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Jolente De Maeyer with Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A tasty sampling of what we have in store for us this coming Sunday….

This is Jolente De Maeyer performing the Allegretto from Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto 6. Unfortunately, we cannot fit an entire orchestra into our performance space if we also want to leave room for the audience ;) , but I am confident we will enjoy hearing Nikolaas Kende just as much!

We have a Sunday Matinee this time:

Jolente De Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende
Sunday, April 14, 2013, 3 pm
Uptown Blanco Ballroom
Blanco, Texas

Get tickets here (credit card), or at the door (cash, check, or cards).

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Jolente de Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende

April 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Jolente de Maeyer and Niklaas Kende to perform in Blanco next weekend

Jolente De Maeyer and Niklaas Kende to perform in Blanco next weekend

When Blanco Performing Arts organized in 2010 to present stellar musical performances in the Hill Country, we could not have guessed that we would be hosting true international talent of such quality as Jolente de Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende as the final performers for the 2012-13 season.

Sunday afternoon, April 14 at 3:00 in the Uptown Blanco Ballroom, this violin and piano duo will present music of composers from their native Belgian-French tradition including Debussy, Poulenc, Mortelmans, and Franck.

Jolente is the winner in the Charles de Beriot competition in Brussels and the youngest-ever laureate of the Jong Tenuto Competition. She was semi-finalist in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, one of the most prestigious international competitions.

Nikolaas began winning competitions at an early age and often gives concerts in famous halls and festivals in Belgium, France, Germany, Bulgary, Portugal, Italy, Austria and Spain. His recital in California for the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concert in 2009 was proclaimed a success with technical and interpretative ability deserving highest praise.

For more information and tickets please call 830-833-4762 or visit www.blancoperformingarts.com/tickets.

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Celtic Music on St Patricks Weekend

March 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Honey & GreenYou may have heard them on KMFA Austin Classical Music station. Therese Honey, harpist, and Abby Green, vocalist and on various instruments, are quite in demand in Early Music and Celtic music circles.

We are fortunate to have them with us on Saturday evening, March 16, in the Uptown Blanco Ballroom to help us get a head start on St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

There will be no green beer here, only good music and good fun!

Irish traditional music has evolved over the last century from a music played and sung in kitchens and at cross-roads dances by people living in rural Ireland (as their main form of family entertainment, before radio and TV) to a musical form that is played all around the world.

Originally carried by immigrating Irishmen to the new countries that offered work (especially England and the United States), it has now spread throughout the world via the miracles of electronic media and rapid travel. In every large city there will be one or more “open sessions” where anyone living there or visiting can drop in and play along with whatever tunes they know. Irish festivals featuring the music are held worldwide as well.

There are three main ancient types of Irish traditional music:

  • Narrative songs, which will tell a story and have melodies that can be played as an instrumental solo “slow air.”
  • Second are the harp melodies, composed by traveling harpers.
  • Dance tunes (jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc).

The genre of rah-rah “pub songs” and patriotic songs probably arose more recently, becoming popular during the “folk revival” of the 1950s (think Clancy Brothers). Our concert will include harp melodies and dance tunes (Ms. Honey) and narrative songs, several in the Irish language (Ms. Greene).

Therese will play two different harps on this program. One is a modern nylon-strung folk harp made by Dusty Strings of Seattle, Washington. The second is a wire-strung harp made by Triplett Harps of San Luis Obispo, California.

Irish language song is a tradition that has many facets.

There is lilting or mouth music (characterized by its dance form), children’s songs (characterized by its subject matter and use with children in school), lullabies, ballads (songs with a story line), and sean-nos (songs usually full of emotional imagery and little actual story line). What all of them have in common is the link to the language.

Irish language has a strong pulse on the first syllable of most words. This colors the rhythm of the songs and makes the entire repertoire unique in its sound.

As a non-native speaker and singer of the Irish language, Abby chooses to present songs of various regions as they were taught by the teacher in that region. This gives her the freedom to explore the entire tradition, compare and contrast, and to love it all.

The Irish bouzouki was introduced to the tradition in the 1970′s, based on, but different from the Greek instrument. The instrument lends itself to both melody line playing and rhythmic accompaniment. Abby tries to incorporate the styles of all of her teachers creating a wide variety for song and tune accompanying.

The instrument Abby will be playing is technically an Octave Mandolin, or short bouzouki. This one is made by Davy Stuart in New Zealand.

Honey & Green Celtic Musicians
Saturday, March 16, 2013
7:30 PM
Uptown Blanco Ballroom

Get tickets here or at the door.

 

 

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REVEL – A New Vision of Classical Music

January 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Blanco Performing Arts is pleased to welcome REVEL back to the Uptown Blanco Ballroom on Saturday evening, February 9 at 7:30pm.

