FROM THE PRESIDENT | PAGE 2What The FCC’s Spectrum Auction Means

(and Doesn’t Mean) for Public Radio

ON THE AIR | PAGE 4Specials & Weekend Programming Highlights

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april 2017

m e m B e r s g U i d e

Sir Thomas BeechamElmer BernsteinYefi m BronfmanAntál DorátiAlice EhlersDuke EllingtonJohn Eliot GardinerHerbert von KarajanNeville MarrinerZubin Mehta

Pierre MonteuxMurray PerahiaAndré PrevinSerge Prokofi evSergei Rachmaninoff Miklós RózsaArtur SchnabelRobert ShawGermaine Tailleferre

LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program Trains the Divas

and Divos of Tomorrow | PAGE

THE MAKING OF AN OPERA SINGER

“Competitive” might be an understatement when it comes to getting into LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Aspiring participants submit applications, audio recordings, and then, if all goes brilliantly, progress through multiple rounds of live auditions. Hundreds of aspiring Carmens and Don José’s are turned away each year. From the pool of approximately 500-600 original applicants, 5-6 are accepted into the program each year: approximately one percent.

But for those lucky few singers and pianists who are granted the two- to three-year paid residencies, an experience unlike any other awaits. It’s rigorous to be sure, but there’s also an entire team of coaches and staff members tailoring instruction to each participant, helping them achieve their own potential.

Nino Sanikidze is the Young Artist Program head coach. She calls YAP “extraordinarily successful,” especially considering it only started a decade ago. “In these ten years,” she says, “we’ve raised singers who have gone on to sing on the world’s major stages and win major competitions. We’re very excited to have such quick success.”

There are 12 participants in the program at the moment—two of them pianists and the rest tenors, sopranos, baritones, mezzo-sopranos and bass-baritones. Six of the program’s singers appeared in LA Opera’s production of Salome and several of them will also perform in The Tales of Hoff mann, which runs through April 15th at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

“We think one of the biggest reasons why program participants are so successful is because they have experienced the real opera singer life,” says Sanikidze, who trained in her native Tbilisi, Georgia. “They’ve worked with esteemed conductors such as James Conlon and Plácido Domingo, and sung with the LA Opera orchestra and chorus on stage. We think that’s one of the big components of their success.”

One tenor living that real opera singer life during the run of Salome was program participant Josh Wheeker, who portrayed one of the Five Jews. “It’s only 90 measures of music,” he said, “but within that 90 measures we’re all arguing diff ering points about theology, so we’re yelling over each other. We probably spent 15 hours on coaching before we even got to rehearsal.”

Baritone Theo Hoff man also sang in Salome. He said he was looking for a change when he was accepted to the program. “I had spent my entire life and school years in New York City, and coming out here has really expanded my world view and given me another angle from which to look at this business. The international casts that LA

2 Brenda Barnes

from the president

Windfall from TV Spectrum Sale Bypasses Radio

A few months ago, I explained that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was conducting an auction, off ering some public television stations the option to sell specifi c bands of their electromagnetic spectrum to wireless operators. Since we are all using more mobile and broadband service than ever, wireless operators need additional spectrum to meet demand, particularly in larger metropolitan areas like Los Angeles.

Since most Americans access television stations via satellite, cable or internet there is less need for television operators to maintain over-the-air signals. Some television broadcasters are sharing spectrum with other broadcasters; some are moving to another channel; others will continue using broadband and internet to transmit signals.

As I am writing this, the results of the spectrum auction are being released gradually, but by the time you read this we will know what happened. It is quite likely that public television licensees will receive as much as $2 billion as a result of the auction.

It is important to understand that KUSC does not benefi t at all from this auction, nor does any other public radio station. The auction applied only to public television because the spectrum television occupies is more robust and, therefore, more valuable to the wireless companies that purchased the spectrum.

News of the fi nal results of the auction are also coming at a time when funding for public broadcasting is again being questioned. Some will argue that this large infl ux of funding reduces the need for federal funding for public broadcasting. But many public television broadcasters did not participate in the auction at all, and no public radio station will receive any funding from this auction. The vast majority of the public broadcasting system is in exactly the same position now as before the auction. There are also many radio stations in small communities and rural areas that are the only radio stations local residents can receive. These stations tend to be much more dependent on federal funding.

