May 2008
Introducing new Iowa music
This is the kick-off for a series of six consecutive posts highlighting the featured composers from a May 10 WCFSO concert celebrating 25 years of the Iowa Composers Forum. Many thanks to Ralph Kendrick of the ICF for his dedication to the project. Here's my introduction from the stage:
Introduction
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
Introducing Jonathan Chenette
When he's not busy writing witty, approachable music Jon Chenette is associate dean at Grinnell College. He'll be back with the WCFSO in October with an arrangement of Macapay for our mutual friends Calle Sur. This is the conclusion of Oh Millersville!, from which the WCFSO performed five movements with Susan Bender on May 10.
Jonathan Chenette – Before the Looking Glass from Oh Millersville! [1992], conclusion featuring Susan Bender, vocalist
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
Introducing Michael Gilbertson
Michael Gilberston is currently studying composition at Juilliard. He's originally from Dubuque, Iowa and wrote Polovitsia as a teenager there and at Tanglewood.
Michael Gilbertson – Polovitsia: Music to an Imaginary Ballet [2005], excerpt
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
Introducing Brooke Joyce
Brooke Joyce is currently on faculty at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. October Skies, his concertino for piano and small orchestra, is drawn from an earlier work of the same title for flute quartet; at the conclusion of this version the ensemble melts away into an evocative passage with three offstage flutes trailing the meanderings of the piano.
Brooke Joyce – October Skies [2005], conclusion featuring Sean Botkin, piano
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
Introducing Jeremy Beck
Sinfonietta by Jeremy Beck is a four-movement work for strings. Even though Jeremy no longer resides in Iowa [and couldn't make it to Cedar Falls for our ICF event due to an emergency] it has been a great pleasure to get to know him personally this year in his current hometown of Louisville.
Jeremy Beck – Sinfonietta [2000], 2nd movement
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
Sinfonietta is available on a recording by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Introducing Jerry Owen
Jerry Owen is the elder stateman of our composer group from May 10. He has been a member of the Iowa Composers Forum for several decades and is recently retired from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, where he led the symphony orchestra in addition to teaching theory and composition. I've had the opportunity to perform Jerry's work on a number of occasions; May 10 was our first go around with Glee at the WCFSO.
Jerry Owen – Glee: A Concert Overture [1985], conclusion
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, May 10, 2008
New art? Can do
A collection of postings are on the way this weekend highlighting new music created in Iowa. In the meantime check out some new visual art in progress in a somewhat more urban setting, courtesy of artist Bansky and The Cans Festival.
Here are more photos.
Mastodons of the music industry
The record business wallows in [or, is now finally indistiguishable from] the La Brea tar pits. Once again, the Ramber has plenty to say in a handful of words.
Ace
Robert Rauschenberg, the 'ace' of American art in the second half of the 20th century, has died at age 82.
Ace
Robert Rauschenberg, 1962
Digital debut
Honda's mechanical maestro debuted with the Detroit Symphony last night. Morning Edition was there.
Met Chorale, WCFSO on air
Broadcast – My March 1, 2008 concert with the WCFSO featuring the Metropolitan Chorale and vocalists John Hines and Rosemary Gast will air on Iowa Public Radio's Symphonies of Iowa series tonight at 8:00 pm and Thursday evening, May 15 at the same time. [As always, time given is local.]
Just another day at the office
This was my day on May 8, 2008:
9:30 am – Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokofiev & Copland in concert at Buechel Metro High School in Louisville. [See High School Musical Orchestra]
7:30 pm – Gilbertson, Chenette, Beck, Joyce, Owen in rehearsal with the WCFSO ahead of our Iowa Composer's Forum celebration this weekend.
I cannot imagine a more rewarding way to finish my concert season – in front of two very different audiences, each experiencing wonderful music for the first time.
High School Musical Orchestra
This week I am in a variety of Louisville-area high schools, working with music students and leading the LO in a special program at two unique campuses.
On Monday I rehearsed with members of the JCPS [Johnson County Public Schools] All-County Orchestra at the Youth Performing Arts School. A group of students from this year's All-County ensemble will be performing for their peers this week as part of the LO's second side-by-side project of the season.
Tuesday morning brought me to Brian Powell's orchestra room at Eastern High School, one of the largest high schools in Kentucky, where I rehearsed Grieg and Grainger with Brian's excellent freshman strings and full string ensemble. Good luck to the Eastern HS Orchestra on their concert next week!
Tomorrow afternoon the LO performs at Atherton High School. Early in 20o8 I connected with the school's large group of music students and answered their questions about the life of a professional musician.
We close out our week of high school programs on Thursday at Buechel High School, an alternative institution for students with disciplinary histories. Buechel students do not have access to a music program, but judging from the questions I fielded from them last winter they do have plenty of musical curiosity.
Yom Hashoah
This week I am taking part in two major Yom Hashoah events in Iowa for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2008. Here are the details:
Holocaust Remembrance Day – Thursday, May 1, at 7 pm
The UNI Holocaust Remembrance and Education Program, in conjunction with the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Waterloo, presents a Holocaust Remembrance Day [Yom Hashoah] ceremony at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The ceremony, dedicated to the theme "Do Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht 1938," includes a featured speaker; musical performances by Jason Weinberger of the WCFSO [clarinet solo from Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time] and by Julia Bullard and Sean Botkin of UNI's School of Music [Ernest Bloch's Meditation and Processional]; readings by clergy of different faiths; and candle lighting. This event is also sponsored by the Cedar Valley Interfaith Council, the Catholic Parishes of Waterloo, and the UNI College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
Know The Score LIVE! – Friday, May 2 at 5 pm
Know the Score features a special evening of remembrances and live musical performance for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2008. NBC newsman Tom Brokaw discusses his recent book Boom and reflects on the people he met and stories he heard when researching The Greatest Generation; Arthur Canter will speak of his experiences as a US soldier entering the concentration camp Mauthausen at the end of the war; Christopher Merrill of the International Writing Program will read literary selections related to the period; and Jason Weinberger will share his family's personal story of suffering and survival during the Holocaust. Weinberger will also be joined by members of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony for a live performance of the stunning WWII-era chamber work by Olivier Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time. Joan Kjaer hosts this program. Attend the event at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, or listen live on Iowa Public Radio KSUI and KHKE. The entire program will be rebroadcast on all stations of Iowa Public Radio Classical, May 3, 10 am- 12 pm.
Update: I forgot to include a link to this article by Alex Ross on the Messiaen. More great reading on this topic – Rebecca Rifkin's book on the quartet.
Judaica
The first post of each month offers favorite links grouped around a non-musical theme. I'll be performing for several Holocaust Remembrance Day events in the next few days – May's links draw on my perspective as a Jewish-American grandchild of survivors.
Jews with Hogs, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Frederic Brenner, 1994
Nextbook Contemporary Jewish perspectives
Socalled Klezmer meets hip hop
Milken Archive Explorations in Jewish-American music
Music of Remembrance Memory in sound
Eldridge Street In the neighborhood where my mother grew up