The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Edgewood College’s annual Christmas concert is this Saturday and Sunday nights. Plus, local young piano virtuoso Garrick Olsen performs Chopin, Schumann and Liszt on Friday for FREE.

ALERT: Young local pianist Garrick Olsen will play a FREE recital at the Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive. He will perform from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the historic Landmark auditorium of the Meeting House that was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His program includes music that is both virtuosic and poetic: the Etude, Op. 10, No. 1, by Frederic Chopin; the Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17, by Robert Schumann (listen to the soulful final movement played by Claudio Arrau in the YouTube video at the bottom); and the dramatic, flashy Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 by Franz Liszt (also at the bottom played fantastically by George Cziffra in a popular YouTube video).  In the spring, on May 2, 3 and 4 — Olsen, who won the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s concerto competition two years ago with Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand, will perform George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” Variations for piano and orchestra with the MSO under John DeMain.

By Jacob Stockinger

Edgewood College will present its 86th Annual Christmas Concerts this coming weekend, at 7 p.m. on both Friday night, December 6, and Saturday night, December 7, in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, in Madison.

Featured performers of joyous seasonal holiday music include the Guitar Ensemble, the Chamber Singers (below), the Women’s Choir, the Men’s Choir, the Concert Band and the Jazz Ensemble.

Sorry, The Ear has no details about programs.

The annual Christmas celebration is one of Edgewood College’s oldest traditions. A highlight each year is the invitation for audience members to join in singing traditional carols.

Tickets are $10, and seating is limited for this very popular annual event, so please purchase tickets online by click here.

A limited number of tickets may be available at the door each night (cash or check only, please). Edgewood College strongly encourages patrons to purchase tickets online.

All proceeds for these concerts benefit Edgewood College students through the Edward Walters Music Scholarship Fund.