Uncategorized – Page 62

2018-06-25

Apply for a grant to attend the Texas Music Library Association fall meeting

Apply for a grant to attend the Texas Music Library Association fall meeting:

2018 TMLA Travel Grant: Call for applications

The Texas Chapter of the Music Library Association (TMLA) invites you to apply for a travel grant to attend our 2018 annual meeting, which will be at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas on October 12-13, 2018.

This grant is open to TMLA members and library staff working at a Texas library, or students in a Texas library/information science program. Applications from outside the state of Texas will be considered provided they are accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a TMLA member who either resides in Texas or in the same state as the applicant. Applicants need not be members of TMLA at the time of application but must agree to join the chapter upon receiving the award. This award covers travel funding up to $200.

Application materials should be submitted via email as PDFs to TMLA Travel Grants Chair, Cari Alexander at c.alexander2@tcu.edu<mailto:c.alexander2@tcu.edu>. To apply, please include the following:

1. A letter of application which includes:

* The reasons for attending the TMLA annual meeting and why you are a good candidate for this grant.

* A justification of financial need.

* A brief budget for travel costs to attend the TMLA annual meeting. Annual meeting registration for travel grant recipients is free and need not be included in your brief budget.

* Information about any other grants, matching funds, or institutional support you may also receive to cover costs to attend the TMLA annual meeting.

2. A current vita or resume.

Deadline for the receipt of applications is July 20, 2018.

The TMLA Travel Grants Committee will notify applicants by August 10, 2018 and announced on TMLA-L and MLA-L immediately thereafter.

Thank you and we look forward to having a difficult time choosing from outstanding applications!

2018-06-06

New poems published: “Moscow’s Rejected Margaritas,” “Lady, Maid, Invocation,” and “Highway Drone”

Three of my poems appear in the Summer 2018 issue of Penumbra. These include “Moscow’s Rejected Margaritas,” which plays on Mikhail Bulgakov’s brilliant novel The Master and Margarita; “Lady, Maid, Invocation” one of my Four Songs for Lady Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth’s waiting-woman narrates the events of Shakespeare’s play and decides to give voice to her own ambitions; and “Highway Drone,” part of a series of Texas-focused poems.

2018-06-02

IAWM Review of Speaking Her Truth

Elizabeth R. Austin reviewed Speaking Her Truth in Hartford for the IAWM Journal:

Speaking Her Truth: Three Vocal Works by Jessica Rudman

ELIZABETH R. AUSTIN

On April 28 at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, CT, The Hartford Opera Theater sponsored a concert of music by Jessica Rudman, including a pre-show lecture by the composer and her librettist, Kendra Preston Leonard.

The first premiere of the evening, Four Songs for Lady Macbeth, commissioned and sung by Charity Clark, mezzo- soprano, and members of The Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra, Daniel D’Addio, conductor, began with two songs which commend Lady Macbeth on her way to her death. This historical figure was colored in dark, dour musical timbres, with clangorous color from the cello. A jazzy clarinet set the sly, grim style of the next song, the narrative text of which Ms. Leonard drew from Shakespeare’s character. After the final lullaby, laced with a nostalgic ritornello, the sizable audience responded with warm applause.

Next on the program was a dramatic monologue, accompanied by acerbic yet apt piano commentary, Trigger, sung by Jennifer Sgroe, soprano. Here sits a victim of domestic assault, reading a current newspaper story about sexual harassment, as she unravels her own experience. Ms. Sgroe rose to the occasion, with a powerful interpretation of the maligned woman, having been disparaged by the investigating policeman who had asked, “But did she deserve to get hit?” Ms. Rudman’s penchant for describing such distress in melodic bends, curves, and cries was most effective, with the unrelenting pianistic undercurrent doubling the intensity.

The second premiere was operatic: Marie Curie Learns to Swim finds us on a beach with the famous Marie Curie (Susan Yankee) and her daughter Irene (Claudia Rosenthal), who listens to her mother’s words, hoping that she will have at least a few days’ respite from the laboratory. The brilliant metaphor of “Marie learning to swim [and] pulling herself through the water,” deepens with her recollections. Marie describes her incessant drive to work in the lab against the currents of illness and depression.

In a series of flashbacks, we are introduced to the young Marie, vividly sung by Elizabeth Hayes, and the man she is to marry, Pierre Curie (Mark Womack). The striking leitmotif, which signifies “radium,” the subject of the experimentation leading to two Nobel Prizes, acts as a unifying device in this episode. Ms. Leonard’s libretto is both emotive and well-crafted to enhance Ms. Rudman’s striking harmonies. One realizes that Jessica has found her voice, as the evening’s theme, “Speaking Her Truth,” seems to emphasize. Her style employs unwavering ostinato patterns, which underpin sturdy and expressive vocal lines. This style might be enhanced in the future by allowing for a little more contrast in the tempi of arias and recitativo passages.

The stage director, Kristy Chambrelli, as well as the dramaturg and set/ costume designers, provided the responsive listeners with a well-rehearsed and thought-provoking evening.

Journal of the IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) 24 (1): 31.