Bridge over the Platte River. Photo by Nathan Cone.
Classical stations convene in Denver for annual PRPD Conference.
In September 2010, I attended the annual PRPD (Public Radio Program Directors) conference, held in Denver. Nearly 500 attendees from all over the country convened to discuss public radio’s future. The big topics at the conference included fostering an atmosphere of openness and inclusiveness within the public radio system to encourage diversity, and mobile technology’s role in the way people access public radio content.
Program Directors from several classical music stations gathered in a special session pre-conference, and one of the many breakout sessions at PRPD was about re-imagining the role of music services in public media.
Below are some of my notes and observations from the classical session:
Anya Grundmann of NPR Music noted the popularity of the still new NPR spinoff website. There were 70,000 page views last week. Chatting online during live performances has been a successful experiment. Similar to NPR.org, stations can partner with NPR Music through an API that will feed music content to their own sites, something KPAC hopes to be able to do in the not-too-distant future with our own web redesign. NPR Music is also interested in partnering with member stations for content creation, from performance audio/video to themed music streams, curated and hosted by member stations.
Frank Dominguez (WDAV) presented the “Concierto” service, a bilingual music program and stream similar to KPAC’s own Itinerarios program. KPBS picked it up for broadcast. Emphasis has been placed on conductors like Gustavo Dudamel, composers like Chavez or Ponce, and the fact that classical music isn’t just European or Anglo music, it’s your [=Latino audience’s] music. Dominguez says presenting bilingually for that brief program on WDAV represents an open door to the world of classical music for non-English speakers.
Also of interest to reaching a Latino audience, Classical South Florida has posted a lot of outdoor advertising—in Spanish—to reach Latino listeners. Their area is 50-50 Latino, and their audience registers 49% Latino, tracking similar to our own (46% of KPAC’s audience is Hispanic/Latino).
American Public Media debuted their “Classical Live” series of concerts. The idea is to look for the most interesting concerts happening in a particular month, and tell the story behind the concerts as well as hear the music. For example, Classical Live will broadcast Gustavo Dudamel’s opening concert with the LA Philharmonic on October 7 at 9pm Central; in January, the Nashville Symphony makes its post-flood return to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center; and also in January, the New World Symphony Hall in Miami is christened with the New World Symphony debut there. KPAC is excited to broadcast this live concert series.
There continued to be more discussion of ways classical stations can better engage their audiences and interact. Some stations have an Educational Outreach position on staff; other stations have dabbled with continuing education courses for adults in music appreciation. Young listeners enjoyed getting free station-branded hoodies or other swag from their public radio stations.
On the mobile tech front, some stations are beginning to develop station-branded apps for smart phones that do more than just play your station. WBUR allows listeners to suggest story ideas, donate through their phone, or access podcasts and more through their phone. What about for classical stations? Perhaps a mobile concert calendar with locations mapped out on your smart phone? All of these mobile apps and tech ideas take time to develop, and yes, money.
All in all, there was plenty of food for thought in Denver. But we’d like to know what *you* think. Comment on this blog post, or send your thoughts to me through email.
This week we highlight concerts from Mission Espada to the Callioux Theater!
Mostly Motets The San Antonio Chamber Choir starts their 2010-11 season with a concert celebrating the music of Heinrich Schutz, Brahms and Rindfleisch .
Fri, Oct 1 - 8 pm Mission Espada
Sat, Oct 2 - 8 pm Mission Espada
Sun, Oct 3 - 3 pm St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
Visit http://www.sachamberchoir.org/ for more information.
At the Helm Sebastian Lang Lessing starts his tenure as Music Director of the San Antonio Symphony Saturday night. On the program is Mahler's First Symphony, Brahms' “Lost Youth”, “In Silent Night”, “Evening Serenade” and Bizet's “Avec la garde montante”. The concert is sold out...but they begin their regular season next weekend, October 8 & 9 with Christopher Seaman, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Swann in a program including Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 2, "London". Find out more at SASymphony dot org.
If it's not Baroque Musical Bridges Around The World presents Mercury Baroque, a chamber ensemble from Houston, performs the opera “La Serva Padrona” by Giovanni Pergolesi staged with period costumes and furniture.
Also Edwin Colon Zayas - award-winning master of the Puerto Rican cuatro national instrument - plays a blend of native folk and dance music, and salsa with Sabor a Cultura, a group of musically-gifted youngsters from Cayey, Puerto Rico.
