WFIU: Arts Moments

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WFIU's “Arts Moments” are a series of short features highlighting various events and people that have affected the arts in our society. These features are in honor of Arts Weeks 2004, running from February sixth through March second.

Arts Weeks is Indiana University’s showcase for the best and most exciting work in the creative and performing arts. From the intimate theater of local actors and playwrights to the stirring artistry of IU’s Grammy® Award-winning faculty, Bloomington continues to offer world-class, memorable experiences in virtually every style and genre of creative expression. Artists that intrigue, challenge, and inspire-these are the essence of Bloomington.

Support for Arts Weeks comes from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach.

Bruno Walter	Ansel Adams	Alban Berg	Andres Segovia	The Ballad of Baby Doe
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Bruno Walter (Feb. 17) 1/26/04

Celebrate the arts -- with this glimpse into the life of Bruno Walter.
Born Bruno Walter Schlesinger in Berlin on September 15, 1876, the conductor better known as Bruno Walter would go on to become one of the 20th century's greatest conductors.
Walter began his musical studies at the age of 6, making his first public appearance as a pianist 3 years later. After attending a performance by esteemed German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow in 1889, the young Walter decided to pursue a career as a conductor.
In 1901 he was invited to join Gustav Mahler at the Court Opera of Vienna, and Walter subsequently became not only Mahler's protégé but also a close friend. The intimate friendship that developed fostered Walter's lifelong relationship with Mahler's music. They became such close friends in fact that Mahler's wife, Alma Mahler, was often jealous of the attention her husband paid to his new friend. A champion of Mahler's music, Walter would later conduct the premieres of Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony. His Mahler recordings have also played no small part in the belated, but eventual acceptance of Mahler's work by the concert-going public.
Walter also championed the music of another somewhat neglected Austrian, Anton Bruckner, making a recording of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony that is hailed as one of the greatest interpretations of this landmark work.
Also a distinguished conductor of music of the classical period, Walter occasionally even showed off his formidable skill as a pianist by leading a Mozart concerto from the keyboard.
Bruno Walter died in Beverly Hills, California on February 17, 1962, but not before leaving a formidable legacy of recorded music to be marveled at even today. (272 )
Support for this Arts Moment has come from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach. I'm Lauren Robert.

Ansel Adams (Feb.20) 1/27/04

Celebrate the arts -- with this glimpse into the life of Ansel Adams.
It has been written that his photographs "did for the national parks something comparable to what Homer's epics did for Odysseus". The photographer is Ansel Adams.
Born February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California, Ansel Adams ended his formal education with grammar school, but later in life received six honorary degrees, including doctorates from Berkeley and Harvard. After leaving school he found what was perhaps the first love of his life, the piano, and by 1920 he had decided to pursue a career as a concert pianist. Around the same time, in 1919, he joined the Sierra Club, an important outlet for his early career as a photographer. By 1930 he was little known for his pianistic ability, but had become highly regarded as a photographer and conservationist, the two roles he would play so virtuosically for the rest of his life.
The black and white images that made Adams famous are characterized by seemingly endless shades of gray, black and white. This type of photography was made possible by an innovation he called the Zone System of photography, a system that allows photographers to calculate and control the range of gray-scale tones in a photo by using a light meter.
Adams always considered himself an artist first, claiming that he never considered political issues when creating his photographs. Nonetheless, he was always active as a conservationist, writing letters and lobbying for the creation of national parks and nature preserves. Through his association with conservationist causes, many of his stunning photographs came to represent for many Americans the unique landscape of the American west, something well worth preserving. (268 )
Support for this Arts Moment has come from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach. I'm Lauren Robert.

