Today's Birthdays

Amicare Ponchielli (1834-1886)
Alma Mahler (1879-1964)
Everett Lee (1916)
Ifor James (1931-2004)
Wieland Kuijken (1938)
Itzak Perlman (1945)
Daniel Harding (1975)

and

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
William Shawn (1907-1992)
William Saroyan (1908-1981)
Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986)

Review: Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival creates an excellent buzz in season-ending concert

Leo Eguchi, Megumi Stohs Lewis, Greg Ewer, Sasha Callahan, and Charles Noble

For lovers of classical music and wine, it doesn’t get much better than the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival where you can imbibe in both. That’s because the WVCMF takes place on the grounds of a few select Oregon wineries – sometimes in the barrel room. Each concert pairs musical selections with wine tastings – a winning combination for those in the know.

Founded in 2015 by violinist Sasha Callahan and her husband, cellist Leo Eguchi, the WVCMF engages top-notch chamber musicians in programs that vary widely. They often include world-premieres of works by a composer-in-residence, and the participating composers have been stellar – Gabriela Lena Frank, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Osvaldo Golijov, Reena Esmail, and Kareem Roustom.

Composer Kevin Day joined the starry cast for this year’s edition of the WVCMF (August 3-18), which took place at in the bucolic confines of Sokol Blosser Winery, Appassionata Vineyards, and Archery Summit. Because I had other commitments (like the Sun Valley Music Festival), I missed the first two weekends of the WVCMF, but I did make it to the final concert at Archery Summit, which is located just a handful of miles west of Dundee.

Upon arrival at Archery Summit, I was greeted with a glass of 2023 Vireton Pinot Gris and bowled over by the winery’s brand-new, upscale, tasting room. The ringing of a hand-held bell signaled the concert goers to move down the hallway and settle in for the concert with a glass of 2022 Chardonnay.

The program began with Kevin Day’s “The Essence of Being” (String Quartet No. 5), which was commissioned and premiered by Callahan and Eguchi’s other group, the Sheffield Chamber Players, a couple years ago. The first movement of the piece, Tranquillo, had a lovely warm and reflective quality. In the second movement, Con Moto, the musicians (violinists Calahan and Megumi Stohs Lewis, violist Charles Noble, and cellist Eguchi) gradually picked up the pace – sometimes finishing each other’s phrases. A forceful rhythmic drive and brief ascending lines brought the piece to an optimistic and fun close that put a smile of everyone’s face.

Christine Southworth’s “Honey Fliers,” (2007) commissioned by the Carlsbad Music Festival for the Calder Quartet, benefited from the composer being in attendance. She told how her attempt to raise honey bees influenced the music, and she mentioned that happy bees create a buzz that is a Concert A, but unhappy bees emit a buzz with higher tones.

The quartet (with Callahan and Lewis trading first and second violin posts) really got into the hum of things, transitioning between the calmer, happier bees and the distressed, angrier bees. Sometimes it seemed that the bees were on the loose, zinging around the room. The third, and final, movement, slowed down a bit with stutter steps between the viola and cello before going into a propulsive section in which each player executed impromptu-like riffs – as if they were jazzy bees. The piece concluded with a low, rumbling cello at the end – perhaps the bees found some rest back in the hive.

A glass of 2021 Pinot Noir proved to be an excellently paired with Schubert’s “String Quartet No. 13” (aka “Rosamunde”). For this well-loved, albeit bittersweet gem, Greg Ewer took the first violin post with Callahan on second, and violist Noble and cellist Eguchi. The ensemble expertly conveyed the wistful yearning of the first movement. They also plumbed the subtlety of the two middle movements, going back and forth between warmth and anguish. The final movement expressed a bit of uplifting happiness but tinged with a poignant resignation – especially in the quick upward runs that Ewer deftly slowed down a tad.

