The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Two FREE chamber music concerts on Thursday and Friday nights at the UW-Madison feature quartets and quintets by Mozart, Boccherini, Schubert, Dvorak and Weinberg
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
Chamber music fans have something special to look forward to this week with back-to-back evening concerts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music that mix famous and well-known works with less familiar ones.
THURSDAY NIGHT
On Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Pro Arte Quartet will perform.
The program features six miniature “Evening Songs” (1865) – also called “Cypresses” — by Antonin Dvorak; the String Quartet No. 5 in B-Flat Major (1945) by Mieczyslaw Weinberg; and the String Quartet in B-Flat Major “Hunt,” K. 458 (1784), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (You can hear one of Dvorak’s “Cypresses” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Members of the Pro Arte Quartet (below, from left, in a photo by Rick Langer) are: violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia; violist Sally Chisholm; and cellist Parry Karp.
For more information about the unique and dramatic history of the critically acclaimed Pro Arte Quartet, the longest active string quartet in the history of music, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/pro-arte-quartet/
FRIDAY NIGHT
On Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison cellist Uri Vardi (below) will be joined by several faculty colleagues, one of his students and his son for an evening of three quintets.
In addition to Uri Vardi, the performers include: clarinetist Amitai Vardi (below); pianist Christopher Taylor; violinists David Perry and Soh-Hyun Park Altino; violist Sally Chisholm; cellist James Waldo; and double bassist David Scholl.
The program includes: the Quintet in C major, assembled from other quintets by Johann Lauterbach, by Luigi Boccherini, a contemporary of Mozart; the famous Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the well-known “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert.
For more background, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uri-vardi-quintets-students-friends-and-family/
Tags: #AmitaiVardi, #AntoninDvorak, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristopherTaylor, #ClarinetQuintet, #Classicalera, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DavidPerry, #DoubleBass, #DoubleBassist, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #FranzSchubert, #HistoryofMusic, #HuntQuartet, #James Waldo, #JamesWaldo, #JohannLauterbach, #LuigiBoccherini, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MieczyslawWeinberg, #Musicfaculty, #ParryKarp, #ProArteQuartet, #SallyChisholm, #Soh-HyunParkAltino, #StringQuartet, #SuzanneBeia, #TroutQuintet, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UriVardi, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, Amitai Vardi, Antonín Dvořák, Arts, assemble, audience, background, blog, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Christopher Taylor, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, colleague, composer, Concert, contemporary, critically acclaimed, cypresses, David Perry, double bass, double bassist, evening, Facebook, faculty, father, Franz Schubert, History, hunt, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Lauterbach, like, link, Luigi Boccherini, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mead Witter School of Music, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Mozart, Music, Parry Karp, performer, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, quintet, Sally Chisholm, School of Music, share, Soh-Hyun Park Altino, son, song, String quartet, Student, Suzanne Beia, tag, Trout, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, word, YouTube
Classical music: The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) perform their annual Winterfest concerts this Saturday afternoon — with guest clarinetist Amitai Vardi — and on Saturday, March 2
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
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO, below is the Youth Orchestra) will present the Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts this Saturday, Feb. 16, and Saturday, March 2, in Mills Concert Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building, 455 North Park Street in Madison, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
WYSO orchestras will perform pieces by Carl Maria von Weber, Antonin Dvorak, Georges Bizet, Sergei Prokofiev, Richard Wagner, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Manuel DeFalla, Johann Strauss, Modest Mussorgsky and others. For a complete program listing, go to: https://www.wysomusic.org/diane-ballweg-winterfest-2019-repertoire/
“These are wonderful works and the orchestras are progressing beautifully in rehearsal,” said WYSO music director Kyle Knox (below). “It looks to be a memorable concert series.”
Guest clarinetist Amitai Vardi (below) will perform Weber’s Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 26, with the Youth Orchestra during their Feb. 16 concert. (You can hear Weber’s Concertino in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Amitai Vardi — his father Uri Vardi teaches cello at the UW-Madison — is a WYSO alumnus who grew up in Madison. He performs regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra and is currently a professor at Kent State University in Ohio.
“WYSO was the first orchestra I ever played in,” Vardi said. “The experience developed my listening skills, knowledge about ensemble playing, love for orchestral music, and taught me how to be a well-rounded musician.”
Concert tickets are available 45 minutes prior to each concert, and are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
Visit www.wysomusic.org to learn more about the various orchestras and about the WYSO program.
WYSO students travel from communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois each weekend throughout the concert season to rehearse on the UW-Madison campus.
Each orchestra performs three concerts per season, with additional performance opportunities available to students, including ensembles and chamber groups.
Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts
Saturday, Feb. 16 in Mills Hall
4 p.m. Youth Orchestra
With guest artist Amitai Vardi, clarinet
Saturday, March 2, 2019, Mills Hall
11:30 a.m. Opus One and Sinfonietta
1:30 p.m. Concert Orchestra
4 p.m. Philharmonia Orchestra and Harp Ensemble
Tags: #AmitaiVardi, #AntoninDvorak, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassSection, #CarlMariavonWeber, #CelloMusic, #ChamberGoup, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusician, #ClarinetConcert, #ClarinetMusic, #ClassicalComposers, #Classicalera, #Classicalperiod, #ClevelandOrchestra, #ConcertOrchestra, #DianeBallweg, #EnsemblePlaying, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #GeorgeMosse, #GeorgesBizet, #GuestArtist, #HarpEnsemble, #HumanitiesBuilding, #JohannStrauss, #KentStateUniversity, #KyleKnox, #ListeningSkills, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #ManuelDeFalla, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MillsHall, #ModestMussorgsky, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #NorthernIllinois, #OpusOne, #OrchestralMusic, #PercussionSection, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PhilharmoniaOrchestra, #RichardWagner, #SergeiProkofiev, #SouthernWisconsin, #StringSection, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UriVardi, #Winterfestconcerts, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WoodwindSection, #WYSOconcerts, #YoungMusicians, #YoungPeople, #YouthOrchestra, #YouTubevideo, adult, afternoon, alumnus, Antonín Dvořák, Armitai Vardi, Arts, audience, blog, brass, brass section, Campus, Carl Maria von Weber, Cello, chamber group, Chamber music, chamber musician, clarinet, Classical, Classical music, Classical period, Cleveland Orchestra, communities, community, composer, Concert Orchestra, concerto, conductor, Diane Ballweg, ensemble playing, Facebook, faculty member, George Mosse, Georges Bizet, guest artist, harp ensemble, History, humanities building, ILLINOIS, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Strauss, Kent State University, knowledge, Kyle Knox, listening, Love, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Manuel DeFalla, Mead Witter School of Music, memorable, Mills Hall, Modest Mussorgsky, Mosse Humanities Building, Music, Music director, Music education, Musician, northern Illinois, Ohio, opus, Opus number, Opus One, Orchestra, orchestral music, percussion section, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peter Tchaikovsky, Philharmonia Orchestra, piece, post, posting, prior, rehearse, Richard Wagner, Saturday, Season, Sergei Prokofiev, Sinfonietta, southern Wisconsin, string section, strings, symphony, tag, tickets, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, video, Viola, Violin, weekend, well-rounded, Winterfest, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, woodwind, woodwind section, work, WYSO, young musicians, young people, Youth, Youth Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: TONIGHT at 7:30 p.m., guest artist Clive Greensmith of the Tokyo String Quartet and USC will give a FREE cello recital at the UW-Madison
2 Comments
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
By Jacob Stockinger
If you like cello music – which to some ears sounds especially appropriate in autumn – you might be interested in an event tonight.
One of the most distinguished chamber music cellists in the world has been at the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music over the weekend for a three-day residency involving UW string and piano students and members of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO).
He is Clive Greensmith (below) who played with the acclaimed Tokyo String Quartet from 1999 until it disbanded in 2013 and who now teaches at the Colburn School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Greensmith’s residency of lectures, demonstrations and master classes culminates TONIGHT at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall with a FREE recital that also features UW piano professor Christopher Taylor, UW cello professor Uri Vardi and the UW Cello Choir.
The appealing program includes the Sonata for Two Cellos by Luigi Boccherini; “Silent Woods” by Antonin Dvorak and the Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99, by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear the slow movement of the Brahms sonata, played by the late cellist Jacqueline du Pré and pianist Daniel Barenboim, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about Greensmith, his UW residency, his teaching and the concert tonight, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artist-recital-clive-greensmith-cello/
To to learn much more about Greensmith, including his recordings and latest projects, go to his homepage web site at: http://www.clivegreensmith.com
Tags: #AntoninDvorak, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CelloChoir, #CelloMusic, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusicians, #ChristopherTaylor, #CliveGreensmith, #ColburnSchoolofMusic, #FacebookPost, #HomePage, #JacquelineduPré, #JohannesBrahms, #LosAngeles, #LuigiBoccherini, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoMusic, #SilentWoods, #StringMusic, #StringQuartet, #TokyoStringQuartet, #UniversityofSouthernCalifornia, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UriVardi, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, Arts, Autumn, Beethoven, Boccherini, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, Clive Greensmith, Coburn School of Music, Colburn School of Music, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, demonstration, distinguished, Dvorak, ear, event, Facebook, fall, free, information, Jacob Stockinger, Jacqueline du Pré, Johannes Brahms, lecture, Los Angeles, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, master class, masterclass, Mead Witter School of Music, Music, performer, Piano, play, player, professor, program, project, recital, recording, residency, Silent Woods, Sonata, String quartet, strings, Tokyo, Tokyo String Quartet, tonight, UCLA, United States, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, USC, Viola, Violin, web site, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Bach Musicians celebrate 15 years with three performances this weekend of “Arias and Sonatas” by Bach and Handel
1 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
Two towering geniuses of the Baroque era – Johann Sebastian Bach (below top) and George Frideric Handel (below bottom) — were born in the same year, 1685, and just a little over 100 miles from each other.
