When a student is learning an instrument and they sit down to play, usually they'll start with the question, "Well, what music does my teacher want me to play?" As they progress through their career, the choice of music becomes, "What do I want to play?" Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott, though, are much more than classical musicians. They are global ambassadors, responding to current events in real time. When the two prepare to play for other people, they start with the question "What does the world need to hear right now?"

As COVID overwhelmed our lives, Ma and Stott agreed the world was looking for comfort and hope. A collection of social media videos planted the seed of an idea for an album together. Ma and Stott talked with Fred Child from two different continents about the solace music can provide and the artistic curiosity and optimism that hope requires.

Learn more about their collaboration here:
Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott: Songs of Comfort and Hope

Mahani Teave grew up on Rapa Nui (sometimes called Easter Island) in the Pacific Ocean. When she was nine years old a piano and a pianist arrived on the island. Fascinated, she begged for lessons. Teave's passion for the instrument soon took her to Valdivia, Chile to study, then on to conservatories in the United States and Europe, and finally an international touring career as a soloist. But she said she always felt called home to Rapa Nui.

Listen to her interview with PT host Fred Child about the creation of the Rapa Nui School of Music and the Arts, how the school unites art and environmental sustainability, and how music has sustained the people of the island during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More about the new album release from Mahani Teave:
Mahani Teave: Rapa Nui Odyssey

Bruce Adolphe reveals all of the secrets of the Piano Puzzler® with Fred Child on Performance Today.

Never miss a Piano Puzzler® and get an exclusive classic episode every week when you sign up for the free Piano Puzzler newsletter!

Louise Farrenc was a remarkable pianist and imaginative composer in 19th Century France. In technical skill and musicality, she operated in the same virtuosic plane as her contemporaries Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt. Gender, though, was not in her favor--not that it mattered to Farrenc.

Pianist Joanne Polk has recorded an album exclusively of Farrenc's solo piano compositions. Listen to her interview with PT host Fred Child about Farrenc, the woman who blazed a trail for many ambitious, female musicians who followed in her footsteps.

More about Polk's album: Louise Farrenc: Etudes & Variations

 

Performance Today celebrates Women's History Month by honoring the women who have made a lasting impact on classical music and those who love music. We invited listeners to nominate a living woman who has inspired you. The PT staff reviewed your nominations and made a unanimous decision about the honoree. And the winner is...

Valerie Coleman

Her work as an instrumentalist alone would be enough to win. She's an extraordinary flutist with wide-ranging interests and talents. Coleman is the founder and was a 20-year member of the groundbreaking Imani Winds ensemble. Her unflagging devotion to teaching and mentorship might be enough, as hundreds of up-and-coming musicians are fueled by her generous perspective and inspiration. To add to that, she is now channeling her immense creativity into composition, with works that speak in her own compelling voice. That would be enough. Our choice was clear. We are proud to name Valerie Coleman the Performance Today 2020 Classical Woman of the Year.

Notable Nominees

Rachel Barton Pine

"Rachel Barton Pine should be the Woman of the Year. Her range of musical talent is unsurpassed today from Bach to rock. Her foundation for musical education is unparalleled in its impact on young musicians. No venue is too large or too small for her to perform. I've heard her with large symphonies and in very small venues with perhaps only 50 people in attendance."-Charles Wilt

Aimee Beckmann-Collier

"Dr. Beckmann-Collier, or Dr. ABC, as she's affectionately known, is one of the most intelligent, inspiring, and gracious musicians I have ever met. As the former Professor of Conducting and Director of Choral Music at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, she continues to be the most significant teacher I've ever had. I, myself, am a music teacher, and I take every single day in my classroom as a opportunity to be more like her. Aimee is the most inspiring musician, man or woman, I know." - Elizabeth White

Nicola Benedetti

"Nicola Benedetti is not just a captivating musician, but is also an outstanding advocate for classical music across all generations. She has contributed in many ways to music education through lessons, workshops, and YouTube videos. She has also helped many children to become involved in and engage in music. She is incredibly inspiring as a musician, and as a classical music advocate. She sparked my interest as a child, and I'm sure many other musicians have been inspired by her passion too." - Beth McLean

Jennifer Higdon

"I nominate composer Jennifer Higdon. Love everything I have heard from her, in fact when I was first introduced to her by Fred Child, I had to stop what I was doing, get in a prone position on the floor & listen with my whole body." - Dianne Berman

Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr

"American virtuoso clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr feverishly helped create a phenomenally immense new repertoire for a previously ignored chamber group combination: violin, clarinet, and piano for the last 4 decades. She commissioned hundreds of composers and trained most of today's leading clarinetists during her 4 decades as Professor of Clarinet at Michigan State University. In fact, MSU became a famous clarinet destination because of her brilliant pedagogy and mentorship genius."- Michele Gringas

Gail Williams

"Gail Williams is a force to be reckoned with both in the musical platform and in the classroom. As a former colleague of hers at Bienen School of Music, I've seen her students really shine and grow tremendously. Gail is humble yet strong - she voices her opinion when someone needs to speak up especially defending beliefs and/or students. She is the ideal classical woman - strong and caring, outspoken and an amazing teacher/coach, talented with high expectations of all." - Donna Su

Classical Woman of the Year 2019

Read more about previous winner JoAnn Falletta

Performance Today's Classical Critters is a 60-minute classical music romp about and inspired by animals. Host Fred Child and kids tell stories, spark creativity, share ideas and listen to music together. You'll want to have some paper and crayons or markers on hand and a little bit of space to move!

The playlist below has the details about the music you'll hear as the stories play along!

 

Julius Fucik: The Grumpy Old Bear
Alan Pendlebury, bassoon; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Libor Pesek, conductor
Album: The Moldau
Virgin 59285
Music: 4:36

Leopold Godowsky: Java Suite: Chattering Monkeys
Esther Budiardjo, piano
Album: Godowsky: Java Suite
ProPiano 224529
Music: 1:57

Traditional Mongolian: Toroi Bandi
Quartet San Francisco
Album: A QSF Journey
Reference 143
Music: 3:59

Camille Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals: The Swan
Marian Lapsansky, piano; Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ondrej Lenard, conductor
Album: PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf / BRITTEN: Young Person's Guide to Orchestra / SAINT-SAENS: Carnival
Naxos 550335
Music: 3:06

Georges Bizet: Children's Games (Jeux d'enfants): Saute-Mouton (Leap-Frog)
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; Martin West, conductor
Album: Bizet
Reference 131
Music: 1:23

Camille Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium
Marian Lapsansky, piano; Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ondrej Lenard, conductor
Album: PROKOFIEV: Peter and the Wolf / BRITTEN: Young Person's Guide to Orchestra / SAINT-SAENS: Carnival
Naxos 550335
Music: 2:22

Leroy Anderson: The Waltzing Cat
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Album: Leroy Anderson Favorites
RCA 68048
Music: 2:29

George Gershwin: Promenade (Walking the Dog)
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; John Mauceri, conductor
Album: The Gershwins in Hollywood
Philips 434274
Music: 3:03

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Hagai Shaham, violin; New Queen's Hall Orchestra; Barry Wordsworth, conductor
Album: Vaughan Williams: Greensleeves/Tallis Fantasia
Argo 440116
Music: 14:06

Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor
Album: pictures at an exhibition
Reference 79
Music: 1:19

Mark O'Connor: The Cricket Dance
Mark O'Connor, violin
Album: Midnight on the Water
Sony 62862
Music: 1:40

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Sharon Bezaly, flute; Residentie Orchestra of the Hague; Neeme Jarvi, conductor
Album: Great Works for Flute and Orchestra
Bis 1679
Music: 1:05

Agustin Barrios: Las Abejas (The Bees)
John Williams, guitar
Album: From The Jungles Of Paraguay: John Williams Plays Barrios
Sony 64396
Music: 2:15

Anton Sanko: Monarch Butterflies from Great Migrations
studio musicians
Album: Great Migrations - Music from the Original Television Series
Nat Geo Music
Music: 1:04

New York City is a place with a vibrant and seemingly ever-expanding music scene. What about the signature sounds of the place itself? The rhythmic clatter of the subway? The honks of taxis? Fire hydrants spilling onto the streets on hot summer days? Does the sonic identity of the place evolve with its music? Performance Today assembled a collection of "community-sourced sounds" submitted by PT listeners from their New York neighborhoods.

