WFIU: Directions in Sound

A Tribute to Marilyn Horne
Sunday, January 18, 9:00 p.m.

In celebration of her 70th birthday on January 16, WFIU presents A Tribute to Marilyn Horne, hosted by WFMT's Kerry Frumkin. Ms. Horne reminisces about the great moments in her career, and how that career evolved from her formative years in Pennsylvania and California, her years singing in church, in films, and in the Roger Wagner Chorale, to her debuts at the great opera houses of Europe and the United States. She also speaks about her teachers and colleagues, especially Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge and Henry Lewis.
Told in the first person, this is the story of Marilyn Horne's remarkable musical life, which includes an abundance of music, as well as excerpts from her remarkable recordings in the Bel Canto repertoire and on the recital stage. Marilyn Horne has been called by Opera News "probably the greatest singer in the world." She is without a doubt, one of the greatest mezzo-sopranos in opera history and is probably the greatest Rossini interpreter ever.
Born in 1934 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Marilyn Berneice Horne made her operatic debut at the age of 20, and has performed in the world's great opera houses throughout her career. Today, she works as the Vocal Program Director at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and has also set up The Marilyn Horne Foundation, which helps to support young singers.

Back to Top

Heart-to-Heart: Caring for the Dying

Everyone dies. Not everyone dies well. Good care can make the difference.
That is the premise of Heart-to-Heart: Caring for the Dying, three absorbing hour-long documentaries designed to prompt thoughtful public conversation about end-of-life care. How can we help people live well in the face of death? How can we make the process of dying a meaningful experience, free from excessive fear and pain? Program host and producer Claire Shoen examines these and other questions, and explores some of the answers facing the nation as our population ages and many confront the passing of parents and loved ones.
Heart-to-Heart shares the personal stories and remarkable moments of people facing death and those who are helping them along the journey. It looks at the care given by doctors, hospitals, clergy, family and friends to people at the end of life. The program examines the barriers to good care that arise from cultural misunderstanding, to fear over the use of morphine, to the lack of funding to pay for good programs. Each program provides ideas, examples and inspiration for those who are searching for a good path on the journey to death.
Heart-to-Heart is compelling, sound-rich radio that brings wisdom, compassion and common sense to a vitally important dialogue. While the stories are personal, the themes are universal - we all struggle to come to terms with the death of friends, family members and ultimately ourselves.

Beyond Pain
Sunday, January 4, 8:00 p.m.

Richard Buike's cancer has wrapped itself around nerve cells, which can cause incredible pain. However, unlike many Americans who die today in needless agony, his pain is controlled with high doses of opioid drugs. Beyond Pain focuses on how fear of addiction and the War on Drugs undermine pain management at the end of life.

Children Sometimes Die
Sunday, January 11, 8:00 p.m.

Brittney is thirteen. Cystic fibrosis threatens to take her life before she has a chance to grow up. Wise beyond her years, she faces her fear of death and her frustrations with being so sick. Her mom is helping her make some hard decisions about getting a lung transplant. Children Sometimes Die is about the youngest among us who die and the support they and their families need during this unbelievably difficult experience.

Respecting Diversity
Sunday, January 18, 8:00 p.m.

Regina Dyer, an African American woman, is dying of breast cancer. She feels that stereotypes about black people color the treatment she gets from doctors and hospitals. Respecting Diversity looks at the influence of culture, race and religion on dying - how the assumptions behind good end-of-life care do not necessarily match the needs of people who are not white and middle-class.

About the Host
Claire Schoen, producer/director and host of Heart-to-Heart, has been creating award-winning documentaries in radio, film and video for more than 25 years. Her works address a wide range of subjects, including environmental education, physical disability, communications technology, genetic engineering, nuclear proliferation and Jewish culture.
" Schoen's previous producer/director credits include: " Mad River, an hour-long PBS documentary film about logging the Pacific northwest Redwoods. " Voices in Exile, four-part radio series about undocumented Salvadoran refugees, winner of the NFCB Golden Reel.
" Is Our Fate in Our Genes?, an hour-long radio documentary on genetic engineering that was part of the series The DNA Files, winner of both the Peabody and duPont-Columbia Awards.

Back to Top

A Century in Sound: The Minnesota Orchestra Turns 100
Sunday, January 4, 9:00 p.m.

