
September 2005 Articles
The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo
Ma
Sunday, September 4, 8 p.m.
Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma leads the Silk Road Ensemble in a blend
of world music in this concert recorded live at the Civic Theatre
in San Diego. The cast of international virtuosos perform music
drawn from their acclaimed CDs "When Strangers Meet" and
"Beyond the Horizon," as well as from new, unrecorded
pieces. "If these aren't the sounds of Paradise," wrote
the San Francisco Chronicle, "they surely come close."
Each of the composers and musicians in the Silk Road Ensemble shares
a mastery of both traditional and contemporary musical language.
In this concert, their works are interwoven with inventive arrangements
of "roots" music from China, India, Romania, and Iran.
In Legend of Herlen, Byambasuren Sharav offers a contemporary version
of the Mongolian tradition of telling a story through music, in
this case a legend about the Herlen River. The piece combines an
electrifying complement of Western brass and percussion with two
of Mongolia's most emblematic musical sounds: that of the morin
khuur, a two-stringed fiddle whose neck is decorated with a carved
wooden horse head, and the urtiin duu, or "long song."
In long song, traditionally performed amid the flat expanses of
the Gobi Desert, singers take enormous breaths in order to sustain
loud, extended and highly ornamented melodic phrases.
Both Mr. Sharav and long song singer Ganbaatar Khongorzul represent
a new generation of urbanized Mongolians who are dissolving the
boundaries between indigenous and imported music, and who are as
comfortable in one of Ulaanbaatar's many discothèques and
Internet cafes as in a ger, the round felt tent of Mongolian herders.
The dramatic Ambush from Ten Sides is a traditional piece written
in the classical "martial" style. It tells the story of
an ancient battle that took place between two dynasties for control
of what would become China. The arrangement, by Wu Tong and Li Cangsang,
features the sound effects of battle, including horses neighing,
battle horns sounding, and soldiers crossing swords and slinging
stones. In addition to being a composer, Wu Tong is a master performer
on more than a half-dozen traditional Chinese wind instruments such
as sheng, guan, suona and bawoo. He has also embarked on a successful
career as a rock vocalist.
Sandeep Das's Tarang is based on the exchange of improvised and
extemporaneous solos among four non-Western percussion instruments
and a Western string trio. "I imagined that the merchants or
early travelers of the Silk Road may have interacted at first very
simply-for example, through rhythm," the composer explained.
"When I composed this piece, I wanted to bring common elements
of rhythm from the Silk Road countries such as a six-beat cycle
(Dadra) and 16-beat cycle (Teen Taal)." The strings provide
a drone and melodic line to support these rhythmic weavings.
Yanzi, translated as "Swallow Song," is a well-known Chinese
folk song, Kazakh in origin, arranged by Chinese composer Zhao Lin.
In this traditional piece, the singer addresses a girl named Yanzi
(swallow), praising her bright eyes, graceful neck and long hair,
asking, "Please do not forget your promise and change your
heart; I am yours, and you are my swallow." During recording
sessions for "Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon,"
Zhao Lin, a former classmate of Wu Tong at the Central Conservatory
of Music in Beijing, was moved to arrange Yanzi for voice and cello
after hearing Wu Tong's a capella rendition.
The music of the Roma reflects the rich musical cross-pollination
of a borderless people. This nomadic culture has given rise to a
global musical repertory, and to describe any one musical strain
would require further investigation into their vast travels. The
seamless meshing of local instruments, musical languages, and styles
is a testament to the vibrancy, openness, and virtuosity of these
musicians.
In Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur, Iranian composer Kayhan
Kalhor combines Western strings and Indian tabla with his core ensemble-kamancheh,
santur, and ney-in an arabesque-like elaboration of the Iranian
melodic formula called chahargah. According to Kalhor, chahargah
means literally "fourth time," and its mood reflects the
quiet and introspective atmosphere of the fourth part of the old
Iranian daily cycle, from late night until just before dawn. "In
this composition, I wanted to highlight the distinct qualities of
Persian classical music," explained Mr. Kalhor.
