Classical music: Make Music Madison 2015 takes place this Sunday and features some impressive classical music projects. And there is still time to participate.

By Jacob Stockinger

Sunday is the summer solstice, which arrives at 11:39 a.m. CDT.

That means it is also time for the Make Music Madison festival – a day-long, citywide FREE event with live music taking place mostly outdoors.

Here is a link to the event’s website:

http://makemusicmadison.org

The map of events is impressive, which is why Madison’s Make Music event is second in size only to New York City’s.

One thing is the sheer number of events and the number of artists, which is close to 400.

But the website is good too, although it is hard to see programs and specific pieces to be performed.

Use the filter map to see the genre -– classical, pop, folk, jazz, choral, Celtic, whatever – and the location.

For classical fans, I single out a couple of events, although there are many more.

One noteworthy event is that Farley’s House of Pianos will place an upright piano in the Hilldale Mall outside Metcalf’s grocery store from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with chairs available for seating. A full schedule of individuals and groups will perform all kinds of music.

And here is an another unusual event planned and directed by the talented Jerry Hui (below), a UW-Madison graduate who is now a music professor at UW-Stout and who has come up with a project that involves singing choral music on the shore of Lake Mendota.

I will let Jerry Hui describe it:

“The official name of the event is called the Massed Choir, part of Make Music Madison 2015. Make Music Madison is modeled after a similar event in New York City called Make Music New York, which for the last few years have featured flash mob-style music-making — including a choir. Since Madison has a vibrant choral community, I think it’s about time that we come together and have fun making music as one big choir.

“We’ll be performing three pieces on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Edgewater Hotel Plaza. Two of the pieces were voted by the participants: “Dona Nobis Pacem” (in a Youtube video at the bottom) from the Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach; and the hymn “Joyful, Joyful.”

“The third piece is freshly composed by Scott Gendel (below). Gendel is an award-winning composer and pianist, who has strong ties with Madison and is a graduate of the UW-Madison School of Music.

Gendel has set to music a beautiful poem titled “In Summer” by late 19th-century African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (below).

There is still time to join the Massed Choir!

The scores are available as PDFs on Make Music Madison’s website http://makemusicmadison.org/mass-appeal/#choir; just print a copy and show up on Sunday!

There’ll be two optional rehearsals, both at Christ Presbyterian Church: Friday, June 19, 7-8:15 p.m.; and Saturday, June 20, noon-1:30 p.m. To help with logistics planning, singers are encouraged to register at http://tinyurl.com/MadisonMassedChoir2015.

NOTE: Back to The Ear, who encourages other classical performers to list their event, time, program and place in the COMMENTS section and who says enjoy whatever you play or listen to!

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: 20th-century classical music, African American, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, blues, Celtic, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, Classical music, composer, Concert, Dona Nobis Pacem, Early music, Edgewater Hotel, Flash mob, folk, Hilldale, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Make Music Madison, Mass in B Minor, Music, New York, New York City, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Piano, poem, poet, Poetry, Rock, Scott Gendel, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Stout, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube