The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: What classical music do you find necessary and why?
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has heard many themes for concerts and festivals.
But he really, really likes the title of this year’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival (below, inside the refurbished barn that serves as a concert hall).
It runs from Aug. 26 through Sept. 3.
Here is a link to complete details about the performers, the three programs and the five concerts that focus especially on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel and Robert Schumann:
The theme or concept is NECESSARY MUSIC.
Of course, as the festival press release says, the Token Creek organizers recognize that the whole idea is subjective, so they refuse to be prescriptive:
“In what way, and for whom is a certain kind of music necessary?
“Certainly the presenters of a chamber music festival would be presumptuous to offer a program as a sort of prescription for listeners. And at Token Creek we won’t.
“So often the music we need arrives by chance, and we did not even know we needed it until it appears. And other times we know exactly what we are missing. And so we offer this year’s programs of pieces that feed the soul.”
The Ear likes that concept.
And he thinks it applies to all of us.
So today he wants to know: What music is NECESSARY FOR YOU and WHAT MAKES IT NECESSARY
Of course, the idea of necessary music changes over time and in different circumstances.
Do you need relief from the anxiety of political news?
Are you celebrating a happy event?
Are you recovering from some kind of personal sadness or misfortune?
But right now, what piece or pieces of music – or even what composer – do you find necessary and why?
In the COMMENT section, please tell us what it is and what makes it necessary?
And please include a link to a YouTube video performance, if possible.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: anxiety, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, chance, choral music, circumstances, Classical music, concept, Concert, Early music, event, festival, Franz Schubert, George Crumb, George Frideric Handel, happy', idea, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, listener, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, misfortune, Mozart, Music, necessary, occasion, opera, Orchestra, performance, personal, Piano, pieces, political, Politics, prescriptive, presenter, program, Ravel, sadness, Schumann, Sonata, soul, subjective, symphony, theme, time, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra presents another FREE Farmer’s Market Organ Recital this Saturday at 11 a.m.
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will offer another FREE Farmer’s Market Organ Recital.
The concert will last 45 minutes. No tickets or reservations are required. All ages are welcome to attend.
The organist this time is the prize-winning Simone Gheller.
Gheller (below) is an international organist from Padua, Italy. He has played concerts in prestigious locations in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Brazil, and America among others. Gheller studied at Oberlin College in Ohio with Professor James David Christie and Olivier Latry, and currently serves as the Music Director and Organist at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Oconomowoc.
Gheller’s program will feature works by Liszt, Bossi, Thalben-Ball, Buck and Creston. Sorry, no word about specific works on the program. (You can hear Gheller playing a dramatic and animated work by Liszt in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the performer, go to:
http://www.simonegheller.it/en/biography.html
For more information about the Farmer’s Market Organ Recitals, go to:
https://www.madisonsymphony.org/farmer
Tags: America, animated, Austria, Bossi, Brazil, Buck, Catholic, church, Classical music, Dane County Farmers' Market, drama, dramatic, Farmer's Market, France, George Thalben-Ball, Germany, international, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Liszt, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Oberlin College, Oconomowoc, organ, Paul Creston, recital, Roman Catholic, Simone Gheller, St. Jerome, study, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: This year’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival will explore “Necessary Music” by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Ravel, Harbison and other composers from Aug. 26 through Sept 3
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post about an annual event that puts on a lot of MUST-HEAR programs:
TOKEN CREEK, WIS. – In what way, and for whom, is a certain kind of music necessary?
Certainly the presenters of a chamber music festival would be presumptuous to offer a program as a sort of prescription for listeners. And at Token Creek we won’t.
So often the music we need arrives by chance, and we did not even know we needed it until it appears. And other times we know exactly what we are missing. And so we offer this year’s programs of pieces that feed the soul.
Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 27, at 4 p.m., Program I: Continuo
Some works of art are so rich that they sustain a lifetime of inquiry and encounters, each time revealing fresh new insights only possible through sustained engagement, pieces so resilient they admit multiple interpretations, approaches, nuances, shadings.