The lives and works of the composers represented in this concert
demonstrate that the process of cross-cultural innovation is circuitous.
For Yo-Yo Ma, the aim is to illuminate both the diversity and the
unifying elements of this process. "As we interact with unfamiliar
musical traditions," he said, "we encounter voices that
are not exclusive to one community. We discover transnational voices
that belong to one world."
BACK TO TOP
The Orchestra: An American Specialty
Sunday, September 11, 8 p.m.
Join host Bill McGlaughlin and scholar Joe Horowitz in an irreverent
program exploring the heyday of American orchestras and featuring
rarely-heard historic performances. The Orchestra: An American Specialty
revisits a time when the concert orchestra embodied the culture
of a nation.
Horowitz is author of "Classical Music in America: A History
of Its Rise and Fall" which argues that classical music in
the United States peaked at the close of the nineteenth century
and receded after World War I. He identifies the concert orchestra
as an "American specialty," distinct from the opera orchestras
of Europe.
The program samples Arthur Nikisch's interpretation of the Fifth
Beethoven Symphony, a performance which in 1889 created a month-long
furor in the Boston press, and presents the argument that this startling
reading, as recorded in 1913, is more magical than more literal
readings to be heard today (also sampled).
The program also features a recreation of the broadcast premiere
of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra-and proposes that this first
radio performance, by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony,
was a more stirring rendition than any we would likely hear today.
We'll eavesdrop on Frederick Stock inviting his Chicago Symphony
audience to join in Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March ("Sing!"
he shouts-and they do!).
Other program highlights include excerpts from three galvanizing
live performances: a 1931 Beethoven Fifth with Leopold Stokowski
and the Philadelphia Orchestra (Stokowski's most memorably beautiful
recording, in Horowitz's opinion); Koussevitzky's elated 1943 rendering
of the Ravel/Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (music he commissioned
and premiered); and Dmitri Mitropoulos's go-for-broke tear through
Dvorak's Scherzo Capriccioso with his Minneapolis Orchestra (with
Stokowski's Philadelphia, one of two American orchestras with a
singular "sonic signature"). The program closes with a
consideration of Esa-Pekka Salonen's heroic sponsorship of John
Adams-in Horowitz's opinion, the leading American composer for orchestra
of his generation.
Throughout the program, McGlaughlin and Horowitz maintain a lively
and even rambunctious repartee. Don't miss this examination of how
a peculiarly European art form-classical music-was received into
the New World and made to obey the demands of a peculiarly American
institution-mass media.
BACK TO TOP
The Changing World
Each documentary in The Changing World series takes a long look
at a single global issue. A collaboration between BBC World Service
and PRI's The World, it is hosted by respected journalist and news
anchor Lisa Mullins, and it relies on the BBC's most seasoned correspondents
and journalists to research and report the full story behind the
issue.
Pacific Island Memories
Part 1: Sunday, September 18, 8 p.m.
Part 2: Sunday, September 25, 8 p.m.
As the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the end of World
War II in Europe and Asia, The Changing World visits four very different
island communities in the Pacific to look at how they have survived
and developed since the mid-1940s.
These were the islands that suffered some of the worst fighting
between the Japanese and the Allies. However, while Europe recovered
through the massive Marshall Plan and Japan's rehabilitation was
closely supervised by the U.S., these communities-all former colonies-received
only piecemeal attention and support. Their progress towards sustainability
was severely compromised so that, today, some are described as "failed
states."
BACK TO TOP
Inside Out: Snakeheads and Slavery
Sunday, September 18, 9 p.m.
Everyday, everywhere in the world, millions of people are on the
move, traveling from poor countries to wealthier ones, desperately
looking for work. With western governments zealously guarding their
borders these desperate migrants need help to cross them and there
are plenty of "snakeheads" (smugglers who bring immigrants
to the United States) willing to do it at a price-a price that traps
people in conditions of forced labor and slavery.