November 2003 marks the centennial of the internationally acclaimed Minnesota Orchestra. Music Director Osmo Vänskä looks forward to his tenure as the orchestra begins its second century, and A Century in Sound invites listeners to join the celebration of the landmark anniversary.
Host Brian Newhouse presents archival recordings of the orchestra's great performances along with insights from the symphony's luminary music directors - Eugene Ormandy, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Antal Dorati, Neville Marriner, Edo de Waart and others - who reflect on the ups and downs of making music in Minnesota.
The program's music is largely drawn from the new 12-volume CD set, Minnesota Orchestra at 100. This includes the orchestra's very first recording made in 1924 (a two-minute Maori dance) as well as a selection from the orchestra's most recent radio broadcast, a striking performance of Grieg's Peer Gynt.

Other program highlights include:
o Ormandy on his conducting technique.
o Mitropoulos' moving farewell speech in 1949, recorded live.
o Dorati's first radio address in Minnesota.
o Marriner on the player's strike which cast a shadow over his tenure.
o Edo de Waart on the hard work of rebuilding the Minnesota Orchestra.

A Century in Sound: The Minnesota Orchestra Turns 100 - join the celebration on WFIU!

Back to Top

Dreams Within A Dream
Sunday, January 11, 8:00 p.m.

Dreams of love, loss, terror, death, revelation - such visions are not uncommon. They are aspects of the human condition, themes illuminated for us by writers, poets and mystics throughout the ages.
In May of 2003, WFIU was the media sponsor for a very special project: Dreams Within A Dream, a new oratorio for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra by composer Cary Boyce. It premiered in downtown Bloomington at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, with the Bloomington Chamber Singers and soprano Susan Swaney, conducted by Gerald Sousa. The oratorio is a musical dreamscape, beginning with preparations for sleep that lead through a series of journeys deep into the veiled regions of the night until, ultimately, dawn emerges.
Boyce selected texts by poets Edgar Allan Poe, John Keats, Linda McKay Feldmann, W.B. Yeats, William Frances Bourdillon, Louise Bogan, St. John of the Cross and Pedro Calderon de la Barca, weaving a "dream" narrative that draws from many places and times. Music critic Peter Jacobi wrote of the work's premiere, "Dreams produces a dream of a result," calling it "an honest, inspired and deftly crafted work, one of scope… of musical elements fitting poetic content, of artistic worth."
Due to the considerable resources involved ? musical, financial and human ? such projects are usually the purview of major metropolitan centers. However, Bloomington, Indiana is a special place. Despite its modest size, Bloomington is a well-respected and major center of music making in the United States. Great things are possible here, and this commissioned project came to life with a gifted amateur community chorus led by an outstanding conductor, along with the help of a generous and supportive community.
This special Dreams Within A Dream broadcast, hosted by WFIU's Robert Lumpkin, features Boyce's new and extraordinary music along with interviews with the composer, the conductor and the soloist. They discuss the process of commissioning, creating and premiering a new work on such a large scale.
The Dreams Within A Dream oratorio, along with Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending featuring the great violin virtuoso Corey Cerovsek, is available on the latest Bloomington Chamber Singers CD produced by Aguavá New Music Studio. It can be found at www.aguava.com and at local record stores. Join us Sunday, January 11 at 8:00 p.m. for this very special broadcast of Dreams within a Dream.

Back to Top

Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Musical Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sunday, January 25, 8:00 p.m.

