Life as Edward Jensen

[author's note: Yes, this is the third theme for the Blog of the Week series.  But whereas my colleagues, I'm sure, are going to interpret this prompt as what physical place makes Downtown Phoenix special, I'm taking it a bit more in the abstract.  How is this possible? Read on, friends; read on...]

There are hundreds and thousands of places in Downtown Phoenix that are intriguing.  The last time I was approached with this writing theme, I discussed the Phoenix Symphony and the amazing things that they do.  But this time around, I’m taking it from a different lens.  Downtown Phoenix is special because of the people of Downtown Phoenix.  It’s special because of the memories I have made in the area.  It’s special because as I have grown and learned more about myself, Downtown Phoenix has grown and learned more about itself.

Consider Fair Trade Café at the Civic Space.  It’s special not just because of the fact that they serve amazing coffee and have amazing food.  It’s special because of the people that are there behind the counter.  I know them, they know me, and they know what my favorite coffee drink is and that I always want a bit of room left in the cup for some cream.

Or consider the greater entity that is the Civic Space Park.  There are people from the community that sit and chat, there are students studying for classes, there are kids playing football (or football), and there are just people being there enjoying the park and its surrounding urban environment.

Or consider the people at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.  When I had to first talk to a staff person on the campus, I was immediately surprised at how friendly they are.  Coming from the sea of humanity that is the Tempe campus, where one is not a name but a number, this was a huge culture shock.  Stepping inside to a classroom, one would be surprised that it’s not a lecturer preaching from the altar in a lecture.  There’s discussion, discourse, and even disagreement happening in those classrooms.

What’s special about Downtown Phoenix?  It’s the people.  It’s the memories.  It’s what you make it to be.  Downtown Phoenix is that blank canvas on which one paints one’s memories.

-Edward Jensen

[source: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Center for the Arts] The season of Lent is a particularly important time in the life of the church.  Lent gives each of us pause in our yearly pause in our yearly cycle for a period of reflection and meditation within the Christian community.  The arts, and music in particular, have frequently been used to enable and enhance these two disciplines.  This season, Trinity Cathedral in Downtown Phoenix offers a special Lenten series of musical events to mark this important season of the church year.

Concerts:

• Friday 26 February, 12.15pm: William Barnett  (past interim organist, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix)
• Friday 5 March 12.15pm: James Gerber (director of music and worship at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Phoenix)
• Friday 12 March 12.15pm: Ilona Kubizczyk-Adler (music director, Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Scottsdale)
• Friday 19 March 12.15pm: Skye Hart (director of music and liturgy, St Maria Goretti Church, Scottsdale)
• Friday 26 March 12.15pm: Erik Goldstrom (Canon Musician, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix)
• Sunday 14 March 4.00pm: Choral Evensong for Mothering Sunday

Trinity Cathedral is at 100 W. Roosevelt St., in Downtown Phoenix.  It is readily accessible from the Roosevelt/Central Ave light rail station and the Downtown Phoenix DASH.  All these concerts are free of charge.  For more information, visit azcathedral.org or call 602.254.7126.

The Cathedral Center for the Arts invites you to an evening of “Romania Revealed,” this Friday, October 9, from 6-8pm in the Olney Room Art Gallery at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (100 W Roosevelt St, Phoenix).

Enjoy a special evening of fabulous Southern European refreshments, live organ music by visiting organist Gary Quamme, a short talk on the history of Romanian Glass icons by Dr Diana Hulick, and live surprise entertainment.

A suggested donation of $20 will be collected at the door. All proceeds will support the November exhibit of Glass Icons by Tudor Scripor & workshops on mural painting and painting on glass. Tudor is an internationally exhibited artist whose work represents Romania in the Vatican collections.

For more info, please call Aiste Parmasto at 602.821.8507 or e-mail aiste@trinityCCA.org.

Join the Cathedral Center for the Arts on Saturday, September 19, 2009, at 7:30 PM, in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral for a spectacular concert featuring music for organ and trumpet by Tromba Mundi: William Byrd, Joe Price, Erik Morales, and others.

Tromba Mundi was founded in January of 2008 for the sole purpose of the exploration of trumpet ensemble repertoire and the promotion of new works.