For the Chinese, who take the biggest risks to get to the west,
traffickers control a dangerous and lucrative trade. Migrants will
pay sometimes 30, 40, or 50 thousand dollars to smugglers to get
them out of China. They arrive in Britain and find themselves at
the mercy of people who may exploit them.
Michael Goldfarb's latest report for Inside Out Documentaries looks
at the traffic in human beings into Britain. He outlines the scale
of human traffic globally, which is worth an estimated 36 billion
dollars a year, and he speaks with people from Eastern Europe and
China who risked everything to come to Britain and spent years working
in forced prostitution and debt bondage.
BACK TO TOP
BBC Debate on Slavery
Sunday, September 25, 9 p.m.
For the first time, the UN's International Labor Organization is
putting a figure on how many people worldwide are victims of slavery
and forced labor. The organization believes that modern-day slavery
can be eradicated. But how long will it take, and is there the political
will? The BBC Debate on Slavery brings together a panel of experts
who debate the issues and probe these and other critical questions.
The panelists are: Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves and
author of "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy";
Jagdish Bhagwati, a leading international trade theorist, professor
at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations; Jean-Robert Cadet, an author and activist who was a domestic
slave for most of his childhood in Haiti; Steven Law, deputy secretary,
U.S. Department of Labor; and Roger Plant, head of the ILO's Special
Action Program to Combat Forced Labor and author of the ILO's Global
Report on Forced Labor.
BBC host Zeinab Badawi moderates the debate, and Lisa Mullins provides
additional commentary.
BACK TO TOP
Community Events
WFIU is the media sponsor for the following events. Find more information
on this and other activities on the calendar page of our Web site:
www.wfiu.indiana.edu.
Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts
Saturday, September 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, September 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Fourth and Grant Streets, Bloomington
This annual art festival is a favorite for locals and visitors
alike. Visit with over 100 juried local and national artists along
the tree-shaded streets adjacent to Indiana University. Media include
handworked woodenware in various woods; handcrafted toys for children;
fiber arts including art clothing and woven accessories for the
home; contemporary jewelry in precious and semi-precious metals
and gems; handblown, beautifully crafted glassworks including mural
panels, lamps, decorative accessories; art and functional pottery
in a wide range of glazes and forms; studio photography; original
paintings and prints; wrought iron designs for home and office;
reed woven baskets in contemporary and traditional designs. Music,
dance and other entertainment will be provided on the Grant Street
stage throughout the two-day festival.
Middle Way House Night at the Opera
September 3 from 5:45 to 9:30
Showalter House
1500 N. State Road 45/46 Bypass
Bloomington
The 18th annual Night at the Opera is Middle Way House's signature
fundraising event-an evening of exquisite food and superb musical
entertainment. A select group of Indiana University opera students
will perform a variety of operatic pieces at the IU Foundation Auditorium.
Instead of dinner this year, there will be hors d' oeuvres before
the performance and coffee and desert after. Last year we sold out,
so reserve your space early by calling 812-333-7404, ext. 223.
Bill Cosby in Concert
Saturday, September 17
4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Indiana State University Hulman Center
Terre Haute
Comedian, actor, and author Bill Cosby will perform his unique
blend of storytelling and humor that has made him one of America's
most beloved raconteurs. Tickets are $45.50, $38.50 and $27.50.
All ISU students, faculty and staff receive $3.50 off the ticket
price, with valid ID. This offer available only at the ISU Hulman
Center ticket office. Limit one discounted ticket per ID. Tickets
can also be purchased at all TicketMaster locations, by calling
TicketMaster at 812-234-2424, or online at www.TicketMaster.com.
Lotus Festival: "Women's Voices"
September 22 at 7 p.m.
Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Bloomington
$10 general admission
WFIU presents "Women's Voices" at the 2005 Lotus World
Music and Arts Festival. The concert features some of the most stunning
voices in folk music: American singer Ruthie Foster and Canadian
trio the Wailin' Jennys. Born in Gause, Texas, Ruthie Foster sings
blues, gospel, and folk music with a rich style that has earned
her comparisons to Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin. Her passionate
live performances reflect her musical roots: the soulful sounds
of gospel and blues that she listened to growing up. Foster has
performed on Austin City Limits and at folk festivals across North
America, and has just released the live CD Stages, which captures
the raise-the-roof quality of her concerts.
