Awadagin Pratt (Photo: Courtesy of Iris Orchestra)
The Iris Orchestra’s closing concert of the 2021-2022 season, on April 23rd and 24th, was nearly its swan song. For a moment, it appeared that the much-loved collection of virtuosos from around the world, who gather in Memphis for a few select concerts every year, was unsustainable. The notion was deeply troubling for founder and conductor Michael Stern, but he wanted to do the moment justice. “We expressly chose Beethoven’s 5th Symphony because we thought for a moment that we’d be suspending operations, and that this would have been our last concert ever,” says Stern. “I wanted to bring full closure. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony closed our very first concert ever, in 2000. So I thought, if this is going to be our last concert, let it also feature the piece that closed our first concert. But with joy I can say that Iris is not going away!”
As it turns out, Iris will stick around, albeit in new form. After the upcoming concerts, Iris Orchestra will be known as the Iris Collective. “The musicians themselves grouped together, committed to the idea that they simply would not let Iris go away. It was absolutely musician driven. And Iris will continue on. It’s going to have a different feel. I will be less involved, and it will be an amalgam of ensembles, chamber music, orchestra concerts, and new ways of imagining community engagement,” Stern says.
The fortuitous change will be foreshadowed by Iris’ chamber music concert on April 24th. “It’s entirely Iris musicians playing Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, and it’s a fantastic group. It gives a little taste of what the Iris Collective is going to be about.”
Reinvention is par for the course for an organization that’s been dedicated to reimagining music from the beginning, founded to be “an ensemble for the 21st century — flexible, non-hierarchical, and passionate about the highest standards of performance.” And, as Stern sees it, this season’s last program embodies all of Iris’ ideals at once. “We have a wonderful piece from the 20th century, not one but two new pieces by essential American composers, and then an iconic work from the canon. That, in a nutshell, is what Iris is about.”
Stern is especially enthusiastic about the new works. “When we started Iris 22 years ago,” says Stern, “the express intention was, in part, to nurture and promote the music of our time, especially American composers. So this is quite a lovely thing, to have a co-commissioning relationship with two pieces in the program.
“Jonathan Leshnoff has been a great partner and friend to us since we commissioned him to write his first symphony, which was a companion piece to Beethoven’s 9th. This new piece was written to commemorate our 20th anniversary in 2020, which is why he called the piece Score. It’s not only a reference to sheet music, it also means 20 years. Since the premiere got delayed by two years because of Covid, this is a long overdue and very welcome performance.
“And Jessie Montgomery is one of the most compelling voices of the last two or three years, for good reason,” Stern continues. “I’ve done quite a few of Jessie’s works now. This piece especially, Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra, is playful and dancing and really lovely. Awadagin Pratt is making his solo piano debut with us on Jessie’s piece, which she wrote specifically for him. He is a force. A wonderful pianist, a wonderful musician.”
That forward-thinking spirit is also apparent in the classics Iris will present on April 23rd, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, the “Classical.” Stern describes the latter piece as “turning a Haydn symphony on its ear. Through the prism of the early 20th century, Prokofiev writes this really tongue-in-cheek and wonderfully energetic music, doing something new. Beethoven, in his time, was also doing something new. He often said he was writing music for the future. Prokofiev was writing at the dawn of the 20th century, and Beethoven was writing at the dawn of the 19th century. And both were trying to find a new way of speaking in the world.”
Iris Orchestra, featuring Awadagin Pratt, piano, presents Where Past & Future Gather, Saturday, April 23rd, 7:30 p.m. at GPAC; and Iris at the Brooks: Beethoven, Sunday, April 24th, 3 p.m. at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
You don’t need to grab your passport for this night in Brazil, presented by Iris Orchestra and Collage Dance Collective. “It’s really like a street party indoors in Memphis,” says Rebecca Arendt, director of community initiatives and artist fellows coordinator with Iris.
The night of entertainment will consist of bossa nova melodies with “Memphis-soul seasoning” by the Deborah Swiney Quartet, a Brazilian feast by Carson Rodizio with caipirinha specialty cocktails, and a dance performance, scored by Iris musicians and artist fellows, under the artistic leadership of Iris’ Pedro Maia and Collage’s Fabio Mariano. The night will close with a samba party where guests can dance to DJ Alpha Whiskey.
The two organizations have been in conversation about this event since August 2020. “We knew we wanted to partner between the Iris Artist Fellowship Program and the Collage Dance Company,” Arendt says. They didn’t have a set plan of what that collaboration would look like at first, but when they looked around the Zoom room, they noticed that a few of the dancers with Collage and Pedro Maia, one of the two Iris fellows, were from Brazil. “As we were talking about what really spoke to us artistically, that really kept rising to the surface — wanting to celebrate the mutual connection the two organizations have to that culture,” Arendt says. “We felt that was really the best choice.”
