Today's Birthdays

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960)
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
Leo Brouwer (1939)
Moray Welsh (1947)
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (1954-2006)
Galina Gorchakova (1962)
Thomas Adès (1971)

and

Oskar Kokoschka (1866-1980)
Ralph Ellison (1913-1994)
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
Richard Wilbur (1921)

Lawrence Schoenberg, son of Arnold Schoenberg, visits Seattle Opera

Last Saturday at Seattle Opera, I was in the Press Room enjoying some refreshments when Hilda Cullen, director of public relations for Seattle Opera, announced that Lawrence Schoenberg, the son of Arnold Schoenberg was in the room. Several critics and guests gathered around Lawrence, who is the youngest child of Arnold Schoenberg (he has a brother and a sister). Lawrence is a pretty low-key fellow and has been retired from teaching math in the public school system for a number of years. He was looking forward to Seattle Opera's "Erwartung," which was on the second half of the program that evening. Lawrence travels often from his home in Los Angeles to Vienna, Austria where the Arnold Schoenberg Center is located. He mentioned that "Erwartung" is usually presented in a concert version rather than as an opera. I didn't see him after the show, but I think that he must have been impressed with Seattle Opera's production.

For those of you who want to travel back a couple of decades, here's a YouTube video of Lawrence Schoenberg, his mother Gertrud Schoenberg, and Rudolf Kolisch.

Today's Birthdays plus Leap Year's

Geraldine Farrar(1882-1967)
George Malcolm (1917-1997)
Joseph Rouleau (1929)
Osmo Vänskä (1953)
Markus Stenz (1965)

and

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Stephen Spender (1909-1995)
Zero Mostel (1915-1977)
Frank Gehry (1929)
Daniel Handler (1970)

Plus birthdays for February 29th:

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957)
Reri Grist (1932)

Oregon legistlature looks at raiding the Oregon Cultural Trust to make up the projected deficit

Our representatives in Salem are thinking of taking $1.8 million away from the Oregon Cultural Trust and directing those funds to other areas. I think that this is wrong and will be writing my congressman very soon about the matter. The citzens who give to the Oregon Cultural Trust intend that their donations be used by the OCT.

Here's a letter from the Oregon Council for the Humanities about the matter and some steps that you can follow to voice your opinon:

As you know, Oregon is facing one of the most significant budget shortfalls in its history. The State issued its revenue forecast on Friday. Revenue projections are now an additional $55 million over the previously announced shortfall of $800 million in the State's General Fund. Lottery revenues are also down. Legislators made a list last week that contains proposed reductions and fund sweeps for all agencies to re-balance the 2007-09 budget, assuming an $800 million hole. This represents a serious threat to state funding for culture.

Most sobering: the "funds sweep" list of Other Funds includes the recapture of $1.8 million from the permanent fund of the Oregon Cultural Trust. The $1.8 million includes $1.3 million in cultural license plate revenue generated since 2003 plus interest.

The Cultural Trust was authorized by the Legislature in 1999 to grow and stabilize funding for culture--in good times and in bad. To skim the Trust fund and reallocate cultural license plate fees for the General Fund is a violation of trust with the
buyers of the plates who assumed they were supporting Oregon culture with their purchases. To raid the fund to pay for other state services simply violates the very purpose of the Trust and the intent of the Trust's thousands of donors: to protect and invest in Oregon's cultural resources.

This situation is very serious. Not only are legislators dealing with a large revenue shortfall and the potential of an additional $55 million in cuts, there are efforts underway to hold K-12 school funding from further reductions.

I urge you to please take action in any of the following ways:

- Call your local legislators and tell him or her why the Oregon Cultural Trust needs to remain intact and taken off the fund sweep list.

- Use one of the messages on the Cultural Advocacy Coalition website to send a message directly to your legislator
Write your own message to convey the importance of cultural funding in your city, town, or county.

- Send this message to your friends and those you think may be willing to help.

Work to re-balance the state budget is proceeding very quickly and may be completed by this weekend. Weigh in with your opinion. Contact the Cultural Advocacy Coalition to send a message to your legislators NOW.

