The Well-Tempered Ear
The UW-Madison’s Wingra Wind Quintet performs a FREE online virtual concert this Wednesday night. Plus, local music critic Greg Hettmansberger has died
4 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.
NEWS ALERT: Local music critic and blogger Greg Hettmansberger (below) was killed in a car accident on Dec. 2, near Wichita, Kansas. Hettmansberger, 65, was driving when he hit a deer and then another car hit him. His wife survived but remains hospitalized in Wichita in critical condition. Here is a link to a news account: https://www.kake.com/story/42993718/man-dies-in-crash-caused-by-deer-in-pratt-county
By Jacob Stockinger
This Wednesday night, Dec. 9, the UW-Madison’s Wingra Wind Quintet (below, in 2017) will perform a FREE virtual online concert from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Here is a direct link to the pre-recorded video premiere on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/e1NhVZJW2cA
Due to the pandemic, the Wingra Wind Quintet has been unable to perform chamber music in a traditional way since March 2020. (You can hear the quintet play “On, Wisconsin” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In response, the quintet put together a program that allowed each member to record parts separately and have those parts edited together.
Current faculty members (below) are: Conor Nelson, flute; Lindsay Flowers, oboe; Alicia Lee, clarinet; Marc Vallon, bassoon; and Devin Cobleigh-Morrison, horn
The engineer/producer is Kris Saebo.
The program is:
The first piece “Allegro scherzando” from Three Pieces by Walter Piston (below, 1894-1976)
The Chaconne from the First Suite in E-flat for Military Band by Gustav Holst (below, 1874-1934)
“Retracing” by Elliott Carter (below, 1908-2012)
Selections from “Mikrokosmos” by Bela Bartok (below, 1881-1945)
“A 6 letter letter” by Elliott Carter
Intermezzo from the First Suite in E-flat for Military Band by Gustav Holst
“Esprit rude/esprit doux” by Elliott Carter
Since its formation in 1965, the Wingra Wind Quintet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music has established a tradition of artistic and teaching excellence.
The ensemble has been featured in performance at national conferences such as MENC (Miami), MTNA (Kansas City), and the International Double Reed Society (Minneapolis).
The quintet also presented an invitational concert on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess series at the Chicago Public Library, broadcast live on radio station WFMT.
In addition to its extensive home state touring, the quintet has been invited to perform at numerous college campuses, including the universities of Alaska-Fairbanks, Northwestern, Chicago, Nebraska, Western Michigan, Florida State, Cornell, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Paris Conservatoire, where quintet members offered master classes.
The Wingra Wind Quintet has recorded for Golden Crest, Spectrum, and the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music recording series and is featured on an educational video entitled Developing Woodwind Ensembles.
Always on the lookout for new music of merit, the Wingra has premiered new works of Hilmar Luckhardt, Vern Reynolds, Alec Wilder, Edith Boroff, James Christensen and David Ott. The group recently gave the Midwest regional premiere of William Bolcom’s “Five Fold Five,” a sextet for woodwind quintet and piano, with UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (below).
New York Times critic Peter Davis, in reviewing the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall appearance, stated “The performances were consistently sophisticated, sensitive and thoroughly vital.”
The Wingra Wind Quintet is one of three faculty chamber ensembles in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
Deeply committed to the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, the group travels widely to offer its concerts and educational services to students and the public in all corners of the state. (Editor’s note: For more about the Wisconsin Idea, which seems more relevant today than ever, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Idea.)
