Tag: Classical Music

Tuning In: Popular tunes even infiltrated ‘pure’ classical music | ETC

Posted on


We received multiple complaints from listeners recently when we broadcast music performed by the Vitamin String Quartet. They’re a standard string quartet in terms of instrumentation, but they play their own arrangements of pop songs.

Interlochen Arts Academy’s popular music ensemble was giving a concert that week featuring arena rock songs, so we thought we’d help promote the event by playing classical versions of songs by Queen and Bon Jovi.

Another listener was very upset that IPR broadcast a story about Lizzo playing James Madison’s flute during a recent concert in Washington, D.C.

Lizzo is a pop artist, sure, but she’s also a classically trained flutist who had spent the day of the concert at the Library of Congress exploring a curated collection of historical flutes.

What these two strong, negative responses have in common is the sense of separation that people want to maintain between popular music and classical music.

The smarty pants in me wonders if that means classical music has to be unpopular.

The historian in me knows that the Vitamin String Quartet is just one example in a long line of classical musicians drawing on popular music favorites.

The distance between “popular” and “classical” music isn’t nearly as spacious as I think some people wish it was — that’s true now, and it’s true historically.

Beethoven composed more than 20 sets of piano variations (also called theme and variations), the vast majority of which used a popular song of the time as the theme. It’s akin to writing a set of variations on the latest trending Taylor Swift or, yes, Lizzo song.

Brahms jammed his Academic Festival Overture full of melodies from popular drinking songs of the era like “Gaudeamus Igitur,” or “Therefore, let us be merry.”

Renaissance composers frequently wrote masses whose melodies were based on popular songs of the day. Dozens of composers wrote masses — performed in churches — based on “L’homme armé,” a French secular tune that was a favorite of Charles the Bold.

There’s plenty of historical precedent for overlap between “popular” and classical (unpopular?) music.

So why do people find it so off-putting when Classical IPR has the occasional pop tune or artist on the air performed with classical instrumentation?

Someone asked me recently why Classical IPR had stopped playing “pure” classical music in recent years. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

The smarty pants in me wanted to say, “Puri? Like the choral composer Stefan Puri?”

The historian in me wanted to raise the alarm about the terrible things that have happened in American and global history in the name of keeping institutions, music, art and populations “pure.”

Instead, I said, “What do you mean by ‘pure’ classical?”

They responded, “You know, Beethoven and Brahms.”

The smarty pants in me wanted to say, “Oh, like, Beethoven’s variations on the song ‘Es war einmal ein alter Mann,’ or ‘Once upon a time there was an old man’?”

Instead, I said, “Thanks for your feedback.”





Source link

Nov. 15 classical music lecture postponed | News

Posted on


The White Lake Chamber Music Society’s planned Nov. 15 lecture on classical composers Bach, Mozart and Beethoven has been postponed after scheduled speaker Robert Swan tested positive for COVID-19.

The reschedule date has not been determined yet.

Swan, a retired violist from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is from Norwalk, Conn. and graduated from Indiana University’s music school before a long and successful career. He is currently a White Lake Chamber Music Society board member.

“I thought that nothing could ever stop me from talking about this trio that has so enriched my life, but then COVID came along and struck me,” Swan said in a statement. “There is no way that I can prepare for this talk feeling the way I do so forgive me for having to postpone it. We will reschedule with promises of great inspired music to come.”



Source link

Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis brings classical Bach arrangements to UGA | Arts & Culture

Posted on


On Oct. 27, the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall welcomed a group all the way from Belgium. The visiting music ensemble, Vox Luminis, performed multiple songs in German of different generations of Bach composers, following the famous family tree.

After its establishment in 2004, the group has acquired many great feats including the 2012 Recording of the Year award at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards, Klara Ensemble of the Year in 2018, BBC Music Magazine Choral Award Winner in 2018 and another Gramophone Award in the choral category in 2019.

The group that performed on Thursday included 10 singers and seven musicians.

Founder and artistic director of Vox Luminis, French conductor and bass singer Lionel Meunier, is highly acclaimed as an artistic leader in historical performance and choral music.

