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By Jacob Stockinger
In the week before Spring Break, the Mead Witter School of music at the UW-Madison will feature FREE concerts of percussion, brass and wind music.
TUESDAY, MARCH 10
At 7:30 p.m. in the Collins Recital Hall of the new Hamel Music Center, 740 University Ave., the percussion department will give a FREE recital. No program is listed.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11
At 7:30 p.m. in Collins Recital Hall, guest percussionist-composer Mark Stone (below) will give a FREE solo recital of original compositions for mbira and gyil.
The program will include music for the newly invented array mbira, an American-made 120 key lamellaphone. Stone will also share music composed for the Dagara gyil, a xylophone from Ghana as well as mbira traditions of South Africa and Uganda.
Also on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the acclaimed Wisconsin Brass Quintet will give a FREE faculty recital.
The program is:
Johann Sebastian Bach – Contrapunctus IV from “Die Kunst Der Fuge” (The Art of Fugue). You can hear Canadian Brass perform it in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Andre Lafosse – “Suite Impromptu”
Werner Pirchner – “L’Homme au marteau dans la poche” (Man With a Hammer in His Pocket)
Rich Shemaria – “Pandora’s Magic Castle”
Per Nørgård – “Vision”
The 2019-2020 Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below) is: Jean Laurenz and Gilson Silva, trumpets; Daniel Grabois, horn; Mark Hetzler, trombone; and Tom Curry, tuba.
Please note: In spring 2020, Mark Hetzler will be on sabbatical. His replacement will be Will Porter (below), instructor of trombone at Eastern Illinois University .Read about Porter here
THURSDAY MARCH 12
At 7:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the UW Wind Ensemble will give a FREE concert.
The ensemble will perform under the batons of director Scott Teeple (below) and guest conductor Ross Wolf.
The program is:
Frank Ticheli: “Apollo Unleashed” from Symphony No. 2
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By Jacob Stockinger
This coming week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music brings two FREE chamber music concerts of flute music and brass music.
On Monday night, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Collins Recital Hall in the new Hamel Music Center, 740 University Ave., located next to the new wing of the Chazen Museum of Art, guest artists flutist Elise Blatchford (below top) from the University of Memphis and pianist Jacob Coleman (below bottom) from the University of Kentucky will perform a FREE recital.
On Wednesday night, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the new Hamel Music Center, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below) will give a FREE performance.
Members of the 2019-20 Wisconsin Brass Quintet are Jean Laurenz and Gilson Silva, trumpets; Daniel Grabois, horn; Mark Hetzler, trombone; and Tom Curry, tuba.
Please note: In fall 2019, Daniel Grabois will be on sabbatical. His replacement will beJeff Scott (below), hornist with the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds.Read about Jeff here.
The program of modern classics includes:
“Mini Overture” by Witold Lutoslawski (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
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By Jacob Stockinger
Get out your datebooks and calendars.
Here is a complete listing for major concerts and events at the University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music during the new 2019-20 season.
The calendar starts with the FREE season-opening 40th annual Karp Family Labor Day Concert this coming Tuesday night, Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program features chamber music by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Dvorak. For more information about the program and performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/40th-karp-family-concert/
Most concerts this season will take place in the new Hamel Music Center (below), which has a three-day opening celebration Oct. 25-27.