We open the season with music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below), pieces we’ve played before and some we have not, music that continues to compel for the very reason that it can never be fully plumbed, music that rewards over and over again. In a concert dominated by Bach, the requirement of the other pieces is really only that they offer sufficient originality and integrity not to be dwarfed or rendered ephemeral by his authority.
Flutist Dawn Lawler (below top), cellist Sara Sitzer (below second) and pianist Jeffrey Stanek (below third join the artistic directors composer-pianist John and violinist Rose Mary Harbison (below bottom) for this opening program.
Works:
BACH Sonata in E minor for violin and continuo, BWV 1023
HAYDN Trio in F major for flute, cello and piano XV:17
BACH Two Fugues, from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
HARBISON Mark the Date, for flute and piano (pre-premiere)
BACH Sonata in G major for violin and continuo, BWV 1021
BACH Three-Voice Ricercar, from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
BACH Sonata in C minor, from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 7:30 p.m. Program II: Schubert
A sequel to last year’s all-Schubert program, which offered Die Schöne Müllerin and the “Trout” Quintet, this season we offer two late masterworks by Schubert (below): the song cycle Schwanengesang (Swan Song) and the solo piano set of six Moments Musicaux (Musical Moments).
In structure, ingenuity and invention these two large works offer an eloquent counterpoint and complement to one another. We are pleased to welcome back pianist Ya-Fei Chuang (below top), and to introduce tenor Charles Blandy (below middle) with pianist Linda Osborn (below bottom).
Works:
SCHUBERT Andante, from Sonata in C for Piano Four Hands (“Grand Duo”), D.812
SCHUBERT Moments Musicaux, D.780
SCHUBERT Schwanengesang, D.957
Saturday, Sept. 2, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 3, at 4 p.m. Program III: Waltz
This program explores the familiar form of the waltz as an unexpectedly flexible and diverse musical type, with uncommon approaches from a wide variety of composers from Schubert through Sur.
We conclude the season with Schumann’s splendid Piano Quartet, whose third movement offers one of the greatest of slow waltzes of all time. (You can hear it performed by the Faure Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We are pleased to introduce violist Becky Menghini (below top) and cellist Kyle Price (below bottom).
Works:
FRITZ KREISLER Three Old Viennese Melodies for Violin and Piano
DONALD SUR Berceuse for Violin and Piano
SCHUBERT Waltz Sequence
RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales
GEORGE CRUMB Sonata for Solo Cello
SCHUMANN Quartet in E-flat for Piano and Strings, Op. 47
The Token Creek Festival has been called a gem, a treasure nestled in the heart of Wisconsin cornfields, a late-summer fixture just outside of Madison.
Now in its 28th season, the Festival has become known for its artistic excellence, diverse and imaginative programming, a deep engagement with the audience, and a surprising, enchanting and intimate performance venue in a comfortable refurbished barn.
The 2017 festival offers five events to close the summer concert season, Aug. 26–Sept. 3.
Performances take place at the Festival Barn (below), on Highway 19 near the hamlet of Token Creek (10 minutes north of Madison, near Sun Prairie) with ample parking available.
The charmingly rustic venue—indoors and air-conditioned with modern comforts—is invitingly small, and early reservations are recommended.
Concert tickets are $32 (students $12). Reservations can be secured in several ways:
- Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/token-creek-chamber-music-festival-2017-necessary-music-tickets-36091343179
- Website: www.tokencreekfestival.org (a link to our online ticketing, or a printable order form)
- Phone: 608-241-2525 (voicemail only, please leave a message)
- Email: info@tokencreekfestival.org
- U.S. mail: P.O. Box 5201, Madison WI, 53705
More information about the Token Creek Festival and all events and artists can be found at the website, www.tokencreekfestival.org or by calling 608-241-2525.