For this series called "New York Out Loud," composer Arun Luthra used those sounds in five new musical works - one for each of the five boroughs of New York.

"It was kind of analogous to the notion of a sculptor. You might say a sculptor is removing stone [to] create a shape. They create what is in their mind. But then, you know, the kind of deep Zen approach to the sculpture is -- I'm removing the excess stone to reveal the shape that's already within the stone. And I started to think of the sounds that way. I wanted to find the music in the sounds that were given to me rather than trying to kind of impose something on them."

Once human ears are tuned in to this kind of listening, PT Host Fred Child explains, it's hard to ignore:

 "I've gone around with a greater consciousness, and I hear people talking and I hear music now in a different way. I hear rhythm and melody because [Arun] kind of brought that to my attention in these compositions."

Arun Luthra assembled an ensemble of talented New York musicians to record his five new works; Marko Churnchetz (piano), Thomson Kneeland (upright bass), Jonathan Barber (percussion) and Luthra himself plays saxophone and provides vocals.

Some composers emphasize rhythm by writing for drums and percussion, but in his composition Brooklyn: runners and riders, Luthra explains, he chose to ground the rhythm in his voice.

"I come from an Indian family on my father's side and a British family, my mother's side, and from the youngest age, hearing my father listening to his Indian classical music records, I was just completely fascinated by the rhythmic aspect of the music, and there's a tradition of vocalizing rhythms rather than playing them on a drum."

The technique is called Konnakol. Luthra uses Konnakol like a thread, to weave together community-sourced sound samples like the rickety rattle of a Coney Island roller coaster and the cheering of crowds at a New York City Marathon. 

"It is really about having a kind of a childlike wonder at the world...and accessing that part of your brain... Here is this amazing city. And it's easy to think of a city as a mechanical or structural thing, but it's really made up of the people who who live here."

Composer Arun Luthra amplifies the music of the city through his five new works: Brooklyn: runners and riders, Staten Island: Charlie's world of wonders, Manhattan: subterranean daydream, Queens: omnijoy and The Bronx: courtly groove. New York Out Loud is produced by Jocelyn Frank.

Amidst the traffic of New York's Times Square--honking horns, shuffling tourists, screeching bus tires, and flashing lights-- there are musical sounds, if you listen closely, while standing over the right subway grate. The sound art of Max Neuhaus's Times Square rises up to greet listening ears.

Dia Art Foundation curator Kelly Kivland explained in an interview with Performance Today, that "amongst the cacophony, he [Neuhaus] wanted you to have a moment of pause, that envelops you-- an unusual audible sound, resembling the after-ring of large bells."

Neuhaus's work begins below the ground with speakers tucked under the surface. They generate the sound audible above. As pedestrians pass by or stand over the subway grate at the intersection of 45th Street and Broadway, they may first perceive the work as a gentle rumble, or vibration, through the soles of their shoes and soon the "after-ring" may become noticeable to the ear.

Before Neuhaus was a sound installation artist, he was a successful percussionist. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music. While there, he met John Cage and Morton Feldman. His ears became increasingly alert and attentive to the sonic potential around him.

He organized Listen sessions: Neuhaus guided small audiences on performative, participatory, walking and listening tours of New York City. The tours paused at sites with unique soundscapes. Some stops showcased industrial sounds and others featured the whisper of wind through trees. Listen walks often concluded with a solo percussion performance by Neuhaus himself.

In 1968 Neuhaus decided to leave percussion performance behind entirely and dive more deeply into the creation of sound art. In 1977, with the help of the New York Transit Authority, Neuhaus installed Times Square. Functionally, the work requires loudspeakers and electronic sound generators tucked into the subway ventilation shaft running under a pedestrian area on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets.

The work has likely reached over 20 million sets of ears. That street corner ushers over 1 million people through on New Year's Eve alone (which is, by comparison, 997,196 more sets of ears than the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall can welcome for a given performance).

New York City's Times Square may appear to be completely saturated with the sounds and lights of passing celebrations, fleeting advertisements and musical theater shows, but unlike those things that come and go, Neuhaus's sound art work continues.

"Unlike music, which has a beginning, a middle and an end, a sound installation is a continuous sound environment" explains Alan Licht, author of Sound Art Revisited, in an interview with Performance Today.

Times Square did run continuously from 1977 until 1992. It's components then fell into disrepair. Max Neuhaus, along with help from the Dia Art Foundation, restored and reinstalled the work in 2002. Since then, it's been audible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It's audible but not easily findable. Tourists and passersby don't always immediately recognize from where the sounds of Neuhaus's Times Square originate. The physical work is unmarked and underground.

The best advice may be to listen carefully for unexpected sonic collaborations between the city's signature sounds of daily life (traffic, horns, tourists' chatter etc), and the works of fine sound art, at every corner- just in case. The effort could be rewarded with meaningful moments of pause and reflection -- just as Neuhaus hoped to create through his work Times Square.

Ariel Francisco is Performance Today's New York Out Loud Series Poet. He is the author of A Sinking Ship is Still a Ship (Burrow Press, 2020) and All My Heroes Are Broke (C&R Press, 2017). A poet and translator born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents and raised in Miami, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He currently lives in Queens.

Five new works by Ariel Francisco- one for each borough of New York:

 

FOR THE MARIACHI BAND PLAYING ON THE
QUEENS BOUND 7 TRAIN IN THE MORNING
Ariel Francisco

Breath of the accordion swelling
in the emptying car: everyone
heading towards Manhattan in the AM
but the music heads east away from the city
with the few of us listening
to the guitar's caffeinated cries,
the miracle of violins vibrating
in unison as the car rocks
out of rhythm. How difficult
it must be to balance on this
hurtling stage for such a meger
audience that grows even thinner
with each stop. And still the singer
sings, leaving a little beautiful Spanish
at each stop, perhaps catching
the passing ear of someone driving
to work as they look up to the sound
just in time to see the train pulling
out of the station, blazing in the sun.

 
HEARING SPIDER-MAN SPEAKING SPANISH
IN TIMES SQUARE
Ariel Francisco

Peter Parker has really packed on the pounds
but still the children approach him excitedly
asking for a picture, their parents holding up
their cameras with cash in hand as Spider-Man says
claro, claro, motioning them over. Maybe
it's something about the mask that makes it ok.
No echo in a photo, no accent, no remnant of identity,
no doubt in anyone's mind that this is Spider-Man.
Without the mask he would be harrassed,
told to speak English, told to go back to where
he came from, wherever that might be. But here
in the red and blue, under the neon and noise,
he's the hero for a few dollars, constantly reminded
of the importance of keeping his secret identity.

 
FOR THE CASITAS OF THE SOUTH BRONX
Ariel Francisco

Small worlds grown to outlast
the change that ousts so many:
for every home torn down
for a condo, a plum, a pear
fruiting into fullness on the branch.
For every displaced voice, a grape
on a vine weaving so thick
through the trellis it blocks
out the sun, a new roof
that can't be caved in, that won't
feel a wrecking ball's fist, that gives
cover to singing and dancing
and music that will never fade,
that feeds the gardens that feed
the people that feed their people.