Alban Berg (Feb.9) 1/28/04

Celebrate the arts -- with this glimpse into the life of Alban Berg.
Born February 9 in 1885, Viennese composer Alban Berg is widely held to be the most accessible of the second Viennese school of twelve-tone composers. Not a particularly prolific composer, Berg's catalog of mature works numbers only about a dozen, the last of which is the hauntingly beautiful Violin Concerto of 1935.
Widely considered to be Berg's most accessible and popular work, the Violin Concerto was the result of a 1934 commission of $1,500 from violinist, Louis Krasner. At the time, Berg was busy at work on his second opera, Lulu, and as a result set the commission for the concerto aside. Early in 1935 Berg was spurred to action by the sudden death of Manon Gropius, the 18 year old daughter of Alma Mahler and architect Walter Gropius. The unexpected and untimely death of this, captivating young woman, who Berg described as "an angel", led to the famous dual dedication of the concerto. Krasner's name appears at the top of the score, and at the bottom are the words: "Dem Andenken eines Engels", or "To the memory of an angel".
Composed as a requiem for Gropius, the concerto was finished in record time, with the finished score dated August 11, 1935. Scholars cite the feverish period of work on the violin concerto as the reason Berg was unable to finish Lulu by the time of his own untimely death on December 24, 1935. Ironically, the concerto had become Berg's own requiem, and he was never to hear it performed. The premier came on April 19, 1936, months after his death, with Krasner as the soloist. (267 )
Support for this Arts Moment has come from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach. I'm Lauren Robert.

Andres Segovia (Feb.18) 1/29/04

Celebrate the arts -- with this glimpse into the life of Andres Segovia.
The father of the modern classical guitar movement, Andres Segovia was among the first to bring his beloved instrument out of the tavern and into the concert hall.
Andres Segovia was born February 18, 1894, in the Andalusian city of Linares. The son of a wealthy and successful lawyer who fully expected his son to follow in his footsteps, Segovia began his cultural education at an early age with studies in piano and violin. Neither instrument really held his interest, but one day when he was visiting at the house of a family friend he was captivated by the sound of the guitar. Discouraged by his parents, who thought he should play a "real" instrument, and unable to find a competent teacher, Segovia became largely self-taught. Early in life he set the lofty goal of bringing guitar studies to every university, having the guitar played throughout the world, on every major stage, and of passing on his love of the guitar to succeeding generations.
More than accomplishing the goals he set for himself, Segovia had a long and fruitful career of performing and teaching, touring the world and counting among his many students Christoper Parkening, John Williams, and Elliot Fisk. He also vastly increased the guitarists' repertoire through commissions from such recognized composers as Manuel De Falla, Albert Roussel, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. In addition, Segovia's widespread fame accorded the guitar a new status as a serious solo instrument among the great violinists and pianists of history, paving the way for the new generation of guitarists that have inherited his legacy. (260 )
Support for this Arts Moment has come from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach. I'm Lauren Robert.

The Ballad of Baby Doe (IU Opera Theatre - opens Feb.6) 1/30/04

Celebrate the arts -- with this glimpse of "The Ballad of Baby Doe."
Set in a small Colorado town near the end of the 19th century, Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe", is loosely based on a true story. The opera tells the tale of Elizabeth "Baby" Doe, a strikingly beautiful young woman who spent her life in the rough and tumble world of the Colorado silver mining community. Her first marriage was to Harvey Doe, Jr., an inept silver magnate whose inability to make a consistent living forced his new wife to don mining clothes and work the mines herself.
Needless to say, she quickly became estranged from her husband and left town, settling in Leadville, Colorado, where she caught the eye of wealthy silver tycoon, Horace Tabor. The opera picks up the story as Horace declares his love for Baby Doe. Of course there is only one problem, Horace's wife, Augusta, is none too happy with the turn of events and decides to drive Baby Doe out of town. This is only the beginning of a complex story of jealousy and intrigue in which love and fortune are lost and found, only to be ultimately lost again.
The IU Opera Theatre production of Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe" opens Friday, February 6, with additional performances on February 7, 13, and 14, all at 8 pm in the Musical Arts Center on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.
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Support for this Arts Moment has come from the IU offices of the President, Vice President for Research, and Director of Arts and Cultural Outreach. I'm Lauren Robert.