Today's Birthdays

Ernesto Cavallini (1807-1874)
George Frederick Root (1820-1895)
Buddy Rich (1917-1987)
Regina Resnik (1922-2013)
David Maslanka (1943-1917)
David Schiff (1945)
Simon Bainbridge (1952)
Dimitris Sgouros (1969)

and

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
R Crumb (1943)
Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

Oregon Symphony Principal Flutist goes to the Baltimore Symphony

Musical America reported today that Martha Long, Principal Flutist with the Oregon Symphony is now the Principal Flutist of the Baltimore Symphony. I checked Long's website, and there it is in print:

Long has done terrific work with the Oregon Symphony. She will be missed!  We wish her the best with the BSO. She will see another former OSO musician there - Principal Trombonist Aaron LaVere. 

Today's Birthdays

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Helge Rosvaenge (1897-1972)
Charlie Parker (1920-1955)
Norman Platt (1920-2004)
Gilbert Amy (1936)
Anne Collins (1943-2009)
Lucia Valentini Terrani (1946-1998)
Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Kevin Walczyk (1964)

and

John Locke (1632-1704)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894)
Karen Hesse (1952)

Review of concerts at the Sun Valley Music Festival plus a visit to the Hemingway House

 

My story about the Sun Valley Music Festival which includes a visit to the home and gravesite of Ernest Hemingway in Ketchum has been published in Oregon ArtsWatch here. 

Today's Birthdays

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948)
Alfred Baldwin Sloane (1872-1925)
Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)
Karl Böhm (1894-1981)
Paul Henry Lang (1901-1991)
Richard Tucker (1913-1975)
John Shirley-Quirk (1931-2014)
Imogen Cooper (1949)

and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
John Betjeman (1906-1984)
Rita Dove (1952)

Today's Birthdays

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Lester Young (1909-1959)
Maria Curcio (1918-2009)
Barry Conyngham (1944)
Ann Murray (1949)
Sian Edwards (1959)

and

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)
C. S. Forester (1899-1966)
Ira Levin (1929-2007)
William Least Heat-Moon (1939)

Review: OrpheusPDX adds color to Hertzberg's darkly scented The Rose Elf

Lisa Marie Rogali in the rose blossom | Photo credit: Owen Carey

One would hope that in an age that is far, far removed from the time of fairy tales, that an opera based on a fairytale can still resonate. Using a combination of poetic language and lush music, David Hertzberg’s “The Rose Elf,” presented by OrpheusPDX at Lincoln Performance Hall (August 17) retold one of Hans Christian Andersen’s lesser-known stories in which an elf is confronted with the heightened emotions and awfulness of the human world but learns to have empathy.

Even with a slightly different ending from the original tale, Hertzberg’s music and libretto (he wrote both) gave “The Rose Elf” a magical quality that was enhanced by the stage direction of Jerry Mouawad. Well-known as the co-artistic director of Imago Theatre, Mouawad has expanded his director chops into the world of opera over the last several years. The OrpheusPDX production of “The Rose Elf” showed off his imaginative storytelling skill, which were highlighted by an evocative set design created by Alex Meyer, Sumi Wu, and Mouawad with costumes by Sumi Wu, and lighting by Solomon Weisbard.

In this story, the Elf lives in an idyllic world, flitting around a garden and resting in the lushness of a rose bush. But that world is disturbed when the rose is plucked and given to by the Girl to her beau (the Beloved). His beating heart throws the Elf into a tizzy. But things worsen when the Beloved is murdered by the girl’s brother and then decapitates him. The Elf tells the girl where her beau is buried. She digs up the severed head of the Beloved and places it in a flowerpot. Obsessed with the flowerpot, she is stricken with grief, and dies. The Brother is left to ponder what he had wrought.

To frame the story, Hertzberg begins with a Prelude in which the Girl is costumed as the Roman goddess Luna and the Beloved as the Egyptian god Horus. For the Epilogue, they return in the afterlife, but they do not touch or give an indication affection other than to sing a duetted “Ah.” Meanwhile, the Brother kneels by the pot, and the Elf settles to sleep inside the rose blossom. It’s an unsettling and odd ending that differs from Andersen’s original story in which the Elf tells the bees, who intend to sting the wicked Brother to death the next morning but discover him already dead by the time they arrive.

