Viol, Viola, viola da gamba, Violin, violinist, virtual, virtuoso, Vivaldi, Website, Wisconsin, woodwind, write, YouTube
The Madison Early Music Festival will again be virtual this summer
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
|
After much discussion, the 2021 Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) has decided to create an online Festival again this summer.
Whenever possible, the University of Wisconsin–Madison recommends that events and meetings continue to be held virtually. This was a difficult decision, but at this time it doesn’t seem safe for our MEMF community to travel to the UW–Madison campus, stay in the dorm, meet in small classrooms, and teach, sing, dance and play instruments together.
We are currently planning what we will offer, and announcements will be publicized in February 2021. (In the YouTube at the bottom is a sample of the video that the Orlando Consort created for last summer’s virtual festival.) For the latest news regarding classes and campus operations at the UW–Madison, please visit the COVID-19 Response website. Although it has been a difficult nine months, performing artists are creating amazing projects and producing them for virtual audiences. This includes many of our MEMF artists and ensembles, and we are looking forward to sharing their talents with you in the future! |
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #EconomicNews, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #LastSummer, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MEMFOnline, #OnlineConcert, #OnlineFestival, #OrlandoConsort, #PeformingArtists, #TheEar, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWArtsInstitute, #VirtualConcert, #VirtualFestival, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, 2021, after, announcements, Arts, audience, blog, Campus, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, classroom, classrooms, community, composer, Concert, continue, coronavirus, create, currently, dance, decision, difficult, discussion, dorm, dormitory, Early music, earlymusic, ensemble, ensembles, event, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, February, forward, future, home website, instruments, Jacob Stockinger, last summer, latest, like, link, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, meeting, MEMF, month, much, Music, news, online, operations, Orchestra, Orlando Consort, pandemic, performing artists, planning, play, post, posting, projects, publicized, recommend, safe, sample, share, sharing, sing, small, stay, summer, tag, talents, teach, The Ear, together, travel, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Arts Institute, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, virtual, virtually, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
University Opera’s original online video project celebrates the life and music of American composer Marc Blitzstein. It will be posted for FREE on YouTube this Friday night, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m.
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
This fall, University Opera presents its first project of 2020-21 in video format as it turns to the music of the American composer Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964).
“I Wish It So: Marc Blitzstein – the Man in His Music” will be released free of charge on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music’s YouTube channel this Friday night, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. CDT at the general site www.youtube.com/meadwitterschoolofmusic or the official specific link: https://youtu.be/77FXFZucrWc.
Director of University Opera David Ronis (below top) is the director of the original production and will give introductory remarks. UW-Madison graduate Thomas Kasdorf (below bottom) is the musical director. The production lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes, and features four singer-actors, a narrator and a piano.
Marc Blitzstein’s life story parallels some of the most important cultural currents in American history of the mid-20th-century.
Known for his musicals — most notably The Cradle Will Rock in 1937 (you can hear Dawn Upshaw sing the lovely song “I Wish It So” from “Juno” in the YouTube video at the bottom) — his opera Regina and his translation of Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Blitzstein was an outspoken proponent of socially engaged art. Like many artists of his time, he joined the American Communist Party. But he also enthusiastically served in the U.S. Army during World War II (below, in 1943).
Nevertheless, in 1958, long after he had given up his Communist Party membership, Blitzstein (below) was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where he “named no names.”
An extremely gifted yet underappreciated composer, he was a close friend of and mentor to Leonard Bernstein (below right, with Blitzstein on the left) and traveled in a close circle of American composers including David Diamond and Aaron Copland.
Although openly gay, he married Eva Goldbeck in 1933. Sadly, she died three years later from complications due to anorexia.
Blitzstein’s own death was likewise tragic. In 1964, while in Martinique working on an opera about the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, a commission from the Metropolitan Opera, he was robbed and badly beaten by three Portuguese sailors whom he had picked up at a bar. He died the next day of internal injuries.
Although throughout his life and afterwards, Blitzstein’s work was championed by Bernstein and others, many claim that neither the composer nor his stunning music and beautiful lyrics ever received the attention they deserved. So University Opera is proud to present this show celebrating his life and his works.
“I Wish It So: Marc Blitzstein – the Man in His Music” is a unique production put together by David Ronis. A biographical pastiche, it tells the story of Blitzstein’s life by recontextualizing 23 songs and ensembles from his shows, juxtaposing them with spoken excerpts from his working notes and letters, and tying it all together with a narration.
The result is a dramatic, evocative and enjoyable portrait of Blitzstein’s life and his art, according to Ronis.
“We’ve discovered a lot of “silver linings” while working on this production,” says Ronis. “We were disappointed at not being able to do a normal staged show. But working with video has had tremendous artistic and educational value.
“Our students are learning on-camera technique, not to mention how to work with a green screen (below, with soprano Sarah Brailey), which allows for post-production editing and digital manipulation of backgrounds. They’re also working with spoken text as well as sung pieces. Mostly, we’re just very grateful to have a creative project to sink our teeth into during the pandemic.
“And the music of Blitzstein is so fantastic, we’re very happy to be able to share it with our audience. This project is like none other I’ve ever done and we’re thinking that it’s going to be pretty cool.”
Research on the project was completed at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where Blitzstein’s archives are housed. University Opera gratefully acknowledges the help of both Mary Huelsbeck of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Television Research, and the Kurt Weill Foundation for their assistance with this project.
The cast features five UW-Madison graduate students: Sarah Brailey, Kenneth Hoversten, Justin Kroll, Lindsey Meekhof (below) and Steffen Silvis.
The video design was done by Dave Alcorn with costumes by Hyewon Park.
Others on the production staff include Will Preston, rehearsal pianist; Elisheva Pront, research assistant and assistant director; Dylan Thoren, production stage manager; Alec Hansen, assistant stage manager; Teresa Sarkela, storyboard creator; and Greg Silver, technical director.
The video will be accessible for 23 hours starting at 8 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 23. Although there will be no admission price for access, donations will be gratefully accepted. A link for donations will be posted with the video.
University Opera, a cultural service of the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides comprehensive operatic training and performance opportunities for students and operatic programming to the community. For more information, email opera@music.wisc.edu or visit music.wisc.edu.