 

READING DEVIN KELLY'S "READING ARIEL FRANCISCO ON
THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY" ON THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY
Ariel Francisco

On this bright orange boat
that could be a giant toy
the Statue of Liberty
plays with like a child in the tub
in the night's deepest hours
when she thinks no one is looking,
when the only sleepless person
in this sleepless city is the Domino's
truck driver dropping off those trash
ingredients beneath your apartment--
what is not yet pizza rattling you from sleep.
Every night I am awoken by potential
and I suppose even the flavorless
mediocrity of an unassembled
Domino's pizza, a disc tasting
of cardboard disappointment, is a kind
of potential. And maybe Staten Island
growing larger in the distance is like
the Domino's Pizza of places,
and the Staten Island Yankees are like
the Domino's Pizza of baseball,
(and baseball is, of course,
the Domino's Pizza of sports)
because they too are terrible and yet
there's something beautiful in the
trying, right? In a minor league dream,
in potential under flimsy lights
of the stadium like a round rust-colored
pepperoni on the island's face.
In traversing all of Manhattan
and New York Bay to watch amateurs
lose at a dying sport again and again.
Or maybe they win, it doesn't matter--
it's a beautiful night,
I think I understand now.

 
AT BROADWAY JUNCTION STATION, BROOKLYN
Ariel Francisco

There's the man selling bootleg DVDs
of decade old films laid out on a rug
like holy relics catching the sunlight;
there's the woman selling churros with her
daughter, two for a dollar, a dangerous
deal that would rot my teeth if I ever
had any cash; the preachers, oh,
the preachers: in suits, in collars,
in Brooklyn Nets hats, some screeching
the demise of passers by heading
to the L or the J, the A and C,
trying to have their call of doom heard
over that of a rival, while others mumble
their end-of-days predictions,
staring at their shoes instead of staring
into the souls of the commuters
as though not quite as devout
in their beliefs as they should be,
dragging their feet under the stain-
glassed windows lining the walls;
there's the silence of the escalators broken
again, the silence of the looming three levels
of stairs-- no easy ascension here,
we all take the hard way.

For as long as there has been a subway system in New York, there have been musicians decorating it with sound. However, they haven't always been welcome. PT host Fred Child talks with subway historian Susie Tanenbaum about the shift from official bans, to official support for music underground.

In this short film, Fred Child heads underground to explore the history and importance of Subway music to the city.

At 11 years old, cellist Jivan Ramesh is a jack-of-all trades. He plays multiple instruments. He's a composer, an actor, a singer and has a black belt in karate. Jivan is currently studying composition in the Pre-College Program at the Juilliard School in New York. He also studies cello with Marion Feldman of the Manhattan School of Music. Jivan sat down with Fred Child to talk about his busy schedule and future aspirations.

Writing music can be a tough job, especially when your opinions run counter to the government, you are under constant surveillance and threat of punishment. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich found one thing, across the span of decades, that took him away from that stress and brought him enjoyment: soccer. Musicologist Dmitri Braginsky has written a new book about Shostakovich's obsession with "the beautiful game."

Braginksy says that in pictures Shostakovich always looks stern, as if he's deeply concentrating or seriously annoyed. The pictures of Shostakovich at a soccer (or 'football' match as he called it) show a different person entirely. He's smiling from ear to ear.

Click to listen to Fred Child's interview with author and musicologist Dmitri Braiginsky.

Rachel Barton Pine is so much more than a violin soloist. This October, she is seeing the start of the next phase of her enormous, 15-year project that adds to her brand publisher, researcher, advocate and educator.

Pine has long been aware that very few of the violin solos performed on stage were written by black composers. That reflects an assumption that black people are not participating in classical music. Not true, Pine says. Over the past 15 years, she created a database of outstanding black composers at first to diversify her own repertoire. Then she hired researchers for her foundation, found more composers and made the database public for all instrumentalists and music fans to explore.

But why stop with adults, Pine thought. This month, the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation is publishing what is believed to be the first violin instruction book in which all of the musical pieces were written by black composers. Plans are underway for the next installment, each book getting progressively more musically difficult, and eventually expanding to other instrument series and books for ensembles.

Listen to her interview with Fred Child to find out more about the inspiration for this huge undertaking. She also performs works by black composers that would qualify for Ph.D-level pieces in the Music By Black Composers series.

Performances with pianist Matthew Hagle include these works:
David Baker: Blues
Billy Childs: Incident on Larpenteur Avenue

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Louisiana Blues Strut
Chiquinha Gonzaga: Balada (with Sylvia Pine, violin)
William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano I. African Dancer

Downloadable samples from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation Coloring Book of Black Composers:

Chiquinha Gonzaga

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

 

We're celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month! We had the honor of speaking to Francisco Nunez, a choral conductor who won a 2011 MacArthur Genius Grant, to name one accolade, but his accomplishments are vast. Listen to this excerpt of their conversation in which Mr. Nunez tells us about what got him started, his musical idols, and role models.

More about Francisco J. Nunez:

Francisco J. Nunez, a MacArthur Fellow and Musical America's 2018 Educator of the Year, is a composer, conductor, visionary, leading figure in music education, and the artistic director/founder of the Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC). Since he founded YPC in 1988, Mr. Nunez has heightened an awareness of the ability of children to rise to unforeseen levels of artistry. He is sought after nationwide as a guest conductor by professional orchestras and choirs, as a master teacher, and a frequent keynote speaker as a leading authority on the role of music in achieving equality and diversity for children in today's society.

Mr. Nunez composes countless compositions and arrangements in all musical formats and styles for choirs, orchestras, and solo instruments and has received an ASCAP Victor Herbert Award, the New York Choral Society's Choral Excellence Award, and Bang on a Can's Visionary Award. Musical America Worldwide named him among 30 "Influencers" for his contributions to the music industry, NYU Steinhardt honored him with its Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award; and he holds Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from both Ithaca College and Gettysburg College.

http://www.franciscojnunez.com/

Charlie Harmon worked for several years as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein. In his new book On the Road and Off the Record With Leonard Bernstein and in his interview with Fred Child, Harmon describes vividly the October day in 1990 he was called to visit Bernstein and realized it was the last time they would see each other.

Orin O'Brien was the first woman hired to perform full-time with the New York Philharmonic. Watching Leonard Bernstein conduct was certainly exciting for the audience, but this double bassist says it was exhilarating and terrifying to face the conductor as a member of his orchestra. O'Brien calls working with Bernstein "one of the best experiences of my professional life."

It sounds like the set-up for a great punch line. Three composers walk into a restaurant: Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Michael Tilson Thomas. The first course is challenging musical trivia. The next course involves clanging spoons and glasses. Michael Tilson Thomas describes a memorable dinner with two other American composers.

Conductor, composer, pianist Michael Tilson Thomas says few people realize how rooted Leonard Bernstein was in Jewish Theater. Thomas says that shared interest created an immediate bond between them.

Native to Los Angeles, California, cellist Evan Kahn has been praised as "a cellist deserved of serious listening" for bringing his "electrifying ... nuanced and colorful" style to all of his collaborations, from concerti to chamber music to contemporary performances. Intensely passionate about new music and music of non-Western cultures, he has commissioned and premiered over 45 works by composers from around the world, including his father's Cello Concerto.

A recipient of a instrument grant from the Maestro Foundation, he has the great honor and pleasure of playing on the foundation's "Mendelsohn" cello, a 2001 instrument by Mario Miralles named after the foundation's head, Aaron Mendelsohn. Evan plays with a Paul Martin Siefried bow, also leant to him by Maestro, and a Belgian bow by Pierre Guillaume.