Portions of this recording were made at the Hamel Music Center, a venue of the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tags: #20thCentury, #AlecWilder, #AliciaLee, #AmericanComposer, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoIllinois, #ChicagoPublicLibrary, #ChristopherTaylor, #ClarinetMusic, #ConcertSeries, #ConorNelson, #ConservatoiredeParis, #CornellUniversity, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DavidOtt, #DevonCobleigh-Morrison, #DoubleReed, #EdithBoroff, #ElliottCarter, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyConcert, #FloridaStateUniversity, #FluteMusic, #GoldCrestRecords, #GregHettmansberger, #GustavHolst, #HamelMusicCenter, #HilmarLuckhardt, #HomeState, #husband-and-wife, #InterlochenArtsAcademy, #InternationalDoubleReedSociety, #JacobStockinger, #JamesChristensen, #KansasCity, #KrisSaebo, #LindsayFlowers, #LiveBroadcast, #MarcVallon, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiamiFlorida, #MilitaryBand, #MinneapolisMinnesota, #ModernMusic, #MusicCritic, #MusicEducation, #Musicfaculty, #MusicReview, #MyraHess, #NationalConferences, #NewMusic, #NewWorks, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkTimes, #NorthwesternUniversity, #OnlineConcert, #ParisConservatory, #ParisFrance, #RecordedMusic, #RegionalPremiere, #SarasotaFlorida, #SpectrumRecords, #TheEar, #TheUW, #ThreePieces, #UniversityofAlaska-Fairbanks, #UniversityofChicago, #UniversityofNebraska, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VerneReynolds, #VirtualConcert, #WalterPiston, #WesternMichiganUniversity, #WFMTRadioStation, #WichitaKansas, #Wikipediaentry, #WilliamBolcom, #WindMusic, #WingraWindQuintet, #WisconsinIdea, #WoodwindInstruments, #WoodwindMusic, #YouTubevideo, 2020, 20th-century, accident, Alaska, Alec Wilder, Alicia Lee, allegro scherzando, American, American composer, artistic, Arts, audience, auto, automobile, band, Bartok, Bassoon, bassoonist, Béla Bartók, blog, blogger, Bolcom, Boroff, Broadcast, Campus, Carnegie Hall, Carter, chaconne, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Public Library, Christensen, Christopher Taylor, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, college, Colleges and Universities, composer, Concert, concert series, condicition, Conor Nelson, Conservatoirre de Paris, Cornell University, coronavirus, critical, current, dame, David Ott, death, deer, Devin Cobleigh-Morrison, died, direct, double reed, drive, edited, Edith Boroff, Elliott Carter, engineer, ensemble, ever, excellence, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, faculty, Fairbanks, feature, Florida State University, flowers, flute, flutist, formation, forward, France, free, Gold Crest Records, Greg Hettmansberger, Gustav Holst, Hamel Music Center, Hilmar Luckhardt, Holst, Home, Horn, horn player, hornist, Hospital, hospitalized, husband, ILLINOIS, Interlochen Arts Academy, intermezzo, International Double Reed Society, invitational, Jacob Stockinger, James Christensen, Kansas, Kansas City, killed, Kris Saebo, Lee, letter, like, Lindsay Flowers, link, live, local, Luckhardt, Madison, Marc Vallon, march, master class, masterclass, Mead Witter School of Music, merit, Miami, Michigan, Midwest, Mikrokosmos, military, military band, Minneapolis, modern music, Music, music critic, Music education, music faculty, music review, Myra Hess, national conferences, Nebraska, Nelson, new, New Music, new works, New York, New York City, New York Times, Northwestern University, Oboe, oboist, On, online, Ott, pandemic, Paris, Paris Conservatory, parts, perform, performerance, Pianist, Piano, pieces, Piston, post, posting, pre-recorded, premiere, premiered, prestigious, producer, program, public, quintet, recorded, recorded music, regional, regional premiere, relevant, response, Reynolds, sare, selections, sensitive, separately edit, sophisticated, Spectrum Records, spirit, state, Suite, survive, tag, Taylor, teaching, The Ear, Three Pieces, today, together, tour, touring, traditional, travels, United States, universities, university, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, University of Chicago, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, UW, UW-Madison, Vallon, venue, Verne Reynolds, video, virtual, vital, Walter Piston, way, Wednesday, Western Michigan University, WFMT, Wichita, wife, Wikipedia, Wilder, WILLIAM BOLCOM, wind music, Wingra Wind Quintet, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Idea, woodwind, woodwind music, YouTube
Classical music: You can celebrate Valentine’s Day this Thursday, Feb. 14, with live concerts of new music or old music in a large hall or a small cafe
2 Comments
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
If you are looking to celebrate Valentine’s Day on this coming Thursday, Feb. 14, with live classical music, there are at least two excellent choices facing you.
