The Well-Tempered Ear
Due to popular demand, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) opens its FREE virtual master classes to the public. Today features the violin and Monday features the bass
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) welcomes back two distinguished and successful alumni this weekend to teach the fifth and sixth master classes in an ongoing series that has already wowed observers. (WYSO alumni are noted below with an asterisk.)
Each virtual event is free and open to the general public with registration required in advance.
“The series has been so fabulous that, due to popular demand, we’ve opened up the events to anyone who wants to attend,” says Susan Gardels, marketing and communications director for WYSO.
TODAY – Sunday, Jan. 10 — from 5:30-7:30 p.m. CST Derek Powell, a violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., will coach four WYSO violin members in a two-hour master class.
This will be followed the next evening with a master class coached by Scott Pingel, Principal Bass with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Monday, Jan. 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. CST).
A master class presents a one-on-one opportunity for a student musician to learn from a guest artist with an audience invited to observe the process.
In previous master classes in this series, the audience has learned instrument performance techniques and musical interpretation tips from a wide variety of guest artists who professionally play music around the world.
With the master classes presented in an intimate Zoom setting, the audience learns along with the student— and it is amazing to see the sudden growth in a student’s musical prowess as a master class proceeds.
Derek Powell’s bio includes his experience with the New World Symphony where Powell (below) performed as concertmaster with famed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and as a violinist with the Army Strings, as well as his current experience with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Scott Pingel (below) was a trumpet player in his WYSO days with a side love for electric bass. Pingel switched to concert bass as an undergraduate at UW-Eau Claire, continued studies at the Manhattan School of Music, and played with the New World Symphony and the Charleston Symphony before joining the San Francisco Symphony as Principal Bass in 2004. He recently created buzz by playing with Metallica in a packed house with the San Francisco Orchestra.
For more information, go to: WYSO Amazing Masterclass Series:
Here are details and links to register:
*Derek Powell, Violin Master Class
TODAY, Sunday, Jan. 10, 5:30-7:30 p.m. CST
Free and open to the public
Click here to register in advance
_______________________________
*Scott Pingel, Bass Master Class
Monday, Jan. 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. CST
Free and open to the public
Click here to register in advance
Here are is a schedule of future WYSO alumni master classes:
Katherine Steele (below), oboe
Sunday, Jan. 17, 6-8 p.m. CST
(Principal Oboe, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) https://wysomusic.org/katherine-steel-masterclass/
James Shields (below), clarinet
Sunday, Jan. 24, 7-9 p.m. CST
(Principal Clarinet, Oregon Symphony Orchestra)
Read more about James Shields
*Nancy Goeres (below), bassoon
Sunday, Feb. 7, 6-8 p.m. CST
(Principal Bassoon, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Danbi Um (below), violin
Sunday, Feb. 21, Time TBD
(Soloist, member Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center)
Megumi Kanda (below), trombone
Sunday, Feb. 28, 5:30-7:30 p.m. CST (Principal Trombone, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra)
David Perry (below), violin
Sunday, March 7, 6-8 p.m. CST
(First Violin, UW-Madison Pro Arte Quartet and UW-Madison Music Professor)
Naha Greenholtz (below), violin
Sunday, March 28, 6-8 p.m. CST
(Concertmaster, Madison Symphony Orchestra and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra)
*Sharan Leventhal (below), violin
Sunday, April 11, 6-8 p.m. CST
(Boston Conservatory)
For more information, go to https://wysomusic.org or call (608) 733-6283.
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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.
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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.
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