Please note that just a few programs are listed. For other programs, and for information about any admission charge, you can go to the School of Music’s home website closer to the event and click on Concerts and Events: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/
Tuesday, Sep 3, 2019
Karp Family Concert
7:30 PM
Mills Hall
Sunday, September 29, 2019,
Jessica Martin & John O’Brien – Nordic song recital
4:00 PM
Morphy Hall
Monday, Sept. 30, 2019
Beth Wiese, Tuba, Guest Artist Recital
7:30 PM
Morphy Hall
Friday, October 4, 2019
Pro Arte Quartet
8:00 PM
Mills Hall
Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019
Chanticleer
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019
Wind Ensemble
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Friday, October 11, 2019
UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sunday, October 13, 2019
University Bands
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Contemporary Jazz & Blue Note Ensemble
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Wisconsin Brass Quintet – Faculty Concert Series
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Thursday, October 17
Jazz Faculty Quintet with special guest Michael Dudley, trumpet
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Monday, October 21, 2019
Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble and UW Jazz Orchestra
7:30 PM
Play Circle
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Concert Band
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Wed, October 23, 2019
Jazz Composers Group & Jazz Standards
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Thu, October 24, 2019
Parry Karp with Eli Kalman, piano
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Friday, October 25, 2019
Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Please check our website for details.
All Day
740 University Avenue
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Please check our website for details.
All Day
740 University Avenue
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Opening Celebration Weekend: Hamel Music Center. Featured Event: Collins Fellows Concert
1:00 PM
Collins Recital Hall, Hamel Music Center
Wed, October 30, 2019
Master Class with Violist Nobuko Imai
6:30 PM
Collins Hall
Thu, October 31, 2019
Violist Nobuko Imai with Pro Arte Quartet
12:00 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, November 1, 2019
Madrigal Singers
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, November 2, 2019
Alicia Lee, faculty clarinet
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sun, November 3, 2019
Wind Ensemble
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 8, 2019
Wingra Wind Quintet
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, November 9, 2019
UW Chorale
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Thu, November 14, 2019
UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 15, 2019
University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Sun, November 17, 2019
University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
2:00 PM
Music Hall
Tue, November 19, 2019
University Opera: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019
Low Brass Ensemble
4:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019
Combined Choirs
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, November 16, 2019
Timothy Hagen, faculty flute
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019
UW Concert Choir
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019
Pro Arte Quartet
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, November 22, 2019
UW Jazz Orchestra
5:00-7:00 PM
Rathskeller
Saturday, Nov 23, 2019
Undergrad Audition Day
All day
Sat, November 23, 2019
World Percussion Ensemble
12:00 PM
Music Hall
Sat, November 23, 2019
Brass Ensembles
1:00 PM
??
Sun, November 24, 2019
UW Concert Band with Winds of Wisconsin
5:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Mon, November 25, 2019
Chamber Percussion Ensemble
7:30 PM
Mills Hall
Tue, November 26, 2019
Opera Scenes
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Mon, December 2, 2019
Piano Studio Recital
6:30 PM
Collins Hall
Tue, December 3, 2019
Jazz Composers & Contemporary Jazz Ensembles
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Wed, December 4, 2019
Jazz Standards Ensemble & Afro-Cuban Jazz
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Thu, December 5, 2019
UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra & UW Wind Ensemble
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, December 6, 2019
Saxophonist Greg Ward with the Blue Note Ensemble and UW jazz faculty
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, December 7, 2019
UW & Madison Metropolitan Jazz Festival
Final Concert, 3:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, December 7, 2019
Choral Union: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “A Sea Symphony”
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sun, December 8, 2019
University Bands
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sun, December 8, 2019
Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church
2:00 PM
Luther Memorial Church
Sun, December 8, 2019
Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church
4:00 PM
Luther Memorial Church
Sun, December 8, 2019
All-University Strings
4:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
BEGIN 2020
Sun, January 26, 2020
Annual Schubertiade
3:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, February 1, 2020
Christopher Taylor and Friends — Beethoven Symphony Extravaganza
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Wed, February 5, 2020
