Grammy Bound!!!

Last week, I performed my Doctoral Recital with works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Hoiby at the Conservatory.  Of all of the responses that I have received from the concert, the majority of them have either been "wow! congratulations" or have been in the "it was long enough" category.  For what it's worth, I didn't feel overwhelmed and generally enjoyed my experience but I cannot speak for the audience, except that of the three people I could see through the bright lights - one was sleeping, one was very ecstatic, and the other was my reflection against the recording studio window, so it was a difficult room to read!  Even so, I was so thankful for everyone who attended and for all of the support.  I think it was an interesting concert of varying styles of singing and artistry.  I cannot thank my accompanists enough, Natalia Rivera on piano (who is playing at the Kennedy Center this week!) and Kelley Tracz on oboe (who is a good friend and great musician as well!).

After the recital, my wife, parents, and I went to the beautiful Christmas-light-covered Plaza in Kansas City to have some cheesecake.  After eating, we drove back home where I neurotically updated my iPhone to see the Grammy nominations.  I blindly walked upstairs lost in my iPhone.  My wife walked in the front door and my parents were on the ground floor as I stood against the railing of our balcony overlooking the living room, and with calm but pressured excitement, I said "oh! my! god!"  I read the Grammy Nominations out loud.  One of the ensembles that I perform with, the Kansas City Chorale under the direction of the immaculate Charles Bruffy, has been nominated for the 2013 Grammy for Best Choral Performance, Best Engineered Album, and Producer of the Year - Classical.  I couldn't believe the news.  Little do I know about how the world of music operates, I honestly did not expect that the Chorale would be nominated, not because the quality of the music isn't sublime, because it is and singing with the Chorale has been one of the most musically rewarding experiences of my life, but there are many other fantastic ensembles all over the place.  Because of the great competition, there are long odds when it comes to the Grammy's, just ask Justice Beaver...I mean Justin Bieber.  Even though he is incredibly famous, he didn't receive any nominations.  And unlike Justice, we are going to the Grammy's!

The Grammy's will be February 10, 2013 in Los Angeles.  The majority of the awards, including the ones for our categories, will be awarded at the Los Angeles Convention Center with a ceremony beginning at 1pm.  The event will be broadcast live on the internet at cbs.com and grammy.com.  After the ceremony, the nationally televised event (CBS) will be held later that evening from the Staples Center where several of the more recognized categories are announced.  We will be attending both of these events.  I will certainly keep you all informed about what we are doing and who we will be wearing!

I will be recording this whole experience with as much interesting video as I can.  And, I cannot complete this blog post without thanking my wife, who deserves to attend such a prolific event. Of the truly prestigious events that I have had the privilege to be a part of, my wife rarely gets the opportunity to attend.  I sang at the Grand Opening gala of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, as many of you remember, but the cheapest tickets for the event were $1,000 and sold out nearly a year in advance.  She obviously was not able to be a part of that and she rarely gets to travel with me to Chicago or New York or wherever I go, but she will be able to go with me to Tinseltown.  I still cannot believe to any real extent that I will actually be at the Grammy's and that the Chorale is nominated for multiple Grammy's, however it will cost me a great amount of money to attend one of the biggest events in Hollywood.  Tickets are expensive, not to mention the hotel, flights, clothes, haircuts, car rental, food, and events all require significant money.  Plus, I have to pay bills and get through the holiday season with presents for my family.

With that said, around 1,500 people read my blog every day and even though I have a link to accept donations, I have never received a donation, not that I ever expected to profit from this.  I only ask that in this holiday season, if you have ever received any entertainment or learned anything from my postings, if you still owe me for a round of golf, or perhaps if you lost a million dollar bet to me because you said "literally" as part of your "fact", that you would consider helping my wife and I attend what may be a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.  The "support this blog" button is on the black bar above this post or you can CLICK HERE.

I would greatly appreciate your generosity if you have the means to help.  And I promise I will keep everyone updated with all of the events surrounding the Grammy's.  In addition, if you are interested in hearing our ensemble, the Kansas City Chorale has a concert tomorrow, Tuesday December 12, 2012, at Asbury United Methodist Church at 7:30.  We had a great crowd yesterday and the concert will just be astounding!  I would expect that I will be able to announce other events in the future as there is plenty of press surrounding the Chorale, a television crew followed us at a concert yesterday and I have been told of other upcoming press as well.

