Jay Harvey Upstage

What was in evidence with developing singers Sunday at Butler University's Schrott Center recalled the polish and care that James Caraher gave for three decades to Indianapolis Opera productions. The former IO artistic director has been brought onto the Butler music faculty in the part-time capacity of music director, and last weekend provided the community with a chance to savor the results of his inaugural semester in that role. James Caraher elicited from student performers nicely finished work. Enlisted to assist Butler's operatic progress by Thomas Studebaker, Butler University Opera Theatre music director, Caraher conducted students in a wide range of scenes and selections for between one and five singers, accompanied by the university's Symphony Orchestra. The selections reflected practical choices for the 13 students ready to perform publicly, given that all but two of them were women. The imbalance brought to mind the situation facing the music school d

An RFRA Fight Song, dedicated to the narrow perspective of Scott Schneider, Eric Milller, Mike Pence et al. Posted by Jay Harvey on Sunday, March 29, 2015 There's another one making the rounds using the same Meredith Willson tune ("Gary, Indiana"). I'll let my readers/watchers decide which makes the point better. Mine is certainly less professional visually and vocally, but at least it's family-friendly. Get those little kids to understand why this law is wrong, too!

The disturbing episode that ended his long tenure with Indianapolis Opera last May is not something James Caraher wants to spend any time focusing on now. "Everything was busy for a while," he said laconically of the brouhaha that shook the small, interconnected world of American regional opera in light of a planned demotion he was unwilling to accept after a long tenure as artistic director. "It's old news now. I don't hear about it anymore." James Caraher was brought on board to broaden students' training and to increase public exposure to Butler's opera program. In his quiet, determined manner, Caraher firmly turned this interviewer's attention to his association with the Butler University opera program. That association became official this semester and will first show results to the public this weekend. The Schrott Center will be the site of three performances of Butler Opera Theater's Scenes Program:  a collection of oper

Nadia Boulanger, about the time when she wrote "Toward the New Life." What Nadia Boulanger couldn't analyze in music, she ascribed to God, a rapt audience at the Ronen Chamber Ensemble concert learned Tuesday night in the Hilbert Circle Theatre's Wood Room. To her pupils, it must have seemed that left very little to the credit of the Almighty, so all-embracing was Boulanger's knowledge. The celebrated French pedagogue (1887-1979) could pinpoint the pluses and minuses in a piece of music like nobody else to generations of 20th-century musicians. The one under her tutelage for the longest time was Bulgarian-born pianist-composer Emile Naoumoff, the guest of honor at the Ronen's program honoring her. But besides the grueling exercises in counterpoint and the intense focus on musical structure, "she was extremely mystical," Naoumoff told the audience in a preconcert interview conducted by Ronen co-artistic director Gregory Martin. " 'I

At the high end of American popular culture, there are two birth centenaries worth celebrating this year. That of Frank Sinatra is already showing up in presenters' schedules for next season. But Arthur Miller was also born in 1915, and I'm interested in seeing observances honoring this significant playwright pop up on theater schedules, especially locally. Arthur Miller (1915-2005) I'm getting in early on the celebration — Miller's 100th birthday comes in October — partly because I don't want to spoil the party. You see, I have severely mixed feelings about Miller's work. True, it is often stunningly effective on the stage, getting to the heart of social problems and their intersection with private lives. It scrutinizes ways in which the mid-20th century mangled human dignity, ironically in the aftermath of American triumph — our way of life a model, our global hegemony virtually unchallenged. In his first flush of fame, Miller's work displayed

Coming to terms with social change is more than a matter of choosing sides. The larger task is adjusting your sense of who you are to circumstances you have next to no control over. That's what the four major characters in Pearl Cleage 's "What I Learned in Paris" face in the bright historic moment of Maynard Jackson's 1973 victory in Atlanta's mayoral election. As the campaign crests in triumph, highly placed workers at headquarters — a spacious condo owned by the well-traveled Evie Madison — celebrate the reality and the symbolism behind the election of the South's first black mayor. Evie (Erika LaVonn) and J.P. Madison (David Alan Anderson) The problem at the play's center is romantic mismatch beneath the joyful surface. Can J.P. Madison,  a powerful, self-confident lawyer and Evie's ex-husband, make a likely ascent to the position of city attorney without a hint of personal scandal? It would appear there's something in the way: His

Ever since the triumph of bop more than six decades ago, the center of jazz on small-group interaction has given rise to several generations of musicians thoroughly adaptable to any bandstand configuration involving a handful of like-minded colleagues. So, what the Wayne Shorter Quartet has exhibited so far in the 21st century is not different in kind from the expert norm. What was confirmed Saturday night at the Palladium is its higher degree of simpatico music-making in the quartet format. Leaping arcs of energy could be sensed throughout the performance, even if the direction was sometimes confusing until viewed in retrospect. Arcs of energy: Brian Blade, Wayne Shorter, Danilo Perez and John Patitucci With bandmates Danilo Perez, piano; John Patitucci, bass, and Brian Blade, drums, the 81-year-old saxophonist laid out 90 minutes of distinctive music. The telepathy was nonstop. With this durable personnel, Shorter has built on the famous aesthetic of Weather Report, of which

In what is often considered the abstract world of instrumental music, particularly classical, there turns out to be quite a lot of explicit tribute-paying, memorializing, and other ways of bringing forward personal loyalties and affinities, often tinged with loss and regret. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is introducing another piece in that tradition this weekend in three different halls — the Palladium in Carmel, the orchestra's Hilbert Circle Theatre home, and Avon High School (Hendricks Regional Health Performing Arts Center). James Beckel honors brass, parents and a child violinist's tune. ISO principal trombonist James Beckel has supplemented the legacy with his Concerto for Brass and Orchestra. The tradition he's extended, which overlaps with so-called program music, ranges from J.S. Bach's "Capriccio on the Departure of His Beloved Brother" through Alban Berg's Violin Concerto (dedicated "to the memory of an angel" [Manon Gro

Almost a century of music was spanned in Trio Eunoia's concert for the Ensemble Music Society Thursday evening at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which took its annual turn as co-presenter for the kinds of EMS presentations that stretch beyond the norm. Trio Eunoia is a new group without (yet) a group photo: Hanick (from left), Dalby, and Campbell played as much more of a unit than these images imply. This program qualified handsomely.  Anchoring all the still-unfamiliar sounds of 20th-century music on the program was Stravinsky's "Suite Italienne," chosen (as cellist Jay Campbell explained) to illustrate the musicians' concern to display the link between new and old music. It probably was the piece that went down easiest with the audience, being a particularly vivid setting, with some piquant harmonies, of the composer's adaptation of Pulcinella , a ballet on 18th-century themes commonly attributed to Pergolesi. Campbell and pianist Conor Hanick offe

Sestina: The Creative Habit                                                 "Write a sestina, for heaven's sake!"                                                                      -- Twyla Tharp , 3/18/2015 Twyla Tharp touted her book, 'The Creative Habit' [N.B.: The choreographer's advice went to a large audience in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall, DeHaan Fine Arts Center, not just to me, in recommending that people might resort to such an exercise to get them unstuck and jump-start the creative process. The end-words in the following poem had significant roles to play in Tharp's University of Indianapolis lecture, a more authoritative meditation on creativity than what follows. I've included one violation of the sestina form in honor of the master weaver's traditional "flaw in the carpet," which acknowledges that nothing human can be perfect. Ms. Tharp came out against fetishizing perfection, too.] It starts in a b

Showing his typical knack for programming — as balanced, gently animated, and attractive as an Alexander Calder mobile — Richard Ratliff played a solo piano recital Monday night in observance of his 35 years on the faculty of the University of Indianapolis. The professor of piano and artistic initiatives offered oral program notes in a couple of places to supplement his characteristically detailed descriptions in the printed program. No doubt everyone left Ruth Lilly Performance Hall knowing more about what had been so conscientiously prepared for them to enjoy. Richard Ratliff And enjoyment was the subtly extended invitation Ratliff offered in a three-part recital. The first of Beethoven's late series of piano sonatas, No. 28 in A major, op. 101,  provided a crest in the middle, with shorter works — many of them "character pieces," flanking it. Over the years, an autumnal quality has come into Ratliff's playing with increasing prominence. Mellowness that sh

The Jazz Kitchen 's new policy of opening on Sunday for one evening set has boosted the 21-year-old club's ability to schedule  both local and national acts. Touring behind his new disc, lack of available product didn't faze Aaron Goldberg On March 15, the Aaron Goldberg Trio was on hand to exhibit its skills mainly on material from the pianist's new CD, 'The Now.' The discs weren't on hand due to a possible miscommunication — which syllable of "overnight" doesn't the post office understand? — but a sizable audience got treated to a vigorously rendered sample. It may not have mattered to those who were particularly taken with the pianist's sidemen here — bassist Matt Penland and drummer Obed Calvaire— insofar as those two players aren't represented on the Sunnyside CD. But the quality of this trio suggested that it doesn't occupy an inferior position to the CD's personnel: Goldberg, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland. Th

With a friend one pleasant afternoon, I was walking down a charming, residential side street in a big city. The sidewalks were not crowded, but a number of people were out enjoying the nice day. Looking down, I noticed a coin on the ground, and then another nearby, about the same time that a poorly dressed woman, a stranger to me, also started to spot a dropped coin or two near her. We both began looking for others and picking them up — not talking, not making eye contact, careful not to stray into each other's personal space. The three of us continued moving slowly down the wide sidewalk, the shabby woman and I seeing shiny nickels, dimes, and quarters here and there — sometimes on the sidewalk, sometimes in the dirt off the sidewalk's edge, toward the houses that were close to the street, as they often are in older cities. We collected them with quiet eagerness. Why did I decline to pocket this dropped coin? Suddenly the woman said, "There's a penny."

