The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Can the annual Handel Aria Competition be improved? Here are two modest proposals from a fan. What do you think?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a guest posting by George Savage, a blog follower who is a self-described musical amateur. In his youth he sang in choirs and had a bit solo part of Morales in his college production of Bizet’s Carmen. Then, a long musical hiatus until his 60th birthday celebration, when he sang Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah,” black hat in hand, knees on floor.
Most of his adult life was spent teaching literature and composition at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, specializing in the American Renaissance. To the extent he has stayed connected to the world of music, it is through his daughter Kelly Savage, who has a D.M.A in harpsichord from Stony Brook University and now teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
By George Savage
As my bio indicates, I am a musical amateur, meaning simply that I am a lover (French amateur) of music. For the past three years, I have had this love rekindled through the annual Handel Aria Competition in Madison, Wisconsin.
The vocal quality has consistently been high — especially this year! — and it is fun to vote for the Audience Favorite, even when the judges disagree with your assessment.
(Editor’s note: This year the Audience Favorite was mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger, below top, while the three judges awarded First Prize to soprano Suzanne Karpov, below bottom. Here is a link to story about all the winners: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2018/06/11/classical-music-here-are-the-winners-of-friday-nights-sixth-annual-handel-aria-competition/).
My heartfelt congratulations go to Dean and Carol “Orange” Schroeder (below) for establishing this annual competition in 2013 and for the many supporters who have made this competition a success.
I have two modest proposals, though, for improvement, one minor and one major.
A minor proposal: Unless you have an encyclopedic knowledge of opera — and I know that some people reading this have that knowledge — you will not know the context of the arias.
I propose that the program notes contain a brief context for each of the arias. Alternatively, the singers – below are the seven finalists this year — could introduce their songs with a similar brief context.
A major proposal: As I listened this year to Handel piece after Handel piece after Handel piece, I wondered: “Could there be some variation?”
I started to think of other festivals that started with a single-artist focus but then gradually expanded, such as the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, or, closer to home, the American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Both summer theater venues began with a single focus – Shaw and Shakespeare — but then evolved while at the same time staying true to their precipitating muse.
There is still lots of Shaw at the Shaw festival and lots of Shakespeare at APT. The same is true of the Carmel Bach Festival, which started with Bach but now has expanded to include many other forms of classical music. The same holds true for the famous Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, which continues to expand its repertoire beyond Mozart.
In that spirit, I wonder if the singers at the Handel Competition, back up by the period-instrument Madison Bach Musicians, could in future events sing two selections — the first an aria by Handel and the second a non-Handel Baroque aria of the singer’s choice.
I think many singers would welcome the expanded repertoire and the audience would appreciate the added variety. The judging would be murkier, but it would be a good kind of murky.
I hope these proposals will engender a discussion: Should the competition be tweaked, or should it stay the same?
Your thoughts on these two proposals would be appreciated as well as other suggestions of your own.
Tags: #AmericanLiterature, #AmericanPlayersTheatre, #AmericanRenaissance, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BaroqueSingingStyle, #BlogPost, #CarmelBachFestival, #ChoralMusic, #GeorgeBernardShaw, #GeorgesBizet, #HandelAriaCompetition, #LeonardCohen, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MostlyMozart, #MostlyMozartFestival, #NewYorkCity, #Niagara-on-the-Lake, #PeriodInstruments, #SanFrancisco, #SanFranciscoConservatory, #ShawFestival, #SpringGreen, #StonyBrookUniversity, #UnitedState, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityofWisconsin-Whitewater, #WilliamShakepseare, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, amateur, American, Arts, Baroque, birthday, Bizet, blog, Canada, celebration, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Competition, composer, Composition, congratulations, Early music, earlymusic, finalists, floor, French, George Bernard Shaw, Hallelujah, hand, harpsichord, hat, judge, judges, literature, Love, Madison, major, Mezzo-soprano, minor, Mostly Mozart Festival, Mozart, muse, Music, New York City, opera, professional, proposal, repertoire, Shakespeare, singer, Singing, song, soprano, success, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world
Classical music: Here are the winners of Friday night’s sixth annual Handel Aria Competition
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By Jacob Stockinger
The sixth annual Handel Aria Competition took place Friday night in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus at the Mead Witter School of Music.
It was, as usual, much fun.
