The Well-Tempered Ear
Music education: The Madison Youth Choirs explore the theme of “Legacy” in three concerts this Saturday and Sunday in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post from the Madison Youth Choirs about their upcoming concerts this weekend:
This spring, Madison Youth Choirs singers are exploring the meaning of “Legacy,” studying works that have endured throughout history, folk traditions that have been passed on, and musical connections that we maintain with those who have come before us. Along the way, we’re discovering how our own choices and examples are leaving a lasting impact on future generations.
In our upcoming concert series in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State Street, on this Saturday, May 11, and Sunday, May 12, we’ll present a variety of works. They include Benjamin Britten’s “The Golden Vanity,” Palestrina’s beloved “Sicut Cervus,” Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “Wanting Memories,” the final chorus of Handel’s oratorio Samson, American and Scottish folk songs, and Zoe Mulford’s powerful modern folk piece, “The President Sang Amazing Grace.”
The concert will also pay tribute to our alumni, with selections featured on the very first Madison Boychoir album, and past Cantabile singers invited to join us on stage for “Sisters, Now Our Meeting is Over.”
At the Saturday concert, MYC will present the 2019 Carrel Pray Music Educator of the Year award to Diana Popowycz (below), co-founder of Suzuki Strings of Madison.
DETAILS ABOUT “LEGACY” MYC’S SPRING CONCERT SERIES
Saturday
7:30 p.m. Purcell, Britten, Holst and Ragazzi (boychoirs)
Sunday
3:30 p.m. Choraliers, Con Gioia, Capriccio, Cantilena and Cantabile (girlchoirs)
7:30 p.m. Cantilena, Cantabile and Ragazzi (high school ensembles)
THREE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS:
- In person at the Overture Center Box Office (lowest cost)
- Online (https://www.overture.org/events/legacy)
- By phone (608-258-4141)
Tickets are $15 for adults and $7.50 for students. Children under 7 are free, but a ticket is still required and can be requested at the Overture Center Box Office. Seating is General Admission.
This concert is supported by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, the Green Bay Packers Foundation, the Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation and Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, charitable arm of The Capital Times, and the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation. This project is also made possible by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with additional funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT MADISON YOUTH CHOIRS (MYC):
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, 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.
REPERTOIRE
SATURDAY
For the 7:30 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Boychoirs)
Britten
“The Golden Vanity,” by Benjamin Britten (to our knowledge, this will be the first time the work has ever been performed in Madison)
Purcell
“Simple Gifts” by Joseph Brackett, arr. Aaron Copland
“Tallis Canon” by Thomas Tallis
“Sound the Trumpet” from Come Ye Sons of Art by Henry Purcell
Britten
“Ich jauchze, ich lache” by Johann Sebastian Bach
Holst
“Hallelujah, Amen” from Judas Maccabeus by George Frideric Handel
“Sed diabolus” by Hildegard von Bingen
“Bar’bry Allen” Traditional ballad, arr. Joshua Shank
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Ragazzi
“Let Your Voice Be Heard” by Abraham Adzenyah
“Sicut Cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
“Agincourt Carol,” Anonymous, ca. 15th century
Ragazzi & Holst
“The President Sang Amazing Grace” by Zoe Mulford, arr. Randal Swiggum
Holst
“Shosholoza,” Traditional song from Zimbabwe
Combined Boychoirs
“Will Ye No Come Back Again?” Traditional Scottish, arr. Randal Swiggum
Legacy Choirs
“Day is Done” by Peter Yarrow, arr. Randal Swiggum
SUNDAY
For the 3:30 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Girlchoirs)
Choraliers
“Music Alone Shall Live,” Traditional German canon
“Ut Queant Laxis,” Plainsong chant, text attributed to Paolo Diacono
“This Little Light of Mine” by Harry Dixon Loes, arr. Ken Berg
“A Great Big Sea,” Newfoundland folk song, arr. Lori-Anne Dolloff
Con Gioia
“Seligkeit” by Franz Schubert
“Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, arr. Roger Emerson
“When I am Laid in Earth” from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell
“Pokare Kare Ana” by Paraire Tomoana
“Ah, comme c’est chose belle” Anonymous, 14th century
“Hope” by Marjan Helms, poem by Emily Dickinson
Capriccio
“Non Nobis Domine,” attributed to William Byrd
“Ich Folge Dir Gleichfalls” from St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach
“Dirait-on” by Morten Lauridsen
Cantilena
“Aure Volanti” by Francesca Caccini
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Cantabile
“Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies” Traditional Ozark song, adapted by Mike Ross
“Wanting Memories” by Ysaye M. Barnwell
Legacy Choir
“Music in My Mother’s House” by Stuart Stotts
For the 7:30 p.m. concert (featuring High School Ensembles)
Cantilena
“Aure Volanti” by Francesca Caccini
“Una Sañosa Porfía by Juan del Encina
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
“O Virtus Sapientiae” by Hildegard von Bingen
Ragazzi
“Sicut Cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
“Agincourt Carol,” Anonymous, ca. 15th century
“Let Your Voice Be Heard” by Abraham Adzenyah
“The President Sang Amazing Grace” by Zoe Mulford, arr. Randal Swiggum
Cantabile
“In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” by Roger Bourland
“Sed Diabolus” by Hildegard von Bingen
“Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies” Traditional Ozark song, adapted by Mike Ross
“Wanting Memories” by Ysaye M. Barnwell
Combined Choirs
“Let Their Celestial Concerts All Unite” by George Frideric Handel
Cantabile and Alumnae
“Sisters, Now Our Meeting is Over,” Traditional Quaker meeting song
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Classical music: A FREE recital by the Del Sol string quartet on Monday night honors pioneering composer Ben Johnston
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been asked to post the following announcement:
The San Francisco-based ensemble the Del Sol Quartet will give a FREE public recital on Monday night, May 21, in Madison in honor of pioneer composer, teacher and mentor Ben Johnston (below).