Evan is pursuing a Master's in Chamber Music at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with Jennifer Culp. He graduated with college and university honors from Carnegie Mellon University, where he served as principal cellist of CMU orchestras and studied with David Premo. At CMU, he received awards such as The Harry G. Archer Award for Outstanding Senior, Presser Scholarship, four years' worth of the Wilkins Cello Scholarship, and first prize in the Carnegie Mellon Concerto Competition. Before college, he took lessons with LA Opera principal cellist John Walz and Lyris Quartet cellist Timothy Loo, and loves playing for them whenever he visits Los Angeles. Other important mentors include Paul Hersh, Thomas Loewenheim, Amos Yang, Ian Swensen, and Bonnie Hampton.

Evan Kahn is accompanied in these performances by pianist Nicholas Dold.

This spring, 130 PT listeners joined me on an 11-day musical tour of Paris and Normandy. Cellist Timotheos Petrin was the trip's Artist-in-Residence, Wang Jie was Composer-in-Residence. Wang Jie gave herself the challenge of writing a piece during the trip, inspired by the trip, in an open and interactive process, sharing it with our travelers as it was being created. The world premiere was on the last full day of the tour, May 2nd, at the Impressionist Museum in Giverny. Wang Jie's composition is for cello, piano, and narrator, with text by Guillaume Apollonaire, his 1912 poem, Le Pont Mirabeau (The Mirabeau Bridge). Wang Jie chose the poem without even realizing how appropriate it was - we had boarded our river ship in Paris as it was docked right by that very bridge over the Seine, and we disembarked at the end of the trip at that same spot.

A musical theme for the piece was "chosen" on the first day of the trip by the PT listeners who were with us. They put their names in a hat; we drew nine names at random, and the first letter of each selected name gave us a series of nine musical notes. The letters drawn: B-D-K-T (blank) D-B-R-B-M. The letter B is the note B-flat (in German musical parlance). D is D, of course. Wang Jie turned the other letters into notes using Olivier Messiaen's system, and she interpreted the surprise blank slip of paper as a musical rest after the fourth note.

Wang Jie has that theme appear seven times in the piece - once for each port of call where our ship was docked along the Seine. You can hear the theme most clearly on the piano at 6:33, as I narrate the poem's refrain: "the days go by, and I remain," and the theme is then immediately echoed by the cello. Was it pure coincidence that the rhythm of the musical theme exactly matches the rhythm of the poem's refrain? Was it, indeed.

Enjoy this video of the premiere of Wang Jie's music, and this performance by cellist Timotheos Petrin, composer Wang Jie at the piano, and yours truly narrating Apollonaire's poem.

 

Maria Ioudenitch was born in Balashov, Russia. She began studying the violin at the age of 3 with Gregory Sandomirsky, Associate Concertmaster Emeritus of the Kansas City Symphony, and has studied with Ben Sayevich at the International Center for Music at Park University in Parkville, Missouri since the age of seven.

Recent engagements include performances with the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Uzbekistan, the Signature Symphony at TCC, and the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Ioudenitch has participated in various summer festivals and academies such as the International Summer Academy at Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, the International Lake Como Summer Piano School (as a chamber music collaborator) in Lake Como, Italy, and the International Music Academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The daughter of Tatiana and Stanislav Ioudenitch, Maria is currently continuing her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Pamela Frank.

Maria Ioudenitch is accompanied by pianist Ying Li.

 

Korean violinist In Mo Yang, First Prize Winner of the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Competition, has been hailed by the Boston Globe for his "...seamless technique and a tender warmth of tone," combined with "...an ability to project an engaging sense of inner sincerity through his playing." In March 2015, he won the 54th International Violin Competition "Premio Paganini" in Genoa, Italy, marking the first time since 2006 that the Paganini Competition jury has awarded the First Prize. He also garnered the following special prizes: Youngest finalist; Best performance of the contemporary original piece; and Performance most appreciated by the audience, confirming The Violin Channel's praise of In Mo as "one of the new generation's most talented young string virtuosi."

Born in Indonesia to a Korean family in 1995, In Mo Yang gave his debut recital at age 11 at the Ewon Prodigy Series in Seoul, followed by his concert debut at age 15 with the KBS Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from the Korean National Institute for the Gifted in Arts in February 2011 and was then admitted into the Korean National University of Arts as a prodigy in music. He currently attends the New England Conservatory of Music, where he is the only violinist in its selective Artist Diploma program, while concurrently pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree, studying with Miriam Fried.

 

Anne Midgette is the classical music critic for the Washington Post, reviewing concerts and the role that music plays in our culture. She and PT host Fred Child had an extensive, fascinating conversation about the women who have been omitted from classical music history and the women who are making classical music history today.

Listen to the full interview or read a partial transcript of a highlight.

Transcript:

Fred Child: Anne, over the centuries there's what you call a different template for success of male composers and female composers. What do you mean by that?

Anne Midgette: I think it's not just in music that there are different templates for success. I think that the narrative shall we say of what constitutes achievement in our world has been largely a male-dominated one. There's a book called Writing a woman's life by Carolyn Heilbrunn that came out in the '80s I believe and it was pointing out that biography. the model that one follows for biography, is a male-dominated arc. And if you measure a woman's life against that arc it may come up wanting because it doesn't tick the same kinds of boxes. There's not room for success in the domestic sphere there's not room for achievements that aren't sort of measurable and I've been fascinated by that for years. And I think it's also very true in music. I think the whole way we think about music in this extremely male-dominated, historically extremely male-dominated field, is governed by that template. The very way we see music as a museum of canonical works and we judge whether new works are worthy to be included in that canon and measuring women, measuring minorities, measuring "degenerate" so-called artists from 1930s Germany, against that ruler there are always going to become... they're always going to come up wanting or be found wanting because they don't dominate the canon already. The real problem is the idea of the canon to begin with and I think one thing we need to do is get rid of the canon as a template of success and find other ways to hear music.

Music was once just an activity and something that you engaged in and took or left. It didn't all have to be masterpieces and appreciated an awed silence. And I think that that mentality has been a great obstacle for female composers even to the present day because you're constantly fighting against that huge, monolithic template.

FC: And as you say that canon is itself a product of much larger societal forces and the rules of the game being constructed a certain way. The playing field not being level for everyone who might want to play or have something important to say.

AM: Well one thing that's fascinated me, I've been doing a lot of research about women and one woman in particular in a time of Beethoven. And when you start really looking back and digging in the documents you realize that Beethoven's world was filled with women of course. There have always been a lot of women out there in the world but that Beethoven's daily world and this musical world were filled with women. He was writing some of his sonatas for his female students. There were women who were concertizing. I think the difference wasn't quite as stark as we perceive it now. And if you look at music dictionaries over the years, you can see the women gradually dropping out of them. If you go back to 1796 and look at the Dictionary of Music of Vienna in that time you find the number of names of women. I haven't counted, it's not a whole lot, but there are a lot of names of women that are no longer in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians or are just starting to reappear there.

There was a period in the 19th century when the women were dropped out and again the women's role and achievements were not of the sort that gets you kept in dictionaries of that nature. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a significant and major role.

FC: And just to name a couple of examples: Mozart wrote a lot of his piano concertos for women to play there were great women pianists in Vienna in the late 1700s hundreds. Josepha Aurenhammer was one of those and a woman named Nanette von Schaden who was not just a pianist but was a composer herself. And you wrote about her in a 2008 column for The Washington Post. And not just about her as a pianist but as a composer. What should we know about that Nannette von Schaden.

AM: Well she was said by many to be possibly the greatest living pianist at that time in the late 18th century. She was an incredibly beautiful and cultivated woman who was born illegitimately raised by aristocrats in Vienna and then married a minor aristocrat and went off to Wallerstein was a major center for music at that time where the local potentate was building up his music to be... He wanted to rival Mannheim with his orchestra. She ended up there because her husband was an official there and she came together with the composer Rossetti who was the court composer at that time. He worked with her and probably helped her to commit her concerto to paper. She was a renowned improviser, but she doesn't write that much stuff down and the concerto itself is not you know a masterwork by the canonical standards.