The coveted classical performance was originally scheduled to run in October 2020, but was canceled twice. Finally, the group was able to visit Georgia on their tour of North America, to the delight of symphonic listeners in Athens.

Carl and Mimi Schmidt, a retired elementary school principal and retired teacher, respectively, said they were very excited to attend the show.

“We love all the things that are part of the Baroque period,” a 17th century era of western classical music style, Mimi Schmidt said. “Bach was a real dynamo.” The couple has been attending shows at UGA’s Performing Arts Center for roughly 20 years.

One piece the group performed, “Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death,” included the unique theorbo, a type of string instrument with a long neck.

“The chord progressions of the different pieces were performed very well and their voices were kept clean, even while using different chord progressions,” Daniel Boscan, a freshman studying viola performance at UGA, said.

Boscan also noted how unique it is for Vox Luminis to play older, rarer instruments such as the viola da gamba, the violone and the theorbo.

A total of six traditional musical renditions of Johann Sebastian Bach and his forebears along with pieces by Dietrich Buxtehude were performed at UGA’s Performing Arts Center. The vocal soloists and timeless instruments alongside the eccentric pieces combined into a hauntingly alluring recital.



Source link

AROUND CAPE ANN: Love letters focus of Olson lecture | News

Posted on


The work of the late Charles Olson, a 20th century American poet who made Gloucester his home, still makes ripples around the world.

In that spirit, the annual Charles Olson Lecture will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. at the Cape Ann Museum auditorium at 27 Pleasant St., in downtown Gloucester. The talk is free to the public but reservations are required. The lecture also will be live-streamed on Facebook and Vimeo.

The featured speaker will be Sharon Thesen, a poet and scholar, who will give a talk titled “Olson & Love: The Transformative Correspondence of Charles Olson and Frances Boldereff.” Thesen will talk about working with Ralph Maud on the pair’s correspondence for which there are two editions: “A Modern Correspondence,” published by Wesleyan in 1999, and “After Completion: The Later Letters,” published in 2014.

“In this lecture, Thesen will show how Olson’s love affair with Frances Boldereff set his compass intellectually in his move toward the recovery of what could be found in the archaic as a guide or inspiration for a new poetics,” according to the museum.

Thesen, who grew up in western Canada, attended Simon Fraser University in British Columbia where she studied poetry with Robin Blaser, George Bowering, and Maud. She later began teaching English and creative writing. This lecture is presented in collaboration with the Gloucester Writers Center.

Olson, a literary giant in the post-modern realm, created a personal library of massive proportions at his home at 28 Fort Square in Gloucester. That library is now housed at the University of Connecticut, along with other Olson papers. Maud created a near duplicate of Olson’s library, which was later given to the Gloucester Writers Center. Earlier this year, the Gloucester Writers Center donated the Maud/Olson Library to the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives. This is a collection of 4,000 volumes owned, read, or referenced by Charles Olson. The library is now housed within the Janet & William Ellery James Center at the CAM Green.

To mark this new acquisition, the museum will offer a tour of the Maud/Olson Library at the CAM Green,13 Poplar St., on Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. The library is situated next to the Vincent Ferrini Library. Attendees registered for the 1 p.m. talk are welcome to join the tour at 11 a.m. To register and for more details, visit capeannmuseum.org.

Halloween party

The Knowles Halloween Bash, open to the public, takes place Thursday, Oct. 27, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Gloucester Elks, at 101 Atlantic Road on Gloucester’s Back Shore. Costumes encouraged for those wanting to dress up but are not required. There will be food, cash bar and live music from Tregony Bow. Tickets are $20. For details and advance tickets, go to Kenneth J. Knowles’ Facebook page. Tickets also at the door.

Musicians Unleashed

Cape Ann Symphony announces the return of its popular Musicians Unleashed Concert Series with its next performance, “American Classical Music,” on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church St., Gloucester.

“We wanted to put together a program of great music that reflects the vast and wide diversity of peoples and cultures that have made up and continue to make up our great country of America” said Cape Ann Symphony Conductor Yoichi Udagawa.

