Concerto Competitors Showcase Winning Ways
Ever since Madeline Olson joined the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra in the Fall of 2010, Music Director and Conductor David Ramadanoff made it worthwhile for her to commute to performances and rehearsals in Berkeley from her home in Ripon, near Modesto. As a rare 16-year-old concert harpist, Olson has made it worth the attention that the YPSO and its maestro have invested in her. “He’s given me fantastic parts that I’ve really had to work on, and they’ve stretched me as a musician and as an orchestral player, and I really appreciate that,” testifies Olson. “And the level of the group is just amazing.”
She’ll join violinist June Park and pianist Michelle Zhang in concerts at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, showcasing the three winners of the YPSO’s annual concerto competition. Her performance of a movement from François-Adrien Boieldieu’s Concerto in C Major will share the program with the other winners’ offerings — from Prokofiev and Grieg concertos — as well as a portion of Barber’s Symphony No. 1 and John Adams’ Lollapalooza (for which the composer himself may show up).
The Boieldieu, says Olson, was written at the turn of the 19th century “in the middle of transitioning from the Celtic harp to the modern pedal harp.” She herself has performed and recorded Celtic music with the folk group Golden Bough, and at national harp competitions and congresses, and will be auditioning this spring for admission to one of several top-flight music schools. In the meantime, Olson hopes for high attendance next week at YPSO’s “really, really exciting concert, with a lot of variety.” Read more about the concerts on Feb 11 and Feb. 12.
Opera As Anti-Bullying Empowerment
For too many kids these days, there’s far too much bullying (including the cyber kind) and far too little good music. The San Francisco Opera Guild’s Director of Education, Caroline Altman, has addressed both issues with How Andy Found His Voice, an entertaining and one-of-its-kind presentation tomorrow and over the next couple of weeks at Bay Area schools. “It’s like an intro to the form of opera, with lots of operatic references, and it’s an anti-bullying piece, at the same time,” explains tenor Andy Truett, the member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus chosen to play the title role of a beleaguered high schooler.
The audience, which will include middle schoolers and older elementary kids as well as the main character’s peers, “will get to hear bits of The Magic Flute and some Barber of Seville, Nabucco, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. The lyrics are translated, and in some cases the libretto has been created for this show.” We can tell you, without spoiling anything, that Andy will get advice from Papageno, and will end up himself doing a musical intervention for Cio-Cio San, making for a happy and morally and emotionally helpful ending. Truett admits that he was himself bullied by another sixth grader long ago, at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael (not far from where he’ll appear on stage tomorrow), but he proudly points out that, “We’re friends on Facebook now.”
A Harvest of Folk Fun
Though he’s a folk musician and storyteller of the people, David Holt has been invited to share stages with symphony orchestras, “and I’ve found that folks into classical music really like the traditional folk stuff. It takes a lot of by-ear training, and it’s so nuanced that you can’t write a lot of it down. Those are things they can appreciate.” Although he’s specialized, as a researcher and TV host, in the music and folklore of his home state of North Carolina, Holt has also co-hosted Riverwalk, a national PBS radio series about traditional jazz, and has extended his appeal internationally (he spent a month in Ireland last summer) and across generations.
He has been invited out to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival with 88-year-old guitarist Doc Watson (who wasn’t been quite up to the trip), but he also celebrates “a great group of young people who are interested in both the bluegrass style and the Old Timey styles [which spawned bluegrass], and want to become good players.”
Holt expects the same broad demographic in the seats for his two one-hout performances at Cal Performances’ Wheeler Auditorium on Feb. 12, where he’ll make music on a variety of instruments and tell tales. “I’m always trying to get the audience involved in the stories and the songs, teaching them body-slapping ‘hambone’ rhythms or getting them to sing along,” says Holt, who’ll also project his own black-and-white portraits of some of his folk sources, including a 104-year-old purveyor of patent medicines.