It's the kind of thing I wish we had in the repertoire more because there it is. And it is as pleasant to listen to as many other works. I weary a little bit of constantly hearing the drumbeat from readers, from scholars, of whether it's as good as or a masterpiece that deserves inclusion. Masterpieces are partly made by multiple hearings which for a few of these women's pieces have gotten to have and partly made by multiple opportunities which again few women at that time had. In any case Nanette remained an amazing pianist and her narrative cut off. Like many women's in part through her marriage but even more through her divorce. She left her husband, settled down in Regensburg with her father and sort of falls off the scene because as a separated woman she was no longer moving in the circles where one might hear her play. I bet she kept playing. Nobody really knows if she kept composing.

FC: And again that points to what you were mentioning earlier. That to a certain extent, it's who you know and who you connect with and how the rules of the game are set up. Getting into the history books is not purely a function of your work and any kind of objective quality of your work. It's what kind of narrative is out there about you and who's talking about you.

AM: Absolutely and you one also has to remember that the history books in Vienna in the 19th century were dominated by an extremely repressive regime. The Metternich era and it was a very male-dominated time.

It's interesting to note that Austria before that time was remarkably equal for women and that there were even women laborers in the streets at that point that you could walk through the city and see women working on buildings alongside men which was unusual at a time anywhere. The fact that that vibe reigned in Vienna at that period to some extent is notable, but is completely expunged through the historical record. My particular focus in that period as a piano builder named the Nanette Streicher who was a successful piano builder in that time. Rivaled the men, friends with Beethoven, friends with Haydn, built a concert space in Vienna that was sort of like a precursor to Steinway Hall where traveling musicians came through and played and Beethoven was a regular guest and a good friend of the family. For a long time posterity remembered this woman as the wife of the piano builder Andreas Streicher, which is completely specious. Her husband wasn't the piano builder at all. He actually gave up his composition career to work with her and her career. It's a remarkably fulfilled biography of a woman and again it's not a biography that fits the template of male achievement in that she did not become recognized by the emperor or she just had a successful life. She was happily married. She had children who loved her. She raised her son to build pianos too and he became Brahms's favorite piano builder and she established a thriving concert hall and died in her 60s. More or less content. It's not the kind of biography we think of women at that period even being able to have and it's been very fascinating me to that for that reason. I approached it thinking she was an anomaly at that time and it was really striking to me the more I look at this to discover that she was surrounded by other, smart, powerful women. She was definitely not an anomaly. She just happened to be one who realized herself in a way that is that lends itself to being written about or to catch the attention of somebody writing a couple hundred years later. She happened to have been best friends with the Nanette von Schaden than they used to play four-handed works by Mozart when he came through town. Which is how I got onto the Nanette von Schaden in the first place.

FC: It's fascinating that there were quite a few women as part of this scene, particularly in Vienna and late 1700s, early 1800s. And as you say their names dropped out of the history books over the course of the 1800s, early 1900s. And this puts me in mind of a line that you wrote Anne in a 2008 column you said, "It might be inaccurate to claim that women had the same influence as men or to hail all of their works as undiscovered masterpieces. But it's also inaccurate to perpetuate the idea that women had no role beyond representing the target audience for piano builders and music publishers." And that's the end of the quote. I mean the fact is these people were a central part of the Viennese music scene and we're having to reconstruct that history now.

AM: Absolutely and when you remember furthermore that very much at the piano literature that we're looking at was written for these women. It makes it all the more sort of egregious that we tend to overlook them when we're discussing the historical record.

FC: I'm speaking with Anne Midgette the classical music critic of The Washington Post and Anne earlier you talked about the development of the Western canon of classical music. This idea of the set of masterpieces and the idea of inclusion in the canon and the issue of being worthy. What measures up what gets in the canon. That has been an awfully tough nut to crack for anyone who's not already in 'In' the group. It's an issue for women composers for African-American composers for it's been an issue for Asian composers. Anyone who's not in the in group the group who set up the rules of the game it's tough to change the idea of what the canon is and get into that. So what's going on with this? What is the canon. Why do we have it and how do we undo that idea?

AM: Well I think a lot about it not just about women as you say. James Conlon has devoted a large chunk of his career to playing the music of composers who were labelled degenerate by the Nazis and his thesis is that if you devote enough attention to this work it will gradually get a fair chance, a fair hearing so that it will eventually either be played or not played. But it sort of was unfairly shut out and it's a very interesting hypothesis and one that takes us a little bit away from sensitive areas area. That is, people start immediately when you talk about this with regard to women talking about whether women aren't as good or African-Americans aren't as good.

There's a whole horrible level of value judgments. The so-called "degenerate" composers, everybody can pretty well agree that the Nazis were bad and that they were sort of arbitrarily shut out and it becomes a much safer way to look at it. And indeed there has been some slow acceptance of that work. There are sort of those composers are much more familiar to us all than they were 30 years ago.

FC: And for the Nazis that meant Jewish composers, anyone who included jazz in their compositions. Roma musicians and composers all labeled by the Nazis as degenerate.

AM: Exactly. Exactly. Ranging from Felix Mendelssohn I don't remember Mendelssohn was actually "degenerate" quote unquote but he was certainly proscribed. But the specific composers who were living and working in the 1920s and 1930s were the ones who became the most obvious victims. But the idea that the canon is something that can be assailed and have things worked into it is implicit in this idea of recording and playing all this music. And as I mentioned before it does lead to the question of why the canon is a necessary thing to begin with. I don't know if you're familiar with the book The Dictionary of Imaginary Musical Works by the philosopher Lydia Goehr who teaches at Columbia. But it's oh it's a wonderful book and it was sort of revolutionary in its field as she wrote it in 20-30 years ago.

But it focuses on the shift in the perception of music from activity to work. That music used to be something you did and partook in and that it sort of artificially became the structure of works and things to be looked at and finite works that must then be appreciated in a finite way and there's a lot of outgrowth from that particular thesis. The whole way that we now perceive music in this you know small silent room in worshipful silence is not the way Mozart's audiences perceived his music. He writes his father he's thrilled when they break into applause in the middle of a movement. You know it's it's a different and much more participatory activity and that you could really argue I certainly would argue that the creation of that kind of museum like canon has been extremely detrimental to our field and one of the reasons that people talk about the struggles of classical music now is a result of institutions that have grown up basically to propagate that canon. I get readers writing me all the time that orchestras should not play contemporary music but they really exist only to play Beethoven and Brahms. That that's their function. And the more you emphasize this canon the more irrelevant these institutions really seem and really are to our daily lives. And so you need some kind of format for apprehending music that is not bound to the idea of these great works. And I believe I mentioned before the need to come up with other alternatives. But the canon has such a hold on our imaginations that I think a lot of composers continued to write for the canon, again not only women. Philip Glass is a really interesting example of somebody who in the middle of his career began to devote himself to standard forms to a degree that almost no living composer quite does. I mean Philip is on his 12th symphony. He's got eight string quartets he's got 25 plus operas.