The night promises to be a festive one, Arendt says. “From my perspective, it’s music that’s hard to sit still when you listen to it.”
“Brazil by Night: Where Art and Culture Collide,” Collage Dance Center, Saturday, April 9th, 7 p.m., $75.
The Iris Orchestra will come to an end after the 2021-2022 season.
A press release issued Monday said that in the past 18 months, the orchestra had “confronted significant financial and operational challenges.” It also said the organization was facing “the inevitable and formidable task of transitioning in the near future to new artistic and executive leadership, while also grappling with the additional burdens and restrictions of Covid-19 in an altered philanthropic environment.”
The final concerts will be the weekend of April 23-24, 2022. That program will include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — the work Iris played during its inaugural concert 22 years ago.
The 2021-2022 season will continue as planned, including all GPAC and Brooks Museum concerts, and all scheduled community engagements.
Iris Orchestra began in September 2000 as an experiment, founded by Michael Stern and Albert Pertalion in partnership with the City of Germantown. The organization transitioned from a municipally funded orchestra to an independent organization funded primarily by private contributions and institutional grants.
It was noted for its unusual structure that brought in orchestra members from around the country and abroad for a handful of performances every year, mainly at the Germantown Performing Arts Center. The roster of guest artists has included some of the world’s top performers.
Under Stern’s leadership, the orchestra made several recordings, performed new as well as old reliable works, and commissioned works by American composers. It also was involved in community arts education, including establishment of the Iris Artists Fellowship Program.
Yo-Yo Ma was the first soloist in the group’s inaugural concert and he appeared with Iris again 10 years later. Other luminaries who performed with Irish include Yefim Bronfman, Garrick Ohlsson, Emanuel Ax, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, and Pinchas Zukerman.
Commissioned composers include Anna Clyne, Chris Brubeck, Jonathan Leshnoff, Ned Rorem, Huang Ruo, and Edgar Meyer.
Cellist Gabriel Hightower and violinist Pedro Maia (Photo courtesy Iris Orchestra)
When violinist Pedro Maia and cellist Gabriel Hightower take the stage at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts tomorrow evening, they’ll finally be able to exhale. Named as the 2021-22 Iris Artist Fellows months ago, they’ve since faced an uncertain year ahead as the pandemic altered performance and educational expectations again and again. But now their work is at last coming to its fruition.
Performing as the Iris Artist Fellows Ensemble, Maia and Hightower will reveal how they’ve perfected playing as a duo, with a diverse set spanning the French avant-garde, Brazilian dance and traditional classical. All pieces were curated especially for the intimate listening space of The Green Room.
The Iris Artist Fellowship Program, now in its sixth year, is a 10-month full-time residency position that mixes professional training with instruction, in-the-field experience, and networking opportunities. The program is designed to assist rising Black, African American, or Latino musicians who are about to embark on their professional careers in classical music.
“We designed the fellowship to help bridge a gap in the classical music world,” Iris Orchestra Artistic Director Michael Stern said. “We are looking for not only skilled classical musicians but also those musicians who have a real passion for music as a tool to impact society. Our fellows participate in community engagement programs that impact the Greater Memphis community, particularly those that promote education, mentorship, and social equity.”
Each of the program’s eight alumni has gone on to pursue a full-time career in the classical music industry. “We’re pleased to be a part of the journey for these talented and dedicated musicians,” said Rebecca Arendt, director of the Iris Artist Fellowship. “We’ve learned a lot and that knowledge has helped to refine and evolve the program, and we’re thrilled we’ve been able to continue it — even during the pandemic year — thanks to our supporters and our partner, Memphis Music Initiative.”
Maia and Hightower have embraced the teaching and performing fellowship with gusto. In addition to performing with Iris Orchestra in October, they performed as a duo at a pop-up concert in the Memphis Medical District, a music time event for Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, and a Halloween family concert at the Morton Museum in Collierville. The fellows also work in the Shelby County Schools as teaching artists with the Memphis Music Initiative (MMI).
“In Memphis, we enjoy a rich musical history and heritage; we’re known for it around the world,” said Mike Mosby, fellows coach for MMI. “But there’s not a lot of emphasis on the string or orchestra instruments in the schools. Our partnership with the Iris Artist Fellows has allowed our Black and brown students to work with and to learn from skilled musicians who look like them. Working with Pedro and Gabriel on my team is a privilege, and we’re grateful for the rich experience they provide to these kids.”
The Iris Artist Chamber Concert featuring the Iris Artist Fellows Ensemble takes place Thursday, November 11th, at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts. General admission, $10; students, $5. Doors, 7 p.m.