It takes place Sunday afternoon at 3 at McAllister Auditorium, on the campus of San Antonio College, 1300 San Pedro. More at 210-464-1534 or musicalbridges.org
What's Opera Doc? Symphony of the Hills start their 2010-11 season next Thursday, October 7, at 7:30pm. The program from the Callioux Theater in Kerrvile is called Opera Highlights - featuring local and regional vocalists in excerpts from favorite operas. Dr. Jay Dunnahoo leads Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet and more!
Everything you ever wanted to know about Mahler's First Symphony but were afraid to ask...the San Antonio Symphony performs Mahler One this Saturday as they welcome their new music director Sebastian Lang Lessing (pictured right).
GUSTAV MAHLER: Born in Kalischt, Bohemia, July 7, 1860; died in Vienna, May 18, 1911
MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN D MAJOR
I. Langsam. Schleppend. "Wie ein Naturlaut" - Immer sehr gemächlich (Slow. Dragging. “Like a sound of nature.” - Always very easygoing)
II. Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (with vigorous movement, yet not too fast)
Trio: Recht gemächlich (well moderated)
III. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppend (solemn and measured without dragging)
Audiences in Gustav Mahler's time didn't know what to make of his music. Today, we're used to movies and TV shows that careen from action-packed explosions to romance, from comedy to melodrama. But more than a century ago, when Mahler inserted folk melodies into his enormous symphonies, some listeners thought he was nuts.
Mahler's First Symphony was originally conceived as a tone poem in two parts. Loosely based on Jean Paul's novel Titan, the structure was this: Part I: "From the Days of Youth," Music of Flowers, Fruit and Thorn—1. Spring and No End; 2. Flowers; 3. In Full Sail; Part II: "The Human Comedy"—4. "Stranded!" Funeral March in the Style of Callot; 5. D'all Inferno al'Paradiso (From Hell to Heaven). These titles were accompanied by more extensive programs describing the metaphorical content of each movement. In Jean Paul's Titan we have a youth gifted with a burning artistic desire that the world has no use for, and who, finding no outlet or ability to adapt, gives way to despair and suicide. Mahler apparently saw himself in this figure, as he described this work as autobiographical in a very loose sense. On the other hand the music, some of which Mahler actually accumulated from various earlier works, contradicts this program in so many ways, especially in the triumphant conclusion, that Mahler later withdrew it. He eventually came to scorn the application of specific programs to his symphonies in general.
With the sole exception of Brahms, and possibly Sibelius, there is probably no other composer than Gustav Mahler whose First Symphony represents such a towering achievement. But whereas Brahms was 43 when his First Symphony was completed, and Sibelius was well into his thirties, Mahler was just 28 when he finished his. The gigantic orchestral fresco was begun in 1884 and completed four years later. Mahler subtitled the work “Titan,” after a novel by Jean Paul. The first performance took place in Budapest on November 20, 1889 with the composer conducting. In 1896, Mahler eliminated the so-called “Blumine” (Flowers) movement, which did not resurface until 1959.
Among the innovations one can point to in this symphony are the largest assemblage of orchestral musicians hitherto required in a symphony, and the incorporation of café, pop and gypsy music, especially in the Funeral March. The evocation of nature in a symphony had been realized before (notably in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and in Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique), but nowhere else are the very sounds of nature so pervasively and integrally bound up with the symphonic thought than in the first movement of Mahler’s First. The opening moments of the work are unforgettable - that sustained, distant sound of strings spread across a six-octave range vividly suggests the mystery and peace of the night into which are interjected cuckoo calls, far-off fanfares and fragments of still-unformed melodies. Mahler described the passage as depicting the awakening of nature from its long winter sleep. The mood of the lengthy slow introduction is finally dispelled by the sprightly theme of Ging heut’ morgens über’s Feld, (one of the Songs of a Wayfarer, first heard in the cellos), followed by another lusty, outdoorsy theme. The music grows in fervor and intensity, culminating in a mighty outburst from the entire orchestra. The release of enormous, pent-up energy is crowned by three great whoops from the horn section, and the movement continues on its merry way to its ultimate conclusion.
The second movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 is a folk dance. The robust scherzo movement is notable for its heavy rhythmic impulses derived from the Ländler, a rural Austrian dance. Special effects here include the use of the woodwind section en masse (often up to 12 players) in featured roles, breathtaking fanfares from the horns and trumpets, and signals from the “stopped” horns with their bells raised (“stopped” here meaning the players’ right hands are pushed deep into the bells, choking off the sound). A charming Trio, introduced by a poetic horn call, provides gentle contrast.