The women who make up the Wailin' Jennys are a trio of Canadian
singer-songwriters whose dazzling folk-pop, three-part harmonies
and original songs have brought them to the forefront of the North
American folk scene. Each of the Jennys-soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo
Nicky Mehta, and alto Annabelle Chvostek-is an accomplished musician
in her own right. Together, they create one golden voice. Tickets
available in advance at the Sunrise Box Office (114. E. Kirkwood;
812-323-3020). More festival information at www.lotusfest.org.
BACK TO TOP
George Dreams of Genie
George Walker tries to coax the genie out of Aladdin's lamp with
cast members of "Disney's Aladdin, Jr." during their recent
visit to WFIU.
George told us his three wishes: for their never to be "dead
air" (unintended silence on the radio), for the CD player in
the broadcast studio never to skip, and for every listener to like
all his music selections.
"Aladdin" was produced by Bloomington's Youth Theatre
Ensemble under the direction of Sandra Freund and presented at the
Bloomington Playwrights Project.
BACK TO TOP
September Jazz Highlights
Each week WFIU presents nearly 13 hours of jazz programming, almost
all of it locally produced. Longtime jazz director Joe Bourne's
weekday afternoon show Just You and Me, which airs from 3:30 to
5, features new releases and re-issues as well as frequent guest
appearances by Indiana musicians and Indiana University's jazz faculty.
It's not unusual to tune in on a Thursday and hear "living
legend" David Baker and other artists dispensing wisdom, insight,
and entertaining stories about the world of jazz.
On Friday evenings, listeners can kick back with four solid hours
of jazz programming, beginning with Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz
at 8, followed by the swing of The Big Bands at 9, and the relaxing
sounds of Afterglow's jazz ballads and American popular song at
10:10. And Saturday evening's Night Lights brings cool jazz with
a cultural twist to those who like to stay up late; it airs at 11:05
p.m., immediately following Bob Porter's Portraits in Blue.
This month Joe Bourne will commemorate the 100th anniversary of
the birth of boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, as well as the
75th birthday of tenor saxophone giant Sonny Rollins. You can hear
Rollins' new CD, Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, on Just You and
Me. David Brent Johnson also celebrates Rollins' 75th with a September
3rd Night Lights program, "Sonnymoon," featuring Rollins'
several meetings on record with pianist Thelonious Monk.
For Monk fans, there's more; late this month Blue Note releases
a 1957 Voice of America concert at which Monk's quartet, with John
Coltrane on tenor saxophone, performed. Other September highlights
include a program of Frank Sinatra's small-group jazz recordings,
a show about the jazz soundtrack for Robert Altman's 1957 documentary
about Hoosier movie icon James Dean, and a new compilation of Indiana
native Claude Thornhill's mid-1940s recordings on The Big Bands,
as well as autumnal "songs of the season" from Al Cobine
and others on "October's in the Air" Friday, Sept. 30
at 9. Check this guide or our online Web site: www.wfiu.indiana.edu
for more details.
Missed a program that you'd like to hear? Night Lights and The Big
Bands are archived on the WFIU Web site. You can listen to them
online and peruse interesting jazz and cultural links at www.nightlights.indiana.edu
and www.thebigbands.indiana.edu.
BACK TO TOP
Leonard Slatkin on how to annoy
Béla Bartók
Leonard Slatkin was in town recently to guest-conduct the IU Summer
Festival Orchestra's performances at the Musical Arts Center, and
stopped by the station to visit George Walker.
A longtime Midwesterner, for years Slatkin was with the St. Louis
Symphony where he's now conductor laureate. "It's a nice title
but it makes me seem a bit older than I'd like to," he says,
"but that's how it goes."