Such serious fun deserved a bigger audience. But The Ear suspects that the opening night of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society at the Overture Center and the aria competition cut into each other’s audience. Maybe that scheduling conflict can be avoided in the future.
Everyone seems to agree that every year, as word of the competition continues to spread far and wide, the singers get better. This year, the seven finalists – five sopranos and three mezzo-sopranos chosen from 113 international applicants — were all terrific.
Special thanks should also go to the Madison Bach Musicians, who in a short amount of rehearsal time turned in outstanding accompaniment in music that can be hard to follow because or ornaments and embellishments as well as subjective interpretations and the Baroque singing style.
The wide repertoire included recitatives and arias from “Semele,” “Giulio Cesare,” “Rodelinda,” “Theodora,” “Hercules,” “Ariodante,” “Judas Maccabeus” and “Ricardo Primo, re d’Inghilterra” (Richard the First, King of England).
The biggest disappointment – in truth not very big — was that the competition had no male voices. There were no tenors, countertenor, baritones or basses to add to the variety. (You can hear the 2017 Audience Favorite, tenor Gene Stenger, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But that is how judging on merit works, so who can argue?
Once again, The Ear and many of his voice-savvy friends disagreed with the three professional judges. That seems to happen every year. But there will be more about that, as well as some other observations, another time.
In the meantime, let us celebrate the results.
Here, from left to right in a photo by David Peterson, are this year’s winners: soprano Sarah Hayashi, Second Prize; soprano Suzanne Karpov, First Prize; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger, Audience Favorite; and mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit, Third Prize.
All of the performances will be posted on YouTube at a later date, which The Ear will announce when it happens.
For more information about the seven finalists and the three professional judges, as well as updated news and how you can support the ever-expanding competition, go to:
https://handelariacompetition.com
https://handelariacompetition.com/2018-competition/
Tags: #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BaroqueSingingStyle, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HandelOpera, #JohannSebastianBach, #KingofEngland, #LindsayMetzger, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #NewsUpdate, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #OvertureCenter, #RehearsalTime, #SarahCoit, #SarahHayashi, #SchedulingConflict, #SuzanneKarpov, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #YouTubevideo, accompaniment, aria, Ariodante, Arts, audience, baritone, Baroque, bass, celebrate, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Competition, composer, conflict, countertenor, Early music, earlymusic, embellish, embellishment, England, favorite, George Frideric Handel, Giulio Cesare, Hercules, international, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Judas Maccabeus, judge, King, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, merit, Mezzo-soprano, Music, news, Orchestra, ornament, photo, photograph, prize, recitative, rehearsal, results, Ricardo Primo, Richard the First, Rodelinda, Semele, soprano, style, subjective, support, tenor, Theodora, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The sixth annual Handel Aria Competition is this coming Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Not many people get to see a dream become reality in the way that Dean and Orange Schroeder, the longtime owners and operators of Orange Tree Imports, have.
Six years ago, the two had a dream of hosting a modest event to explore and celebrate the operatic music of the Baroque master George Frideric Handel that they so love.
Thus was born the annual Handel Aria Competition. (Below is a photo of the seven finalists in the 2015 competition).
Now, half a dozen years later, that same competition, once attached to the Madison Early Music Festival but now held independently a month earlier, has developed an international following, and is a much-loved and much-anticipated staple of the summer music season in Madison.
The sixth annual Handel Aria Competition will take place this coming Friday night, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall in the Mosse Humanities Building of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In addition to the professional judging for first, second and third prize, all those in attendance will be invited to vote for the “Audience Favorite” prize.
Tickets are $15, general admission, and will be available at the door.
Chosen from 110 international applicants, the seven finalists, all-female for the first time, are (below, from top left to right): soprano Sarah Hayashi; mezzo-soprano Sarah Coit; soprano Amanda Keenan; soprano Suzanne Karpov; mezzo-soprano Lindsay Metzger; soprano Sarah Yanovitch; and soprano Ashley Valentine. (Last year’s first-prize winner, mezzo-soprano Nian Wang, performs in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a link to the overall site for the Handel Aria Competition, with its underlying justification and wrap-ups of five previous competitions as well as information about how to apply for future ones and how to support the competition (a major fundraiser this spring was cancelled because of a snowstorm).
https://handelariacompetition.com
And here is a link to photos and extensive biographical information about the seven contestants and three judges for this year’s competition:
https://handelariacompetition.com/2018-competition/
Finally, here is the view of the competition from the outstanding early music ensemble that will accompany the finalists, the Madison Bach Musicians. It comes from MBM artistic director and keyboardist Trevor Stephenson:
“This is the fourth year that the Madison Bach Musicians have accompanied the finalists in this event. A wonderful collaboration has resulted, with a number of Handel Aria Competition prize-winners becoming favorite soloists with Madison Bach Musicians: Chelsea Morris (below), Margaret Fox, Andrew Rader, Gene Stenger and Nola Richardson.”
