Sunday, January 24, 2010
Arts & Extras: Clarinetist to take RSO stage
Photo courtesy of Peter Schaaf
Master clarinetist Jon Manasse will perform with Roanoke Symphony Orchestra Monday evening.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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In the field of classical music, listeners tend to prefer hearing time-honored classics over testing out new compositions, and orchestras tend to base their programming on that premise.
Yet the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra will be introducing a new concerto amidst a lineup of vintage favorites during its "Masterworks" performance Monday evening.
The concert will feature guest artist Jon Manasse, a master clarinetist. The RSO joined with 13 other organizations in commissioning composer Lowell Liebermann to write a concerto specifically for Manasse.
"The Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra" had its world debut in Ohio in November, but when it's played Monday, it won't just be its Virginia debut. Roanoke will be "the second place it's been heard on the planet," Manasse said.
Liebermann, whose numerous credits include the modern operas "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" and "Miss Lonelyhearts," has a reputation for creating moving, crowd-pleasing music. Manasse described his friend's work as following a romantic musical tradition.
"It is absolutely a masterpiece," Manasse said. "It really speaks to all the aspects of who we are as people," and contains passages of great beauty, powerful emotion, even humor. "He takes up where [Aaron] Copeland and [Samuel] Barber and all of the great American composers left off."
About his new composition, Liebermann wrote in an e-mail, "Since Jon is an incredible player who can do anything, I felt total freedom to write whatever I wanted. The piece does contain some extraordinarily high and soft passages which few if any other clarinetists could manage."
Liebermann said the piece contains jazz and Latin influences.
The composer and the clarinetist together attended New York's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, where Manasse now teaches. Manasse has previously made recordings of Liebermann's work, including his "Quintet for Clarinet and Piano."
Manasse's own instructor at Juilliard was David Weber, a legendary clarinet player. "He had a very beautiful, sort of bel canto way of playing the clarinet."
Manasse said that as a boy he wasn't fond of the clarinet, and at first had his heart set on the alto saxophone. During a visit to a music shop, a store owner listening to the young boy play around on the various instruments insisted to his father that he should take clarinet lessons.
Once Manasse heard Weber play, he became hooked, he said.
"I feel very, very grateful, fortunate to be able to express myself through the instrument this way," Manasse said. "Ultimately it's about sharing all of this with the audience."
Monday's RSO program, which starts 8 p.m. at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre at the Roanoke Civic Center, also includes performances of Mozart's "Overture to the Marriage of Figaro," Gershwin's "Lullaby with Strings" and Dvorak's "Symphony No. 8 in G Major." Tickets are $22 to $50.
At 7 p.m. RSO artistic director and conductor David Stewart Wiley will hold "Illuminations," a discussion of the night's music, free to ticket holders. For more information call 343-9127 or visit www.rso.com.
Theater raises $6,000 for transplant patient
In December, the Roanoke Children's Theatre held a special performance of its musical production "A Year With Frog and Toad" to benefit Gary Foster, a Thaxton man in need of a heart transplant.
Even though the performance happened the weekend of a record-setting snowfall, it still raised $6,000 toward a fund to benefit the ailing heart patient, said his wife, Crystal Foster.
Gary Foster is the brother of Shelley Lyons, the theater's director of development. His wife showered grateful praise on Lyons and on Pat Wilhelms, the theater's artistic director, for holding the extra performance.
While the extra money doesn't solve the Fosters' financial difficulties, "it helps in so many ways," Crystal Foster said.
For more information on National Transplant Assistance Fund, which has an account for Foster, visit www.transplantfund.org.
The Roanoke Children's Theatre's next production, "The Boxcar Children," opens March 11.
Arts grants available
The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge intends to award 10 $1,000 grants to regional artists through the Grants for Artists Program. The deadline to apply is March 5. Projects must take place between July 1 and June 30, 2011.
The grant program is in its second year, Artist Services & Arts Education Director Rhonda Hale said in a statement. "Last year, we awarded grants to both visual artists and musicians. We hope to spread the word about this funding opportunity to writers, dancers, actors, filmmakers and folk artists."
Guidelines and application forms are available at theartscouncil.org/artists/gap.html.
For additional information, call Hale at 224-1205 or e-mail her at rhale@theartscouncil.org.
On the Arts blog
Check out a preview of ABC White House Correspondent Ann Compton's presentation for the History Museum of Western Virginia at blogs.roanoke.com/arts.