The memory and timeless messages of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are celebrated on WFIU through music and song in a holiday program of choral music. Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Musical Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes performances by an array of choruses, recorded live at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This holiday special is hosted by Martin Goldsmith, formerly of NPR's Performance Today and Deutsche Welle Radio's Concert Hour.
With the focus on African-American musical traditions, this program features a variety of traditional spirituals, contemporary gospel music, choral anthems and newly commissioned works for the holiday. The centerpieces of the program are the Howard University Gospel Choir, Paul Gatling, conductor, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, Norman Scribner, music director. Also appearing in the program are the Duke Ellington Concert Choir and the Shiloh Baptist Church Gospel Choir. The program features such well-known spirituals as Amazing Grace, Rock-a-My-soul, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and Deep River. Gospel works performed include Born to Die and Glory to His Name. Also performed are the stirring anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing, and commissioned works such as Adolphus Hailstork's Stages. The program ends with a performance of Precious Lord, Take My Hand, Dr. King's favorite spiritual.
Commentary by Paul Gatling and Norman Scribner details the origin and inspiring joys of this collaborative, ongoing tribute which was begun by Scribner and is now in its 16th year. Scribner and Gatling discuss the central role music played in the civil rights movement which, under Dr. King's leadership, created fundamental changes in the fabric of American society. The Howard University Choir is recognized as one of the most outstanding choirs in the United States. The choir has become the definitive interpreter of African-American spirituals and work songs, as well as choral works by composers of African descent.
For the past 36 years, The Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., under the leadership of founder and music director Norman Scribner, has secured its reputation as one of the major symphonic choruses in the United States. Comprised of over 180 professional-caliber volunteer singers, the Chorus is regularly called upon to help inaugurate presidents, honor world leaders and celebrate national holidays. It also performs with the National Symphony Orchestra under its music director, Leonard Slatkin.

Back to Top

Profiles

January 4 - Donald Phinney Gregg
Donald P. Gregg is an expert on Asian policy affairs. From 1989 to 1993 he served as Ambassador to Korea. He also served under Vice President George H. W. Bush as a national security advisor. He worked for the CIA, and was awarded its highest decoration, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. Donald Gregg was a guest lecturer on the IU Bloomington campus, and dropped in for a conversation with WFIU News director, Will Murphy.

January 11 - William F. Schulz
Dr. Schulz serves as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, he assumed the position in March of 1994. A quote from The New York Review of Books sums up his contributions: "William Schulz… has done more than anyone in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States." You can meet this extraordinary humanitarian in an interview hosted by WFIU News director, Will Murphy.

January 18 - Third House
Join us for a live discussion of issues before the current legislature. A simulcast of the program can be seen on WTIU public television.

January 25 - Violette Verdy
Violette Verdy was the Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet for 20 years, and an internationally known ballerina with major companies in America and Europe. She also served as Artistic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet, and taught for companies and schools throughout the world, including the New York City Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet and the Australian Ballet Company. Peter Jacobi hosts this hour-long interview. (repeat)

Back to Top

Musical Highlights for January
by Robert Lumpkin, Music Director

Artist of the Month
WFIU's Artist of the Month for January, 2004 is conductor and educator, Ray E. Cramer. Ray Cramer conducts the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds at Indiana University and teaches graduate conducting, band history and wind literature classes. He is President of the Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra convention and is in demand internationally as guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator. Although primarily active as a wind ensemble conductor, we will hear Ray E. Cramer first as an orchestral conductor. He leads the IU University Orchestra on Wednesday, January 7 at 7:06 p.m. in a performance of the "Overture" to Rienzi by Richard Wagner.
Cramer takes the podium with the IU Wind Ensemble on Thursday, January 15 at the same time in William Schuman's New England Triptych. Join us on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:06 p.m. for Hammersmith, Op. 52 by Gustav Holst, once again featuring the IU Wind ensemble. Soprano Kate van Eck joins Ray E. Cramer and the IU Wind Ensemble on Saturday, January 31 at 12:09 p.m. for five Songs from the Chants d'Auvergne by Joseph Canteloube.

New Releases
Our featured new releases for this month include a new item from Vanguard Classics called "The Fauré Album" featuring violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Akira Eguchi. On Thursday, January 8 at 7:06 p.m., we will hear the Violin Sonata No. 1 in A, Op. 13 by Gabriel Fauré from that new release. Join us on Wednesday, January 14 at 10:12 p.m. for Dvorak's Serenade in E, Op. 22 played by the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra led by Conrad van Alphen on a new Telarc release. On the following Wednesday at the same time, we will hear Stravinsky's Suite Italienne from a recent cpo release featuring violinist Dora Bratchkova and pianist Aldo Orvieto. Finally, a new recording of Bruckner's unfinished last symphony, the Symphony No. 9 in d, comes your way on January 28 at 10:12 p.m. from RCA Red Seal, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

Back to Top

January Community Events

BAAC Performance Series
The Madwoman of Chaillot
By Jean Giraudoux

Co-produced with Bloomington High Schools North & South and Catharine Rademacher
Directed by Francesca Sobrer
January 16-17, 23-24; 8:00 p.m.
January 18 & 25; 2:00 p.m.
Waldron Auditorium