 

Rogali and Madeline Ross | Photo credit: Owen Carey

Mezzo soprano Lisa Marie Rogali wonderfully evoked the otherworldly nature of the Elf with her superb vocal agility and with periodic twitchy gestures. She radiated warmth when the Elf was in its happy place, nestled within the petals of the rose blossom. Soprano Madeline Ross embodied the love and the anguish of the Girl, which meshed well with the upright and firm persona of the Beloved as conveyed by tenor Brendon Tuohy. Clad in a dark trench coat hat, Zachary Lenox created the dark and forbidding role of the Brother effectively with his brief time onstage.

Deanna Tham, who is the Associate Conductor of the Oregon Symphony, outstandingly led a chamber orchestra that consisted for nine instruments, yet often sounded much larger. The music was slightly dissonant and effectively painted the text. Tinkling bells, for example accompanied the Elf now and then. Passionate scenes were expressed with swelling tones. Reflective moments were quieter. Several well-placed pauses between the accusations flung by the Brother against the Girl added an ominous quality that was palpable.

Especially skillful was the use of shadowy silhouettes (behind the scrim at the back) and the huge pink rose blossom that could open and close. It had a star power all its own. The entire opera took just a bit over an hour, making it very compact for today’s audiences, but the emotional impact of the story lost some traction as it transitioned to the afterlife, despite the terrific music, acting, and colorful scenery. The Egyptian/Roman deities seemed a bit too incongruous with the Elf and other characters.

Photo credit: Owen Carey

Today's Birthdays

Willem de Fesch (1687-1761)
Luis Delgadillio (1887-1961)
Arthur Loesser (1894-1969)
Humphrey Searle (1915-1981)
Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013)
Nicholas Braithwaite (1939)
Sally Beamish (1956)
Branford Marsalis (1960)

and

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
Lee de Forest (1873-1961)
Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Julio Cortázar (1914-1984)
Barbara Ehrenreich (1941)

Today's Birthdays

Robert Stolz (1880-1975)
Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
José Van Dam (1940)
Keith Tippett (1947)
Elvis Costello (1954)

and

Brian Moore (1921-1999)
Charles Wright (1935)
Martin Amis (1949-2023)

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747)
Théodore Dubois (1837-1924)
Bernhard Heiden (1910-2000)
Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000)
Stephen Paulus (1949-2014)
Carlo Curley (1952-2012)

and

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Oscar Hijuelos (1951-2013)
John Green (1977)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1456 that the first edition of the Gutenberg Bible was bound and completed in Mainz, Germany. The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed with movable type. The press produced 180 copies of the Bible. Books had been printed on presses before, in China and Korea, with wood and bronze type; but Gutenberg used metal type, and made a press that could print many versions of the same text quickly. His contributions to printing were huge: he created an oil-based printing ink, he figured out how to cast individual pieces of type in metal so that they could be reused, and he designed a functioning printing press. But others before him had come up with similar ideas. Probably the most important thing that Gutenberg did was to develop the entire process of printing — he streamlined a system for assembling the type into a full book and then folding the pages into folios, which were then bound into an entire volume — and to do it all quickly. The techniques that Gutenberg refined were used for hundreds of years, and the publication of the Gutenberg Bible marked a turning point in the availability of knowledge to regular people.

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1968, Czech conductor and composer Rafael Kubelik launches an appeal to world musicians to boycott performances in the five nations which invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20-21 until their military forces evacuate the country. The appeal was joined by Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Otto Klemperer, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Arrau, and others.

Today's Birthdays

Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925)
Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)
William Primrose (1903-1982)
Constant Lambert (1905-1951)
Carl Dolmetsch (1911-1977)
Mark Russell (1932-2023)
Antônio Meneses (1957)
Brad Mehldau (1970)

and

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1934, the Berkshire Symphonic Festival in was founded in Stockbridge, Mass., by American composer and conductor Henry Hadley, with the participation of the New York Philharmonic. The Festival later became associated with the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky.
PS from James: in 1936 this festival moved to Lenox, Mass. where it was renamed the Tangelwood Festival.