There has been strong bipartisan support for public broadcasting over the years. You can learn more about how to help us make the case to legislators by visiting protectmypublicmedia.org.

cover storY

LA Opera’s 10 Year-Old Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program Trains Tomorrow’s Opera Stars

LA Opera’s 10 Year-Old Domingo-Colburn-Stein LA Opera’s 10 Year-Old Domingo-Colburn-Stein A SONG OF SUCCESS

by Sheila Tepper & Kelsey McConnell

Cover photo: josh wheeker (yap), rodeLL roseL, gabrieLLe sChnaut, CarLos enriQue santeLLi (yap), brian miChaeL moore (yap) and patriCk bLaCkweLL in La opera’s SALOME. photo Courtesy: Larry ho and La opera

Cover photo: brian miChaeL moore (yap), CarLos enriQue santeLLi (yap), rodeLL roseL, gabrieL vam-vuLesCu, niChoLas brownLee (yap) and aLLan gLassman on stage during La opera’s SALOME. photo Courtesy: Larry ho and La opera

Opera brings in teach us so much. We’re young artists just coming out of school, and we only know what we know. But then going from a Strauss cast to a Verdi cast—we don’t see these kinds of singers when we’re in school, so it’s great to expand our bubble.”

Hoffman acknowledges that similar programs exist elsewhere in the US and in Europe, but he thinks LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program is singular. “To have Domingo’s deep wealth of experience matched with the forward-thinking innovation of [LA Opera President and CEO] Christopher Koelsch is unique. And the program is so young that there’s a lot of space to grow in it and see what works for each individual. It’s not set in stone as so many programs are. And, it’s a friendly company. I don’t know how to quantify that, but it’s just not like other companies I’ve dealt with.”

Tenor Carlos Enrique Santelli says it’s because the program is tailored to each artist that he’s been able to find his voice. “Coming out of school I think it’s pretty typical to not have a solid understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. You have a general knowledge of how to sing and how to interpret different styles, but here I’ve had free reign to experiment and find a repertoire that fits me.”

All of the singers in the program are greatly gifted. Obviously. But why choose opera?

“There’s no real art form quite like it,” says tenor Brian Michael Moore. “It incorporates all of the other arts forms. There’s the movement aspect of dancing and using your entire body to sing, as well as the visual aspects of costumes, sets and make-up. Plus, everything wonderful about music and acting.”

Moore followed his sister onto the stage after seeing her in high school musicals. “I felt a calling to go up there and perform in front of people.

When I was taking voice lessons, I learned both classical music and musicals, but my voice always lent itself to being more of a classical voice. Plus, I tried to sing Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi one time and it was just awful, so I knew that wasn’t my route.”

The participants say that unlike college, where they had a range of classes to worry about on top of other distractions, in the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, they’re able to concentrate on vocal technique and other aspects of opera performance (they’re trained in acting and even fake combat) with a singular focus.

“The job of each singer is just to hone their skills,” says Sanikidze, “hence the quick development. Since September, everybody has made huge progress.”

“There’s this vocabulary that really clicks with us,” says Wheeker, “and I’ve learned more about my voice in the last six months than I had in the last seven years of singing.” He credits that rapid rise to the caliber of instruction within the program, especially renowned voice teacher Stephen King, who also chairs vocal studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

Wheeker and the other Young Artists, plus Plácido Domingo, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and distinguished alumni of the program will join together for one night of arias, duets and ensembles on April 1st at Domingo’s Young Artists Concert (tickets are available at laopera.org). And then it’s off to a life of performing around the world for these stars of tomorrow.

Recorded live at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, the concert captured on this album forms the basis of the first installment of the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center to be filmed outside New York City. Understandably, the centerpiece is Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which quotes Elder Joseph Brackett’s 1848 song “Simple Gifts.” Filmed in the Village’s airy tobacco barn—although the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing had a strict ban on some physical activities, they had no qualms about honest farm work—the proceedings have a palpable sense of occasion.

The program is launched by pianist Gilles Vonsattel’s witty, full-blooded version of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s The Union, his zany 1862 potpourri including “Yankee Doodle,” “Hail, Columbia,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” written some seven decades before the last-named became the official National Anthem in 1931 (yet another triumph of the Hoover Administration).

Violinist Arnaud Sussmann and pianist Wu Han offer a glossy, yet warmly affectionate look at Dvořák’s Sonatina in G, whose slow movement was conceived on a visit to the Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota, whose natural beauties Longfellow celebrated in The Song of Hiawatha, the poem Dvořák later admitted was the true inspiration of the New World Symphony.