For more information about the composer, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnston_(composer)
The recital is on the occasion of Johnston’s upcoming induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters: https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2018-newly-elected-members/
This FREE performance will be held in the new Atrium Auditorium (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, on Monday night at 7 p.m.
The program will feature Johnston’s two most popular string quartets: the Fourth Quartet (based on the beloved theme “Amazing Grace”); and the Tenth Quartet (also based on a popular folk melody). In addition there will be works by some of Johnston’s contemporaries. (You can hear the Fourth Quartet of Ben Johnston in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Johnston, 92, has made his home in the Madison area for the past 11 years, where he continues to advance the field of microtonal music composition and performance, most notably initiated in the U.S. by music legend Harry Partch, with whom Johnston studied for several years. Partch’s seminal work, “Genesis of Music,” was first published in Madison by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1949.
Winner of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, Johnston spent most of his career at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He had a significant role in some of the Contemporary Arts Festivals, which were annual events in the 1960s. His service, as composition teacher and mentor there, led to an honorary doctorate from that institution. He is also the author of “Maximum Clarity,” published by the University of Illinois Press.
Hailed by New York Times critic Mark Swed as “probably [America‘s] most subversive composer …able to make both radical thinking and avant-garde techniques sound invariably gracious,”Johnston’s diligent dedication recently resulted in the release of the third CD by the Milwaukee-based Kepler Quartet https://www.keplerquartet.com/ on the New World Music label https://www.newworldmusic.com/
The three CD series encompasses all of Johnston’s string quartets and took 14 years of painstaking collaboration to bring to fruition, receiving high acclaim internationally. Johnston has been well-known in experimental music circles since his second quartet came out on Nonesuch Records in 1969.
Hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey” and two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the Del Sol String Quartet shares living music with an ever-growing community of adventurous listeners.
Del Sol (below) was founded in 1992 at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and is recognized as a “vigorous champion of living composers,” focusing on music that reflects the cultural diversity of the community, advocating works by both world-renowned and emerging composers, and collaborating across disciplines. Del Sol has commissioned and premiered over 100 works by a diverse range of composers.
The Quartet has performed on prominent concert series nationwide, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Symphony Space, Cabrillo Festival, Other Minds Festival, and Santa Fe Opera.
The quartet conducts an active educational program in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to regular residencies at universities and music schools across the country.”
For more information, go to: http://delsolquartet.com/
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Classical music: This Friday night at 6 the Willy Street Chamber Players open their new summer season with music by Brahms, Wolf and Higdon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Over the past two years, the Willy Street Chamber Players have sure caught on.
That’s little wonder because they consistently turn in must-hear, top-quality performances with accessible but innovative programs that mix old and new works in a shorter-than-usual format. For all those reasons, The Ear named them Musicians of the Year for 2016.
This season The Willys have already performed a preview winter concert and a spring community concert at Warner Park. Then earlier this spring and summer, they warmed up, so to speak, by opening the Rural Musicians Forum season in Spring Green and then also played at the Marquette Waterfront Festival.
This Friday at 6 p.m. the Willys will open the three-concert regular summer season of 2017.
Here is an announcement:
“The Willy Street Chamber Players will begin their third annual Summer Series this Friday night, July 7, at 6 p.m. Join these energetic young chamber musicians for an exciting concert that has something for everyone.
“The concert will begin with two short works: “Amazing Grace” by contemporary American composer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jennifer Higdon (below) and the delightful “Italian Serenade” by Hugo Wolf.
