By James Jorden
It may have been Robert A. Heinlein or Napoleon Bonaparte who first crafted that variation on Occam’s Razor “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” But whoever said it, in whatever century and in whatever language, it certainly seems to apply to the fiasco that is the Deutsche Oper am Rhein’s Tannhäuser. (more…)
by Sedgwick Clark
Evgeny Kissin
Two pianistic superstars played two days apart last weekend at Carnegie Hall. I had avoided their recitals for years but thought I should try again since I was in town for the weekend. The first was Evgeny Kissin, 41. His prodigious prowess is documented from his earliest years at the keyboard, and in 1995 he became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year. For a time he seemed to grow with each concert, but by the end of the decade his playing had become fussy and self-regarding.
Not so last Friday night, however. Perhaps most impressive throughout was Kissin’s knowing sense of rubato, a depth of emotion without a hint of calculation. He began with Haydn’s E-flat Sonata, No. 49–the one with the repeated da-da-da-duh motive in the first movement that Beethoven would later “borrow” to open his Fifth Symphony. The pianist’s approach vacillated between classical and romantic, and maybe he’ll make up his mind someday. But there was no doubt of Kissin’s emotional identification with Beethoven’s final sonata, Op. 111. Demonic in the first movement and with a superbly sustained adagio molto semplice e cantabile in the second, the maturity of his insight left me breathless and, with the final trills, shaken. No performance I have heard from him in concert or on record quite prepared me for this reaction.
Schubert composed his four Impromptus (1827) the year before his death at age 31, and Kissin’s muted, pensive playing after intermission reminded one of Claudio Arrau’s dictum that Schubert’s late music must be interpreted with “the proximity of death” in mind. The final work, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor, brought down the house with an old-fashioned demonstration of virtuosity that sent the audience roaring to its feet—no showing off, just pure, staggering feats of Lisztian pianism. He was rewarded by a young female fan, not with the usual flowers but with a teddy bear. Wonder of wonders, he actually grinned.
Was the audience trying to compete? I know it’s allergy season, but the uncovered coughing, rustling, the cell phone that inevitably rang in the Beethoven’s quietest moment, the incessant dropping of personal belongings and programs (which have become so laden with donors’ names that they sound like small detonations when they hit the floor), made me contemplate joining the N.R.A. All the more astonishing that Kissin’s concentration was so complete.
Maurizio Pollini
Anyone who has attended Maurizio Pollini’s concerts regularly has a memory bank of unforgettable performances from Bach to Chopin to Beethoven to the European avant-garde: In my account, Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto with Boulez and the NYPhil, Chopin Etudes, Boulez’s Sonata No. 2 and Stockhausen’s Klavierstucke X, Beethoven’s Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas leap immediately to mind. In all these, his perfect dexterity, clarity of voicing, and rigorous intellect overcome such deficiencies as brusque phrasing, lack of expressiveness, and monochromatic piano tone.
These qualities, good and bad, had become all too predictable in recent years, and I preferred to live with my memories and his best recordings. But he was playing an all-Beethoven program that included those two sonatas, and I thought these performances would be instructive. Indeed, his previously infallible fingerwork appears to be a thing of the past. In the opening Pathétique Sonata, smudged passagework and uneven runs were alarming, but he has always taken a while to warm up. The Waldstein was hardly an improvement, though, and charmless besides. The little Sonata No. 22, Op. 54, was an incoherent rush of notes. The Appassionata at least succeeded in its obsessive, unrelenting drive, but the two Bagatelles for encores were tossed off with the least charm and shape of the evening. You’d never know it from the audience response, which was loud and long.
His advocates like to say that his artistry is “controversial,” but that’s a copout. I’ll stick with my memories and selected CDs as a reminder of his best days.
Looking Forward
My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):
5/9 at 7:00. Avery Fisher Hall. Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home.
5/10 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Spring for Music. Detroit Symphony/Leonard Slatkin. Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (complete).
By: Edna Landau
To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.
