Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Houston

Contributor at Bachtrack

Reviews theater and opera. Sings, mostly trouser roles. Dances in hoop skirts. Fights with swords.

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Articles

Youthful Mozart Opera, With Some New Twists, Is Glittering Vocal Show

Sep 16, 2024 | classicalvoiceamerica.org | Ilana Walder-Biesanz

BOSTON — Articles about Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto typically lead with quasi-apologies for the opera. Mozart was only 14 when he wrote it, dramaturgs hasten to remind audiences. As presented by Boston Lyric Opera on Sept. 13 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, Mitridate needs no excuses. A starry cast, plus Mozart’s dazzling score, made for one of the finest operatic evenings I’ve ever experienced. Mozart followed the Baroque opera seria model for this work.
More gifted students need accelerated paths

Aug 27, 2024 | eschoolnews.com | Ilana Walder-Biesanz

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. I went to high school at age 11. Within two years, I had run out of math and Spanish classes there, so I walked from my public school campus to nearby Lewis and Clark College to study differential equations, symbolic logic, and the plays of 1830s Spain. People often ask me if it was strange to be a newly minted teenager in classrooms full of college upperclassmen.
After six years, Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones announces she’s passing the torch

Jul 19, 2024 | chalkbeat.org | Becky Vevea |Hannah Dellinger |Brendan Rose |Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news. The head of Chicago’s largest high school charter network is stepping down after six years on the job. Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones announced in an email to staff and families that she will “pass the torch to a new leader” and work with the network’s board and an outside consultant to find a new CEO.
An investigation found Michigan failed students with disabilities. The state wants the case dismissed.

Jul 19, 2024 | chalkbeat.org | Hannah Dellinger |Brendan Rose |Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy. Michigan education officials this month asked the U.S. Department of Education to dismiss all claims that the state violated the federal rights of students with disabilities during COVID-era school shutdowns.
I skipped three grades. More highly gifted students need accelerated classes.

Jul 19, 2024 | chalkbeat.org | Ilana Walder-Biesanz

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education. I went to high school at age 11. Within two years, I had run out of math and Spanish classes there, so I walked from my public school campus to nearby Lewis and Clark College to study differential equations, symbolic logic, and the plays of 1830s Spain.
Intelligence Makes History at Houston Grand Opera

Oct 23, 2023 | sfcv.org | Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Intelligence opens quietly, its only sound the flapping of laundry. Don’t be fooled — this new opera, which had its world premiere Friday night at Houston Grand Opera, is anything but subtle. A percussive score by Bay Area-based Jake Heggie, a grandiose libretto by Gene Scheer, exaggerated characters, and visceral physicality courtesy of director/choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and the Urban Bush Women dancers combine for a night of big sounds, big movements, and big emotions.
An interview with Danielle de Niese, “opera’s coolest soprano”

Aug 25, 2023 | festivalnapavalley.org | Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Danielle de Niese performs at opening night of Festival Napa Valley at the Meadowood. Ilana Walder-Biesanz sits down with “opera’s coolest soprano.”At 30, many opera singers are still finishing training programs and trying to get their careers off the ground. Danielle de Niese was being named “opera’s coolest soprano” by the New York Times.
Tenn. picks voucher novice as vendor to run education savings accounts

Aug 10, 2023 | chalkbeat.org | Marta W. Aldrich |Hannah Dellinger |Brendan Rose |Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy. After failing to reach contract terms with its first choice to run its growing private school voucher program, Tennessee has turned to a young Indiana company with a small staff, modest cash flow, and no state-level experience managing education savings accounts.
Tenn. legislature dismisses gun bills, defying protests after school shooting

Apr 21, 2023 | chalkbeat.org | Marta W. Aldrich |Hannah Dellinger |Brendan Rose |Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free Tennessee newsletter to keep up with the Shelby County public school system and state education policy. Tennessee’s legislature raced Thursday to complete its business early for the year while refusing to take up gun reform legislation from Republican Gov. Bill Lee or Democratic lawmakers, three weeks after a mass shooting at a Nashville school.
Nashville school shooting prompts Capitol protest, and a fresh look at Tennessee gun policies

Mar 31, 2023 | chalkbeat.org | Marta W. Aldrich |Hannah Dellinger |Brendan Rose |Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Hundreds of angry protesters, most of them high school students, flooded inside Tennessee’s Capitol Thursday calling for stricter gun laws after an armed intruder killed three children and three adults days earlier at a small private school in Nashville. Chanting “Save our kids!” and “Not one more!” protesters gathered outside of legislative chambers where lawmakers were in session and could hear the students’ shouts reverberating from the Capitol rotunda.