On Easter Sunday, the National Civil Rights Museum will present a virtual commemoration in honor of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy on the 53rd anniversary of his death. This year’s event will feature a conversation with Rev. James Lawson, a key King ally in pursuit of nonviolent philosophy who trained a number of activists on civil disobedience. A performance of “Precious Lord,” Dr. King’s favorite gospel hymn, will be presented by the vocal ensemble Adajjyo. A keynote from Dr. Bernard Richardson, Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University, will explore King’s last days. The broadcast will culminate with a moment of silence at 6:01 p.m., the time King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
Following the commemoration is the world premiere of “Caged,” a commissioned Chamber Orchestra piece by African-American composer Brian Nabors, performed by Iris Orchestra and Memphis Symphony Orchestra Diversity Fellows. The piece takes listeners on an energetic, rhapsodic journey through a range of emotions.
“This work embodies our need to ‘let loose’ and release the restrictive tension that quarantining and the pandemic as a whole brought upon us,” Nabors says. “This piece pairs the barbarous with the deeply introspective and brings listeners to an inward reconciling of the grief many are feeling during this difficult time. Although we may feel ‘caged’ at the moment, the power of music is what continues to lift our spirits and will eventually pull us through to the other side.”
Both groups of artist fellows will also present a live outdoor performance in Overton Square on April 11th at 3 p.m. The concert will showcase underrepresented composers and feature a live premiere of “Caged.” Nabors will attend and give an exclusive introduction to his work.
Remembering MLK, online from the National Civil Rights Museum, civilrightsmuseum.org, Sunday, Apr. 4, 5 p.m., free.
Just shy of a year ago, the Memphis Flyer reported on a new outdoor performance space at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) that showed great promise. The Grove had been years in the making, partly because there were no half-measures in its planning or construction.
The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Yet the venue showed only an unrealized promise at its completion because of the pandemic’s lockdown. Through the summer and fall of last year, however, it came into its own. Indeed, as an outdoor performance space, it was unrivaled in its combination of high professional standards and open-air safety.
First Horizon Foundation Plaza, the drinking and dining area at The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Now The Grove is gearing up for an even more ambitious 2021. It begins this week as a series known as Spring Into the Grove gets under way.
All this month and into May, music, poetry and film will light up the place in ways that will feel gloriously close to those pre-pandemic days of congregating in public, albeit with the usual caveats. Given that outdoor gatherings are far safer than any others, these nights of entertainment will offer the best way to ease out of the shut-in life. It will happen via The Grove’s state of the art projection and sound in the beautifully landscaped space surrounding GPAC. The highlights include some of our best-loved local singer/songwriters, performances from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Iris Orchestra, and a celebration of poetry in memory of one of the city’s most ardent supporters of the arts, the late Mitch Major.
The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Spring Into the Grove Schedule:
Thursday, April 1, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Deborah Swiney. Every Thursday in April will feature music and cocktails on the First Horizon Foundation Plaza, with a full bar, beer, wine, snacks and drink specials.
Thursday, April 8, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Michelle & Jeremy Shrader.
Friday, April 9, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Family Night: Aladdin and live music with Josh Threlkeld. Includes a local food truck, live music by Threlkeld, and drinks on the First Horizon Foundation Plaza. At 6 p.m., the movie Aladdin will be screened.
Sunday, April 11, 2021, from 2 to 4 p.m. Word Travels: Annual Poetry Contest Kickoff. April is National Poetry Month, which includes Germantown’s annual poetry contest. In collaboration with the Germantown Library, Parks & Recreation, and the Department of Public Works, the city’s Public Art Commission (PAC) will host the Word Travels: Annual Poetry Contest. Each year, winning poetry entries will be imprinted on sidewalks throughout the city. At this event, there will be literary activities provided by the library, food truck fare, live music, and more. To partially fund the project, GPAC and PAC will establish a Mitch Major – Word Travels Memorial Fund in memory of late GPAC board member and Germantown resident Mitch Major, whose fondness for literature shaped his life.
Thursday, April 15, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Blackwater Trio.
Saturday, April 17, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Crawfish Boil, Gus’s Fried Chicken, and the Mighty Souls Brass Band.
Sunday, April 18, 2021, at 2:30 p.m. Memphis Symphony Orchestra with Kalena Bovell, conductor, and Adrienne Park, piano. MSO assistant conductor Bovell leads the orchestra in a program that includes British composer Doreen Carwithen’s piano concerto featuring MSO principal pianist Adrienne Park.
Thursday, April 22, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Mark Edgar Stuart.
Friday, April 23, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Family Night: Mary Poppins and GPAC Dance Kids. GPAC Dance students perform at 5 p.m. and Mary Poppins starts at 6 p.m. Food trucks and cocktails.
Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. GPAC Youth Symphony Program Spring Concert. Including pieces for string orchestra, wind ensemble, and chamber orchestra that highlight historical composers (including Mendelssohn, Hindemith, Grainger, and Tchaikovsky) and contemporary composers (including John Mackey and Steven Bryant).