The third movement is a spooky funeral march, with klezmer accents, based on the "Frere Jacques" melody (“Bruder Martin” in German-speaking lands). The original title of “Funeral March” refers to Mahler’s parodistic portrayal in sound of a mock funeral procession, depicted in a book of Austrian fairy-tales. Beasts of the forest accompany a dead woodsman’s coffin to his grave. The use of a double bass instead of a cello to begin the “Frère Jacques” tune adds a touch of the grotesque. The tune is used as a canon or round, with additional instruments taking up the tune in turn (bassoon, cellos, tuba, etc.) without waiting for the previous one to finish.
After this material has run its course we hear a new, sentimental theme in the oboes, this one also bearing a counter-theme, now in the trumpets. Suddenly the sounds of a country fair intrude, music of a gypsy band with its corny melodies and relentless “um-pah” accompaniment. And then, as if from another world, Mahler offers an interlude of quiet repose - almost a dream sequence - in music of sublime beauty and gossamer textures. Eventually the mournful “Frère Jacques” music returns and the movement slowly recedes into the furthermost reaches of audibility.
Anyone who has dozed off to the third movement’s funereal tread will be instantly and rudely shocked back to his senses with the hellish outburst that opens the finale, one of the most terrifying passages in all music. To Mahler, that opening cymbal crash followed by the roar of drums represented a flash of lightning emitted from a thunder cloud. Strings swirl and rage, woodwinds in their highest registers scream in anguish, brass proclaim terrifying fanfares, and percussion evoke the din of battle and cataclysmic conflicts.
When the torrent of notes finally subsides, strings sing a consoling, infinitely tender and yearning song. The violent conflicts return, but this time they result in heroic proclamations from the brass. However, victory and fulfillment are not quite yet achieved. In another long, generally quiet passage, the music slowly gathers momentum, ultimately reaching a towering climax for which Mahler instructs the entire horn section to stand while it delivers fanfares from within an orchestra gleaming in a thousand dazzling, spectacular colors.
In 1899, audiences in Vienna hissed when they heard it; they were used to Brahms and Beethoven. But today, it's hard to resist the pull of a piece that begins like Mahler's First: The strings play a single note spread out over seven octaves. Mahler said it was "like a sound of nature."
For the premiere of his First Symphony (in Budapest in 1889), Mahler tried giving the audience something to think about, something to attach itself to. He told people that his music was loosely based on a novel by the popular writer Jean Paul, a novel called The Titan. After the premiere, Mahler started revising his symphony, and he eventually decided to drop the association with Jean Paul's book. But the name, "The Titan," stuck.
Here is the entire symphony with the NY Philharmonic & Lorin Maazel:
KPAC and Antonio Strad Violin invite you to meet and visit with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers at a special in-store CD signing. Join us on Tuesday, October 12, 6pm at Antonio Strad Violin. Find out more about this Austin based violinist at her website, http://www.anneakikomeyers.com/ Anne's new CD is "Seasons... Dreams." It is released today! It features 3 world premieres and music with harpist, Emmanuel Ceysson and pianist, Reiko Uchida. On the disc are Beethoven, Debussy, Gershwin, Schnittke, Wagner and Vernon Duke.
‘playing that flows from the heart’ ‘trailblazing violinist’ ‘charting her own course’
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world’s renowned violinists -a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator who is known as one of the most diverse artists collaborating with artists such as Chris Botti, Il Divo and Wynton Marsalis, premiering new works written for her and showcasing under-performed or rarely heard works.
Meyers was born in San Diego, California and grew up in the Los Angeles area before heading to New York. She studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Felix Galimir, Masao Kawasaki and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. At age 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual prize.
In the fall of 2009, she was named Professor of Violin at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2008, she was the first violinist to be a Regent’s Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles. Meyers has given masterclasses around the world, was a panelist at the Juilliard hosted Starling-DeLay Symposium and is an adjudicator for competitions.
Anne performs on the “Royal Spanish” Antonio Stradivarius violin, dated 1730, that once belonged to the King of Spain.
In store appearance
When: Tuesday, October 12, 6pm.