Tags: #20thCentury, #AaronCopland, #AmericanCommunistParty, #AmericanComposer, #Americanhistory, #ArcticCircle, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BroadwayMusical, #BroadwayShows, #CentralDaylightSavingTime, #CentralDaylightTime, #CityofMadison, #CommissionedMusic, #CommunistParty, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DaveAlcorn, #DavidDiamond, #DavidRonis, #DawnUpshaw, #DigitalMedia, #EngagedArt, #EnglishTranslation, #EvaGoldbeck, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Fridaynight, #GiveUp, #GreenScreen, #HouseUn-AmericanActivities Committee, #HouseUnAmericanActivitiesCommittee, #InternalInjuries, #IWIshItSo", #JacobStockinger, #KurtWeill, #KurtWeillFoundation, #LeonardBernstein, #LGBTRights, #LifeStory, #MadisonWisconsin, #MarcBlitzstein, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MetropolitanOpera, #MusicalDirector, #MusicEducation, #NewYorkCity, #OnlineConcert, #OperaMusic, #OriginalWork, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #PickUp, #RedScare, #SaccoandVanzetti, #SarahBrailey, #SilverLining, #SociallyEngaged, #SpokenWord, #StageManager, #TechnicalDirector, #The CradleWillRock, #TheEar, #TheThreepennyOpera, #TheUW, #ThomasKasdorf, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #USArmy, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinCenterforFilmandTelevisionResearch, #WisconsinHistoricalSociety, #WorkingNotes, #WorldWarII, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, Aaron Copland, accept, acknowledge, Actor, admission, American, American Community Party, American composer, American history, anarchism, anarchist, anorexia, Army, Art, artistic, artists, Arts, assistance, attention, audience, background, bar, Bashar al-Assad, Beat, beaten, beautiful, biographical, blog, camera, CDT, celebrate, Central Daylight Saving Time, Central Daylight Time, champion, circle, Classical music, close, commission, Communist, Communist Party, community, complications, composer, comprehensive, Concert, Congress, cool, coronavirus, costumes, creative, creative process, cultural, currents, Dave Alcorn, David Diamond, David Ronis, Dawn Upshaw, death, deserve, design, died, digital, director, disappointed, donation, donations, done, dramatic, editing, educational, engaged art, English, English translation, enjoyable, ensemble, enthusiastic, Eva Goldbeck, evocative, excerpts, fabtastic, Facebook, fantastic, format, forward, foundation, free, Friday, friend, gay, gift, gifted, give up, graduate, graduate student, grateful, green screen, happy share, happy', History, House Un-American Activities Committee, House UnAmerican Activities Committee, HUAC, I Wish it So, important, information, injuries, internal, internal injuries, Jacob Stockinger, join, Joseph McCarthy, Juno, juxtapose, Kurt Weill, Kurt Weill Foundation, learning, Leonard Bernstein, letters, LGBT, life, life story, like, link, lyrics, Madison, man, Marc Blitzstein, marry, Martinique, McCarthyism, Mead Witter School of Music, membership, mentor, Metropolitan Opera, Music, Music education, musical, musical director, name, narration, narrator, New York City, night, normal, notes, October, on-camera, online, opera, operatic, opportunity, original, outspoken, pandemic, parallel, pastiche, performance, Pianist, Piano, piano accompaniment, Piano accompanist, pick-up, Portugal, Portuguese, post, posting, present, price, production, program, programming, proponent, proud, receive, Red Scare, Regina, research, revue, rob, Sacco and Vanzetti, sad, sailors, Sarah Brailey, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, serve, share, show, silver lining, singer, singers, Singing, sink, socialist, socially engaged, song, spoken, spoken word, stage, stage manager, story, students, stunning, tag, technical director, technique, teeth, text, The Cradle Will Rock, The Ear, the Met, The Threepenny Opera, Thomas Kasdorf, together, Tragic, training, translation, travel, tremendous, U.S. Army, underappreciated, unique, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, US Army, UW, UW-Madison, value, video, virtual, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Center for Film and Television Research, Wisconsin Historical Society, wish, words, work, working, working notes, World War II, years, YouTube, YouTube channel
Classical music: The worldwide virtual and online gala fundraiser for the Handel Aria Competition starts today and runs through Oct. 1. Donations will be matched up to $2,000
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 Ear has received the following announcement to post from Orange and Dean Schroeder, the co-founders of the now well-established Handel Aria Competition.
As you may already know, the in-person competition has been postponed until 2021.
The Schroeders say that a virtual online competition for this year was considered, but then dismissed. It would have been too risky to the health of the singers, many of whom have to travel nationally and internationally to compete, and to the accompanying players from the Madison Bach Musicians.
The sound quality also did not meet the standards that the organizers say is necessary to do justice to competitors. Some of the performances are from past competitions But others are new and were done at home during lockdowns.
Perhaps most important of all, the Schroeders wanted to raise money to help the young competitors, whose careers have suffered from concert cancellations during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is the message:
“Today – Thursday, Sept. 10 — is the start of the Handel Aria Competition’s Virtual Gala to raise funds for our past finalists. It will start at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
“The program includes performances by Morgan Balfour, Elisa Sutherland, Chelsea Shephard, Sarah Coit, Andrew Rader, Nola Richardson, Amanda Achen, Jonathan Woody (singing an aria from “Messiah” in the YouTube video at the bottom), Sarah Moyer, Corrine Byrne, Margaret Fox, Gene Stenger, Emily Yocum Black, Sarah Hayashi, Daniel Moody, Christina Kay, Jacob Scharfman, Brian Giebler and Kristin Knutson.
A performance by the Handel Aria Competition’s director and UW-Madison graduate student soprano Sarah Brailey (below) with Luthien Brackett and the musicians from the Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra in New York City is the finale.
“People around the world can watch it on our Facebook page Handel Aria Competition; on YouTube; or on our website at https://handelariacompetition.org.
“It will be available for viewing from 7:30 p.m. CDT today, Sept. 10, through Thursday, Oct. 1 — NOT Oct. 10 as mistakenly stated above.
“It is FREE but donations are encouraged to support the singers during Covid-19.
“Viewers can donate via Facebook or through our website. All funds will go to the singers, including a challenge grant of $2,000 that Dean and I have pledged in order to encourage others to support these talented young artists.
“The Handel Aria Competition Virtual Gala is supported by funds from Dane Arts and the Madison Arts Commission with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.”
Tags: #AltoSinger, #BaroqueContinuo, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BaroqueOratorio, #BaroqueOrchestra, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChallengeGrant, #ContraltoSinger, #CoronavirusPandemic, #CountertenorSinger, #COVID-19, #DaneArts, #DeanSchroeder, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GraduateStudent, #Handel'sMessiah, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HarpsichordContinuo, #HomeWebpage, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #LuthienBrackett, #MadisonArtsCommission, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MessiahOratorio, #NewYorkCity, #OperaMusic, #OrangeSchroeder, #PastoralSonata, #SarahBrailey, #SopranoSinger, #TenorSinger, #TheEar, #TheUW, #TrevorStephenson, #TrinityWallStreetChurch, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #YoungArtists, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, additional, alto, announcement, aria, Arts, audience, available, Bach, Baroque, Baroque opera, Baroque orchestra, blog, cancel, canceled, challenge, challenge grant, Classical music, co-founders, commission, Competition, composer, Concert, consider, continuo, contralto, coronavirus, Dane Arts, Dean Schroeder, director, dismiss, donations, Early music, encourage, encouraged, established, event, Facebook, finale, finalist, finalists, forward, founder, fundraiser, funds, gala, graduate student, grant, Handel Aria Competition, harpsichord, Health, home website, international, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, like, link, lockdown, Luthien Brackett, Madison, Madison Arts Commission, Madison Bach Musicians, Mead Witter School of Music, Messiah, Music, Musician, national, new, New York City, news, October, online, opera, Orange Schroeder, oratorio, Orchestra, pandemic, past, performer, pledge, post, posting, postponed, quality, raise, rusky, Sarah Brailey, September, share, singers, sonic, soprano, Sound, Student, support, tag, talent, talented, tenor, The Ear, travel, Trinity, Trinity Wall Street Church, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, view, viewer, Viola, Violin, virtual, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Arts Board, world, worldwide, year, young artists, YouTube
Classical music: Is this summer’s Token Creek Festival on or off? And if it is on, what form will it take? We will know the delayed decision by July 15
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
For 30 years, the Token Creek Festival (below), which takes place in a refurbished barn, has been a welcome and distinguished bridge from the summer concert season to the autumn season.
