Classical music: Madison chamber music group Con Vivo! explains what it means to play at Carnegie Hall later this week – and how they got there.

By Jacob Stockinger

So, the old joke goes, an out-of-town stranger in New York City comes up to a native resident on the street  and asks directions: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

And the city sly, unexpected answer comes: “Practice, practice, practice!”

Well, a number of Madison-based individuals and groups, including the Pro Arte String Quartet, have practiced, practiced, practiced and then played in Carnegie Hall (below).

But The Ear still felt that asking about getting to Carnegie Hall was a good question to put to the distinguished and talented local chamber music group con vivo! (With Life) , which is now in its 11th season and will perform in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall this Thursday night.

So now that the practicing is over, I asked the group to provide a short essay to post, and the co-artistic director of con vivo! (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), Robert and Kathy Taylor, obliged my request.

Here is their essay:

By Kathy and Robert Taylor

The con vivo! musicians were all sitting around chatting at a rehearsal last year when someone said wouldn’t it be awesome to perform at Carnegie Hall.

So our Artistic Director, Robert Taylor, investigated the possibility.  We applied and were accepted into Carnegie Hall’s Visiting Artist program. A mutually acceptable date was found which is now upon us: Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 at 8 p.m.

To prepare for our appearance in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, we have been fundraising and performing over the past year. Our last performance in Madison before going to New York was last Sunday, Dec. 9, at Capitol Lakes Retirement Center’s Great Hall.

The program for Carnegie is: “Overture on Hebrew Themes” by Prokofiev; Haydn’s Piano Trio in G Major, the “Gypsy Rondo”; selections from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano by Max Bruch; and the beautiful Mozart Clarinet Quintet.

con vivo! is honored to have the opportunity to represent the Madison music community in New York City in Weill Recital Hall (below) at Carnegie Hall.

We are so very grateful to all those who have supported us to help make this event possible. It is probably every musician’s dream to perform at Carnegie Hall, so we are very excited about this performance!

Another motivating factor was that preparing for this event and performing in New York will make us better at what we do, both as individual musicians and as an ensemble.

It is also our hope that this opportunity will enhance our visibility in the Madison music scene.

In the future, in addition to our local performances, we dream about performing in some of the beautiful churches of Europe!

But for now, we’re off to New York’s Carnegie Hall!

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Carnegie Hall, Clarinet Quintet, Madison, Madison Wisconsin, Max Bruch, New York, New York City