Classical music: The UW Choral Union announces its concerts for next season. Music by Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff will be performed. Plus, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society opens Madison’s summer music season starting this Friday night and is on WORT radio Thursday morning.

ALERT: WORT (88.9 FM)  radio host Rich Samuels, a major friend of Madison’s active classical music scene, writes: “I’ll be acknowledging the beginning of Madison’s summer music season on my show Thursday morning with a 7 a.m. segment (pre-recorded) featuring flutist Stephanie Jutt and pianist Jeffrey Sykes (below), co-founders and co-directors of the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. They’ll be talking about the 22nd season of BBDS – called, fittingly, “Deuces Are Wild.” It kicks off this Friday night at the Overture Center’s Playhouse, as well as the Prairie Rhapsody benefit concert they’ll be presenting this Thursday evening at the Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton. I’ll be playing recorded highlights from last year’s BBDS offerings including (at 6:10 a.m.) the chamber transcription of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, which is said to have been a favorite of Marie Antoinette. In the 7 a.m. hour I’ll also have an interview with Jim Latimer, director of the Capitol City Band. Its 45th season kicks off at Rennebohm Park on Thursday. In eight weeks, the band will be presenting its 800th concert. (Here is a link to the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society website that includes the full schedule of concerts: http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org)

By Jacob Stockinger

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music’s Choral director Beverly Taylor (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) has announced the next season of the UW choral Union.

Here are the dates and the repertoire:

On Nov. 23-24 (Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.) the UW Choral Union and the UW Symphony Orchestra (both below in Mills Hall) will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem” (Grant Us Peace) and Relix Mendelssohn’s “Die Erste Walpurgisnacht” (The First Walpurgis Night). (At bottom is a YouTube video of the UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra and UW tenor soloist James Doing performing the Final Chorus from Mendelssohn’s “Elijah.”)

On Saturday, April 26, at 8 p.m., the UW Choral Union will have one performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers,” done a cappella with no orchestra.

The Ear has also heard that the Concert Choir will be presenting J.S. Bach’s “St. John Passion” on April 12, 2014. If it is anything like the same group’s fabulous performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor several years ago, it should be a memorable event.

For more details about the Choral Union and other choral groups on the UW-Madison campus, use this link to the UW School of Music: www.music.wisc.edu/choirs

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Choir, Conducting, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Madison, Ralph Vaughan Williams, St. John Passon, Thursday, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Choral Union, Wisconsin-Madison, YouTube