‘Tis the season to perform in a competition. A little over two weeks ago, the American Pianists Association announced that pianist Sean Chen is the winner of the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship, valued at over $100,000. As I write this column, 63 candidates are performing in the first round of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Brussels. And just a little over two weeks from now, 30 candidates who have qualified for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will give their first performances in Ft. Worth, Texas. I have written before on this blog about the pros and cons of competitions and have written a Musical America Special Report called Choosing the Best Competition for YOU”. Still, the topic continues to interest me. In looking at the brief bios of the candidates on the Van Cliburn Competition website, I was struck by the fact that most of them had entered a significant number of competitions in the past and very few had won a first prize in a major international competition. This would seem logical since if they had, they probably wouldn’t have felt the need to enter the Van Cliburn Competition. Yet I wondered how they found the strength to proceed from one competition to the next with the optimism and mental fortitude necessary to maximize their chances for success. It occurred to me that maybe they weren’t entering only to win a top prize but perhaps there were other important goals they hoped to achieve in the process. I decided to speak with Sean Chen and to his good friend Steven Lin, a winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Both are candidates in the upcoming Van Cliburn Competition, even though they have won several years of management services and concert bookings as part of their recent top prizes. I was amazed to hear both of them say that a major motivation to enter competitions has been the opportunity to play in big cities for large, appreciative audiences who love the classical piano repertoire. It made me sad to realize how truly rare that must be for many of today’s most promising artists. The competition becomes a welcome excursion away from the isolation of the practice room and into a stimulating and exciting environment in which their hard work may culminate in their first significant recognition as a compelling artist. Sean Chen actually compared today’s larger competitions to a festival where participants often get a chance to listen to one another, something he finds most beneficial. He didn’t see any reason to be discouraged if he didn’t come out on top, as long as he played his best and communicated his musical ideas as he intended. He also appreciates that APA, along with other competitions, offers cash prizes to all finalists. Steven Lin told me that more than once, in his experience, audience members have come forward to offer concert engagements that weren’t part of the official prizes. When he reached the semi-finals of the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2009, he was approached by a French professor who offered him a concert at the Salle Cortot in Paris, where he has already returned several times. Both pianists mentioned the appeal of being able to play with major orchestras, as Steven Lin did when he played with the Baltimore Symphony in the finals of the William Kapell International Competition.
I was curious to know if there was a reason that both pianists achieved particular success in their most recent competition outings. Sean Chen’s triumph with the American Pianists Association may be due in part to the unique nature of their Fellowship program. Pressure doesn’t mount over the course of the final week since the five finalists have actually performed in various formats over the course of seven months! From the time they are selected from a pool of nominees, they each individually spend two separate weeks in Indianapolis performing in the APA’s “Classical Premiere Series” and “Classical Discovery Week”. The first of these includes a three-day residency that involves teaching and playing with a high school orchestra, an adjudicated public solo recital, and a concerto with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. The second week, during which the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow is selected, includes adjudicated solo recitals, a chamber music performance, a new music performance and a song recital, as well as a concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. This creates more of an Artist-in-Residence environment than a competitive one. President/CEO and Artistic Director Joel Harrison told me that the APA has gone to great lengths to downplay the idea of participants going head to head in competition but rather to focus on individual artistic expression. Perhaps that is why he becomes personally involved in the finalists’ repertoire decisions. Sean Chen feels that his repertoire choices may have factored into his ultimate success, along with the fact that his confidence and artistic maturity would seem to have grown with each competition experience. He took distinct risks in Indianapolis, performing his own cadenzas in Beethoven’s 4th concerto, offering his own transcription of Ravel’s La Valse in one of his recitals, and choosing Bartok’s challenging Concerto #2 for his performance with the Indianapolis Symphony. Dr. Harrison supported these choices all the way. Steven Lin agrees that you learn from each competition you enter. One imagines that nerves will never be a problem for him after he completed his preliminary round performance at the 2012 Sendai International Music Competition while an earthquake struck Japan! He feels that he may have won the Concert Artists Guild competition because he changed his focus from practicing intensely to finding his inner voice. He was helped in this process by listening to recordings of old masters such as Richter, Cortot and Horowitz and realizing that no one would ever mistake one for another. (At competitions, it is not uncommon for a number of artists to sound the same.) He also mentioned that Concert Artists Guild required some public speaking, which he found immensely helpful. He thought a lot about what to say regarding the repertoire he had chosen and he feels that his remarks may have put him at ease and involved the audience more in his musicmaking.
