Clef Notes

We chatted with Nate Widelitz, Visiting Instructor of Choral Music Education at Millikin University, to discuss the Five Cities Baroque Festival, which launches in May. The inaugural festival, directed and organized by Widelitz, will assemble some of the area’s best musicians in a two-day exploration of baroque music. On Friday, May 19, catch an organ recital by Stephen Buzard at Decatur First United Methodist Church. On Saturday, May 20, the Festival Orchestra will present a concert of chamber music at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Later that evening, the festival will close with the keynote concert of choral-orchestral music by Bach and Zelenka. Read on to learn more about the festival and to meet the director.

In honor of the Class of 2023, who will soon be striding across the stage to collect their diplomas, let’s take a look at a piece written for just such an occasion. No, not Pomp and Circumstance, but Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms.

We caught up with Dr. Barrington Coleman, Associate Professor of Voice and Director of Vocal Jazz Studies at the University of Illinois, ahead of an upcoming Prairie Fire short and radio interview with jazz bassist Christian McBride. In May 2022, Dr. Coleman brought McBride to campus as part of his "New Awakenings" concert series. While on campus, McBride gave masterclasses and performed his work The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons with student and community ensembles. Read on to learn about how this collaboration came to be and about future New Awakenings performances. Also, get a sneak peak of Jazz Week at the Studio Theater, which runs April 25–May 3.

Nature has long served as inspiration for composers, from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony to Olivier Messiaen’s numerous evocations of birdsong. Today, some composers are taking a new approach to this age-old muse by addressing climate change and environmental conservation in their works. Read on to learn about three contemporary choral works that are shedding musical light on these pressing issues.

The University of Illinois School of Music is hosting a four-day symposium on the music of Puerto Rico this Thursday, March 30 through Sunday, April 2. The symposium, titled Encuentro Puertorriqueño de Creación Musical (A Symposium on Puerto Rican Musical Creativity), will feature renowned scholars, performers, and educators from around the world in a series of panels, performances, and workshops. These events will explore the rich musical traditions and diverse cultural influences that have shaped Puerto Rican music, offering insight into the intersections of music, identity, and community in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Musical styles spanning opera, reggaeton, experimental jazz, and salsa will be discussed and performed, while panels will address issues of identity, compositional practice, and the promotion of Puerto Rican music.

We sat down with Dr. Carolyn Watson, Music Director and Conductor of the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, in advance of the ensemble’s World/Folk Music concert on March 23. Dr. Watson is a relatively new addition to the faculty of the School of Music, having been appointed Director of Orchestras at the University of Illinois in August 2022. Read on to learn a bit more about Dr. Watson and the UISO's upcoming program.

We had the privilege of chatting with Maestro JoAnn Falletta, a multiple-Grammy-winning conductor and the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, to discuss her two latest recordings of Scriabin, Elfman, and Hailstork. Recognized as one of the 50 greatest conductors of all time by Gramophone Magazine, Falletta is a prolific recording artist with a discography of 125 titles.

The classical music world has been set abuzz by the 2022 psychological drama Tár. Written and directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchett, the film tells the story of a fictional female conductor, Lydia Tár, who abuses her position of power for sexual favors and, ultimately, faces the consequences of her actions. But what do real female conductors—who still face an uphill battle in the heavily male-dominated field of classical music—have to say about the film?

Coretta Scott King was a trailblazer in her own right before she even met her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The talented soprano earned two music degrees, including one from the prestigious New England Conservatory in Boston, and sustained an active concert career in the 50s and early 60s. Though she eventually gave up her singing career to support her husband and the cause, her musical background informed her advocacy work as she kept music at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

In anticipation of Sinfonia da Camera's upcoming concert with cello soloist Ko Iwasaki on January 28, read up on Antonín Dvořák’s beloved Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104, which will comprise the second half of the program.