He's got all these concertos. He's turning out absolutely canonical music even if many of the major orchestras in America view him as this kind of maverick that we can't play on our series. And there is a great example of even a white male seeking inclusion into this canon by writing music that fits its template. It's a pretty extreme example but it is also fascinating that the most popular and successful composer of our time is still trying to gain admission into this old boy's club because that's been presented to all of us unthinkingly as the ne plus ultra of quality and acceptance. So women have had a very hard time in that field which almost by definition is male. But you've seen examples certainly of women trying to write in those forms trying to gain admission to it throughout history with greater or less success. I've mentioned Florence Price who's getting a lot of attention right now as a mid-century African-American woman composer who had a lot of strikes against her. And there's this new recording out of her two violin concerti which again shows somebody doing what it is that you need to do to be a composer. To be a composer you must write violin concerti. They are quite lovely pieces and I really enjoy hearing them. It's wonderful to see Price getting that kind of recognition in a field that is you know even as it tries to maintain the inviolability of its system is desperately seeking ways to establish itself as more widely relevant to more people. I hate to see them embracing ...

I hate to see this system embracing women and minorities as a sort of economic or sociological necessity rather than out of sheer curiosity of what other people in this very large world of ours are doing and thinking and writing. But it depends on of course the institution. I think some institutions are more motivated by curiosity and a genuine spirit of inclusion than others are. But at least at the very least these concepts of being more open to women are becoming a necessary feature on everybody's radar.

FC: Anne as you're talking about this and the problems that spring from the idea of a canon, an accepted set of masterpieces, and about how that canon is the product of some much larger historical and social forces and gender dynamics and how those have evolved over the centuries. I can't help but wonder if this idea of writing to the canon itself becomes a limiting factor. That creative individuals composers who might have interesting things to say are limiting themselves because they think oh this is how I'm supposed to write.

AM: I believe it's very limiting. I believe it's been historically limiting and I believe it's increasingly limiting as we come into a time when those forms have less and less relevance. I mean to think of Philip Glass seeking acceptance by writing symphonies I don't think he's only writing symphonies to seek acceptance I think he's a really wonderful writer of symphonies but it's amazing with somebody that popular precisely in other forms would even see the interest in doing that. There are so many other ways too to assert yourself as an artist. And I think some of the most successful female composers especially the second half of the 20th century have precisely done that. Have found their own ways to become powerful, creative forces that are independent of the systems that are set up which are not that relevant to what they do anyway.

Transcript: Mei-Ann Chen 20180321 Web Interview

Fred Child: How did you know that you wanted to be a conductor?

Mei-Ann Chen: You know I well I grew up as a shy violinist who had parents who loved music and never had the chance themselves to pursue music. So my parents bestowed their dreams onto my older sister and me. I ended up with violin my sister with the piano and you know actually I ended up doing both because my sister really wanted to draw in a close space. And when she's ready to share you know then she could share because performing arts you have to do it in time in front of people. And so when I show up in my first orchestra rehearsal at age 10 I saw this person on the podium helping to create the biggest sound only by using body language. I ran home. I was so excited. I told my parents, "Piano and violin the fun. But I wanted really to be a conductor to play the largest instrument in the room." They frowned, they look worried because in that generation you really — they really couldn't find any teacher for me. It wasn't something you go to school and get a degree and can become an orchestra conductor. So I didn't let them stop me. I was very stubborn. I would show up at my orchestra rehearsals with my parts completely memorized so I could watch the conductor learn by observation. I thought if I couldn't have a teacher, and the conductor look around the room I was the only kid looking up at him while everybody else is buried and their music, not knowing I was trying to steal his craft at age 10.

FC: So even at age 10 you would not take no for an answer. You knew what you wanted to do, what you wanted to be and you found some ways to make that happen when there were no obvious channels available.

MC: Yeah I for some reason I guess Richard Strauss was absolutely right when he said conductors are born not taught because I thought, I just had this incredible urge of wanting to express music through body language. And I thought I was a very odd child. Not until I was later in a conducting class or conducting program I realized I wasn't the only weirdo. And so I never occurred to me that you know pursuing conducting will be as hard as I would have experienced later in terms of opportunities. It's just something that I knew I had to do for for to make myself happy. That was my passion of wanting to use body language to pull all kinds of sounds together. So I was self-taught on trumpet. I took brass sequence, percussion sequence, when I was a doctoral student at university just I knew I was trying to equip myself as a conductor without knowing what are the chances of making it as a conductor out there.

FC: So when did that pivot from all these difficulties, all these obstacles not having a clear path to study, having to be self-taught to a large extent. When did that pivot into thinking this could actually work. I could actually be a conductor.

MC: Well I have so many angels in my musical journey and the first one I have to thank Benjamin Zander, who still conducts in Boston. He took the Youth Orchestra affiliated with the New England Conservatory to tour in Taiwan when I was just a teenager and I went to the performance met him backstage and actually went to his hotel to play for him. The next morning because my older accompanist asked him the question of whether that's possible. I showed up with literally no English. I was very shy and really the language barrier was harder than you know even if I was able to speak English I wouldn't be able to communicate with him. However he heard me play in this closed bar in the basement at the hotel because it was the only place quiet enough for me to play for him. And he rarely saw Asian musicians. Many of us grew up with Tiger moms you know. Practice practice, discipline is number one. I wasn't practicing for my parents anymore. And so when he saw me perform out of my heart with a piano pianos appear around us. He offered me a scholarship to study violin in Boston and I tricked my parents into giving me a ticket to come to America. They thought I was coming here to become a concert violinist went deep down I knew, ha. Finally I had a chance to fulfill my dream as a conductor and so as an undergrad there's no undergrad degree for conducting in this country I believe. As an undergrad as a violin major at New England Conservatory. I would use Chinese Potlock to get my friends around to play. For example I will put Dvorak Serenade at the end of my violin recital. And so it was thanks to Mr. Zander to give to give me a chance to come to America.

MC: ...But I should tell you one year after I arrive in America we I was in this huge focused second violin principal on tour to Spain. And you know Mr. Zander has always been very creative. And a few minutes at the end of a rehearsal he will always ask who wants to conduct and I'm right there in front of him and I couldn't raise my hand because I was still very shy. So my wonderful sweet American stand partner went to Mr. Zender and said, "Mr. Zander I wanted to tell you that Mei-Ann really wants to raise her hand but she's too shy to do so." So at the last performance in Spain well we'll warming up for Mahler Fifth Symphony which we have been performing about nine times that during that tour as the first score I got myself a conductor score and I will take it out and study on the long buses because I didn't where my friends are asking me about what are you doing with a conductor score. And so the last sound check in Madrid, Mr. Zander literally walked towards me and said Mei-Ann come up and conduct the first movement of Mahler 5. And that's my first time conducting the orchestra my dream becoming true. And many of my friends actually came to me afterwards and that Mei-Ann I think you're really good at this. And so you know that I always knew that's what I wanted to do. But it's nice to know that I actually have some talent at it.

FC: Mei-Ann, you've mentioned several times that you were quite shy when you were in your teens early 20s. Part of being a conductor is being able to convince a hundred talented strong minded musicians to play a piece the way you want to shape it. How did you overcome that shyness to develop the charisma it takes to be a conductor?

MC: Well you hit on the big challenge I had to overcome, Fred, because I didn't realize being a conductor requires so many different skills. I mean it's also psychological you're working with so many individual creative artist. And so I think it's safe to summarize saying that conducting has really brought me out of my shell because I realize in order to conduct, let's say everybody celebrating Bernstein of Bernstein's overture to Candide I mean you can conduct that with you know we're very subdued emotions if you well you got to just bring yourself out there and really be the music cause I always said conducting is about being the music. And so I think conducting has really brought me out of my shell in terms of I realize that I'm not doing this for my own satisfaction only because actually getting all the sounds together and enabling all this incredible creative individuals to bring them together in that unified voice is something greater than what I could accomplish myself with. And so it really has shown me how to connect with others and the music helped me to do that in the first place but now being a music director of several orchestra and be a guest conductor over the world. It helps me to realize you know when I when I call what I guess conduct orchestra I call speed dating with orchestra. You have four rehearsals to get to know all the musicians and then put on a concert or two.