Thursday, April 29, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Amy LaVere & Will Sexton.
Saturday, May 1, 2021, at 2 p.m. Iris Orchestra Concert. Featuring violinist Nancy Zhou, the program will include Sally Beamish’s Hover, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and Saint-Georges’ Symphony No. 2.
Sunday, May 2, 2021, at 2 p.m. Iris Orchestra Chamber Concert. Featuring violinist Nancy Zhou, the program will include Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Major and Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3.
Thursday, May 13, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with artist TBD.
Saturday, May 15, 2021, from 6 to 9 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Sierra Hull Concert.
Iris Orchestra, that unique hybrid organization headquartered at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC), yet made up of stellar classical players from across the country and the world, continues apace as one of the most relevant and innovative classical organizations of our time. With the pandemic curtailing any live performances, Iris, helmed by conductor Michael Stern, carries on its multi-dimensional work in other media.
Courtesy Iris Orchestra
Michael Stern
As we saw last fall, the facilities at GPAC, coupled with the recording know-how of engineer Jamey Lamar, who captures all of their performances, the orchestra has adapted to a COVID-afflicted world by presenting freshly-recorded performances online in lieu of their regular concert season. Tomorrow and Sunday, their February performances will go live online, featuring performances recorded last weekend, even as Memphis suffered its first wave of February ice and snow.
Beyond that, this month has also witnessed the release of an album boasting the world premiere of a concerto by composer Bruce Adolphe, recorded at GPAC when it was performed by Iris in 2015. Earlier this week, I spoke with Stern about both the album and the online concerts. By the end of our conversation, I was more convinced than ever of our good fortune in hosting this committed group of players.
Memphis Flyer:How did Iris Orchestra come to be involved in this premiere of Bruce Adlophe’s work,I Will Not Remain Silent?
Michael Stern: This is all a happy confluence of events. Sharon Roffman, the featured soloist, is an incredible force. Her mother’s very involved in education and the violin. Sharon had known Bruce Adolphe since she was a kid. He had this idea to write this piece about Joachim Prinz, who was of course so closely aligned with Martin Luther King, Jr., and as it turns out, Prinz married Sharon’s parents. Allen Cohen
Sharon Roffman
But above and beyond that, they were both interested in this project which was, first and foremost, a piece of wonderful new music. Secondly, a way to raise awareness about Rabbi Joachim Prinz and Martin Luther King, and to have that connection in terms of civil rights and social justice. But the other thing is, Sharon is passionately committed to education and engagement, especially with young people. Not only were we able to organize the premiere, by rehearsing and recording and performing it, but she, largely, along with Iris Orchestra, organized this community-wide education and engagement project embedded in the curriculum that she distributed to schools and churches and synagogues. We did something at the Jewish Community Center, as I recall, as well as the Civil Rights Museum and Houston High School. We had a writing project associated with it. We had an art project associated with it. And for kids across all lines to learn about the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King, and to learn about 1930’s in Germany and Joachim Prinz and Nazism, was a wonderful experience. So, all the way around it was a really rewarding moment.
The piece itself is so wonderful. I’ve done it with her since our premiere, and it holds up great. It’s just a really terrific composition, which really speaks to the fundamental subject matter and its importance.
I’ve see the curriculum. It’s really impressive. And it seems the piece itself addresses the subject matter thematically, with orchestral hits battling, so to speak, with this solitary, soaring voice of Sharon’s violin. It’s a striking contrast, and captures the power of a solitary voice speaking truth to power.
I agree. I will say that he’s got a program to it. The first movement is Joachim Prinz in Europe, and the second movement is Joachim Prinz in America. But it doesn’t sound manipulative at all. It doesn’t sound arch. It sounds very authentic and sincere and organic, and the entire piece, just from a musical point of view, works really well.
The second movement really does evoke a new time, a new atmosphere.
It also just underlines the idea that challenge, struggle and eventually overcoming and coming to a place of peace and triumph really transcends color, it transcends religion, it transcends geography. It just is what it is in terms of the human experience and the human condition. I appreciated Bruce’s intent from the beginning. The way he wrote the piece. Sharon was unbelievably devoted to the project, and in it 150 percent. It was inspiring to work on.
So the educational outreach happened around the time of the premiere and the recording in 2015?
Yes, but don’t say the word outreach. It sounds like that’s a one way thing. I prefer the word engagement. My mindset in doing something like this is not to deliver information, it’s to engage young people in this conversation. And I think Sharon especially, and all of us, tried to do that and I think we did do that. And one thing Bruce did, which was fantastic, was, he created a chamber version of the piece. So when we did go around, notably to the high school, we were able to talk about the story and to play some of the concerto without requiring the full orchestra to come. Instead, we could use a chamber ensemble and it made it much more mobile. And then of course, the fact that it was picked up by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music is meaningful, because the music stands as an American concerto, but beyond that, it also has these extra-musical, historical echoes which fit that series absolutely perfectly. I’m proud that our contribution to that series came out so well.