The larger event is a FREE concert at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall by the UW Symphony Orchestra (below top) under the award-winning conductor and professor Chad Hutchinson (below bottom) and two graduate student conductors, Michael Dolan and Ji Hyun Yim.
The program features the “Valse Triste” (Sad Waltz) by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and the Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
But the main focus will be on two works by the living American composer Augusta Read Thomas (below), who lives in Chicago and whose music is widely performed because of its accessible style.
The two works by Thomas are “Of Paradise and Light” and “Prayer and Celebration.”
Thomas, who this week will be doing a residency at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will also hold a free and open master class in Music Hall, at the base of Bascom Hill, from 2 to 5 p.m. that same day. (You can listen to her discuss how she composes in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the concert, the program and especially about Thomas – including an audio sample — go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra/
A BAROQUE VALENTINE’S DAY
On Valentine’s Day, baroque chamber music enthusiasts can hear the music of the Kim-Kielson Duo as they perform a program on period instruments, titled Canons, Chaconnes and Chocolate!
Longtime friends and performers, baroque violinist Kangwon Lee Kim and recorder player Lisette Kielson (below top, right and left respectively) will be joined by viola da gambist James Waldo (below bottom).
The concert is on this Thursday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. at Chocolaterian Cafe, 6637 University Ave., in Middleton.
You can name your own ticket price — $20-$35 per person is suggested, payable in either cash or check.
There also will be Special Valentine’s Day Chocolate available for purchase.
The program celebrates the popular baroque forms of the canon and chaconne as composed by Italian, German and French masters.
The duo will perform three chaconnes by Tarquinio Merula, Antonio Bertali and Marin Marais plus canonic duos by Georg Philipp Telemann as well as an arrangement of canons from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #AntonioBertali, #AugustaReadThomas, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueRecorder, #BaroqueViolin, #BascomHill, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CashPayment, #ChadHutchinson, #ChocolaterianCafe, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #FinnishComposer, #Frenchcomposer, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GermanComposer, #GraduateStudent, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #italianComposer, #James Waldo, #JamesWaldo, #JeanSibelius, #JohannSebastianBach, #KangwonKim, #LisetteKielson, #LivingComposer, #MarinMarais, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonWisconsin, #MillsHall, #MozartSymphony, #MusicalStyle, #Musicfaculty, #MusicHall, #PeriodInstruments, #PersonalCheck, #ReligionandSpirituality, #SadWaltz, #SymphonyNo.39, #TaquinioMerula, #TheArtofFugue, #UniversityofChicago, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSymphonyOrchestra, #ValentinesDay, #ValseTriste, #VioladaGamba, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, accessible, American, American composer, Antonio Bertali, arrangement, audience, Audio, Augusta Read Thomas, award, award-winning, Baroque recorder, Bascom Hill, blog, BWV, Canon, cash, celebrate, celebration, chaconne, Chad Hutchinson, check, Chicago, chocolate, Chocolaterian Cafe, choice, composer, Concert, conductor, counterpoint, discuss, discussion, duo, event, Facebook, faculty, faculty member, Finland, Finnish, Finnish music, forward, free, French, fugue, Georg Philipp Telemann, German, historically informed performance practices, information, Italian, Jean Sibelius, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kangwon Kim, Kochel, large, light, like, link, Lisette Kielson, Living composer, Marin Marais, Mead Witter School of Music, Middleton, Mills Hall, Mozart, Music, Music Hall, musical style, Paradise, pay, payable, performer, period instruments, person, player, prayer, professor, program, purchase, recorder, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, residency, sad waltz, spirituality, style, symphony, Symphony No. 39, Symphony No. 39 in E Flat Major, tag, Taquinio Merula, The Art of Fugue, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Symphony Orchestra, Valentine, Valentine's Day, valse triste, video, viola da gamba, Violin, week, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, word, YouTube
Classical Music: The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble will take Madison listeners on a FREE concert of ‘Imaginary Journeys’ TONIGHT at 7 p.m.