Today's Birthdays

Josef Strauss (1827-1870)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Maud Powell (1867-1920)
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001)
Ivry Gitlis (1922-2020)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
Peter Hoffmann (1944-2010)
Tori Amos (1963)

and

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
Annie Proulx (1935)

Today's Birthdays

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
Count (William) Basie (1904-1984)
Tommy Reilly (1919-2000)
Willhelm Killmayer (1927-2017)
Gregg Smith (1931-2016)
Dame Janet Baker (1933)

and

X. J. Kennedy (1929)
Robert Stone (1937-2015)
Ellen Hinsey (1960)

Today's Birthdays

Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
Mario Bernardi (1930-2013)
Dame Anne Evans (1941)
Maxim Vengerov (1974)

and

Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950)
Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
Eero Saarinen (1910-1961)
Jacqueline Susann (1918-1974)
Heather McHugh (1948)

Today's Birthdays

William Henry Fry (1881-1864)
Georges Enescu (1881-1955)
Allan Monk (1942)
Gerard Schwarz (1947)
Rebecca Evans (1963)

and

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
Frank McCourt (1930-2009)
Joe Frank (Langemann) (1938-2018)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
Benjamin Godard (1849-1895)
Basil Cameron (1884-1975)
Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973)
Dame Moura Lympany (1916-2005)
Goff Richards (1944-2011)
Tan Dun (1957)

and

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809)
Margaret Murie (1902 -2003)
Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008)

and from The Writer's Almanac

Italian-born Viennese composer Antonio Salieri was born in Legnago, in the Republic of Venice (1750). Although he was quite popular in the 18th century, he probably wouldn't be well known today were it not for the movie Amadeus (1984). The movie was based on Peter Shaffer's play by the same name (1979), which was in turn based on a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin, which was called Mozart and Salieri (1830). These stories all present Salieri as a mediocre and uninspired composer who was jealous of Mozart's musical genius; Salieri tried to discredit Mozart at every turn, and some versions of the story even accuse him of poisoning his rival.

But Salieri was a talented and successful composer, writing the scores for several popular operas. He had a happy home life with his wife and eight children. And because he had received free voice and composition lessons from a generous mentor as a young man, he also gave most of his students the benefit of free instruction. Some of his pupils included Beethoven, Franz Liszt, and Franz Schubert. He was the Kapellmeister — the person in charge of music — for the Austrian emperor for 36 years. He and Mozart were competitors, but their rivalry was usually a friendly one; Salieri visited Mozart when he was dying, and was one of the few people to attend his funeral.

After the turn of the 19th century, Salieri's music began to fall out of fashion. "I realized that musical taste was gradually changing in a manner completely contrary to that of my own times," he wrote. "Eccentricity and confusion of genres replaced reasoned and masterful simplicity." He stopped composing operas and began to produce more and more religious pieces. He suffered from dementia late in his life and died in 1825. He had composed his own requiem 20 years earlier, and it was performed for the first time at his funeral.

Review: OrpheusPDX production of Handel's Acis, Galatea, and Polyphemus in Opera Canada

 

My review of the OrpheusPDX season opener of Handel's "Acis, Galatea, and Polyphemus, featuring Canadian soprano Katherine Whyte, has just been published by Opera Canada here.

Today's Birthdays

Henri Tomasi (1901-1971)
Abram Chasins (1903-1987)
George Melly (1926-2007)
T.J. (Thomas Jefferson) Anderson (1928)
Edward Cowie (1943)
Jean-Bernard Pommier (1944)
Heiner Goebbels (1952)
Artur Pizarro (1968)

and

Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957)
Mae West (1893-1980)
Evan S. Connell (1924-2013)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Jonathan Franzen (1959)

and from the Writer's Almanac:

On this date in 1982, the first compact discs for commercial release were manufactured in Germany. CDs were originally designed to store and play back sound recordings, but later were modified to store data. The first test disc, which was pressed near Hannover, Germany, contained a recording of Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony, played by the Berlin Philharmonic. The first CD commercially produced at the new factory and sold on this date was ABBA's 1981 album The Visitors; the first new album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street, which hit the stores in Japan — alongside the new Sony CD player — on October 1. The event is known as the "Big Bang of digital audio."

