Hyundai Motor Co. will use music by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Super Bowl XLIII television commercial that consumers can re-edit online, Billboard has learned.
I read about this twice, both here and here. I sure didn’t see it — or hear any cello that I can recall. I did leave before the final few minutes, but I checked online just now and didn’t find anything about this ad.
Hmmm. Did I miss it somehow? Anyone know?
Conrad, the youngest of seven children, grew up in a rural town near Pittsburg, Texas. Her dream was to be a singer, and she got the chance to pursue that at UT. But UT was not a welcoming place for African American students in 1956, when integration on campus was in its infancy.
Black students were banned from living in campus dormitories and eating in school cafeterias. So Conrad and other black female students lived in a private dorm in East Austin. They were the first wave of black undergraduates to enter UT, and they braved regular intimidation. Those students endured indignities quietly as a cost of getting an education at the state’s flagship.
Through music, Conrad and many of her white peers found common ground. Nonetheless, bigotry turned her world upside down.
In 1956, months after starting classes, Conrad won the coveted role to sing Dido in Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas.” After she rehearsed for some six months for the UT production, UT officials pressured by the Legislature unceremoniously stripped her of the role. The action was taken to prevent Conrad from playing the love interest of the white male student who was cast as Aeneas. The action reverberated across the country, even getting the attention of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
The full article is here.
Well the Superbowl isn’t as much fun as I remember from the past. I don’t usually watch it for the game; I watch for the commercials. So far they are a giant yawn. I had read that Yo-Yo Ma would be on one, but I’ve not seen him so far. I do have to get ready for opera rehearsal in a bit, so I might miss it. We’ll see. (Of course I can easily find it at the Hulu Superbowl commercial link if it really does exist.)
The half time show didn’t really appeal to me, but I know next to nothing about Springsteen and I don’t understand concerts that involve lots of noise, sound doesn’t really matter, and no one is really listening. They are just a bit of a mystery to me. Call me silly.
Meanwhile, due to boredom, I looked again at the YouTube Symphony page. It appears there are more oboists and English hornists there than before. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember the number of players the last time I checked.
I wonder if these audition folks know that in a typical audition you do not count all those long rests and make an audition panel sit through them. Do instructors teach students about that? If we had to site for several minutes of rest we’d really lose it by the end of the day. Really! 🙂
Now back to the game. For once the game seems better than the commercial breaks. I guess that’s a good thing …??
Un’aura Amorosa:
As I ponder the value and purpose of this blog I’m reminded by Scott Spiegelberg that interest in my site has gone down. He has both the Google Edition and Technorati Version of classical music bloggers’ numbers. In both I’ve gone down.
Going, going, gone?
I dunno.
I do know I’ve had very little of import to write recently. Maybe I’m just in a lull. Or maybe this, like some other hobbies I’ve had, is going to diminish and disappear. But somehow I just can’t imagine letting it go. Not yet, anyway.
Alla Bella Despinetta:
In Uomini In Soldato:
You see classical music is, for lack of a better word, like a fungus.
It grows on you.
I know it’s none of my business, but I can’t help but wonder what the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was thinking when it decided to promote the Verdi Requiem as a Valentine’s Day event.
