Portland Opera presents a mock audition

Auditioning seems to be a hot topic lately, and Portland Opera will give you a glimpse into what goes on during an audition at a free event on Friday (May 1). Here's the scoop:

On May 1st the Portland Opera Studio Artists will share their best audition pieces, belting out glorious arias as they vie for that coveted contract in a mock audition. Bring your lunch and enjoy all the musical treats an audition has to offer and get a peek into a very important aspect of producing opera: the audition. Portland Opera’s Director of Artistic Administration Clare Burovac will host this mock audition, and Principal Accompanist Thomas Webb will accompany the artists on the piano.

WHAT: Portland Opera’s “Would you like an aria with those fries?” lunchtime presentation. May topic: The Opera (Mock) Audition
FREE TO THE PUBLIC!

WHEN: Noon – 1:00pm, Friday, May 1, 2009.
WHERE: Multnomah County Central Library (801 SW 10th Ave) in the U.S. Bank room.

Seattle Opera looking for Ring rookie

Seattle Opera is looking for a complete opera novice to attend its Ring cycle this summer and be the host of a video that will take people behind the scenes in a new way. Interested participants will have to submit video and then be subjected to online voting a la reality-show style. Seems like a cool, new idea!

Here are the details from the Seattle Opera's press release:

Seattle Opera Seeks a Star for a Reality-Style Video Project:

Confessions of a First-Time Operagoer

Video Application between May 1 and May 22

Live Casting Call at McCaw Hall on May 15

Online Voting Opens June 1

Seattle—Seattle Opera announced today it is searching for someone to host a reality-style video project titled Confessions of a First-Time Operagoer. The company is looking for an opera novice who has never seen a production of Wagner’s Ring to spend some time with Seattle Opera—taking a behind-the-scenes peek into the creation of the Ring, meeting and mingling with long-time Ring lovers and artists, and attending Seattle Opera’s renowned production of the Ring—to create a reality-show style 10-minute documentary at the end of the summer chronicling the host’s experience.

This video is one of the first projects Seattle Opera is implementing as a recipient of a Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant. The four-year grant from The Wallace Foundation focuses on building relationships with the community through technology. To create Confessions, Seattle Opera is partnering with Reel Grrls, a Seattle-based media and technology training program for young girls. Members of Reel Grrls will comprise the film crew for the host’s summer adventures, and will be responsible for editing and creating the final product.

The Confessions host must be between the ages of 18 and 30 years old and new to the Ring. Extensive operagoing experience is not required; in fact, the company is looking for someone who has only previously attended a handful of operas, or even fewer. The ideal Confessions host is comfortable on camera and eager to experience and learn about the Ring. Love of social networking—whether it’s through blogging, Facebook, or Twitter—and a desire to share his or her experiences through those media is essential. The host should be available to attend performances of the four Ring operas on August 9, 10, 12, and 14, as well as at least seven separate days throughout the summer for supplementary activities, such as scene shop tours or discussions with seasoned Ring fans.

Interested applicants will need to fill out an application form and submit a 1-2 minute video explaining why they should be selected as the host of Confessions. Between May 1 and May 22 (Richard Wagner’s birthday) applications may be submitted by mail or in-person to Seattle Opera Administrative Offices, Attn: Confessions Application, 1020 John Street, Seattle, WA 98109. Videos may also be uploaded to Seattle Opera’s Facebook page.

For those who don’t have access to a video camera, a live casting call will be held during the Friday, May 15 performance of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. The auditions will take place in the Kreielsheimer Promenade at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street, starting at 5 p.m. Application forms will be available and a camera crew will be present to record the videos.

Starting June 1, Seattle Opera will post the top five videos on its website, seattleopera.org, for a public vote. Voting will take place on Seattle Opera’s blog, seattleopera.blogspot.com, and a winner will be announced on June 6.

For more information, or to download an application form, visit seattleopera.org/confessions.