Tags: Art of Fugue, Arts, authority, Bach, barn, Baroque, Berceuse, Cello, Chamber music, chance, Charles Blandy, Classical music, composer, continuo, cornfield, coutnerpoint, Dawn Lawler, Die Schoene Muellerin, Donald Sur, enchanting, encounters, farm, Faure, Faure Quartet, flute, Franz Schubert, fresh, Fritz Kreisler, fugue, George Crumb, Haydn, inquiry', insight, integrity, interpretation, intimate, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, Kreisler, Kyle Price, late, lifetime, Linda Osborn, lullaby, Madison, masterwork, melody, Menghini, Moments Musicaux, Music, musical, musical offering, need, new, nuance, offering, originality, Piano, Piano Quartet, polyphony, prescription, program, Ravel, reservations, ricercar, rustic, Schumann, Schwanengesang, Season, sequel, shading, small, solo, Sonata, summer, Sun Prairie, Sur, Swan Song, tenor, ticket, Token Creek, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, trio, Trout, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Valses nobles et sentimentales, video, Vienna, Viennese, Viola, Violin, voice, Waltz, Wisconsin, Ya-Fei Chuang, YouTube
Classical music: Explore how modern and contemporary piano music uses bird songs
3 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Kyle Johnson (below, in a photo by Peter Jakubowski), a talented pianist who is studying at the UW-Madison and who has contributed reviews to this blog, sends the following information:
Hi all,
You’re receiving this email because you collaborated with me on my ongoing Messiaen podcast production, helped me in a small way, are on my doctoral committee, or are simply someone whom I’ve told about the project in recent weeks.
I’ve great news: Edge Effects, a magazine out of the Center for Culture, History and Environment (within UW’s Nelson Institute) picked up knowledge of the project and decided to feature it!
The feature is a full-length preview episode of the podcast series, specifically created for Edge Effects. That episode is currently available for streaming or download HERE.
I hope everyone can get a chance to listen to it and enter the world of birdsong (below), contemporary piano repertoire, composition, ornithology and performing. (You can hear Messiaen’s use of birdsong in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Podcasting, itself, is a great, relatively new medium for education, storytelling, and informing — all attributes I hope you’ll take away after hearing it.
Happy listening,
Kyle
Kyle D. Johnson, Mead Witter School of Music
Dissertator, Doctor of Musical Arts
Tags: Arts, bird, birdsong, blog, Center for Culture, Classical music, committee, critic, dissertation, DMA, Doctor of Musical Arts, doctorate, Edge Effects, Education, email, episode, Gaylord Nelson, History and Environment, Jacob Stockinger, Kyle Johnson, listen, listening, Madison, magazine, medium, Messian, Nelson Institute, ornithology, PhD, photo, Piano, podcast, preview, project, review, series, singing bird, storytelling, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Single tickets for the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s new season are now on sale
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Just a quick reminder today: Single tickets for the new 2017-18 season of the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below), under music director John DeMain, are now on sale.
And there are some good deals.
Here are two links to information about the programs and guest artists for the new season, including an interview with John DeMain that John W. Barker did for this blog:
https://www.madisonsymphony.org/17-18
And here are two links to information about single ticket sales.
https://www.madisonsymphony.org/singletickets
http://www.overture.org/events/madison-symphony-orchestra
While you’re at it, what do you think of the new MSO season?
What do you like and what don’t you like?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Barber, Baroque, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, John W. Barker, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Olga Kern, Orchestra, Overture Center, sale, Season, symphony, tickets, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin
Classical music: The Ear listens with eyes open and finds interesting photos at concerts
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
It was the famous 20th-century composer and pioneering modernist Igor Stravinsky (below) who advised us to listen to music with our eyes open.
For one, it fosters our appreciation of the sheer physicality of making music. Musicians are, as the pianist Vladimir Horowitz once observed, athletes of the small muscles.
If you listen with your eyes open you can see a lot of things.
You can see how musicians give each other cues.
You can see the expression on their faces, the joy and pleasure that making music gives them.
You can observe how different members of the audience react differently to different music.
You can appreciate the many kinds of instruments with the eye-catching shapes, sizes and colors.
And you can see patterns that make for good photographs – if taking photos is allowed.
Of course even if it is, there are rules to follow so that the musicians and other audience members are not disturbed: no flash and no shutter sound are the main ones besides the rule of intellectual property and the forbidding of taking photographs – kind of a difficult one to enforce these days, what with all the smart phones out there.
But some musicians and groups are very friendly and open to photographing, especially if the photos are strictly personal and not for commercial use to earn a profit.
