Classical music: This week is loaded with terrific FREE vocal and instrumental concerts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Edgewood College as well as elsewhere.

A REMINDER: The final performance of University Opera’s production of Mascagni’s opera “L’Amico Fritz” will take place Tuesday night at 7:30 in Music Hall. Aldo Perelli and Shannon Prickett (below, in a photo by Brent Nicastro) are featured in starring roles. Here is a link to a review by John W. Barker for Isthmus:

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=39412&sid=d5dd06c8fbafef9a2cb026b18818c449

And here is a link to other information including ticket prices, which students sing when, and a Q&A with director William Farlow and some background, including which UW-Madison student sings what roles on what day:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/classical-music-qa-university-opera-director-william-farlow-talks-about-why-he-likes-mascagnis-rarely-staged-opera-lamico-fritz-which-will-get-three-performances-on-friday-night-sunday/

By Jacob Stockinger

I hope it doesn’t feel awkward to lump two competing educational institutions together. But they cooperate more than they compete. Plus, there is so much music this week – again – that it would be hard to fit it all in with each event getting its own post.

So here is a line-up of concerts – all of them are FREE – at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and Edgewood College.

TUESDAY

On Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Band will perform a concert under director Mike Leckrone (below). Sorry, but no details yet about the program.

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of conductor James Smith (below top), will perform with retiring oboe professor Marc Fink (below bottom).

The program features Respighi’s “Three Botticelli Pictures”; Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C Major, K 314, with Fink as soloist; and Beethoven’s sublime Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, considered by many, including the composer, the be among his best works.

This program sure seems perfectly suited to the First Day of Spring with the impulsive Beethoven, the sensual Italian Renaissance inspirations and the always graceful and charming aria-like lines of Mozart.

THURSDAY

Then on Thursday night, at 7:30 in Mills Hall, UW-Madison conductor and graduate student David Grandis (below top) will conduct the UW Symphony Strings in a all-Bizet concert that features three UW-trained singers; mezzo-soprano Jennifer D’Agostino (below second, who used to be known as Jennifer Sams), tenor Daniel O’Dea (below third) and baritone Michael Roemer (below bottom).

The program includes the “Carillon” excerpt from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne” Suite (The Woman from Arles) and from Bizet’s opera “The Pearl Fishers.” (Hear the fabulous male duet from the opera in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

FRIDAY

The weekly Friday Noon Musicale, to be held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Landmark Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature classical guitarist Jamie Guiscafre, who teaches in Iowa but lives in Madison, performing music by Albeniz, Brouwer and Guiscafre.

At 7 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood college Drive, the Edgewood College, the Edgewood College Band (below), under the direction of Walter Rich, will perform a concert.

Along with other featured works, the band will perform Franz von Suppe’s Poet and Peasant Overture, Claude T. Smith’s Incidental Suite, and Brian Balmages’ Summer Dances.

This event, like other arts events at Edgewood College, is presented as part of the Year of the Arts at Edgewood College, a celebration of music, theatre and art for 2012-2013. Supporters of our Year of the Arts programming include the Kohler Foundation, BMO Harris Bank, the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, DANE Arts with additional funds from the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Native Capital Investment, and the Ahrens-Washburn Community Fellows Program.

SUNDAY

The weekly “Sunday Live From the Chazen” concert, to be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery 3 and broadcast live statewide on Wisconsin Public Radio, will feature the pianist Namji Kim, who teaches at the UW-Eau Claire.

The program includes Olivier Messiaen’s “Je dors, mais mon coeur veille” (I Sleep but My Heart Keeps Watch) from “Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus” (Twenty Meditations on the Baby Jesus); Hadyn’s Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. XVI 49; Ravel’s “Alborada Del Gracioso”; and Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor Op. 58. 

Three Edgewood College Choral Ensembles will perform a concert on Sunday, March 24 at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive. The Chamber Singers and Men’s Choir (below right and left, respectively) are under the direction of Albert Pinsonneault, while Kathleen Otterson will direct the Women’s Choir (below middle).

Included on the joint program are works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Faure, as well as folk songs, spirituals, and selections by Gilbert and Sullivan.

 

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Botticelli, Claude T. Smith, David Grandis, Edgewood College, Iowa, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Michael Roemer, Respighi, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, wisconsin public radio, YouTube