The Well-Tempered Ear
Why isn’t music education in Madison better, ranked higher?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear saw where the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation recently announced its annual list honoring cities, school districts and individual schools in the U.S. for outstanding music education.
Here is a brief explanation:
“Now in its 24th year, the 2023 Best Communities for Music Education program recognizes 830 school districts and 78 schools across 43 states for the outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community leaders and their support for music education as part of a well-rounded education for all children.”
Here is link to the overview of the award program:
I figured with its active music life, Madison should be, even must bet, on the list.
And I did find Madison.
But it was Madison New Jersey — not Wisconsin.
I found no mention of Madison, Wisconsin.
It disappointed me, since study after study shows the importance of music education in academic achievement.
It also perplexed me.
How could music education not be noteworthy in a city that is home to nationally famous Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (below is UW’s Hamel Music Center)?
In a city with Edgewood College’s music department?
With the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Opera and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra — all of which have educational outreach programs?
With the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Willy Street Chamber Players, the Madison Bach Musicians, the Oakwood Chamber Players and so many other chamber music and early music groups?
Where the statewide, nationally recognized Wisconsin School Music Association is located in nearby Waunakee
In the same city where the pioneering Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (below) has been located for 57 years and is building an impressive new headquarters with teaching facilities and a concert hall on East Washington Avenue?
Take a look for yourself.
Here is a link to the list which can be filtered and narrowed down alphabetically by state, city, school district, school and past history: https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/bcme-2023-schools
In Wisconsin you will find Dousman, Richland Center and Salem listed. But not Milwaukee or Green Bay or LaCrosse or Eau Claire or Appleton.
And no Madison.
What explains it?
What do school boards and administrators have to say about it?
What role do budget cuts, curriculum and staffing priorities play?
Is the list somehow biased?
Does not being named to list jibe with the reality of music education in public schools in Madison and nearby communities?
Why isn’t music education in Madison better and more noteworthy?
What do teachers, parents and students themselves have to say about the problem — and the solution?
The Ear wants to hear.
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It’s Thanksgiving Day. Conductor Marin Alsop, NPR, WQXR, WFMT and Wisconsin Public Radio offer music suggestions. What piece would you choose to mark the holiday?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today – Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020 — is Thanksgiving Day.
Right now, the U.S. has had more than 12 million cases of COVID-19 with more than 260,000 deaths plus all the alarming signs and conditions that many more cases and deaths are coming in the next several months.
We might be sad that we can’t be with the family and friends we usually celebrate with. But we nonetheless have many things to give thanks for during this strange and tragic time.
We can thank the vaccine researchers; the doctors and nurses; and the other health care workers who take care of Covid patients, even those who don’t observe precautions and bring on their own illness.
We can thank all kinds of people on the front lines — food and transportation workers, for example — who help protect us and care for us.
We can thank the friends, family and others who stay in touch and help get us through these trying times.
And we can thank technology that makes isolating a lot less unbearable because we have telephones, radios, TVs, CD players, computers, cell phones and virtual online ZOOM meetings and gatherings and various other events including live-streamed concerts.
For The Ear, music has never meant more or brought more comfort than during this difficult year. He is giving thanks for that as well as for the other people and things just mentioned.
So what music should we celebrate this year’s emotionally complicated and mixed Thanksgiving holiday with?
Well, you can Google sources and go to YouTube to find compilations of music appropriate to the holiday. (See one playlist lasting 90 minutes in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Famed classical radio station WQXR in New York City has five suggestions for being musically grateful: https://www.wqxr.org/story/top-five-expressions-thanks-classical-music/
And WFMT in Chicago is offering 20 suggestions based on holiday food: https://www.wfmt.com/2019/11/25/a-complete-thanksgiving-feast-in-20-food-inspired-pieces/
But here are a couple of other suggestions, some local.
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is always a reliable source. And tomorrow is no exception.
If WPR programming stays true to past patterns, music by American composers will be emphasized.
Plus, starting at 10 a.m. WPR will broadcast performances from the Honors Concerts (below) by middle and high school students around the state and who participate in the Wisconsin School Music Association. This year, for the first time, the performances will be virtual. But as in past years, they are sure to be moving and even inspiring.
Other fine suggestions from the world-famous conductor Marin Alsop (below), a Leonard Bernstein protégée, who recently spoke for 7 minutes to NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon.
Here is a link, but you should listen rather than just read the transcript if you want to hear the musical samples: https://www.npr.org/2020/11/21/937448472/this-thanksgiving-put-on-some-music-to-soothe
Do you like any of those suggestions? Were any new to you?