And now, on to Ft. Worth, Texas, where Steven Lin, Sean Chen, and three other APA finalists will compete in the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Both Concert Artists Guild and APA have given them their blessings, recognizing the enormous potential benefits of additional exposure. I asked Steven and Sean whether they felt they were taking any sort of risk after their recent triumphs. Steven said that he is approaching it as another opportunity to perform in front of many people who will now be introduced to him, and to make the best music he can. His goal is to express himself as an artist and to communicate how he feels about the repertoire he is playing. He feels that people go to concerts to experience many different things and that if he and his very gifted co-competitors succeed in being true to themselves, everyone will have benefited from the experience (though he did say that winning a prize would be awesome!). Sean totally concurred with this, saying that most people who follow competitions know that there are many factors that determine who wins. He likened the outing to golf, saying that one can only hope to play one’s best. Both he and Steven are aware that the management services that are provided by APA and CAG will be for a limited time and the chances of obtaining commercial management in the future could potentially be enhanced by their performances in Ft. Worth. In speaking to them about the years that lie ahead, I was heartened to learn that they are both deeply dedicated to music education and that they have well-rounded lives with considerable interests. I feel confident that they will transition from the competition stage of their lives into richly rewarding careers, during which audiences will choose to hear them again and again simply because of the wonderful musicians and people that they are.
To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.
© Edna Landau 2013
By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.
Dear Law and Disorder:
May a non-resident alien (Russian) musician here for an advance graduate school degree on an F-1 visa be paid for playing some off-campus recitals? Are they considered “Curricular Practical Training” which is supposed to be allowed, if approved by the Designated School Official? (Of course, 30% of the gross fee would have to be withheld unless a CWA is obtained.) Thanks for your advice!
A lot of schools, universities, and conservatories are all too happy to accept foreign students without really explaining that their ability to “work” in the US during their studies, much less remain long enough after graduation to establish careers in the US, is very limited and restrictive. (Remember, as it applies to artists, the twisted tomes of US immigration law define “work” as any performance in front of an audience regardless of whether or not tickets are sold or the artist is paid.)
While obtaining authorization for a foreign student to perform concerts and recitals on-campus is fairly simple, performing concerts and recitals off-campus can be a bit much trickier. One of the ways foreign students can be granted authorization to perform concerts and recitals off campus is to be approved for Practical Training. Foreign students are eligible for Practical Training once they have been enrolled for at least one academic year (nine months). There are two types of Practical Training: Curricular Practical Training (CPT) and Optional Practical Training (OPT).
CPT includes programs that are an “integral part of an established curriculum.” That is, the off-campus concerts and performances must be associated with the school’s established curriculum and must be an integral part of the student’s degree program. While it is completely within the discretion of the school to determine what qualifies for CPT and what constitutes “an integral part of the student’s degree program,” CPT programs are typically listed in the school’s course catalog with the number of credits included and the name of a responsibility faculty member. CPT programs typically include work/study, internships, or any other type of required internship or practical performance experience which the school believes is necessary for the student’s degree or course of study.
OPT, by contrast, is not tied to the curriculum (though it is supposed to be “related” to the student’s field of study) and can be used for up to a year full time (two years part time) on campus or off campus. OPT can take place either before graduation or in the year following graduation. OPT that takes place before graduation can only be used for up to 20 hours per week during the school year (though full time work is permitted during holidays and vacation periods if the student applies). After graduation, the employment can be full-time. Post-graduation OPT must be completed within 14 months of the student’s graduation. A student can have OPT for a maximum of twelve months after graduation.