It usually takes place from late August through early September.
And by this time we usually know the theme, the performers and the ever-inventive programs that co-directors John and Rose Mary Harbison (below), along with managing director Sarah Schaffer, have put together. (Editor’s note: You can hear festival participants rehearsing the beautiful opening of the slow movement to the Piano Quartet by Robert Schumann in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But not this year.
Thanks to challenges and complications from the coronavirus and the public health crisis posed by COVID-19, a stop-or-go decision has been postponed until July 15.
Will there be one or more live events? Will the festival be virtual and online? Will guest artists and even the Harbisons risk traveling by plane? Will the mainly older public attend? There are many variables to take into account.
Here is an official announcement from the festival:
Dear Friends,
The middle of June is when we usually announce our concerts for the season, scheduled every year to begin in late August and run through Labor Day.
As we continue to endure the many shifts of the crises of health, politics and civil rights, we find ourselves struggling to understand all the contradictions.
In spite of it all, we have some hopes for a concert emblematic of the festival — perhaps a single event taking advantage of the small venue (below top and bottom), with the audience socially distanced or virtually engaged, or perhaps new dates later in the season — having a chance to recall what we have enjoyed together.
So we are delaying our announcement of what the Token Creek Festival might present, with a final decision by July 15. (Editor’s note: You can check at: http://tokencreekfestival.org.)
It is hard to give up something that has been evolving for 30 years and counting. It is a luxury and a lifeline for both the performers and the listeners, something that holds us fast in spite of the present challenges.
We are not yet advertising or taking ticket orders or building new facilities. But we, and the artists who are holding dates for us, are doing something else: We are practicing, imagining, thinking in real terms about presenting concerts again.
If for no other than those reasons, we beg the indulgence of our friends as we become perhaps the last to depart the season, or among the few to be able to propose some radical, slim, socially distanced, barn-size festival.
We hope you will stay tuned, as we are staying tuned.
And we’ll let you know what’s possible by mid-July.
With warm wishes,
John and Rose Mary and Sarah, TCF Directors
Tags: #AlphabeticalOrder, #ArtSongs, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CivilRights, #ConcertSeason, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GuestArtist, #HarvardUniversity, #JacobStockinger, #JohnHarbsion, #LaborDay, #LiveConcert, #LiveMusic, #LivingComposer, #ManagingDirector, #NewMusic, #OnlineConcert, #PianoQuartet, #PublicHealth, #RobertLevin, #RobertSchumann, #RoseMaryHarbison, #SarahSchaffer, #SlowMovement, #SocialDistance, #TheEar, #TokenCreekChamberMusicFestival, #TokenCreekFestival, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, account, advertise, announce, announcement, artist, Arts, attend, audience, August, Autumn, Bach, barn, beg, blog, bridge, challenge, Chamber music, chance, civil rights, Classical music, complication, composer, Concert, concerto, contemporary, continue, contradiction, coronavirus, date, decision, delay, demonstration, depart, distinguished, Early music, emblematic, endure, enjoy, event, evolution, evolve, Facebook, facilities, facility, festival, form, forward, friends, guest, guest artist, Harvard, Harvard University, Holiday, hope, imagine, imagining, indulgence, inventive, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, July, know, Labor Day, later, lifeline, like, link, listener, listeners, live, live concert, live music, Living composer, luxury, Madison, managing director, New Music, official, older, online, order, pandemic, performer, Pianist, Piano, Piano Quartet, plane, Politics, post, posting, postpone, practicing, presenting, program, programming, protest, public, Public health, racism, radical, real, recall, refurbish, rehearse, Robert Levin, Rose Mary Harbison, Sarah Schaffer, scholar, Schumann, Season, September, shape, share, shift, single, slim, Slow movement, small, social distance, song, struggle, summer, tag, terms, The Ear, think, thinking, ticket, time, together, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Token Creek Festival, travel, understand, United States, unrest, variables, venue, Viola, Violin, violinist, virtual, vocal music, welcome, word, years, YouTube
Classical music: What music is helping you get through the Coronavirus by staying home? Help create a Pandemic Playlist
10 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
Starting today, Wisconsin joins other states and countries in proclaiming a stay-at-home emergency condition to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
That means non-essential businesses and schools are closed; restaurants can only deliver food and do pick-up; and residents must stay at home except for essential services and travel such as buying food, seeing a doctor and getting medicine.
For a couple of weeks, many of us have already been spending almost all our time hunkering down at home.
And the Internet and other mass media are full of helpful hints about how to handle the loneliness, fear and anxiety that can come with self-isolation and self-quarantining.
For many, music proves a reliable coping strategy.
Since there are no live concerts to preview or review, now seems like a good time for The Ear to ask readers: What music helps you deal with the isolation of staying at home?
Is listening to music a part of your daily schedule, structure or routine?
Maybe you are using the time to discover new music or neglected composers, works and performers.
Maybe you are using the time to revisit old favorites by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
Maybe you prefer darker and deeper, more introverted works such as symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich?
Maybe you prefer the stories and drama of operas by Verdi and Puccini, oratorios by Handel and songs by Schubert?
Maybe, like The Ear, you find the music of Baroque Italian composers, such as the violin concertos by Vivaldi and Corelli, to be a great, upbeat way to start the day with energy and a good mood.
One more modern but neo-classical work that The Ear likes to turn to — a work that is rarely heard or performed live – is the beautiful “Eclogue” for piano and strings by the 20th-century British composer Gerald Finzi (below).
Finzi wrote it as a slow movement to a piano concerto, but then never finished the concerto. The “Eclogue” — a short pastoral poem — was never performed in his lifetime. So it continues to stand alone.
But like so much English pastoral music, the poignant Eclogue feels like sonic balm, some restorative comfort that can transport you to a calmer and quieter place, put you in a mood that you find soothing rather than agitated.
Hear it for yourself and decide by listening to it in the YouTube video at the bottom, then let The Ear know what you think.
Perhaps you have many other pieces to suggest for the same purpose.
But the series of reader suggestions is meant to be ongoing.
The idea is to build a collective “Pandemic Playlist.”
