Do classical musicians really understand our own history? with Jan Swafford

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02/10/21 • 44 min

Con Fuoco: A Podcast about Classical Music and its Future

Jan Swafford is an author and composer. His musical works range from orchestral and chamber to film and theater music, including four pieces for orchestra, Midsummer Variations for piano quintet, They That Mourn for piano trio, and They Who Hunger for piano quartet. His music has been played around the U.S. and abroad by ensembles including the symphonies of Indianapolis, St. Louis, Harrisburg, Springfield, Jacksonville, Chattanooga, and the Dutch Radio. His degrees are from Harvard and the Yale School of Music. In 1989 he was a Mellon Faculty Fellow at Harvard. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary Harvard Phi Beta Kappa. In 2012 his online music journalism won a Deems Taylor Award.
As a music journalist and scholar, Swafford has written for Slate, The Guardian, Gramophone, and 19th Century Music among others. He is a longtime program note writer for the Boston Symphony, and has written program and liner notes for the symphonies of Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Detroit, and San Francisco, for Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and Deutsche Grammophon. Recently he has appeared in television documentaries in Germany and England. His books include the biographies Charles Ives: A Life with Music (nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award); Johannes Brahms: A Biography; and Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph. All these books were Critics’ Choices in the New York Times. HIs biography on Mozart was just published in December of 2020. His books have been widely translated in Europe and China.
The Question of the Week is, "Do classical musicians really understand our own history?" Jan and I discuss the habit classical musicians have of deifying composers, assumptions and narratives he needed to unlearn, how the teaching of the history of Western classical music has changed, how his research and writing of composers has informed his own composition process, and why he believes talent does exist.

Previous Episode

Does the field of classical music focus enough attention on its audiences? Pt. 2 with Donato Cabrera

Donato Cabrera is the Music Director of the California Symphony and the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and served as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2009-2016.
Since Mr. Cabrera's appointment as Music Director of the California Symphony in 2013, the organization has reached new artistic heights by implementing innovative programming that emphasizes welcoming newcomers and loyalists alike, building on its reputation for championing music by living composers, and committing to programming music by women and people of color. Mr. Cabrera has also greatly changed the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s concert experience by expanding the scope and breadth of its orchestral concerts, hosting engaging and lively pre-concert conversations with guest artists and composers, and by creating the Spotlight Concert series that features the musicians of the Las Vegas Philharmonic in intimate chamber music performances. Deeply committed to diversity and education through the arts, Cabrera evaluates the scope, breadth, and content of the California Symphony and Las Vegas Philharmonic’s music education programs.
In the 2020-2021 season, Mr. Cabrera will continue to work with California Symphony and Las Vegas Philharmonic to give vibrant, high-quality performances in a reimagined way that will keep musicians and audiences safe during COVID-19 restrictions. In March 2020, Mr. Cabrera launched two new online projects to stay engaged with audiences during the Coronavirus pandemic. MusicWise -Conversations about Art and Culture with Donato Cabrerais a weekly interview series presented on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. The Music Plays On is a series on Cabrera’s blog about his favorite performances and recordings.

The Question of the Week is a continuation of the question from our episode with Aubrey Bergauer, "Does the field of classical music focus enough attention on its audiences?" Donato and I discuss what a community-minded approach looks like in the concert hall, why classical musicians are like brain surgeons, how classical music has brought him closer to his Mexican heritage, and the lessons he believes we will take from COVID-19.
You can find out more about Donato on his website https://www.donatocabrera.com/

Next Episode

How can classical musicians encourage healthy relationships with one another? with Liana Branscome

My guest this week is violinist, Liana Branscome! Liana is the first prize winner of the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota Competition Junior Division (2015), Boca Raton Symphonia Concerto Competition (2014), the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2014) and second prize winner of the New World Symphony Young Artist Competition (2014). She has appeared as soloist with the Vidin Philharmonia in Bulgaria, Palm Beach Atlantic Symphony, the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra and the Treasure Coast Youth Symphony. She has also performed as guest artist at the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island and the Auras Nunes Aula de Cámara in Santiago, Spain. Recent engagements include a recital tour of Portugal, Spain and London with pianist Bernardo Santos and a tour of South Florida with pianist Lewis Warren Jr.
Liana is pursuing her Master of Music in violin performance at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she studies under Glenn Dicterow. She received her Bachelor of Music at the New England Conservatory under the instruction of Paul Biss and Lucy Chapman. Her precollege teachers include David and Linda Cerone. She has attended the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Chautauqua Institute. Liana served as a Fellow in NEC’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program where she presented numerous solo and duo recitals in the Boston community. Liana is currently a teaching assistant at the University of Southern California in non-major violin and has presented several masterclasses and recitals at schools around South Florida. Liana is currently part of the administrative team of Project Build: Peer Masterclass Series, an organization that seeks to create a space in which young professional musicians can learn from and connect with each other.
While at the New England Conservatory, Liana also received a minor in creative writing and served as an editor of New England Conservatory’s academic journal Hear, Here! and student newspaper, The Penguin.