Yet the two masters never met!
To mark their 15th anniversary, the Madison Bach Musicians will open their new season with three performances of a program “Arias and Sonatas” by the two great composers.
The program will include selections from Handel’s Violin Sonata in F major, Nine German Arias, Lascia chi’o ping (heard sung by Joyce DiDonato in the YouTube video at the bottom), Tornami a vagheggiar; and Bach’s Laudamus te (B minor Mass), Öffne dich (Cantata 61), Ich bin vergnügt in meinem Leiden (Cantata 58), and Prelude and Fugue in C major (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II).
Advance-sale discount tickets are $30 general admission and are available at Orange Tree Imports, and Willy Street Co-op (East and West).
Online advance tickets at www.madisonbachmusicians.org
Tickets at the door are $33 for general admission, $30 for seniors (65+) with student rush tickets costing $10 at the door.
Here are the performance times and places.
Each performance offers a FREE pre-concert lecture by MBM founder, music director and keyboardist Trevor Stephenson (below), who will also appear at NOON TODAY (Wednesday, Oct. 3) with host Norman Gilliland on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Midday.”
This Friday, Oct. 5, with a 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. performance at the Grace Episcopal Church (below top and bottom) at 116 W. Washington Ave., in Madison on the downtown Capitol Square.
This Saturday, Oct. 6, with a 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church (below top and bottom) at 1021 Spaight Street in Madison.
This Sunday afternoon, Oct. 7, with a 2:15 p.m. lecture and 3 p.m. performance followed by an outdoor wine reception at historic Park Hall at 307 Polk Street in Sauk City. The Park Hall venue has limited seating, so it is recommended to buy tickets in advance either online or at Willy St. Co-Op (East or West), or at Orange Tree Imports.
The major guest artist is soprano Chelsea Shephard (below). Praised by Opera News for her “beautiful, lyric instrument” and “flawless legato,” she won the 2014 Handel Aria Competition in Madison. She returns to perform with the Madison Bach Musicians after appearing in MBM’s production last season of Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas.”
Other performers include the Madison Bach Musicians concertmaster Kangwon Kim (below) on baroque violin.
Also, James Waldo (below) will perform on baroque cello. Known for his “nuanced, richly ambered” interpretations of Bach (LucidCulture in New York City), Waldo has lived and breathed period performance his whole life, having been raised in the home of two musicians who specialized in recorder, traverso and Renaissance choral music.
After graduate studies at Mannes College of Music and nine years living and working in New York City, he returned to Madison last fall to begin his DMA studies at UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music with Professor Uri Vardi. He recently participated in an all-Bach program for Midsummer’s Music in Door County, and is the regular principal cellist of Cecilia Chorus, performing twice a year in Carnegie Hall.