Best regards,

Cara Ungar-Gutierrez
Executive Director
Oregon Council for the Humanities

Today's Birthdays

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976)
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Elizabeth Welch (1904-2003)
Mirella Freni (1935)
Gidon Kremer (1947)
Frank-Peter Zimmermann (1956)

and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Ralph Nadar (1934)

The Concord Ensemble to sing this Saturday

Cappella Romana sponsors a concert by The Concord Ensemble this Saturday at 8 pm at St. Philip Neri Church - 2408 SE 16th (at Division). This should be an exceptional concert for lovers of choral music.

The following excerpt is from the press release:

The Concord Ensemble makes its Portland debut with a program set in the New World after Cortez overthrew the Aztec empire in 1521. Hear music in European style alongside processionals where Spanish, Indian and African cultures were allowed to mix. The program will include 16th- and 17th-century music for six male voices from Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Portugal and Spain, including a complete Passion from the manuscript at the Convento del Carmen in Mexico City.

The award-winning Concord Ensemble came together in 1997 and specializes in early and contemporary music. The Concord Ensemble’s versatility reached new heights when they appeared with pop star Sting and Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamozov to sold-out audiences at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

Today's Birthdays

Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (1928)
Lazar Berman (1930-2005)
Johnny Cash (1932-2005)
David Thomas (1943)
Emma Kirkby (1949)
Carlos Kalmar (1958)

Winners of Vancouver Symphony (WA) Young Artists Competition announced

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concluded its fifteenth annual Young Artists competition on Sunday, February 22 at The Royal Durst Theatre at the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. In each of the three instrumental performance categories, a first, second and third place winner was selected, with each receiving a scholarship. The total amount in scholarship money was $7,500.

Piano Division
First Place $1,500 Scholarship Stephanie Cai Lake Oswego, OR
Second Place $ 750 Scholarship Mighten Yip Portland, OR
Third Place $ 250 Scholarship Mary Stone Washougal, WA

Strings Division
First Place $1,500 Scholarship Kelly Talim, violin Portland, OR
Second Place $ 750 Scholarship Sarah Kang, cello Clackamas, OR
Third Place $ 250 Scholarship John Lee, viola Beaverton, OR

Brass/Woodwinds/Percussion
First Place $1,500 Scholarship Ted Schaller, alto sax Lake Oswego, OR
Second Place $ 750 Scholarship Matthew Slaughter, flute Portland, OR
Third Place $ 250 Scholarship Jessica Woolf, oboe Lake Oswego, OR

Fifty-three entries were submitted on CD beginning in January and were initially judged by a blue ribbon panel of three local artists and instructors. Three finalists were picked in each of the three categories to perform at a live performance on February 22 in front of an audience that included five judges from the Portland/Vancouver area. The three first place winners not only receive the top amount of $1,500 as a scholarship, but will also perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at our concert April 18 & 19, 2009.

Today's Birthdays

Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965)
Victor Silvester (1900-1978)
Davide Wilde (1935)
Jesús López-Cobos (1940)
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Denis O'Neill (1948)

Xu Zhong delivers fine concert in his Portland Piano International debut

Portland Piano International has operated in Presto mode for its last two concerts, finding replacements for last minute cancellations. Last month Conrad Tao gave a terrific performance in place of an ailing Polina Leschenko. This time around, Xu Zhong came to the relief of Olga Kern, who had to attend to a family emergency. (I have heard that her father is extremely ill.) Zhong had just performed a solo recital at Willamette University as well as conducted and played two Mozart concertos with the Salem Chamber Orchestra the week before his engagement with PPI. Fortunately, Zhong was able to extend his stay in the United States and rescue PPI with an exceptional performance on Sunday afternoon (February 22) in a program that featured works by Debussy, Liszt, and Stravinsky.

The first half of the concert was devoted to Book I of Debussy’s Preludes, which consists of 12 impressionistic pieces that the composer wrote in 1909 and 1910. Zhong played these evocative preludes with finely honed sensitivity. From the soft, diaphanous sounds in “Danseuses de Delphes” (“Delphic Dancers”) to the flighty and spirited atmosphere of “La danse de Puck” (“Puck’s Dance”) and the jaunty “Minstrels,” Zhong found all sorts of tonal colors. Perhaps he slowed down a bit too much now and then, but the shape of each piece remained vibrant.

