by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: guitarist Jason Vieaux and cellist Bryan Dumm concertize together at CIM
•Submission deadlines: National Association of Latino Arts & Culture grants, Arts Impact Ohio conference session ideas, and Arts Midwest videography
Interesting read: Met Opera commission to highlight the heroism of Ukrainian mothers
•Almanac: composer Uuno Klami and violinist Kathleen Parlow, “the lady of the golden bow”
HAPPENING TODAY:
A CIM faculty recital at 7:30 pm at Mixon Hall will feature guitarist Jason Vieaux and cellist Bryan Dumm in music by Máximo Diego Pujol, Francis Kleynjans, John Williams, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Radamés Gnatalli, and Jason Vieaux himself. Reservations (free) are already sold out, but there’s also a livestream you can catch. Another option: call the box office to check on availability and join the waiting list. More information here.
SUBMISSION DEADLINES:
The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is taking applications for its Fund for the Arts grants, which are open to Latinx artists, ensembles, and filmmakers, as well as organizations with a mission focused on Latinx arts and culture. Applications are due September 25. Find out more here.
If you’d like to submit a session idea for the Ohio Arts Council’s 2024 Arts Impact Ohio conference (May 15-16 in Toledo), today is your last chance. Learn more here.
And Arts Midwest is accepting pitches from videographers who are looking to create documentary videos highlighting the work of Midwest “makers” — including musicians, visual artists, folk and traditional arts practitioners, chefs, community organizers, oral historians, farmers, and more. That submission deadline is September 24. More info here.
INTERESTING READ:
In a project organized by Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska, the Met has commissioned composer Maxim Kolomiiets and librettist George Brant to write an opera “focusing on the heroism of Ukrainian mothers during the Russian invasion,” Sara Schabas writes for Ludwig Van. Read here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
You already know Pablo de Sarasate and Jean Sibelius, who both died on this date in history — in 1908 and 1957, respectively. But, among the ranks of September 20th anniversaries, how about another violinist, and another Finnish composer?
There were two nicknames for Kathleen Parlow, born on this date in Fort Calgary, Alberta in 1890. One was “The lady of the golden bow,” the other “The Canadian Violinist.”
The first of those was more fitting for this globe-trotting prodigy whose solo career brought her to Europe, North America, and Asia, who taught at the Juilliard School and the Royal Conservatory of Music, and who later served as head of the University of Western Ontario’s College of Music.
The second nickname is not only less fun, but more of a stretch: Parlow left Canada at age 4 and, though she visited on concert tours, didn’t reside there again until age 50, toward the end of her career.
Here’s one standalone interesting fact about her: in 1906 she became the first foreigner to attend the St. Petersburg Conservatory (and was the only woman in her class).
Enjoy Parlow and her “golden bow” in recordings of J.S. Bach’s Gavotte in E and Arensky’s Serenade in G here from 1912, from her first session with Columbia Records.
And while Sibelius casts an imposing shadow as his country’s greatest composer, Uuno Klami — born on this date in 1900 in Virolahti — has carved out a legacy as one of the most significant Finnish composers of the generation following that giant.
While Maurice Ravel may have been the composer who most influenced Klami, Finnish culture was also clearly a driving force, given how frequently he drew inspiration from the Kalevala, a 19th-century collection of epic poetry from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology.
Among those works is the five-movement Kalevala Suite — which, to make our discussion more complicated, also took a cue from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Listen to a live performance from 2017 by the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Leif Segerstam.
And to end on a little Sibelius, here are two restored live performances of his music in the hands of The Cleveland Orchestra: the Violin Concerto with soloist Christian Ferras in 1965, and the Symphony No. 2 in Tokyo in 1970, both led by George Szell.