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR SHARE IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement for a concert that sounds in keeping with the spirit of Halloween:
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble (below, in a photo by Thomas Mohr) will lead listeners on aural adventures through space, time and fantasy at its “Imaginary Journeys” concert TONIGHT, Oct. 27.
The concert is FREE and open to the public, and will take place at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison.
For more information, call (608) 271-6633 or visit www.gslcwi.com or gargoylebrass.com.
The professional ensemble of brass quintet and pipe organ, with percussion, will perform the Madison premieres of new works and arrangements it recently commissioned for its novel array of instruments.
The concert’s namesake work, “Imaginary Journeys,” was written for the ensemble by Chicago-area composer Mark Lathan. It takes listeners on a rocket-powered interstellar adventure, inspired by recent astronomical discoveries.
“For this piece,” Lathan says, “I wanted to bring in some drama, somewhat in the manner of a film score.” Lathan earned a doctorate in music from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received the Henry Mancini Award in Film Composition and studied film scoring with Jerry Goldsmith.
Another Madison premiere is Craig Garner’s brass-and-organ arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s ever-popular Suite from “The Firebird,” a ballet based on Russian fairy tales. “The audience will hear an all-time favorite orchestral work like it’s never been heard before,” says Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble.
Concertgoers will also hear the first local performances of “Short Fuse” for brass, organ and percussion by Chris Reyman (below), a jazz performance specialist teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso. Holmes says, “This piece shows off a very different face of what a pipe organ and brass can do.”
Other first hearings include Garner’s two-part instrumental suite from English Baroque composer Henry Purcell’s “Come Ye Sons of Art.”
The concert’s journey into the Baroque era includes brass and organ arrangements of movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale cantata “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), BWV 80.
The concert’s imaginative works include “Earthscape” by David Marlatt (below, and heard in the YouTube video at the bottom) as well as pipe-organ versions of “Clair de lune” (Moonlight) by Claude Debussy and Louis Vierne.
Performers will include Madison-based organist Jared Stellmacher (below), an award-winning musician heard on the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 2015 debut CD “Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies.” He holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University.
Gargoyle ensemble players are trumpeters Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, horn player Amy Krueger, trombonist Ian Fitzwater, tuba player Jason Lyons, and percussionist Logan Fox. Conductor will be Jakob Noestvik.
About the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble’s debut CD. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of the Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students.
Under its founder and artistic director Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. More information can be found at gargoylebrass.com.
Tags: #AMightyFortressIsOurGod, #ArtisticDirector, #BalletMusic, #BalletScore, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #BrassQuintet, #ChicagoGargoyleBrassandOrganEnsemble, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #Clairdelune, #ClaudeDebussy, #ComeYeSonsofArt, #CompactDisc, #CraigGarner, #DavidMarlatt, #DoctoralDegree, #EinFesteBurg, #EnglishBaroqueMusic, #EnglishComposer, #FacebookPost, #FairyTale, #FanfareMagazine, #FilmMusic, #FilmScore, #FilmSoundtrack, #GoodShepherdLutheranChurch, #HenryMancini, #HenryPurcell, #HornMusic, #IgorStravinsky, #ImaginaryJourney, #JaredStellacher, #JazzMusic, #JerryGoldsmith, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #LouisVierne, #LutheranReligion, #MadisonPremiere, #MarkLathan, #Master'sDegree, #MovieMusic, #MovieScore, #MovieSoundtrack, #MusicLover, #NewMusic, #NewWorks, #OrchestralMusic, #OrganMusic, #PercussionMusic, #PipeOrgan, #RecordReview, #RodneyHolmes, #TheFirebird, #TromboneMusic, #TrumpetMusic, #TubaMusic, #UniversityofCalifornia-LosAngeles, #UniversityofChicago, #UniversityofTexas-ElPaso, #YaleUniversity, adventure, arrangement, Artistic director, Arts, astornomical, astronomy, aural, award, Bach, ballet, Baroque, blog, brass, Brass quintet, building, calm, Cantata, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, Chorale, Christ, Christian, chuch, Clair de Lune, Classical music, commission, Compact Disc, composer, conductor, Craig Garner, David Marlatt, Debussy, debut, discoveries, discovery, doctorate, drama, Early music, Earth, Earthscape, elegance, Facebook, faculty, fairy tale, Fanfare, fantasy, forward, founder, free, free concert, gargoyle, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, groundbreaking, Halloween, Henry Mancini, Henry Purcell, Horn, hymn, Igor Stravinsky, imaginary, instrument, interstellar, Jacob Stockinger, Jared Stellmacher, Jazz, Jerry Goldsmith, Jesus, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, link, listen, Louis Vierne, Madison, magazine, Mark Lathan, master's, moonlight, movement, Music, music lover, nourishment, orchestral music, organ, percussion, percussionist, perform, piece, pipe organ, popular, post, posting, premiere, publiuc, Record review, rocket, Rodney Holmes, Russia, Russian, scoring, space, stone, Student, Suite, teach, Teacher, The Firebird, time, tonight, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, UCLA, United States, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Chicago, University of Texas-El Paso, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, warmth, Wisconsin, Yale University, YouTube
Classical music: Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble to bring ‘Music of the Reformation’ to four Wisconsin cities, including Madison, Oct. 27–29
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble (below) will perform a late-October series of FREE public concerts in four Wisconsin cities featuring music by composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and others in a centuries-spanning program titled “Music of the Reformation.”