The first of two pieces Slatkin conducted during his visit was Claude
Baker's "Shadows," a work that Slatkin commissioned. The
conductor knew Baker from the 1980s, when Baker was composer in
residence at the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
"I became acquainted with his music and thought he had such
an interesting and arresting voice," says Slatkin. "The
way he dealt with orchestras and colors. If Debussy or Ravel were
alive today, they might as conceived of something like this. The
primary emphasis is not so much on the harmony and melody as it
is on the texture of sounds."
The maestro also conducted Shostakovich's "Leningrad Symphony,
No. 7" First performed during the siege of Leningrad, the work
has become a symbol of anti-fascism. But with the distance of time,
Slatkin doesn't think of the piece as "programmatic music"
but rather as "an abstract piece of music that just has heroic
implications."
"It has the unusual luxury of incorporating a second brass
section; virtually a mirror of the one usually found in the normal
expanse of the orchestra. It's Shostakovich's largest orchestral
piece."
It's also a piece that achieved notoriety in the United States,
notes Slatkin.
"There was a huge battle to get the premiere between Sergey
Koussevitzky and Arturo Toscanini, which Toscanini won. In its premiere
broadcast, Béla Bartók was in a hospital and he heard
this, and he was really annoyed by the main tune that comes about
a quarter of the way in the first movement. It repeats over and
over again and it doesn't stop. Bartók got so angry at it,
he incorporated a parody of this tune into his final orchestral
work, the Concerto for Orchestra."
BACK TO TOP
Musical Highlights
for September
by Adam P. Schweigert
Artist of the Month
In September, WFIU is pleased to feature the musical efforts of
Venezuelan conductor and IU faculty member Carmen Téllez.
Prof. Téllez was born in Caracas and completed studies in
piano and composition in her native city before traveling to the
United States, where she received a Doctoral degree in choral conducting
from Indiana University in 1988. Since then, she has conducted around
the world, giving special emphasis to contemporary and Latin American
repertoire. Currently on the choral conducting faculty at the Indiana
University School of Music, Téllez directs the Contemporary
Vocal Ensemble and teaches graduate conducting courses. This month,
join us for four performances led by Téllez. We start off
the month on Thursday, September 1st, at 7:07 p.m.with an excerpt
from Bach's Christmas Oratorio in a performance by the IU University
Singers and Chamber Orchestra. On Tuesday, September 6th, at 11:13
p.m. we turn to a work by a composer Téllez has championed,
Mario Lavista's Missa Ad Consolationis Dominam Nostram in a performance
by the Aguava New Music Ensemble, and on Thursday, September 22,
at 7:07 p.m., be sure to tune in and hear the IU Contemporary Vocal
Ensemble perform the Three Nocturnes of Carlos Chavez. We wrap up
the month with music of local composer Cary Boyce-his Ave Maria,
with the IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and the Aguava New Music
Ensemble, all under the direction of Carmen Téllez, Saturday,
September 24th, at 12:09 p.m.
New Releases
This Month WFIU is thrilled to offer our listeners four notable
new releases. We begin with a new recording on the Albany Troy label
of music by American composer Don Gillis. On Thursday, September
1st, at 7:07 p.m., we'll begin the month with Gillis's Symphony
No.6 "Mid Century U.S.A.," then on Saturday, September
10th, at 12:09 p.m., it's Paul Bunyan: An Overture to a Legend,
and finally on Wednesday, September 28th, also at 7:07 p.m, we present
Gillis's Symphony No.5 "In Memoriam." Next, on Wednesday,
September 7th, at 10:12 p.m., join us for a new Virgin Classics
release of Grieg's complete incidental music to Ibsen's play Peer
Gynt, in a performance by the Estonian Girls' Choir, Estonian National
Male Choir, and The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, all under
the direction of Paavo Järvi. Also during the 10:12 p.m. program
on Wednesday, September 7th, we present a new release on the EMI
Classics label of Schubert's Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout,"
in a performance by the Belcea Quartet with pianist Thomas Ades
and Double Bassist Corin Long. Also from that disc, Thomas Ades
proves to be a double threat with a new and critically acclaimed
Piano Quintet of his own composition played by the Arditti Quartet,
Tuesday, September 27th, at 11:13 p.m. And finally, on Sunday, September
25th, at 11:08 p.m., join us in welcoming new music group Eighth
Blackbird for a program highlighting their recent release of music
of Fred Rzewski. WFIU's George Walker spoke with group member, flutist
Molly Barth, about Rzewski's newly commissioned "Pocket Symphony"
which was written especially for the group, and in addition to a
complete performance of that work, we'll also sample several other
excerpts from their recent recordings.
