Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

KFUO-FM was founded in 1948 as a listener-supported station, but in 1983 it turned commercial. Though the station is owned by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, its revenue comes from advertising and private and community support.

Classic 99’s mission has remained the same throughout its 55 years of operation—to provide classical music and a voice for the arts to the St. Louis region. The station’s programming provides a broad array of classical music, as well as specialty programming, such as live Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera and a weekly program featuring the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

What happened to change the punctilious Kapilow so drastically that he was willing to delay the completion of a promised work?

It began with a conversation in the spring of 2003 with Robert Archibald, who heads the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. The historian suggested that the composer meet with the Bicentennial's Circle of Tribal Advisers, which represents 35 of the tribes encountered by Lewis and Clark during their voyage.

The meeting with the circle propelled Kapilow into new realms of self-discovery. It turned out the American Indian leaders weren't exactly thrilled about his symphony.

At the heart of Rob Kapilow's “Summer Sun, Winter Moon,” which receives its premiere today at the Carlsen Center, is the libretto — a subtle poem of yearning and loss.

The author is Darrell Robes Kipp, a member of the Am Ska Pee PeeKunee/Far Off Spotted Robes, known today as the Blackfeet tribe of Montana.

This coming Sunday afternoon, we're presenting the first in a new series of concerts I've arranged this year at UMKC called Piano on the Edge. While the piano recital may be one of the longest-lived genres in the concert world, it s still possible to hear some wonderfully exciting music in this format, and that s exactly the idea behind the series.

Our first concert will feature UMKC alumnus Robert Satterlee, who will perform in White Recital Hall at 2:30PM, Sunday, September 26th, 2004. The concert is free. He will perform a program of music centered on the world of Oscar Wilde, beginning with works written during Wilde s lifetime by such composers as Cyril Scott, Debussy, and Stravinsky. In the second half he will perform a fascinating work for speaking pianist by the contemporary American composer Frederic Rzewski, De Profundis, based on a text by Wilde. Satterlee has developed a reputation as an accomplished and versatile solo recitalist and chamber musician. He plays regularly throughout the United States, delighting audiences with his incisive and imaginative performances. He has appeared on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, San Francisco s Old First Concert Series, the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Music Teachers National Association national conventions, and the Quad Cities Mozart Festival. He recently performed in Stockholm, Sweden, and has been heard in radio broadcasts nationwide, most notably on Minnesota Public Radio.

I hope you find this concert as intriguing as I do. I hope to see you on September 26 at White Hall.

One youngster who never needed to be forced to practice his piano lessons was Harry Truman. He used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to practice for two hours.

When he became a man, music remained his first passion after politics, and he often said that if he had been a good pianist he never would have become President. "I missed being a musician," he said, "and the real and only reason I missed being one is because I wasn't good enough."

His mother became his first teacher when he was about 10. She sent him for a short time to a neighborhood teacher and then to Mrs. E. C. White, a Kansas City teacher who had studied under Theodore Leschetitzky, the renowned European master.

The Kansas City Symphony will hire Michael Stern, a charismatic 44-year-old American with an international career, to become its fourth music director, symphony officials said Tuesday.

Music Moves for Piano is the first piano method to apply Edwin E. Gordon's Music Learning Theory (theories of audiation) to the teaching of piano. The method is based on folk songs and is non-traditional. Students learn music concepts through tonal and rhythm pattern instruction as well as by participating in singing, chanting, and movement activities. The curriculum of Music Moves for Piano is designed to develop musical thinkers and keyboard performers who will become tomorrow's music leaders, hobbyists, and music advocates.

This method has been tested for more than 10 years and has produced dramatic results. The materials are adaptable and versatile and may be used for beginning and transfer students age K-adult.

In Music Moves for Piano, students learn music as an aural art (before reading notation) by:

• Developing keyboard performance skills; keyboard skills precede reading.
  
• Acquiring a tonal and rhythm pattern vocabulary; music is learned like language is learned.
  
• Singing; singing develops tonal audiation.
  
• Moving and chanting rhythm patterns; body movement is fundamental for rhythm development.
  
• Improvising; while learning to improvise, students also absorb other musical concepts.
  
• Ensemble playing; beat competency and musicianship are developed, and students experience joy performing with others.

Q: Why is such a tax needed to support cultural and arts programs?

A: Most progressive communities have a dedicated source of public funding for arts and cultural amenities to serve the interests of its citizens. For example, Denver has a sales tax in which several counties participate that distributes about $33 million a year to arts and cultural organizations. St. Louis has a property tax and a portion of the hotel/motel tax that allows them to distribute more than $44 million a year for arts and cultural purposes to serve the public. We have been lacking that public investment in our metropolitan area. . . .

Q: Who will decide how those funds are allocated?

A: The Metropolitan Cultural District state law, also known as the enabling legislation, provides the structure. Elected officials will participate through the Metropolitan Commission. Area citizens will participate through regional and county citizens advisory committees.

"Sounds like a film score" is the put-down of choice for tonal orchestral music. "Serious" composers are supposed to suffer neglect in their lifetimes, with the gratitude of posterity their invisible reward. The my-time-will-come mindset was especially widespread in the twentieth century, with composers believing that if they invented a new sound or came up with a "big idea" they would win their place in history. The result was a great deal of superficially difficult, emotionally disposable music, whose ultimate historical value is now very much in question. By contrast, it seems certain that in a hundred years people will still be talking about Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo, [Jerry Goldsmith]'s Chinatown, [David Raksin]'s Laura. They have gone down in history, because they found a way to make their music matter.

This will be the first time that the Cleveland Orchestra has played a work by Chen, who in 1998 became a Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Among her many honors, Chen has received the Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

A recording coming out on Sept. 21 on the Koch International Classics label will include Chen's 1997 work The Golden Flute, composed for James Galway. Performers are the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and flutist Alexa Still.

The inauguration of September heralds the opening of the current opera season within the United States. Predictable mainstays of standard repertoire will return, but a few notable performances will make their debut this season. One of the new performances that has been already generating excitement is Margaret Garner, to be hosted by Detroit’s Michigan Opera Theater in May. With the libretto composed by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, the opera is a musical extrapolation of her 1987 novel Beloved.