At the last regular concert this summer by the Willy Street Chamber players a little over two weeks ago, The Ear found two that showed patterns for good composition.
It’s just fun. But productive fun that can capture the fascination with music and musicians, especially if you sit close to the performers.
Here they are.
First is “Three Clarinets,” a portrait of guest artist Michael Maccaferri, from the Grammy-winning chamber music group eighth blackbird, with the three clarinets he used in the Argentinian-Jewish composer Osvaldo Golijov’s “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.” The black verticality of the clarinets is heightened by the same quality of the music stands.
The second is “Two Cellos and One Violin,” taken during the bows after the string sextet version of Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante.” The shapes and shades of brown wood draw the eye.
Tell The Ear of you like this kind of photo essay and want to see more of them on the blog.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Argentinian, Arts, athlete, audience, blind, brown, Business, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, color, commercial, composer, Composition, concerto, cue, different, dream, Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, eighth blackbird, essay, expression, face, flash, Grammy, instruments, intellectual property, Jacob Stockinger, Jew, Jewish, Madison, Michael Maccaferri, modern, modernism, Mozart, muscle, Music, musicians, Osvaldo Golijov, pattern, photo, photography, Piano, pioneer, prayer, profit, reaction, shade, shape, shutter, Sinfonia Concertante, smart phone, Sound, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, verticality, Viola, Violin, Vladimir Horowitz, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wood, YouTube
Classical music: Why do we love Chopin? Ask pianist Jeremy Denk
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like playing or hearing the music of Chopin (below).
Can you?
But just why the 19th-century Romantic composer has such universal appeal is hard to explain.
One of the best explanations The Ear has read came recently from pianist Jeremy Denk, whose essay on “Chopin as a cat” appeared in The New York Times.
Denk, who has performed two outstanding solo recitals in Madison, is clearly an important musical thinker as well as a great performer. You can also see that at once if you read his excellent blog “Think Denk.”
The Ear suspects the current essay grew out of some remarks that Denk gave during a lecture on Chopin’s pedaling at the UW-Madison, and will be incorporated into the book he is working on that includes his previous acclaimed essays in The New Yorker magazine.
Denk (below), who has lately been performing an intriguing survey concert that covers 600 years of music, thinks that Chopin’s uniqueness resides in how he consolidated and fused both conservative values and radical, even modern, innovations.
To the Ear, it is the best modern analysis of Chopin that he has read since the major treatment that the acclaimed pianist-musicologist Charles Rosen wrote about the Polish “poet of the piano” in his terrific book “The Romantic Generation.”
Moreover, the online web version of Denk’s essay is much more substantial and satisfying than the newspaper print edition. It has not only audio-visual performances of important Chopin works by major artists such as Arthur Rubinstein and Krystian Zimerman, it also suggests, analyzes and praises some “old-fashioned” historical recordings of Chopin by Ignaz Friedman, Alfred Cortot and Josef Hoffmann.
Now if only Jeremy Denk would record an album of Chopin himself!
Here is a link to the Chopin essay:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/arts/music/jeremy-denk-chopin.html
Enjoy!
Please listen to the wonderful clips that Denk suggests.
Then tell us what pieces are your favorite Chopin works, big or small, and what performers are your favorite Chopin interpreters.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alfred Cortot, analysis, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Bach, Ballade, barcarolle, Baroque, Beethoven, big, blog, cat, Chamber music, Charles Rosen, Chopin, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, conservative, consolidate, essay, explanation, feline, Franz Schubert, fuse, harmony, hear, historic, Ignaz Friedman, important, innovation, interpreter, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, Johannes Brahms, Josef Hofmann, Krystian Zimerman, lecture, Love, magazine, major, Martha Argerich, melody, modern, Music, musicologist, New York Times, Newspaper, online, pedal, pedaling, Piano, play, poet, Polish, Prelude, print, radical, read, record, recording, Romantic, small, SoundCloud, survey, The New York Times, The New Yorker, think, Think Denk, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, values, web, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: We should hear more encores, especially at outstanding chamber music concerts. Plus, a FREE Farmer’s Market organ recital is this Saturday at 11 a.m.
