Thursday, October 28, 2010

Kudos to Andreas Giger

LSU musicologist Andreas Giger has been named one of seven editors of the British journal Nineteenth-Century Music Review. The journal is currently published by Ashgate but will beginning with the coming year, be published and marketed by Cambridge University Press.


Congratulations!!!



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

UCLA/LSU Distance piano collaboration with YAMAHA Disklavier

Watch short YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwMWvCQLGRc


Prof. Pamela Pike and LSU students on line with
Prof. Jennifer Snow and piano students from UCLA

Review: Washington Concert Opera's 'Adriana Lecouvreur' at Lisner Auditorium

MENTIONS LSU OPRA ALUM  baritone Donnie Ray Albert 

By Joe Banno
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams and mezzo Elizabeth Bishop made a splendid pair of rivals in Washington Concert Opera's performance of Francesco Cilea's 1902 potboiler "Adriana Lecouvreur" at Lisner Auditorium on Sunday. Williams, as the grand, 18th-century actress of the title, and Bishop, as the Principessa di Bouillon -- Adriana's competition for the affections of the Saxon count, Maurizio -- both possess the richness and vibrancy of voice to really sell the blood-and-guts verismo style of Cilea's writing. Williams also produced a creamy tone on her softly sung phrases, some ravishingly floated high notes and an arresting chest voice that paid dividends in the spoken excerpts of classical plays that Adriana declaims at several points in the opera.

The performance was generally cast from strength in the other principal and supporting roles as well, not least the tenor role of Maurizio, which James Valenti delivered with virile, beautifully balanced tone and a sweetly ringing upper register. If his handsome voice felt a size too small in carrying power next to Williams's singing, it did evince the right Mediterranean passion. Veteran baritone Donnie Ray Albert was also a welcome presence as the lovelorn stage manager, Michonnet, with his voice a tad thinner of tone these days, but still rock-solid and expressive.

Cilea's alternately swooning, scintillating and thundering score does much to ennoble the overwrought claptrap of the opera's libretto. Conductor Antony Walker did it full justice, drawing playing of power and refinement from his pickup orchestra.
Banno is a freelance writer.


SOURCE, WASHINGTON POST COURTESY OF DANIEL BIVENS

PHOTO: 
Don Lassell

Monday, October 25, 2010

CMDA collects instruments for donations to local schoolchildren

Great story in the Daily Reveille by Sarah Eddington with a photo by SHAINA HUNTSBERRY / The Daily Reveille. http://tinyurl.com/2fso46a


LSU School of Music/Department of Bands instrument repair technician Mark Vandermark
polishes a donated trombone dating to 1917.
 The instrument originally belonged to the donor’s father who played in
Tiger Band during his time as a student at LSU.

@LSU--National taping of NPR's "From the Top" with host Christopher O'Riley

‎@LSU--National taping of NPR's "From the Top" with host Christopher O'Riley--the James M. Syler Visiting Distinguished Artist at LSU. http://cmda.lsu.edu/


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Baton Rouge Advocate Editorial

Help spread some music — on @2theadvocate: http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/105229758.html

From the Top taping at LSU
http://cmda.lsu.edu
with Christopher O'Riley



Mark Vandermark, master instrument repair technician
LSU School of Music

Monday, October 11, 2010

LSU Opera alum Daniela Mack with Pittsburgh Opera



Review of Daniela Mack in Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMonday, October 11, 2010 By Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Read about LSU alum Daniela Mack

Photo: Dario Acosta

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

David Eagleman and The Art of Perception at LSU--5:00 p.m. 10.8.10


The LSU School of Art Foster Gallery, in collaboration with the LSU School of Music and Houston-based Divas World Productions (Artistic Director: Sonja Bruzauskas) presents: The Art of Perception

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and a fiction writer who is best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw. His work of fiction,
 Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, became an international bestseller and is published in 23 languages.