Where: Antonio Strad Violin
10288 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX 78216
210.349.9788, direct
800.284.9788, toll-free
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces Playing It UNsafe, the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but “play it safe.” The composers participating in Playing It UNsafe are Sean Friar, David Heuser, Joan La Barbara, Laura Schwendinger, and Henry Threadgill, selected from a national search for their willingness to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities, and their ability to test the limits of the orchestra. Playing It UNsafe grew out of ACO’s ongoing mission to commission and perform new music that expands the range of possibilities for – and challenges convention notions about – orchestral music.
Playing It UNsafe is a season-long initiative that includes a unique incubation process of laboratory workshops and public readings, and collaborative feedback, many open to the public. Audiences will have their first opportunity to see and hear the composers’ works-in-progress at the opening lab workshop, free of charge (no reservations required), on Monday, October 18 from 2-4:30pm at the JCC in Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue). Subsequent lab workshops open to the public will take place on Thursday, December 9 (2-4:30pm); Saturday, January 29 (2-5pm), Tuesday, March 1 (2-4:30pm), and Thursday, March 3 (2-4:30pm). Playing It UNsafe will culminate on Friday, March 4, 2011 at 7:30pm with a concert featuring all of the “unsafe” new works at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, conducted by ACO Music Director George Manahan.
None of the new pieces developed for Playing It UNsafe will be conventional or typical orchestral fare. Sean Friar’s Clunker Concerto will be for a percussion ensemble playing a junked car with the orchestra; saxophonist and composer/improviser Henry Threadgill asks orchestra members to improvise and interact at an extremely high level, yielding a new strategy for the conductor to lead the orchestra in No Gate, No White Trenches, Butterfly Effect; vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara’s sound painting for voice and orchestra, In solitude this fear is lived, will utilize orchestra members placed throughout the entire concert hall; Laura Schwendinger will collaborate with her lighting-designer cousin Leni Schwendinger to fuse music and visuals into a seamless mix; and David Heuser’s Dysfunctional Families will pit orchestral instrument families against each other in an uprising that threatens to overthrow the conductor.
Playing It UNsafe is unusual in that it does away with the expectations often associated with orchestral premieres that can squelch composers’ creative impulses – limited rehearsal time, restrictive instrumental possibilities, pre-conceived programmatic or thematic ideas for concerts – and most importantly, the overwhelming pressure on composers to do something “safe.”
Playing It UNsafe will feature Orchestra Underground, ACO’s groundbreaking small orchestra ensemble that seeks to redefine orchestra music by embracing a wide gamut of musical styles, unusual instrumentations and spatial orientations of musicians, technological innovations, and multimedia/multidisciplinary collaborations. Since its launch in 2004, Orchestra Underground has commissioned and premiered nearly 50 cutting-edge new works. The program is a major expansion of a pilot program ACO undertook two seasons ago, and a desire by the orchestra to serve as a catalyst for new ideas within the orchestra community.
About the Playing It UNsafe Composer David Heuser's Dysfunctional Families (http://www.davidheuser.com/) Dysfunctional Families is a piece about the orchestra reacting to itself, where the supremacy of the conductor is undermined as the top-down hierarchy of the orchestra meets grass-roots uprisings, and where the audience finds themselves literally in the middle of inter- and intra-family battles. The piece will marry orchestral music with theatrical elements, particularly those that break the fourth wall. Performers fight within their section as well as across sections in what ends up being an all-out war for control of the symphony. The conflicts play out physically, with performers moving to different parts of the stage as their allegiances change. The conductor strives always to be in command of the ensemble, but, like war everywhere, he might put down a rebellion in the brass only to turn and find out the strings in an uproar.
David Heuser’s music has been called “thoughtful, beautiful, and wonderfully made” (San Antonio Express-News), “all-American music at its most dynamic and visceral” (Houston Chronicle), and “just the sort of music classical music needs more of” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Heuser considers himself a musical storyteller. His most characteristic works are rhythmically active, strongly melodic, and often deal with extremes of tempo, dynamics and register. Heuser began composing almost immediately after his first piano lessons at the age of seven. He attended the Eastman School of Music and then the Indiana University School of Music, where he received his doctorate. He is now a Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio teaching music composition and theory, and electronic music. He has received commissions from such ensembles as the San Antonio Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra.
About ACO
Now entering its 34th year, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers. ACO makes the creation of new opportunities for American composers and new American orchestral music its central purpose. Through concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, internet and radio broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music.
To date, ACO has performed music by more than 600 American composers, including 200 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Among the orchestra’s innovative programs have been Sonidos de las Américas, six annual festivals devoted to Latin American composers and their music; Coming to America, a program immersing audiences in the ongoing evolution of American music through the work of immigrant composers; Orchestra Tech, a long-term initiative to integrate new digital technologies in the symphony orchestra; Improvise!, a festival devoted to the exploration of improvisation and the orchestra; Playing it Unsafe, a new laboratory for the research and development of experimental new works for orchestra; and Orchestra Underground, ACO’s entrepreneurial cutting-edge orchestral ensemble that embraces new technology, eclectic instruments, influences, and spatial orientation of the orchestra, new experiments in the concert format, and multimedia and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Extending its mission beyond New York City, ACO launched EarShot in 2008. EarShot is a multi-institutional network that assists orchestras around the country in new music readings and composer development opportunities. EarShot’s recent programs include new music readings for emerging composers with the Nashville Symphony, Memphis Symphony, New York Youth Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra. More information can be found at www.earshotnetwork.org.
Among the honors ACO has received are special awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI recognizing the orchestra’s outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded its annual prize for adventurous programming to ACO 32 times, singling out ACO as “the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States,” including the 2008 ASCAP Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming. ACO received the inaugural METLife Award for Excellence in Audience Engagement, and a proclamation from the New York City Council. ACO recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, Phoenix USA, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, and InstantEncore.com. More information about American Composers Orchestra is available online at http://www.americancomposers.org/.
When you look at a calendar of the birthdays of Classical musicians you see that there are only a couple of days a year that are blank. On the other hand there are a few days that are just chock-a-block with great musicians and most of them pianists!
On the Piano this Sunday a review of great artists born on the 25th and 26th of September. Ranging from the French baroque to Tin Pan Alley you can hear them on the Piano this Sunday at 5 on KPAC & KTXI.
SRod up to bat We start with pianist Santiago Rodriguez who plays a program of Rachmaninoff & Schumann tomorrow night, showing that he's not just a judge for the SAIPC but a great artist too! His September 24 program will include the Schumann Carnival as well as the Mozart Sonata, K. 330, and several Rachmaninoff works including the Sonata No. 2, Op.36. The performance will be followed by a Meet the Artist reception in the Sky Dining Room at Trinity University. Santiago Rodriguez in Recital Friday, September 24, 2010 7:30 PM Ruth Taylor Recital Hall Trinity University
Side x Side
A chamber orchestra of YOSA Philharmonic students playing side-by-side with their mentors from the San Antonio Symphony performing popular Italian gems. Cimarosa: Overture to The Secret Marriage Corelli: Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6, No. 4 Rossini: Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra with Ilya Shterenberg, principal clarinet of the San Antonio Symphony Respighi: The Birds
Solos and more
Coming up next Monday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m., violinist Mary Ellen Goree is giving a faculty recital at the UTSA Arts Building Recital Hall. Pianist Christine Debus will collaborate. The program is: J.S. Bach: Sonata no. 3 in E Major, BWV 1016 Charles Ives: Sonata no. 4, "Children's Day at the Camp Meeting" Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata no. 4 in a minor, op. 23 Pablo de Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy, op. 25 Charles Ives quotes an old hymn in each movement: "I Tell Me the Old, Old Story;" "Jesus Loves Me;" and "Shall We Gather at the River."
Let the Trumpet Sound
The San Antonio Symphony's first concert of the 2010-2011 season will feature Principal Trumpet John Carroll as soloist. Resident Conductor Ken-David Masur leads a program of Handel, Bach & Haydn on Wednesday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the San Fernando Cathedral. The concert benefits the preservation of the Cathedral (tickets are $35; available at 210-576-1365 or for information email: hcfed@sfcathedral.org.) The complete Cathedral program: Murcia arr. Russell from ¡Al Zócalo! Bach Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066 Handel, arr. Tarr Suite in D major for Trumpet and Orchestra Haydn Symphony No. 92 in G major, "Oxford"
Daniel Catan's newest opera opens tonight, September 23, 2010 at the Los Angeles Opera. Click here to listen to Brian Lauritzen's extended interview with Maestro Catan.
We are delighted to learn about this new project, The Virtual Choir. They have already recorded Lux Aurumque - next up is Sleep!
Visit http://ericwhitacre.com/ for links to the music as well as instructions - they are hoping to have 900 singers for this next round - breaking the world's record for internet choir!