Daniel Grabois, horn
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Thu, February 6, 2020
UW Symphony Orchestra
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, February 8, 2020
The Knights
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sun, February 16, 2020
UW Wind Ensemble
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Monday, February 17, 2020
Chamber Percussion Ensemble
7:30 PM
Mills Hall
Tue, February 18, 2020
Concert Band
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Thu, February 20, 2020
Parry Karp, faculty recital
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, February 21, 2020
Marc Vallon & Friends
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sunday, Feb 23, 2020
Les Thimmig, faculty recital
2:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020
Low Brass Ensemble
4:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, February 28, 2020
Pro Arte Quartet
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, February 29, 2020
Wingra Wind Quintet
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, February 28, 2020,
University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Sun, March 1, 2020
University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte
2:00 PM
Music Hall
Tue, March 3, 2020
University Opera – Mozart’s Così fan tutte
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Sun, March 1, 2020
Winds of Wisconsin
5:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Wed, March 4, 2020
Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble & Jazz Composers Group
7:30
Collins Hall
Thu, March 5, 2020
Blue Note Ensemble & Jazz Standards Ensemble
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Sat, March 7, 2020
UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra with guest pianist Wu Han
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sun, March 8, 2020
University Bands
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Tue, March 10, 2020
Percussion Department Recital
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Weds March 11, 2020
UW Jazz Orchestra
7:30 PM
Play Circle
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Wisconsin Brass Quintet – Faculty Concert Series
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Thu, March 12, 2020
UW Wind Ensemble
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, March 27, 2020
Le Domaine Musicale with Marc Vallon and Friends
8:00 PM
Collins Hall
Sun, March 29, 2020
Concert Band
2:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sun, April 5, 2020
Beethoven Competition Winners’ Recital
3:30 PM
Collins Hall
Sun, April 5, 2020
“Symphony Showcase” Concerto Winners’ Solo Concert
7:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 11, 2020
Chorale
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Fri, April 12, 2019
Perlman Trio Chamber Concert
3:00 PM
Collins Hall
Tue, April 14, 2020
Opera Scenes
7:30 PM
Music Hall
Wed, April 15, 2020
Contested Homes: Migrant Liberation Movement Suite
7:30 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Thu, April 16, 2020
Pro Arte Quartet
7:30 PM
Collins Hall
Fri, April 17, 2020
Combined Choirs
8:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020
Low Brass Ensemble
4:00 PM
Mead Witter Hall
Sat, April 18, 2020
UW-Madison Choral Reunion concert featuring Concert Choir, Madrigals and alumni
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By Jacob Stockinger
Spring Break at the University of Wisconsin-Madison starts on Saturday. But there are noteworthy concerts right up to the last minute.
THURSDAY
On this Thursday night, March 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the acclaimed Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below, in 2017, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson) will perform a FREE concert.
The program by the faculty ensemble includes music by William Byrd; Isaac Albeniz; Leonard Bernstein; Aaron Copland; David Sampson; Anton Webern; Joan Tower; Ennio Morricone; and Reena Esmail.
For more details, including the names of quintet members and guest artists who will participate as well as the complete program with lengthy notes and background about the quintet, go to:
On this Friday night, March 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill) – who worked in Paris with the renowned 20th-century composer and conductor Pierre Boulez – will host another concert is his series of “Le Domaine Musical” that he performs with colleagues.
Vallon explains:
Every year, I put together a concert devoted to the masterpieces of the 1950-2000 period. We call it “Domaine Musical,” which was the group founded in Paris by Pierre Boulez in the 1950s. Its subtitle is : “Unusual music for curious listeners.”
“The series offers Madison concert-goers an opportunity to hear rarely performed music of the highest quality, played by UW-Madison faculty, students and alumni.
“The program features a deeply moving piece by Luciano Berio, O King, written in 1968 after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.” (You can hear “O King” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The all-modernist program is:
Pierre Boulez (below), Dialogues de l’Ombre Double (Dialogues of the Double Shadow) for solo clarinet and electronics.
Luciano Berio (below), O King and Folk Songs.
Also included are unspecified works by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Timothy Hagen.
Guest performers are Sarah Brailey, soprano (below); Alicia Lee, clarinet; Leslie Thimmig, basset horn; Sally Chisholm, viola; Parry Karp, cello; Timothy Hagen, flute; Yana Avedyan, piano; Paran Amirinazari, violin; and Anthony DiSanza, percussion.
