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Q&A
February 2, 2010
Q-and-A with Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers burst onto the international concert stage when she was just 11 years old. Now, the California native is a sought after soloist with a busy schedule of concerts around the globe.
Meyers is also a new member of the faculty at the University of Texas Butler School of Music.
On Sunday, she gives her first recital since moving to Austin, with Anton Nel at the piano at UT’s Bates Recital Hall at 4 p.m. See www.music.utexas.edu for ticket information.
A-AS: How did you select the program you’ll be playing?
Anne Akiko Meyers: I programmed Schnittke, Beethoven, Vernon Duke, Gershwin and this amazing premiere by Jakub Ciupinski with several things in mind. I love how Schnittke took classical themes and sacred music such as ‘Silent Night’ and put such an ironical twist on it. Usually music like that can be so overdone but when you hear his music, he spins everything very subtlety on it’s head and ends up making a very dramatic original statement. That originalality is uncanny and very brilliant. There is also a seasonal thread through the program with me visiting spring in the Beethoven ‘Spring’ Sonata, summer with the Gershwin, autumn via Vernon Duke and winter with the Schnittke. The premiere by Jakub Ciupinski is with electronics. This is a first for me, exploring the rich tapestries of a musical universe using a recording to accompany the solo violin.
AA-S: You started your career at a preciously young age. What kind of career advice do you give your college-age students at UT?
Meyers: Yes, I began my career at a very young age and relished every bit of it! Everybody’s development is very different and most my students have no desire to be soloists. Being a soloist must start at a very young age and by the time one is in college, that choice should have been made much earlier in one’s life. I think it is very important to be honest with one’s abilities in order to focus on learning and making the most of one’s talents and capabilities. This way, the path is clear to make plans with one’s life and hopefully make an impact with the environment around you.
AA-S: You’re new to town. What are some your favorite places in Austin?
Meyers: Being that I travel so much, my favorite place to be in Austin is at home. I love being able to sleep in my own bed, crawl to the kitchen and serve myself loads of ice cream. Other places I love visiting are Mount Bonnell, Zilker Park, the shops and restaurants at the Domain, Whole Foods and the Milk and Honey Spa. I seem to spend a lot of time on Research Blvd. as well!
Anne Akiko Meyers
When: 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Bates Recital Hall, Music Building, UT campus
Tickets: $10-$20
Information: 471-5401, www.music.utexas.edu
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May 21, 2009
Indie classical group Audio Inversions awards, and premieres, a new composition
The foursome of adventurous indie classical musicians who make up Audio Inversions are only too happy to put their money where their mouths are.
On Friday, they’ll premiere the third recipient of their annual composition competition, which awards $750 to the winning score and most importantly, gives the new music its premiere.
On Friday’s program is the winning piece, ‘Lou’ by Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, and also compositions by Delvyn Case, Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, and Audio Inversions’ composers-in-residence James Norman and Anthony Suter. Expect an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from mixed chorus to saxophone duets to percussion orchestra to chamber ensembles.
We caught up with Audio Inversions’ composer Norman for a few questions.
What inspired you to start a composition competition?
James Norman: Composers today need all the help they can get to find opportunities for their music. And too often truly special music will sit on the shelves of young (and sometimes experienced) composers because the right performance opportunity has not made itself available. The goal of our competition is to continue promoting the most outstanding musical works and composers, with the added hope of engendering a love of contemporary music in a new audience. One of our main objectives has been to seek out lesser-known and underplayed composers and their compositions, regardless of the styles they represent, and it is our hope that this competition will aid us in our search.
What kind of musical trends did you see emerging based on the competition entries?
We received entries from over 100 composers and nearly 300 total works submitted (we encourage composers to submit more than one work) from 12 different countries such as Turkey, Greece and Japan. The great thing about this competition is that we get a snapshot of the various musical trends influencing young composers. However, if this competition has taught us anything, it’s that people are writing music in all styles — serialism, post-minimalism, post-modernism, neo-romanticism — you name it, all the major trends of the past century, although, it’s tough to ignore the growing trend of electro-acoustic composition. With each new year of the composition we find more and more works that strive to integrate this new soundscape into their compositions.