Tags: #BachCantata, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolSquare, #CarnegieHall, #CeciliaChorus, #ChelseaShephard, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #DidoAndAeneas, #DoorCounty, #EpiscopalChurch, #FacebookPost, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #Germandances, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HarpsichordContinuo, #HarpsichordMusic, #HenryPurcell, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #HistoricBuilding, #ImmanuelLutheranChurch, #InstrumentalMusic, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JoyceDiDonato, #LutheranChurch, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MannesCollege, #MartinLuther, #MassinBMinor, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MIdsummer'sMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NormanGilliland, #OperaNews, #OrangeTreeImports, #ParkHall, #PeriodInstrument, #PreludeandFugue, #PublicRadio, #RadioHost, #RenaissanceMusic, #SaukCityWisconsin, #TheMidday, #TrevorStephenson, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UriVardi, #ViolinSonata, #Well-TemperedClavier, #WillyStreetCo-op, #WineReception, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #YouTubevideo, anniversary, aria, Arts, Bach, Baroque, beautiful, blog, Book, breathe, Cantata, Capitol Square, Carnegie Hall, Cecilia Chorus, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Chelsea Shephard, choral music, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, concertmaster, conductor, Dido and Aeneas, discount, Door County, downtown, Early music, east, Episcopal, Episcopalism, Facebook, fall, founder, fugue, genius, George Frideric Handel, German, Grace Episcopal Church, Handel Aria Competition, historic, historic building, Home, host, Immanuel Lutheran Church, instrument, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joyce DiDonato, keyboardist, lecture, legato, live, Lutheranism, lyric, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Mannes College, Mannes College of Music, mass, Mass in B Minor, Master, Mead Witter School of Music, Midsummer's Music, Midsummer's Music Festival, Music, Music director, New York City, news, Norman Gilliland, online, opera, Opera News, Orange Tree Imports, perform, performance, Prelude, principal, production, program, public radio, Radio, reception, recorder, Sonata, summer, The Midday, The Well-Tempered Clavier, traverso, Trevor Stephenson, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Violin, vocal music, web site, Website, weekend, west, Willy Street Co-op, Wine, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, year, YouTube
Classical music: Today brings the release of an impressive CD of clarinet duos and trios with UW-Madison cellist Uri Vardi and his clarinetist son Amitai Vardi
3 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is when another outstanding recording by UW-Madison cellist Uri Vardi gets released by Delos Records.
The recording, which features clarinet trios by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms and clarinet-cello duos by contemporary composer Jan Radzynski, has all the makings of another winner.
For one, the repertoire is a fine mix of the late Classical style (Beethoven), the late Romantic style (Brahms) and modernistic nationalism (Radzynski).
It is, of course, a family affair, as you can read about here in a story about the premiere of the Concerto Duos by Radzynski:
http://news.wisc.edu/music-deepens-connection-for-father-son-performers/
The Ear also finds the playing first-rate and the sound engineering exemplary.
None of that should come as a surprise. You may recall that last year Vardi (below) and his colleague UW-Madison violin professor David Perry, along with pianist Paulina Zamora, released a recording of the three piano trios by Brahms. It was acclaimed by no less than Gramophone magazine. Here is a link to that review:
https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/49269/page/3
The title of the new CD is Soulmates, and it seems fitting in so many ways that crisscross in many directions.
Here are notes from the educator and performer Uri Vardi:
“The title refers to friendship between composer and performer, as Jenny Kallick highlights in her liner notes.
“For his clarinet trio, Beethoven put to work the manners of a musical style that embraced the outward charm and lively sociability associated with the music of friends, interjecting his soon-to-be famous dramatic flashes only occasionally.
“Jan Radzynski (below) began his association with me in Israel, where the Vardi family from Hungary and Radzynski family from Poland first overlapped.
“Meeting once again during graduate studies at Yale School of Music, our friendship has been enriched by Jan’s project as an esteemed composer with multiple cultural ties to Poland, Israel, the US and Jewish tradition, and by my commitment as celebrated teacher and performer to collaborations across musical boundaries. Jointly, we have found ways to embrace the complexities of their origins and diaspora.
“The duo’s dedication to the entire Vardi family signals this deep connection.
“Nearly a century had passed before Brahms (below top) wrote for this same combination. Had it not been for his newly-blossomed musical friendship with clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld (below bottom, 1856-1907), a star performer in the Hofkapelle Orchestra at Saxe-Meiningen, the composer might have held to his recently announced plans to retire.
“On a more personal level, I admire composer Jan Radzynski’s music. I was moved by his gift to my son Amitai (below) — who teaches clarinet at Kent State University in Ohio — and me, and the rest of our family, of the Concert Duos. He presented the work to us in 2004, and we premiered it that same year.
“Brahms is the composer who influences me on the deepest level. Following the release of my previous CD by Delos, I was eager to record the fourth Brahms trio involving the cello, and was looking for an opportunity to add it to the other three trios.
“It is the greatest joy for me to play chamber music with my son. I was happy that both he, and my colleague and friend, pianist Arnon Erez (below), were ready to embark with me on the journey of performing and recording the three compositions on this CD.
“The UW Arts Institute awarded me the Emily Mead Baldwin Award, which helped me financially in releasing this CD. The recordings were done at the Jerusalem Music Center in Israel (which gave us their wonderful facilities free of charge).
“Sound engineer Victor Fonarov, who recorded this CD and started editing it, passed away before the completion of the work. So we decided to dedicate the album to his memory.
“Here is a promotional video, with a SoundCloud clip of the Beethoven work, for the recording:
https://delosmusic.com/recording/soulmates-cello-clarinet-piano/
“And you can hear an excerpt from Radzynski’s Duos in the YouTube video at the bottom.
