Classical Classroom

Academy Award-winning composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel does a lot of traveling, soaking up the musical traditions as he goes. His recent album, Migrations, received a Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. In this episode, Bermel teaches about composer Bela Bartok who inspired one of the pieces on the album. Bartok moved from his native Hungary to New York City at the outset of World War II, and while a lot of great music came out of his journey, his is also a really human story about being a stranger in a strange land. Bermel also talks about the migration of his own European Jewish family and how it influenced his work.

Dramaturg and Seattle Opera Podcast host, Jonathan Dean has come back to the Classroom for this epic two-episode series about the bazillion operas based on the writing of the Russian author Alexander Pushkin. In part one, we talked all about who Pushkin was, painting a word picture of what a major impact his work had on...everything. In part two, learn about just some of the operas that Pushkin's work inspired!

Also, please keep yourselves safe, and support your local arts organizations as you are able. They love you and so do we!

Weeell, we figured that right about now would be a great time to put out some new episodes of the podcast. We hope that all of you out there in the weirdness are staying nice and safe and quarantined, and that these episodes will be a tiny ray of indoor sunshine for you all.

Dramaturg and Seattle Opera Podcast host, Jonathan Dean has come back to the Classroom for this epic two-episode series about the bazillion operas based on the writing of the Russian author Alexander Pushkin. Even though Pushkin died in his early 30s, he was massively, hugely influential. We're talking Shakespeare level. His writing not only solidified the Russian voice and inspired other writers, it inspired lots of other art, including so much opera. In this first episode, we talk about who, what, where, and when Pushkin was (setting the stage for episode 2, which is about just some of the operas his stories inspired).

Just a note: We recorded this two-episode series well before any pandemics happened, when the Opera was still putting on live shows with audiences and planning for the season to come. There are some Seattle Opera events that Jon alludes to that are no longer happening, though I'm guessing that you could figure that out! Also, though we say this in the episode, it bears repeating: it's SO IMPORTANT to support your local arts organizations right now. Don't ask for ticket refunds, donate if you can, buy merch! Okayloveyoubye!

Violinist and Classical Classroom mascot Rachel Barton Pine is back to teach all about the violin concertos of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. Learn about their lives and music! Get lost with Dvorak in New York City! Hear about Khachaturian becoming a new father! Find out who threw shade at Dvorak and mucked up his whole concerto composing process, and how Khachaturian wrote his concerto in a blissed-out creative flurry. Also, learn about what makes "folk music" folksy and other music...not.

No tickets to see The Nutcracker this year? No problem! Experience basically almost the entire thing in this episode from the Classroom Wayback Machine with musical expert Michael Remson (San Diego Youth Symphony, formerly of AFA) and dance expert Shelly Power (Pennsylvania Ballet, formerly of Houston Ballet Academy). Hear the music and the story and learn all about the history of dance and behind the scenes tricks of the trade as you listen. It's like four levels of entertainment at once. Just like Tchaikovsky intended*.

*We assume.

With Become Desert, composer John Luther Adams is done "Become"-ing (learn why in this episode). First, there was the Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning Become Ocean. Then, there was Become River. Finally, in 2019, Adams put his feet on solid ground, in a terrain he's much more comfortable with. And now there's Become Desert. Here, Adams talks about what the deceptively simple pieces of the Become trilogy are, both musically and conceptually, about Desert in particular, and about why music > politics will ever be at saving the world.

Conductor Nicholas McGegan, of San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra fame (and so much more) is an expert in conducting Baroque music. To some of us at the podcast, this sounds as obscure as being a modern day village cobbler or ironing one's hair with an actual iron. But in this episode, McGegan explains his love for this music and why it - and other kinds of music - will continue to be relevant for centuries to come. He illustrates his point by teaching about an opera by the composer Rameau with a snarky text (aka, libretto) by Voltaire which is still making audiences laugh today. Ch-check it out.

All music in this episode from Rameau: Le Temple de la Gloire, released July 2018 on Philharmania Baroque Productions.

Guitarist John Schneider is clearly obsessed. In the best, passionate-music-geek kind of way. And the thing is that the object of his obsession - Harry Partch and his work - just engenders that kind of response in people. It probably comes from the fact that Partch himself who was monomaniacally focused: he was so absorbed with the idea that music should be more than just the traditional twelve notes that he invented new musical notation, new notes, new instruments to play said notes, and new music for those instruments. In this episode, John Schneider of the Grammy award-winning PARTCH Ensemble teaches all about the adventurous life and obsessions of Harry Partch, and talks about the PARTCH Ensemble's latest release, Sonata Dementia.

Music in this episode:

Going to class is a major part of being a classical musician. But have you heard of a "master class"? One student at a time gets up and performs a piece in front of a class, and then the "master" leading the class critiques said performance. Sounds nerve-wracking (read: ...like the stuff of nightmares) to us. Gather 'round for this special assembly in which Classroom's first substitute teacher, Maggie Molloy, talks to Maestro Itzhak Perlman about the history and importance of the master class, and how his new addition to the MasterClass online series makes it possible for even those of us not attending conservatory to take a class from him.

Jason Vieaux is not just a Grammy-winning classical guitarist - he's a pioneer, taking on new works that have never been performed or recorded before, like those of composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Leshnoff is an adventurer, too, writing virtuosic material for instruments he's never played, like the guitar. Find out how these fearless frontiersman find the fortitude to forge foreign... uh...how they make and play brand new stuff. The end.

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.