The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Need a break from the holiday rush? Try the Middleton Community Orchestra and soprano Emily Birsan this Monday night at 7:30. Plus, tuba, sousaphone, euphonium and baritone players — both amateurs and professionals — are wanted for Sunday’s “Tuba Christmas” in the state Capitol.

ALERT: Attention alls players of the tuba, sousaphone, euphonium and baritone players: If you want to have a Christmas blast, gathered in the Wisconsin State Capitol and around the state Christmas Tree in the Capitol Rotunda (bel0w), here is your chance. All you need is the instruments, the skills, the desire, some paraphernalia and $10. For details, see:

http://www.tubachristmas.com/readtcloc.php?TCState=WI&TCCity=Madison

By Jacob Stockinger

Need a break from the rush of holiday shopping, partying and prepping?

You might try attending a concert by the Middleton Community Orchestra (below top), which is made up of amateurs and professionals and is conducted by Steve Kurr (below bottom).

The concert is on this coming Monday night, December 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the comfortable Middleton Performing Arts Center (below), which is attached to Middleton High School.

Tickets are $10 and are available at the door and at Willy St. Coop West.

The concert, “An Evening with the Middleton Community Orchestra and Soprano Emily Birsan” promises to be an enjoyable evening of great music.

The orchestra will be featured in: Mikhail Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla Overture; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Dance of the Tumblers”; and Ludwig van Beethoven’sSymphony No. 6, “Pastoral.”

The very accomplished University of Wisconsin School of Music alumna Emily Birsan (below) will return top the MCO holiday concert to sing four arias by Mozart, Strauss, Donizetti and Charpentier.

Details are at www.middletoncommunityorchestra.org

Emily Birsan is in her final year of the Chicago Lyric Opera apprentice program and is on the brink of a stellar international career.  Here is a link to her bio for more details: http://www.emilybirsan.com/bio.html (You can hear her sing “Musetta’s Waltz,” from Puccini’s “La Boheme,” with the Middleton Community Orchestra under Steve Kurr in a YouTube video at the bottom.)

The Ear has found the MC performances a thoroughly enjoyable treat.

The performance usually lasts about 90 minutes without an intermission and features socializing over cookies and punch with the players afterwards.

If you need more reasons to attend, here is a review I wrote about one performance:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/classical-music-review-let-us-now-praise-amateur-music-makers-and-restoring-sociability-to-art-here-are-9-reasons-why-i-liked-and-you-should-attend-the-middleton-community-orchestra/

And if you use this website’s search engine, you can also check out the many positive reviews of the Middleton Community Orchestra by critic John W. Barker.