For the tenth anniversary of the NDSU Chamber Music Festival August 26 through 29, Challey School of Music Artistic Director and Associate Professor of Piano Tyler Wottrich wanted a classic concert series with a twist.
“We were looking for a challenge this time around,” he said, reflecting on the decade since he founded the festival in 2015. “It’s always been about pairing NDSU student pianists with world-class professional musicians from across the globe, but it occurred to me to do something special.”
That “something special” includes four free concerts pairing professional musicians with NDSU piano students, plus performances of one of the most challenging chamber operas in the world—Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress.”
The festival kicks off with a free, two-part instrumental chamber music concert series, which will be held Monday, August 26, and Wednesday, August 28, both at 7:30 p.m. in NDSU’s Beckwith Recital Hall.
“The Rake’s Progress” will be performed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 27, and Thursday, August 29, at NDSU’s Harry D. McGovern Alumni Center. Because seating is limited for these two performances, registration is required, though attendance to all concerts are free and open to all.
Custom engravings by Cosmo Armstrong, left, and William Henry Worthington, right, depicting scenes from 18th-century painter William Hogarth’s “The Rake’s Progress,” will be on display during the August 27 and 29 performances. NDSU Challey School of Music owns the original engravings due in part by donors such as Sam and Coralie Wai, Roger Minch and Julie Burgum. Contributed/NDSU Challey School of Music
‘The Rake’s Progress’ creates opportunity to collaborate
“The Rake’s Progress,”about the decline and fall of a wealthy young man under the influence of the devil, is based loosely on an eight-painting series by William Hogarth that Stravinsky had seen. W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman wrote the libretto.
It’s an ambitious project, and for Wottrich and many others in the local music community, performing “The Rake’s Progress” is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.
“This is a mature Stravinsky,” Wottrich said, emphasizing that to see a performance of this magnitude locally is unprecedented. “The fact that it’s such a difficult piece, you’d normally have to go to London or New York to see this.”
Also special is the dynamic collaboration between local arts entities and musicians. For example, the production is directed by Judy Lewis, executive director of the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre, who is primarily known for her expertise in theater, but not opera.
It’s been a chance for both parties to grow their skills, talents and partnerships with other arts organizations in the Metro. According to Wottrich, “Judy has really put her heart and soul into it,” including set design and other details, according to Wottrich. “This particular collaboration has been essential.”
Lewis referred to directing the opera as “The most exciting and challenging thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “Being a guest director is an opportunity to simply be an artist and collaborate with deeply talented people.”
Aside from managing myriad logistics, both Lewis and Wottrich are particularly excited about set design elements, including original engravings of some of Hogarth’s paintings, and costumes by NDSU Theater Arts Professor and costume designer Rooth Varland.
The opera’s chorus and orchestra includes NDSU student performers alongside NDSU faculty, musicians from the Fargo-Moorhead area, and guest artists such as violinist Grace Park and members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Guest principal singers for “The Rake’s Progress” include NDSU alumni Clara Osowski and Tessa Hartl.
“It’s rare to see emerging and established musicians performing such ambitious music together, and the collaboration between the college and FMCT is what local art is all about—cultivating community,” The Arts Partnership Executive Director Tania Blanich said.
Instrumental chamber music performances August 26 and 28
Audiences who want a purely instrumental chamber music performance can catch two concerts that feature, as Wottrich puts it, “A delightful array of chamber music from different composers from different periods of the 19th and 20th centuries.” He added that the performances will be both “epic” and “off the beaten path.”
The shows will showcase professional regional and international artists paired with NDSU piano students, giving veteran and younger players a chance to be in conversation with one another musically.
“It’s going to be some of the most beautiful work you haven’t heard before,” he said, with performances ranging from Mozart to Dmitri Shostakovich. “It’s quite a beautiful tapestry of different chamber music.”
As far as opening night jitters, Wottrich said he’s feeling them, but his confidence in the musicians and the hundreds of hours of prep it’s taken them up to this point is at an all-time high.
“We’re imagining ‘The Rake’s Progress’ with no conductor and it is slightly scary,” Wottrich said. “It’s a very difficult work. It’s unlikely to be programmed again in this area because it is simply too hard, but we have an all-star team.”
Much of the festival’s performances were possible only because of the generosity of the local art community, Wottrich said, and a list of donors and volunteers will be honored during each event.
“Getting the festival to this point has taken an enormous amount of dedication,“ Blanich said. “The entire project has brought the arts community together and that’s both tremendously positive and exciting.”
This article is part of a content partnership with The Forum, a publication of Forum Communications Co.
About the author
Lonna Whiting is a freelance writer and owner of lonna.co, a content marketing and communications agency located in Fargo, North Dakota. She is a frequent contributor to The Arts Partnership’s content library and also provides strategic communications consultation to the organization.