MC: ...And it's really about the music. It's really about connecting everybody in a way that we're so convinced what the composer is trying to say and then bring that circle of energy bring that to share with others that come to the concert hall to experience it live. And so it's conducting has brought me to places I never thought possible, to meet people I never thought possible growing up in Taiwan. And so I really said my musical journey is my life journey as well.

FC: Mei-Ann, you're describing so many obstacles that were in your path toward becoming a conductor including resistance from your parents when you first expressed this idea and having to trick them about why you were going to America convince them that you were going to be a violin soloist when you really had conducting in mind. So what was it like the first time your parents saw you conducting a professional ensemble?

MC: You know I have to say that it took the longest time in some way for me to turn them around and they were they were being good parents because they know conducting is a very unusual career path for someone like me coming from Taiwan. Being a woman with all that added up together and they were just being good parents. But here is a beautiful story. So I started doing competitions when I was the music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. The oldest youth orchestra in a country because I needed to get up taking my green card.

MC: ...So my lawyer said to me this is absolutely true story right after 9/11. I started my tenure in Portland Oregon but my lawyer said to me because of 9/11 that you know they have changed rules about how they grant green cards and being a performing artist lest especially people reviewing my case unless they are classical music lovers they may have a difficult time telling the difference between conductors, and train conductor, for orchestra. Why do we need to get people to wave their arms to stay in this country. So my lawyer said to me I only have two choices. One, I marry an American which will get the green card faster and easier; two, go when the international competition. Not too many Americans before me that I can prove that has something to offer. So when I start doing competition that's was that led to the biggest surprise of my life. One of the biggest surprise which is winning the Malko competition hosted by the Danish National Symphony that has been happening for 40 years. At that point, 2005, I was just hoping to get one of the six prizes and not too many Americans before me. I have a chance to stay in America to fulfill my musical dream. And sure enough I had no European training and not gone to Europe for any workshop completely American trained not knowing much about Scandinavian culture.

MC: ...And here I was one of 242 applicants from 40 countries and becoming the first woman to ever win the competition. And actually I didn't tell my parents all about the competition. My father has high blood pressure. I didn't want his blood pressure to roller coast you know throughout the competition and actually it was one of my student's parents in the Portland Youth Philharmonic that has Taiwanese connection that led to my parents finding out about me winning this competition in Denmark and opening doors. I never thought possible afterwards. And when I actually got invited to make debut with the Taiwan National Symphony No. Also as Taiwan philharmonic outside Taiwan. This was in 2007, two years after I won the Malko competition. That's first time they saw me conduct a professional ensemble ever. And I think that's when realize maybe they don't have to worry so much about me making it.

FC: After all that time seeing that happen. Yes, Mei-Ann, and you mentioned the among the all these different obstacles that were in your path to being a conductor the fact that you're a woman. Did you have any musical female role models that you looked up to when you were a child a young adult?

MC: Well I have to say that the number one female mentor for me that inspired me to come this far has to be Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony, because Marin has really shown all of us that it's possible to pursue your dream even as a woman conductor, a minority in the field, she has never shown me anything that's not possible. And so she also created a fellowship specifically for women conductors to share podiums with her on a subscription programs to really expose us to many more professional orchestras out there. And so I will say without Marin's help I wouldn't be where I am today. There was a female Chinese conductor that my even my parents' generation are very aware of.

MC: She grew up in Sydney where she was born in China but really got her musical training and set me later develop heart connecting career in Taiwan and founded the Taiwan Taipei Philharmonic, and she was viewed as someone that was really unique in the conducting world in Asia because there were so few of women conductors in that generation. She was very active in the ‘60s, ‘70s, even in Europe and in Asia. So everybody said well do you want to become the next school Major. You know but her training really was a base in Taiwan. And that's another challenge. My parents was trying to tell me is that you know it's almost a miss how she became who she was in that generation there wasn't a path to follow. And so it will be very tricky. And I knew my path would be coming to America which allow me many opportunities to develop as a musician.

FC: Mei-Ann, did anyone ever discourage you from being a conductor simply because you were a woman?

MC: Well many of my relatives were very surprised. What I wanted to do when they realize I was very shy, I wasn't just the woman thing like you mentioned earlier conductors, someone of a leadership role. Someone who is a spokesperson for the orchestra and they just never thought that I fit in that that profile, period. And in terms of woman again coming to America never occurred to me that it's not possible to do anything it might be hard.

MC: ...As a young conductors period in terms of the catch-22 — if you don't have enough experience a lot of your resume or you know the VHS that we used to send it simply were not being viewed by, nowadays I think with so many more schools including conducting programs and the Montour by people such as Marin Alsop you know of the Baltimore Symphony. Peabody right next to to the the professional orchestra there. There are so many more opportunities allowing women to come forth. So I am so happy to see what has happened in terms of the next generation of women conductors. There are so many more of us actually already happening. I will say when I had the Portland job a decade ago because many of us were coming through the school program but most of us happened to have found opportunities in academia versus professionals. But even now with Dallas Symphony hosting the program for women conductors with the opera program, my own Chicago Sinfonietta encouraging Project Inclusion Program to include conductors. During my tenure we are seeing more and more women and young conductors being courageous to take up this as a career path.

FC: You're now a music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta and there's been a lot of attention this winter to the upcoming season the 18-19 season of American Orchestras and the diversity or in many cases lack of diversity of those programs schedules you in the Chicago Sinfonietta maybe the most diverse list of composers and performers for the coming season. Is that something you take into account when programming the Sinfonietta?

MC: The history of when our founder Mr. Paul Freeman handed his baton to me as he was retiring and I was coming in as the new music director who happened to be in a program with all women composers and so we celebrate our 30th anniversary season having a presence at the Symphony Center, which is the home of the Chicago Sinfonietta. We thought one of the ways to honor our legacy with Maestro Freeman was to program another program with all women composers and I have to say that you know project w that we call it. This year has put us out in the national radar in terms of being number two in the program. Number two orchestra in the country who has championed for women composers only after Los Angeles Philharmonic, which is pretty astounding and impressive for a small orchestra like the Chicago Sinfonietta. However I have to say that the Sinfonietta has always had a reputation of championing for diverse composers throughout our history. And so programming more women composers as just another way of us embracing what we often like to call it a minority in our industry. You know less than 2 percent of the entire repertoire being programmed by professional orchestras in a country are by women composers. So we're blowing that 2 percent totally out of proportion. In fact this year I think we have 43 percent of our programming by women composers but not only women composers, you're absolutely right, composers of African-American heritage Indian heritage as we will tackle that in our next season of many of mixed culture. Even composers of diverse background compose or interesting pieces such as what we have done Laura Cartman's Call Your Mama, 104 four minute long multimedia, 12 moods for jazz really inspired by Langston Hughes' epic poem. I mean these are programmings we were so proud of championing, continue to champion at the Chicago Sinfonietta as of being one of the most innovative orchestras in the country in terms of embracing diversity inclusion embracing a quality that's in our industry. So it's a fun mission for us to champion. It's one of a kind.

MC: ...And it's also hard to top yourself in terms of how do we get the next programming to be U.S. innovative. You know we have a program innovative programs of Mucca Pazza, the punk marching band that has a huge following in Chicago. The last time we collaborate with them, several years ago, is when the MacArthur Foundation sent their folks to review our concert without us knowing that they were there, leading to you know six months later the Chicago Sinfonietta are being awarded the $625,000, what they called a genius grant for organizations, and so it's a fun place to be being in Chicago being the leading organization for diversity inclusion and an innovative programming.

FC: You've taken such an active role in developing the next generation of talent as well. And I wonder if any of that is informed by all the obstacles you had to overcome and having to do so much by yourself when you were coming up as a young aspiring conductor.