For more information, including a story about a previous concert in “Le Domaine Musical,” go to:
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement for a concert that sounds in keeping with the spirit of Halloween:
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble (below, in a photo by Thomas Mohr) will lead listeners on aural adventures through space, time and fantasy at its “Imaginary Journeys” concert TONIGHT, Oct. 27.
The concert is FREE and open to the public, and will take place at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison.
The professional ensemble of brass quintet and pipe organ, with percussion, will perform the Madison premieres of new works and arrangements it recently commissioned for its novel array of instruments.
The concert’s namesake work, “Imaginary Journeys,” was written for the ensemble by Chicago-area composer Mark Lathan. It takes listeners on a rocket-powered interstellar adventure, inspired by recent astronomical discoveries.
“For this piece,” Lathan says, “I wanted to bring in some drama, somewhat in the manner of a film score.” Lathan earned a doctorate in music from the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received the Henry Mancini Award in Film Composition and studied film scoring with Jerry Goldsmith.
Another Madison premiere is Craig Garner’s brass-and-organ arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s ever-popular Suite from “The Firebird,” a ballet based on Russian fairy tales. “The audience will hear an all-time favorite orchestral work like it’s never been heard before,” says Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble.
Concertgoers will also hear the first local performances of “Short Fuse” for brass, organ and percussion by Chris Reyman (below), a jazz performance specialist teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso. Holmes says, “This piece shows off a very different face of what a pipe organ and brass can do.”
Other first hearings include Garner’s two-part instrumental suite from English Baroque composer Henry Purcell’s “Come Ye Sons of Art.”
The concert’s journey into the Baroque era includes brass and organ arrangements of movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale cantata “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), BWV 80.
The concert’s imaginative works include “Earthscape” by David Marlatt (below, and heard in the YouTube video at the bottom) as well as pipe-organ versions of “Clair de lune” (Moonlight) by Claude Debussy and Louis Vierne.
Performers will include Madison-based organist Jared Stellmacher (below), an award-winning musician heard on the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 2015 debut CD “Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies.” He holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University.
Gargoyle ensemble players are trumpeters Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, horn player Amy Krueger, trombonist Ian Fitzwater, tuba player Jason Lyons, and percussionist Logan Fox. Conductor will be Jakob Noestvik.
About the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble’s debut CD. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of the Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students.
Under its founder and artistic director Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. More information can be found at gargoylebrass.com.
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble (below) will perform a late-October series of FREE public concerts in four Wisconsin cities featuring music by composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and others in a centuries-spanning program titled “Music of the Reformation.”
Performances will take place Friday, Oct. 27, in Appleton; Saturday, Oct. 28, in Delafield and Watertown; and Sunday, Oct. 29, in Madison.
“The hour-long concert program commemorates the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in 1517,” said Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Gargoyle ensemble. “Audiences will hear works embracing the most famous melodies written by Reformation leader Martin Luther (below), who was a composer as well as a religious figure.”
The program includes James Curnow’s contemporary “Rejouissance: Fantasia on ‘Ein feste Burg’ (A Mighty Fortress)” for organ; Heinrich Schütz’s “Three Becker Psalms,” Op. 5, a Baroque work for brass quartet; Bach’s Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her” (“From Heaven above to Earth I come”), BWV 769, for organ; and Otto Nicolai’s early Romantic “Ecclesiastical Festival Overture on the chorale ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,’” Op. 31, arranged for brass and organ by Craig Garner.
Also on the program are: Max Reger’s late Romantic “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Op. 27, for organ; Randall E. Faust’s contemporary “Fantasy” on the hymn “Von Himmel hoch,” for horn and organ; and Garner’s brass and organ arrangement, “Introduction and Finale,” from Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, “Reformation,” Op. 107.
Performers will include Madison-based organist Jared Stellmacher (below), an award-winning musician heard on the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 2015 debut CD “Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies.” He holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University.