So right now and for this time, please post just ONE suggestion – with a YouTube link, if possible — in the Comment section with perhaps what you like about it and why it works for you during this time of physical, psychological and emotional distress from COVID-19.
What do you think of the idea of creating a Pandemic Playlist?
The Ear hopes that you like his choice, and that he and other readers like yours.
Be well and stay well.
Let’s get through this together.
Tags: #20thCentury, #AntonBruckner, #AntonioVivaldi, #ArcangeloCorelli, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BritishComposer, #BritishMusic, #CentersforDiseaseControl, #ChoralMusic, #COVID-19, #DmitriShostakovich, #EmotionalImpact, #EnglishComposer, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzSchubert, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeraldFinzi, #GiacomoPuccini, #GiuseppeVerdi, #GoodMood, #GustavMahler, #HandelOratorio, #HealthCare, #HolidayFavorites, #HunkerDown, #ItalianBaroque, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #LiveConcert, #LivingComposer, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MassMedia, #ModernMusic, #MusicReview, #NeglectedComposers, #NeglectedMusic, #NeglectedWorks, #NewMusic, #OperaMusic, #PandemicPlaylist, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #Self-Isolation, #shelter-at-home, #SlowMovement, #SocialDistancing, #Stayathome, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinMusic, #VocalMusic, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, agitating, agitation, alone, Anton Bruckner, Antonio Vivaldi, anxiety, Arcangelo Corelli, Arts, audience, Bach, balm, Baroque, beautiful, Beethoven, blog, Bruckner, Business, buy, calm, Centers for Disease Control, Chamber music, choice, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, closed, collective, comfort, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, condition, cope, coping, Corelli, coronavirus, countries, country, COVID19, create, daily, darker, day, decide, deeper, deliver, discover, distress, Dmitri Shostakovich, doctor, drama, Early music, Eclogue, Education, emergency, emotional, energy, English, essential, Facebook, favorites, fear, fight, finish, Finzi, food, forward, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Gerald Finzi, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, good, good mood, Gustav Mahler, Handel, health care, help, helpful, hints, Home, hunker down, idea, Internet, introvert, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, lifetime, like, link, live, live concert, Living composer, lockdown, loneliness, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mahler, mass media, media, medicine, modern, mood, Mozart, Music, music review, neglected, neglected composer, neo-Classical, new, New Music, non-essential, old, opera, oratorio, Orchestra, pandemic, pandemic playlist, pastoral, performer, physical, Pianist, Piano, pick-up, piece, playlist, poem, poignant, post, posting, prefer, prevention, preview, proclaim, prove, psychological, psychology, Puccini, quarantine, quiet, quieter, rare, reliable, resident, restaurants, restorative, review, revisit, routine, schedule, school, schools, Schubert, self-isolating, Self-Quarantining, services, share, shelter, short, Shostakovich, sing, Singing, Slow movement, social, social distancing, song, songs, sonic, soothing, spend, start, state, stay at home, stories, strategy, stress, strings, structure, suggest, suggestion, symphony, tag, The Ear, think, thought, time, together, transport, travel, United States, use, Verdi, Viola, Violin, virus, Vivaldi, vocal music, weeks, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Acclaimed local soprano Sarah Brailey explains why performing artists and presenters need help during the COVID-19 pandemic
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
Sarah Brailey (below) is worried.
And with good reason.
Chances are good that you have seen the local soprano or heard her sing.
She is the artistic director of the Handel Aria Competition, which she herself won in 2015. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Brailey sing the aria “Will the Sun Forget to Streak” from Handel’s oratorio “Solomon,” with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra under conductor Julian Wachner, in the St. Paul Chapel in New York City.)
Brailey is a co-founder of and participant in the monthly free Just Bach concerts here. In addition, while pursuing graduate studies at the UW-Madison, she is a concert artist with a budding international career. For more about her, including a rave review from The New York Times and sample videos, go to: https://sarahbrailey.com
But right now the Wisconsin native is especially concerned about the lasting impact that the Coronavirus pandemic will have on her own career as well as on the careers of others like her and on the well-being of arts presenters.
Brailey (below, in photo by Miranda Loud) sent The Ear the following essay:
By Sarah Brailey
This is a scary time for everyone, but particularly for anyone who works as an independent contractor.
I am a freelance classical soprano based in Madison. I maintain a very active performing career, traveling all over the globe, and I am also a doctoral student at the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
When COVID-19 hit the United States, presenting organizations on the east and west coasts started canceling concerts to comply with social distancing recommendations.
I initially thought I was lucky to be living in the middle of the country where our lesser population density might save us. Plus, I am a Teaching Assistant at the UW right now, so I will still be getting my stipend — although teaching virtual voice lessons will be its own special challenge!
But many of my colleagues are not so lucky and are facing bankruptcy. If the government doesn’t include independent contractors in its relief packages, a lot of people are going to be insolvent.
And I myself am not immune. As the seriousness of the situation became clear, all my concerts in the next two months soon disappeared one by one.
While not being able to perform is emotionally devastating, these cancellations are also financially devastating.
There exists a clause in every standard performance contract called “force majeure” (superior force), which is idiomatically referred to as, “an act of God.” This clause excuses a party from not honoring its contractual obligations that becomes impossible or impracticable, due to an event or effect that the parties could not have anticipated or controlled.
This can come in handy for a presenter if there is, say, a blizzard that necessitates the cancellation of a concert. (This happened to me a few seasons ago with the Boston Symphony.) If the presenter will not make any money on ticket sales, they are not then further injured by having to pay the musicians for the canceled concert. (Below, Brailey sings Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” with the Colorado Symphony.)
The ramifications of this pandemic are unprecedented. Every freelance musician I know is suddenly out of work. The current conventions put all of the upfront financial burden on the artists. We are paid in one lump sum at the end of a project. We do not get a fee for the countless hours of preparation.
We often book travel and lodging on our own dime, and are not reimbursed until the end of the gig. We pay for our own health insurance, and we cannot file for unemployment because our work is paid via IRS Form 1099 and not W2s. The abrupt work stoppage caused by this pandemic means insolvency – or even bankruptcy — for many artists. (Below, Brailey sings Handel’s “Messiah” at the famed Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York City.)
Many institutions — and, unfortunately, many of the bigger players like The Metropolitan Opera — are invoking force majeure without much regard for how their artists are struggling.
My colleague, tenor Zach Finkelstein, is covering this in great detail on his blog The Middle Class Artist, as is Alex Ross, the prize-winning music critic for The New Yorker. Read his piece on force majeure here.
However, there are also thankfully some good stories to tell. The Bach Society of Minnesota reimbursed all my travel expenses and is paying 75 percent of my fee, as is the Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
I am helping Zach keep track of the organizations that are helping their artists in this time of need. (Read about them here. Madison Opera is on the list.)
The arts are not just cultural enrichment; they are an essential part of our economy. In 2017, the industry contributed $877.8 billion, or 4.5 percent, to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employed over 5 million workers. We cannot afford to let this industry disappear. I fear that many individual artists and arts organizations will not recover from this. (Below, Brailey sings Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat” at the Bucknell Bach Festival.)