Each member of the ensemble is a professional pedagogue and performer from the Universities of: Capital (OH), South Carolina, West Chester (PA), Indiana, Rowan & the North Carolina School of the Arts. Also, all members perform frequently with other ensembles such as the Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Augusta Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Brevard Orchestra, as well as various jazz ensembles, chamber ensembles, freelancing, and commercial recording work. Several members have solo recordings under various record labels.

In this amazing septet are: James Ackley, Scott Belck, Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski, Leonard Foy, and Judith Saxton. Joining them at the Great Cathedral Organ (IV.71) is guest organist Gary Quamme.

Tickets are available at the door for $10.

For more information, please contact Gary Quamme at 480-319-0080.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is located at 100 W Roosevelt St in Downtown Phoenix, right off the Roosevelt/Central Ave Metro station.

If you’re like me – an ASU student and a fan of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra (PSO) – then you know how going to the Symphony’s concerts can be expensive. But wonder no longer: the Symphony has fantastic student ticketing programs.

One of these programs is called the College Club Card. For $30, you get free tickets to most of the PSO’s concerts this season at Symphony Hall.

From the PSO’s website:

The Phoenix Symphony’s College Club Card gives Phoenix-area college students the opportunity to attend unlimited Symphony Classics concerts for only $30. Tickets can be picked up – one per cardholder, student ID required – at the Symphony Hall Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or online using the preset promotional code COLLEGE. There is a limit of one ticket per cardholder and a maximum of 100 tickets available per concert; therefore, availability is not guaranteed to all Classics concerts. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The PSO’s box office is located on the second floor of 1 N 1st St (the northeast corner of 1st St and Washington, click for map). When you go, make sure you bring your student ID and a copy of your current course schedule.

For the complete list of eligible concerts, click here. And for more information, call the PSO’s box office, (602) 495-1999, or drop by (they’re open 10a-4p, and they’re quite lovely people!).

And I’ll be seeing you at the Symphony!

-Edward Jensen

Last Friday (11th September), I went to the Gala Season Premiere of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra’s 2009-2010 season.  This trip was one of many events programmed by the Barrett Honors College at the Downtown Phoenix campus to foster community and shared experiences among those in Barrett Downtown.

On the repertory for the evening’s performance was John Adams‘ On the Transmigration of Souls, a piece written in memory of the 11 September 2001 attacks (and how apropos it was played on the eighth anniversary of that terrible day), Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in d minor.  In those three pieces, the PSO under the ever-capable baton of Maestro Michael Christie reminded us all that they are a tour de force symphony orchestra in the American Southwest.

The evening’s performance of the Adams work was the first time I had heard anything from his pen.  I went in armed with a little bit of knowledge of what to expect, and the piece met those expectations.  The piece is scored for orchestra, chorus, and audio tape with people reading missing person signs, quotes from those inside the two hijacked aircraft, and other 9/11-related texts. Adams’ work is rather dissonant and atonal, but the PSO and the four choirs (more on this later) handled it with ease.  I did find that the tape and choir covered each other up to the point where I couldn’t discern both. All the same, four choirs joined in the fun: the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, the Arizona State University Symphonic Chorale, the Phoenix Boys’ Choir, and the Western Illinois Singers – over 400 personnel on the stage!

Segued on to the end of the Adams was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s moving motet, Ave verum corpus (KV 618).  Mozart’s work is only four minutes long, and it balanced out the dissonance of the Adams rather nicely.

The main highlight of the season-opening concert came after intermission.  Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in d minor is one of those pieces that’s sadly almost become cliché in American mainstream culture because of the finale movement. But the other three movements explore the gamut of emotions en route to the finale movement wherein Joy is discovered.

For whatever reason, the usually lush strings sounded rather hollow during the Beethoven. In the first movement – Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso – Beethoven’s lush string orchestration didn’t carry through by the PSO.  The orchestra didn’t seem to perform this work with reduced personnel, so I can’t quite figure out why.  Still, key passages came through loud and clear and the orchestra was on top of its expression.  Each movement built on the previous, and all were delights to hear in their own ways. The second movement – Scherzo (Molto vivace – Presto) – is frenetic and hurried but accentuated by tympani tuned at an octave. The third movement – Adagio molto e cantabile – is a sublime serenade with sensuous orchestration for wind instruments that (maybe by Beethoven’s design) lulls the listener into a false sense of calm before the finale movement.

