Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Gene Worley (1927-2011) Friend of the School of Music
Arthur Gene Worley
Gene was born in Junction City, AR on April 27, 1927 and passed away August 25, 2011 at the age of 84 surrounded by his loved ones. He grew up in
El Dorado, AR where he attended Southside School and El Dorado High School. The day after graduation he was drafted into the Army.
He proudly served his country during WWII. While stationed at LSU, he joined the chancel choir at First United Methodist Church, where he met Virginia. Four months later, on August 5, 1947, they were married. This month, they celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. He was discharged from the Army in the summer of 1948 and went on to complete his Bachelor’s degree in three years. He will be remembered by many for the years he ran an Esso station on Highland Rd., his time in the Mayor’s Office as Woody Dumas’s Adm. Assistant and as “the chocolate man” of World’s Finest Chocolate. He always said he had the sweetest job, which he loved for 25 years. He was also a 32nd degree Mason. Gene and Virginia took many wonderful trips where they made friends along the way. But their travels always brought them back home where he enjoyed gardening, blogging, activities at First United Methodist church where he was a member for 64 years and especially time with family and friends.
Gene was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother. He was preceded in death by his parents, Abie and Will, an infant brother and sister, brother Malcolm and sister Louise. He is survived by his wife, Virginia Durrett Worley; son and daugher-in-law, David and Charlene Worley; daughter and son-in-law, Tricia and Willis Delony; brother and sister-in-law, Wren and Virginia H. Worley; grandchildren Kari Worley Roucher, Chris Worley, Craig Delony, Mary Claire Delony and Ben Delony; four great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. The family would like to express gratitude to the doctors, nurses and staff of the ICU at Baton Rouge General on Bluebonnet and to Gene’s nephew, Mitch Worley, for his love and support.
Come celebrate Gene’s life with his family during a visitation at First United Methodist Church on Monday, Aug. 29 from 9 a.m. until the service in the church sanctuary at 11 a.m. Funeral arrangements made through Rabenhorst Funeral Home on Government St. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the First United Methodist Church Music Program, or to the LSU Foundation -- School of Music Scholarship Fund.
Seniors embark on new musical horizon | Home | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA
Seniors embark on new musical horizon | Home | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA |
| Betty Schroeder, right, tries playing the clarinet Saturday while New Horizons Band instructor Andrew Gerbitz, a doctoral student in the LSU School of Music, offers assistance. The band designed for people over 50 who always wanted to play a musical instrument was being formed during an open house event at the LSU Performing Arts Academy. BRENDEN NEVILLE / THE ADVOCATE |
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
CONSTANTINIDES¹ MUSIC ON PROGRAMS OF SIX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS IN USA, SOUTH AMERICA AND EUROPE
CONSTANTINIDES’ MUSIC ON PROGRAMS OF SIX SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS IN USA, SOUTH AMERICA AND EUROPE
Recently Louisiana Sinfonietta director and LSU Boyd Professor Dinos Constantinides has had his music scheduled on six symphony orchestra programs in the USA, South America and Europe.
His work China II-Beijing was performed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York with the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra International on June 6, 2011; again in Uruguay with La Filarmonica de Montevideo on July 27, 2011; and in Argentina with the Orquestra Sinfonica de Buenos Aires on July 30, 2011, all under the direction of Jonathan Griffith.
Constantinides’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra will be premiered by the LSU Symphony, with soloist Michael Gurt, on September 12, 2011 in Baton Rouge, under the direction of Carlos Riazuelo; and his Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra will be premiered by the Louisiana Sinfonietta and violin soloist, Yova Milanova, on October 9, 2011, in Baton Rouge under the direction of the composer.
The Constanta Symphony Orchestra of Romania will include his Concerto No. 1 for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra with saxophone soloist, Stathis Mavromathis, and his Sixth Symphony in a concert directed by Constantinides as a part of Constanta’s Festival of Ballet and Opera on October 28, 2011. Finally, trombonist and member of the Canadian Brass, Achilles Liarmakopoulos, will premiere Constantinides’ Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra on March 18, 2012 in Baton Rouge, with the Louisiana Sinfonietta under the direction of the composer.
For tickets and information on the Louisiana Sinfonietta’s upcoming concerts for the season, contact the group at its new address: P.O. Box 80371, Baton Rouge, LA 70898, call 578-4010 or 766-3487, or consult the Sinfonietta’s website: www.louisianasinfonietta.org.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Aspen Music Festival – A fully staged West Side Story
LSU's Noel Bouley mentioned
August 22, 2011
United States Aspen Music Festival (13): Recitals by Edgar Meyer (bass) and Sarah Chang (violin), Steven Osborne and friends play Ravel’s Piano Trio, Opera Theater does West Side Story. 19.8.2011 (HS)
Aspen Opera Theater Center knew that its decision to present a fully staged West Side Story would present a challenge. The iconic musical, an adaption of “Romeo and Juliet” set in the gang culture of 1950s New York (with the Jets as the Montagues, the Sharks the Capulets), fits into 2011′s Shakespeare theme. Young opera singers, however, must adapt to unfamiliar singing styles, they must dance convincingly, and there’s dialog. Lots of it, in accented American English.