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Music education: Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras present their spring concerts and concerto winners this Saturday and Sunday afternoons
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will present its third and final concert series of the season, the Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts, on this Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20.
The concerts will take place in Mills Concert Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, 455 North Park Street, in Madison.
Programed pieces include works from Felix Mendelssohn, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Arturo Marquez, Aaron Copland, Jacques Offenbach, and more.
For a complete repertoire list, go to:https://www.wysomusic.org/eugenie-mayer-bolz-family-spring-concerts-repertoire/
The concert weekend features four concerto performances from the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra members, and the final concert by Mark Leiser (below), who will rertire as conductor of WYSO’s Sinfonietta orchestra after 25 seasons.
Each year, WYSO hosts a concerto competition for members of the Youth Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Concerto competition winners performing during the spring concerts this year are Ellen Zhou, a seventh-grader at E.G. Kromrey Middle School in Middleton, and a member of Philharmonia Orchestra; Ava Kenney, a seventh-grader at Saint Maria Goretti School, and a member of Philharmonia Orchestra; Morty Lee, a junior at James Madison Memorial High School, and a member of Youth Orchestra; and Isabelle Krier, a junior at Oregon High School, and a member of Youth Orchestra.
Ellen Zhou (below top) will perform Zigeunerweisen by Pablo de Sarasate, and Ava Kenney (below bottom) will perform the first movement of the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with Philharmonia Orchestra on Saturday.
Morty Lee (below top) will perform the first Cello Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich; and Isabelle Krier (below bottom) will perform the third movement of the Violin Concerto in D Major by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky with the Youth Orchestra on Sunday.
Sinfonietta conductor Mark Leiser (below, conducting) will give his final concert on May 19. Leiser has been the sole conductor of Sinfonietta since its inception 25 years ago. His son Kenny Leiser, a WYSO alumnus, will sit in with the orchestra during their performance of Astor Piazzolla’s “new tango” piece Oblivion.
WYSO students travel from communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois each weekend throughout the concert season to rehearse on the UW-Madison campus.
Each orchestra performs three concerts per season, with additional performance opportunities available to students, including ensembles and chamber music groups.
Concert admission is $10 for adults, and $5 for youth 18 and under, with tickets available 45 minutes before each performance at the door on the day of the concerts.
For a full concert repertoire, and to learn more about WYSO, visit https://www.wysomusic.org
Here is a schedule of events:
Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts
SATURDAY
1:00 p.m. – Harp Ensemble (below top), Concert Orchestra, Sinfonietta
4:00 p.m. – Percussion Ensemble (below bottom) and Philharmonia Orchestra
SUNDAY
2:00 p.m. – Opus One and Youth Orchestra
Tags: #AaronCopland, #ArturoMarquez, #AstorPiazzolla, #CelloConcerto, #DmitriShostakovich, #FatherandSon, #FelixMendelssohn, #HarpMusic, #HighSchool, #JacquesOffenbach, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddleSchool, #MiddletonWisconsin, #PablodeSarasate, #PercussionEnsemble, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #SaintMariaGoretti, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinConcerto, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouthOrchestra, afternoon, Argentine tango, Arts, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, community, Competition, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, Dmitri Shostakovich, event, father, harp, high school, ILLINOIS, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mendelssohn, Middle school, Music, new, Orchestra, percussion, performance, repertoire, retire, Retirement, Sarasate, Saturday, schedule, Season, Shostakovich, Sinfonietta, son, Spring, Sunday, symphony, tango, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola
Classical music: This coming weekend, pianist John O’Conor returns to play a Beethoven concerto with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra on Friday night and then a solo recital at Farley’s on Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The acclaimed Irish pianist and teacher John O’Conor (below) returns to Madison this weekend for two concerts that will close out the season for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra on Friday night and the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Piano on Saturday night.
For more about John O’Conor‘s impressive background as a performer, a recording artist, a pedagogue and a juror for international piano competitions, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Conor
The first event with O’Conor is an all-Beethoven concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) under the baton of music director Andrew Sewell.