“Interested readers can also purchase the album directly from Uri Vardi at: uvardi@wisc.edu”
Tags: Amitai Vardi, Arnon Erez, Arts, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, clarinet trio, Classical, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Composition, David Perry, Delos records, diaspora, duos, Education, educator, friend, friendship, Gramophone, Hungary, Israel, Jacob Stockinger, Jan Radzynski, Jenny Kallick, Jerusalem, Jewish, Johannes Brahms, Kent State University, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, modern, modernistic, nationalism, nationalist, notes, Ohio, Paulina Zamora, performer, Piano, Poland, repertoire, Richard Mühlfeld, Romantic, SoundCloud, Teacher, tradition, trio, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, US, Violin, Wisconsin, Yale School of Music, Yale University, YouTube
Classical music: Here are the Final Forte winners. Mosaic Chamber Players concludes its season this Saturday night with piano trios by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Charles Ives. Plus, a FREE concert of Latin American bassoon music is Friday at noon
2 Comments
NEWS: In case you missed it last night on Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio, here are the winners of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s high school concerto competition, which featured a lot of fine music and excellent performances.
First prize went to violinist Julian Rhee of Brookfield, who performed Tchaikovsky; second prize went to pianist Michael Wu of Sun Prairie, who performed Saint-Saens; and the two runners-up were violinist Yaoyao Chen of Menasha, who played Sibelius, and harpist Naomi Sutherland, who performed Ravel.
For more information about the annual event, including links to video biographies of the contestants, go to:
ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature bassoonist Juliana Mesa-Jaramillo in works for solo bassoon by 20th-century Latin American composers. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
The critically acclaimed Mosaic Chamber Players will conclude its 2016-2017 season with a program of piano trios.
Members of the Madison-based Mosaic Chamber Players are Wes Luke, violin; Kyle Price, cello; and Jess Salek, piano.
The program features the “Elegy” Trio in D Minor, Op. 9, by Sergei Rachmaninoff; the Trio, Op. 86, by Charles Ives; and the Trio in D Minor, Op 49, by Felix Mendelssohn. (You can hear the opening of the lovely and darkly dramatic Rachmaninoff Trio in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert will be this Saturday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of First Unitarian Society of Madison.
Tickets are $15 for general admission; $10 for seniors; and $5 for students. Cash or checks only will be accepted.
Pianist Jess Salek (below), who graduated from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton Wis., and who runs his own piano studio in Madison and also works with the Madison Youth Choirs.
Violinist Wes Luke (below) plays with many regional orchestras and ensembles, including the Madison-based Ancora String Quartet.
Here is an informative and engaging story about cellist Kyle Price (below), a UW-Madison student, and how he started a music festival and ended up studying with Professor Uri Vardi at the UW-Madison.
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/12/02/kyleprice_cello/
Tags: Ancora, Ancora String Quartet, Appleton, Arts, Bassoon, biography, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, concerto, dark, dramatic, Elegy, First Unitarian Society of Madison, high school, Ives, Jacob Stockinger, Jess Salek, Kyle Price, Latin America, Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, lovely, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Youth Choirs, Mendelssohn, Mosaic Chamber Players, performance, Piano Trio, prize, Rachmaninov, Ravel, runner up, Saint-Saens, seniors, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, solo, students, studio, Tchaikovsky, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, video, Violin, Wes Luke, winds, winner, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Public Television, WPR, WPT, YouTube
Classical music: UW-Madison’s Hunt Quartet performs a FREE MUST-HEAR concert of Beethoven, Schubert and Webern this Sunday evening. Plus, there is a FREE concert of Schubert’s song cycle “Winterreise” this Saturday afternoon at the UW-Madison
1 Comment
ALERT: On Saturday night at 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, David Richardson, a first-year DMA candidate in Collaborative Piano at the UW-Madison, will be joined by a guest artist, baritone Alan Dunbar, for a FREE performance of the famous song cycle “Winterreise” (Winter Journey) by Franz Schubert. The Ear hears it promises to be an outstanding performance.
By Jacob Stockinger
There are many student recitals and concerts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison each season – many dozens and maybe even into the hundreds.
But still there are standouts.
One such standout is coming up this Sunday night at 6 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. That’s when the Hunt Quartet, made up of very talented UW-Madison graduate students, will perform a FREE concert.
Too bad it has to compete with the special two-hour final episode of the popular PBS series “Downton Abbey,” which The Ear suspects will cut into the audience. Could they have moved the concert up to 5 or earlier? That would be nice, but maybe hall logistics made that impossible.