What was it about what winning composition that made it the winner?
Norman: After incredibly long sessions of studying scores and listening to the recordings, ‘Lou,’ by Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, truly began to stand out amongst its peers. It’s an incredibly mature work and beautifully written for cello and percussion orchestra. ‘Lou’ is a modern homage to Californian composer Lou Harrison, whose music was the very model of diversity and the global reach of classical music as many of his works included the music of non-Western cultures, such as Javanese-style gamelan music. And like Harrison, Sekhon has woven the traditions of Eastern and Western music together into something completely unique. We are thrilled that we are honoring a composition that is not a only the work of an extremely talented up-and-coming composer, but that we get to perform what we consider to be a great work as well.
Audio Inversions’ Fourth Season Finale
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive
Cost: $15 ($10 students)
Info: www.audioinversions.com
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April 25, 2009
Q-and-A: Jessica Mathaes, violinist and concertmaster with Austin Symphony Orchestra
In 2005, violinist Jessica Mathaes won the distinction of being the youngest-ever and first female concertmaster of the Austin Symphony Orchestra at age 25.
Since landing the position, Mathaes has delighted Austin audiences with her vivacious playing that’s both technically superb and emotionally engaging. In addition to her role with the orchestra, Mathaes has a busy solo career, which you can find on her Web site, www.jessicamathaes.com, and this spring is releasing her first solo CD, ‘Suites and Sweets.’
Preview a sample here:
What are you working on right now?
It’s been a busy and fun 2009 for me so far! Most recently I soloed with the Round Rock Symphony— they are in their debut year as an organization and had such a great energy. I played a world premiere with them by Manly Romero, and a surprise encore, the “Souvenir d’Amerique- Yankee Doodle Variations” by Henri Vieuxtemps. The program was very virtuosic, so I had to practice it a lot, and playing it for the audiences made it very rewarding.
When I’m not on the Long Center stage performing as concertmaster of the Austin Symphony, I am usually preparing for or playing solo engagements both in and out of town. This year so far I have performed three different solo recital programs and a concerto program. There is so much great violin music to play, so I’m constantly learning new repertoire, which really keeps me on my toes. A lot of my work over the past months has been devoted to my debut solo CD, “Suites and Sweets.” The official release of the disc is coming up in May, which is very exciting for me.
What do you like about Austin’s classical music scene?
I love the audience members! I have felt very welcomed and appreciated ever since I came to the city in 2005, which makes it so fun to share my music with the Austin community. I always enjoy talking to the concertgoers and have met many interesting people that way.
One of my fondest Austin classical music memories is the bicentennial birthday bash I threw for my violin back in 2007. A perfectly quirky Austin event, the idea was actually dreamed up for me by an audience member at one of my previous concerts! I played pieces from 1807, 1907, and 2007, including a world premiere by Austin’s own P. Kellach Waddle. I was overwhelmed by the turnout when I walked out on stage and was greeted by four or five hundred Austinites in the hall to help celebrate. We had a birthday cake reception afterwards — it was a blast!
How could Austin’s classical scene be improved?
Unlike some other forms of music, classical music has a history that goes back a few hundred years. It is a really rich and exciting history, but the music is still very relevant to today and the emotions and tastes of modern people. The problem is when it is treated as something that’s old and stuffy, which it does not have to be. I think it’s up to the people who advertise classical music events to market them as something young people might enjoy. It is also up to the performers to be accessible and to potential audience members to go ahead and try classical even if they haven’t in a while — they might like it!
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April 22, 2009
Q-and-A: Stephanie Prewitt, mezzo-soprano
Stephanie Prewitt’s luminous and rich mezzo-soprano voice has graced Austin stages for more than a decade. A native of Galveston and winner of an Austin Critics’ Table Award, Prewitt sings a vast repertoire and can be most often seen with several local ensembles that notably La Follia Austin Baroque and the Texas Early Music Project.