Gargoyle brass players will include trumpeters Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, horn player Kathryn Swope, trombonist Karen Mari, and artistic director Holmes on tuba.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
Here are the dates, times, and locations of the Gargoyle ensemble’s “Music of the Reformation” concerts, with local contact information. No tickets or reservations are required for these FREE events:
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble’s debut CD. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Under its founder and artistic director Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. You can find more information at gargoylebrass.com.
By the fourth year, an event has certainly become a tradition to look forward to and to follow.
So it is with Brass Fest IV, which will take place this Saturday and Sunday at the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music.
The activities will fill two days with workshops, master classes and concerts.
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” will be featured, along with many contemporary composers and arrangers.
Many of the events, including the big Saturday night concert at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
The big Sunday afternoon concert at 2:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, with both brass quintets plus students, costs $15 for adults and $5 for non-School of Music students. A post-concert reception to meet students and other performers is included. (Below are students rehearsing at Brass Fest 3.)
The special guest this weekend is the Beaumont Brass Quintet from Michigan State University (below). Members are Ava Ordman, trombone; Corbin Wagner, horn; Alessandro Bonotto, trumpet; Philip Sinder, tuba and euphonium; and brass area chair; and Justin Emerich, trumpet.
The Beaumont Brass Quintet has recorded a CD of Christmas music for Naxos Records. See the YouTube video at the bottom.
Also appearing with the Beaumont is the UW-Madison’s own Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson). Members, from left, are: Alex Noppe and Matthew Onstad, trumpets; Tom Curry, tuba; Mark Hetzler, trombone; and Daniel Grabois, horn.
For more information about the many activities, including biographies of the performers, full concert programs, a listing of other events, and tickets, go to:
The big event is the long-awaited groundbreaking for the new performance center. That, in turn, will be celebrated with three important and appealing concerts.
Here is the lineup:
FRIDAY
From 4 to 5:30 p.m., an official and public groundbreaking ceremony for the new Hamel Music Center will take place at the corner of Lake Street and University Avenue. (Below is an architect’s rendering of the completed building.)
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, pianist Christopher Taylor (below) will perform the “Goldberg” Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach on the two-keyboard “Hyperpiano” that he has invented and refined. (You can hear the opening aria theme of the “Goldberg” Variations played by Glenn Gould in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the concert and the innovative piano, visit:
Tickets are $18 and are available at the Wisconsin Union Theater box office. Last The Ear heard, the concert was close to a sell-out.
SATURDAY
At 7 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison faculty bassoonist Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill), who studied and worked with the recently deceased French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, will lead a FREE “Breaking Ground” concert of pioneering music from the 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The mostly amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO, below), which has gotten better and better and rarely disappoints even in ambitious and difficult music, will wind up its fifth anniversary season this coming Wednesday night with a brass extravaganza.
The performance is at 7:30 p.m. in the modern, comfortable and spacious Middleton Performing Arts Center (below) that is attached to Middleton High School.
Tickets are $10; students get in for FREE.
Advance tickets are available at Willy Street Coop West. The Box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and the doors open at 7 p.m.
While at the UW-Madison, I performed with the Wind Ensemble (including a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City), Concert Band, Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble, the Middleton Community Orchestra, Low Brass Ensemble, 4BA Tuba Quartet, Madrigal Singers and the Lumberjack Brass Quintet.
My solo tuba performance credits range from solo recitals to guest appearances at schools across southern Wisconsin.
When and how did you start composing? What works have you written in the past?
I first started writing music when I was in high school and I was very interested in singer/songwriters like Elton John and Billy Joel. During my time at Mount Horeb High School, I wrote more than 500 songs, most of which never made it past the grand piano in the living room.
When I started graduate school, the tuba studio at UW-Madison was treated to a guest performance by Øystein Baadsvik, who really inspired me to start writing for tuba. I was also heavily influenced by my undergraduate professor, John Stevens (below).