We Heart REVEL

REVEL’S trio of award-winning artists, violinist Cármelo de los Santos, cellist Joel Becktell and pianist Carla McElhaney, will take you on a journey that will change everything you think about classical music. From soulful masterworks to passionate tangos, from fresh, new innovations to classic rock, REVEL will alternately break your heart and have you dancing on the edge of your seat.

Through the ages, classical musicians have held back-room parties and jam sessions, where the real music-making happens.

This is how REVEL—more “classical band” than chamber ensemble—has captured the hearts of music lovers around the world: by returning classical music to its radical roots, gathering in intimate settings to let their hair down and revel in great music. These intimate, live music events, or “revels,” are held in a variety of unique, sometimes unexpected, and utterly magical venues, including beautiful private homes, ballet studios, coffee houses, ballrooms, recording studios, and artists’ live/work lofts.

Come as you are and enjoy breathtaking live music as it was meant to be experienced!

Tickets are available at www.blancoperformingarts.com/tickets or by calling 830-833-4762.  Music will include music by Beethoven, Piazolla, contemporary American composer Kenji Bunch, Simon and Garfunkel, and Led Zepplein from their newest cd, Magic Hour.

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Melissa Marse – The Music of Claude Debussy

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Melissa Marse - Pianist

Melissa Marse, Pianist

“And more, much more than this, I did it my way…”

Frank Sinatra made these lyrics from his signature song popular, but they could have been sung by the famous French composer, Claude Debussy (1862-1918). At least, they express his quest for his own ideas.

Debussy was born into a working class family, but showed his musical talent early, gaining entrance into the Paris Conservatory at the age of 10. He won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1884 and moved to Rome to study. At both the Conservatory and the Academy in Rome, he experimented with sounds that his instructors found bizarre and enigmatic. In the infinite wisdom natural to a twenty-something he wrote, “I am sure the Institute would not approve, for, naturally it regards the path which it ordains as the only right one. But there is no help for it! I am too enamored of my freedom, too fond of my own ideas!”

The Paris Exposition of 1889 opened soon after Debussy returned to France and brought musicians from around the world, most importantly for Debussy, from the US and South Pacific. These influences of jazz and Asian music enriched and expanded Debussy’s ideas and musical vocabulary. His use of nontraditional scales and tonal structures resulted in a totally new musical language of sound, a style labeled Impressionism, a term that he disliked.

Monet Sunrise (1872)

Monet – Sunrise

The style strives to express moods through understatement with pedal effects, somewhat vague melodies, and meandering phrase structure. (F.E. Kirby). The titles of these pieces tend to be descriptive of movement or sounds in nature, and the music is to be “impressions” of the subjects. The term was taken from Monet’s painting Impression, soleil levant, Impression, Sunrise and was first used to describe a style of painting prominent in Paris in 1870-80.

Not all of Debussy’s music falls under the heading of impressionism. He did use more traditional forms and structures but with his own flavor. Saturday evening’s program consists entirely of Claude Debussy’s music, but the variety of Debussy’s sounds and moods in the masterful hands of Melissa Marse will be highly engaging.

Music historian Donald J. Grout considered Debussy not only one of the greatest French composers, but also “one of the most potent influences on the course of music in the twentieth century.” His unique musical palette and his use of the piano’s resources are unmistakably Debussy.

Melissa Marse concert:
November 10, 2012 – 7:30 pm
Uptown Blanco Ballroom

 
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Wyndnwyre Celtic Band

July 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Wyndnwyre

Wyndnwyre Celtic Band

Join us in the beautiful Uptown Blanco Courtyard this Saturday evening, when Blanco Performing Arts presents Wyndnwyre, a Celtic Band from Houston.

They bring all manner of stringed instruments: harp, fiddle, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, guitar, (and some that you may not recognize), along with various whistles and flutes, and of course, bells and drums. In fact, it’s that variety of instruments that gives the group its name – wind and wire – Wyndnwyre.

Click here to learn more about this talented bunch of Celtic musicians.

Bring a picnic dinner and a blanket to spread on the lawn (or use chairs provided by Uptown Blanco).

Uptown Restaurant is taking reservations for their delightful box dinners; call 830-833-0738 or email kim[at]uptownblanco.com by 5 pm Thursday (July 5th) to get on their list.

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Kathryn Eberle and Julie Pautz – Postscript

June 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Eberle, Fong, & Pautz

Eberle, Fong, & Pautz after Sunday’s Concert

Blanco Performing Arts finished the season on a crescendo Sunday afternoon with violinists Kathryn Eberle and Julie Pautz and pianist Maimy Fong. The virtuosic players delighted the crowd with their unity of sound and depth of emotion. Their interpretation of Bach was especially energized, but the climax was the Navarra by Sarasate which had the audience of the edge of their seats.