What piece of music would you choose to express gratitude on this particular Thanksgiving?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: FREE Handel aria concert by area high school singers is this Saturday afternoon at Capitol Lakes
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature flutist Marilyn Chohaney, of The Oakwood Chamber Players, with pianist Joseph Ross and clarinetist James Smith. The program is salon music by Arnold Bax, Florent Schmitt, Claude Debussy and Dmitri Shostakovich. Sorry, no titles have been given. The concerts run from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
On this coming Saturday afternoon, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 West Main Street – two blocks off the Capitol Square — there will be an hour-long program featuring five young singers performing Handel arias.
There will also be a guest performance of a Handel duet by the Handel Aria Competition’s new artistic director Sarah Brailey (below top) and founding artistic director Cheryl Bensman-Rowe (below bottom).
You can hear Brailey, who won the Handel Aria Competition in 2015 and is now doing graduate work at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music while pursuing her growing career, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Karlos Moser, professor emeritus of the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music’s opera program, will accompany on the piano.
The performance is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
“Our goal is to encourage high school singers in the Madison, Wisconsin area to explore works from Handel’s vocal repertoire,” says Brailey.
All participating high school singers will receive a $100 Handel Aria Competition scholarship towards voice lessons or membership in the Madison Youth Choirs.
The high school singers who will perform are: Allana Beilke from Madison West High School; Daphne Buan from Verona Area High School; Ava DeCroix from Middleton High School; Cecilia League from McFarland High School; and Virginia Morgan from Madison West High School.
The students are all very active in the local arts scene and have participated in Wisconsin Badger All-State Choir, the Madison Opera Youth Apprentice Program, the Madison Symphony Chorus, the 50th anniversary Wisconsin School Music Association State Honors Treble Choir, and have won numerous awards in the National Association for Teachers of Singing Student Auditions and the State Solo and Ensemble Festival.
The program will include selections from operas and oratorios “Agrippina,” “Joshua,” “L’Allegro,” “Semele” and “Solomon.”
Tags: #All-State, #AllanaBeilke, #ArnoldBax, #ArtisticDirector, #AvaDeCroix, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolLakes, #CapitolLakesRetirementCenter, #CeciliaLeague, #ChamberMusic, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #ChoralMusic, #ClarinetMusic, #ClaudeDebussy, #DaphneBuan, #DmitriShostakovich, #EmeritusProfessor, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FlorentSchmitt, #FluteMusic, #FreeAdmission, #FridayNoonMusicale, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GraduateStudent, #GraduateWork, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HandelOpera, #HandelOratorio, #HighSchool, #HighSchoolSingersShowcase, #JamesSmith, #JosephRoss, #KarlosMoser, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MadisonWestHighSchool, #MadisonYouthChoirs, #MarilynChohaney, #McFarlandHighSchool, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MiddletonHighSchool, #MusicEducation, #MusicTeacher, #OakwoodChamberPlayers, #OperaAria, #OperaDuet, #OratorioAria, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #SalonMusic, #SarahBrailey, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VeronaHighSchool, #VeronaWisconsin, #VirginiaMorgan, #VocalDuet, #WisconsinBadgerAllStateChoir, #WisconsinSchoolMusicAssociation, #YoungArtists, #YouTubevideo, Agrippina, Allana Beilke, Arnold Bax, Artistic director, Arts, audience, audition, Ava DeCroix, awards, Badger, Baroque, blog, Capitol Lakes, Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, career, Cecilia League, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, choral music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Daphne Buan, Debussy, director, duet, Early music, ensemble, Facebook, festival, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Florent Schmitt, flute, flutist, forward, free, Friday, Friday Noon Musicale, George Frideric Handel, graduate student, Handel Aria Competition, high school, High School Singers Showcase, honors, Jacob Stockinger, James Smith, Joseph Ross, Joshua, Karlos Moser, L'Allegro, like, link, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Chorus, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison West High School, Madison Youth Choirs, Marilyn Chohaney, McFarland, McFarland High School, member, membership, mezzo-sorpano, Middleton, Middleton High School, Music, Music education, music teacher, new, Oakwood Chamber Players, opera, Opera aria, oratorio, performer, Pianist, Piano, post, posting, professor, program, repertoire, Retirement, salon music, Sarah Brailey, scholarship, Semele, Shostakovich, singer, solo, Solomon, soprano, state, Student, tag, Teacher, title, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music, Verona, Verona High School, Virginia Morgan, vocal music, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Badger All State Choir, Wisconsin School Music Association, won, young, young people, YouTube
Classical music: On Thanksgiving Day, what composer or piece of music do you give thanks for?
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ALERT: This morning, Wisconsin Public Radio will air not only music that is appropriate for Thanksgiving, but also performances by students marking the 50th anniversary of the Wisconsin School Music Association.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2018.
And today’s post is a simple one where readers can do the work.
The Ear simply wants to know: What composer or what piece of music do you give thanks for?
And why?