This Saturday, she’ll be featured in TEMP’s next concert, “Complaints Through the Ages,” 8 p.m. First English Lutheran Church, 3001 Whitis Ave. See early-music.org for ticket information.
What are you working on?
II just finished three performances of Messiah with Conspirare, which was enjoying its first excursion with a period orchestra. After this I’ll be singing in La Follia’s May concert.
So lately I’ve been immersed in singing with historical instruments, something I really love to do. Not that I don’t still love the modern ones! But when you’re singing the old style stuff, it’s great to get to do it with the old style instruments.
‘m now in rehearsals with Texas Early Music Project for a concert at the end of this week. TEMP’s next concert will involve medieval, renaissance and baroque instruments. It’s called “Complaints Through the Ages” and was inspired by this Complaint Choir fad that’s been happening in Europe and Canada. I first heard about it from my mother, who’d seen it featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Go to YouTube and type in “complaint choirs” and you’ll see what I’m talking about — it’s people singing about the things that annoy them, truly making lemons into lemonade.
When I heard them, I was reminded of a medieval piece that TEMP director Danny Johnsonloves to do called “Fort m’enoia” (in English, “I am greatly annoyed”); it’s basically a litany of complaints; and I thought, “Boy, we’ve been doing this for a long time, haven’t we?” When I told Danny about it, he said, “You know, I think you’ve got something there,” and proceeded to create an entire concert of complaints, from medieval time to now, topping it off with his own creation, woven out of the complaints of various members of TEMP. We just sang through it for the first time last night. I love it. It’s delightfully amusing and beautiful to hear.
What do you like about Austin’s classical music scene?
Two things occur to me at once: the warmth and collegiality, and the enormous range of repertoire that’s offered here. I love it that I never get up in front of an orchestra in Austin anymore that isn’t comprised of lots of old friends who I’ve heard playing……. tango, celtic, Brahms, Corigliano, a film score, jazz, you name it, in some other venue. And there they all are, come together to play a larger work, with a real depth of understanding for that style too. The Live Music Capitol of the World gets more of its juice from classical repertoire than a lot of people realize. The musicians that you hear in classical concerts here are gigging all over the place, and many of them bring in colleagues from other parts of the world to “enrich the scene”, so to speak. Musicians from around the country and around the world love to visit and perform in Austin — that’s true for classical music as well as other musical genres. It all makes for a great musical community in which to live and work.
How could Austin’s classical scene be improved?
One thing that would help enormously — a piece of real estate to call our own. I work with a lot of chamber groups and vocal ensembles, and we were all so sad when the Long Center had to scale back it’s original design, which provided more rehearsal and office space, as well as a medium-sized hall with acoustics more suited to chamber music.
We’re truly fortunate to be supported by so many of the beautiful churches in Austin. That’s where most of our work happens. But life would be easier for us — and more good work could happen — if we had a building in which to rehearse, perform, park instruments between performance, etc.
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April 21, 2009
Q-and-A: Matthew Hinsley, Austin Classical Guitar Society
On Saturday, the Austin Classical Guitar Society will present Tunisian-French guitarist and composer Roland Dyens in a solo concert.
We caught up with Matthew Hinsley, executive director of ACGS and himself a guitarist, to ask a few questions.
What are you working on?
I am fortunate to have a very rich and full life. My wife Glenda was recently doing an exercise where she was trying to brainstorm about what her ideal day would be and, after spending the day on it, she snagged me and asked me what my ideal day might be like. After thinking about it briefly, I surprised us both by responding: “I actually think I just lived it”.
My weekday mornings are spent running the Austin Classical Guitar Society, an organization I have been running for the past 12 years. The organization has grown to be the largest guitar society in America and it is a great privilege for me to be working on effective programs that benefit our community with the great people that give their time and energy to the organization. In the afternoons and evenings, and on Saturday, I teach. I have students of all ages and levels but my passion is teaching young people. Over the years I have been extremely fortunate to train major international award-winning youngsters and it seems like the more great young people I work with, the more come to see me from further and further away. Sharing music with passionate and talented young individuals is one of the great joys of my life. I was trained as a performer on the classical guitar (undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory and Doctoral work at UT) and I round out my professional life as a concert artist.
My current projects for the Guitar Society include closing our 2008-09 International Concert Series and preparing for our 2009 Summer Chamber Series. In October 2008 we published (at www.GuitarCurriculum.com) a full-scale middle school and high curriculum for classroom classical guitar that serves over 500 students each day in Austin now and is in use around the world, so a major project currently is developing and implementing strategies for success with regard to that curriculum and our educational outreach program. The guitar society is also hosting the world’s most prestigious international classical guitar competition at the Long Center for a full week in June 2010 and so I am busy laying the groundwork for what I believe will be the most important guitar convention ever including local partnerships with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Chamber Music Center and more.
As a teacher, I recently published my first book called “Classical Guitar for Young People.” The book comes on the heels of some of my students distinguishing themselves nationally and internationally and I have been simply thrilled at the rate of adoption of my book both as a teaching tool for colleagues around the country and as a text for university pedagogy classes. I was asked to begin the UT string project classical guitar program last fall, which has been marvelous, and I am coming off of a month of traveling where I judged several competitions and taught masterclasses. Two more trips are planned in the near future.
Performing is the hardest part of my life to keep balanced, but I have played several concerts this spring, I have an in town engagement in the next few weeks, and will travel for several concerts this summer and next fall. I am also an avid singer (tenor), and I still take voice lessons. Some of my favorite programs are when I self-accompany on art songs from the renaissance through romantic and modern works. Pure self indulgence really!
Increasingly I am being asked to consult for non-profit organizations. The Guitar Foundation of America asked me to join their board and chair their development committee this year, I have consulted for many guitar societies and in May I’ll travel to Toronto for my first International consulting job for the Toronto Guitar Society. In fact, I am just finishing a draft of what will be my second book this spring about building non-profit arts organizations.
What do you like about Austin’s classical music scene?
What is not to like? Our larger established groups are great, our mid-sized groups (like my organization!) are varied and high-quality, and we have amazing diversity in our smaller organizations and independent artists. The UT Butler School of Music is simply unbelievable and, in many ways, is the generative center of the wheel around which the rest of the arts community spins. Austin audiences are educated, have diverse and, I think, progressive interests, and support our rapidly evolving arts community. Recently I presented a fabulously talented young Polish virtuoso who is programming a lot of new music. I was very gratified that our artist received a standing ovation at the end of his first half (in and of itself an unusual thing) following a remarkable performance of a long, complex, modern work that no one had ever heard before.
I am extremely grateful to the Austin arts community for helping me to build the largest classical guitar society ever in America. Many people view classical guitar as a tiny segment of the classical music world which is itself a tiny segment of the entertainment industry in America. But the Austin arts community was open to the benefits we bring to our community through our vast education and community initiatives, and was willing to take a chance on us.
How could Austin’s classical scene be improved?
The great thing about our classical music scene is that it is evolving. There is a tremendous amount of talent and creativity and collaborative spirit in Austin that is always creating something new. From my limited perspective as a classical musician whose passion is for recitals and chamber music, I would say the single greatest missing element is a world-class 500 to 700 seat recital hall available for the public to use. I would love to be involved in the development of such a facility.
Photo by Greg Abell.
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April 16, 2009
Q-and-A with Lois Ferrari, conductor
For their next program on April 25, Austin Civic Orchestra is joined by the noted violinist Brian Lewis and violist Roger Myers. We caught up with conductor Lois Ferrari.
Here we are in the year 2009, yet we still don’t see too many female orchestra conductors.