A note of caution: while students may take an unlimited amount of Practical Training, if they take more than a year of CPT, they are barred from seeking OPT. This can be critical because the OPT may be a student’s only opportunity to perform professional engagements in the US after graduation. As USCIS discourages students from switching easily from F-1 classification to O-1 classification, any hope of doing so usually rests with what the student is able to do during their year of post-graduation OPT. Total CPT up to 364 days or less will not result in the loss of OPT. However, part time work using CPT for more than a year has been deemed to result in the loss of eligibility for OPT. In short, avoiding the loss of OPT eligibility requires both good record keeping of the time spent performing on CPT as well as a lot of math!
In your case, assuming the Designated School Official (DSO) approves the student’s request to perform the off-campus recitals, the DSO will enter the information in SEVIS and print out an I-20 with the CPT authorization for the student. The DSO is required to sign and date the I-20 prior to returning it to the student. While no employment authorization document from USCIS is needed for curricular practical training, the student may not begin work using CPT until getting the endorsed I-20.
So long as a student is approved for either CPT or OPT, then, yes, the student can be paid. However, while your willingness to acknowledge US tax-withholding obligations is both rare and commendable, it may be premature. First, Russians belong to a small list of countries from whom no withholding is required because all money earned by Russians nationals in the US is tax exempt. However, this changes if the Russian is considered a “resident alien” for tax purposes. Second, just because a student (or anyone, for that matter) is a “non-resident” for immigration purposes, doesn’t mean they are a “non-resident” for tax purposes. It all depends on how much time they spend in the US each year. As with all foreign artist tax matters, it’s a very fact specific analysis. Assuming your student in approved for CPT, then I would strongly recommend you consult with an expert in foreign artist taxation to determine the student’s specific withholding and tax obligations.
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The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!
By Rebecca Schmid
The Deutsche Oper’s Tischlerei, a new wing for alternative music theater, hosted the results of Neue Szenen—a competition for composition launched by the Hans Eisler Conservatory—on April 8. Three young composers, Evan Gardner, Stefan Johannes Hanke and Leah Muir, emerged from a pool of 52 applicants with their musical settings of a monologue about the Russian journalist Anna Politkowskaja, who was held hostage in 2002 while reporting about the war in Chechnya and murdered outside her Moscow apartment four years later. The topic seems slightly less hackneyed following the bombings in Boston (maybe Sarah Palin should have to sit through all three versions so that she doesn’t confuse the republic with former Czechoslovakia). Each composer was allotted five voices, a maximum of 18 instruments, and their own stage director—yielding scene changes that lasted as long as 20 minutes. It might have made sense to limit directors to a single, mutable set design; surely it wasn’t necessary to dismantle a proscenium that in fact masked acoustics in the first scene (Gardner’s Die Unterhändlerin ‘The Negotiator’) to set up a mess of chairs for Hanke’s It will be rain tonight.
Gardner took the most literal approach with a text that included three other contributors (not including the monologue’s author Christoph Nußbaumeder). A black-masked terrorist (countertenor Georg Bochow) patronized Politkowskaja (mezzo Zoe Kissa), who declared at gunpoint that she “belongs on the side of the oppressed.” The eerie textures of Gardner, an American composer who has lived in Berlin since 2006, underscored the ominous drama but threatened to grow static. It didn’t help that the Echo Ensemble, resident at the Hans Eisler Conservatory, struggled to cleanly execute advanced string techniques under the baton of Manuel Nawri. One of the most effective moments emerged when a frightened character named Masha (Katharina Thomas) panted through a megaphone against ricocheting motives. Gardner’s ensemble writing also revealed great potential.
Hanke took a more poetic approach, with atmospheric winds and more conventional but sophisticated orchestration that illustrated the emotional world of Politkowskaja. The music might have been even more moving without the pseudo-Brechtian staging (Tamara Heimbrock). Muir, another American native, working with highly subtle textures such as wilting slides and sustained, post-Feldman dissonances, suffered most from the Regie (Michael Höppner), set in a dystopically bureaucratic office (presumably that of a newspaper) where an actor, at a climactic moment with fake blood dripping down his legs, reminisces about a lost cat. All considerations aside, Neue Szenen deserves credit for affording emerging composers the opportunity to stage their works at a major venue.
