music

Trumpet and More

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Keith Geiman sitting with a trumpet
Keith Geiman

Keith Geiman will perform a recital at Kalamazoo College on Saturday, November 9, in the Light Fine Arts Dalton Theatre. The recital begins at 7 PM and is free an open to the public. Geiman is 2nd trumpet with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Kalamazoo Brass and the Kalamazoo Symphony Brass Quintet, and an instructor of applied trumpet at K. Geiman will be accompanied by Thomas Britton, piano, performing selections by a variety of composers. The program also features Associate Professor of Music Andrew Koehler, violin, and Professor of Music Leslie Tung, piano, accompanying in The Trio for Trumpet, Violin and Piano (Eric Ewazen). Other compositions to be performed include Selections from Suite in D Major (Jacques Alexandre de Saint-Luc), Sicilienne (Maria Theresia von Paradis), Concerto in F minor, Op. 18 (Oskar Böhme), and Tango from ‘Espana’ Op. 165 No. 2 (Isaac Albéniz). Geiman served as principal trumpet of the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2011. The recital is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.

Legendary Pianist To Perform at K

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Pianist Frank Glazer
Frank Glazer

Pianist Frank Glazer will present a solo recital of works by Haydn, Beethoven, Barber, and Liszt on Wednesday, November 6, at 7:30 PM in the Dalton Theatre of the Light Fine Arts Building on Kalamazoo College’s campus. General admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students. Kalamazoo College community members are free. The event is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College music department.

Glazer’s artistry and longevity make him a singular figure in the music world. The 98-year-old musician was born in Chester, Wisconsin, in 1915. In 1932 he traveled to Europe to study with Artur Schnabel and with Arnold Schoenberg. He made his debut at Town Hall in New York City in 1936 with a program of Bach, Brahms, Schubert, and Chopin. He played this program again in 2006, to celebrate his seventieth anniversary of public performance.

In 1939 Glazer performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Sergei Koussevitzky. During World War II he served in the US Army as an interpreter in Germany and France. In the early 1950s, Glazer had his own television show called “Playhouse 15” in Milwaukee. In 1965 he joined the Artist faculty of the Eastman School of Music. He left that position in 1980 to become artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at Bates College (Lewiston, Maine).

Frank Glazer’s recital program on November 6 will include the Sonata in E minor (Hob. XVI/34) of Haydn, the Phantasie and Op. 109 Sonata of Beethoven, Excursions by Samuel Barber, and three pieces by Liszt, including his Rigoletto paraphrase.

For more information, contact Susan Lawrence (269 337 7070).

Jazz Band Concert Honors Freddie Hubbard

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Freddie Hubbard playing trumpet
Freddie Hubbard

The Kalamazoo College Jazz performs a concert titled “A Tribute to Freddie Hubbard” on Saturday, November 2, at 8 PM in Dalton Theatre, located in the Light Fine Arts building on the Kalamazoo College campus. The concert is free and open to the public. Hubbard (1938-2008) was an American jazz trumpeter whose musical career spanned 50 years.

The 18-member Kalamazoo College Jazz Band will perform selections composed by Hubbard and by other jazz greats with whom he played. Included are: “A Nasty Bit of Blues,” “Ready Freddie,” “Little Sunflower,” “Povo,” “Alianza,” “Red Clay,” and “Out of the Doghouse.” The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band is directed by Professor of Music Tom Evans. Featured performers include Jon Husar ’14, trombone; Ian Williams ’17, piano; Riley Lundquist ’16, tenor sax; Kieran Williams ’16, trumpet; Chris Monsour ’16, drums; and Curtis Gough ’14, bass.

Love Opens Bach Season

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Lyric soprano Rhea OlivaccéLyric soprano Rhea Olivaccé is the featured performer in the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Society’s opening concert,“The Many Facets of Love,” featuring romantic music of Strauss, the alluring charm of French opera, and the musings of new American composers. Olivaccé has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and multiple sites other throughout the United States. “The Many Facets of Love” occurs October 20, 2013, at 4 PM in Dalton Theatre (Light Fine Arts Building) on the Kalamazoo College campus. In the first half of the concert Olivaccé sings works by Donizetti, Strauss, and “The Jewel Song” from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust. Contemporary composers are featured in the second half of the concert, including Hundley, Bolcom, Mechem, Adams, and emerging Michigan composers Logan Skelton and Michael Lauckner. Olivaccé is accompanied by pianist Gunta Laukmane. Tickets are $15 if purchased by October 11.  After October 11, tickets are $18 for general seating.  Student tickets cost $5!  For tickets, visit the Bach Festival Society website or call 269.337.7407. The event is a collaboration of the Bach Festival Society and the Kalamazoo College Department of Music.