In addition to the Kansas City Chorale, the Kansas City Symphony and Joyce Di Donato were also nominated for a Grammy for their PBS production last summer at the Kauffman Center, and the UMKC resident ensemble Eighth Blackbird was nominated for two Grammy's.  Kansas City is dominating the classical music world, and I cannot be more thankful for being at the Conservatory, in the Chorale, and living in this wonderful town.

And just in case you didn't get the Justice Beaver thing, it was a parody from the NBC show The Office.  Here is the real Justin Bieber singing a little opera on the David Letterman Show:

Bryan Pinkall's Doctoral Recital - Britten, Vaughan Williams, Hoiby

If you are free this Wednesday and if you are in Kansas City - well, you should come hear what should be a great recital.  I will be performing three song cycles: On this Island by Benjamin Britten, Ten Blake Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Four Dickinson Songs by Lee Hoiby.  As for the poster, well it is much more effective in the hallway than in a jpeg image on the internet.  Unfortunately, the printers messed up printing my posters, so if you were at the Conservatory and thought "I cannot read that poster!", don't worry, it'll be fixed tomorrow.  I just wanted a plain bright sign that could jump out amid bulletin boards filled with lavish pictures of headshots, pastoral scenes, and church interiors.  Here is some info about what will be on the concert:

On this Island is a Benjamin Britten song cycle of Wystan Hugh Austen poetry about the magical isles of Britannia.  This was Britten's first published song cycle for piano and is an incredibly eclectic setting of poetry from one of his favorite poets.  Austen and Britten met in 1935 working together in a GPO Film Documentary and their encounter immediately inspired Austen to write poetry dedicated to Britten who composed them as part of this song cycle.  The most exciting part of this cycle is the variety of songs:

1. "Let the Florid Music Praise" is a bright, neo-baroque anthem to the Empire
2. "Now the Leaves are Falling Fast" is a hurried, rhythmic piece inspiring images of the blustery wilderness in Winter and musical inferences to Schubert's lieder
3. "Seascape" is perhaps the most characteristically Britten of the set, displaying careful musical descriptions of the seas crashing against the white cliffs of Dover.
4. "Nocturne" is a vignette depicting the debaucherous but unconscious world of sleepers
5. "As it is Plenty" is a cabaret-like moment satirizing the middle-class businessman and his problems

Ten Blake Songs by Vaughan Williams is a very unique set of duets for voice and oboe with unaccompanied movements for solo voice.  The text is derived from several of William Blake's poems within Songs of Innocence and Experience.  It is a song cycle that allows for incredible detail in its simplicity as the oboe adds a musical persona, feeding the artistry of the voice and text.

Four Dickinson Songs by Lee Hoiby is a peculiar song cycle that delves deep into the mind of Emily Dickinson and her poetry.  This rarely performed and recorded song cycle shows the mastery of Hoiby's collaborative and dramatic piano accompaniment as it vividly reproduces the images that Dickinson describes.

1. "A Letter" is simply set to that of a brief letter from Dickinson to a prospective teacher.  She curiously and lightheartedly talks about her family, including their misunderstanding of her artistic and inquisitive nature.
2. "How the Waters Closed" is a stark and vivid description of a drowned boy  whose only remains are a floating hat and jacket.
3. "Wild Nights" is a rapturous song of sexual passion
4. "There Came a Wind" details in glorious description the terror and resolution of an enormous storm

Please come to Grant Hall at the UMKC Conservatory.  This is a different hall than what most are expecting.  The venue itself is on the second floor of the building Grant Hall at 53rd and Holmes.  Don't be late! 7:30 THIS WEDNESDAY - I hope to see you there!

Quarter-millionth Reader, Doctoral Comps, & Big Events

I have been away for awhile and I am excited to be back writing my blog.  Don't worry, I was doing something somewhat worthwhile - completing my testing for my Doctorate!  And now is my time to catch everyone up on what I've been up to.

First, I have to announce a solo recital of mine:

December 5, 2012 - 7:30 PM Grant Recital Hall - UMKC

Bryan Pinkall's Doctoral Solo Recital

Natalia Rivera, piano and Kelley Tracz, oboe

On this Island by Britten

Ten Blake Songs by Vaughan Williams

Four Dickinson Songs by Hoiby 

Other things that I'm looking out for:

1. Grammy Nominee Announcement Dec. 5 - The Kansas City Chorale has been nominated and has won several Grammy's before...fingers crossed!
2. Opera "How the Camel Got Its Hump" World-Premiere - look for announcement on this very soon, but it will be a children's opera here in Kansas City based on the Rudyard Kipling story
3. Possible trip to Miami...
4. Graduate and get a decent job that's worthy of the time and work I put into things!!