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861
Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937)
Jacinto Guerrero (1895-1951)
Ralph Downes (1904-1993)
Bill Evans (1929-1980)
Franz Welser-Möst (1960)

and

Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)
William Maxwell (1908-2000)
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Albert Spalding (1888-1953)
Jaques Ibert (1890-1952)
Leon Theremin (1896-1993)
Lukas Foss (1922-2009)
Aldo Ciccolini (1925-2015)
Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
Rita Hunter (1933-2001)
Anne Marie Owens (1955)
James O'Donnell (1961)

and

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)
Edna Ferber (1885-1968)
T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935)
Julia Child (1912-2004)
Benedict Kiely (1919-2007)
Denise Chávez (1948)
Stieg Larsson (1954)

and

The Woodstock music festival began on this day in 1969.

Preview of Siletz Bay Music Festival in OAW

 If you are heading to the coast this weekend or sometime next week, you might want to attend the Siletz Bay Music Festival. My preview of their upcoming concerts is now published in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988)
Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1955)
Jan Koetsier (1911-2006)
Ferruccio Tagliavini (1913-1995)
Georges Prêtre (1924-2017)
Yuri Kholopov (1932-2003)
Sarah Brightman (1960)
Cecilia Gasdia (1960)
Beata Moon (1969)

and

Ernest Thayer (1863-1940)
John Galsworthy (1867-1933)
Russell Baker (1925-2019)
Danielle Steel (1947)
Gary Larson (1950)

Good news at All Classical Radio - rising star Rebecca Richardson

The Radio trade publication, Current, has named Rebecca Richardson as one of the nation's rising stars. Here's the press release:

Rebecca Richardson, a music researcher and digital producer at All Classical Radio, has been named a 2024 "Rising Star" by Current. The trade publication for public media launched the honor to celebrate younger employees who are making a difference in public media. Rebecca was recognized for her work as All Classical Radio's music researcher and digital producer.

"Rebecca's leadership and hard work have furthered All Classical Radio's transformation into a comprehensive media arts network," says Suzanne Nance, president and CEO of All Classical Radio, who nominated Rebecca for the honor.

"Rebecca continues to build an incredible research database, spanning eras from Medieval to Modernism, and every composer she can find in between, which has deepened the information available to our on-air hosts and in-turn our audiences. She helped lead the creation of All Classical Radio’s Artist Anthology: 40 Creatives of the Pacific Northwest, a groundbreaking multimedia initiative to uplift artists. In addition, her blogs posts and articles about classical music on the All Classical’s website spark curiosity and enthusiasm for the artform. She's dedicated, generous, and creative, and we are so lucky to have her on our team," Nance adds.

Current's press release announcing the 2024 Rising Stars is here.

Today's Birthdays

Sir George Grove (1820-1900)
John Ireland (1879-1962)
Luis Mariano (1914-1970)
George Shearing (1919-2011)
Louis Frémaux (1921-2017)
Don Ho (1930-2007)
Sheila Armstrong (1942)
Kathleen Battle (1948)
Gregory Vajda (1973)

and

Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850)
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

Another wrinkle at the University of Oregon

Mark Mandel point out this news item from Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc:

If you search slippedisc.com for ‘Oregon’ you will find a catalogue of musical incompetence unmatched in a ny other US uinversity. Things have gone a bit quiet since they fired the excellent Matthew Halls as Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival. So it’s reassuring to report that the hopeless Oregonians have just struck again.

A local mole informs us:

It seems the university has struck again by somehow forcing out a prominent musician and broadcaster, Peter Van de Graff. In 2016, when Van de Graff came from WFMT to KWAX, which operates under a license owned by the university, the local classical audience was charmed by his enthusiasm for the community and grateful for his professional and artistic contributions to the local classical music scene. KWAX is a community supported station but, as I understand it, the funds are administered by the university. During Van de Graff’s tenure as Music Director, the fund drives were shortened from weeks to just one or two days due his enthusiasm and to timely and generous giving. Many pledges came from internet listeners, some even from abroad.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)
Heinrich Biber (1644-1704)
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929)
Porter Wagoner (1927-2007)
Buck Owens (1929-2006)
Huguette Tourangeau (1940)
David Munrow (1942-1976)
Pat Metheny (1954)
Stuart MacRae (1976)

and

Robert Southey (1773-1843)
Edith Hamilton (1867-1963)
Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959)
Donald Justice (1925-2004)
William Goldman (1931-2018)
Anthony Swofford (1970)