The concert program features an array of musical styles, from Dvorak to the Grateful Dead. Selections include works by Florence Price, Cape Ann Symphony Concertmaster and violinist Scott Moore, William Grant Still, and Rachel Grimes. The concert will be performed by Cape Ann Symphony violinist Erica Pisaturo, cellist Seth MacLeod and violist Brandon White as well as Moore.

Udagawa said he is thrilled that the audiences will get a chance to hear and meet the new concertmaster.

“Scott Moore is a fabulous violinist who plays at an incredibly high level in all kinds of styles from classical music to Kentucky Bluegrass,” he said.

For more information and tickets, visit www.capeannsymphony.org.

NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner

The 2022 NPR Tiny Desk Contest winner, Alisa Amador, will perform on Friday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Old Sloop Presents performing arts series, held at the handicap-accessible Fellowship Hall of the First Congregational Church of Rockport, 12 School St.

Amador’s music is known for its synthesis of many styles, including rock, jazz, funk and alternative folk, wrapped in the spirit of Latin music. NPR’s Cyrena Touros calls her “a pitch-perfect rendition of my wildest dreams.”

The opener will be Hayley Sabella, who was born in Massachusetts but raised in Nicaragua. She won the 2019 New England Songwriting Competition.

For tickets and information, visit oldslooppresents.org.

Classic films, live music

The Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation presents an afternoon of classic silent movies this Sunday, Oct. 30, at 3 pm. at the Gloucester Meetinghouse at the corner of Church and Middle streets with live keyboard accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis.

This family-friendly afternoon will feature three works from the early era of cinematic history presented on a large screen with Rapsis infusing his interpretations of this lost technique. The films, with non-stop action and knee-slapping comedy routines, were selected for their wide appeal.

The films are:

“The Haunted House” (1921) with Buster Keaton. A gang of robbers, a crooked bank manager, and a bank teller converge on a booby-trapped house decorated to appear haunted in order to fool the authorities. A series of uproarious encounters between the antagonists leaves the audience wondering who the true villain really is.

“The Floorwalker” (1916) with Charlie Chaplin in his signature role as “The Tramp.” This early comedy features “gags galore” with an early version of an attempt to run down the up escalator and one character mirroring the movements of another.

“The Kid” (1921), which was written and directed by Chaplin. He plays the role of “The Tramp” who cares for a young boy whose mother left him for adoption. The three’s lives become intertwined in this heartwarming story of reconciliation.

Tickets are available online at www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org, or at the door. General seating $15; students with ID $5; children under 12 free.

Yellow Brick Road party

The Studio restaurant, at 51 Rocky Neck Ave. in Gloucester, will close out the season by presenting a Wizard of Oz-themed Halloween event on Sunday, Oct. 30, when the team will be decked out as their favorite characters. The event runs from 11:30 a.m. to midnight.

“At Smith Cove’s own Emerald City, country crooner Annie Brobst will serenade scarecrows from 6 to 9 p.m. while the bar mixes up some potent potions,” according to a press release. Some of those libations feature The Studio’s “Oz-twist” on a rum runner, or a “Brain Shot” made with peach schnapps, Bailey’s Irish Cream and grenadine.

In an added note, the restaurant team is rallying around a fund-raiser by Sal Valenti, the sous chef, whose 10-month old dog, Trager, needs an unexpected surgery on his leg estimated to cost $8,000. To help defray the costs, a baseball signed by recent Hall of Fame inductee David “Big Papi” Ortiz as well as a signed Patriots jersey by running back LeGarrette Blount will be auctioned off. Both items will be available for bidding onsite on Oct. 30. There is a fundraiser page also on Sal Valenti’s Facebook page.

Irish folk singer

Tommy Sands, an Irish troubadour and peace activist, is performing “Music of Peace and Healing” at First Church in Ipswich, at 1 Meetinghouse Green, on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m. This is a free presentation of the House of Peace in Ipswich.

Gloucester’s Michael O’Leary, vocals, and Carol McIntyre, harp, will open the program; Pierce Woodward, fiddle, and Harry Wagg, guitar, will welcome concertgoers with a set of fiddle tunes in the foyer before the show. For more information, visit www.houseofpeaceinc.org.

