Six things I’ve been meaning to tell you…

I’m behind. The crush of events this fall, driven especially by UWM jam-packed year of the arts, left us scrambling to keep up with events. So I’ll try to get caught up during this very slight holiday hiatus.

Sharon Hansen

1. Sharon Hansen intends to retire from the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after this season and disband the Milwaukee Choral Artists, the extraordinary women’s choir she founded in 1998. The MCA simply could not go on without her; her rare blend of zeal, acute musicality, superb conducting technique and personal drive is unique. I’ll explore this further in an interview at the next opportunity, but I wanted to say here what I was pleased to say at a fund-raiser honoring Sharon on Sept. 28: She is one of the finest conductors of any kind I’ve ever seen.

Laurie Winters, executive director, Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend

2. I was sorry to see Laurie Winters, curator of European art, leave the Milwaukee Art Museum in August. I got to know her a little over the last three years and came to admire her exquisite taste, interesting ideas and eloquent way of articulating those ideas. I learned a good deal from her in a very few exchanges. She immediately became the initial executive director of The Art Consortium, a think tank funded by Christie’s auction house and aimed at rethinking the museum business. This month, the Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, named her its new executive director. Wisconsin art is well out side her Eurozone, but Winters is a quick study. I’m eager to see what she’ll do with MWA, which will open a spacious new building this spring.

3. Another change: Eric Lind, who served Present Music well as its executive director during a long tenure, has become development director at the ever more progressive Florentine Opera.

4. Nov. 15 was my UWM day. I taught my Seeing Hearing Writing class at the UWM Honors College in the morning, lunched with Present Music composer Timothy Andres just off campus at Sala di Pranzo, then hustled to the Golda Meir Library to write the Andres interview. Then up four flights of stairs to hear Year of the Arts guest speaker Alex Ross, the most perceptive and eloquent writer on music I know. We’ve corresponded a little, and it was great to meet face to face. If you don’t know Alex’s writing, via his The Rest Is Noise blog, at The New Yorker or his books, Listen to This and The Rest Is Noise, you should. (Thanks, Alex, for the kind words and links on the blog.)

Liz Faraglia

After Ross, off to UWM’s Main Stage Theatre for a student/professional commingled The Tragedy of King Lear, directed by Rebecca Holderness and starring Dennis Krausnik, co-founder of Shakespeare and Company, Lenox, Mass. Holderness everyone them Russians c. 1906, which allowed for stunning costumes by Govane Lohbauer, but didn’t really change the dynamics of the play. The striking thing to me was the bitter, mad humor Krausnik found in Lear. He plays him on the edge of insanity, but this Lear has enough marbles left to indulge his craziness in order to escape the hideous reality wrought of his vanity and stupidity. Krausnik went way over the top in terms of histrionics, but at the same time was very subtle with his character’s intentions and finely manipulated levels of self-control.

Among the students, John Glowacki stood out as one of Shakespeare’s irresistible knaves, a fellow so pleased and at ease with his decision to do murderous mischief that he’s fun to be around. Liz Faraglia’s dark eyes burned coal-black as she revealed Regan’s furious depravity as the play went on. And I’m not just saying that because Liz was my student a few semesters ago. I’ve watched with pleasure as she’s grown as an actress.

5. I’m tempted to call better never than late on this one, but in case you missed it: The winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions Wisconsin District are Shannon Prickett, Alisa Suzanne Jordheim and Holly Flack. Each won $3,000 and will advance to the Upper Midwest Regional in St. Paul on Feb. 2nd, 2013. Prickett was also awarded the $250 People’s Choice Award, voted by the audience. Jordheim is one of the Florentine’s current resident artists. I met with Jordheim and the other three, all smart and charming, a few days ago. Look for that story on or before Nov. 29.

Tom Strini, hard at work at TCD headquarters.

Aidan Smerud ($1,000), Corrie Stallings ($1,000), Stephanie Schoendhofer ($1000), Katherine McGookey ($1,000), Ashley Mispagel ($600), Benjamin Li ($600) and Michael Roemer ($600). The Florentine Opera’s Recital Award went to Bethan Hickman, Jonas Hacker and Holly Flack; the company’s Main Stage Award went to Corrie Stallings. The Fresco Opera Fresh Face Award went to Ashley Mispagel. The auditions were held Oct. 20 at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center.

6. Save the date, Dec. 6. Do come to Turner Hall for the Ex Fabula Spectacular. I am pleased and flattered that the Ex Fabula team has invited me to tell a story at the Spectacular, along with Tracy Lehrmann, Katy Richtor, Andrew Larsen, Evelyn Prevenas, Tom Dillon, and Frank & Mary Koczan. All of us were chosen on the basis of some level of success at a prior name-out-of-a-hat Ex Fabula night. I had a great time telling the story of how I executed the greatest air turn in the history of dance even though I was wearing a 50-pound backpack and crossing a roaring mountain stream at the time.

No, I’m not telling that one at Turner Hall. The assigned theme is Game On. As an aging jock with thousands of baseball, softball and soccer games behind me and a least a little more soccer to go, I’m up for it. I haven’t figured out where this story will go, but I guarantee that you’ll see me in a way that only my teammates and opponents have.

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