To explain my Doctoral Comprehensive Exams, I need you to imagine as if you were required to conduct ten operas over one month.  If that's not the most obscure part, you also won't find out what the operas are until opening night.  Whether you have studied music or not, you would first need to figure out some method of frantically waving your arms so you don't look completely incompetent.  And of course, you would try to study every possible opera that you could in case you were given one of them.  Essentially, it is an impossible task to prepare for.  In a way, however much less dramatic, my exams were like this.

I had ten tests over one month: 

1. two essays on German Lieder that I had the entire month to complete
2. a listening exam that played 9 random pieces of recorded music spanning the entirety of music history (they were not incredibly famous pieces either) - I had to give the composer, genre, and year that it was composed; I was scared of this test the most! - 3 hours to complete
3. a theory exam comparing two pieces of music (again from any point in music history) that I was given at the time of the exam - 3 hours to complete
4. a theory/history exam lasting an entire weekend from 9 AM on Friday - 9 AM on Monday in which I was required to write a scholarly essay on a random subject that I received at the time of the tests
5. three essays over composers - 2 hours to complete
6. two more essays over composers - 2 hours to complete
7. two essays on my profession in the modern world - 2 hours to complete
8. create a four-year study/performance plan for a hypothetical student - in-studio project
9. an IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and translation test covering French, German, Italian, and English arias - 2 hours to complete
10. two essays concerning specific performance practices - 4 hours to complete

As you can see, it's a lot, but it was nice that they were timed, or else I could have spent an eternity on some of the topics.  In the meantime I also did many other things. I performed several concerts with the Kansas City Chorale, which in my unbiased opinion is absolutely beautiful!  I performed as a soloist in Beethoven's Mass in C with the Village Orchestra, and I was a soloist in a Bach's "Wachet auf" Cantata with the Conservatory.  I also performed at an incredible gala event at the Kauffman Center featuring many sensational performers - it actually was one of the highest quality concerts that I have ever been a part of.  I was able to work with Pulitzer Prize-winner John Corigliano.  Yesterday, I finished a great concert series with the Te Deum Chamber Ensemble, one of the several choirs that I have been a part of.

And that's not even the end of it!  I completely was consumed with my company the Kansas City Vocal Institute, the election, college football, the MLB playoffs, and soccer.  For all those who think that is too much, you're right.  Fortunately, my wife has been a great help and certainly deserved less crankiness on my part, but Hanukkah, Christmas, her birthday, and New Year's are all coming up - plenty of presents await!

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That leads me to another very important topic - every year I advertise the Best Operatic Holiday Gifts, so look out next Monday for my list!

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Sometime on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, Bryan Pinkall's World of Opera will record its 250,000th reader!  I began this blog to record my journey into a music career.  I have written about the struggles and successes in finding a school to study opera, auditioning for opera companies, learning many opera roles, and the many other music related things that I have participated in.  I cannot believe the constant emails from readers, the occasional perks of touting my favorite things and groups, and I unfortunately I still receive hate mail from Susan Boyle fans, but I am thankful for you too!  Thank you to everyone who reads this - you have given me your time and support, grazie mille!!!!!

This Is Not Working

Thank you to everyone who came to my Doctoral Recital last week.  I hope to provide some recordings at a later date, but in general, I thought it went very well.  My voice was in good shape and I remembered the words!  Last week, I put together a video and wrote a little bit about the uniqueness of this concert.  CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

Also, I was informed at half-time of the recital that the audience didn't receive the translation pages.  I was upset because it was a very complex and meaningful program - none of which would have been received by the audience unless they were fluent in German and French.  It turns out that they were left on a metal cabinet in their brown Kinko's bag back stage near where I gave them to the usher.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TRANSLATION PAGE.

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I have a production of La Tragedie de Carmen next month at the Conservatory.  Today, I had a costume fitting, and had to run back home to get some un-holey underwear...good thing I remembered!  And all this opera work and my recital has had me thinking about education.  

I have had people tell me many times that as a professional musician, you shouldn't get higher degrees - they're worthless.  I have had people tell me to not get married, not wear glasses, not sing this or that, all for the sake of being a great musician.  I was even pointed-out in a room full of opera singers, as being the only one trying to get a Doctorate, and told that I am a fool for doing that.   I must say that the person who said that was a Canadian, and didn't have a Doctorate, but I certainly never thought that I would have to defend being educated.

