UCLA FWC MUSIC SECTION IN THE MEDIA: Connecting the Visual Arts and Music with Poetry

ORAL HISTORY LEGACT PROJECT

"Reliving the past," was published in Daily Bruin almost 8 years ago (March 14, 2013); the featured article announced UCLA's Faculty Women's Club (FWC) new initiative with a mission to compile rich history of Faculty Women's Club members through their personal stories, anecdotes, voices, and photographs. The Project was initiated by Zorana Ercegovac, then President of FWC (2012-2013), who wanted to document our history as a special homage for the FWC CENTENNIAL (1918-2018). The Project includes stories of some of our members who were active in the 1950s of the 20th century. 

If you are interested in details and participation, please contact me at zercegov@gmail.com 

I look forward to hearing from you

Driving as a Metaphor in our lives during COVID-19 Pandemics

is the theme for the April 21st gathering and program

We will be reminded about the 16th century pandemics and the choral music composed 

by John Sheppard in the 1550s

This idea came from an article by Alex Ross in the New Yorker (January 11, 2021) titled 

"A road trip with David Hockney and Richard Wagner"

Here is one of my favorite scenic roads at sunset in Santa Monica

We will tune in to soundtrack pieces -- while driving through local canyons, roads, and coastal roads

Some of you already sent out suggestions inspired by programs aired by: 

J. Sheppard: MEDIA VITA (composed during the 16th c pandemics)

L. van Beethoven, Triple Concerto

F. Chopin, Nocturne in D flat (From the Top with Victor)

S. Rachmaninov, Bless The Lord

H. Berlioz, Romeo and Juliet, the Love scene

L. van Beethoven, Symphony 6 "pastorale"

C. Debussy, Voice que le printemps

W. A. Mozart, Marriage of Figaro

MOZART IN THE MORNING (KUSC)

R. Wagner, from the Ring (The Valkyrie Act I, Love scene)

A. Vivaldi, Spring from The Seasons

DID YOU KNOW THAT CAROL BLOCK'S HOBBY IS MUSIC?https://chancellor.ucla.edu/about/associate-of-the-chancellor/

SHE PLAYS PIANO, PERHAPS OTHER INSTRUMENTS

QUESTION: SHOULD WE INVITE MS BLOCK TO BE HONORARY MEMBER 

OF OUR MUSIC SECTION?

Today, January 27, 2021, we celebrate several birthdates of those composers we hear often: 

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Gustavo Dudamel b. 1981,  LA Phil conductor & music director

                                    See you all February 17th to celebrate the Valentine's Day 2021 

We will listen to a wonderful selection of music Valentine's Day "postcards" at the February 17th Music Section Program. The program starts at 12:30 pm via zoom. If you did not send me your favorite music "postcard," it is not late. Please do send me your contribution just as soon as you can.   

The Program includes pieces from jazz, soundtrack from your first dance, romantic music letters from Mahler to his wife, from Beethoven, Elgar, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, from Hindustani tradition, Hebrew, and Chinese love songs.

John Sheppard, an English 16th century composer, during the influenza pandemics that swept England around 1550s, composed a choral work that still casts its spell (NYT Jan 1, 2021). 

ENJOY

MEDIA VITA

The attendees, some of whom contributors to our Valentine's Day Postcards
Top row: Rochelle (zoom hostess), Zorana (Chair, Music Section), June (selector: Liszt)
Middle row: Shirley (Chinese love song), Zahava (guest, Hebrew song), Milos (guest)
Estellaleigh (her first dance song), Roma (Lara's song), Bette (guest)
NOT included on this screen are: Joy, Jarka, Mary Ann, and Jaime 

It was a wonderful concert capturing the participants, attendees, program creators, performers, ALL ON A SINGLE SCREEN. This is how it has been during the COVID-19 pandemics with the UCLA FWC Music Section gatherings.

Compare the above photo with the one below, from our last in-person February 2020 gathering. We were honored to have Janice Foy, our own resident cellist. She performed some of the pieces one cold hear during the Manet's Paris time. The entire program was inspired by the Getty's exhibit MANET AND MODERN BEAUTY, which captured J. P. Getty's experts. They asked me to write a feature article in their Fall 2020 Getty Magazine. The entire article is added below the photo.

Image from The GETTY MAGAZINE feature article, Fall 2020, p. 9

To read a full copy of the Fall 2020 Getty Magazine:

         https://www.getty.edu/about/whatwedo/getty_magazine/gettymag_fall2020.pdf 

As Chair of the UCLA FWC Music Section in Cultural Contexts, I welcome you all to our 2020-2021 Season. With the COVID-19 lockdown and closures to performances for concerts, operas, theaters, museums, and other cultural programs and events, we are turning more than ever toward our own events and zoom gatherings. This is especially true for our Music Section during this 2020-2021 Season. We will try our best to make this year's programs outstanding, diverse, and unique. 

Your participation and attendance are VERY important -- please volunteer for programming ideas!