6 Comments
ALERT: This Saturday at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will offer another FREE Farmers Market Organ Concert. The program, which runs 45 minutes, features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne. The organist is the prize-winning Madison native Adrian Binkley.
By Jacob Stockinger
Two weeks ago, the Willy Street Chamber Players gave The Ear yet another reason to like them and be a fan.
After the season-ending program of Schubert, Osvaldo Golijov and Mozart was over, while the audience was cheering, standing and applauding loudly, two members of the young chamber music group played an encore.
The encore was “Julie-O” by Mark Summer. It was written for one cellist, as you can hear in a performance by the composer in the YouTube video at the bottom.
But this time it was performed by the two cellists of The Willys — Lindsey Crabb and Mark Bridges (below).
They agreed to play an encore only reluctantly – after some prodding by other members of The Willys, by guest clarinetist Michael Maccaferri (of the Grammy-winning group eighth blackbird) and, of course, by the audience.
But there shouldn’t have been any reluctance.
The Ear thinks we hear too few encores after so much memorable music-making.
Certain student recitals at the UW-Madison come immediately to mind. It sometimes seems that the protocol of student recitals prohibits encores, but The Ear has been told by faculty members that such is not the case.
What also comes to mind is the lack of encores at chamber music concerts by larger ensembles – piano trios, string quartets and piano or string quintets and sextets.
And rarely do you hear encores at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra or Madison Opera except when they are played by concerto soloists.
But why not?
The Ear recalls that several years ago the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, performing the aria with notoriously difficult nine high C’s in the aria “Ah! Mes amis” from Donizetti’s opera “La Fille du Regiment,” then quickly repeated the same passage to frenzied approval.
What are encores but a way of saying: “You liked me, so now I like you.”
Encores are not immodest bragging. They are a reward, a gift, a way for the performer to say thank you to the audience for its attention and appreciation.
Maybe every individual or group should have some kind of encore in the back pocket and ready to go. It could be a short movement or even a section of a movement, perhaps a coda or finale.
It seems to The Ear that many instrumentalists, especially pianists who have such a rich repertory, would do well to have four encores ready: one fast and one slow, one loud and one soft.
That way, the encore can underscore — by either complementarity or contrast — the piece or pieces that preceded it and called for it.
Have you ever wanted to hear an encore and been frustrated?
What do musicians themselves say about playing encores?
Are there unwritten guidelines or an unstated protocol about when to play encores?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Adrian Binkley, applause, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, bragging, Cello, Chamber music, Charles-Marie Widor, cheer, clarinet, Classical music, concerto, Dane County Farmers' Market, Donizetti, eighth blackbird, encore, fan, farmer, fast, gift, Golijov, Grammy, Grammy Award, guidelines, high C, High C's, immodest, Jacob Stockinger, Juan Diego Florez, Julie-O, La fille du régiment, lead, like, Lindsey Crabb, loud, Louis Vierne, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mark Bridges, market, Mary Summer, Mendelssohn, Michael Maccaferri, Mozart, Music, Musician, opera, organ, Osvaldo Golijov, Peru, Peruvian, prize, program, protocol, Quartet, quintet, recital, reward, role, Schubert, Season, sextet, sing, singer, slow, soft, soloist, stand, String quartet, string sextet, strings, Student, summer, tenor, thank you, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players announce their new season with the theme of “Journey”
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Over many years, the Oakwood Chamber Players (below) have built a solid reputation for programming unusual composers and neglected works, all performed with first-rate playing.
(You can sample their recording for Naxos Records of a work by UW-Madison graduate Daron Hagen in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The new 2017-018 season, based on aspects of a JOURNEY is no exception.
Except where noted, performances are on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at Oakwood University Woods Center for Arts and Education, 6201 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side, not far from West Towne Mall.
The group writes:
“Join the Oakwood Chamber Players on our 2017-2018 season journey with composers whose music encompasses the animation and anticipation at departure and beyond. We’ll have something for adventure seekers as they consider the view over the ever-expanding horizon.
“We’ll stop over to stay a while with friends and see the future with those who forever influence the musical landscape. We will welcome both familiar and new faces as guest artists this season. Come along with us on the JOURNEY!”
JOURNEY
DEPARTURE
September 9/10, 2017
Strauss-Schoenberg Kaiser-Walzer for mixed ensemble
Reger Serenade for flute, violin and viola
Arutiunian Concert Waltz for winds and piano
QUEST
November 26, 2017 (1 and 3:30 p.m.)
Blake Snowman Suite for string quartet
Mozetich Angels in Flight for mixed ensemble
Rutter Brother Heinrich’s Christmas for vocal quartet, narrator and mixed ensemble
HORIZON
January 13/14, 2018
Casella Serenade for mixed ensemble
Mikulka Sunset 1892 for clarinet, viola and piano
Huber Quintet for winds and piano
SOJOURN
March 10/11, 2018
Hofmann Octet for mixed ensemble
Schoenberg Presto for string quartet
Scott Cornish Boat Song for piano trio
Mendelssohn Concert Piece for clarinet, bassoon and piano
LEGACY
May 19/20, 2018
Kaminski String Quartet
Smit Sextet for wind quintet and piano
Sekles Capriccio – Yankee Doodle con variazioni for piano trio
2017-2018 Season Ticket Prices
Senior (62+) Single: $20 per concert
Senior (62+) Series: $85 for the season*
Adult Single: $25 per concert
Adult Series: $105 for the season*
Student Single: $5 per concert
*Season concert series offers five concerts at a 15% discount. Tickets available at the door.
The Oakwood Chamber Players now accept payment via credit card as well as cash and check.
For more information, go to: https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com
Tags: adult, adventure, Alexander Arutiunian, angel, animation, anticipation, artist, Arts, Blake, boat, Capriccio, Casella, cash, Cello, Chamber music, check, choral music, Christmas, clarinet, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, Cornish, credit card, Daron Hagen, departure, discount, Doodle, Education, ensemble, face, flight, flute, guest, Hofmann, Holiday, horizon, Huber, Jacob Stockinger, journey, kaiser, Kaminski, landscape, legacy, Madison, man, Mendelssohn, Mikulka, Mozetich, Music, musical, narrator, Naxos, Oakwood Chamber Players, Oakwood Village, Octet, Piano, Piano Trio, Quartet, quest, quintet, recording, Reger, Rutter, Schoenberg, Scott, seeker, Sekles, senior, Serenade, Smit, snow, snowman, sojourn, Sonata, song, Strauss, String quartet, Student, sunset, theme and variations, tickets, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variations, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Waltz, West Towne Mall, winds, Wisconsin, work, Yankee, Yankee Doodle, YouTube
Classical music: The second annual Madison New Music Festival will take place this Thursday through Sunday
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The summer classical season in Madison just keeps getting busier and more interesting.
The Ear has received the following announcement from Zachary Green (below), a native Madisonian and composer who graduated from Oregon High School and the Juilliard School, which awarded him a grant to start the first Madison New Music Festival last year. He now directs the event:
Dear friends, family, colleagues, and mentors,
I am extremely pleased to invite you to the second season of the Madison New Music Festival, taking place this Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 10-12.
The Madison New Music Festival is an annual weekend-long concert series dedicated to strengthening Madison’s cultural vitality through the celebration of fresh classical music from our lifetimes.
The festival strives to affordably and accessibly share music by the world’s leading living composers with the Madison community, with special emphasis placed on Wisconsin-based composers and performers.
This year, over the course of four concerts, we will be featuring 30 performers playing the music of over 20 composers— including the music of a different living Wisconsin composer at every concert.
The concerts will take place Thursday at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (8 p.m.), Friday at Bethel Lutheran Church (8 p.m.), and Saturday at the Memorial Union Terrace (3 p.m.) and Robinia Courtyard (7:30 p.m.).
PROGRAM AND TICKET INFORMATION:
Thursday, Aug. 10, at 8 p.m., Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in the Overture Center. (Below is a photo at MMoCA from last year’s festival)
After an incredibly successful launch in 2016, the Madison New Music Festival is set to return to MMoCA for a concert combining contemporary visual art and new music.