That doesn’t mean it is the only composer or work you give thanks for.
And anything is allowed.
You could name a famous composer such as Johann Sebastian Bach (below) or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven or Johannes Brahms. Or you could name a one of the many neglected composers.
You could also name a big work such as a symphony by Gustav Mahler or Anton Bruckner, or an opera by Giuseppe Verdi or Richard Wagner. Or you could name a small work, maybe a song by Franz Schubert or a prelude by Frederic Chopin (below).
The music itself does not have to relate to the Thanksgiving holiday.
All that matters is that you recognize the role that important music plays in your life and that you give an example of what music you are especially grateful for – perhaps with a YouTube link to a performance that adds to our sampler.
That’s it.
The Ear wants to hear.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Musical Thanksgiving!
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Classical music: Today is Thanksgiving. Famed New York City radio station WQXR offers its Top 5 musical expressions of giving thanks. Plus, Wisconsin Public Radio has lots of holiday fare to listen to.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2015.
Music is such a part of Thanksgiving Day, from hymns and songs, solo music and chamber music, symphonies and oratorios.
Today, Wisconsin Public Radio will feature a lot of music with the theme of Thanksgiving and giving thanks.
And from 10 until noon, will also feature band, choral and instrumental music from the Honors Concerts of the Wisconsin School Music Association. That involves middle school and high schools students from around the state.
Then from noon to 3 p.m. there is a special National Public Radio (NPR) program for Thanksgiving that includes the British pianist Stephen Hough, who has performed several times in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater and with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and who also held master classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. (The NPR show features music and stories, and will also include Chris Kimball of the popular TV show and magazine America’s Test Kitchen, which he is leaving because of a contract dispute. By the way, you can stream Wisconsin Public Radio,)
But you might also be interested to stream some other music. WQXR, the famed classical music radio station in New York City, has put together the Top 5 musical expressions of giving thanks. The website has audio and visual performances of the works that you can stream.
Here is a link:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/top-five-expressions-thanks-classical-music/
And if you have other ideas about music that is appropriate for Thanksgiving this year, please leave them in the COMMENT section, preferably with a YouTube link if possible.
The Ear wants to hear.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
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Classical music: The centennial of British composer Benjamin Britten was Friday. Here are three fine appreciations of him and his music. Plus, you can watch the State High School Honors Concerts today and Monday on Wisconsin Public Television.
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ALERT: Wisconsin‘s finest young musicians (below) unite for one of the most rewarding musical experiences of their lives. Wisconsin School Music Association’s (WSMA) High School State Honors Concerts were recorded Oct. 24, 2013 at Madison’s Overture Center. The show is part of the Young Performers Initiative to celebrate Wisconsin’s young performers and those who inspire them. The hour-long special airs this afternoon at 5 p.m. and Monday night at 8 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Television’s main channel and also on alternative The Wisconsin Channel. For more information about other air times and channels, here is a link: http://wptschedule.org/episodes/44717914/2013-State-Honors-Concerts/
By Jacob Stockinger
No one could blame you if you missed the centennial of British composer Benjamin Britten (below).
After all, the Britten celebration was largely overshadowed by the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which also fell on this past Friday, Nov. 22.
But Benjamin Britten was a great composer, for more reason than many of us realize.
Here are three essays – two from NPR and one from The New York Times – that I found particularly helpful and insightful, especially the detailed explanations by Baltimore Symphony Orchesrra conductor Marin Alsop (below) explanation to Scott Simon of Britten’s “War Requiem” (see the YouTube video at the bottom) and her three points about what makes Britten so important and unique. (Be sure to listen to the longer program rather than read the short text):
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/11/14/245211949/act-like-you-know-benjamin-britten
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/arts/music/the-village-that-benjamin-britten-never-left.html?_r=0
Do you have a favorite piece by Benjamin Britten?
What is it and why is it a favorite?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Britten, Britten, Friday, Jacob Stockinger, Marin Alsop, New York Times, NPR, Overture Center, Scott Simon, United States, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin School Music Association, YouTube
Classical music: This is no April Fools’ Day joke. Wisconsin Public Television will broadcast the duo-pianists Naughton Twins with the Madison Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday night, tomorrow, at 7 p.m. (NOT 8, as mistakenly listed previously). Also, the U-Madison hosts 2 free public masterclasses for singers on Wednesday afternoon.
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An ALERT for singers and singing fans: On Wednesday, April 3, guest artist soprano Judith Kellock, a Professor of Voice at Cornell University, will hold voice master classes from 1:15-3:15 p.m. and 3:30-5 p.m. Both classes are in Music Hall, and are free and open to the public.