What we did for those concerts was just a string orchestra. Not the largest, not the smallest, somewhere in the middle. But nothing we played was an adaptation of anything. We played the pieces the way they were meant to be played.
I would say that COVID interrupted everybody’s plans for a lot of reasons. We can’t be too close to one another on stage, so that puts a cap on the number of players you can have onstage or in the hall at one time. Everybody has to be masked. There are all sorts of precautions and protocols. Beyond that, you can’t have wind players on the stage. The conventional wisdom is that wind players expel more droplets and more of a risk in terms of transmission, than strings or harp or piano would be. So we made the decision that we would just play whatever music we could play. And right now that’s music for strings only. But we present these programs without any sense of compromise. Would we like to get 40-60 more players onstage? Sure. Just not right now. We have to take safety first.
We had the cancellation of our soloist in the February slot. He couldn’t travel because of COVID concerns. He’s healthy, but just due to an abundance of caution he cancelled. Similarly our guest soloist and conductor, Jeffrey Kahane, who was going to play and conduct the March concert, also cancelled. And then we were faced with what do we do? We had already changed those programs, to piece for string orchestra only, now we had to change them again to accommodate those cancellations. And we just made the decision on the fly that we would overload the week and put more performance capture in the can, so we would have performances for February and March without imposing a second trip for all the musicians or for me or the engineers, because we didn’t know, and frankly still don’t know, even though vaccines are rolling out slowly, we still don’t know what the numbers are going to look like in early February and March. So we thought, let’s get as much music recorded as possible, and we’ll broadcast that for our February and March offerings, and keep our fingers crossed for May.
What we did was we took some really great music for strings alone. For February, we have this wonderful piece, a young, extraordinarily talented American composer, Jessie Montgomery, whose music is not only terrific, but also informed by her sense of activism and social justice, and is one of the brightest lights in American music right now. She wrote a piece called ‘Banner,’ which celebrates the 150th Anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. But in her piece, built into this celebration, is also the awareness that the Star Spangled Banner should, but doesn’t actually, speak for everybody in this country. And to make those voices, who might be marginalized by the Banner or who have not been as included, historically, she wrote a piece which really reflected on the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner in a really beautiful way. And we go through that piece… For the February presentation, I was able to sit down with Jessie and we had a conversation about the piece. And that’s a really incredible addition to the program.
On New Album and in Virtual Concerts, Iris Orchestra is Undaunted (2)
We also did this incredibly beautiful, heartrendingly beautiful piece by Puccini, called the Chrysanthemums, which he wrote as a memorial to a great friend of his who passed away. And then we finish with one of the great pieces in the string repertoire, the Dvořák String Serenade. And then in March, we have two other masterpieces, in terms of string repertoire. Mozart’s F major Divertimento for Strings, K138, and the great Tchaikovsky String Serenade. So in these two programs, we’ve got Dvořák and Tchaikovsky and Puccini and Montgomery, and the interview with Jessie. I think it’s a really great overview of some terrific music, and it lets us keep our contact with our public without needing to stop the music because of COVID. So that made us all very happy.
It’s a wonderfully diverse collection. Contrasting the cutting edge, Jessie Montgomery, with Mozart…
Well, we try! We try. Many of us hadn’t seen each other for almost a year. The October recording was a very small group of musicians. It was a chamber ensemble. So it was wonderful to be together.
Were there any special arrangements with the host families?
We spared the host families. We could not, and we would not, put that imposition on them. This is not the time to invite other people to your house, even cherished friends. So we put everybody up in a hotel.
Jessie didn’t perform with Iris, but Jessie Montgomery is a force of nature. She’s a wonderful violinist. She was composing a lot of music while she was still an active member of a regular string quartet, and she’s doing her doctorate at Princeton University. She is a very busy, very talented, very accomplished woman.
We’ve had this tradition of having chamber concerts at Brooks Museum. Of course we could not do that, but we didn’t want to deprive our audience of anything, so three of our musicians stayed an extra day. Jamey stayed the extra day, and they got that filmed and it was a great success.
I think there are some silver linings to COVID. Not many. It’s been a terrible time. And hopefully now, with a new feeling in the country, we can maybe start to address some of the divisiveness and some of the rancor. But I do think you need to try to see some good in everything. COVID has taken its toll, and yet in the process of going through it, the fact that we were isolated, but also technically involved with the regular routine of everything, meant that people could actually consider what was happening.
