Continuing Education

July 21, 2014

Sometimes things just fall into place.  I’ve mentioned before that I have been slowly working my way through Richard Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western Music over the past few years.  I’m sort of in Volume 5, Music in the Late Twentieth Century.  “Sort of” because back when I was trying to read and keep up with my music history classes, I had to skip bits of volumes two and three that I will get to eventually.

So here I am reading about Elvis and the Beatles as assessed by Taruskin.  His big point about rock is that the rock composers like the Beatles, who used electronic music were more successful in getting the public to listen to it than the academics who were writing very similar electronic music.  I had never thought about that aspect until I came across Radiohead several decades later.  Not only that, I’d never looked for Karlheinz Stockhausen on the record jacket of Sgt. Pepper.  I have now.

Meanwhile this weekend, my son finally had an opportunity to get me to sit down and listen to Pink Floyd’s The Wall.  I thought it was quite an interesting song cycle though a bit heavy on the existential angst, and I was glad of the more or less happy ending.  At least I understand now why it was such an important work to so many of those younger than I.  Continuing education is a good thing.

 

Taruskin, the Cold War, and Latin America

May 6, 2014

Some of you know that I’ve been working on the five volumes of Richard Taruskin’s Oxford History of Western Music for some years now.  I’ve made it to Volume 5, Music in the Late 20th Century, and, as usual, Dr. Taruskin has grabbed my attention with thought-provoking ideas that may or may not match up with what other musicologists think, but that certainly make a lot of sense to me.  He started out with the premise that he could only write about the history of the literate genres of ...


Continue reading...
 

Attention Choir Directors: Good New Anthems

February 9, 2014

Ray and I went to hear the Georgia Young Composers Festival concert by the DeKalb Choral Guild last night.  There were six finalists this year, and six good new choral works.  My favorite was Silent Night? by Uzbekistan-born Liliya Ugay, who is working on a piano performance degree at Columbus State.  She won the undergraduate prize.  All of the works had very nice choral parts, but hers also had an accompaniment that would require a pianist with skills.  It was both beautiful and interesti...


Continue reading...
 

Happy Birthday, Inge Manski Lundeen

December 18, 2013
Today is my old teacher's birthday.  She's gone now, but she would have been in her 90's -- I don't know exactly where in her 90's.  One of the many fascinating things about Inge's life growing up with Mdm. Manski was that when they came to the US in the 1920's -- Mdm. Manski having figured out that Germany was no place for a nice Polish girl even if she sang Isolde's and Sieglinde's at Bayreuth and Berlin -- Mdm. Manski lied about Inge's age, making her a year younger than she actually was. ...
Continue reading...
 

The Choral Director and The Singing Teacher Can Be Friends

October 29, 2013
(Sung to the tune of "The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends")

Well, I've been to Heaven.  I sat through a session this morning by Dr. Alan Zabriskie of The University of Central Missouri and then went straight to the Pepper booth in the exhibit hall to buy his book.  It's called Foundations of Choral Tone:  A Proactive and Healthy Approach to Vocal Technique and Choral Blend".  Dr. Z's bright idea is that rather than basing his choir's sound on the least skilled members' abilities, perha...
Continue reading...
 

NAfME National Convention in Nashville

October 29, 2013
So why am I in Nashville again?  I came up to experience the national convention of the National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC).  When my daughter and I get to go to the Georgia version, held every year in Savannah in January, we always have more sessions that we want to do than we can stuff into the available hours.  The choices are fewer here, at least for me, but they are good ones, and the shopping in the exhibit hall is good, too. 

Monday I went to an excellent session o...
Continue reading...
 

The Grand Ol' Opry

October 29, 2013
The last time I was in Nashville, I got to hear Earl Scruggs at the Ryman Auditorium, longtime home of the Opry, and it was terrific.  The Ryman reminds me of Pearce Auditorium on the Brenau campus; both are 100+ years old and have their issues.  So this time I thought I'd hike over to the new Opry House and see what's new.

It's a lovely theater with all the bells and whistles, and I'm sure that all the folks who deal with the realities of performing love it.  The young performers that I heard...
Continue reading...
 

Tosca and Urinetown in the Same Week

October 20, 2013
    It really sounds like from the sublime to the ridiculous, doesn’t it? Actually it was two interesting and engaging works each beautifully performed. The Atlanta Opera has really taken a step forward with their recent Tosca. It was beautifully directed by their new general manager Tomer Zvulun, who had directed some of their most visually interesting past shows, and who did not feel called upon to make a 10-minute curtain speech beforehand.

   
The voices were wonderful. Soprano Kara Shay...
Continue reading...
 

Singing Schumann

February 15, 2013
More years ago than I care to mention I began an exploration of the song cycles of Robert Schumann with my long-time friend and collaborative pianist George Mann.  We've been able to perform Dichterliebe a number of times, Liederkreis Op. 39 several times and Myrten two or three times.  Yesterday we finally got around to adding Frauenliebe und -Leben to the list.  George remains as always, but over these many years I've developed a standard wobble for my age.  Even in spite of my deficiency, ...
Continue reading...
 

To Blog, To Facebook, and To Teach Children

June 23, 2012
I was ashamed to see how long it had been between my last two blogs.  I've been enjoying creating and using the Studio's Facebook page, and blogging has kind of taken a back seat.  Anyway I've had a recent reversal in my thinking about teaching voice to children.  A mom who was raised with the Royal School of Music Achievement program was not satisfied with the training another teacher was giving her daughter.  I had just become aware of RSM/Carnegie Hall program because NATS has recently for...
Continue reading...