Kellock (below) has been featured with the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and many more. As a recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts recitalist fellowship, Kellock has sung major operatic roles in Italy and Greece, toured with the Opera Company of Boston and performed with the Mark Morris Dance Company at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. For more information, visit: http://www.judithkellock.com/
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is April Fools’ Day. But this is no joke.
Tomorrow, on Tuesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. (NOT 8-9, as I mistakenly said earlier), Wisconsin Public Television will broadcast the concert by the twin sister pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
To The Ear, in fact, it seems a win-win.
Or maybe even a win-win-win.
It is a win for Wisconsin Public Television, which continues to make good on its promise to cover more music and other arts as part of its new Young Performers Initiative.
It is a win for the twin sisters, Christina and Michelle Naughton (below and at bottom in a YouTube video) who were raised in Madison and studied with UW-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor before heading off to the Curtis Institute of Music where they graduated and have now started a career as acclaimed duo-pianists with lots of bookings and a first CD for the Orfeo label.
And it is a win for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, which featured the two sisters last fall in the beautiful and spunky Concerto for Two Pianos by Francis Poulenc.
It was a terrific concert. I know because I heard it. The Poulenc — it has a sublimely Mozartean middle slow movement — is as great as it is difficult, and the two sisters performed it to impressive perfection, as well as part of Darius Milhaud’s infectiously Latin “Scaramouche” Suite as an encore.
Here is a Q&A the twin sisters did for this blog about themselves and the whole concert, which featured Kodaly’s “Dances of Galanta” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 (“The Great”) of which probably only excerpts will be heard on the TV:
And here is a link to the Naughton Sisters official website:
http://www.christinaandmichellenaughton.com
But it should be impressive event, even with excerpts.
If the camera work from other similar events – like the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society at the Stoughton Opera House (below top), the Honors Concerts of the Wisconsin School Music Association (below bottom) and the MSO Final Forte Competition for students – viewers are in for a treat.
So a few big shout-outs go to WPT’s James Steinbach and his crew; to MSO maestro John DeMain and the players of the orchestra; and of course to the Naughton Twins who made the concert a real musical Homecoming for Madison-area listeners and now viewers.
Tags: April Fools Day, Christina and Michelle Naughton, Christopher Taylor, Cornell University, Curtis Institute of Music, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Franz Schubert, John DeMain, Juilliard, Kodaly, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Opera Company of Boston, St. Louis Symphony, Stoughton Opera House, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin School Music Association, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Happy Thanksgiving! What composer, music or performer are you grateful for? Plus, the Pro Arte Quartet repeats the FREE but fantastic opening concert of its complete Beethoven cycle this Sunday afternoon
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ALERT: One of the Thanksgiving traditions for music fans is that from 10 a.m. to noon today, Wisconsin Public Radio will again broadcast highlights from this year’s honors concerts by choirs, bands and orchestras from the Wisconsin School Music Association. Music education is something to give thanks for. You can hear middle school and high school student performers from around the state as well as WPR’s usual Thanksgiving offerings of American composers and music, and then special Thanksgiving programs about gratitude.
By Jacob Stockinger
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today – Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019 – is Thanksgiving Day.
It was Sergei Rachmaninoff (below) who once remarked, “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
How true, how true.
There is such a wealth of composers, works and performers — going back many centuries — that we can be grateful for. In the Comment section, The Ear wants to hear from you about what one you would name — with a YouTube link, if possible.
But this year he has his own choice: the “Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving” – by Beethoven (below), who used it as a movement in his late String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132.
You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom, where the playing of the four string instruments also gets an interesting and fascinating graphic depiction of its structure.
The composer wrote this sublime and other-worldy music when he recovered from what he thought was a life-threating illness.
But with the Beethoven Year of 2020 fast approaching – along with celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth – The Ear has another reason for his choice.
If you missed last Friday’s superb FREE opening concert of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet (below, in the new Collins Recital Hall of the Hamel Music Center), you have a chance to catch a second performance this coming Sunday afternoon, Dec. 1. (Members, below left are David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.)
From 12:30 to 2 p.m. the Pro Arte will performance the same program – and ultimately the complete cycle of six concerts — for Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen. You can attend it in person for FREE in Brittingham Gallery 3 (below) of the museum or you can stream it live.
Here are links to the program and to the streaming portal and the program: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen11/
https://c.streamhoster.com/embed/media/O7sBNG/OS1C0ihJsYK/iqf1vBMs3qg_5
And here is a link to the complete schedule of the Beethoven string quartet cycle, done over the next 14 months, by the Pro Arte Quartet, which includes background on the Pro Arte. You’ll notice, by the way, that the Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving will be performed on the program for next Oct. 2:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/11/19/classical-music-this-friday-night-nov-22-the-uw-madisons-pro-arte-quartet-starts-its-beethoven-cycle-of-the-complete-16-string-quartets-here-are-the-dates-times-venues-and-programs-for/
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