Today's Birthdays

J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954)
Ginette Neveu (1919-1949)
Raymond Leppard (1927-2019)
Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008)
Tamás Vásáry (1933)

and

Louise Brogan (1897-1970)
Alex Haley (1921-1992)
Andre Dubus (1936-1999)

Today's Birthdays

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
Douglas Moore (1893-1969)
Leo Fender (1909-1991)
Marie-Claire Alain (1926-2013)
Edwin Carr (1926-2003)
John Aldis (1929-2010)
Alexander Goehr (1932)
Giya Kancheli (1935-2019)
Bobby Hatfield (1940-2003)
Dmitri Alexeev (1947)
Eliot Fisk (1954)

and

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
Joyce Sutphen (1949)
Mark Doty (1953)
Suzanne Collins (1962)

Today's Birthdays

Michael Umlauff (1781-1842)
Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Albert William Ketèlbey (1875-1959)
Solomon Cutner (1902-1988)
Ann Brown (1912-2009)

and

Izaak Walton (1593-1683)
John Dryden (1631-1700)
P. L. Travers (1899-1966)
Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

and from The Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1928, Australian-born American composer Percy Grainger marries Swedish poet and painter Ella Viola Strom at the Hollywood Bowl in front of an audience of 22,000 concert-goers. Grainger conducted the LA Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of his "To a Nordic Princess," dedicated to his bride.

Vancouver Arts and Music Festival brings thousands downtown in cultural celebration

Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

Bigger and better than ever, the Vancouver Art and Music Festival celebrated its second annual extravaganza with a cornucopia of cultural offerings. Food, visual art, dance, film, theater skits, and music were celebrated over a three-day weekend (August 2-4) that attracted record crowds to the downtown area around Esther Short Park. And the Vancouver Symphony, under Music Director Salvador Brotons and guest conductor Gerard Schwarz plus top-tier soloists, highlighted the main stage with terrific selections from the classical repertoire.

Representative Marie Gluesnkamp Perez and Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

'To top things off, the entire festival was free! That’s right! Igor Shakhman, CEO and Principal Clarinetist of the Vancouver Symphony secured over $600,000 from the Murdock Charitable Trust and other foundations to make the VAMF a reality with no entry fees. According to the City of Vancouver, last year’s inaugural edition of the festival drew more than 30,000 visitors. This year the total swelled to over 40,000. Warm, weelcoming statements were made by the the Mayor of Vancouver, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, and Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. So the VAMF, supported by the City of Vancouver, the Columbia Arts Network (CAN), Vancouver Downtown Association, Visit Vancouver, Vancouver AC Hotel on the Waterfront, Vancouver Hilton, the Oliva Family Fund, Gravitate, and others, is on an upswing.

Brotons and orchestra on the main stage | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

An overflow crowed blanketed the lawn in front of the main stage with camping chairs and picnic baskets. Cellphone cameras were also at the ready for Brotons and the orchestra, which kicked off the concert (August 2) with the 'Waltz' from Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin.”

Coty Raven Morris, All Classical Radio program host and music professor at Portland State University, enthusiastically introduced Grammy-award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey, who delivered an outstanding performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme.” Wonderful articulation of the quicksilver passages, sensitive treatment of the ultra-high notes, and soulful probing of the phrases in the basement register made Bailey’s performance memorable. I loved how he could sting a note as needed, which heightened the many contrasts of the piece. An occasional jet flying overhead (pursuant the flight path from Portland International Airport), barking dogs, and the afterburn of a Harley didn’t phase Bailey one bit. The audience responded with a standing ovation – quite a compliment considering that people had to get out of their low-slung chairs.

Bailey followed the Tchaikovsky with a haunting rendition of John Williams’ “Schindler’s List.” It was brief, but very evocative of the main theme from the 1993 famous movie-epic-drama.

Zuill Bailey and the orchestra | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

After intermission, Brotons conducted a robust interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italian” from memory. Actually, he conducted the entire program without a score, and he did it in way that looks natural and easy peasy – although it is really hard. Sometimes, it seemed that the sound became a bit too heavy at times, which may have had to do with the amplification.