MC: Fred I've only gotten to know you in a short time and you have basically summarized my life dream right there in that one sentence. I grew up in Taiwan and one of my dreams is to become someone who has garnered enough experience that that I can make it easier for the next generations. And you know I view it. It's great to conduct the best orchestras in the world but compared to if I were able to help other young conductors to find their own voices, to find their artistic visions with other communities they serve, that kind of impact so much more broader impact that I could bring to our industry. And so I realize that oftentimes when I talk about that sometimes music directors searchers will be confused. They will be like, do you mean you want to be a professor teaching somewhere. No that's not what I meant because in order to help others — and again Marin Alsop is ultimate you know aspiration in that sense — you have to go through what it takes. For example how to be an effective staff conductor with professional orchestras in a country that's very different from being effective music director of a professional orchestra in a country and very different from being a successful guest conductor going around. Not only in American orchestras but also orchestras over the world. And so every role comes with a little bit different kind of skill set. And my hope is to pass that on to the next generation of young conductors with Chicago Sinfonietta's Project Inclusion Program that we are able to launch six out of eight fellows right out of graduation from our program into a professional position in the country, which is unheard of in terms of conducting program and its success rate. And so that's, that's our hope is that we are able and you know... Marin, what Marin has done for me, it's my hope that I can do similar giving back to other young conductors who have gone through what I've been through and to be able to find their own voices somewhere out there

FC: In a couple of weeks we're going to broadcast your performance of a piece by An-Lun Huang, the Saibei Dance. Can you tell me about this piece.

MC: Yes that's my first piece with Chicago Sinfonietta and I when I was invited as a guest conductor in an East Meets West program. And we originally had a different opener on the program and maestro Paul Freeman asked me if I would like to pitch anything as the opener of that program. And when I sent him this this piece in score form because it wasn't a commercial recording available for the piece yet he absolutely loved it. And so it's the very first piece I ever conducted the Chicago Sinfonietta, without knowing that I was going to be considered a music director candidate later. And so this piece was written actually by Mr. Huang who grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. He was an in exile, living with the farmers. Composing was was not allowed for artists doing that 10-year period of cultural revolution. But Mr. Huang found a way to secretly write. Still wanted to to allow himself to be creative and he captured a lot of the folk melodies that he learned from all these farmers in exile... Saibei means the northern area of the Great Wall. And this piece you would not hear any struggle and strife because it actually celebrates the annual harvest. So I find it fascinating to hear so much joy and celebration written in a time of such darkness during China's history. And so when I performed this piece, it's joy in multiple levels. It's the beginning of my wonderful tenure of Chicago Sinfonietta, to have to for diversity inclusion the innovative programming's but also the music itself is such a wonderful piece of music that a lot of orchestras in in America don't know. And An-Lun Huang now lives in Toronto, has lived in Toronto for a long time. Probably have more of his works performing Canada than in America, but I totally championed this work. I have brought it to as far as Gratz, Austria and many other countries as I can to just showcase another wonderful piece of symphonic music that deserves to be played.

FC: Mei-Ann, this is something I enjoy asking every conductor I talk with and everyone has a different answer. What is it that a conductor does?

MC: I think a conductor is the advocate, or the channel for the composer's creative voice because you know a piece of music could only be a blueprint on the page. But it's the conductor that that brings out that pulls together the the living sound of the blueprint that the composer creates for us. So I would say conductor is conducting... I go back to my sentence, conducting is about being the music. The music being created as the composer perceived it. And so we are the channel to allow that music to come from us to the musicians and the musicians actually creating the sounds that will be perceived by the audience and experienced by the audience. So the conductor I think when we're at our best is a conduit. And we, if we disappeared in a performance that's maybe when we did our job the best.

FC: Like like the home plate umpire at a baseball game. Does a great job when you don't notice.

MC: That's right. That's right. That's right.

FC: Mei-Ann Chen, music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Artistic Director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Festival. What a treat to speak with you. Thank you so much.

MC: Thank you so much for having me on the program. I love listening for a long long longest time. So I feel like I am so honored to be on this show. Thank you.

Philippa Schuyler achieved national acclaim in the 1930s and 1940s as a child prodigy on the piano. She was born and raised in New York and was known as Harlem's Mozart and the Shirley Temple of American Negroes. Despite her childhood fame and awe-inspiring talent, Philippa Schuyler was also one of the most unusual and tragic figures in American history.

 

 

 

 

Joseph Douglass was the favorite grandson of prominent American abolitionist, author and orator, Frederick Douglass. Joseph Douglass had a career in classical music that spanned more than three decades. He was the first black violinist to be engaged on an international tour. He also became the first violinist of any race to record music for the Victor Talking Machine Co. In his day, the Black press called him "the most talented violinist of the race."

For more, listen to today's episode of the Black History Spotlight Series.

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Thomas Viloteau is considered to be one of the most gifted classical guitarists of the younger generation... and not without reason. His first performance, only a year after he began his studies, was for of an audience of 200 people. Since that concert, Thomas has played in some of the most respected venues in the world.

Some of Thomas Viloteau's accomplishments include: winner of the Guitar Foundation of America and Francisco Tarrega competitions, author of the technique book In the Black Box, winner of the Harvard Musical Association's Arthur Foote Award, and recipient of the Trust/Piper Enrichment Award, which allowed him to commission Sergio Assad's Suite Brasileira 3. He holds a Doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music.

Learn more about Thomas Viloteau at www.tigadorecords.com

 

What music are you thankful to have in your life? That's the question PT host Fred Child put to Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table, "the radio program for people who love to eat."

Lynne brought a music playlist that evokes memories her happily misspent youth in New York, her travels through Italy, and her first date with her husband (aka the most romantic date EVER).

Lynne adds hilarious stories of kitchen misadventures and some of the best calls from Turkey Confidential, the Thanksgiving Day live call-in show for those who need some professional advice while preparing the big feast. Fred adds music for which he is grateful and the show concludes with a surprise guest - a peanut pie.

This special program broadcasts on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 23, on your public radio station.
 

Lynne's Musical Memories

• Gioacchino Rossini: Overture to William Tell

• Paul Simon: The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)

• Giacomo Puccini: O mi babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi

• Charles Dumont: Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

• Giacomo Puccini: O soave fanciulla from La Boheme

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068

 
To learn more about Turkey Confidential and to get great Thanksgiving tips and recipes from Lynne and other great chefs, sign up for The Splendid Table newsletter: http://www.splendidtable.org/newsletter

And, for the adventurous, a recipe for Tournedos Rossini is available here.
 

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23-year-old violinist Blake Pouliot is quickly becoming one of Canada's most promising young artists, and is the Grand Prize winner of the 2016 Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal (OSM) Manulife Competition. Mr. Pouliot has been described by the Toronto Star as, "One of those special talents that come along once in a lifetime", and after his performance of the Korngold Violin Concerto at his Montreal Symphony debut with conductor Vasily Petrenko in February 2017, he was described by Montreal's La Presse as "Clearly. Absolutely. Undoubtedly virtuoso..."

Mr. Pouliot is currently a Professional Studies Certificate candidate at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where he studies with Robert Lipsett, the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair.

Blake Pouliot is accompanied in these performances by pianist Hsin-I Huang.

 

 

Drew Petersen, winner of the 2017 American Pianists Award, joins host Fred Child in the PT performance studio. Petersen graduated cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor of liberal arts degree and did his undergraduate music studies at the Juilliard School with Jerome Lowenthal. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Music degree at Juilliard with Robert McDonald and is a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.

In our conversation, Drew talks about his decision to attend Harvard rather than a music conservatory, and discusses the construction of a fugue. He also plays two fiendishly difficult pieces of music, the Sonatine by Maurice Ravel and the Fugue from Piano Sonata Op. 26 by Samuel Barber.