Kreisler at K

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The Kreisler TrioThe Kreisler Trio will present a concert of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Hummel–performed on period instruments–on Sunday evening, October 20, at 8 PM in Dalton Theatre of the Light Fine Arts Building on the Kalamazoo College campus. The event is sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Department of Music; admission is free.

The Kreisler Trio was founded in the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and brings together three musicians from around the world: Keyboardist Shin Hwang, a prize-winner of the 1st International Westfield Fortepiano Competition; Violinist Yuki Horiuchi, a graduate of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and performer with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; and cellist Fernando Santiago García, a graduate of the Koninkljk Conservatorium in The Hague and member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano.

For their concert at Kalamazoo College, the Trio has programmed sonatas by Mozart (for solo fortepiano and for violin and fortepiano), and trios by Beethoven and Hummel.

 

K Professor Siu-Lan Tan Teams with Hollywood Stars in “The Art of the Score”

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K Psychology Associate Professor Siu-Lan Tan
K Associate Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan

Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan joined actor Alec Baldwin, Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, composer Carter Burwell, and Tufts University neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel as part of The Art of the Score: The Mind, Music, and Moving Images, a co-presentation by World Science Festival and the New York Philharmonic about the uniquely powerful role of music in shaping the emotional impact of film.

Professor Tan served as primary editor of The Psychology of Music in Multimedia published by Oxford University Press in 2013. This book has been recognized as the first to consolidate scientific research on how we integrate sound and image when engaging with film, television, video, interactive games, and computer interfaces. She is also first author of a leading text entitled Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance (Psychology Press/Routledge 2010, 2013). Tan’s work also appears in Music Perception, Psychology of Music, Psychomusicology, Empirical Musicology Review, International Journal of Gaming, and other journals.

Born in Indonesia and raised in Hong Kong, Siu-Lan Tan earned degrees in piano and music before attending Purdue University, Oxford University, and Georgetown University to complete an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology. She has taught at K since 1998.

Kalamazoo College Raises Curtain on 50th Anniversary of Festival Playhouse

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K Professors Margo Bosker Light (German), Gail Griffin (English) and Mark Thompson (Religion)
K Professors Margo Bosker Light (German), Gail Griffin (English), and Mark Thompson (Religion) rehearse a scene from the Little Shop Around the Corner for a Festival Playhouse “Readers Theatre” production in Spring 1985.

Kalamazoo College lifts the curtain early for the 50th anniversary season of its celebrated Festival Playhouse theatre arts program. Although the anniversary takes place during the 2013-14 academic year, the celebration begins May 16-19 with the staging of Into the Woods, the groundbreaking musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, produced in collaboration with the K Department of Music.
“Our history is so rich and our celebration events so numerous, we had to start this spring in order to do it justice,” said longtime Professor of Theatre Arts and Festival Playhouse Director Ed Menta, who will stage the show. “And we are thrilled to start the celebration with Sondheim’s masterpiece.”
Into the Woods will be performed in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse on Thursday May 16 at 7:30 p.m., Friday May 17 and Saturday May 18 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday May 19 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15/Adults, $10/seniors and $5/students.
Professors of Music Tom Evans and James Turner will serve as musical and vocal directors, respectively.
This Tony, Drama Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Award winning show “helped change the ‘American Musical,’” Evans said. “Sondheim shows are special. They combine in the most masterful way, music, lyrics, and plot. Perhaps what I like most about his work is his ability to create multilevel meanings simultaneously.”
Into the Woods features memorable songs such as “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony,” and “Children Will Listen” sung by iconic characters such as Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.
“And it puts a contemporary twist on the timeworn fairy tale ending,” Menta said, “What happens the day after they all lived happily ever after?”
Kalamazoo College Professor of Theatre Arts Nelda K. Balch established the first season of Festival Playhouse—with generous support from the Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation—in 1963-64, with a schedule of groundbreaking modern dramas such as Max Frisch’s The Firebugs, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and a revival of Balch’s own 1958 production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (the first time a college in the United States had produced this landmark Absurdist play).
Beginning this spring and running through the 2013-14 season, the College will celebrate and renew the original goals and spirit of Festival Playhouse with events that include: the grand re-opening of the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse; the return of internationally known performance artist and K alumna Holly Hughes ’77; “An Evening of Kalamazoo College Theatre Alumni Scenes;” a season of three classics of Modern Drama, including Strindberg, Ibsen, and a restaging of a rarely produced early Absurdist comedy from the original Festival Playhouse season staged by professional director and K alumna Nora Hauk ’04; a special “Talkback” series led by K theatre alumni; and much more.
“From the beginning, Festival Playhouse sought to produce provocative and thoughtful theatre by combining the talents of K students, members of the greater Kalamazoo community, and professional artists,” said Ed Menta.
“The 50th anniversary season will live up to that standard.”
Dates, locations, and more details about the 50th anniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College can be found by visiting www.kzoo.edu/theatre.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

