{"id":3416,"date":"2025-03-05T00:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T05:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2025-03-05T00:56:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T05:56:35","slug":"stravinsky-elmer-fudd-and-the-south-dakota-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2025\/03\/stravinsky-elmer-fudd-and-the-south-dakota-symphony.html","title":{"rendered":"Stravinsky, Elmer Fudd, and the South Dakota Symphony"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The final NEH-funded, multi-media \u201cMusic Unwound\u201d concert featuring the South Dakota Symphony took place last Saturday night. I cast myself in a cameo role, playing the Soldier in three excerpts from Stravinsky\u2019s The<\/em> Soldier\u2019s Tale<\/em>. I modelled my impersonation on Elmer Fudd.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The main events, however, were Ravel\u2019s Piano Concerto in G with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Stravinsky\u2019s Symphony in Three Movements with a visual presentation<\/a> by Peter Bogdanoff. This was a scripted program with a continuous visual track and certain surprises straying far afield from classical music. The topic was \u201cNew World Encounters\u201d \u2013 the impact of jazz abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South Dakota Symphony<\/a> continues to impress as the most innovative, most adventurous American orchestra I know. Saturday\u2019s concert capped a full week of activity, mainly at South Dakota State University, where my book The Propaganda of Freedom<\/em><\/a> is this semester\u2019s \u201ccommon read.\u201d The participants, all week long, include Bavouzet (a lecture\/recital on \u201cRavel and Jazz,\u201d performed three times) and former US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current SDSO season concludes April 26-27 with Douglas Moore’s Pulitzer-Prize winning opera Giants of the Earth<\/em> — its first performance since 1951; it will also be recorded. SDSO’s signature Lakota Music Project undertakes a statewide tour in October 2025; it begins on Native American Day at the Crazy Horse Memorial and works its way eastward, stopping at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, among others. I will be participating in a week-long Shostakovich festival, with a full range of educational partners, in March 2026. The repertoire will include the Symphony No. 8 and (at multiple venues) The New Babylon<\/em> — the entire 1929 silent film classic, with Shostakovich’s amazing score performed live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic Unwound\u201d<\/a> \u2013 initiated a dozen years ago in partnership with the NEH — will conclude next season with a Black Classical Music festival at Indiana University\/Bloomington, and \u201cMahler in America\u201d at the Colorado Mahlerfest (May 2026). <\/p>\n\n\n

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(Photos courtesy of SDSO percussionist Daniel Sailer)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final NEH-funded, multi-media \u201cMusic Unwound\u201d concert featuring the South Dakota Symphony took place last Saturday night. I cast myself in a cameo role, playing the Soldier in three excerpts from Stravinsky\u2019s The Soldier\u2019s Tale. I modelled my impersonation on Elmer Fudd. The main events, however, were Ravel\u2019s Piano Concerto in G with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Stravinsky\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-T6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3427,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}