And then you had the issues that were in front of all of us, and rightly so, with long overdue conversations, and I think people considering the real meaning, whether it’s Black Lives Matter or the environmental issues before us, or the terrible political divisiveness, we were able to process that with a little less knee jerk reaction and a little more thoughtfulness. And I do think, and I’m very encouraged by the fact that the reaction to those things did not simply become a flash point for a few weeks and then fade. I think the awareness that we are going to do better, and the awareness that the world is a little closer to real justice, is here to stay. And I think that is a really healthy thing. I can’t help but think that maybe that in and of itself is worth celebrating, and that’s a good thing.
Watch Bruce Adophe discuss “I Will Not Remain Silent” below.
On New Album and in Virtual Concerts, Iris Orchestra is Undaunted
The Iris Orchestra is a unique creation in the world of classical music. Anchored firmly at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC), it is actually comprised of players from out of town, for the most part. Traveling from schools and orchestras around the country, or in some cases the world, the members of Iris stay with host families in the Bluff City whenever they are playing. Even the conductor, Michael Stern, son of the legendary Isaac Stern, lives in Connecticut and works primarily with the Kansas City Symphony.
That makes it doubly impressive that the organization is soldiering on through the COVID-19 era with a new 2020-21 season, set to begin Sunday, October 11th. That doesn’t mean subscribers can hear a live concert, but neither does it mean that the players didn’t come here to perform. Instead, Iris hit upon a hybrid approach: The musicians convened for a special performance at GPAC on Saturday, October 3rd, which was captured on video for a streaming event this weekend.
Iris Orchestra
Iris Orchestra rises to meet pandemic challenges.
Even better, the recorded performance will premiere at an outdoor event at The Grove (GPAC’s new outdoor venue) at 2 p.m. Sunday. Those who would like a taste of the conviviality of a live concert can enjoy a bit of that in the open air, seeing the show on the large screen of The Grove’s stage. And, having witnessed the group’s concert as it was filmed last week, I can attest to the passion and beauty evoked with every note played. Beyond that, the intermission will feature content that live concerts never include: interviews with the musicians involved, in a short video created beforehand.
Those musicians are skewed to Iris’ nearby members, due to the vicissitudes of the pandemic. As executive director Marcia Kaufmann puts it, “We made an effort to get as many people from within driving distance as possible. We had three people fly in, and everybody else drove, from mostly either St. Louis or Nashville. Michael Stern had planned to come, but he lives in Connecticut, which has a 14-day quarantine for people coming from Tennessee.” The conductor, therefore, had to bow out of this performance.
That the players were able to realize a world-class performance without him is a testament to the high level of musicianship embodied in Iris. Watching them assemble on the large stage, fully masked and mostly standing, separated by several feet, I was stunned at the coordination of their playing. Perhaps because some of them have played together in Iris for many years, there was an almost telepathic connection between the players.
But the pandemic didn’t affect only how the players gathered on stage; it directly impacted the instrumentation selected. As Kaufmann notes, “The format for today is all string players. We thought, ‘Let’s wait and see what they find out about aerosols and wind players before we schedule winds.’ So we started with all strings players. And the first piece, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, is all strings. The personnel for that helped Michael Stern think through the rest of the program. After the Bach is William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panamá. It was originally a string quartet, but has been enlarged to a chamber ensemble.
Iris Orchestra
“After that, we’ll have a George Walker piece, Lyric for Strings. It’s a lovely one-movement piece, a little melancholy, and very thoughtful. Both Walker and Stills are African-American composers from the early 20th century, and it shows you the different ways composers looked at music at that time. And then they finish with Max Bruch’s Octet for Strings. Bruch, of course, knows the violin very well, and this piece is a massive showcase for the first violin player. And it’s also quite a workout for everybody in the ensemble. It’s pure fireworks, a big celebratory piece.”
Kaufmann encourages music aficionados to sign up for a season’s subscription to watch the concert, at irisorchestra.org. After the next Iris virtual concert, on December 5th, consisting of archived performances of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, there may be live performances with social distancing next year.
Usually, when you go out to grab a cold one at your favorite drinking hole, you don’t get a lecture. Until maybe after you get home.
The seventh-annual Science of Beer, which was held January 17th at the Pink Palace Museum, featured mini-lectures, as well as talks with brewers and other beer-themed activities, along with more than 20 beer stations and almost the same number of food stations.
Each guest received a 16-ounce glass along with other items you don’t get at your local pub: a tasting card and a map of the event.
The combination beer tasting and education workshop raises money for the Pink Palace’s Education Department.
About 500 people attended and $30,000 was raised, says Pink Palace manager of marketing Bill Walsh.
Michael Donahue
Brandon Closson, Doyle Schaeffer, and Amanda Rast at Science of Beer.
Michael Donahue
Science of Beer
Michael Donahue
Bridgett Hauer and Clinton Ward at Science of Beer
Michael Donahue
Nate Oliva, Spencer Coplan, Gerald Darling, Spencer McMillin, and Conrad Phillips at the Homebrewer’s Dinner.