The WCO concert is on Friday night, May 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State St.
The program features the Overture to “King Stephen”; the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, with O’Conor as soloist; and the popular, dramatic and iconoclastic or even revolutionary Symphony No. 5 in C minor.
Such repertoire from the Classical period is one of O’Conor’s strong suits as well as one of the WCO’s. When the two last performed together in 2016 O’Conor and the WCO played works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Irish early Romantic John Field.
Plus, O’Conor studied Beethoven with the legendary Beethoven interpreter Wilhelm Kempff.
So this concert promises to be a dynamic experience with perfectly paired players.
Tickets are $15-$80 with student tickets available for $10.
For more information about O’Conor and about how to obtain tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-v-3/
SALON PIANO SERIES
Then on Saturday night, May 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos, located at 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near the West Towne Mall, pianist O’Conor will give a solo recital to close out the Salon Piano Series.
The program includes the Sonata in B minor by Franz Joseph Haydn; Four Impromptus, Op. 90 or D. 899, by Franz Schubert; Nocturnes Nos. 5, 6, and 18 by the Irish composer John Field (below), whose neglected works are a specialty of O’Conor; and the iconic “Moonlight” Sonata in C-sharp minor by Ludwig van Beethoven. (You can hear O’Conor perform the exciting and virtuosic last moment of the “Moonlight” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A reception follows the concert.
Tickets are $45 in advance and $50 at the door, with student tickets available for $10.
For more information and to purchase tickets, call (608) 271-2626 or go to these two web sites:
http://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2995003
Tags: #All-Beethoven, #AndrewSewell, #CapitolTheater, #Classicalperiod, #EarlyRomantic, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #JohnField, #JohnO'Conor, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MoonlightSonata, #OvertureCenter, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #PianoSonata, #RomanticPeriod, #SalonPIanoSeries, #SymphonyNo.5, #WilhelmKempff, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, American, artist, Arts, background, Beethoven, Cello, Classical music, Classical period, Compact Disc, Competition, concerto, exciting, Franz Schubert, Haydn, iconoclastic, impressive, impromptu, international, Ireland, Irish, Jacob Stockinger, John Field, juror, jury, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Moonlight Sonata, movement, Mozart, Music, nocturne, Orchestra, Overture, Overture Center, pedagogue, Pianist, Piano, popular, recital, recording, revolutionary, Schubert, Season, Sonata, symphony, Teacher, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, virtuosic, Wilhelm Kempff, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Sunday is a good time to remember and praise three men whose musical legacies live on decades later at the UW-Madison and Edgewood College. Plus, the UW’s Perlman Trio plays this afternoon
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CORRECTION: Today, Saturday, April 14, at 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall — NOT yesterday as was mistakenly listed in the early edition of yesterday’s post — is the annual FREE concert by the UW’s Perlman Trio (named after benefactor Kato Perlman).
It will perform piano trios by Franz Joseph Haydn and Robert Schumann, and a piano quartet by Johannes Brahms. A reception will follow. For more information about the student performers and the full program, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/the-perlman-trio/
By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon is a good time to remember three men whose musical legacies continue to survive after their deaths and decades after they made their contribution.
At 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the three winners of the 33rd annual Beethoven Sonata Competition will perform a FREE recital.
The competition was started by chemistry professor and former UW-Madison Chancellor Irving Shain, who once contemplated a career as a flutist and who died at 92 in March.
The 2018 winners (with photos below the names) are:
ANNA SIAMPANI
MICHAEL MESSER
ERIC TRAN
One interesting and unusual aspect of the concert is that the same piano sonata — the beautiful and soulful, theme-and-variations Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 — will be performed twice by two different winners. The Ear thinks that is a first in the history of the competition. (You can hear Richard Goode play the sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A reception will follow the concert.
Here is the program:
Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 — Anna Siampani
Sonata No. 7 in D major, op.10, no.3 — Michael Messer
— INTERMISSION—
Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 — Eric Tran
Adds the Mead Witter School of Music’s website: “We bid farewell to former Chancellor Irving Shain (below), who died on March 6 at the age of 92. Chancellor Shain was a champion of the piano, founding both the Shain Piano/Woodwind Duo Competition (that concert was on March 4) and the Beethoven Piano Competition.
“His contributions to the School of Music were significant. We have missed his presence at these concerts and we remember him with fondness.”