The special guest will be violinist Suzanne Beia – who performs with the UW-Madison Pro Arte Quartet and is also concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and assistant concertmaster with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Beia (below) will join the group in a performance of the gorgeous String Sextet No. 2 in G major by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear the Shanghai Quartet, performing live in Tokyo, play the second and third movements in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“All this will take place in the beautiful sanctuary (below) of Immanuel Lutheran Church, on Lake Monona at 1021 Spaight Street.
“The concert will run about 80 minutes.
“It will be followed by a reception where guests can meet the musicians and share snacks provided by Festival Foods Madison and Let It Ride Cold Brew Coffee.
“Tickets are $15 and additional information about the group and its upcoming performances — including reviews and a schedule of the Community Connect series as well as a concert at Allen Centennial Gardens — can be found at www.willystreetchamberplayers.org.”
And here is a post with more details about this summer’s concerts:
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Classical music: The Madison Early Music Festival opens with Anonymous 4 and wows a record crowd.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The number 13 might just be the luckiest number of all for the Madison Early Music Festival.
That is because the annual festival opened its 13th annual season Saturday night with an outstanding and memorable success. It did so by presenting the award-winning and best-selling a cappella quartet of women singers, Anonymous 4.
The program featured early American music, an extension of the festival last year that featured early music from the Spanish colonies in the South and Latin America.
It helped, one suspects, to have an acclaimed headliner group like Anonymous 4 and also to co-sponsor the event with the well-known Milwaukee-based early music presenter Early Music Now, which drew quite a few Milwaukeeans to Madison.
The combination brought a record-setting audience to both the pre-concert lecture and the concert itself.
The lecture, given by Prof. Lawrence Bennett (below) of Wabash College, filled the audience in on the evolution and various periods and genres of early American music from church hymns and folk hymns to fuguing tunes. His talk was a model of clarity made even more appealing and enlightening by Bennett’s unabashed willingness to draw on his own professional experience and sing solo when he offered examples of what he thought should be familiar tunes.
After the lecture came the concert, which filled Mills Hall more than I have ever seen for any MEMF event, including the popular All-Festival wrap-up concert, which is next Saturday night. The hall was almost sold-out (below).
Festival co-directors Paul Rowe and Cheryl Bensman-Rowe (below) were clearly elated with the packed and enthusiastic house, which seems to The Ear to mark a historic turning point for the festival.
Of course an argument can be made that the festival has stepped outside its usual boundaries. Much of the American music dates from after the deaths of Mozart and Haydn, and even of Beethoven and Schubert – and those are composers that the festival chooses to ignore in favor of emphasizing pre-Baroque music.
But then again, why be a purist? This was indeed early music, very early in fact for North America — even if not for Europe. In any case, the audience clearly loved it and the choice proved an outstanding one to build up attendance, which one expects will carry over to future years.
As for the music and the performance, it is hard to find anything to criticize negatively.
Dressed simply in black, Anonymous 4 (below, in Mills Hall) kept the audience’s attention and interest – there was remarkably little coughing or page-turning, sure signs of distraction — by grouping works and varying what they sang, which included two different versions of “Amazing Grace,” “The Lost Girl” and “Shall We Gather at the River.”
Each singer demonstrated time and again that she possessed a strong voice with a distinctive tone. They all sang strongly, without strain and also without amplification. Yet they also sang softly very often, with depth of tone, and with great balance and dynamics in the parts.
All four blended and harmonized beautifully and confidently. But they also sang as soloists and in duos, demonstrating that there was not a weak link in the chain.
I was especially impressed with the diction and articulation. There were only a very few words of the many texts that I did not catch. How refreshing it is to understand the text without staring at program notes while listening at the same time. This way, you could really concentrate on the music and the performance.
If such a thing as a Time Machine exists, it is surely this kind of music in this kind of performance. You only had to listen intently to be transported back to the age of Shape-Note Singing and of that plaintive Appalachian quasi-wail or yelp, done with little or no vibrato, to step backwards into a wholly different era.
Everything was minimal and focused your attention on the music and the musicians. The “Gloryland” program was an ideal 75 minutes long and was performed straight through without the distraction of an intermission.
The bare stage was set up with only four sitting chairs and four music stands to stand at plus a few bottles of water for the singers to keep their vocal chords lubed.
In every way, it proved an exceptionally musical and exceptionally enjoyable concert that the audience rewarded with a prolonged standing ovation (below) and loud cheers. And apparently that experience was shared by the performers since the beaming members of Anonymous 4 returned twice to sing an encore, including a greta version of “Thank You.”
Just maybe the MEMF has found a formula that works and will bring an even wider public to their significant achievements.
As a fan of MEMF, I will repeat what I have often said: Along with neglected or unknown pre-Baroque composers, why not also occasionally feature some of the more popular composers like Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert in authentic performances.