And speaking of beer…
If measured in karats, Caritas Community Center & Cafe dinners would be way up there. Take the Homebrewer’s Dinner, which was held January 17th. Former Caritas chef de cuisine Spencer McMillin was at the helm.
“I created this dinner with Michael Lee of Midsouth Malts (a home brewers supply store) to honor the underdog heroes of the Memphis brewing scene,” McMillin says. “The big boys – Wiseacre, High Cotton, Memphis Made, etc. – get all the credit – and they produce amazing beers – but there are people in the background making good stuff, too.
“The hit of the night was the 22-year-old barley wine aged for six months in a Jack Daniels barrel served with my dessert.”
That dessert was a parfait of coconut-caramel custard, almond toffee, white chocolate mousse, and candied bacon beer.
Also in the kitchen were Caritas chef de cuisine Conrad Phillips, Spencer Coplan and Gerald Darling from Wok’n in Memphis, and Nate Oliva.
Meet the 2020 Carnival Memphis king and queen: Ray Gill and Carter Stovall.
Ray Gill is king and Carter Stovall is queen of Carnival Memphis 2020.
Carnival Memphis will celebrate the commercial real estate development industry. The Business and Industry Salute will be held February 13th at Hilton Memphis.
Gill, founder of Gill Properties, and his wife, Betha, are the parents of three children, Brown, York, and Lizzie, who were members of the Carnival Memphis Royal Court.
Stovall, daughter of Baylor and Howard Stovall IV, is a junior at Cornell University, where she is studying pre-med.
The queen comes from a long line of Carnival Memphis lineage. William Howard Stovall II, her great-grandfather, was king in 1948; her grandfather, William Howard Stovall III, was king in 1976; and her father was king in 1976. Her mother was queen in 1993.
Carter and her brother, Quint, were Royal Pages in 2008. She served as the University Club of Memphis princess in the 2018 Royal Court.
Gill and Stovall will be presented at the Crown & Sceptre Ball, which will be held May 29th at the Hilton Memphis.
Hugh Mallory is Carnival Memphis’ president.
Boy Scouts Scouting Deserts Program, Red Zone Ministries, and Thrive Memphis are the recipients of this year’s Carnival Children’s Charity Initiative.
Michael Donahue
Spencer Coplan and Cara Greenstein at the Jewish Chinese Culinary Mashup dinner.
If you were lucky enough to attend the Jewish Chinese Culinary Mashup dinner, which was held January 19th at Puck Food Hall, you would have tasted matzo ball wonton soup and matzo encrusted amberjack fish, among other delicacies.
Spencer Coplan, chef/owner of Wok’n in Memphis, and Cara Greenstein joined forces for the dinner, Coplan says: “I’m Jewish. She’s Jewish. Jews love Chinese food.”
Chinese restaurants are “open on Christmas. It’s always been a thing. So, we talked about doing this for a couple of months now.”
They figured January was the first time to do the dinner, which is the inaugural event for Coplan’s Culinary Artisans Dinner Series. “Each month we’re going to do a collaboration with a chef, blogger, or someone who is involved in the food scene. We’re going to do a dinner with them.”
He and Greenstein met two weeks ago “and went over some fun ideas for the menu – bringing Chinese food and Israeli food together. This is what we came up with. It was mainly my food ideas.”
The next Culinary Artisans Dinner Series will be held February 24th at SoLa restaurant in Oxford, Mississippi. Coplan will team with SoLa chef/owner Erika Lipe. “It’s going to be more of an la carte. Guests can order what they want. She and I are collaborating on the menu. We both do Asian-inspired food with Southern twists, so we’re going to come up with some fun food ideas together and both our teams will execute the dinner.”
For information on the SoLo dinner, call (662)-238-3500.
Michael Donahue
Ashley Phoummavong, Amaia Johnson, Spencer Coplan, Gerald Darling, Omar Hernandez, and Ben Curtis at the Jewish Chinese Culinary Mashup dinner.
MIchael Donahue
Nick Manlavi and Zach Jennings at the Jewish Chinese Culinary Mashup dinner.
Michael Donahue
Melissa Peeler and Nancy Bogatin at Irish Orchestra party.
January 26th was a great day for the Iris. That night, members of Iris Orchestra were guests at a party at the home of Milton Schaeffer. They got to carry wine and food instead of musical instruments.
“Milton has thrown numerous parties for Iris over the years, and they are all over-the-top fabulous,” says Marcia Kaufmann, Iris Orchestra executive director.
The recent party was “a thank you for donors who had stepped up for the Iris 2020 Vision challenge – to increase their giving by 20 percent in honor of our 20th season and for the musicians who make it all worthwhile.”
About 115 people attended.