This group was truly a “dream team”.

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Pablo de Sarasate – Navarra, Opus 33 – Notes

June 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Pablo de Sarasate in Vanity Fair

Caricature of Pablo de Sarasate in Vanity Fair

Painted by Whistler, written of by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and cartooned in Vanity magazine, the violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) with his dashing and bushy mustache was a cultural phenomenon. For his own use he composed over 50 works, all with charming melodies that evoke folk music from his native Spain. Unlike the most famous of all violin virtuosi/composers Paganini, Sarasate preferred to employ silvery virtuosity only in service of his overriding melodicism.

Sarasate, who had been playing in public since childhood, made his Paris debut as a concert violinist in 1860, and played in London the following year. Over the course of his career, he toured many parts of the world, performing in Europe, North America, and South America. His artistic pre-eminence was due principally to the purity of his tone, which was free from any tendency towards the sentimental or rhapsodic, and to that impressive facility of execution that made him a virtuoso.

Of Sarasate’s idiomatic writing for his instrument, the playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw once declared that though there were many composers of music for the violin, there were but few composers of violin music. Of Sarasate’s talents as performer and composer, Shaw said that he “left criticism gasping miles behind him.”

Hear Pablo de Sarasate’s Navarro, along with other violin virtuoso pieces, this coming Sunday, June 24, at 3 pm. You can get tickets by calling 830-833-4762 or purchase online our Tickets Page. The performance will be in the beautiful Uptown Blanco Ballroom, 317 Main St on the Blanco Square.

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Prokofiev Sonata for 2 Violins, op 56 Notes

June 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

After an intermission for this Sunday’s Performance, Julia Pautz and Kathryn Eberle return to the stage (accompanied by Dr. Maimy Fong at the piano) to perform the Prokofiev Sonata for 2 Violins.

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

From the memoirs of Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)

A society called the “Triton” had been formed in Paris for the performance of new chamber music. Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, myself and others joined it. Listening to bad music sometimes inspires good ideas. ‘That’s not the way to do it,’ one tells oneself, ‘it should be done this way.’ That is how I happened to write my sonata for two violins.

After once hearing an unsuccessful piece for two violins without piano accompaniment, it struck me that in spite of the apparent limitations of such a duet, one could make it interesting enough to listen to for ten or fifteen minutes without tiring. The sonata was performed at the official opening of the “Triton” on December 16, 1932, which chanced to coincide with the premiere of my [new] ballet.

Fortunately the ballet came on half an hour later, and so immediately after the sonata we dashed over to the Grand Opéra—musicians, critics, author all together.

Before rushing off to the evening’s flashy conclusion the simplicity and ingenuity of Prokofiev’s sonata should be noted: simplicity found in haunting and ephemeral themes found in movements one and three, and ingenuity in its generating of momentum by the juxtaposition of aggressive motifs and virtuosity in headlong fast passages in the second and fourth movements.

In this sonata one plus one equals a symphony of diverse sounds. More than any other piece on the program the violins unite as a team of rivals, at times as boxers weaving in and out, as siblings interrupting and challenging each other, or as atoms uniting to create an infinitely more complex molecule.

The concert will be held in the Uptown Blanco Ballroom at 3pm on Sunday afternoon, June 24. Please call 830-833-4762 for tickets, or purchase on our website with your major credit card.

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Concerto for 2 Violins

June 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750) – Concerto for 2 violins in d minor, BWV 1043

J.S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

While the piano reduction of the original orchestral version makes this an unusual choice for a serious classical music recital, Bach himself was involved in similar small chamber music performances, making practical arrangements of his works to be performed by the smaller ensemble available at such events.

Often for Bach, “concerto” meant more that different instruments played together (“concerted”) rather than the modern concept of soloist and orchestra, and this particular work also exists in an arrangement made by Bach for two harpsichords.

In fact, at the time that the “Double” violin concerto was written Bach’s career had taken a distinctly pragmatic turn.

Though he longed to write “well-regulated” (Bach’s words) church music during this period, he was employed by the young amateur musician Prince Leopold and thus lived in a solidly Calvinist principality where no high church music was tolerated.

Bach made lemonade from lemons and produced a great number of instrumental works for the Prince including this concerto, arguably the most beloved of all baroque violin music. Likely this work would have been performed by Bach and his small group of instrumentalists, the Collegium Musicum, at lively public concerts held for the middle class at a local coffee house or al fresco in the summer.

You can hear this piece and more in Blanco, Texas, where it will be performed by the violin duo, Julia Pautz and Kathryn Eberle on Sunday, June 24, at 3 pm in the Uptown Blanco Ballroom.

Tickets are available HERE.

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