Around Cape Ann is a column devoted to events happening on Cape Ann and artists from Cape Ann performing elsewhere. If you would like to submit an item, contact reporter Gail McCarthy at 978-675-2706 or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com at least two weeks in advance.





Source link

Early Music Tapestry from Early Music Now

Posted on


Early Music Now began its season in a lovely and moving concert last Saturday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Tapestry is a venture that has cast of four singers, and their program, “Faces of a Woman,” was entirely of music written by European and American women. Composers ranged from Hidegard von Bingen, who wrote in the 12th century, to music composed in recent decades.

This was a thoughtful and artful idea. Much of the music was contemplative in spirit, and by nature of the period it was almost all sacred.

The four singers sang with unfussiness and beautifully controlled tone, either in solo, duet, or ensemble. Cristi Cass, Laurie Monahan, Daniela TosiI and Deborah Rentz-Moore were often by joined by Laura Jeppesen on vielle and rebec. It was good to hear the spoken narrative, which helped greatly with the comprehension of this intricate concert. 

It was great to see the loyal Early Music Now crowd there. Not as many people as normal, but still a respectable showing. A post-pandemic factor, likely? I love how this audience listens so carefully. That’s not always true at a concert, as we know.





Source link

Florentine Opera Returns to the Stage with ‘Roméo et Juliette’

Posted on


The last time I saw the Charles Gounod opera Roméo et Juliette I didn’t really like the opera. Shakespeare operatic adaptations rarely work. But the Florentine Opera production of last weekend gave me a new appreciation for it.

A good cast helped a great deal. Emily Pogorelz, who great up metro Milwaukee, was a fresh and young Juliet. Her singing settled in and made some gorgeous sounds. The potion scene brought out her talents as a sing actor. Tenor Duke Kim’s Romeo was very well sung, with high notes that were at times breathtaking. Romeo doesn’t a great solo scene, but his acting was creditable

The rest of the cast, especially Zachary Nelson as Mercutio, were solid in their parts. I very music liked the conducting of Franceso Milioto, who shows sensitivity to phrasing with the singers. The chorus sounded at their best. 

The rented set was less interesting than the cast, unfortunately. 

I just wish more people had been there. It seems to be taking some time for audiences to come back to concerts and theater. 





Source link

Women in classical music struggle to balance career and family, study shows

Posted on


It is not uncommon for parents to have difficulty balancing career and family.

This is especially true for those working in classical music. A new British report reveals that 40% of them are considering a career change due to the difficulties they face in managing their professional and family lives.

Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA) and London’s Birkbeck University conducted in-depth interviews with 410 professionals in the industry to get an overview of their current state of mind. Based on the results of the survey, it seems clear that parents and carers are struggling to balance the demands of their musical career and family life.

Nearly a third of respondents (30%) say that their family obligations interfere with their professional opportunities, especially when they are self-employed.

“There are not enough hours in the day! Working as a self-employed musician with two children under five and a husband working a full time job is exhausting and very difficult to juggle,” said one survey respondent.

Other factors, such as the logistical and financial demands of touring and working away from home, as well as the lack of affordable childcare options, also contribute to the struggles of parents working in classical music. The result: 93% of those surveyed have turned down work due to caring responsibilities.

Women bearing the burden of parenthood

Unsurprisingly, women in classical music careers find it particularly difficult to balance these two aspects of their lives. This situation is reflected in the figures: self-employed women with children or relatives to support earn, on average, £12,000 a year (about RM65,000), compared to £20,000 (RM108,000) for their male counterparts.

The authors of the research also found that the arrival of a child sometimes represents a real obstacle to the career progression of professionals in the sector.

“My other half is a successful opera singer who has travelled frequently throughout our marriage. My own career has always taken second place, and throughout my working life, decisions surrounding my work have been influenced by their needs, or the needs of my children. I have never been able to immerse myself fully in furthering my career,” explains one respondent.

Given the scale of the issue, the study authors call on leaders in the sector to innovate so that parents and carers are no longer neglected. They put forward a number of ideas, such as the introduction of more flexible working hours to accommodate those with family responsibilities.

“To become truly inclusive, classical music requires a culture shift to address persistent inequalities (in the sector),” the researchers conclude. – AFP





Source link