 

K Jazz Band Performs in Ann Arbor Concert Series

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The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band swings into Ann Arbor as part of a concert series at the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor. The Jazz Band performs at 7:30 PM on March 1, and the performance is free and open to public. First Baptist is a beautiful historic church located at 517 East Washington Street. It’s history is entwined with Kalamazoo College’s–President Allan Hoben (1922-1935) served at the church prior to his presidency, and First Baptist of Ann Arbor is the church home of Marlene Crandell Francis ’58, trustee emerita of Kalamazoo College. A reception with the student musicians will occur following the music! The Jazz Band is directed by Professor of Music Thomas Evans.

K Professor Honored at International Conductors’ Competition

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Kalamazoo College Associate Professor of Music Andrew KoehlerAndrew Koehler, associate professor of music at Kalamazoo College and music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia and the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, was recently honored at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors, one of the more prestigious international competitions for conductors of all nationalities born after 1976.

The competition, held in Katowice, Poland, every five years, took place in three stages during November 17 to November 23, 2012. A selection committee, consisting of eminent Polish and international conductors and musicians, chose 50 participants from an initial pool of approximately 180 applicants. These 50 were invited to the first round of competition, from that 12 semifinalists were chosen for a second round, and from that, 6 finalists.

“I was the only American in the final round,” said Koehler. “We were judged on technical skill, our interpretative decisions, and our ability to work with the orchestra. It was a great honor.”

Koehler was awarded First Distinction, or fourth place, in the competition, with a monetary award of 10,000 Euros. The Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Centre also invited Koehler to perform sometime in the second half of 2013.

Yet a third award came in the form of Karol Szymanowski State General School of Music of the 2nd Degree in Katowice – the “YOUNG BATON MASTER” award granted by a Young Jury jointly to Koehler and Russian semi-finalist Stanslav Kochanowskiy.

Bach Festival Christmas Concert on December 2

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On Sunday, December 2nd, at 4:00 p.m. in Stetson Chapel, the Bach Festival Chorus will present its annual BachFest Christmas! concert featuring works by Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and others.

Lyric soprano Rhea Olivaccé will make her Kalamazoo debut with a performance of “O, Holy Night” and as the featured soloist in Moses Hogan’s “Glory to the Newborn King.” Familiar carols and an audience sing-along complete this often sold-out concert and much beloved family holiday tradition.

The first half of the concert will feature J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, with soloists, chorus, and orchestra under the direction of Maestro James Turner. Guest soloists for this piece are Emily Bennett, Giles Simmer and Kaitlin Spencer, sopranos; Sandra Maytan, mezzo-soprano; Steve Martin, tenor; and Marcus Jordan, baritone.

The second half of the program features holiday favorites performed by the choir, including some some traditional Christmas carols in which the audience is invited to sing along. Featured soloists in the second half of the concert include Rhea Olivaccé, soprano, and Carl Witt, piano.

Tickets for BachFest Christmas! are available through the Bach Festival office (269-337-7407) or online through the Bach Festival’s website. Tickets are $22 (center and balcony); $15 (sides); and $5 (students). Children ages 12 and under and free.