The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The worldwide virtual and online gala fundraiser for the Handel Aria Competition starts today and runs through Oct. 1. Donations will be matched up to $2,000
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post from Orange and Dean Schroeder, the co-founders of the now well-established Handel Aria Competition.
As you may already know, the in-person competition has been postponed until 2021.
The Schroeders say that a virtual online competition for this year was considered, but then dismissed. It would have been too risky to the health of the singers, many of whom have to travel nationally and internationally to compete, and to the accompanying players from the Madison Bach Musicians.
The sound quality also did not meet the standards that the organizers say is necessary to do justice to competitors. Some of the performances are from past competitions But others are new and were done at home during lockdowns.
Perhaps most important of all, the Schroeders wanted to raise money to help the young competitors, whose careers have suffered from concert cancellations during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is the message:
“Today – Thursday, Sept. 10 — is the start of the Handel Aria Competition’s Virtual Gala to raise funds for our past finalists. It will start at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
“The program includes performances by Morgan Balfour, Elisa Sutherland, Chelsea Shephard, Sarah Coit, Andrew Rader, Nola Richardson, Amanda Achen, Jonathan Woody (singing an aria from “Messiah” in the YouTube video at the bottom), Sarah Moyer, Corrine Byrne, Margaret Fox, Gene Stenger, Emily Yocum Black, Sarah Hayashi, Daniel Moody, Christina Kay, Jacob Scharfman, Brian Giebler and Kristin Knutson.
A performance by the Handel Aria Competition’s director and UW-Madison graduate student soprano Sarah Brailey (below) with Luthien Brackett and the musicians from the Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra in New York City is the finale.
“People around the world can watch it on our Facebook page Handel Aria Competition; on YouTube; or on our website at https://handelariacompetition.org.
“It will be available for viewing from 7:30 p.m. CDT today, Sept. 10, through Thursday, Oct. 1 — NOT Oct. 10 as mistakenly stated above.
“It is FREE but donations are encouraged to support the singers during Covid-19.
“Viewers can donate via Facebook or through our website. All funds will go to the singers, including a challenge grant of $2,000 that Dean and I have pledged in order to encourage others to support these talented young artists.
“The Handel Aria Competition Virtual Gala is supported by funds from Dane Arts and the Madison Arts Commission with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.”
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Classical music education: Before leaving for a festival in Scotland, the Madison Youth Choirs boy choirs will give a FREE send-off concert on Tuesday night. It features the world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Scott Gendel
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
This July, 55 members of Madison Youth Choirs’ boy choirs will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland to sing in the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Arts, a new celebration of talented young performers from across the world. (Below is the Britten boy choir.)
The festival will continue the legacy of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (below), a tradition which had been running nearly 50 years when it was cancelled in late 2017 after Aberdeen city councilors withdrew its funding, citing budgetary concerns.
A groundswell of local and global support for the festival led to the creation of a new event, hosted by the Aberdeen Multicultural Center, which will continue to offer world-class performing opportunities for young artists.
In order to ensure that every eligible singer, including those whose families face significant financial challenges, had the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary experience, MYC undertook a major fundraising effort for the Scotland Tour Scholarship Fund, led by a generous anonymous benefactor who offered to double every dollar donated up to a total of $10,000. In total, 107 individual donors contributed to the fund, raising $20,224 to support the young singers’ journey.
Prior to their departure to Scotland, the MYC boys will present a send-off concert on Tuesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison. The concert is FREE and open to the public, but donations at the door will be accepted.
The concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by UW-Madison graduate and Madison composer Scott Gendel (below), “For That Alone,” which combines text from Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” with text from a work that may have inspired it, the “Declaration of Arbroath,” written in 1320 to assert Scotland’s independence.