While we wait out this storm, I implore you to donate to a Madison arts organization. Here is a short list of recommendations along with some national relief funds for artists.
Local Arts Organizations
Tags: #ActofGod, #AlexRoss, #ArtisticDirector, #artsorganization, #ArtsPresenters, #BachFestival, #BachSocietyofMinnesota, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOratorio, #BigPlayer, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonSymphony, #BucknellUniversity, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ClassicalMusician, #ColoradoSymphony, #ConcertArtist, #COVID-19, #CriticalAcclaim, #CulturalEnrichment, #DoctoralDegree, #EastCoast, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FederalGovernment, #ForceMajeure", #ForceW2, #Form1099, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GoodReason, #GraduateStudent, #GrossDomesticProduct, #Handel'sMessiah, #Handel'sSolomon, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HomeWebsite, #IndependentContractor, #InternalRevenueService, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #JulianWachner, #JustBach, #Knoxville:Summerof1915, #LumpSum, #LyraBaroqueOrchestra, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonYouthChoirs, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MetropolitanOpera, #MusicCritic, #MusicLessons, #MusicReview, #NativeAmerican, #NewYork, #NewYorkCity, #OutofWork, #PopulationDensity, #Prize-Winning, #RaveReview, #SamuelBarber, #SarahBrailey, #SocialDistance, #SocialDistancing, #SopranoSinger, #TeachingAssistant, #TenorSinger, #TheEar, #TheMagnificat, #TheMet, #TheMiddleClassArtist, #TheNewYorker, #TheNewYorkTImes, #TheU.S., #TicketSales, #timeofneed, #TravelExpenses, #TrinityChurch, #U.S.Government, #UnitedStates, #VocalMusic, #VoiceLessons, #WallSt., #WallStreet, #WestCoast, #ZachFinkelstein, abrupt, acclaim, act, Act of God, active, afford, Alex Ross, anticipate, aria, artist, Artistic director, Arts, arts organization, arts presenter, arts presenters, audience, Bach, Bach Society of Minnesota, bankrupt, bankruptcy, Barber, Baroque, Baroque music, big player, blizzard, blog, Book, booking, Boston Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bucknell, Bucknell University, budding, burden, cancellation, career, challenge, Chamber music, chances, chapel, choral music, Christian, church, Classical, Classical music, classicalmusic, clause, colleagues, Colorado, Colorado Symphony, comply, composer, Concert, concert artist, conductor, contract, contractor, contractual, control, conventions, coronavirus, country, coutnless, covering, cultural, cultural enrichment, detail, devastating, dime, disappear, doctoral, donate, donation, Early music, East Coast, economic, economy, effect, emotion, employ, emtoionally, end, enrichment, essay, essential, event, expenses, face, Facebook, famed, fear, federal government, fee, file, financial, force, force majeure, form, Form 1099, Form W2, forward, founder, free, freelance, freelancer, fund, GDP, George Frideric Handel, gig, globe, God, good, good reason, governent, graduate student, great, greater, gross domestic product, Handel, Handel Aria Competition, handy, help, home website, honor, hours, idiom, immune, impact, implore, impossible, impractical, independent, industry, injure, insolvency, insolvent, institution, Internal Revenue Service, international, IRS, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Julian Wachner, Just Bach, Knoxville, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, lasting, like, link, list, living, local, lodging, lucky, lump sum, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Opera, Madison Youth Choirs, Magnificat, Mead Witter School of Music, MEMF, Messiah, Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota, money, month, Music, music critic, music lessons, music review, Musician, myself, national, native, necessitate, need, New York, New York City, obligation, opera, oratorio, Orchestra, organization, out of work, own, package, pandemic, participant, parties, party, pay, performer, performing, piece, population, population density, post, posting, preparation, presenter, project, ramifications, rave, rave review, reader, recommendation, recover, reimburse, relief, review, sales, sample, Samuel Barber, Sarah Brailey, scary, seriousness, share, sing, singer, Singing, situation, social distance, social distancing, Solomon, song, soprano, special, St. Paul, stipend, stoppage, storm, struggling, subscriber, suddenly, summer, sun, Superior, symphony, TA, tag, tax, teaching assistant, tenor, The Boston Globe, The Ear, the Met, The Middle Class Artist, The New York Times, The New Yorker, ticket, ticket sales, time, time of need, travel, travel expenses, Trinity Church, U.S., unemployment, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unprecedented, UW, UW-Madison, video, virtual, virus, vocal music, voice, voice lessons, wait, Wall St., Wall Street, Website, well-being, west coast, winner, Wisconsin, work, workers, worried, worry, YouTube, Zach Finkelstein
Classical music: UW countertenor Gerrod Pagenkopf returns to sing on Sunday night with Chanticleer. Here’s how he got there with the right teacher, hard work, good luck and a push from mom. Part 2 of 2
Leave a Comment
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
This coming Sunday night, Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the new Hamel Music Center, the a cappella singing group Chanticleer (below) will kick off the centennial anniversary celebration of the Concert Series at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
Tickets are $45 for the public; $40 for faculty staff and Union members; and $10 for students. For more information about the performers and the “Trade Winds” program, go to: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/chanticleer/
Among the 12 members of Chanticleer is Gerrod Pagenkopf, who is in his fifth year with the group as both a countertenor and the assistant music director.
For a biography of Pagenkopf, go to: https://www.chanticleer.org/gerrod-pagenkopf
Pagenkopf is a graduate of the UW-Madison. When he performed as a student, his high, clear countertenor voice was a new experience and made those of us who heard him sit bolt upright and take notice. “He is going places,” we said to each. And so he has.
But Pagenkopf’s story is not only about him. It is also about the rediscovery of countertenors, about the changing public acceptance of them, and about the challenges that young musicians often face in establishing a professional performing career.
So The Ear is offering a longer-than-usual, two-part interview with Pagenkopf (below).
Part 1 appeared yesterday. Here is a link: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/classical-music-uws-first-countertenor-gerrod-pagenkopf-returns-to-perform-on-sunday-night-as-a-member-of-the-acclaimed-choral-group-chanticleer-heres-how-he-got-from-here-to-there/
Here is Part 2:
Back when you were a student here, were you the only countertenor at the School of Music? How did you find out you were a countertenor and pursue that training?
As I recall, I was the only countertenor — certainly the only one studying in the voice department. I had been studying as a tenor with Ilona Kombrink (below, in photo by UW-Madison News Service) for a few semesters, and it just didn’t seem as easy as it was supposed to.
I didn’t sound like other tenors in my studio or on recordings. I remember that a famous countertenor had just come out with an album of Handel arias, and, upon hearing it, I thought to myself, “I can sing like that!”
I asked Professor Kombrink about it, and she told me to learn “Cara Sposa” from Handel’s “Rinaldo” over the summer. When I came back in the fall, if it sounded legitimate she agreed I could pursue countertenor singing.