So let’s say that the production, which debuted Tuesday in Wheeler Opera House, achieved partial success. On the plus side, the orchestra, under Michael Christie, captured the flair of Bernstein’s music well. The sets were fine and Edward Berkeley’s unobtrusive direction brought out nuances of the book and the score. The singing, by and large, reflected the music’s distinctive jazz- and Latin-inflected styles. It was also a pleasure to hear such an iconic musical in its original orchestration and volume level, without the distortion and amplification so common in theaters these days.
Only a few standouts in the all student cast actually managed to combine singing, dialog and movement into complete roles, however. Opening night jitters might have been responsible for a tentativeness in many of the performances, especially in dialog but also in song and dance, which had the effect of taming the book and score. For the dancing, which carries much of the plot, the cast was game and Jeanne Slater’s simplified choreography managed to get the story told, but not with the pizzazz that can be the glory of this piece.
As Tony, Brenton Ryan matched his light lyric tenor well with the creamy soprano of Ying Fang (Maria). They sounded hesitant in all their scenes together, however. It’s probably unfair to cast a non-English speaker as Maria, which requires dialog in a Puerto Rican accent. Ying did better in the second act, especially opposite mezzo-soprano Megan Marino’s Anita in the powerful “A Boy Like That”/”I Have a Love” scene.
Marino, in fact, just about stole the whole show. In scene after scene, she owned the stage, a compelling presence informing songs and ensembles such as “America,” and the “Tonight” quintet. Her dialog and dancing looked natural and assured. Same can be said of baritone Timothy Campbell, who carried himself like a gang leader and sang Riff’s jazzy songs, such as “Cool,” with idiomatic élan. Tenor Adrian Rosas made a worthy counterpart as Bernardo, and Noel Bouley (a superb Falstaff last month) anchored his scenes as Doc, his dialog worthy of a pro actor.
Quality of dancing notwithstanding, musical values carried ensemble scenes such as the wordless Prologue, “America,” “The Dance at the Gym,” and “Officer Krupke,” which benefited from secure singing and Christie’s clear conducting. The final scene, however, which should have everyone in tears, left me dry-eyed despite the best efforts of the orchestral underscoring.
Those who bought special event tickets for Sarah Chang’s concert Thursday in the tent can be excused if they felt a bit short-changed. Her contribution to the 75-minute event consisted of two short pieces and the violin part of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3, all of which she played with her characteristic flair. Christopher Richardson, a very young pianist, opened the concert with short pieces by Schumann and Liszt. He played them extraordinarily well, but why was he on a Sarah Chang special event? Accompanied deferentially by Rita Sloan, Chang spun out a lovely long line in Bach’s aria commonly known as “air on the G string” (the second time we have heard it this summer), and dug into Gardel’s tango “Por una cabeza” at too rapid a clip to let the music do its work. Chang, Sloan, cellist Brinton Smith and violist Stefan Wyrczynski played the quartet with warmth and suppleness.
Bassist Edgar Meyer certainly gave his audience their money’s worth in his solo recital Wednesday night in Harris Hall. His playing on Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 was the most nuanced I have heard from him (he plays this one often). A new three-movement composition for solo bass, identified only as “a work in progress,” brimmed with inventive ideas, especially the pizzicato second movement, which seemed to improvise on a distinctive scale, and the rondo-like finale, which kept returning to a cheeky riff. The second half consisted mostly of older compositions structured as in jazz, setting out a song form, improvising and returning to the song, entertaining to hear and jaw-dropping in their virtuosity. For encores he played two duets with his son George, a violinist in the Festival Orchestra this year. The first, a deceptively simple composition by Meyer the Younger, had charm and soul, and the other came straight out of bluegrass.
Monday’s faculty chamber music concerts have been at a consistently high level this year, and the performance this week of Ravel’s Piano Trio took things to a peak. Pianist Steven Osborne, cellist Smith and violinist Bing Wang (three quarters of the quartet for the Messiaen on Saturday) dived into the music with a splash and never let up. It’s a gorgeous trio, with twists and turns typical of Ravel, and the musicians exulted in it all.
Earlier, a mostly student ensemble joined pianist David Friend, a champion of new music who plays with extraordinary sensitivity, in a juicy performance of Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques, a collection of bird calls colored by the composer’s orchestrations. Friend also played onStimulus Package, a 2009 piece by composer in residence George Tsontakis. It weaves music from his ancestral home, Crete, with modern gestures. Cello soloist Mariel Roberts, a member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, played the challenging part soulfully, accompanied by Friend and two percussionists.
Harvey Steiman
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
LSU School of Music students win national prizes
Results from the 2011 Falcone Festival
Euphonium Artist Division
1st place - Toby Furr, teacher Dr. Brian Bowman, University of North Texas
2nd place - Daniel Chapa, teachers Dr. Brian Bowman & Dr. Joseph Skillen, University of North Texas
3rd place - Matthew Shipes, teachers David Zerkel, Dr. Benjamin Pierce & David Graves, University of Georgia
Tuba Artist Division
1st place - Andy Larson, teacher Dr. Joseph Skillen, Louisiana State University
2nd place - Brian McBride, teachers Phil Sinder, Jeff Jarvis, Craig Knox, & Alan Baer, Michigan State University
3rd place - Colby Fahrenbacher, teacher Mark Moore, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
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