BACK TO TOP
Profiles
Sundays at 7 p.m.
September 4 - Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are married writers with ten
novels and four children between them. Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay"
and the novella "The Final Solution: A Story of Detection."
Ayelet Waldman is a public defender-turned-novelist and has published
five detective thrillers in the "Mommy-Track" mystery
series. She is also author of the novel "Daughter's Keeper."
Chabon and Waldman met on a blind date eleven years ago and were
engaged to be married three weeks later. He writes at night; she
writes during the day. They live in California with their four young
children. Garrison Keillor interviews them for the Literary Friendships
series.
September 11 - Saint Louis Brass Quintet
Formed in the early 1960s, the Saint Louis Brass Quintet is
one of America's longest standing brass quintets. The quintet performs
the entire spectrum of music for brass, from the works of today's
composers to Baroque and Renaissance music transcribed for modern
instruments. George Walker spoke with the quintet about the group's
founding, their early and continuing commitment to education, and
their repertoire of transcriptions and original pieces. They also
discussed the role of jazz in their music, and how they rehearse
with each member living in a different city. The hour-long interview
is laced with humor, as the group trades jibes with horn player
Thomas Bacon; tuba player and IU Professor of Music Daniel Perantoni
jocularly argues over who plays the superior instrument, and trumpet
player Ray Sasaki jokes about the brass player's search for the
perfect mouthpiece.
September 18 - Jason Wilber
A Bloomington native, Jason Wilber has toured throughout the
U.S. and Europe, playing a variety of instruments while backing
up folk, rock, and country artists such as Carrie Newcomer, Todd
Snider, Hal Ketchum, Kim Fox, Greg Trooper, Tim Grimm, and Iris
DeMent. Since 1996, he has played lead guitar for renowned songwriter
John Prine. His work with Prine includes two Grammy nominated albums:
In Spite of Ourselves, which spent 32 weeks on the Billboard Country
Charts, and Prine's newest release, Fair & Square. In 1988 Wilber
released a CD of his own songs, Lost In Your Hometown, and followed
that up in 2000 with Behind the Midway. This hour-long interview
with Shana Ritter includes Wilber performing some of his songs.
September 25 - Jill Taylor
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroscientist and neuroanatomist
specializing in the postmortem examination of the cerebral cortex
of the human brain. She spent seven years performing brain research
at Harvard Medical School in the Departments of Neuroscience and
Psychiatry and then, at the age of 37, she had a rare form of stroke
that forced her to relearn basic motor and mental skills. She has
a sibling diagnosed with schizophrenia and served for three years
on the National Board of Directors of the National Alliance for
the Mentally Ill. She writes and performs her own songs promoting
knowledge about the brain and brain donation, bringing uplifting
messages about the brain to families, patients, and professionals.
She spoke with Sarah Stevens.
BACK TO TOP
Sven-David Sandström's The
High Mass
On Wednesday, September 14th, WFIU will broadcast The High Mass,
a large-scale choral work by Swedish composer and IU School of Music
composition faculty member Sven-David Sandström. The piece
can be heard on Late Night Music at approximately 10:12 p.m.
The High Mass is written on an immense scale, with a large chorus,
five vocal soloists, and an orchestra with a prominent organ part
and an enormous percussion section. This performance is by the renowned
orchestra Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.
Sandström modeled his piece on Bach's B minor Mass, dividing
the text of the High Mass into 25 separate movements.
"My mass does not sound like his, of course," the composer
said. "There are similarities, however, despite all the differences.