Performances will take place Friday, Oct. 27, in Appleton; Saturday, Oct. 28, in Delafield and Watertown; and Sunday, Oct. 29, in Madison.
“The hour-long concert program commemorates the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in 1517,” said Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Gargoyle ensemble. “Audiences will hear works embracing the most famous melodies written by Reformation leader Martin Luther (below), who was a composer as well as a religious figure.”
The program includes James Curnow’s contemporary “Rejouissance: Fantasia on ‘Ein feste Burg’ (A Mighty Fortress)” for organ; Heinrich Schütz’s “Three Becker Psalms,” Op. 5, a Baroque work for brass quartet; Bach’s Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her” (“From Heaven above to Earth I come”), BWV 769, for organ; and Otto Nicolai’s early Romantic “Ecclesiastical Festival Overture on the chorale ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,’” Op. 31, arranged for brass and organ by Craig Garner.
Also on the program are: Max Reger’s late Romantic “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Op. 27, for organ; Randall E. Faust’s contemporary “Fantasy” on the hymn “Von Himmel hoch,” for horn and organ; and Garner’s brass and organ arrangement, “Introduction and Finale,” from Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, “Reformation,” Op. 107.
Performers will include Madison-based organist Jared Stellmacher (below), an award-winning musician heard on the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 2015 debut CD “Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies.” He holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University.
Gargoyle brass players will include trumpeters Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, horn player Kathryn Swope, trombonist Karen Mari, and artistic director Holmes on tuba.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
Here are the dates, times, and locations of the Gargoyle ensemble’s “Music of the Reformation” concerts, with local contact information. No tickets or reservations are required for these FREE events:
*Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 912 North Oneida Street, in Appleton, Wis., 54911. www.zionappleton.com/home
Contact: Matthew Walsh, 920-739-3104
*Saturday, Oct. 28, at 3 p.m. at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1600 North Genesee Street, in Delafield, WI 53018
Contact: Mark Gould, 262-646-2343
*Saturday, Oct. 28, at 6:30 p.m. at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, 204 North Tenth Street, Watertown, WI 53094
Contact: Janis Shackley, 920-261-1663
*Sunday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, Madison, WI 53711
Contact: Jared Stellmacher, 608-271-6633
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble’s debut CD. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Under its founder and artistic director Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. You can find more information at gargoylebrass.com.
Tags: A Mighty Fortress, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, Appleton, Artistic director, Arts, award, Bach, Baroque, brass, Brass quintet, Canon, canonic, CD, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, choral music, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, Classical music, Compact Disc, Concert, Delafield, Earth, ecclesiastical, Ein feste Burg, Fantasia, fortress, free, gargoyle, Germany, God, Gothic, heaven, Heinrich Schütz, Horn, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, James Curnow, Jared Stellmacher, Johann Sebastian Bach, King, Lutheran, Lutheranism, Martin Luther, Max Reger, melody, Mendelssohn, mighty, Music, Orchestra, organ, Otto Nicolai, program, Protestant, Protestant Reformation, psalm, public, Quartet, quintet, Randall E. Faust, Reformation, Religion, symphony, Trombone, Trumpet, United States, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variations, Watertown, write, Yale University
Classical music: “I like tunes,” says Academy Award-winning composer Thomas Cabaniss, who talks about his “Double Rainbow” piano concerto. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and guest soloists will give the world premiere of the work this Friday night.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Even for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below), which likes to mix things and up during its winter season, the concert this Friday night is something special to close out the current season.