I remember that first lesson of the fall. After I sang this Handel aria for her, she sat back and mused in her sage-like manner, “Yes, this must needs be.”
I never looked back. I think I was on the early edge of the re-emergence of countertenors. Certainly there were countertenors working professionally, but there weren’t that many. There weren’t any other countertenors in Houston when I went to grad school, and even when I moved to Boston, there were only a handful of working countertenors.
Since then, how has the treatment of countertenors changed in the academic and professional worlds?
By the time I left Boston a few years ago, you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a countertenor. We now see young countertenors winning major competitions and earning places in young artist programs around the country. The competition is fierce now.
I was lucky enough to be one of just a few fish in the pond, but now countertenors are everywhere—and a lot of them are really good! I also remember that there was a stigma so that it would be difficult to find a voice teacher who would teach countertenors.
A lot of pedagogy books by reputable technicians said that countertenors weren’t real — they just sing in falsetto, which isn’t a real voice. I was lucky that Professor Kombrink was willing to explore that with me. I think now that there are so many successful countertenors singing everywhere, I hope this antiquated view of the voice type has changed.
What would you like the public to know about the program you will perform here? Are you featured in certain pieces?
Our “Trade Winds” program explores several different aspects of the wayfaring sailor. They include Monteverdi madrigals about water and nature; a wonderful mass setting by a largely unknown century Portuguese composer, Filipe de Magalhaes; several charming folksongs from around the Pacific Rim; and even a few sea shanties.
It’s a varied program that includes repertoire from as early as the 15th century up to just a few months ago. One of Chanticleer’s missions is to further the art of live music through new compositions, and we’ve commissioned a fantastic young Chinese-American composer, Zhou Tian (below), to write a new multi-movement piece for us, entitled “Trade Winds,” from which our program also gets its title.
Lots of listeners are scared of “new music,” but Zhou has given us a gem. It’s easy to listen to, and I think listeners will instantly understand what it’s all about.
What are your plans for the future?
Personally, I can’t say that I have anything coming up. As wonderful as Chanticleer is, the job pretty much limits any amount of outside freelance work. (At the bottom, you can hear Chanticleer singing “Shenandoah,” its most popular YouTube video – and a piece with a prominent countertenor part — with well over 1.6 million hits.)
One of the truly fantastic parts of singing in Chanticleer (below, performing on stage) is all the places we travel to. We started off this season with a three-week tour of Europe, which was actually the ensemble’s third trip to Europe in 2019.
We love traveling around the U.S., and as I’ve said, traveling back to Madison is certainly the highlight for me. The Midwest is always a special place for us to sing, as several of our members are from this region.
We’re very excited to travel to Australia in June 2020. I think it’s Chanticleer’s first visit “Down Under.” We will also be going back to the studio in January to record a new album for release sometime later in 2020. We have lots of exciting events coming down the pipeline.
Is there something else you would like to say?
Prior to singing with Chanticleer, I had been living in Boston for almost eight years, pursuing professional singing as a freelance artist.
To make ends meet, I had been working at Starbucks, which I actually started doing when I still lived in Madison, and my gigging was getting lucrative enough that I eventually decided to take a leave of absence from slinging lattes.
While I was in Wisconsin on Christmas vacation, I received a message from Chanticleer’s music director, William Fred Scott, letting me know that there was an immediate vacancy in the ensemble, and would I be interested in singing for them.
I thought I was being spammed, so I didn’t respond, and continued to enjoy the bliss of spending the entirety of the holidays with my family.
When I eventually got back to Boston a few days later, another email arrived from Mr. Scott: “Did you get my email? We’d really like to hear from you.” Ok, how do I tell them I’m clearly NOT the countertenor they’re looking for?
Well, after much soul-searching, calling my mother (“Just do it!” she exclaimed), and figuring out the logistics of liquidating a one-bedroom apartment, I decided to run away and join the circus. It was a complete leap of faith, but I think I made the right decision.
Don’t give up on your dreams. Singing in Chanticleer was the first legitimate dream I remember having. Although my musical path took me in several other directions, that path eventually led me to where I am today, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Tags: #ACappella, #ACappellaMusic, #BarabooWisconsin, #BaroqueOpera, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChoralMusic, #ClaudioMonteverdi, #CommissionedMusic, #CountertenorSinger, #DoIt, #DownUnder, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FalsettoVoice, #FilipedeMagalhaes, #folksongs, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GerrodPagenkopf, #GiveUp, #GraduateSchool, #HamelMusicCenter, #HandelOpera, #Hard Work, #HardWork, #HomeWebsite, #IlonaKombrink, #JustDoIt, #LeapofFaith, #LiveMusic, #MadisonWisconsin, #MusicDirector, #NewMusic, #OperaAria, #PacificRim, #PortugueseComposer, #RunAway, #SchoolofMusic, #SeaChanty, #SeaShanty, #StarbucksCoffee, #TenorSinger, #TheMidwest, #TheU.S., #UnitedStates, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #WilliamFredScott, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #YoungMusicians, #YouTubevideo, #ZhouTian, 15th Century, 15thCentury, a cappella, absence, acceptance, accessible, agree, Album, American, anniversary, antiquated, apartment, aria, Arts, assistant, audience, Australia, Baroque, bedroom, biography, bliss, blog, books, Boston, career, celebration, centennial, challenge, challenges, Chanticleer, charming, Chinese, Chinese-American, choral music, Christmas, circus, Classical music, Claudio Monteverdi, coffee, commission, Competition, composer, Composition, Concert, concert series, countertenor, country, decision, direction, do it, down under, dream, Early music, easy, email, ensemble, Europe, event, exciting, Facebook, faculty, falsetto, Family, famous, fantastic, fierce, Filipe de Magalhaes, fish, folksong, forward, freelance, gem, George Frideric Handel, Gerrod Pagenkopf, gig, give up, graduate, Graduate School, Hamel Music Center, Handel, hard, hits, Holiday, Holidays, home website, hope, Houston, Ilona Kombrink, immediate, Jacob Stockinger, January, just do it, latte, leap of faith, learn, leave, legitimate, like, limit, link, liquidate, listen, listener, live music, lived, logistics, look, lucky, lucrative, Madison, madrigal, major, manner, member, message, Midwest, mission, mom, Monteverdi, Mother, movement, muse, Music, Music director, musical, myself, new, New Music, opera, outside, Pacific Rim, path, pedagogy, perform, performer, performing, piece, pipeline, pond, popular, Portuguese, post, posting, professional, program, public, real, Recordings, rediscovery, region, release, repertoire, repertory, reputable, respond, right, Rinaldo, run away, sage, sailor, scared, School of Music, sea, sea chanty, sea shanty, Season, share, Shenandoah, singer, Singing, soul, spam, staff\, Starbucks, stigma, Student, studio, study, summer, tag, Teacher, technician, tenor, thought, tickets, tour, trade, Trade Winds, TradeWinds, travel, treatment, U.S., understand, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unknown, UW, UW-Madison, vacancy, vacation, varied, view, vocal music, voice, wayfaring, Website, week, William Fred Scott, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, wonderful, work, working, world, young, YouTube, Zhou Tian
Classical music: The Karp family turns in a memorable and moving 40th annual Labor Day concert that also took listeners back in time
4 Comments
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
If you missed the free 40th annual Karp Family Labor Day Concert on Tuesday night in Mills Hall, you missed more than music. You missed the kind of event that makes for long and precious memories.
