The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Madison Youth Choirs will perform immigrant music in “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora” this Saturday and Sunday

A REMINDER: Subscribers to the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s current season that just ended have until May 5 — this Thursday — to renew and save their current seats. New subscribers can receive up to 50 percent off and other discounts are available. For more about the programs of the 2016-17 season and about subscribing, visit:

http://www.madisonsymphony.org/16-17

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following notice from the Madison Youth Choirs about three concerts this coming weekend:

On this Saturday, May 7, and Sunday, May 8, 2016, in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center for the Arts, the young singers of Madison Youth Choirs (below, at the winter concert in 2014) will bring to life the musical creations of several groups who have left their homelands throughout history, under a variety of circumstances.

How do we keep our traditions in a place where they may not be tolerated? How do we maintain our identities in the face of great change? How do we preserve our stories and our history for future generations?

We invite you to ponder these questions with us as we explore the rich choral work of the African-American, Indian, Cuban, Arabic, Irish, Jewish and additional musical traditions as well as several works based on the biblical diaspora as told in Psalm 137.

At the Saturday evening performance, MYC will also present the Carrel Pray Music Educator of the Year Award to Dan Krunnfusz (below), former artistic director and conductor of the Madison Boychoir and a longtime choral and general music teacher in Madison and Baraboo public schools.

MYC Spring Concert Series: “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora.” Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin

Saturday, May 7, 2016, 7 p.m.: Boychoirs

Sunday, May 8, 2016, 3:30 p.m. Girl choirs; 7:30 p.m. High School Ensembles

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students ages 8-18. Children 7 and under receive free admission but a physical ticket is required for entry. AUDIENCE MEMBERS WILL NEED A SEPARATE TICKET FOR EACH CONCERT.

Tickets are available through Overture Center Box Office, and may be acquired in person at 201 State Street, Madison; via phone at (608) 258 – 4141; or online at http://www.overturecenter.org/events/sounds-like-home-music-in-diaspora

This project is generously supported by American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, the Green Bay Packers Foundation, the Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation, the Madison Community Foundation, the Madison Gas and Electric Foundation, the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, and Dane Arts with additional funding from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation. This project is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Madison Youth Choirs (MYC, see below in a photo by Jon Harlow on its tour to an international festival in Scotland in 2014): Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 1,000 young people, ages 7-18, through a wide variety of choral programs in our community.

Cultivating a comprehensive music education philosophy that inspires self-confidence, personal responsibility, and a spirit of inquiry leading students to become “expert noticers,” MYC creates accessible, meaningful opportunities for youth to thrive in the arts and beyond.

Here is the repertoire of the MYC 2016 Spring Concert Series “Sounds Like Home: Music in Diaspora”

Saturday, May 7, 2016, Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts

7 p.m. Concert (Featuring MYC Boychoirs)

Purcell

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child…Traditional spiritual, arr. Burleigh

Hashivenu…Traditional Hebrew, arr. Rao

Rolling Down to Rio…Edward German

Britten

The Minstrel Boy…Traditional Irish, arr. Benjamin Britten

Super Flumina Babylonis…Giacomo Carissimi

Duke’s Place…Duke Ellington, arr. Swiggum/Ross

Holst

As by the Streams of Babylon…Thomas Campion

A Miner’s Life…Traditional Irish, arr. Houston

Combined Boychoirs (below, in a photo by Joanie Crump)

The Riflemen of Bennington…Traditional, arr. Swiggum

Babylon…Don McLean

Sunday, May 8, 2016, Capitol Theater, Overture Center for the Arts

3:30 p.m. Concert (Featuring MYC Girlchoirs, below in a photo by Karen Brown)

Choraliers

Babylon…Don McClean

Beidh Aonach Amarach…Traditional Irish, arr. Dwyer

Ani Ma’amin…Traditional Hebrew, arr. Caldwell/Ivory

Gospel Train…Traditional spiritual, arr. Shirley McRae

Alhamdoulillah…Traditional Arabic, arr. Laura Hawley

Con Gioia

Folksong arrangements (2, 3, 4)…Gideon Klein

Hope is the Thing with Feathers…Marye Helms

Wild Mountain Thyme…Traditional Irish, arr. Jay Broeker

Stadt und Land in stille Ruh…Traditional German canon

Capriccio

Mi’kmaq Honor Song….arr. Lydia Adams

Thou Shalt Bring Them In…..G.F. Handel

Iraqi Peace Song…..Lori Tennenhouse

Bring Me Little Water, Silvy…..credited to Leadbelly, arr. Moira Smiley

Capriccio, Cantilena, and Cantabile

Across the Water (world premiere)…  UW-Madison alumnus Scott Gendel (below)

7:30 p.m. Concert (Featuring High School Ensembles)

Cantilena

We Are…Ysaye Barnwell

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child…Traditional spiritual

Jai Bhavani…arr. Ethan Sperry

Hej, Igazitsad…Lajos Bardos

Ragazzi

An Wasserflüssen Babylon…Michael Praetorius

Uz mne kone vyvadeji (from folksong arrangements)…Gideon Klein

Son de Camaguey…Traditional Cuban, arr. Stephen Hatfield

Loch Lomond…Traditional Scottish air, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams

Cantabile

In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles (from Alarcón Madrigals)…Roger Bourland

Riawanna…Stephen Leek

Barchuri Le’an Tisa…Gideon Klein

Kafal Sviri…Traditional Bulgarian, arr. Liondev

Cantabile and Ragazzi

O, What a Beautiful City…Traditional spiritual, arr. Shawn Kirchner