Today's Birthdays

Franz Lehár (1870-1948)
Louise Homer (1871-1947)
Frank Merrick (1886-1981)
Robert Shaw (1916-1999)
Günter Raphael (1903-1960)
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939)
Garcia Navarro (1940-2002)
Vladimir Tarnopolsky (1955)

and

Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967)
John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974)
Winfield Townley Scott (1910-1968)
Annie Dillard (1945)
Josip Novakovich (1955)

Composer John Paul talks about writing new music for silent film

Composer John Paul, who heads the music department at Marylhurst University, has written a score for the silent film "City Girl," which will be shown at the Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival. The festival will show 10 films in ten days and " John Paul's score will accompany "City Girl" at 7 pm on May 8 at the James Ivory Theater, Villa Maria, on the campus of Marylhurst University. Tickets are $10.

I talked with John Paul a couple of weeks ago about this intriguing project.

How did you get to write music for a silent film?

John Paul: We at Marylhurst are hosting an Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival. The idea for the festival was ten nights of film that was connected to Oregon somehow. For example, the director was born here or the movie was filmed here. The curators and organizers of the festival, Dennis Nyback and Anne Richardson, have an incredible wealth of knowledge and they knew about this silent film called “City Girl,” which was shot in 1928 and released in 1930. It was filmed in the wheat country of eastern Oregon near a town called Athena.

Of course, the question with silent film is what are you going to do about the music. When silent films were released there was always live accompaniment. So I advocated for some homegrown music to be played by a local group. That would be in keeping with the thrust of the festival. So, I volunteered to write the music and get local musicians involved. And here we are!

So how do you go about writing music for this film? Do you watch it a few times and mull it over?

John Paul: Initially, I was worried that I wouldn’t like this film. But I watched a DVD of “City Girl” last summer and I liked it. I found the subject matter interesting. The story involves the market crash at the end of the 20s and the ensuing economic downturn. A farm boys goes to the big city and marries a waitress – much to the consternation of his dad. And how she is ill treated. But she is a strong woman and has an interesting character. I thought that I could do this.

I didn’t know silent movies all that well. I’ve seen the Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but I didn’t know drama. F. W. Murnau was the director, and the first film that he ever made, called “Sunrise,” won an Oscar at the first Academy Awards ceremony. In any case, “City Girl” was lost for many years because the studio wanted Murnau to make it into a Talkie, because silent films were becoming passé. But he refused. The studio modified it for sound later, but the silent version was lost for many years.

How did you figure out what instruments to use for the music that you’ve created?

John Paul: That was somewhat dependent upon time and resources. I know that we are going to show the film in a fairly small space that has only 90 seats and doesn’t have an organ or a piano. So I hit upon the idea of writing the music for string trio, and I thought of the Free Marz String Trio and of the fact that I’m a violinist. The idea of adding a clarinet also struck me as a good thing. So the music will be played by for instrumentalists. That should give some variety for 90 minutes, which is the length of the film.

There is the sense that the clarinet represents the city girl herself and its character has some jazzy-like things. The violin, viola, and cello sort of represent the home and warm-based. The film has four main characters and they each have been defined by an instrument – to some degree.

This works because I couldn’t have all four instruments playing all the time for 90 minutes.

Who are the instrumentalists?

John Paul: We’ve got violinist Jule Coleman, violist Joel Belgique, cellist Justin Kagen, and a clarinetist Barbara Heilmair.

How long have you been working on the score?

John Paul: I began in earnest on the day after New Years and with 90 minutes of music I realized that I had to average one minute of music every day, because I wanted to finish the score on April 1st, and that would give me a couple of weeks to do the parts. Some days I wrote more and some days less and some days nothing at all.

It was a great project. I had to figure out the sound I wanted, the tension level, and how it goes with the story. Sometimes I had an idea that didn’t work: so I had to come back to it later and find a better idea. There are some beautiful scenes that have almost no action at all – out in the wheat fields. Those are almost documentary in style.

I think that this film and concert would go over real well in Eastern Oregon.

John Paul: Yea, I've thought about that and am looking into a way to get the movie shown and music played there. Murry Sidlin took his version of Copland’s “The Tender Land” to the farming communities of Minnesota, and that was received well.

Best of luck with your premiere!

John Paul: Thanks!

The Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival runs from May 1 to May 10. Opening night speakers are James Ivory and Gus Van Sant. For more information about the film festival click here.

Today's Birthdays

Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961)
Sir Malcom Sargent (1895-1967)
Edward "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974)
Peter Sculthorpe (1929)
Klaus Voormann (1938)
Leslie Howard (1948)
Eero Hämeenniemi (1951)
Gino Quilico (1955)

and

Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933)
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
Yusef Komunyakaa (1947)

Virtuoso guitarist, Peter Fletcher, to perform in Tualatin

Peter Fletcher, a virtuoso classical guitarist who is based in New York City, will perform a free concert this Sunday in Tualatin of selections from his most recent recording. Entitled “Peter Fletcher Plays Baroque Music for Guitar,” this CD features the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Esaias Reusner, and Sylvius Leopold Weiss.

In this album, Fletcher uses impeccable playing to express each piece fully. Some numbers, like the Prelude and Allegro (from “Prelude, Fugue and Allegro” BWV 998) of Bach seem to fly by magically. Other works, like the Sarabande and Variations of Handel have a regal bearing. The Prelude No. 1 (from Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier” Book I) is crisp and spot-on, and Fletcher’s deft rendition of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 (BWV 1009) embraces the expressive scope of this music with joy and depth.

Fletcher transcribed all of these pieces except Bach’s Chaconne (from “Violin Partita II in D minor” BWV 1004), which was transcribed by Segovia. None of the pieces have been dumb-down in any way; so you get the real deal, only with the guitar.

This Sunday (May 3) at 2 pm, Fletcher will play selections from this recording at the Tualatin Public Library (18880 SW Martinazzi in Tualatin). Other pieces that he might include in the program are Bach’s “E minor Lute Suite,” Fletcher’s transcriptions of music by Erik Satie and Edvard Grieg, Nikita Koshkin’s “Usher-Waltz,” Andrew York’s “Sunburst,” and Crolo Domeniconi’s “Koyunbaba.”

The “Peter Fletcher Plays Baroque Music for Guitar” CD was released on the Tower Hill Recordings label and is Fletcher’s fourth recording. He is working on an all-Grieg album for Centaur.

Today Birthday's

Paul Sacher (1906-1999)
Zubin Mehta (1936)
Jeffrey Tate (1943)
Nicola LeFanu (1947)
Elise Ross (1947)
Jeffrey Tate (1948)
Michael Daugherty (1954)

and

James Monroe (1758-1831)
Karl Kraus (1874-1936)
Harper Lee (1926)

Bach Cantata Choir ends season on triumphant note

Mendelssohn and Bach go together extremely well, and that shouldn’t be a surprise since Mendelssohn was the primary person who led the rediscovery of Bach’s music. Yet I haven’t attended many concerts in which their music was performed together until I heard the Bach Cantata Choir in its season finale on Sunday afternoon (April 26), which also featured the music of the early American composer William Billings. The choir, under the direction of Ralph Nelson, sang with excellent diction and blend in its performance before a large and appreciative audience at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church.

The concert got off to a dramatic start with all of the men singing very strongly in the opening bars of Mendelssohn’s “Richte mich, Gott” from Psalm 43. If that didn’t wake up the audience, nothing ever will. This piece didn’t have the light, frothy music that we usually associate with Mendelssohn. This was in your face Mendelssohn, and the choir expressed the words “Harra auf Gott” (“Hope in God) with beauty and boldness.

The chorus also gave a robust performance of Billings’ “Three Fuguing Tunes.” The three pieces sounded more like rounds than fugues, but their rugged-sounding four-part harmonies lifted everyone’s spirit. I also liked the way that the choir, in the last piece, “Be Glad Then America” built the Hallelujah from a contained, quiet sound to an exulting one that ended with the words “Praise the Lord.”

Bach’s Cantata #112 “Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt” (Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd) featured some fine singing from alto soloist Irene Weldon, bass Jacob William Herbert, soprano Nan Haemer, and tenor Byron Wright. Herbert’s singing of “Und ob ich wandelt im fenstern Tal” (“And though I wander in the dark valley”) stood out, in particular, because of its resonant and urgent tone. The horns in the chamber orchestra struggled with their notes at the beginning of the cantata, but the strings and woodwinds played well.

The choir also captured the lively and spirited sound of Bach Motet No. 2 Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf” (“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness”). Bach wrote this piece for the funeral of the rector of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig, and its upbeat atmosphere is due to the fact that Bach really liked that fellow. This motet for 4-part double choir has three sections, and the second seemed a little unsteady at times. Yet in the final section, the ensemble regained solid footing and resounded through the church.