Following their Waldron collaboration in 2002, Bloomington High Schools North and South reunite to present The Madwoman of Chaillot. In this comic and poetic fable, greedy prospectors seek to tear up the streets of Paris in search of oil and wealth. The Madwoman holds a unique tea party where she confronts all "despoilers of the earth" in an attempt to bring justice, joy and love back into the world.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration
Monday, January 19, 7:30 p.m.
Buskirk-Chumley Theater

The City of Bloomington's annual "A Day On! Not A Day Off" evening program will feature music by David Baker,
Sarah Stevens and the Indiana University African American Choral Ensemble, as well as a keynote presentation by Dr. Michael Gordon. In addition, the Student Web Page Contest and King Legacy Award winners will be announced. The event is free and open to the public.

Camerata Orchestra "Icons"
Sunday, January 25, 3:00 p.m.
Carmichael Hall, Bloomington H.S. South

Luis Biava, guest conductor (Resident Conductor Philadelphia Orchestra)
Jeremy Denk, piano soloist (former I.U. faculty & concert artist)
Overture to Colas Breugnon Kabelevsky
Piano Concerto No. 2 Prokofiev
Symphonic Dances Rachmaninoff

BAAC Performance Series
Espen Jensen

Co-produced with Bloomington Classical Guitar Society
Saturday, January 31, 8:00 p.m.
Waldron Auditorium

Bloomington artist Espen Jensen will transport you to Spain and South America in a moving performance of Spanish guitar music. From folk song to tango, experience a panorama of captivating and rarely heard classical guitar music.

Back to Top

Local Actors Bring Fund Drive Spots to Life

WFIU's news and promotions assistant Adam Schwartz was having no success finding a five-year-old actor for one of his 2003 comedic fund drive spots. Then one evening in the lobby of the YMCA, he overheard two boys talking animatedly and asked if they knew any young actors. Ten-year-old Nick Heinzen chirped, "I'm an actor" and Schwartz auditioned the boy right there. Adam selected five-year-old Nick to perform opposite veteran radio actor Richard Fish. Heinzen and Fish were just two of fourteen local actors who donated their voice talents for the two-dozen spots, which were broadcast during the 2003 WFIU Fund Drive.
Veteran actors Diane Kondrat and Mark McIntyre appeared in a series of spots playing a husband and wife who debate the finer points of pledging support. "Working with Mark was a pleasure," says Kondrat. "The fact that the comic spots may have allowed WFIU's fund drive to run more successfully was a bonus."
A real husband and wife team of Allison Batty and Jonathan Molitor did perform in a few of the spots. Even though the two are students in IU's Masters program in theater and drama, it was their first experience in radio acting. Molitor played a character based on Bertie Wooster of the P.G. Wodehouse stories opposite Rich Fish playing a Jeeves-like valet. This role increased the difficulty by requiring a British accent. Luckily during the week of recording, Molitor was also appearing in the Brown County production of the British drama Angel Street, so his English accent was in top form, resulting in a hilarious portrayal of an upper-class fop.
With the success of this year's fund drive, WFIU station manager Christina Kuzmych is looking into distributing these and additional spots for other public radio stations to utilize. Will Bloomington's best actors soon be heard on airwaves across the country? Stay tuned!
WFIU thanks all the actors and musicians who graciously volunteered their talents for Fund Drive: Chris Carducci, Lauren Robert, Dylan Marks, Kaira Hogle, Daniel Petrie, Mark Robinson and Jason Stahl.

Back to Top

The Radio Reader with Dick Estell

"The Turtle Warrior"
by Mary Relindes Ellis

Begins: December 31

By 1967, the Lucas farm had fallen into disrepair, thanks to the hard-drinking of John Lucas, who brutalizes his wife and two sons, James and Bill. The elder brother, James, escapes by enlisting in the Marines and fighting in Vietnam, a conflict he does not survive. Young Bill is left to protect his mother with only his own will and the spirit of his dead brother to guide him. The warrior of the title, Bill fashions a shield from a giant turtle shell he believes will keep him from harm. And, as he faces manhood, he longs to create a family very different from his father's.
Author Mary Relindes Ellis takes us from the heartland of America to the battlefields of World War II and Vietnam, weaving a haunting tale of an unforgettable world where the physical and spiritual, the past and the present merge.