I still recall MEMF’s performances of Vivaldi, Handel and especially J.S Bach, which drew big houses and which – for me at least and, I suspect, for many others – also did not compromise the cause.
But I leave that to MEMF to decide – though your input in the COMMENTS section here might be appreciated and provide helpful guidance.
In the mean while, you should know that many more lectures, concerts and master classes – including a FREE class in Shape Note Singing on Wednesday night — await you before the festival ends next Saturday night.
For more information about programs, performers, tickets and history of the festival, visit:
http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/lsa/memf/concerts.htm
You can also visit the two-part Q&A I did with MEMF co-director Cheryl Bensman-Rowe:
Tags: Amazing Grace, Early music, earlymusic, Gloryland, Jacob Stockinger, Latin America, Madison, MEMF, Saturday, Shape-Note Singing, United States, Wabash College
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Willy Street Chamber Players open a new season with an impressive program impressively played
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Willys never disappoint.
Last Friday night, the six Willy Street Chamber Players (below) opened their third summer season at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1021 Spaight Street.
And once again, even though The Willys are relative newcomers, it is hard for The Ear to imagine a more perfect or more enjoyable concert.
The large and enthusiastic audience (below), which has grown considerably over the past two years, seemed to agree, judging by the standing ovations, loud applause and overheard comments.
So what made The Willys’ concert so great and so enjoyable?
Start with the basics
It was summery and informal. Shorts, T-shirts and sandals felt entirely appropriate.
It wasn’t expensive. A $15 ticket seems very affordable compared to what so many other local groups charge.
It wasn’t too long. They played just three pieces – two short and one long — that lasted under 80 minutes. That way you can enter the zone; concentrate hard and focus while you stay in the zone; and then leave the zone for good with time to do other things, including attend the post-performance reception with cookies, ice cream and coffee.
Spoken informal introductions to the pieces – each given by a different player – served as program notes, and they were kept short and to the point. (Below is cellist Mark Bridges humorously explaining the complicated love life of Brahms and how it affected his composing the string sextet.)
The playing itself was exemplary. (It featured the six core members plus guest violinist Suzanne Beia, below front left, of the Pro Arte Quartet, the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.)
The Ear detected no sour notes, no false starts or stops, no uncertain passages or interpretation. The well-rehearsed Willys played with precision as well as heart.
The program was typical Willy fare. It mixed short and long, old and new.
The old classics were two: Hugo Wolf’s charming “Italian Serenade” for string quartet (below) and with the String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36, by Johannes Brahms, a long piece that received an energetic and thoroughly compelling reading.
But the star of the evening for The Ear came first: Jennifer Higdon‘s string quartet setting and contemporary take on the classic hymn “Amazing Grace.”
The riffs on the familiar tune by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (below) was new to The Ear and proved completely engaging, unmistakably modern-sounding yet accessible. (You can hear the Higdon work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Higdon string quartet (below) recalled an American tradition of using religious music for non-religious purposes. Think of how Charles Ives and Aaron Copland used old hymns and camp meeting songs, the most famous being Copland’s use of the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts” in “Appalachian Spring.”
To be honest, a lot of new music just doesn’t speak to The Ear or reach him emotionally. It often makes him feel superfluous.
But The Willys have a knack for picking the right kind of new music that captures and holds The Ear’s attention, including the String Quartet No. 2 by Philip Glass, the String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks” by Daniel Bernard Roumain and “Entr’acte” for string quartet by Caroline Shaw.
It is a gift The Ear hopes they keep as they choose other contemporary composers and new music to perform with tried-and-true classics.
And if you want to hear more, you can go to The Willys’ website for details about the two remaining concerts this summer plus a FREE family-friendly Community Connect appearance at the east side Goodman Center from noon to 1 p.m. this Saturday. There they will play the works by Caroline Shaw and Daniel Bernard Roumain as well as “Tango for Four” by Astor Piazzolla and the Viola Quintet No. 1 in G major, Op. 111, by Brahms. (NOTE: An earlier mistake here and on the Willys’ website listed the String Sextet by Brahms rather than the Viola Quintet.)
The Willys complete the regular subscription season with performances at Immanuel Lutheran on two Fridays, July 21 (with music by Elvis Costello, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Dmitri Shostakovich) and July 28 (with music by Franz Schubert, Osvaldo Golijov and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Both performances are at at 6 p.m.
For more details about the performers and the programs, here is a link:
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/calendar.html
You shouldn’t miss The Willys in concert.
But if you do, you should know that Madison’s classical music documentarian and chronicler, Rich Samuels (below), is recording all the concerts to play this fall on his Thursday morning radio program “Anything Goes” on WORT-FM 89.9. Stay tuned for more information about air times.
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