Anyway, the members of the string quartet were selected by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music faculty because they are outstanding performers and pedagogues.
Members are seen below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot. They are from left: Clayton Tillotson, violin; Blakeley Menghini, viola; Paran Amirinazari, violin; and cellist Andrew Briggs, cello.
The appealing all-masterpiece program is: String Quartet No. 5 in A major, Op. 18 No. 5, by Ludwig van Beethoven; Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9, by Anton Webern; and the famous String Quartet in D minor, “Death and the Maiden,” by Franz Schubert. (You can hear the slow movement of the Schubert, based on a song he composed, played by the Alban Berg Quartet in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Hunt Quartet is the graduate string quartet for UW-Madison’s School of Music. As Project Assistants within the School of Music, the Quartet performs concerts at the School of Music and university events, as well as part of community outreach.
Members work closely with faculty, including the Pro Arte Quartet, and have Professor Uri Vardi as their principal coach. Other artists who have worked with the Quartet include violist Nobuko Imai, violist Lila Brown, and members of the Takacs String Quartet.
The Quartet is also the integral part of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s “Up Close and Musical” program, visiting area schools to teach students about fundamentals of music and the string quartet.
The Hunt Quartet is generously sponsored by Kato Perlman and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Tags: Arts, bagatelle, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, collaborative piano, community outreach, Death and the Maiden, Franz Schubert, Jacob Stockinger, Lila Brown, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterpiece, Music, Nobuko Imai, Orchestra, outreach, PBS, Piano, public television, Schubert, song, song cycle, Takacs String Quartet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Viola, Violin, Webern, Winterreise, Wisconsin Public Television, WPT, YouTube
Classical music: The sixth National Summer Cello Institute and “Feldenkrais for Performers” will take place over the next two weeks at the UW-Madison School of Music. The event culminates in a FREE cello choir concert on June 12.
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Our friends at the National Summer Cello Institute have informed The Ear about the upcoming programs at the UW-Madison School of Music:
For complete information about “Your Body is Your Strad” Summer Program Events, under artistic director and UW cello professor Uri Vardi, visit www.yourbodyisyourstrad.com
Following the success of five previous seasons, the Your Body is Your Strad summer programs are open for auditors and concert-goers in 2015.
This includes events during the Feldenkrais for All Performers program (May 30-June 3) and the National Summer Cello Institute (May 30-June 12). The programs focus on the connection between body awareness and technical proficiency, artistic expression, effective teaching and injury prevention.
The workshops feature husband-and-wife musicians and Feldenkrais practitioners Uri Vardi and Hagit Vardi (below with a student), with other faculty including Paul Katz of the New England Conservatory and Tim Eddy of the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory.
There will also be featured presentations by specialists in Integrative Health, Authentic Performance, Mind-Eye Connection, Stage Anxiety and Improvisation.
All events will take place at the Humanities Building at 455 N. Park St. in Madison, Wisconsin unless noted otherwise.
The following presentations are open for auditors and audience members for a fee of $25:
Saturday, May 30, at 3:15 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” presented by Artistic Director Uri Vardi (below), a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Sunday, May 31, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Seminar with Dr. Deborah Zelinsky: ‘The mind-eye connection'” — presented by Dr. Zelinsky, a specialist of neuro-optometric rehabilitation and visual processing
Monday, June 1, at 2 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the second presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Monday, June 1, at 4:30 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Susan Sweeney: The Imaginative Voice” — presented by Susan Sweeney, Head Voice and Text Coach for the American Players Theatre with extensive coaching experience on an international scale
Tuesday, June 2, at 3:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Presentation by Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, MD: The Art of Self Care” — presented by Dr. Adam Rindfleisch, MD in the Integrative Medicine Division of the UW Health system
Wednesday, June 3, at 3:30 PM in room 1321: “Seminar with Matt Turner on Improvisation” — presented by Matt Turner, one of the world’s leading improv cellists, who will lead participants in an improv session
Thursday, June 4, at 4 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class with Paul Katz” — a performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at Boston’s New England Conservatory
Friday, June 5, at 2 PM at Capitol Lakes Retirement Center (FREE): “Outreach Concert” — a performance by the participants of the Your Body is Your Strad programs, selected on a national scale through audition
Friday, June 5, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the third presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method (below is student Micah Cheng, on left, with Uri Vardi)
Friday, June 5, at 8 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Paul Katz” — led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at New England Conservatory, who will cover topics of musicianship and wellness
Saturday, June 6, at 9 AM in Morphy Hall: “Master class with Paul Katz” — the second performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Paul Katz, Professor of Cello at Boston’s New England Conservatory
Sunday, June 7, at 2 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the fourth presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Monday, June 8, at 10:15 AM in Morphy Hall: “Master class: focused use of the body” — the fifth and final presentation by Artistic Director Uri Vardi, a performance-based class that focuses on enhancing body awareness through the Feldenkrais method
Tuesday, June 9, at 4:30 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master Class with Tim Eddy” — a performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Tim Eddy (below), Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory
Wednesday, June 10, at 8 PM in Morphy Hall: “Master Class with Tim Eddy” — the second performance-based master class for participants that will be led by Tim Eddy, Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory
Thursday, June 11 at 2 PM at Fair Trade Coffee (FREE): “Outreach Concert” — a performance of cello ensembles at the Fair Trade Coffee Shop on State Street
Thursday, June 11 at 8 PM in Mills Hall: “Seminar with Tim Eddy” — led by Tim Eddy, Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and Mannes Conservatory, who will cover topics related to musicianship and wellness
Friday, June 12 at 8 PM in Mills Hall (FREE): “Final Concert” — the culminating concert of the National Summer Cello Institute, featuring solo performances of the Institute’s talented participants and the NSCI Cello Choir led by Kyle Knox (below).