The WCO will give the world premiere of the “Double Rainbow” Piano Concerto by Thomas Cabaniss, which was commissioned for the WCO.
The performance will also feature husband-and-wife duo-pianists Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn.
The concert is Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
Also on the program is Maurice Ravel’s Neo-classical homage to World War I, “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” and the Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann.
Tickets are $10 to $80.
For more information about the program, the soloists and tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-v-2/
Composer Thomas Cabaniss recently did an email Q&A for The Ear:
Can you briefly introduce yourself and your career to the reader?
I’m Thomas Cabaniss (below). I am a composer and teaching artist from Charleston, South Carolina. I have lived in New York for the last 30 years, and so I greedily claim both places as home. I teach at the Juilliard School — where I met Michael and Jessica Shinn — and I also lead arts education projects at Carnegie Hall.
After graduating from Yale in 1984, I was an assistant conductor on a variety of projects including Leonard Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place at La Scala and the Kennedy Center. Setting out to forge a career as a composer, I moved to New yolk City, which had the added benefit of being the same city where my girlfriend was attending medical school. A few years later we married and settled in Manhattan.
To start, I worked primarily as a theater composer, but I was also writing piano and chamber music on the side, and doing arts education work in between shows. In 1990 I scored and arranged a short film called The Lunch Date, which won the Palme D’Or and the Academy Award. In 1995 I joined the New York Philharmonic education programs, eventually becoming the orchestra’s Education Director.
I kept composing, and wrote a chamber opera called The Sandman, which was premiered in New York in 2002 and revived again the following season. In 2004 I was appointed to special education position with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and at the same time I wrote a series of evening length dance scores that were premiered in New York.
In 2009, I began working as composer-in-residence for the LinkUp program at Carnegie Hall, which has grown in that time to serve over 95 orchestras around the world and across the U.S. – including the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
I also helped to create the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, which serves young parents in shelters, hospitals and prisons, and we are working hard to extend that work across the country through a series of partnerships.
How would you describe your musical style in general and the style of the new two-piano concerto specifically? Accessible? Tonal or atonal? Modernist or Neo-Classical? Melodic or percussive? Are there composers or works that have influenced your style?
I like tunes. I like to write songs, and I like to sing, so my music tends to value melody. My works are generally tonal, often spiked with cluster chords and other atonal devices, but I am always interested in the musical gravity of tonal centers. (You can hear a sample of Thomas Cabaniss’ music in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This piece is inspired by its soloists, Michael and Jessica Shinn (below), and by the image of a Double Rainbow (also the work’s title). I have written Michael and Jessica pieces for piano-four hands, and there is one piece they have championed called Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love. Something about the chemistry of their relationship as musicians (and as husband and wife) has inspired me to create music that is particularly exciting and intimate.
And yes, I suppose most composers embed hints of the music they love in the music they write, and I am no different. Tiny Bits was a kind of homage to the Brahms Waltzes for piano-four hands, and Double Rainbow nods to Leonard Bernstein, Olivier Messiaen, Leos Janacek and John Adams. I’m sure listeners will hear other influences, too.
What would you like listeners to know about and listen for in the piano concerto? What were the special challenges of writing for duo-pianists?
This is from the program note I wrote for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra:
DOUBLE RAINBOW is based on an experience I had with my family on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, about 20 years ago. On this particular August day, there was a huge rain in the early afternoon, many dark clouds, thunder (but no lightning). After the storm, from the porch of our beach rental house, we saw not one, but two rainbows (below). My sister-in-law is an avid photographer, and so she coaxed us all down onto the beach so she could get a pristine angle. That alone might have been enough inspiration for a piece of music, but when we got to the water’s edge, as Julia was snapping her photos, a dolphin jumped out of the water in a vertical launch, the tail clearing the water’s surface. It was one of those moments that seemed so unbelievable that none of us said a word.