The festival presents brand new pieces by emerging composers, underplayed classics of the contemporary repertoire, and shines a spotlight on new music created here in Wisconsin.
The concert at MMoCA features music with thematic ties to MMoCA’s current exhibitions, including politically charged works such as “But I Still Believe” by composer Zachary Green and inspired by Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, and “Drums of Winter” from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and environmentalist John Luther Adams (below). You can hear “Drums of Winter” in the YouTube video at the bottom.
There will be a cash bar and opportunities to walk around the exhibits. Tickets are $10, $5 for students and FREE for MMoCA members.
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13011
Friday, Aug. 11, at 8 p.m. in Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin Avenue
The festival’s second night features an eclectic range of music, from the inventive, folk-inspired music of Romanian composer Doina Rotaru (below top) to the improvisatory soundscapes of recently departed legend Pauline Oliveros (below bottom).
Also featured is local composer Scott Gendel (below top) , who will present a set of his own music with frequent Madison Opera guest soprano Emily Birsan (below middle). Both are graduates of the UW-Madison.
Other performers include Chicago-based new music ensemble Chartreuse (below top), local flutist Iva Ugrcic (below middle) and local violinist Lydia Sewell (below bottom). Tickets are $10, $5 for students.
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13028
Saturday, Aug. 12, at 3 p.m., Memorial Union Terrace
Local new music wind quintet Black Marigold (below top) will perform “Beer Music” by Brian DuFord (below bottom), inspired by different kinds of beer– and you can sip as you listen!
But first, get your groove on with rhythmic works by emerging composer Andy Akiho (below top), Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, and local percussionist Dave Alcorn (below bottom) of Clocks in Motion — interspersed with interactive interpretations of Renaissance motets and an electroacoustic work for vibraphone. Featured musicians include percussionist Garrett Mendelow and Chicago-based new music ensemble Chartreuse. Admission is FREE.
Saturday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 PM, Robinia Courtyard (Jardin Restaurant) at 827 East Washington Avenue.
Join us at Jardin Restaurant, part of the newly redeveloped Robinia Courtyard to hear local ensemble Mr. Chair (below) present an eclectic, head-banging set ranging from original compositions to versions of Erik Satie, Olivier Messiaen and Igor Stravinsky.
Also featured are the genre-bending Echelon String Quartet(below) and a mesmerizing solo bass piece performed by Grant Blaschka. Cash bar. ($10/$5 student)
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13029
Tags: 2016, acoustic music, alcorn, Andy Akiho, Art, Arts, bar, bass, Beer, beer music, Black Marigold, Brian DuFord, cash, Cello, Chamber music, Chartreuse, Chicago, church, Classical music, Clocks in Motion, colleague, composer, concerto, contemporary, courtyard, culture, Dave Alcorn, Doina Rotaru, double bass, Dramatic Soprano, drums, Drums of Winter, Echelon String Quartet, eclectic, Electronic music, Emily Birsan, environment, environmentalist, Family, festival, flute, Folk music, friend, Garrett Mendelow, Glenn Kotche, Grant Blaschka, high school, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, improvisation, interactive, interpretation, Iva Ugrcic, Jacob Stockinger, John Luther Adams, Juilliard School of Music, local, Lutheran, Lydia Sewell, Madison, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison New Music Festival, Madison Opera, Memorial High School, Memorial Union, mentor, Messiaen, motet, Mr Chair, Museum, Music, New Music, New York City, opera, Overture Center, Pauline Oliveros, percussion, Piano, Pulitzer Prize, Renaissance, repertoire, restaurant, rhythm, Romania, Satie, Scott Gendel, singer, Singing, Sonata, song, soundscape, speech, spotlight, Stravinsky, summer, symphony, terrace, ticket, Union Terrace, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vibraphone, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wilco, Wind quintet, winds, winter, Wisconsin, YouTube, Zachary Green
Recent Comments
 | FFlambeau on Classical music: What classica… |
| FFlambeau on Classical music: What classica… |
| Classical music: Wha… on Classical music: This year’s T… | |
| FFlambeau on Classical music: The Madison S… |
 | Konsgaard on Classical music: Explore how m… |