Read more about Chancellor Shain here:
https://news.wisc.edu/former-uw-madison-chancellor-irving-shain-dies-at-92/
EDGEWOOD COLLEGE
At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, Edgewood College will also mark a special event: a FREE celebratory concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra.
The program, under the baton of Blake Walter (below), features audience favorites, such as the Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite and the Overture to the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
There is no admission charge, but donations to the Edward Walters Music Scholarship are accepted. The scholarship fund directly benefits Edgewood College students participating in ensembles.
A reception will follow the concert in the Washburn Heritage Room.
Adds Edgewood College (below) in a press release: “Founded in 1993 through a generous endowment established by Edgewood College benefactors William O. Hart and Vernon Sell, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra fulfills a unique role at Edgewood College and in the Madison community. (Sorry, The Ear could not find photos of either William O. Hart or Vernon Sell.)
“Hart and Sell envisioned hosting a permanent in-house chamber orchestra that would provide Edgewood College students and community members access to high-quality performances and unique educational opportunities.
“Their dream remains vital today, as the ensemble contributes directly to the advancement of music students by giving them the rare opportunity arrange for the ensemble, perform with the group as selected soloists, and to conduct the ensemble. It also provides students and the community exposure to world-class soloists and distinctive programming.”
Tags: #BeethovenSonataCompetition, #ChamberOrchestra, #ClaudeDebussy, #EdgewoodChamberOrchestra, #EdgewoodCollege, #EndowmentFund, #FranzJosephHaydn, #IrvingShain, #JohannesBrahms, #KatoPerlman, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonCommunity, #MarriageofFigaro, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicEducation, #OperaOverture, #PerlmanTrio, #PianoQuartet, #PianoSonata, #PianoTrio, #RichardGoode, #RobertSchumann, #ThemeAndVariations, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WoodwindMusic, admission, annual, Arts, audience, beautiful, Beethoven, blog, Brahms, Cello, Chamber music, chancellor, chemistry, Classical music, community, Competition, composer, conductor, contribution, Debussy, donation, duo, early, edition, endowment, favorite, flute, flutist, fugue, Haydn, History, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, legacies, legacy, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, men, Mozart, Music, Music director, Music education, musical, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Piano, post, professor, program, scholarship, Schumann, Sonata, Suite, theme and variations, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, winner, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, woodwind, yesterday, YouTube
Classical music: Brazilian pianist Alexandre Dossin makes his Madison debut Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in an overlooked masterpiece of American Romanticism. Plus, the amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra performs a FREE all-Russian program on Friday night at MATC
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ALERT 1: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features violinist Wendy Adams and pianist Ann Aschbacher in music by Schubert, Brahms and Hovhaness.
ALERT 2: The amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra will perform a FREE concert Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Norman Mitty Theater, 1701 Wright Street on the Madison Area Technical College campus on the east side. The all-Russian program, under the baton of Blake Walter of Edgewood College, features works by Glazunov, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Balakirev. For more information and the complete program, go to: http://www.madisoncommunityorchestra.org/pages/concerts.htm
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top), under music director Andrew Sewell (below bottom), always puts together memorable programs, often with new and exciting soloists plus neglected or little known repertoire.
That is once again the promise of the WCO concert this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State St.
Tickets are $15-$80. See below.
First, the program offers the Madison debut of Alexandre Dossin (below), the 2003 winner of the Martha Argerich International Piano Competition.
Trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Dossin seems a power player. Little wonder that he has recorded music by Liszt, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky and Leonard Bernstein for Naxos Records as well as by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky for G. Schirmer Music. You can also hear and see a lot of his performances on YouTube.
Moreover, Dossin, who has taught at the UW-Eau Claire and the University of Louisiana and who now teaches at the University of Oregon, will be playing a relatively neglected masterpiece of American Romantic music: the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 23, by Edward MacDowell (below).
MacDowell’s work is a dark, dramatic and virtuosic work that was once championed by Van Cliburn. (You can hear Cliburn with the third movement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Walter Hendl in the YouTube video at the bottom.).
For most listeners, that will be the discovery of the evening.
Rounding out the program are two more widely known masterpieces: the Orchestral Suite No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” by Robert Schumann.
The Ear is especially pleased that the WCO is doing Bach.