Back to Top

WFIU Co-sponsors Arts Week with Contest

In celebration of IU's Arts Week (February 8 - March 1), WFIU will hold a prose and poetry contest, and air special features highlighting the importance of the arts in America.
The first ever WFIU Arts Week Prose & Poetry Contest is open to everyone in the WFIU listening area, and will feature two separate awards for the best peotry and short fiction piece or essay. The adjudicators include faculty members of IU's Creative Writing Program. Details and specific guidelines can be found on the WFIU web site: wfiu.indiana.edu.
WFIU will also present twenty-five short features highlighting various people and events in the arts, most of which are associated with the month of February. The features will touch upon events that had a significant influence on the arts, such as the invention of sound recording and talking motion pictures - even the American debut of The Beatles. There will be glimpses into the lives of such noted authors as James Joyce and Arthur Miller, the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, musicians Bruno Walter and Andrés Segovia, composers George Friedrich Handel and Alban Berg, the musical productions The Ballad of Baby Doe and Miss Saigon and the drama Proof. These features will air on WFIU from January19 to February 20.
More information about Arts Week is available online at: www.indiana.edu/~artsweek.

Back to Top

Broadcasts from the IU School of Music

MUCZYNSKI-Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra; Adam McCord, a. sax.; David Effron/IU University Orch.
Airs: 1/5 at 7:00 p.m., 1/6 at 10:00 a.m.

XENAKIS-Thallein; David Dzubay/IU New Music Ens.
Airs: 1/11 at 11:00 p.m.

BEETHOVEN-Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a; Paul Biss/IU Phil. Orch.
Airs: 1/12 at 7:00 p.m., 1/13 at 10:00 a.m., 1/16 at 3:00 p.m.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV- Scheherazade, Op. 35, I: The Sea and Sinbad's Ship; David Effron/IU University Orch.
Airs: 1/19 at 7:00 p.m.. 1/20 at 10:00 a.m., 1/23 at 3:00 p.m.

TCHAIKOVSKY-Serenade in C for Strings, Op. 48; Ilya Kaler/IU Ch. Orch.
Airs: 1/21/ at 10:00 p.m.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV-Scheherazade, Op. 35, II: The Tale of the Kalander Prince; David Effron/IU University Orch.
Airs: 1/26 at 7:00 p.m., 1/27 at 10:00 a.m., 1/30 at 3:00 p.m.

Back to Top

Farewell to Ether Game Helper

If you are a frequent player of Ether Game, then you have probably spoken with Mary Thomason-Smith. For the past seven months, Mary has been one of the four Ether Game Coordinators you speak to when you call in your answers. Mary and the other coordinators delve into their personal knowledge of music to help listeners figure out the answers. In Mary's case, her knowledge comes from studying piano since age five, completing a Masters in piano performance and teaching music theory here at IU.
If the answer to an Ether Game question is Beethoven, Mary might tell the caller, "This composer was deaf in his old age," or "this composer is especially known for his symphonies."
But isn't giving hints, uh, cheating? Mary doesn't think so.
"We want each player to come away feeling more positive about classical music than when they began they game. Sure it's a competition, but we'd like for them to learn and feel good about playing." Besides, says Mary, the majority of callers need hints. Only a "token few" callers get the correct answer on the first guess.
Mary is currently working towards a doctorate in organ performance at IU, and gives private piano lessons to elementary school-age children. She is also the organist and choral director at the Arlington Methodist Church in Bloomington, a job she enjoys especially for the teaching aspects.
"So much of choral direction is teaching people," she says.
Mary and her husband Timothy Smith, a tenor with whom she gives recitals, grew up in Florida, and Mary looks forward to returning there and teaching music at a small college. She is leaving WFIU and Ether Game to focus on her studies.
However, Mary wants listeners who play Ether Game to always call in with their answers - even if they're not sure that their answers are correct. "We'd rather they call and play and have a good time than feel intimidated," she says.

Back to Top

WFIU
Created and maintained by Michael Toler
Last updated: Thursday, January 1, 2004
Copyright 2003, The Trustees of
Indiana University