I have always been fascinated by the search for the elusive “perfect moment,” and DOUBLE RAINBOW is a sort of study of that kind of exploration. It is all bound up in the idea of “doubleness,” represented by the two pianos. It is divided into three movements: “Surfaces” (exploring the accumulation of drops of water from tiny, atomized particles), “Disturbances” (exploring imbalances and the storms that result from them), and “Revelation” (of the Double Rainbow). Not surprising in a double concerto, there is a great deal of dialogue between the pianos, and the orchestra has more of an accompanying role in the first two movements. The final movement is different, though. Everybody is in, and the music pulses with magic. The movement seems to be headed for a big climax, but at the last moment, it suddenly slows down and there are stars.
The main challenge for me in writing a double piano concerto is all those fingers! Twenty of them, and they are capable of so much. The music I write does not usually focus on virtuosity, and yet I also wanted it to be a vehicle for them to be expressive and dynamic. I worked hard to achieve a balance between the lyricism and the fireworks – we’ll see how audiences experience it.
What else would you like to say?
I am especially excited to be able to visit Madison for the premiere. I’ll get to meet members of the family of Jessica Chow Shinn (below, she is a Madison native), and I have a former student in the orchestra (Midori Samson, Second Bassoon). My Carnegie Lullaby Project collaborators include another Madison native (Ann Gregg) and Elizabeth Snodgrass, who is originally from Appleton (I think) but recently moved to Madison. I will get to meet WCO music director Andrew Sewell (below) in person. We have been doing some Skype rehearsals and phone consultations. It will be great to watch Andrew in action.
While we are here, my wife Deborah will be giving Grand Rounds at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, and my son Will leads an a cappella group at University of Chicago (Voices In Your Head), and this year they have been singing frequently with a wonderful University of Wisconsin group (Fundamentally Sound).
The last few seasons the Madison Symphony Orchestra has been offering Carnegie Hall LinkUp concerts to kids in grades 3-5, and this year is no exception. They will perform The Orchestra Moves in May, for which I wrote two of the works (Come To Play and Away I Fly) and arranged another (Cidade Maravilhosa).
This project has been a few years in the making, and so for Michael and Jessica and me, this is a kind of celebration. We can’t wait to share DOUBLE RAINBOW with you.
Tags: a cappella, A Quiet Place, Academy Award, Andrew Sewell, Appleton, Arts, arts education, atomized, atonal, Bassoon, beach, Brahms, Carnegie Hall, Chamber music, chamber opera, Charleston, choral music, chord, Classical music, clinic, cluster, commission, composer, conductor, Couperin, dance, dialogue, doctor, dolphin, double rainbow, drop, email, expresisone, expressive, film, Finger, Fireworks, Fundamentally Sound, Hospital, House, husband, influence, Isle of Palms, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John Adams, Juilliard School, Kennedy Center, La Scala, Le tombeau de Couperin, Leonard Bernstein, Leos Janacek, lightening, LinkUp, Love, lullaby, Lullaby Project, lyrical, lyricism, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, MANHATTAN, medical school, melodic, melody, memorial, Messiaen, Michael and Jessica Shinn, modernist, movement, movie, Music, Music education, neo-Classical, New York City, New York Philharmonic, opera, Orchestra, Palme D'Or, partnership, Philadelphia Orchestra, phone, photo, photographs, physician, Piano, Piano concerto, piano-four hands, prison, psychiatry, Q&A, rain clouds, rainbow, Ravel, rehearsal, Robert Schumann, shelter, sing, Skype, song, songs, South Carolina, stars, storm, style, symphony, telephone, The Lunch Date, The Orchestra Moves, The Sandman, Thomas Cabaniss, thunder, Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love, tomb, tonal, tune, U.S., United States, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, virtuosity, virtuoso, Voices in Your Head, Waltz, water, wife, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, world, world premiere, Yale, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 