Leaves are changing, temperatures are cooling, and Sotto Voce is rearing up for our fall “Plog Premiere” tour! This tour will be one of the most spread out in Sotto Voce history covering 3 large Midwest states! We’ll begin on Thursday, Nov. 19 at the Nebraska Music Educator’s Conference in Lincoln where we’re present both a concert and a clinic. Then we’re off to Ames, Iowa to do the same at their Music Ed. Clinic followed by an evening masterclass at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On Saturday we visit the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where we’ll do a masterclass in the afternoon followed by an evening concert. We will perform my “mini-requiem” for tuba quartet AND countertenor that evening along with our guest singer, Lon Ellenberger. He will then join us again for a performance the following day, Sunday, Nov. 22 on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Live from the Chazen” series in Madison. It is on that event that we will officially premiere the new tuba quartet that Anthony Plog has written for us: “Fantasy Movements.” We hope you can tune in via the internet at 12:30 PM Central time on WPR.ORG. We’ll finish off the tour on Monday with a visit to Stoughton High School and visit to my new home at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. We hope those of you interested can attend these events…most are free and open to the public with some possible wrangling needed for the music education conferences. Here is a detailed itinerary:
Wednesday, Nov. 18
Sotto Voce Arrives in Lincoln, NE for rehearsal
Thursday, Nov. 19
Nebraska Music Educator’s Conference
9:30 am Mike Forbes Low Brass session "Brass Tacks"
11:00 am Sotto Voce Concert Hour Performance
1:30 pm Sotto Voce "Overtures for Overtones" Session
Friday, Nov. 20
Iowa Music Educator’s Conference
11:00 am KeyNote Speaker & Sotto Voce Mini Concert
1:15 pm “Overtures for Overtones” Session
8:00 pm University of Wisconsin-Madison, Masterclass/Coaching
Saturday, Nov. 21
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
3:30 pm Masterclass
7:30 pm Recital (Michelsen Hall)
Sunday, Nov. 22
12:30 pm “Live from the Chazen” Wisconsin Public Radio Broadcast
LISTEN LIVE on WPR.ORG at 12:30 PM, Central Time
Monday, Nov. 23
10:30 am Stoughton High School Band Presentation
2:00 pm University of Wisconsin-Platteville Concert (Black Box Theatre)
Tuesday, Nov. 24
Whitnall High School outside of Milwaukee, Time TBA
Hello Everyone! I’m excited to write regard the upcoming tour. It’s been a long time since Sotto Voce has been together (June 2009 with the Miraphone Academy) and I’m looking forward to the music-making and the hang. We will perform at both the Nebraska and Iowa Music Educators Conferences in addition to performances in Wisconsin. Personally, I’m elated to have an opportunity to perform in Wisconsin. In a way, it’s like going home! The Live at the Chazen concert, which you can hear on Wisconsin Public Radio or online, is one of my favorite venues to play. That fact that the Chazen Museum is adjacent to the School of Music at the University of Wisconsin puts in me in great frame of mind to play music. It is the birthplace of Sotto Voce! The artwork is tremendous and the audience is wise and unbiased. The quartet always plays its best there! We will also give concerts at UW-Platteville, Mike’s new home, and UW-Stevens Point, where my good friend Brend Luchsinger is teaching horn. This trip will be incredible both musically and spiritually. Going home somehow always cleanses my soul. I look forward to it!
Sotto Voce is excited to share a truck load of audio with you, in addition to streaming samples of our records you can listen to uncommercially released live recordings from some of our radio broadcasts. Also, I dare you to spot all the other cosmetic fixes and updates throught the site (check out the new presskit materials!) Thanks also to all our facebook friends - our numbers keep growing...
Sotto Voce is proud to announce the premiere of a new work that we have commissioned from world-reknowned composer, Tony Plog. The working title of the piece is "Fantasy Movements" and it is going to be a welcomed addition to the repertoire as this is Plog's first large work for tuba quartet. We definitely see this piece as a selection for various quartet competitions as well as the new hot thing that most college quartets will want to play. It will be published soon by BVD/Cimmaron Press...more info. about that coming soon. Its in five movements; the 1st, 3rd, and 5th movements are larger and longer, and the 2nd and 4th movements are quick miniatures. The harmonic, motivic, and tonal language is classic "Plog" and those folks familiar with his Three Miniatures for solo tuba as well as his Trombone Quartet will be very pleased with this new tuba quartet. We have a planned a premiere for the work in a venue that EVERYONE can tune in: on Sunday, Nov. 22 and 1:30 PM EST (12:30 Central), we will give a performance on Wisconsin Public Radio for a live broadcast in their performance series "Live from the Chazen." The hour long broadcast will also feature my new large work for tuba quartet and countertenor called "Bridge" as well as Steven Snowden's "Take This Hammer." Of course Nat McIntosh has added a pile of new poplular works to our arsenal, and we'll unveil those on the second half of our program.