Le Grand Macabre
The Komische Oper has revived Intendant Barrie Kosky’s 2003 staging of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, referenced earlier this season by Robert Carsen with an apocalyptic toilet bowl in Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges at the Deutsche Oper. To be sure, the gesture is distasteful in both instances. Kosky uses the porcelain bowl as a throne for Nekrotzar (the Grand Macabre, or a personification of death), which overflows with excrement when he declares the end of the world; Carsen, with his tongue in cheek, has the cook of Creonte’s palace retrieve the magic oranges from his own latrine. But Kosky redeems moments of senseless vulgarity by recreating the opera’s surreal reflection upon life and death with the right blend of dark humor, eroticism and biting social criticism (as seen May 5). The sight of Nekrotzar (Claudio Otelli) chewing on organs in the opening cemetery tableau, his face smeared in fake blood, might have been too much for this viewer, but Ligeti’s musical landscape pulses with death and violence. Kosky brings the characters to life with great dramatic clarity—the gravedigger Piet (Chris Meritt) bumbles around and laughs with morbid naivety; Prince Go-Go (Andrew Watts) is a sex-obsessed, spoiled brat. The director even manages to pull off a threesome with the two ministers (Tansel Akzeybek and Carsten Sabrowski) without it seeming purely for the sake of provocation.
In an amusing touch, the police chief Gepopo (Eir Inderhaug) sticks her head out from the hot pink bed of the prince (sets and costumes by Peter Corrigan) to announce the impending arrival of Nekrotzar, armless beneath her blazer as she bounces up and down in a state of orgiastic mania. The final tableau, in which the characters are trapped somewhere between life and death, evoked so vividly with Ligeti’s shimmering, microtonal textures, emerged in mesmerizing strokes as mermen slithered onstage beneath a heavenly city that descended on a self-consciously artificial cloud. It was certainly over-the-top—and disruptive to the opera’s dramatic flow—when the prince suddenly belted out the 1980s hit The Loco-Motion from his porcelain throne after the departure of the ruffians (here a priest, a rabbi and an Imam), but with the return of the lovers Amando and Amanda (Annelie Sophie Müller, Julia Giebel), and their sensuous, interlocking intervals, Ligeti’s score came to an absorbing close. Despite intermittent gimmicks, the cast was strong throughout, both musically and dramatically, and the house orchestra delivered a fine performance under Baldur Brönimann.
By ANDREW POWELL
Published: May 4, 2013
MUNICH — Ádám Fischer keenly propelled a revival here last night (May 3) of Stephan Kimmig’s 3½-year-old, shipping-container staging of Don Giovanni for Bavarian State Opera. Predictably the music fared better than the dramma.
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller brought an evenly produced, warmly intoned Zerlina. After a tenuous start coping with leaps, Annette Dasch’s voice settled pleasingly into the trials and tribulations of Donna Elvira. All those Elsas have not hurt her Mozart. William Burden’s Ottavio suffered from poor legato and some clunky phrasing, but the tenor’s golden timbre compensated.
Three principals reprised their roles after a short, brilliant run two years ago under Constantinos Carydis. Erin Wall’s top-heavy Donna Anna shimmered attractively in the highest reaches. She properly gauged her part in ensembles and added luster to both finales. Animated to the Nth degree, Alex Esposito appeared to relish his turn as a Stanley Tucci-like Leporello. His lyric bass made up in focused sound for what it lacked in size. Gerald Finley sang a suave burlador and comically aped Esposito’s theatrical excesses. Twenty years into his career, Finley’s voice retains agility and plush tones, and yesterday the clarity of his Italian was unmatched. The pairing with Müller resulted in a truly seductive Là ci darem la mano.