The program for the final concert is partially set: the first half will be solo performances by participants of the National Summer Cello Institute, and the after intermission will be pieces for the NSCI Cello Choir. The solos will be decided through audition next week, but the rep for the Cello Choir is decided.
The pieces to be included in the public concert (which The Ear heard and loved last year) are:
Johann Sebastian Bach/arr. Akira: Adagio from the C major Sonata for Violin
Astor Piazzolla/arr. Villarejo: “Oblivion” (see the YouTube video at the bottom)
David Popper: Requiem
Kyle Price*: Requiem (movements 4 and 5)
Klengel: Hymnus for 12 cellos
*Kyle Price is the student composer and a Collins Fellow at the UW-Madison School of Music, studying cello as a Masters student with Uri Vardi. He is also an avid composer, and runs a music festival in upstate New York called Caroga Lake. The Requiem to be performed was written in memory of his aunt, a cellist who had attended NSCI in previous summers.
Tags: American Players Theatre, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, David Popper, Feldenkrais, Hagit Vardi, improvisation, integrative medicine, Jacob Stockinger, Juilliard School, Madison, Mannes Conservatory, mind-eye, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, New England Conservatory, New York City, Paul Katz, Piano, Piazzolla, Requiem, Sonata, stage anxiety, Tim Eddy, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Violin, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: A FREE “fusion” concert of Arab and Jewish art music will take place on this coming Saturday night on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Plus, the students of UW tenor James Doing will perform a FREE recital of songs and arias this Thursday night at 7.
Leave a Comment
ALERT: Tomorrow, Thursday night at 7 p.m., University of Wisconsin-Madison tenor James Doing will present another of his FREE studio recitals. It will feature 17 of his students (below, with Doing on the back row on the far right) — but this time NOT Doing himself — in various works, performed with piano accompaniment. The composers to be heard include George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faure, Maurice Ravel, Henri Duparc, Leo Delibes, Manuel DeFalla, Giaocchino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, Leonard Bernstein and William Bolcom. The Ear has found such recitals in the past extremely informative and extremely enjoyable, a model of teacher-student cooperation based on a kind of master-apprentice model. Here is my review of a previous such recital:
By Jacob Stockinger
It seems to The Ear that the Israel-Palestinian conflict has lately been on the back burner for the most part, though it is heating up again as the Palestinians threaten again to go to the United Nations for official statehood recognition .
Still, that turmoil seems pretty much buried under the turmoil in Ukraine involving Russia’s annexation of Crimea; under the three week-long story of the missing Malaysian jet on its flight to Beijing; and under the tragedy of the massive and deadly mudslide near Seattle.
Add in the civil war in Syria, the student protests in Venezuela, concerns over Iran and nuclear proliferation and some African politics, and you can quickly understand why the Israelis and the Palestinians are less visible these days.
But although their disagreement may be less visible in the headlines, the Jewish-Arab problem is still there and is still urgent in its need to be solved.
After all, President Obama just returned from a trip to the Mideast where he met with to Saudi officials. And his administration continues to look for peace even as troubles from Palestinian rocket attacks to new Israeli construction on the West Bank, still plague the peace process.
So the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and the effort to secure a two-state solution, continues — or so one can hope.
With that background, it might seem that University of Wisconsin-Madison cellist Uri Vardi, who is an Israeli by birth and training, is following the current trend towards using art –- specifically music – to promote cross-cultural understanding and ultimately peace.