Be sure to tune in via the internet to WPR.ORG and click LISTEN NOW to hear our Plog premiere on Nov. 22. This performance will come in the middle of a tour that we are doing from Nebraska to Wisconsin on Nov. 18-24, 2009.
For the past week the Sotto Voce Quartet has enjoyed an intense week of clinics, masterclasses and coachings at the Miraphone Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina. We've had a great time working with some very motivated and accomplished college quartets, helping them to learn about the various in and outs of advanced chamber music performance. It's been nice to have an opportunity to work in depth with young quartets and help them to understand and appreciate the subtleties of the genre as we do. We worked extensively on phrasing, balance, conducting, style, and synergy with a lot of great players, many of whom had never played together before. We'd like to thank Dennis Askew for all his help in coordinating and hosting the event and hope that it will be an annual summer event in years to come. Thanks to all who participated and please keep an eye on this website for details on future Sotto Voce Symposia!
Ah, summer! Congratulations to all students, faculty, and staff who have completed another academic year. I know I've been looking forward to spending some time with my family before summer school starts up. Sotto Voce's academic calendar for the summer of 2009 finds the Sotto Voce Symposium in residence at the Miraphone Academy. We've been looking forward to this event since last summers symposium. A detailed flyer and application form are now available on this site. As I write this it's not too late to apply. Come join Sotto Voce for an intense workshop and hang in North Carolina!
We've got some really great opportunites for touring in the near future. I'm trying to plot a November tour out at this moment. We know that we are a go for the Nebraska Music Educator's conference on Thurs., Nov. 19 and most probably the Iowa Music Educator's conference on Friday, Nov. 20. Then, we have some slots and opportunities to include Univ. of Nebraska-Kearney and/or Lincoln, a concert series in Lincoln, The Univ. of Iowa, St. Olaf, Univ. of Wisconsin-Platteville and Madison. The highlight of the tour will involve the live "Live from the Chazen" radio broadcast on WPR at Sunday, Nov. 22. We'll premiere the new work written for us by Tony Plog on that program as well as give a second performance my work BRIDGE with a highly recommended countertenor in Madison. This has the making for a whole lot of driving, but a nice chance to visit some of our old friends from the upper midwest!
The Texas Music Educators Association Convention (TMEA) is an annual gathering of music teachers from Texas. Every state has a similiar convention, but just as everything is in Texas, it's huge! It took place from February 11-14 in San Antonio. I was there representing the Miraphone Corporation and showing of the new Ambassador 5050 Edition euphonium that I helped design. I felt like a kid in a candy store because any instrument company or music gadget you can think of was at my disposal!
For three days I listened to what must have been hundreds of people try my euphonium. People seemed to love it as much as I do. There were several people who played it for several minutes multiple times every day of the convention. It was also great to see so many of my friends from various points within my short career. Many euphonium players from high schools and colleges introduced themselves to me and overnight we became Facebook friends! Imagine that!
TMEA reaffirmed that Miraphone is where I belong. Markus Theinert is an incredible man and Richard Murrow is very knowledgable and one of the funniest people I know! I am thrilled that Miraphone thought enough of Sotto Voce and our music making to make us artists representatives for them. We played our first concert on the new instruments and it was unreal!
In closing, if you ever have the opportunity to go to TMEA, don't miss it. It is world class event and you never know what connection you might make while you're there! Now, GO PRACTICE!
Photo Galleries added to the Carolinas and Kansas tours!
Sotto Voce is back at work after a fantastic tour of the Carolinas thanks to Gretchin Bowles, our host. ...enjoyed it!
The quartet is excited to announce the first details of the 2009 Sotto Voce Chamber Music Symposium, now a part of the Miraphone Academy. Feel free to share the preliminary flyer with your friends and colleagues. We would also like to invite all our fans (and those curious about who and what we are) to check us out on facebook.
Heading to TMEA this week? Be sure to catch Demondrae at the Miraphone booth. Maybe you'll see Mark around too... Watch this site for more changes, pictures from the Carolinas and more audio soon!
Sotto Voce announces a handful of tour dates in South Carolina. See the tour page for details.