A few things recently have sent my mind into a frenzy; the predominant cause being that our culture is anti-elite.  Being "elite" in politics is a negative thing.  Whatever is perceived as "elite" is somehow hated by many Americans.

The Simpsons recently showed their 500th episode.  The townspeople were voting to kick the Simpsons out of town because of all the trouble they have caused, and one person suggested that they reject their subscription to the opera.  Homer quickly replied, "but I hate the opera".  It was an obvious joke at the ridiculousness of owning season opera tickets, and Homer - with the stereotype of a stupid person - obviously hates the opera because it is opposite of the character that he portrays.

The TV show An Idiot Abroad also had a new episode last week, where Karl, the British "idiot", was sent on a road trip down Route 66.  The producers of the show make him dance in a show choir, because that was an American tradition (I suppose).  Ideally, the show tries to find experiences that Karl will hate, because it is funny to watch.  Karl dances and sings like a fool, and he feels embarrassed.

Finally, at the Academy Awards last night, the winner of my favorite category, Ludovic Bource won for Best Original Score with his 1920s silent film accompaniment of The Artist.  He beat two John Williams' scores and Howard Shore to take the prize.  As he walked up to the podium to claim the Oscar, the announcer bragged that he had no formal music training.

Amazingly, all three of these glorify an ideal that rejects art and education.  I am not necessarily complaining, but it is an observation that I hate to see.  Homer hates opera, Carl hates the performing arts, the Academy Awards idolizes Bource's lack of music education.

It is sad to see so much hate toward something that provides so much meaning and progress for the world.  If you think it is just an anomaly, I recently fielded questions from several hundred students.  One never had voice lessons, and asked if you could make it professionally without lessons.  I sighed, and said, "well, if you expect to make it 'big' in music, you should learn as much as you can about music".  I didn't expect it to be a negative response, rather it was pretty generic.  Another speaker followed me by saying that with respect to me, he had never had formal lessons, and he was a performer in a very popular singing group.  That response was followed by great applause.  It was absolutely incredible.  I later offered kids free voice lessons through KCVI, and everyone who applied from that event received free lessons.

I think that America's problem with education is not in the quality, but in our culture; it is so difficult to love learning.  America's education system requires students to perform specific tasks - this creates a perception that "learning" is reaching a goal.  Why can't learning be open-ended?  I think that when people are successful without "being educated", the public shows admiration because they also know that learning should be open-ended - they know that reaching a goal isn't learning.  Unfortunately, it would take a lot of work to change this culture, but I'm glad that I'm a musician.  Imagine how a scientist feels about the "evolution debate" - Evolution is universally accepted by scientists (near 100%) but by only 32% of the public - less than 48% of whom can even define evolution correctly...(according to a 2009 Pew Research Poll)

I try not to get too political on this blog, but I must post these clips from John Stewart's new episode tonight.  It is speaking about this same anti-education stigma:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

On a lighter note, the Colbert Report featured one of the greatest living singers last week:

The Colbert Report
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I'm off to Dallas this week.  I hope you all spend the week learning something new!

Doctoral Recital - The Volga German Genocide

I have had an amazing and heartbreaking week.  There are many stories that I would love to share, but alas this is a very public forum.  Unfortunately, I will wait a few years to tell some of the lessons that I have learned this week - not all good things, but great life lessons and professional lessons.

Tonight, I will be singing in the Conservatory's production of Carmina Burana.  I know you all know it - CLICK HERE TO SEE IF YOU DO.  We will also be performing some exciting world premiere pieces including one by the current Pulitzer Prize winner in music, Zhou Long, who is an instructor at the Conservatory here in Kansas City.  You can watch it live on the internet here at 7:30: http://www.umkc.edu/ia/streaming/live-streams.cfm

I have to say that all the time I've spent this weekend in Helzberg Hall has been absolutely incredible.  If you are a choral music person, there is no better place on earth to sing than Helzberg.  I guarantee it will be a religious experience - it's the perfect place for singers.  It's no wonder why many of the greatest singers in the world have scheduled performances here in the coming year.  For example, Juan Diego Florez, the most famous tenor in the world, sang a recital here yesterday.  He only scheduled recitals for Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and Kansas City!  This place is for real...if you are living in the area, and haven't seen it, you are missing one of the world's greatest performing venues.