After intermission, Zhong performed Liszt’s “Sonetto 104 del Petrarca” from “Années de Pèlerinage II” (“Years of Pilgrimage”) and “Vallée d'Obermann” (“Obermann's Valley”) from “Années de Pèlerinage I.” Zhong excelled with the subtle and warm nature of the first work and contrasted it well with the demonstrative style of the second. The grand arpeggios and the filigree work in the “Vallée d'Obermann” were impressively clean and crisp in Zhong’s hands.

The concert ended in uptempo fashion with Stravinsky’s “Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka.” (“Three Movements from Petrouchka”), which dates back to 1921 when the composer converted three portions from this ballet score into a work for solo piano. Zhong really got into this piece, combining precision and artistry to capture the varied emotions of the music in all of its wild, primitive, and shimmering glory.

The audience responded to Zhong’s playing of the Stravinsky with an extended standing ovation, and Zhong returned to the Steinway to perform Brahm’s Intermezzo in A major as an encore. Maybe Zhong was just getting warmed up, because this piece came across with more heart and seemed to flow more freely than any of the other works on the program.

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940)
Michel Legrand (1932)
Renato Scotto (1934)
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946)

Today's Birthdays

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952)
Albert Sammons (1886-1957)
Martindale Sidwell (1916-1998)

and

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) - blogger of the 17th Century
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)

Outstanding Bluebeard and Erwartung at Seattle Opera

Rosarii Lynch photo

Seattle Opera certainly went out on a limb to produce Béla Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” (“Expectation”) for the first time in the company’s 35 year history. Both operas have a stark, expressionistic bent that could have fallen flat on its face on opening night (Saturday) at McCaw Hall. Yet each opera delivered a team-effort, combination punch that was a knock-out musically and visually. Overall, this daring double-bill production pushed Seattle Opera forward artistically and exposed new horizons for the company.

The danger in producing operas by Bartók and Schoenberg loom large, because both composers wrote music that the public has not embraced wholeheartedly. Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” (composed in 1911) veers towards atonality, yet has enough modal tonality to make it appealing. Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” (composed in 1909) is atonal and accosts the ears with all sorts of dissonant sonic textures. Fortunately, Speight Jenkins and Seattle Opera engaged the right mix of artists to make these two one-act masterworks intelligible and engaging for today’s audiences.

Seattle Opera featured exceptional casts for both productions. Baritone John Relyea superbly conveyed the complex personality of the forceful, anguished, and enigmatic Bluebeard. Soprano Malgorzata Walewska was completely convincing as Judith, his new bride who gets a tour of Bluebeard’s home and in the process unlocks all of the doors to his terribly-burdened soul. Relyea and Walewska used their powerful and expressive voices to reveal the vast expanse of emotions within each character.

In “Erwartung,” Susan Marie Pierson was totally convincing as a woman who became unhinged in her struggle to make sense of her lover’s death. Pierson’s soprano voice completely matched her haunted state. She drew the audience into her dream world with utter conviction. How she found the right notes within the dissonant landscape of Schoenberg’s music was an astonishing mystery in itself.

Conductor Evan Rogister made the most of his debut with the Seattle Opera orchestra, skillfully letting the music breathe on its own. In “Bluebeard’s Castle” the symphonic portions of the music can almost take over the opera. In “Erwartung,” the orchestral music supports everything (tangible and intangible) in all sorts of unusual ways. Rogister and the orchestra found the emotional arc of the music and gave it a perfect shape.

Both operas were originally created for the Canadian Opera Company in 1993 by Robert Lepage, who has successfully directed productions for Cirque du Soleil and is currently spinning heads with his conception for “The Damnation of Faust” at the Metropolitan Opera. For Seattle Opera’s production, stage director François Racine, who has worked with Lepage, provided fluid instructions that enhanced the story lines. In particular, the three silent actors in “Erwartung” used slow-motion gestures and acrobatics to stunning effect. An illumined hand reaching out, a bed sheet deftly stripped away, a psychiatrist sitting on a chair that was parallel to the stage floor and supported on the side of the wall (his plane of reference was rotated 90 degrees from the woman who was on the stage floor) – all of these actions supported the chaos going on in the woman’s mind.