Brotons told the audience that “You ain’t seen nothing yet” before launching the orchestra into Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” It was fun to see people moving back and forth as they listened to the famous melody at the end of the piece. A better placement of the microphones for the bass drum would have created a more crackling wallop. But the total effect of the piece resonated with the listeners, who responded with a standing ovation.

Gerard Schwarz with the VSO | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

For Saturday evening’s concert (August 3), All Classical Radio's Warren Black introduced Gerard Schwarz, Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony, and piano virtuoso Olga Kern, winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Competition, to the stage. Schwarz and Kern created an outstanding performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto, aka the “Emperor Concerto.” Kern had a field day with the piece, generating exciting lines in the first movement, dialing it back for the lovely and elegant second movement, and surging into the finale. The microphones, unfortunately accented the notes in the upper register of the piano too much. Consequently, some of the dynamic contrast was lost. Also, it was difficult to hear the woodwinds – especially the bassoon. But in the end, the dazzling virtuosity of Kern won over the concertgoers, who immediately sprang to their feet with boisterous cheering.

Olga Kern | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

Kern responded with a mesmerizing encore, Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No 10.” She sailed through an outrageous assortment of fanciful filigree, delightful glissandos, and knuckle-crunching keyboard wizardry with elan. Well, it took your breath away and caused an outpouring of applause.

Astral Mixtape with Vancouver H. S. and Evergreen H. S. orchestra | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

During intermission, LA-based ensemble Astral Mixtape (violinists Misha Vayman and Michael Siess, cellist Juan-Salvador Carrasco, and keyboardist Nathan Ben-Yehuda) performed their arrangements of Astor Piazzolla and Aaron Copeland pieces with a chamber orchestra that consisted of students form Evergreen High School and Vancouver High School. The collaboration incorporated spontaneity and passionate intensity that resonated incredibly well with the crowd.

The concert finished up with Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony. The amplification needed to be adjusted for the woodwinds, which could barely be heard, and for the double basses, which dominated some passages. That didn’t matter to the audience which ate up the performance, rewarding it with applause between each movement and a standing ovation at the end.

Ben Gulley and Cecilia Violetta López | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

I was unable to attend the final concert on Sunday afternoon (August 4). Schwarz led the orchestra in performances of the first movement from Mahler’s Second Symphony, “Three Dance Episodes” from Bernstein’s “On the Town,” the “Symphony Dances” from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” and “Concert Suite No. 1” from Bernstein’s “West Side Story” with soprano Cecilia Violetta López and tenor Ben Gulley. During intermission, All Classial Radio's President and CEO Suzanne Nance interviewed Schwarz on the main stage.

Gerard Schwarz and Suzanne Nance | Photo credit: Windows on Life Photography

Overall, the VSO at the VAMF would benefit from two things. First, close off all streets that surround Esther Short Park so that no motorcycles or loud cars can interrupt the music. That can be done 30 minutes before the music begins. Second, rehearse at Esther Short Park in the morning in order to get a better placement of the microphones. That will help to correct the sonic balance.

But even with those quibbles, the second year of the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival was an overwhelming success. The weather cooperated, and a huge number of people experienced live, classical music with the local band. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Today's Birthdays

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
Adolf Busch (1891-1952)
André Jolivet (1905-1974)
Benny Carter (1907-2003)
Josef Suk (1929-2011) - violinist
Jacques Hétu (1938-2010)

and

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953)
Valerie Sayers (1952)
Elizabeth Tallent (1954)

Story on Young Musicians and Artists final shows available in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

My follow up story about YMA is now published in Oregon ArtsWatch here. It was a blast to watch these kids perform and interview them, parents, and staff. What a great program!