Tareq Nazmi and Stefan Kocán took the supporting roles of Masetto and the Commendatore, Nazmi with dramatic flair, Kocán with welcome resonance.
Rough playing marred the overture, as did the immediate distraction of the curtain going up. Still, Fischer secured a generally fine effort from the orchestra at brisk tempos. The finales cohered brilliantly.
Moved up and away from 17th-century Spain, where social strata empower Don Giovanni and restrict his victims, Kimmig’s action unfolds without policed context amid present-day cargo. Here the anti-hero incredibly gets his way using money and wits alone, when any one of the hardened locals — the ladies not excepted — might easily beat the powder-snorting crap out of him. Dark freight containers tirelessly twirl and slide, their doors and panels opening to reveal ugly, cramped mini-sets.
Photo © Bayerische Staatsoper
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by Sedgwick Clark
The Rite of Spring, the centennial of which we celebrate on May 29, has been played everywhere this season and undoubtedly will the next. But while The Rite is forever ubiquitous, much of Stravinsky’s huge output languishes—such as his rarely played sacred works, which New York’s Trinity Church presented in toto in three concerts last weekend (4/26-28). It was a genuine event, well attended, and performed sympathetically by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Youth Chorus, and instrumentalists from NOVUS NY under the interpretive warmth of Trinity’s music director, Julian Wachner. Appropriate for a festival of such importance, the beautifully printed and illustrated program booklet, with thought-provoking notes by Matthew Guerrieri, was a keeper.
The rarity of Stravinsky sacred-music performances is no surprise. Most of it was written during his last period, when he was adapting Schoenberg’s “method of composing with 12 tones” to his own aesthetic. While the expatriate Russian’s unique voice could not entirely be quelled, the concert-going public has voted on Schoenberg’s technique (and Stravinsky’s use of it) with its feet. After more than a century since its genesis, few 12-tone or serial works are played with any frequency, and even those are capable of emptying a room of non-believers before you can say “boo.”
The real surprise is that Stravinsky, a devoutly religious man, wrote so few works on sacred subjects. On the other hand, Ralph Vaughan Williams, an avowed atheist, composed some of the most affecting music on religious themes in the 20th century. Of all the music performed at Trinity, only the Symphony of Psalms (1930) is an indisputable masterpiece, well known and often programmed. Several critics convened at the end of the first concert, wondering which works we could “cross off the list,” as the New Yorker’s Alex Ross amusingly put it, of music we had never encountered in concert. We both had looked forward especially to Threni (1957-58) and had come armed with our scores. Wachner’s heartfelt reading was a satisfying account, even if it lacked the clarity of the composer’s recording. The same could be said of Introitus: T.S. Eliot in Memoriam (1965) and Abraham and Isaac (1962-63), the latter a minor revelation due to Sanford Sylvan’s expert vocalism. The performance of The Flood (1961-62) was game, but I find the music arid.
I could never get into the 1948 Mass before this lovely Trinity performance, but whatever delights some find in Canticum Sacrum (which Time magazine headlined “Murder in the Cathedral” for its report on the 1956 Venice premiere) escape me still, as do most of the shorter pieces. But Requiem Canticles (1966)—which Stravinsky called his “pocket requiem” and which was performed at his funeral—is his last masterpiece, albeit a small one, and it was given an eloquent account.
The Symphony of Psalms, the final work in the concerts, was performed in a two-piano arrangement by Karen Keating—a decision that on paper seemed disappointing but that largely avoided the one serious drawback of these concerts: the muddying factor of Trinity Church’s cavernous acoustics, which compromised nearly every performance to some degree. Stravinsky’s rhythms and scoring thrive in utmost clarity, and these performances would have been even more successful in the drier Zankel or Tully halls uptown.
Nevertheless, in the Symphony the superb Trinity chorus could be heard at its full stature without the acoustical confusion of orchestral textures, and the excellent pianists, Pedja Muzijevic and Steven Beck, were perfectly balanced. I’d love to hear Bruckner Motets at Trinity someday.
