Great shows and performers come to the Lied Center

Ann Chang is by now well known to Lincoln Examiner readers after her engaging and informative interviews on Entrepreneurship and her job as Lied Center Artistic Director. Now, Lincoln readers can enjoy a personal look at what Chang has enjoyed at the Lied Center in the past and what she is looking forward to in the coming season.

What are some of your favorite musicians or groups that have come to the Lied Center?
Obviously, I am biased towards my field, Classical music. My first impulse is to rattle off those names like: Yo-Yo Ma, Vladimir Feltsman, Wynton Marsalis, and this years’, Itzhak Perlman.

History of the Lied Center

Reflecting on last season, I thought the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre was amazing, and I was encouraged by a similar reaction by the audience who recognized supreme quality of this dance troupe. I felt that the saying “you don’t have to describe great art work, you just know it when you see it” was clearly represented by this dance troupe last year.

What show or piece are you most excited about this coming season?
Hard question, I’m excited about everything. We have many coming this season in all those genres I spoke about.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is coming to present “Moulin Rouge.” Also, Itzhak Perlman’s performance will be a great opportunity to hear this legend if you haven’t already.

San Francisco Jazz Collective brings to Lincoln the names of great performers who are becoming or soon–to-be legendary names in the world of Jazz.

“This is Tango Now: Identidad” is a very new organization gathering attention nationally. It is wonderful that we are able to partner with the Hixon-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Art Symposium to bring them here. This is an exciting partnership with great results.

The Munich Symphony is coming to perform Mozart’s Requiem, and our closing will be another requiem as the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra—partnering with everyone in the community—will present Britten’s War Requiem.
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Want to enjoy some of these great performances? Call the Lied Center box office, 402-472-4747, or visit the Lied Center website today!

The Lied Center and scheduling: The work of Artistic Director

Ann Chang, Artistic Director at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
Credit: Associate Media files

The Lied Center, here in Lincoln, is gearing up for the upcoming great season planned, and Ann Chang, Artistic Director at the Lied Center, shared some thoughts about the work that goes into programming what Lincoln audiences have been and will be privileged to see and hear. She has already shared a lot of the details of what led to her job at the Lied Center in the article “Entrepreneurship and Music according to Ann Chang,” and now shares more about being Artistic Director at the Lied Center.

When asked what her job as Artistic Director entails, she answered that she is “primarily responsible for programming the season and making sure that it represents all the genres, Classical, family, dance, Jazz, Broadway, theater, and popular, as well as making sure that they are all programmed well with quality and class.”

In deciding whom to book for a season, Chang looks for someone who is already known to her, someone that she “wants to put on the stage.” Of course, important factors become “availability of the artist, their financial requirements, and whether they fit within the scope of what we present and the schedule for the season.” On average, 80% of the season will be well known shows, groups, or musicians; however, some of the season will feature lesser known artists that are new to Chang and to the community. In this way, the Lied Center promotes up-and-coming acts, groups, and musicians and is also able to bring in the already big names and shows.

Entrepreneurship and music according to Ann Chang

Nebraska's state bird, the Meadowlark, gave its name to the Meadowlark Music Festival which Ann Chang founded.

Credits: Phil Johnson via flickr

Ann Chang has a successful career as a piano performer and instructor and resides in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has performed recitals in locations around the world as a soloist and with chamber ensembles like the Rastrelli Cello Quartet. With her special interests in forte-piano and chamber ensembles, she is often to be found coaching small ensembles of students at the School of Music where she is Artist in Residence.

But, Ann Chang is an entrepreneur and always thinking of creative ways to bring music to new people. Her first entrepreneurial venture was the founding of Meadowlark Music Festival in 2001. “I was the founder and director of Lincoln's own Meadowlark Music Festival for seven years,” Chang said, “and it still continues as a festival in the summer.” In 2008, she added to her list of jobs that of Artistic Director at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. Entrepreneurship paid off because, “a major reason I was given the position at the Lied Center was because of the success they saw in the Meadowlark Music Festival.”

A peek at the 2010 Meadowlark Music Festival

Chang says that she successfully tries to “divide my time between the Lied Center and School of Music.” Going a step further, she developed the Arts Entrepreneurship Program at the School of Music and has been instructor in that program since last year. The Arts Entrepreneurship Program provides students exposure to and knowledge of “a variety of opportunities in this new millennium, through internet, for example, and encourages them to think of non-traditional roles to sustain themselves while staying in the music field.”

This program has been really well received so far, Chang said. Because of the “dissemination of music and work available,” music students need to look beyond their traditional ideas of music jobs. For example, “a string player does not just have the potential to join an orchestra, but should be creative and consider how to make money in music without touching those traditional roles.”

“Music schools are for training musicians,” Chang said, “and forward thinking schools, I’m proud to say that we are one, provide tools for students who graduate to be well equipped musicians, but understanding the vast world of employment, entrepreneurship, and how to look for what they will find to most fulfilling. To create a job for themselves in music.”

Students have also already expressed their gratitude that their teacher, Chang, is someone with varied entrepreneurial experience and that she can introduce them to her many colleagues and acquaintances in order to facilitate networking for them. In the short time of this program, it has encouraged students to keep “the mindset of thinking outside the box. Knowing they have more options motivates them.”