Han and Vonsattel are pointed and charming in Barber’s surprisingly little-known Souvenirs, his nostalgic 1951 four-hand piano suite recalling visits he and his mother paid to the storied Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel for afternoon tea; other movements were inspired by the grown-up Barber’s memories of the Blue Angel Club.

Predictably, the high point of the concert is the Suite from Appalachian Spring, heard in its original version for 13 players. Rarely has Copland’s masterpiece sounded more fresh, subtle, or vivid, with especially sensitive contributions from flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and clarinetist David Shifrin. The refinement and naturalness of the performance are as remarkable as its technical perfection, which makes it one of the current recorded front-runners of any version of the piece.

Mark O’Connor’s F.C.’s Jig—a hoedown for violin and viola based on the third movement of his Fiddle Concerto—and selections from Stephen Foster’s The Social Orchestra—lesser-known items like two of the Village Quadrilles and Jeannie’s Own Schottisch—round out a pretty irresistible collection. Given what must have been the challenging acoustics—it was a tobacco barn after all, meaning there are significant gaps between the slats to allow for a free flow of air over the dying weeds—the recorded sound is superb and the audience reacts as though they’ve heard something very special. As, no doubt, will you.

Simple Gifts; The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; CMS LIVE 29162

by jim svejda

This Live Album is More Than A Simple Giftrecord shelf

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jim svejda hosts the evening program on weeknights from 7 pm to midnight and the record shelf sundays at 10 pm.

Kelsey McConnell is KUSC’s Assistant Program Director, and Executive Producer of Arts Alive, Saturdays at 8AM on KUSC.

Sheila Tepper is a contributor for the Arts Alive blog.

specials & WeeKend highlights apriL 2017 on the air

CLASSICAL KUSC’S TOP 100 COUNTDOWNWe’re playing Southern California’s 100 favorite pieces of classical music starting April 24. Vote for your favorite at kusc.org.

KUSC SOCAL SUNDAY NIGHT: LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONICHOST: BRIAN LAURITZEN

Sunday, April 2 | 7 pm Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

MAHLER: Symphony No. 9

Sunday, April 9 | 7 pm Gustavo Dudamel, conductorDaniil Trifonov, piano

RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 PROKOFIEV: Scythian SuiteSCRIABIN: Poem of Ecstasy

Sunday, April 16 | 7 pm Grant Gershon, conductorJulia Bullock, sopranoJennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-sopranoDavone Tines, bassDan Brubeck, Brian Cummings, Nathan Medley, countertenors

JOHN ADAMS: El Nino

Sunday, April 23 | 7 pm Zubin Mehta, conductorAnoushka Shankar, sitar

RAVI SHANKAR: Sitar Concerto No. 2, “Raga mala” (West Coast premiere)STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben

Sunday, April 30 | 7 pmThomas Adès, conductorSimon Keenlyside, baritoneChristianne Stotijn, mezzo-sopranoSteven Isserlis, cello

SIBELIUS: The BardSAINT-SAËNS: Danse macabreTHOMAS ADÈS: Lieux retrouvés (U.S. premiere, LA Phil commission)ADÈS: Totentanz (West Coast premiere)

THE RECORD SHELF WITH JIM SVEJDA Sunday, April 2 | 10 pmThe Young Furtwängler – the earliest recordings of the great German conductor.

Sunday, April 9 | 10 pmA conversation with the acclaimed young Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti.

Sunday, April 16 | 10 pm A Buyer’s Guide to the Tone Poem – a survey of the best of the readily-available recordings.

Sunday, April 23 | 10 pm Miss Bach – recordings by the great Bach pianist Rosalyn Tureck.

Sunday, April 30 | 10 pm Film composer Justin Hurwitz discusses his Oscar-winning score for La La Land.

METROPOLITAN OPERA BROADCASTS Saturday, April 1 | 10 AMBEETHOVEN: FidelioWeigle, conductor; Pieczonka, Müller, Vogt, Portillo, Grimsley, Struckmann, Groissböck

Saturday, April 8 | 10 AMWAGNER: Tristan und IsoldeRattle; Stemme, Gubanova, Skelton, Nikitin, Pape

Saturday, April 15 | 10 AMVERDI: AidaRustioni; Stoyanova, Urmana, Massi, Gagnidze, Morris, Howard

Saturday, April 22 | 10 AMTCHAIKOVSKY: Eugene OneginTicciati; Netrebko, Maximova, Dolgov, Mattei, Kocán

Saturday, April 29 | 10 AMWAGNER: The Flying DutchmanNézet-Séguin; Wagner, Zajick, Morris, Bliss, Volle, Selig

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