Robert Thomson’s lighting for both operas was brilliant. In “Bluebeard’s Castle” light spilled out of the doors that Judith opened and flood the wall on the opposite side of the stage with evocative colors. In both operas, an extended wall took on different textures and meanings because of the facile lighting. Also, the gigantic picture frame, which framed both operas, changed color. In “Bluebeard’s Castle,” the color changed impressively from bright gold to a tarnished version of gold.

“Bluebeard’s Castle” and “Erwartung” are linked to Expressionism, which reached a high-water mark in the early part of the Twentieth Century, when Europe was on the verge of great turmoil. In light of the current economic downturn, perhaps Expressionism will experience resurgence. At Seattle Opera, Expressionism, through the music of Bartók and Schoenberg, is being realized at its fullest.

-----------------

Extra note: Because I was a fellow in the NEA Institute for Classical Music and Opera, I attended the Metropolitan Opera production of "The Damnation of Faust," which was directed by Robert Lepage and featured Relyea as Méphistophélès. I wrote a review of the performance here.

Today's Birthdays

York Bowen (1884-1961)
Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963)
George Zukerman (1927)
Steven Lubin (1942)
Lucy Shelton (1954)
Lowell Liebermann (1961)

and

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
Leo Delibes (1836-1891)
Charles Marie Widor (1844-1945)
Kenneth Alford (1881-1945)
Nina Simone (1933-2003)
Elean Duran (1949)
Simon Holt (1948)

Today's Birthdays

Mary Garden (1874-1967)
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
Christoph Eschenbach (1940)
Barry Wordsworth (1948)
Riccardo Chailly (1953)
Chris Thile (1981)

and

Louis Kahn (1901-1974)

Memorial concert for Cline Otey - former Oregon Symphony and Portland Opera musician and teacher

A memorial Concert for Cline Otey will be held on Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 3:00pm, St. Anne's Chapel, Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43). The concert will feature Otey's family, friends, colleagues and students and will benefit the music therapy program at Marylhurst.

According to Otey's daughter, Lisa Otey, enjoyed a musical career for nearly 40 years in the Portlandarea. He played violin in the Oregon Symphony and the Portland Opera, was assistant conductor to the Portland Youth Philharmonic and taught thousands of children in the orchestras of North Clackamas School
District.

"Music was my father's life," said Lisa. "The only thing more important to him was children. He spent his career nurturing and inspiring the talents of his students and his own family."

Otey passed away on Aug. 5, 2008. Lisa Otey mentioned that one of his passions at the end of his life was music therapy. He longed to bring music into children's hospitals. Even when he spent a short time in a nursing home, he played for the residents and brought healing to their lives.

"I am most interested in finding m dad's former students," stated Lisa. "I have found some online but am at a disadvantage, living in Tucson, Arizona, which is so far away from Portland. It would mean so much if you could list the concert and also a call to his students if they wish to articipate in the concert. They can reach me at lisa@owlsnestmusic.com, www.lisaotey.com and 520.370.5912. It is my dream that this will become an annual event to keep my father's memory and legacy alive."

Concert for Cline
benefit for Marylhurst Music Therapy program
Sunday, March 1
3:00pm
St. Anne's Chapel
Marylhurst University
17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43)
$10 suggested donation
all donations accepted

Today's Birthdays

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Stan Kenton (1912-1979)
Timothy Moore (1922-2003)
George Guest (1924-2002)
Michael Kennedy (1926)
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988)
Penelope Walmsley-Clark (1949)

Oregon Symphony ticket sales through the roof

The Oregon Symphony has surpassed $6.1 million in total ticket sales this season, which is quite an accomplishment in light of the current economic temperature. The orchestra has sold 136,431 tickets so far and is $458,000 ahead of total ticket sales for the entire season last year. This bodes well for the orchestra's continuing health and may help them to pay off some hefty debts that it incurred from previous years when they ran substantially in the red. You can read all about the orchestra's success at the box office in this press release. And the orchestra is playing at a higher level than ever, and that fact has generated a lot of enthusiasm.

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (1655-1720)
Marchel Landowski (1915-1999)
Rita Gorr (1926)
Marek Janowski (1939)
Marlos Nobre (1939)

and

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957)
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
Toni Morrison (1931)
Yoko Ono (1933)