Lora Black: A voice of Classical music in Lincoln

In Lincoln, Lora Black is a familiar voice on Classical NET Radio, 91.1FM. Her warm and friendly voice is heard on the airwaves for “Afternoon Concert” each weekday and during “Classics by Request” on Friday afternoons. Black loves Classical music, and believes that it has something for everyone—so read on and then tune in this Friday for “Classics by Request” from 1:00-4:00pm when Black will be playing one of her favorite pieces, a Brandenburg Concerto, as well as many pieces that are requests from around the state.

If you have a request, call it in: 402-472-7722

When did you first discover Classical music?
When I was in High School. I bought 2 LP records, The 50 best classical music selections albums. This will date me, but I played them over and over again on my record player! And, of course, hearing all the music of Bach and Handel in church made me a big fan.

A radio studio set up much like the place from which Lora Black shares her love of Classical music with Lincoln listeners.

Photo credit: Alessandro Bonvini via flickr

What is your background in Classical music? Did you plan on this career as announcer for Classical music radio?
I did have one class in T.V. and Radio, and did a DJ stint on the campus radio station. I'd always wanted a career using my voice, and all the stars aligned 20 years ago, when a weekend morning job opened up at NETRadio. I worked weekends for 7 years, and had my own one-hour classical music show on early Sunday morning. When several of our senior staff left the station, I was offered the afternoon concert slot. I have a request show on Friday afternoons, and I also am the local host for NPR'S All Things Considered. I have a passion for classical music, and I'd like to think that I project that to my audience.

What is your favorite part of working for NET Radio?
I think the best part of my job, is getting to meet all the people I do. Listeners always introduce themselves to me, and it is like meeting long lost friends. People from all walks of life make up our Classical music audience, and it is an honor to 'talk' with them daily.

Do you have a favorite piece, composer, and/or time period of Classical music?
I love Baroque music. Of course, you know, these questions are like asking which is my favorite child! I have had several contests over the years, asking listeners for their top 10 and their top 5 lists. How many folks wrote in, saying the same thing...it was agonizing for them to narrow it down! Getting back to your question, Vivaldi is a favorite, and I love the Bach Brandenburg Concertos. But, I love Mozart, Beethoven, Phillip Glass, Alan Hovhaness and Joseph Curiale, and so many more!
If I was limited to only one recording to have on a deserted island, it would have to be Beethoven's 9th Symphony...actually, the top recording world-wide! Ode to Joy is a universal theme...understood in any language.

What would you tell people who aren’t sure if they want to start listening to Classical music?
I would have to say tune in some Friday afternoon, and hear the requests made from all over the state. I bet you will hear something familiar. Just give it a listen, and then note how you feel after a Chopin nocturne, or hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rendition of Amazing Grace, with bagpipes. I bet that they might just feel a little bit better, maybe their job got a little easier, or maybe even brought a memory or tear to their eye. We don't play the top 40, but we play music that has lasted hundreds of years and passed down to us today. Classical music is all around us...whether it is a selection performed at a wedding, or movies or even television commercials. Classical music has something for everyone!

Studying and socializing in the UNL Music Library

A study place in the Music Library where students and Lincoln residents may listen to recordings, study, and prepare for tests or presentations.

Credits: Amy Flamminio

Many music majors at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are required to take “Library 101” during their freshman year. This course is partially completed by taking online quizzes about the location of the UNL libraries, looking certain resources up online and finding their call numbers, and actually having a tour of the library with a librarian. The goal of the course? Hopefully, students will be prepared to utilize the resources available from the more than three-million books and countless online resources provided by the University library system. The library is well-located in Lincoln in the basement of the Westbrook Music Building at 10th and Q Sts.

Music students are given a tour of the Music Library and learn about catalog system and call numbers for music scores, recordings, and books. They are shown how to access JStor, Naxos Music Library, Grove Music Dictionary Online, and many more great resources. These will come in handy for research, finding scores to perform, and presentations in the years to come.

But that is not all. Jessica Dussault, a 2011 graduate from the School of Music, remembers that “when I had downtime between classes, I would head straight to the library to see who else had some time on their hands. A lot of students used the couches and tables to socialize and study. Even if I didn’t have official business in the library, it was still fun to hang out.”

Another recent graduate, Katie Litzenberger, says that she loved that it was in a basement, and “I studied there before tests because it was quiet. I loved the fact that you felt like you could hide and listen to music and enjoy it.” Litzenberger also made use of the copy machine and computers in the library as well as recordings. “I remember the wealth of information it had. I honestly didn't spend very much time there until my last two years. Then, I really got to know it. I remember the computers; it was the place I went to print off all my stuff for presentations....timing it right before class started. I remember checking out music recordings to study for my classes too!”

Dussault also made use of Interlibrary loan available through the University libraries. One time, she was looking for a book that was out of print. It took weeks, but “at the end of the semester, the librarians contact me and said, ‘we tracked down the author and got him to donate a copy since it is no longer published, and now it’s in the music library!’ Now we have a History of the Cornhusker Marching Band book in the library.”

The library wants to be and is the place to go for information, recordings, and scores of Classical music. It is a great resource for students and residents of Lincoln as well. Everyone can find something useful, a place to study, a long-sought book, or a beloved recording.