If that goal seems far-fetched or distant, well you might recall that world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra that he founded with the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said to foster peace by bringing together Israeli and Palestinian young musicians for concerts and recordings.
And the universally acclaimed early music master Jordi Savall (below top) and his ensemble Hesperion XXI have just released to rave reviews their second CD volume of music (below bottom) that blends Arabic and European cultures.
But Uri Vardi is anything but late to the game. For almost two decades he has been promoting such international understanding and peace efforts through art for a very long time through the Fusions Continuum Project.
This Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Vardi will play the cello and his friend and colleague Taiseer Elias will play the oud (below) -– a fretless, lute-like instrument that is the ancient ancestor of the guitar and of the entire string family including the violin, viola, cello and double bass.
They will be joined by pianist-composer Menachem Wiesenberg (below), who is seen performing one of his own compositions with our master Taseer Elias in a YouTube video at the bottom.
If you miss that performance, the concert will be repeated the next day, this Sunday, on “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” (below), which will be broadcast LIVE statewide on Wisconsin Public Radio from 12:30 to 2 p.m., and on Sunday night at a FREE concert in Milwaukee at 7 p.m. at the Rubinstein Pavilion, 1400 North Prospect Avenue. Then the trio will embark of a tour of the U.S.
In 2008, Vardi and Elias – an acclaimed teacher and performer in Israeli — gave the world premiere in Madison in a specially composed Double Concerto for Oud and Cello by the American composer Joel Hoffman (below). It was premiered by the Madison Symphony Orchestra under conductor John DeMain, and it is the kind of cultural crossover project that has found similar success with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
Here are three links to stories about Uri Vardi and the upcoming fusion concert of Arab and Israeli music:
The first is to the shorter story on the outstanding blog “Fanfare” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/acappella_taylorpiano_beatriceopera/
The second longer and more detailed story is a press release from the newsletter of the UW-Madison Department of Jewish Studies:
http://jewishstudies.wisc.edu/newsletter/winter2014/vardi/
And the third link will give you the full program:
http://jewishstudies.wisc.edu/arts/fusions/program/
What do you think of a project like this?
Can it be practical in the pursuit of peace and understanding?
Or does it remain pretty much irrelevant entertainment?
Leave your opinion in the COMMENT section of this blog.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: accompaniment, Arab, Arab music, aria, Arts, Bellini, Benjamin Netanyahu, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, concerto, Daniel Barenboim, DeFalla, double bass, Duparc, Early music, Faure, George Frideric Handel, guitar, Hesperion XXI, Israel, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, James Doing, Jewish, Jewish studies, Joel Hoffman, John DeMain, Jordi Savall, Leonard Bernstein, lieder, lute, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Menachem Wiesenberg, Middle East, Milwaukee, Nobel Peace Prize, opera, Orchestra, oud, Palestine, Palestinian, Palestinian people, Peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Piano, Ravel, recital, Rossini, Silk Road, song, Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen, Syria, Taiseer Elias, tenor, The Silk Road Project, U.N., United Nations, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Verdi, Viola, Violin, West Bank, West-Eastern Divan, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, WILLIAM BOLCOM, wisconsin public radio, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: The annual National Summer Cello Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will hold a FREE memorial concert for Janos Starker this Sunday, June 9, at 8 p.m.
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Do you speak cello? A great way to start is by attending a FREE concert on Sunday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
The purpose of the concert is to memorialize and honor the career of famed Hungarian-born cellist Janos Starker (below), who emigrated to the U.S. after World War II and taught at Indiana University. Starker, a survivor of the Holocaust renowned for his performing and teaching as well as his love of fine scotch and too many cigarettes, died last month at 88.
As you might expect there will be some solo Bach, duos by Bartok, trios by David Popper and lots of other solo and ensemble cello music including a cello choir of 12 cellists.
The FREE concert, part of the yearly National Summer Cello Institute for professional cellists (below, in Mills Hall) at the UW-Madison, will take place in Mills Hall on this Sunday June 9, at 8 p.m. Guest artists, including the cellist of the Orion String Quartet, will also perform. (By contrast, the similarly named National Cello Institute is for young people, not professionals.)
The concert has been organized by Uri Vardi (below), a professor of cello at the UW-Madison, who studied with Starker from 1972 to 1975.
For more details, here is a link to the excellent and comprehensive story on “Fanfare,” the new blog at the UW School of Music:
And for more information about Janos Starker, here is a link to the obituary story, with links to other remembrances and obituaries, that The Ear posted on this blog:
And here is a link to a YouTube video of Janos Starker himself playing Gabriel Faure‘s exquisite “Elegie,” which has been posted as a tribute to Starker:
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 