But, the biggest event for me this week is certainly my Doctoral Recital:

"Wir wollen Deutsche bleiben"

7:30 PM

THIS SATURDAY

February, 25, 2011

White Recital Hall

Kansas City, Missouri

It should be, hopefully, one of the most unique recitals that you have heard in a long time.  I have waited several years to put this particular recital together.  Watch the video below and I'll explain some of the really unique things that I will be doing.

The phrase "wir wollen Deustche bleiben" or "we want to remain German", was a phrase that the Volga Germans used to solidify the importance of their ancestry in the face of this horrific slaughter.  They were influenced by many cultures and governments but they desired to peacefully live in their agricultural society with a simple but vibrant Germanic society.  Knowing their sacrifice and that their struggle, known as the Forgotten Genocide, completely obliterated their world, I too feel that it is important to keep at least this small portion of their story and culture alive.

I will begin the concert with "Ach, wenn Mutter Wolga" by Cui.  Cui was a famous Russian composer and this is a patriotic hymn to the Tsar.  It was originally written in Russian, but I will sing it in German.  The Volga Germans were forced to sing these in the early 20th century.  It sounds very "Russian" with a somber mode, but if you understand that the point of this concert is to celebrate the Volga Germans, you should know that this is about the darkest and saddest of all songs.  Tsar Nicholas II initiated the genocide on the Volga Germans, so to sing a patriotic song in German, would be the equivalent of Jews in Poland being forced to sing a song praising Hitler in Polish.  It is gut-wrenching.

Then I will sing some songs that highlight the many cultures of their part of the world.  They lived in an area that was filled with many cultures because of the trade routes between Asia and Europe.  They were influenced by India, China, Persia, Russia, and Western Europe.  So, I will sing the first movement from Ravel's Scheherazade.  Scheherazade is a famous Persian tale, and the first movement is called "Asie" or Asia.  It talks about China, India, and all the wonders and dangers in the Orient.  It is normally sung by a mezzo, but is written for high voice and clearly with tenor in mind.  However, I will be making one of the only tenor Scheherazade recordings that I know of existing, so it should be very unique.  I will follow that by singing an aria from the Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, called "Chanson Indoue" or The Song of India.  Both of these selections are in French.  How perfectly multicultural!

Then I will sing Respighi's "Nebbie" - a tenor favorite.  Respighi was an Italian composer, and this piece is in Italian describing the fog rising and setting, a very spooky allegory to life and death.  Respighi was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and was the principal violinist of the Russian Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg.

I will also include some selections that highlight the cultural history of the Volga Germans, which obviously includes German music - so, I will sing a short lied by Brahms and a tenor favorite by Wolf, both German/Austrian composers.

Then I will sing Lenski's Aria from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin.  It is in Russian and certainly one of the most famous Russian arias of all time.

Lastly, I will sing the World Premiere of John Mueter's "Three Volga German Folk Songs".  I contacted the library at the conservatory in Salzburg where they have a massive collection of folk songs of Germanic peoples.  They were very kind to allow me to search high and low for songs with their origin in the lower Volga river region.  I found about 30 and they sent them to me over the internet and I sent some of them to John, who was very eager to work on the project.

He composed three songs "Abschied", which is a beautiful song of farewell, then "Soldatentod", which tells the story of a soldier's death on the battlefield with gruesome depictions of the dead scattered under the moonlight, and finally "Der Zecher", which is about a drunk that is sitting at home drinking when Death shows up at his door.  The drunk offers Death a drink, but Death pours it out as a toast to his cousin, Plague's, health.  Death then asks "do you think I can be sold with a drink?" but the drunk pleads, "I'm trying to become a doctor, and if you let me live, I'll give you half my patients."  Death agrees to let the drunk live as long as he is his obedient servant.  So, the piece ends with the drunk, drunkenly singing the joys of living forever because of his deal with Death.  All of these are in German, natürlich.

I have been wanting to do a program like this for several years, and I am very excited to present it this Saturday.  It means so much to me because this is my ancestry, its culture is dying very fast, and it is the 70th anniversary of the mass deportation of the Volga Germans to the GULAG labor camps.  After the genocide, most of the Volga Germans either fled to the United States or Germany or were assimilated into USSR, losing their language and with it, much of their culture.  Today, the most vibrant culture is in the middle of the United States where they still cook, speak, dance, and drink like they did in the Volga region.  However, with the loss of their language in recent generations, there just aren't enough decedents to promulgate their culture further.  Sadly, it all was irreversibly destroyed in the genocide.