For its last number, the chorus assembled itself around the perimeter of the sanctuary and gave a rousing performance of Mendelssohn’s “Heilig, Heilig, Heilig” (“Holy, Holy, Holy”), a motet for 4-part double choir. I loved the way that traveled from an ethereal quietness in the first part of the piece (the “Heiligh, Heilig, Heilig”) to the full-throttle, let’s bring the house down “Hosianna in der Höh” (“Hosanna in the highest”) at the end. It was thrilling to hear and a real crowd pleaser as well.

With this concert, the choir performed its 26th Bach cantata. As Nelson noted in his remarks to the audience, the ensemble still has about 200 more cantatas to go. Let's hope that they include some more Mendelssohn and Billings in the future as well.

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883)
Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Guido Cantelli (1920-1956)
Igor Ostriakh (1931)
Hamish Milne (1939)
Christian Zacharias (1950)

and

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Samuel Morse (1791-1872)
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
C(ecil) Day Lewis (1904-1972)
August Wilson (1945-2005)

Compete in the twitter #operaplot contest!

Opera fans now have the chance to apply their twitter skills to their opera knowledge, because Marcia Adair, a freelance classical music journalist from Canada aka Miss Mussel, has organized this twittery competition, which sounds like a lot of fun. Here is the lowdown from her e-mail today:

Starting tomorrow morning (April 27) at 9am, the Twitter #operaplot contest will be reprising its role as the most fun opera nerds can have in 140 characters or less.

The premise is very simple:

1) Summarize an opera in a Tweet using the hashtag #operaplot - 140 characters or less
2) Win a prize if yours is better than everyone else's.

The dates: 9AM EST Monday 27th April to Midnight EST Sunday 3rd May.
Who can enter: Anyone, any country
Judge: Danielle De Niese, soprano

Over 30 opera houses (32 confirmed, ~5 tying up details) in Canada, Australia, the UK and the United States have partnered with the contest and contributed premium tickets or similar to the prize pool.

The Washington National Opera was the first company to join in the fun and is offering a weekend opera prize pack worth upwards of $1000 including two premium tickets to Turandot as well as two passes to the Opera Ball.

Participating American houses include Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of San Francisco, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theater St Louis, Cincinnati Opera, Glimmerglass, Sarasota Opera, Opera New Jersey, Opera Tampa, Wolf Trap Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Florentine Opera in Wisconsin, Atlanta Opera, Opera Boston, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Metropolitan Opera.

A full list of participating houses worldwide is available here. It is anticipated that additional houses will sign on before the competition begins on Monday, so please check for the latest updates before going to press.

Three winners will be chosen by judge Danielle De Niese, with the prizes being awarded on a first right of refusal basis. Full rules and a short FAQ are available here.

Today's Birthdays

Erland von Koch (1910-2009)
Teddy Edwards (1924-2003)
Wilma Lipp (1925)
Ewa Podleś (1952)
Patrizia Kwella (1953)

and

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
David Hume (1711-1776)
John James Audubon (1785-1851)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Bernard Malamud (1914-1986)

Today's Birthdays

Ella Fitzgerald (1918-1998)
Astrid Varnay (1918-2006)
Siegfried Palm (1927-2005)
Digby Fairweather (1946)
Truls Mørk (1961)

and

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903)
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937)
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965)
David Shepherd (1931)
Padgett Powell (1952)

ASCAP suspends Deems Taylor Awards

Musical America reports that the ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for 2009 will be suspended for the first time in 40 years because of financial problems. Here's part of the article:

The ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, which last year celebrated their 40th anniversary of recognizing outstanding music writing in an array of media, have been suspended for 2009. Under “Submission Guidelines” on the Deems Taylor Award section of the ASCAP website, a notice indicates that “the competition is on hiatus.”

Generally applications are accepted by April and the awards announced the following fall.

ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento cited budgetary reasons. Asked when the program would return, he responded, “We will be discussing its future as we go forward, but at this time we have no definitive projection."

Here's a link to the article in Musical America.

Bach Canata Choir concert this Sunday

The Bach Cantata Choir presents the final concert of its 2008-2009 season on Sunday, April 26th at 2 pm at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church (NE 45th and Sandy in Portland).