My catalogue now includes dozens of works for solo tuba, chamber ensembles and large ensembles. It probably comes as no surprise that I compose rather frequently for tuba quartet and brass quintet.
Additionally, I write a great deal of music for my wife Brigid, who holds a degree in vocal performance from UW-Madison, to sing with me accompanying her on the piano.(You can hear them in a YouTube video at the bottom in a song by Pat Doty.)
How would you describe your compositional style — tonal or atonal, accessible, melodic and so forth?
My music is tonal, accessible, melodic and so forth. I jest, but I really do strive to write music that is very fun, beautiful and accessible to a wide-ranging audience.
My major influences are not famous classical composers, but rather those musicians who I listened to when I was growing up.
For example, I draw a lot from pop music and classic rock. I know that might seem like an odd connection — pop music and the tuba — but I have always fallen back on my vocal training to instruct my tuba playing, and I see no reason why the same connection shouldn’t exist in my compositions.
To put it simply, I approach writing for solo tuba (with any sort of accompaniment) in quite the same way that I approach writing a song at the piano. I always have a poem, an idea, something in mind that inspires me. For example, my tuba duet “Mendota” is based on a poem that I wrote for a pop song, but it works beautifully for an instrumental piece.
What would you like the public to know about your new Tuba Concerto, which you will perform and premiere with the Middleton Community Orchestra?
First and foremost, my Tuba Concerto doesn’t take itself too seriously. That is a recurring theme in my music. I am very excited for the premiere with the Middleton Community Orchestra, which is sounding great by the way, and I really hope that people have as much fun and find as much joy in listening as I do playing this music.
A couple of interesting quirks to note are that there is a large, essential euphonium part in this piece, and that there is a marimba solo in the third movement. These are both things that, I think it is safe to say, are not particularly common in orchestral music.
I used a euphonium (below) and no tuba in the orchestra because I want this to be a piece that an orchestra could use to feature their own tubist if they so choose. Also, I am friends with quite a few euphonium players.
What else would you like to say?
First, I would like to say thank you to the Middleton Community Orchestra for premiering my Tuba Concerto. I am very much looking forward to the performance for many reasons, not the least of which is that this will be my first chance to present my compositions to a broad classical music audience.
I would also like to mention my new record label, Merp Entertainment, which I co-founded with my wife Brigid last year. Our debut CD “Dare to Entertain” has found national success, particularly on the internet streaming service Spotify, where it has amassed more than 3 million song streams to date.
ALERT: Kathryn Smith, the general director of the Madison Opera, which is presenting Mark Adamo‘s opera “Little Women” tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, writes: “One thing you might let your readers know is that Mark Adamo is doing the pre-show talk TONIGHT in tandem with me — meaning I’m going to ask him questions, so he can talk about his opera instead of me doing so as usual. That is at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio of the Overture Center, and is free to ticket holders.”
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following message that you may want to print out or write into your datebook:
The Chazen Museum of Art is pleased to announce the continuation of Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen for 2016.
On the FIRST SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH, the Chazen presents chamber music performances in Brittingham Gallery III of the old Conrad A. Elvehjem Building.
In addition to the gallery performance, the monthly concerts are streamed live on the Internet, making them readily accessible anywhere in the world.
This year marks the 38th season for Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen. Until 2015, the series took place weekly and was broadcast live by Wisconsin Public Radio.
When WPR stepped away, the Chazen took over the series.
Lori Skelton, the producer of Sunday Afternoon Live at WPR for many years, has again volunteered to program the concert series and act as its host. Without her musical expertise, as well as her generosity of spirit, the Chazen would not be able to continue this popular program.
During the intermissions, live stream listeners will hear an interview or conversation featuring the museum’s director, Russell Panczenko. Topics include current exhibitions and the permanent collection.
Concerts begin at 12:30 p.m.
All concerts are free and open to the public. However, seating is limited. Chazen Museum of Art members may call 608-263-2246 to reserve seating the week before the concert.