Some texts bring out a common response."
Sandström wrote High Mass in the early 1990s, after he had
departed from a modernist approach to composition. His previous
music had been dense and highly dissonant. In the 1980s his style
moved in a neo-Romantic direction.
"At 35 I was totally academic," he said. "But suddenly
I lost interest in these things, which surround art."
Writing The High Mass allowed Sandström to indulge in his love
of liturgical music.
"Church music has deep meaning. You understand it at once.
Some of the best music is church music."
After The High Mass had a successful premiere in 1994, critics in
the Swedish press criticized it as being too beautiful-"a compilation
of audience-flattering effects." In particular, some critics
objected to the adapting of a Romantic tonal language in a work
written at the end of the 20th century.
"I want to move people," Sandström counters, "not
necessarily by conveying only pleasant feelings, but also by challenging
the audience. Today I work with a wide variety of modes of expression
to achieve this goal: excessive beauty, naïve music, modernist
techniques, and most recently, techniques that draw upon all my
previous experiences as a composer."
Sandström is considered one of the most influential living
Swedish composers. His catalog of published and performed works
includes some 200 compositions in virtually every genre. Works include
the requiem Mute the Bereaved Memories Speak, two symphonies, the
full length operas The City and Jeppe; and Drums for percussion
ensemble.
BACK TO TOP
Broadcasts from the IU School of
Music
TULL-Liturgical Symphony; Joey Tartell, tpt.; Edmund Cord/IU Brass
Choir
Airs: 9/5 at 7 p.m., 9/6 at 10 a.m., 9/9 at 3 p.m.
HAYDN-Symphony No. 100 in G, Hob. I:100 "Military"; Ronald
Zollman/IU Ch. Orch.
Airs: 9/12 at 7 p.m., 9/13 at 10 a.m., 9/16 at 3 p.m.
DVORAK-Humoresque; Trio Indiana
Airs: 9/19 at 7 p.m., 9/20 at 10 a.m., 9/23 at 3 p.m.
JANACEK-String Quartet No. 1 after Tolstoy's "The Kreutzer
Sonata"; Avalon Qt.
Airs: 9/27 at 7 p.m., 9/27 at 10 a.m., 9/30 at 3 p.m.
BEETHOVEN-Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, Op. 15; Phyllis Chen, p.;
Ronald Zollman/IU Ch. Orch.
Airs: 9/21 at 7 p.m.
BACK TO TOP
WFIU News Department Wins Awards
The WFIU news department garnered a total of 19 awards this year
at the state, regional, and national levels. Reporters were recognized
for their coverage of education, children's issues, science, the
environment, social justice, religion, and current events.
IU senior Nicole Beemsterboer received a regional Edward R. Murrow
award for her feature "Favorite Things," which took a
look at the simple things that make life worth living. She also
received recognition for her report on sex education programs in
Monroe County schools.
WFIU's Assistant News Director Chad Bouchard won a total of six
awards for his coverage of tornado damage, politics and the homeless,
and cicada infestations. Reporter Kim Huston was recognized for
a report on how Latinos viewed the 2004 election.
Maryellen May (who began working at WFIU while a graduate student
in journalism at IU) garnered awards for her report on her brother's
deployment to Iraq. Chelsea Wald (also an IU journalism graduate
school alumna) received recognition for her science writing, covering
the convergence of neuroscience, architecture, and religion; she
also won for a piece about new research on cochlear implants.
Jason Stahl was the audio editor on all the pieces that won recognition,
and he has been the producer for almost all the WFIU feature reports
over the past five years.
WFIU News Director Will Murphy was not surprised by the recognition.
"Once again our reporters and editors have shown their work
is competitive with the best being done anywhere in the country,
and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with them
and learn from them."
These pieces are archived on our Web site: www.wfiu.indiana.edu.
On the left side of the home page, open the drop-down menu under
Local Programs, and select Saturday Feature.
BACK TO TOP
WFIU
Created and maintained by Michael
Toler
Last updated:
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Copyright 2005, The Trustees of
Indiana
University
|