Colin Davis in the Green Room
My good friend and loyal reader of this blog, the conductor, educator, and author John Canarina, wrote to me of a post-concert encounter he observed between the late Colin Davis and a young musician:
“In the year 2002, I think it was, I went back to the green room after Colin Davis had conducted a NY Phil concert. The only people there ahead of me were a couple with their young son, about 10 years old. When Davis appeared the couple asked if they could take a picture of him with their son, who was studying music. He readily agreed and, in the process, asked the boy what instrument he played. “I play the clarinet,” was the reply, whereupon Davis exclaimed, ‘That’s what I played—look what happened!’”
Looking Forward
My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):
5/3 at 7:00. Carnegie Hall. Evgeny Kissin, piano. Beethoven: Sonata No. 32, Op. 111. Works by Haydn, Schubert, and Liszt.
5/3 at 9:00. Zankel Hall. Kronos Quartet; David Krakauer, clarinet. Missy Mazzoli: You Know Me From Here. Valentin Silvestrov: String Quartet No. 3. Aleksandra Vrebalov: Babylon, Our Own. Laurie Anderson: Flow.
5/4 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Renée Fleming, soprano and host; Jeremy Denk, piano; Emerson String Quartet; Paul Neubauer, viola; Colin Carr, cello. R. Strauss: Drei Lieder der Ophelia, Op. 67. Brahms: Ophelia Lieder. Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht. Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder, Op. 91 (2). Brahms: Intermezzi, Op. 118, Nos. 1 and 2. Songs by Weigl, Wellesz, Webern, Zeisl, and Schoenberg.
5/5 at 3:00. Carnegie Hall. Maurizio Pollini, piano. Beethoven: Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 (Pathétique); Sonata No. 21, Op. 53 (Waldstein); Sonata No. 24, Op. 78; Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 (Appassionata).
5/6 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Spring for Music. Baltimore Symphony/Marin Alsop; Time for Three (string trio). Jennifer Higdon: Concerto 4-3. John Adams: Shaker Loops. Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4 (1947 version).
5/7 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Spring for Music. Albany Symphony/David Alan Miller; Kevin Cole, piano. Harbison: The Great Gatsby Suite. Gershwin: Second Rhapsody. M. Gould: Symphony No. 3 (original version).
5/8 at 7:30. Carnegie Hall. Buffalo Philharmonic/JoAnne Falletta. Kancheli: “Morning Prayers” from Life Without Christmas. Glière: Symphony No. 3 (Ilya Muromets).
5/9. Avery Fisher Hall. Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home
By: Edna Landau
To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.
In the past few weeks, I was pleased to be invited twice to speak to students at the Juilliard School. My first visit was to performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama’s Performance Enhancement class and the second was to Assistant Dean Dr. Barli Nugent’s Career Development Seminar. In both instances, I was extremely impressed by the creative approaches taken by the teachers in hopes of stimulating and inspiring their students to listen to their inner voice and to begin to identify concrete steps that they could take towards their personal goals. Dr. Kageyama had given an assignment to his class to read bestselling author and marketing expert Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow. The subtitle of the book is: “Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”. (It is based on the premise that a purple cow in the middle of a herd of Holsteins would be truly remarkable and never go unnoticed.) Inspired by an actual visit to the class by Seth Godin, the students had been thinking about how to apply his advice about standing out by being remarkable in their young lives and very early careers. They were leery of embarking on projects motivated simply by a desire to be different or to stand out from the crowd, for fear that their efforts would not be genuine and their projects would appear “gimmicky”. Fortunately, I was able to share with them examples from my own experience in artist management, such as violinist Hilary Hahn’s pioneering efforts, while still a teenager, in getting to know and expand her audience through her great dedication to her online journal and to post-concert record and program signings that often kept her at the hall well over an hour following the actual concert. (Such signings were not the norm in those days.)There was one year during which she communicated regularly with a third-grade class in Skaneateles, New York, for whom she had performed a residency activity. They were doing a social studies project that involved asking everyone they knew to send them postcards. When a card would arrive, the students would learn about the city it came from. Hilary saw a way to help and ended up sending 23 postcards from 20 different cities that she played in during the remainder of that season. She was passionate about these activities and they contributed to her being viewed as a remarkable person, in addition to being an extraordinary artist. The students and I also discussed groundbreaking projects that have already been undertaken by fellow students while still at Juilliard, such as Music Feeds Us and Chamber Music by the Bay (featured in my earlier column about the ACHT studio at Juilliard), and even by a student of Dr. Kageyama’s in that very class, violist Kim Mai Nguyen. An avid believer in arts education, Kim Mai has visited Guatemala to teach and perform with the children of the El Sistema Orchestra there and participated in the Afghanistan Winter Music Academy in Kabul, working with students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. It quickly became apparent that there are many ways for not only businesses, but also individuals, to become “purple cows” and that some of the necessary ingredients are courage, ingenuity, determination, passion, good taste and perseverance – all perfectly attainable by young, highly gifted musicians with their whole lives ahead of them.