The full list of repertoire includes:
“Sumer is icumen in,” Anonymous, mid-13th century
“O là, o che bon echo” by Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
“No che non morira” (from Tito Manlio) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
“Bar’chu” by Salamon Rossi (c. 1570-1630)
“Il est bel et bon” by Pierre Passereau (fl. 1509-1547)
“Hopkinton” by William Billings (1746-1800)
“The Pasture” (from Frostiana) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
“Gloria Tibi” (from Mass) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“II. Adonai ro-I” from Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“For That Alone” (world premiere) by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)
“Chorus of Street Boys” from Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
“Weevily Wheat,” American play-party song, arr. Krunnfusz
“The Plough Boy,” Traditional, arranged by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) You can hear it for solo tenor with piano in the YouTube video at the bottom.
“Rustics and Fishermen” (from Gloriana) by Benjamin Britten
“I Will Howl” by Timothy Takach (b. 1978)
“Fugue for Tinhorns” (from Guys and Dolls) by Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
“Bonse Aba,” Traditional Zambian
“Birdsong” by Heather Masse, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Revelation 19:1” by Jeffrey LaValley
“Anthem” (from Chess) by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Tim Rice, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Will Ye No Come Back Again,” Traditional Scottish, arranged by Randal Swiggum
For more information about the Madison Youth Choirs, including how to join them and how to support them, go to:
https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org
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Classical music education: Can you pass NPR’s Bach Puzzler? Also Wednesday night is the FREE concert and live broadcasts of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Final Forte concert of high school students in the teenage concerto competition.
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By Jacob Stockinger
HAPPY BELATED BACH BIRTHDAY
For The Ear, Sunday morning is always Bach Time.
True, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below) is good to listen to anytime of the day or night. And indeed on Friday, which as Bach’s actual birthday in 1685, the commercial station Sirius XM radio played all-Bach while Wisconsin Public Radio played generous helping of Bach.
But something about the Baroque style and about Bach’s music in particular, beyond its religious or theological aspects, seems especially suited to morning and especially to Sunday morning. (Am I alone in that feeling?)
That is when I especially love to listen to a cantata, a violin or keyboard concerto, some of the solo suites for violin, cello and piano. It just feels right for Sunday morning.
So, go ahead: Celebrate Bach’s birthday today, even if it is a bit belated. What piece of Bach do you most love to listen to? Tell The Ear in the COMMENT section.
And while you are at it, try taking the Bach Puzzler quiz that appeared on NPR. It asks 10 questions about Bach’s music and life, and teaches you things you might not know. The Ear scored 9 out of 10. He’s betting many of you can do better.
Here is a link:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/03/21/291393250/wig-out-with-the-big-bach-puzzler
THE FINAL FORTE
This coming Wednesday night, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will hold the 2014 edition of the annual Final Forte in Overture Hall at the Overture Center.
The FREE concert, under the baton of University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music guest conductor James Smith (below), who is filling in for John DeMain, features performances by the four finalists (two other rounds have already been completed) for the Bolz Young Artist Competition -– in other words, a teenage concerto competition.
It will start at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast LIVE over Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio.
To add to the excitement, right after the performances are over, and while the orchestra plays on its own, the judges will caucus and vote, and the winners and prize placements will then be determined and announced.
PLEASE NOTE: Those attending the performance in person must be in their seats by 6:45 p.m. And they must make reservations by calling the MSO at (608) 257-3734.
The four young artists competing are (below, from left to right, in photo by James Gill):
Violinist David Cao, 15, who attends James Madison Memorial High School in Madison and who will play the first movement of the Violin Concerto in D Minor by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
Violinist Bethany Moss, 17, is a senior home-schooled in Appleton, Wisconsin. He will perform the third movement of the Violin Concerto in B Minor by French composer Camille Saint-Saens.
Pianist Bobby Levinger, 17 is a senior at Central High School in LaCrosse. He will play the first movement of the Piano Concerto in A Minor by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
Marimba player Ephraim Sutherland, 15, is a sophomore at Viroqua High School. He will perform the Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra by French composer Emmanuel Sejourne. (You can hear the first movement in a YouTube video at the bottom)
In case you have to miss the Final Forte this Wednesday night, you can always record it. But there will also be encore broadcasts of the competition.
For more about these impressive sounding performers, including more complete biographies of them, and for broadcast dates and times, visit these two sites:
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/bolz
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/media/MSO_ScoreAprilMay_Web-1.pdf
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