With the noisy fun and games of Respighi's Feste Romane (Roman Festivals) still ringing the rafters of Hilbert Circle Theatre Friday night, the audience that gathered for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra was soon treated to a more glowering uproar from Berlioz and Ravel. The gargantuan Honor Orchestra of America , an annual ISO guest, had departed the stage shortly before Ludovic Morlot mounted the podium to conduct a half-French, half-German program — a replacement for the Elgar-centered original one, from which indisposed ISO conductor laureate Raymond Leppard was forced to withdraw. Ludovic Morlot has brought the buzz back in Seattle. Morlot, music director of the Seattle Symphony, was just mentioned in a speculative New York Times piece as a dark-horse candidate to succeed Alan Gilbert at the artistic helm of the New York Philharmonic. The 41-year-old Lyon native is known in Seattle for his crossover enthusiasm, including the 2011 innovation of Sonic Evolution . T

They're prolific, they're interconnected, and those who still buy and/or review jazz recordings quickly become familiar with the musicians represented on Brooklyn Jazz Underground CDs. From Indiana, it's pretty hard to assess what kind of artistic community the label represents, but its first three releases of 2015 suggest that artistic independence may be a possible identifier of what's "underground" nowadays. These three releases are quite different from each other, but when the mainstream doesn't seem to have more viability than any other kind of jazz, identifying and ranking subgenres may be a waste of time. These are well-engineered recordings that make individualistic statements by the leaders, supported by compatible sidemen. I'm glad that none of them seeks to definitively answer the perpetual question "Where is jazz going?," which I hope is finally running out of steam as a productive line of inquiry. One direction is represent

So-Young Yoon played with understanding, emotional commitment. A sure sense of style both musical and sartorial accompanied Soyoung Yoon 's return to an Indianapolis stage Tuesday night. The South Korean violinist, now first concertmaster of the Basel (Switzerland) Symphony Orchestra, won the silver medal in the 2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis . IVCI engaged her in its current Laureate Series at the Indiana History Center's Basile Theater. In the first half of her recital with Chih-Yi Chen at the piano, Yoon wore a dark dress with abundant silver glitter, as if to indicate both the virtuoso demands and the serious business of works by Giuseppe Tartini and Sergei Prokofiev. After intermission, she returned in a less glittery dress dominated by swirling red figures against black; that choice communicated both the more relaxed nature of one of the pieces (Johannes Brahms' Sonata No. 2 in A major, op. 100) and the impassioned gypsy character of the

Mark Ortwein, Peter Hansen, Dean Franke, Gary Walters, and Jon Crabiel constitute Icarus Ensemble. It's heartening to hear how so much potential has borne fruit in the development of an unusual  local band called the Icarus Ensemble . Seven years after its founding, it's an expert collaboration  of three Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians and two members of the Butler University music faculty. Nearly two years ago, I reported in one of my early blog posts how firm a grasp the quintet had on its musical vision and how well the musicians seemed to be suited to fulfilling it. They have since come up with a "book" dependably showcasing the versatile front line of violinist Dean Franke and multi-instrumentalist Mark Ortwein, whom you'll hear on bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, or electric bassoon depending on the piece. The rhythm section acts well as a unit, yet is often conspicuous in the texture for the individuality of each member. Sunday night Ica

Evan, Marc and Serge weigh their responses to a painting — and to one another — in Carmel Theatre Company's "Art." If we didn't need validation, we wouldn't need either art or friends. But in Yazmina Reza's "Art," the indelible human appetite for all three becomes entangled — with results both funny and sad. Midway through a nine-performance run when seen Saturday night, the Carmel Theatre Company production gets all the details right in presenting this intricate tussle among three Parisian buddies. The trigger in the crisis between Marc and Serge, played with well-calibrated tension by Larry Adams and Daniel Shock, respectively, is Serge's purchase of a painting by a fashionable artist for 200,000 francs. The playwright has thus brought to bear upon the conflict two major causes of the way human beings separate themselves from others: wealth and prestige.  But there is another element in the rift that trumps everything: The expensive a