My preparation for Dr. Nugent’s class was based on the awareness that her students had recently been asked to compose a bio for themselves in the year 2053 and to identify five steps they were prepared to take at this time towards making it a reality. What a stunning idea! As I did the math and thought back to where I was forty years ago, I was fascinated to discover that 1973 was a major turning point in my career. I was completing my master’s degree in musicology at the City University of New York and also my fifth year of teaching at the High School of Music and Art. While I very much enjoyed teaching, I was beginning to think that I should change my professional focus and find a job that would bring me closer to performing artists. Could I have then written a bio predicting that during the next forty years I would discover the exciting and rewarding world of artist management and be privileged to become managing director of the world’s biggest international agency? Absolutely not! However, as I look back and reflect on how things developed, I see that that certain key decisions and approaches to my professional growth (some of them equivalent to the first steps Dr. Nugent coaxed her class to ponder) propelled me successfully to the next level. I think they may have some resonance with those who are just starting out in their careers:
1) Fight to realize your passion. My first job in artist management was as Assistant to the Director of Young Concert Artists. They wanted a full-time person. I convinced them to let me work part-time so that I could be home a bit more with my one-year-old son.
2) Learn everything you can wherever you are. I convinced the director, Susan Wadsworth, to let me attend the annual international auditions and the annual trade conference in New York, even though my job was purely clerical. This taught me about the industry as a whole and ignited my passion for booking concerts and helping artists develop their careers.
3) When you’re ready for a change, take the plunge and associate with the best. Since there was no opportunity for me to book concerts at YCA, I joined forces with Charles Hamlen, who I met at a trade conference. He took me into his six-month-old management and with our mutual ideals and much hard work, we began to secure engagements for a roster of relatively unknown artists and to build a favorable reputation for ourselves as Hamlen/Landau Management.
4) Don’t be afraid to ask for help. When you need to capitalize your business or embark on a new project, all you need is to believe completely in what you are trying to accomplish, think of everyone you know who might help, and put a compelling and accurate financial proposal together. People want to be part of a growing success story. These realizations kept Hamlen/Landau Management going during some very challenging financial times.
5) Always keep an open mind. Charles Hamlen and I never really knew why the sports conglomerate IMG, whose clients in those days included Martina Navratilova and Arnold Palmer, would want to acquire a very small artist management firm with substantial debt and an insignificant profit margin. Thankfully, we never dwelt on that. We saw a chance to pay back all of our investors, grow our business, and to learn from experts in client management (albeit in sports) on an international scale. When Itzhak Perlman became our client in 1986, we knew we had made the right decision.
Charles and I never really knew where our initial adventures were leading us and we didn’t set out to be “purple cows”, but we did spend a lot of time thinking about how we could distinguish ourselves in a field of super agents and still remain faithful to our goals, standards and ethics. Even if the Juilliard students achieve only 25% of what they project in their 2053 bios, their teacher is inspiring them to be confident to dream in tune with who they are today, and that is the most important contribution she can make on the eve of their graduation and entry into the professional world.
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© Edna Landau 2013