Sure, you can nitpick the program and the performers, who also included daughter-in-law violist Katrin Talbot (below right) and guest violinist Suzanne Beia (below left), who performs with the Pro Arte Quartet, the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
You could ask, for example, which cello transcription worked better – the Violin Sonatina, Op. 100, by Dvorak or the Violin Sonata No. 10, Op. 96, by Beethoven. (The Ear votes for the Dvorak.)
And you could also ask which performer stood out the most. (The Ear thinks that is the great-grandmother and matriarch pianist Frances Karp playing in a Mozart piano quartet. At 90, Frances still possesses beautiful tone, the right volume and balance, and the necessary technical chops. They say there is nowhere to hide in Mozart, but Frances Karp did need any place to hide. Her Mozart was, simply, sublime.)
But, in the end, those kinds of questions and critiques really seem beside the bigger point.
What mattered most was the sheer enjoyment of hearing a family perform live some wonderful music by Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak and Schumann (the passionate Adagio and Allegro in A-flat Major, Op. 70, played by Lynn Harrell in the YouTube video at the bottom).
And what mattered more as The Ear thought about it was the kind of time travel the concert involved.
There were two kinds, really.
One had to do with having watched the various performing Karps – clearly Madison’s First Family of Music – over four decades. It was touching to realize that The Ear has seen cellist Parry Karp, to take one example, evolve from son to husband to father to grandfather. And through it all, the music remained.
In today’s culture of short attention spans, that kind of constancy and persistence — through the inevitable ups and downs of 40 years — is something to celebrate, admire and cherish.
Time travel happened in another way too.
The Ear first watched Frances Karp accompany her son Parry (below top), then watched son Christopher Karp accompany his older brother Parry (below bottom). And it called to mind the days when – before radio or recordings – families made music together in their homes.
Historically, that’s how many great composers and much great music got started. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn played piano duets with their gifted sisters, Nannerl and Fanny, respectively. Jean Sibelius played duets with his sister. And there were surely many more. Hausmusik, or “house music,” played a vital role.
And this is how it felt at the traditional Karp family concert. We felt invited into a loving, close and gifted musical family who were performing as much for each other as for the audience.
We could use more of that.
The musical and the familial mixed so beautifully, so convincingly, that all one can say after the event is “Thank you” with the ardent wish to hear them again next year.
Tags: #AntoninDvorak, #AttentionSpan, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #ChamberMusic, #ChristopherKarp, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FannyMendelssohn, #FelixMendelssohn, #FirstFamily, #FrancesKarp, #HouseMusic, #JeanSibelius, #KarpFamily, #KatrinTalbot, #LaborDay, #LiveMusic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #LynnHarrell, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MillsHall, #MusicReview, #NannerlMozart, #ParryKarp, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #PianoQuartet, #ProArteQuartet, #RobertSchumann, #SuzanneBeia, #ThankYou, #TheEar, #TimeTravel, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UpsandDowns, #ViolinSonata, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, accompanist, accompany, adagio, admire, allegro, annual, Antonín Dvořák, ardent, ask, attention span, audience, balance, beautiful, Beethoven, blog, brother, celebrate, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, cherish, Christopher Karp, close, Concert, constancy, convincing, convincingly, critique, culture, daughter-in-law, decade, downs, duet, Dvorak, enjoyment, event, evolution, evolve, exposure, Facebook, familial, Family, Fanny Mendelssohn, father, Felix Mendelssohn, first family, forward, Frances Karp, free, gifted, grandfather, grandmother, Haus Musik, hausmusik, hide, historical, History, Holiday, Home, house music, husband, Jean Sibelius, Karp Family, Katrin Talbot, kind, Labor Day, like, link, listener, live, live music, long, Love, loving, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lynn Harrell, Madison Symphony Orchestra, matriarch, matter, memorable, memories, Mills Hall, miss, Mother, moving, Music, music review, musical, Nannerl Mozart, nitpick, nowhere, older, other, Parry Karp, Passion, passionate, performer, persistence, Pianist, Piano, Piano accompanist, Piano Quartet, place, play, Point, post, posting, precious, Pro Arte Quartet, program, Quartet, question, Radio, reader, recording, Recordings, Robert Schumann, share, short, sister, son, Sonata, sonatina, sublime, subscriber, Suzanne Beia, tag, technical, technique, thank you, The Ear, time, time travel, today, tone, tradition, traditional, transcription, travel, University of Wisconsin–Madison, ups, video, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, volume, vote, watch, wish, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wonderful, year, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Madison Opera’s superb and sensual production of “Fellow Travelers” broke both hearts and new ground
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
Walking out into the heavy snow last Sunday afternoon, The Ear left the Madison Opera’s production of “Fellow Travelers” – done in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center – feeling sad and moved, but also satisfied and proud. (Below is the full cast in a party scene. All performance photos are by James Gill.)
He was proud that the Madison Opera chose this 2016 work by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce — based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon — for its annual winter staging of a modern or contemporary opera.
It was a brave choice.
For one, it focuses on a same-sex love affair in the oppressive political environment of the McCarthy era with its Lavender Scare, which, during the larger Red Scare, tied gays to communists and tried to purge and ruin them lest they be blackmailed.
In addition, the opera speaks to today’s politics of smear and fear, as practiced by President Donald Trump and conspiracy theory proponents on the far right. The Madison Opera wasn’t afraid to point out possible parallels in the program notes.
But the real affirmation of the opera’s contemporaneity came from the first-rate quality of this memorable production.
The cast of nine made a tight ensemble in which each member proved equally strong in singing and acting.
The two leading men who played federal government workers – tenor Andres Acosta (below right) as the young Timothy Laughlin and baritone Ben Edquist (below left) as the older Hawkins Fuller – turned in outstanding performances from their first meeting on a park bench, through their sexual encounters, to the final breakup.
Particularly moving were the same-sex love scenes and moments of casual affection. Perhaps there are precedents in the history of other Madison Opera productions, but no one seems to know of any.
The two men in bed — wearing only boxer shorts while kissing and caressing each other — seemed like another brave first for the Madison Opera. The explicit scenes of the two men being intimate were tasteful but also sensual and realistic, erotic as well as poignant. (Below are Andres Acosta, left, as Timothy Laughlin and Ben Edquist, right, as Hawkins Fuller.)