The concert, led by BCC's artistic director Ralph Nelson, features:

Mendelssohn: Psalm 43: Richte mich, Gott
Mendelssohn: Heilig, Heilig, Heilig
William Billings: Three Fuguing Tunes
J.S Bach: Cantata 112, Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt
(Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd)
J.S. Bach: Motet #2: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf
(The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness)

Incidently, the two Mendelssohn motets and Bach's motet are scored for double choir.

The concert is presented free of charge; free-will offerings are accepted.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Martini (1706-1784)
Charles O'Connell (1900-1962)
Violet Archer (1913-2000)
John Williams (1941)
Barbara Streisand (1942)
Norma Burrowes (1944)
Ole Edvard Antonsen (1962)
Catrin Finch (1980)

and

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
Willem De Kooning (1904-1997)
Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)
Stanley Kauffmann (1916)
Clare Boylan (1948-2006)

Van Cliburn jury

For those of you who may be wondering who will be part of the panel of judges for the Van Cliburn Competition, here's the lineup:

Marcello Abbado*, former director of the Milan Conservatory and founder of the Symphonic Orchestra Verdi in Milan

Dmitri Alexeev, internationally acclaimed pianist and the first Russian artist to become the first-prize winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition (1975)

Michel Beroff, pianist and faculty member of the Paris Conservatoire, he is credited with more than fifty recordings and is establishing a career as a conductor

Hung-Kuan Chen*, chairman of the Shanghai Conservatory piano department and director of its International Piano Academy, is a gold medal winner of both the Arthur Rubinstein and Busoni Competitions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991

Richard Dyer*, writer, lecturer, former chief music critic for the Boston Globe for thirty-three years, and two-time recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for distinguished music criticism

John Giordano, Chairman*, jury chairman for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1973, former music director of the Fort Worth Symphony and Chamber Orchestras for twenty-seven years, music director of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra

Joseph Kalichstein, the first chamber music adviser to the Kennedy Center and a founding member of the acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

Yoheved Kaplinsky*, chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York, as well as professor of piano at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth

Jürgen Meyer-Josten, former head of music of Bavarian Radio in Munich for more than two decades, and director of the International Music Competition of the Broadcasting Companies of Germany in Munich since 1967

Menahem Pressler, pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio

Tadeusz Strugala, prominent Polish conductor, professor at the Krakow Music Academy, and guest conductor of orchestras in Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna

(*denotes member of screening audition jury)

Today's Birthdays

Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858-1919)
Albert Coates (1882-1953)
Barry Douglas (1960)

and

Joseph Turner (1775-1851)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
George Steiner (1929)

Today's Birthdays

Dame Ethel Smyth (1856-1944)
Eric Fenby (1906-1997)
Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953)
Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999)
Charles Mingus 1922-1979)
Jaroslav Krcek (1939)
Joshua Rifkin (1944)
Peter Frampton (1950)
Jukka-Pekka Saraste (1956)

and

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Louise Glück (1943)

Special ticket offer from Chamber Music Northwest

Chamber Music Northwest is offering a special deal for Oregon Symphony subscribers:

Special 2-for-1 offer from Chamber Music Northwest!

Robert McDuffie, Lawrence Dutton, Ralph Kirshbaum
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium 7:30 pm

Chamber Music Northwest extends a special offer to patrons of the Oregon Symphony – get two tickets for the price of one! Next week, three distinguished artists return to CMNW for an evening of favorite string trios and duos by Schubert, Ravel and Beethoven. Violinist Robert McDuffie is a Grammy-nominated artist with a busy international career; violist Lawrence Dutton plays with the renowned Emerson String Quartet, and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum performs world-wide as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. Program notes and information are available from the CMNW website.

To take advantage of this special offer:

Purchase your tickets through the Chamber Music Northwest Box Office and mention this offer; call 503-294-6400, 10 am to 4 pm, Monday through Friday. Tickets start at $22. This offer expires Thursday, April 30 at 12 noon.

Todays Birthdays

Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
Leonard Warren (1911-1960)
Bruno Maderna (1920-1973)
Lionel Rogg (1936)
John McCabe (1939)
Richard Bernas (1950)

and

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
John Muir (1838-1914)