And then we get to the fourth movement (Presto, etc.). For those not familiar with Beethoven’s score, the first several minutes of this movement explore themes from the previous three movements in the work’s persistent search for joy. The familiar theme (what many know as the Ode to Joy) is introduced by the basses and celli and is built upon. Christie kept the orchestra under control here, which is notable because this area has great potential to fall apart. Then comes the highlight and the reason why Beethoven 9 is called the “Choral” Symphony: enter the choir and soloists. The baritone soloist did a fantastic job on the piece’s opening récitative (O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!) and the choir was magnificent in its diction of the German text. My common complaint of listening to recordings of this piece is that the German text is difficult to understand. This changed with the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2006 release of Beethoven 9, when the Minnesota Chorale sang the words with phenomenal diction that non-German speakers could transcribe it. And so too did the Phoenix Symphony Chorus.

My persistent observation (bordering on complaint) about Maestro Christie and the PSO is that they have a tendency to rush their tempi. Last season, I noted this in my reviews of Haydn’s Creation and Orff’s Carmina Burana. It has mixed results, but when the orchestra can’t play 110% at that rushed tempo, then why even bother? A couple of sections in the Beethoven come to mind – the Presto in the second movement and the faster sections of the final movement – where the orchestra was clearly scrambling to keep up with Mr. Christie’s conducting.

Finally, as an alumnus of the Phoenix Symphony Youth Orchestra and self-confessed concert-going snob, I was rather dismayed when the audience clapped in between each of the Beethoven’s four movements.  This threw off Christie’s pace but the orchestra recovered quickly. To the audience: you do not clap in between movements of any symphonic work! EVER!

Audience distractions aside, the PSO performed three works fantastically well and only reaffirmed that they are a cultural gem in this desert. Let’s hope that the economy rebounds quickly so that the PSO can keep performing symphonic masterworks for years and decades to come.

-Edward Jensen

Now this looks like fun (courtesy Si Robins, Downtown Phoenix Journal):

The First Friday in October, KBAQ and the Phoenix Chorale (formerly the Phoenix Bach Choir) are teaming up to expose listeners to the vibrant arts scene in Downtown Phoenix through the first-ever First Friday scavenger hunt!

Head to KBAQ.org now to download a virtual scavenger hunt of things you would see on a First Friday artwalk — it may be a new view of a familiar gallery or an unfamiliar art space that could be a fabulous find. Your mission is to identify correctly all images on the KBAQ.org Scavenger Hunt webpage between today and next First Friday for a chance to win a fun Phoenix Chorale prize package.

Then, come visit KBAQ and the Phoenix Chorale on First Friday, October 2 at the Trinity Cathedral (100 W. Roosevelt St.) from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. to turn in your entry sheet and see how many you answered correctly. Stick around to listen to the Chorale’s open rehearsal for its fall performance! Test your eagle eyes against other arts enthusiasts this September – and discover a new part of the Phoenix arts scene — with KBAQ and the Phoenix Chorale.

[source]

Wow. Now this is fun!  Who wants to form a College of Public Programs team?

-Edward Jensen

Join ASU Career Services again on Wednesday, September 9th, for a panel of current nonprofit, foundation, and government employees as they answer your questions, provide career guidance, and share personal advice.

-Edward Jensen

Join Trinity Cathedral interim organist Dr. William Barnett and Mark X. Hatlfield as they present a duet concert on two of Downtown Phoenix’s greatest and most celebrated instruments: the Cathedral’s 71-rank Schantz organ and Bösendorfer concert grand piano.

The concert is in a week’s time, 7PM, Friday August 21st, at Trinity Cathedral (100 W Roosevelt St, Phoenix). It’s free and open to the public, with a free-will retiring collection taken to support the Cathedral’s fantastic music program.

See you there!

-Edward Jensen

The Camerata Singers are in concert tomorrow! It’s a concert that you surely don’t want to miss!

A couple of good friends from my high school, Eric Choate and Sean Colonna, have put together a summer choir that’s called the Camerata Singers, and I’m in the choir.  Over the past weeks, we’ve prepared music by Palestrina, de Victoria, des Prez, Morley, Gasparini, Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, and a couple settings of folk tunes. Rather than keep this incredible music to ourselves, we want to share it with you!

With this said, join us for our season concert this Sunday, August 2nd, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1407 N 2nd St, in Phoenix. (It’s near the McDowell/Central Avenue Metro station.) The performance begins at 3:30pm and a free-will retiring collection will be taken.

For more information, check out the Facebook page for the concert. And I hope to see you there!

-Edward Jensen