Acting seems the real fulcrum of this chamber opera, with the appealing music underscoring the scenes and the acting rather than standing on its own. Yet the two men proved to be powerful singers, especially in their solos and duets. (You can hear Andres Acosta sing an aria in the Minneapolis production in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The haunting music was always accessible and atmospheric, disproving the notion that music in new operas is always discordant or hard to listen to. True, The Ear heard no tunes to take away from the opera, no earworm arias from a first hearing. But the singing by all the cast members was uniformly strong.
John DeMain’s conducting exuded both control and subtlety. He maintained a balance from the Madison Symphony Orchestra players in the pit and never overwhelmed the singers.
DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) knew exactly when to pull the music into the background and create a context for the action; and then when to push it to the foreground to accompany the singers or set a scene.
Stage director Peter Rothstein (below), who also staged the opera for the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis with some of the same cast, kept the show moving at a brisk and engaging pace.
The 16 scenes moved quickly throughout the two-hour show, thanks in part to the austere and portable but convincing sets.
The atmosphere of the 1950s, for example, was believably evoked by a simple office setting — a desk, a few filing cabinets, an American flag and a portrait of President Eisenhower. (Below, from left, are Ben Edquist as Hawkins Fuller, Andres Acosta as Timothy Laughlin, and Adriana Zabala as Mary Johnson.)
Particularly effective and disturbing was the interrogation scene, from the embarrassing questions about whether Hawkins Fuller walks or talks like a homosexual to the lie detector test. (Below, from left, are Andres Acosta as Timothy Laughlin, Ben Edquist as Hawkins Fuller, Stephen Hobe as the Technician and Alan Dunbar as the Interrogator.)
One outstanding performance involved the resonant and expressive Sidney Outlaw (below) as Tommy McIntyre, the bureaucrat who knows all the secrets in the office of Senator Charles Parker (played by Andrew Wilkowske) and how to use them in order to get his way. (Below, from left, are Andres Acosta as Timothy Laughlin and Sidney Outlaw as Tommy McIntyre.)
Another outstanding performance came from Adriana Zabala (below) as Mary Johnson, the secretary who finally quits her job and leaves Washington, D.C., to protest the treatment of Timothy by the aptly nicknamed “Hawk” Fuller and the government inquisitors. (Below, from left, are Ben Edquist as Hawkins Fuller and Adriana Zabala as Mary Johnson.
Throughout the entire opera, the audience proved amazingly quiet, rapt in their attention as they laughed out loud at humorous moments and openly cried at the heart-wrenching plot.
At the end the audience — gay and straight, men and women, old and young – gave the singers and orchestra players a prolonged standing ovation and loud applause.
And walking out, you heard many people talking about the opera in the most positive and approving ways.
The underlying irony, of course, is that an opera with this much insight into both the human heart and the exploitative politics of oppression could never have been staged in the same era it depicts.
At least on that score, we can say we have made some progress in confronting and correcting the injustices and bigotry we witness in “Fellow Travelers.”
But in the end the opera tells us to keep traveling.
You can see what other critics thought of “Fellow Travelers”:
Here is the review that Jay Rath wrote for Isthmus: https://isthmus.com/arts/stage/forbidden%20love/
And here is the review that Lindsay Christians wrote for The Capital Times: https://madison.com/ct/entertainment/arts_and_theatre/theatre/opera-review-fellow-travelers-is-a-certain-kind-of-wonderful/article_0ebc5a83-afbe-5f50-99eb-51e4baa4df0e.html
What did you think?
Leave your own review or reactions in the Comments section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #AdrianaZabala, #AlanDunbar, #AmericanFlag, #AndresAcosta, #AndrewWilkowske, #Army-McCarthy, #BaritoneSinger, #BenEdquist, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #BoxerShorts, #CapitolTheater, #CastMember, #ChamberOpera, #ConspiracyTheory, #DonaldTrump, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FederalWorker, #FellowTravelers, #FilingCabinets, #FirstLove, #GayHistory, #GregorySpears, #GregPierce, #IsthmusNewspaper, #JacobStockinger, #JamesGill, #JayRath, #JohnDeMain, #JosephMcCarthy, #KIss, #LavenderScare, #LGBTQrights, #LGBTRights, #LieDetector, #LindsayChristians, #LoveAffair, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #McCarthyEra, #MinnesotaOpera, #NewMusic, #OperaPlot, #OperaReview, #OrchestraPlayers, #OvertureCenter, #ParkBench, #PeterRothstein, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentEisenhower, #ProgramNotes, #RedScare, #RightWing, #SexualEncounter, #SidneyOutlaw, #SocialInjustice, #StageDirector, #StephenHobe, #TenorSinger, #The1950s, #TheCapitalTimes, #TheEar, #ThomasMallon, #WashingtonD.C., 1950s, accessible, accompany, acting, Adriana Zabala, affection, affirmative, Alan Dunbar, American, Andres Acosta, Andrew Wilkowske, annual, applause, aria, atmosphere, atmospheric, attentive, austere, background, balance, baritone, bed, Ben Edquist, bench, bigotry, bisexual, blackmail, blog, Book, boxer shorts, brave, breakup, brisk, Capitol Theater, caress, caressing, cast, cast member, Casual, chamber opera, choice, comment, communists, composer, Conducting, confront, Congress, conspiracy theory, contemporaneity, contemporary, context, control, convincing, Cry, crying, D.C., depict, desk, discordant, disturbing, Donald Trump, Dwight D. Eisenhower, earworm, Eisenhower, embarrassing, encounter, engaging, environment, era, erotic, evoke, explicit, exploitative, Facebook, fear, federal, Fellow Travelers, filing cabinets, first, first love, flag, Focus, foreground, forward, fulcrum, gay, gays, government, Greg Pierce, hard, haunting, hawk, hear, hearings, heart, heart-wrenching, History, homosexual, Homosexuality, human, injustice, insight, interrogation, intimate, irony, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, James Gill, Jay Rath, John DeMain, Joseph McCarthy, kissing, laugh, Lavender Scare, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, libretto, lie detector, liketag, Lindsay Christians, link, listen, Love, love affair, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, McCarthy era, McCarthyism, memorable, memory, men, Minneapolis, Minnesota Opera, modern, move, moving, Music, New Music, nickname, noiton, novel, office, old, opera, Opera review, oppression, oppressive, orchestra players, ovation, Overture Center, Overture Center for the Arts, pace, pacing, parallels, Park, party scene, peformance, Peter Rothstein, photo, photogenic, plot, poignant, political, Politics, portable, portrait, post, posting, precedent, President, President Donald Trump, President Eisenhower, production, program notes, proud, pull, purge, push, queer, questions, quiet, rapt, reaction, real, realism, Red Scare, review, right-wing, Romance, ruin, sad, same-sex, scene, secretary, secrets, senator, sensual, sex, sexual, share, show, Sidney Outlaw, singer, Singing, smear, snow, social injustice, stage director, staging, Stephen Hobe, straight, subtlety, talk, tasteful, tenor, test, The Capital Times, The Ear, Thomas Mallon, today, transgender, travel, traveler, traveling, Trump, walk, Washington, winter, witness, work, worker, young