WE SAW YOU AROUND TOWN
Michael Donahue
Joshua and Janina Cosby at Antique Warehouse.
MIchael Donahue
Daniel Bonds, David Bonds, and Jansen Swift at Gibson’s Donuts.
Composer, pianist, violinist, and electronic musician Conrad Tao, 25, is set to travel to Memphis for two performances with Iris Orchestra. Tao is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the New York Dance and Performance award for Outstanding Sound Design/Music Composition, eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and the Carlos Surinach Prize from BMI. He was named a Gilmore Young Artist, and he has performed alongside the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony. Backed up by Iris, the award-winning composer will perform a Memphis-inspired composition of his own, along with works by Haydn and Brahms, at Germantown Performing Arts Center and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art on Saturday, January 25th, and Sunday, January 26th, respectively. The Flyer caught up with Tao to ask him about the blues, Brahms, and the tension between performing and listening.
Memphis Flyer:You were commissioned to write something that would celebrate Memphis. Tell me about that.
Conrad Tao: I ended up exploring the Delta blues lineage more broadly. I took a Charley Patton tune as my starting point for this piece. It was a Charley Patton tune called “A Spoonful Blues” that I had been listening to for a really long time. [I wanted to] consider the different roles and legacies of blues music, to hopefully offer a perspective on it that was personal.
MF:Tell me a little more about the piece.
CT: I was interested in the blues as dance music — as incredible dance music — and trying to imagine that aspect of the music. “A Spoonful Blues” is a blues tune about cocaine addiction. That is one way we could describe it, but that would really miss a lot of the point, to simply call it that. It’s this meeting point between the very social and boisterous and fun aspect of this music paired with the subject material. That’s really what’s interesting.
Brantley Gutierrez
Conrad Tao
MF: Is there anything else you’d like to say about the composition?
CT: The first line in the recording is Patton speaking “I’m about to go to jail about this
spoonful,” and that’s the only time the word “spoonful” appears in the song. It is basically the final word of each line in the song, except that instead of Patton finishing his lines with the word spoonful vocally, it’s taken by his guitar. I loved that. I was so excited by that, this excess of the feeling is such that it has to go into the instrument. The instrument is the only honest expression of the idea of this word. … I am interested in that kind of excess in music in general. I’m interested in any moment when something feels like it’s been exceeded. It’s just a preoccupation of mine.
MF: You’re from Urbana, Illinois. Being so close to Chicago, does that give you a different take on the blues?
CT: It was not first-hand experience at all. I left Illinois when I was 9 years old, and I’ve lived in New York really ever since. It was much more absorbed just through listening to recordings, in this case a recording from 1929.
Brantley Gutierrez
Conrad Tao
MF: Let’s talk about some other older compositions. Was it your choice to pair this piece with Haydn and Brahms?
CT: It was my choice to include Brahms. I feel very happy to be playing the Brahms first piano concerto right now. The piece was written when he was 25, so there’s just the happy coincidence of being at that point in my life myself, albeit in a different time. And I appreciate the emotional scope of it. I appreciate the formal rigor of it. I find that those two aspects of it are almost in conflict, and that’s what I’m really interested in.
MF: Conflict and tension can be powerful aspects of performance, especially when pairing seemingly disparate genres like classical and the blues. Talk a little about tension in music and the purpose it serves.
CT: I’m going to take a sideways route and say that I really believe that listening is the point at which music-making happens. The instruments are external to us. They’re the tools; they facilitate. We, as performers, are communicating something through the instrument, but I really think that without listening absolutely nothing happens. Listening is the plane at which all of these points can coalesce. I like this idea of music being evidence of our desire to connect the dots … to draw connections and just make sense of life.
Brantley Gutierrez
Conrad Tao
MF: Speaking of listening being a crucial part of performance, what are your thoughts on working with Iris?
CT: I’m excited. I’ve got one person in the band who I know, and I have known [Iris artistic director] Michael Stern for [a long time]. The first time I met him was 15 years ago at the Aspen Music Festival. I was playing in a violin section, and he was conducting. I have known Michael over the years, but we’ve never played together in this capacity, either with me as a pianist or a composer. So it’s really exciting to do that. It’s also a little nerve-wracking, especially as a composer, to work with a new conductor, but I’m hoping to dive in with openness.
Conrad Tao performs with Iris Orchestra at the Germantown Performing Arts Center Saturday, January 25th, 7:30-9:30 p.m. ($45-$70); and at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Hohenberg Auditorium, Sunday, January 26th, 3-5 p.m. ($40)
Courtesy Iris Orchestra 
Allen Cohen 
Iris Orchestra 
Iris Orchestra 
Jason Viera 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
MIchael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
Michael Donahue 
MIchael Donahue 
Brantley Gutierrez 
Brantley Gutierrez 
Brantley Gutierrez 
Brantley Gutierrez