Our December 16th zoom gathering will be SPECIAL: We will be enjoying music favorites selected by our own members. We also invited our sister section members (from Play readers and "Bookies"). The response has been outstanding. We look forward to listening to music and stories, as well as to toast to a COVID-19 free Season. Get ready to toast, and to enjoy your own music picks. We will not have the time on Dec. 16th to listen to all pieces. However, all of the music pieces will be made accessible to our members. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 

 

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING OUR DECEMBER 16th GATHERING

Today we celebrate:

1. YOU who have endured many months under the COVID-19 pandemics. 

2  Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday -- DECEMBER 16, 1770! and we gather 250 years later

3. Seasons' Greetings -- 2021.

This has been our new project: SMALL DIGITAL ANTHOLOGY OF MUSIC 2020

Our December music gathering was a special farewell to 2020 and a warm welcome to the 2021!

Thanks go to our contributors of music pieces. Here is a photo gallery of a subset of the

attendees from our last number 5 music section gathering. Photo credit: Milos

   

                                                                  

 

 The group enjoyed the following music pieces at the December HOLIDAY celebration:

Great Thou Art (selected by Estellaleigh)

From The New World (Dvorak), selected by Norma

It Is Well With My Soul, selected by Lorraine

Song to the Moon (Dvorak), selected by Jarka

The Ball (Berlioz), selected by Mary Ann

Fur Elise (Beethoven), selected by Rochelle

Fantasia on Greensleeves (Williams), selected by June

Lascia la Spina (from Handel), selected by Joy

Polonaise in A flat (Chopin), selected by Roma

Winterresise Song (Shubert), selected by Deborah

Belle of the Ball (LeRoy Anderson), selected by Chris & Dane Swenson

There were several other great suggestions which are being postponed (by Simone, Melissa, Zorana, Glorya, and Janice). THANKS TO ALL! This Holiday tradition will continue :-)  

Attending but not in the photo are: June & Jaime, Norma, Sandy, and Amelita.

Our next Music Section will be February 17th 2021, themed after the Valentine's Day, titled VALENTINE MUSIC POSTCARDS. Please offer your memorable love inspired music!!

Roma sends a picture of an Australian bird, all dressed up for Christmas: The BLUE-BANDED PITTA. MANY THANKS :-)

FROM A 1550s PANDEMIC, A CHORAL WORK STILL CASTS ITS SPELL

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/arts/music/John-Sheppard-media-vita.html?referringSource=articleShare

Additional information for our grandparents. I want to give you a short list of my music favorites especially written for children and by children (in one case, Alma, see her photo below).

BALLETS

-- Sleeping Beauty, music by Tchaikovsky (1890).

-- Nutcracker, music by Tchaikovsky  (1892) -- my favorite at the Royce Hall.

-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Christopher Wheeldon; music by Joby Talbot.

My favorite is the performance at the Royal Opera House, London

-- Peter and the Wolf, music by Prokofiev (1936).

OPERA

-- Cinderella, by Alma Elizabeth Deutscher, is inspirational, bringing "a new life into the world of opera," and the new generation of young female artists into the art of classical music.

CONCERT

--Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).

There are many excellent books, like MY FIRST CLASSICAL MUSIC BOOK, as illustrated guides for kids; typically, they include several suggestions to listen, read, and ponder about various music-related experiences. 

Just a thought: we might dedicate one of our future sessions to "music for our grandchildren." 

I have posted a few photos, below, showing how it used to be in our in-person Holiday gatherings. 

Our Music Section, in-person. Debby Kennel presenting the life and work of
Stephen Foster (Zorana Ercegovac, Section Chair and photographer)
HOW IT USED TO BE -- before the COVID-19 era

Our traditional SING-ALONG holiday fiesta at the Wilcox residence
Zorana at the piano accompanying our members who stand around the piano
and a few sitting and enjoying the show (Andrea, Heidi, Helen)

In-person Holiday gatherings allowed us to have our social interactions,
to meet and greet special guests from our sister sections, and
to sip, chat, and sample special refreshments brought by the attendees

Our first Music Section gathering will be on October 21st. The program continues with Act II of the

WORD - IMAGE - SOUND, focusing on the Second Viennese School. 

Inspired by the Getty's exhibit on Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) etchings, lithography, printing, sculpture, and woodcuts, we will be listening to some of the important representative works of composers who worked during the Weimar Republic. For example, we will examine pieces by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), Anton Webern (1883-1945) and others. 

 

Our October Music gathering was well attended session

Updates will be posted here, so stay tuned 

See you all Wednesday, October 21st at 12:30 PM

       

                       Arnold Schoenberg by Egon Schiele

  

The DECEMBER 16, 2020 gathering celebrates the collaboration between 

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht

STAY TUNED

Earlier music section last in-person gathering enjoyed a very different cultural context, a set of composers, poets, around MANET.

In the December 3, 2020 issue of The New York Review of Books, there is an article titled, "Suffering, Unfaltering Manet," by Colin B. Bailey

Enjoy the read

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/12/03/suffering-unfaltering-manet/