CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The setting may be pastoral, but don’t let that fool you. The University of Illinois School of Music‘s third annual Allerton Music Barn Festival is no turkey in the straw.
Bach cantatas will be performed at 10 a.m. Sept. 6 during the Allerton Music Barn Festival. Bass Ricardo Herrera, pictured, and other members of the Allerton Festival Choir and Orchestra, will be led by conductor Fred Stoltzfus. A nature walk will begin at 8:30 a.m. prior to the concert.
Once again, the extended Labor Day weekend festival lineup will showcase the diverse talents of the music school’s world-class faculty performers. A select group of music students and guest artists round out the roster.
The festival, which takes place in a reconditioned 19th-century Dutch hay barn on the grounds of the university’s Allerton Park and Retreat Center near Monticello, Ill., runs Sept. 3-7. The 2009 festival has grown by a day, kicking off a day earlier than last year with a Thursday-night performance.
“This year’s festival is a fabulous mix of opera, chamber music and jazz – with a brass band thrown in for good measure,” said Karl Kramer, the director of the music school.
With most performances preceded or followed by a lecture or demonstration, Kramer recommends festival-goers “bring dinner or buy food from our caterer and have a wonderful evening of nature and music.”
To set the mood for the festival’s opening-night event – Astor Piazzolla’s one-act tango opera “Maria de Buenos Aires” – U. of I. graduate students Markita Landry and Florin Bora will demonstrate the dance moves featured in an award-winning video entry in an unusual contest sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Landry and Bora were winners of the “Popular Choice” category in the AAAS 2009 “Dance Your Ph.D.” competition for their tango interpretation of Landry’s research in single-molecule biophysics.
The pre-concert dance demonstration – which will include lessons (beginners welcome) – will take place at 6:30 p.m., followed by the opera at 8:30 p.m. Conducted by U. of I. opera chair Edwardo Diazmuõz, the production features faculty vocalists Yvonne Gonzalez Redman, soprano; and Ricardo Herrera, baritone, backed by an orchestra comprising mainly U. of I. faculty artists. The performance will include a special appearance by Gustavo Flores as the spritely character “El Duende.”
Other festival highlights:
Sept. 4, 8:30 p.m., “The American Brass Band Journal C. 1853,” a historical reminiscence of American band music featuring marches, waltzes, quicksteps, schottisches and national airs. Conducted by Robert Rumbelow, who is scheduled to join the Illinois music faculty as chair of the band division in the fall, the program will feature a solo performance on E-flat cornet by music professor Ronald Romm.
A pre-concert talk titled “Saxhorns: Music Instruments for the Concert Hall and the Battlefield,” by Scott Schwartz, the director of the university’s Sousa Archives, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 5, 10 a.m., reprise performance of “Maria de Buenos Aires”; and, at 8:30 p.m., “Czech Chamber Music,” featuring the Pacifica Quartet, and others, performing music by Dvorak, Janacek and Smetana.
A pre-concert lecture, “Music in the Czech Republic” will be presented at 6:30 p.m. by U. of I. ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl.
Sept. 6, 10 a.m., “Bach Cantatas,” performed by the Allerton Festival Choir and Orchestra, conducted by U. of I. music professor Fred Stoltzfus. Featured performers will be faculty harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax; voice faculty members Ricardo Herrera, bass; Ollie Watts Davis, soprano; Jerold Siena, tenor; and music student Melissa Davis, alto.
Preceding the morning performance will be a nature walk, led by the Rev. Roger Digges, an avid birder. The evening performance, “Boris Berman, Piano,” at 8:30 p.m., will showcase the mastery of the internationally acclaimed, Moscow-born and -trained pianist performing selections by Chopin and Prokoviev. Following the concert, a member of the U. of I. astronomy faculty will talk with interested concert-goers about the night sky. Telescopes will be available; guests also may bring their own.
The festival wraps up on Labor Day (Sept. 7) with an all-American musical accent. The theme of the 10 a.m. concert featuring the Illinois jazz faculty will be “The West Coast Sound.” The concert will feature tunes by Shorty Rodgers, Bob Brookmeyer, Chet Baker and others.
Closing the festival at 8:30 p.m. will be “The Great American Songbook,” a program of American standards by Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Vocalists Lisanne Lyons and Brienn Perry will be featured.
A pre-concert lecture-demonstration at 6:30 p.m. will be presented by U. of I. musicology professor Jeffrey Magee, who will present an adapted version of a presentation he made earlier this year at the Library of Congress. Assisting Magee will be vocalists Dawn Harris, Ashley Klingler and Robert McNeily, and pianist Chris White. The lecture-demonstration is titled “Now It Can Be Told: Irving Berlin’s Songs for Stage and Screen.”
Festival tickets are available through the festival Web site; the U. of I.’s Krannert Center for the Performing Arts ticket office; or by calling 217-333-6282 or 800-527-2849. Single-concert tickets are $26; tickets for students and senior citizens are $20.
New this year is an “economy-buster pass” for $154 ($105 for students and senior citizens). The long-weekend pass provides entry to all eight performances – for the price of seven shows.