Today's Birthdays

Henry Litolff (1818-1891)
Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
Karel Husa (1921-1916)
Felice Bryant (1925-2003)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936-1977)
Garrison Keillor (1942)
Ian Hobson (1952)
Sharon Isbin (1956)
Christian Altenburger (1957)

Today's Birthdays

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
Mary Carr Moore (1873-1957)
Karl Ulrich Schnabel (1909-2001)
Udo Reinemann (1942-2013)

and

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

Today's Birthdays

Marc Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
Leonardo Leo (1694-1744)
Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896)
Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Erich Kleiber (1890-1956)
Betsy Jolas (1926)
Stoika Milanova (1945)
Mark O'Connor (1961)

and

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)
Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)
Wendell Berry (1934)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1978, the citizens of Patowan, Utah, decided to name a local mountain Mr. Messiaen, in honor of the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, who spent a month in Utah in 1973 an composed a symphonic work, "Des canyons aux etoiles" (From the canyons to the stars), which glorified the natural beauty of the region

Today's Birthdays

Henry Berger (1844-1929)
Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952)
Albert W. Ketèlbey (1875-1959)
Louie "Satchmo" Armstrong (1901-1971)
William Schuman (1910-1992)
David Raksin (1912-2004)
Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014)
Jess Thomas (1927-1993)
David Bedford (1937-2011)
Simon Preston (1938-2022)
Deborah Voigt (1960)
Olga Neuwirth (1968)

and

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?)
Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
Helen Thomas (1920-2013)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1705, in Arnstadt, J.S. Bach and a bassoonist named Johann Heinrich Geyersbach cross paths late a night and an argument ensues. Geyerbach threatens Bach with a stick and Bach draws his sword. Both are hauled up before the city magistrate and reprimanded for their behavior.

Today's Birthdays

Louis Gruenberg (1884-1964)
Antonio Lauro (1917-1986)
Tony Bennett (1926-2023)
James Tyler (1940-2010)
Simon Keenlyside (1959)

and

Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885)
Ernie Pyle (1900-1944)
P. D. James (1920-2014)
Hayden Carruth (1921-2008)
Marvin Bell (1937-2020)
Diane Wakoski (1937)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this date in 1668, German composer Dietrich Buxtehude marries the daughter of Franz Tunder, retiring organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, as a condition to succeed Tunder in his position at St. Mary's. Years later, Buxtehude offered his position in Lübeck with a similar caveat that the new organist must marry his daughter. It is thought that both Handel and J.S. Bach were both interested in the position - but not in Buxtehude's daughter.

James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation to open new grants for Oregon Artists

From the press release:

Dear Friend,

The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation is pleased to announce the Spark Award for Oregon Artists, a three-year pilot program to fund individual artists at a midpoint of their career. The Foundation will award grants of $25,000 each to 60 individual artists in total (20 grants per year) across artistic disciplines. The goal of this program is to sustain and advance the practice of working artists in Oregon. We consider this an important investment in both artists and the communities throughout our state who will continue to be enriched by these artists’ work into the future.

In 2024, the Spark Awards will support artists in the performing arts. In 2025, the program will support literary and media artists, and in 2026 it will support visual artists. The funds can be used for a wide range of needs from living expenses such as rent, childcare or healthcare, to research or material support. Recipients will not be required to present new artistic work created with this funding. Detailed information about who is eligible to apply, the application process and available resources can be found here: www.millerfound.org/artists

Applications are due on October 2, 2024 by 5:00 pm PDT.

Interested applicants can find detailed information on our website and in the program guidelines and FAQ. For questions about the program, please email artists@millerfound.org.We are thrilled to be embarking on this pilot and to be providing much-needed support to our state’s artists. We hope you will share this information with your networks! Sincerely, The Miller Foundation team

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963)
Marvin David Levy (1932-2015)
Anthony Payne (1936-2021)
Gundula Janowitz (1937)
Richard Einhorn (1952)
Angel Lam (1978)

and

Irving Babbitt (1865-1933)
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
Isabel Allende (1942)

Today's Birthdays

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)
Hans Rott (1858-1884)
Morris Stoloff (1898-1980)
William Steinberg (1899-1978)
Jerome Moross (1913-1983)
Lionel Bart (1930-1999)
Nico Castel (1931-2015)
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (1931)
Jordi Savall (1941)
André Gagnon (1942)
Jerry Garcia (1942-1995)

and

Maria Mitchell (1818-1889)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Ernst Jandl (1925-2000)
Madison Smartt Bell (1957)