Women in leadership positions are few and far between in many fields. I don’t know for sure why this is but it seems to me that, as in any profession dominated mostly by men, it takes a few generations of women breaking into the field before their presence is not considered revolutionary or odd. I hope for the day when people don’t think of me first as a woman conductor, but rather just a conductor.
I think it’s very important for women in traditionally male professions not to set themselves apart purposefully as special and then expect to be treated equally. I have made a point throughout my career to not place a name tag on myself or make my choice of profession any kind of mission or statement. I think making strides via the mainstream makes a more lasting impression.
Can you tell us a little bit about your experience as a conductor?
My first experience as a bona fide conductor was teaching middle school band and orchestra on Long Island in the mid 1980s. It was there that I realized that conducting was my preferred niche in the music education field and decided to pursue this further. I went back to Ithaca College for my masters degree in conducting and was very fortunate to be a part of a program that not only allowed me to study with wonderful conductors but also in all three areas of conducting: band, orchestra, and choir.
In 1989, I took a position as a high school band director in upstate New York, but spent all my spare time traveling back and forth to Rochester to watch Donald Hunsberger rehearse and perform with the renowned Eastman Wind Ensemble. Shortly after that, I knew what I wanted to do, so for two years I studied hard and prepared for the audition into the doctoral conducting program at Eastman. I still remember the exact moment I opened my acceptance letter in the parking lot of my apartment complex.
Two years later, in 1993, I accepted the job offer from Southwestern University, thinking that this New Yorker would spend about three years gaining experience and then off I would go. Sixteen years later, I am still extremely happy at SU and can’t imagine working with better people anywhere.
My musical life and career also improved a great deal in 2002, thanks to my being nominated for and then appointed to the position of music director of the Austin Civic Orchestra. There are not enough superlatives to express my admiration and affection for all the wonderful, selfless people that make this organization work so well. I feel very lucky to be associated with both institutions and look forward to continuing to grow with and learn from them.
Through all these experiences, I don’t recall anyone ever telling me I couldn’t be a conductor because I’m a woman. A few people have remarked over the years that this was something noteworthy and might be difficult to achieve, but I don’t know of anyone who made disparaging or negative comments, at least not to me personally.
You’re a big champion of music by living composers. What’s important about supporting new music?
Until the mid-19th century, nearly all the music that the Western public consumed was new. There was no way to record performances and thus, music had no way to become “standard” or “popular” on a very large scale. There were favorites in small circles, of course, but the idea of new music in live performance was accepted as routine.
The advent of technology really made it difficult for composers in the 20th and now 21st centuries. Today, most Western audiences regard classical music concerts as entertainment and thus, expect to hear their favorite works, which have been preserved and mass distributed via easily available and affordable media.
The interesting thing, though, is that these same audiences, when presented with new material, almost always embrace the experience as at least interesting and rewarding, if not wholly extraordinary. I truly believe that audiences would welcome new music more if it wasn’t treated like a plate full of Brussels sprouts by some of us who are responsible for programming concerts.
Right now, the best or largest audience for new music is in academia and it is there that I feel not only the desire but the responsibility to commission and promote new compositions. Otherwise, the art of music would stagnate and disappear, and sadly we have been experiencing some of the tell-tale signs of that for some time.
On April 25, the ACO will present the third world premiere I have helped give birth to this semester, a work by Jason Hoogerhyde entitled, “Lament,” for string orchestra.
How could Austin’s classical music scene be improved?
That’s a tough question since Austin already has a very rich music scene of which it should be very proud. I guess the thing I would like most to see is the same amount of financial and community support that is given athletics in the public schools be given to Arts programs. In my not so reserved opinion, it is the Arts that defines us as human and evolved beings and it is the Arts that will ultimately save us from our own savagery. As my idol, John Adams once said: “I must study politics and war that my children may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My children ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain”
Spring Concert: Premiere of “Lament” by Jason Hoogerhyde; Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante; Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony
7:30 p.m. April 25
Reagan High School, 7104 Berkman Dr.
Tix: $10 ($8 students, $3 children 12 and under)
www.austincivicorchestra.org
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