Too often modern instrument groups defer to period-instrument ensembles for Bach – which means that audiences don’t hear as much Bach (below) as they should and as previous generations did, as the prize-winning composer John Harbison has often lamented in public.
Of course, it is safe to bet that the WCO will borrow some of the faster tempi and historically informed performance techniques from the early music movement. Still, The Ear says Bravo to the programming of Bach by a group that uses modern instruments. We can always use more Bach.
The symphony by Robert Schumann (below) will also have an unusual, if subtle, aspect to its performance.
It is usually played by larger symphony orchestras. But using a chamber orchestra creates a certain intimacy and lends a transparency that reveals structure and themes in an engaging way. Yannick Nézet-Séguin – the highly acclaimed music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director-designate of the Metropolitan Opera — recently proved that with his outstanding recording of the four symphonies by Robert Schumann (below) with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
For more background and information about tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-iii-3/
For more information about Alexandre Dossin, go to his two websites:
http://www.dossin.net/alexandredossin/Welcome.html
https://music.uoregon.edu/people/faculty/adossin
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Classical music: Here are the Final Forte results. Plus, new and modern music is in the spotlight at two FREE concerts and a master class today and Friday at the UW-Madison
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ALERT: If you missed seeing the “Final Forte” concert broadcast live last night on Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio, the results of the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s concerto competition for high school students are: First Prize and a $2,000 scholarship to violinist Hannah White; Second Prize and a $2,000 scholarship to pianist Jessica Jiang; and Honorable Mentions ($1,000 scholarship for each) to violinist Isabelle Krier and violinist Arianna Brusubardis.
By Jacob Stockinger
If you are a fan of modern and new music, you may want to attend one or more of the three FREE events that are happening TONIGHT and Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
The first concert is TONIGHT at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall. It features UW bassoonist Marc Vallon and friends. Vallon is a versatile musician who is also a specialist in period performances of Baroque music.
But Vallon (below in a photo by James Gill) also worked with and performed with the pioneering French avant-garde 20th-century composer Pierre Boulez. And that genre of music will be featured on the concert tonight, which is titled “The Musical Domain.”
Unfortunately, The Ear has received no information about composers or pieces on the program. But Vallon is known for his adventurous taste and compelling performances.
On Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the guest artists are the new music ensemble Duo Cortona (below), which will perform a varied program of works by contemporary composers.
Those composers and works include “Love Sonnets” – based on texts by William Shakespeare — by UW composer Laura Schwendinger (below). You can sample the Duo Cortona performing Schwendinger’s work in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The unusual makeup of the DUO is string and voice – specifically, violin and mezzo-soprano. The husband-and-wife duo of Ari Streisfeld and Rachel Calloway will give a FREE and PUBLIC master class on contemporary composition before the concert from 4 to 5 p.m. in Mills Hall.
For more background information about Duo Cortona and a link to the complete program, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artists-cortona-duo/
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Classical music: Four UW concerto competition winners and the student composer winner are featured in the annual Symphony Showcase concert this Sunday night. Plus, the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s “Final Forte” high school concerto competition airs tonight at 7 on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television
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REMINDER: The final round of the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s teenage concerto competition, “The Final Forte,” will be broadcast live TONIGHT at 7 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.
ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Ave., features a “Triple Play” of trumpeter David Miller, cellist Amy Harr and pianist Jane Peckham in music by Pärt, Piazzolla, Scarlatti, Levy and Verdi. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
This sure is the week for concerto competitions.
The Big Event this week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the annual Symphony Showcase concert devoted to student performances of concertos and the world premiere of new music by a student composer.
The concert takes place on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall.
Tickets are $10, free to students and children.
The concert features the UW Symphony Orchestra (below top) under the baton of its new conductor, Chad Hutchinson (below bottom).
The four winners of the concerto competition will perform and the work by the UW composition winner will receive its first public performance.
There will be reception in the lobby following the concert.
The four concerto winners, who study at the UW’s Mead Witter School of Music, are:
Violinist Kaleigh Acord (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson), who will perform the first movement from the Violin Concerto in D Major by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Percussionist Aaron Gochberg (below), who will perform the “Prism Rhapsody” by Japanese composer Keiko Abe.
Bassoonist Eleni Katz (below), who will perform the Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major, K. 191, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Pianist Eric Tran (below), who will play the Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A Major, BWV 1055, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Blooming” is by UW composition student Mengmeng Wang (below), who is from China.
The concert will open with the Overture to “Candide” by Leonard Bernstein. This year is the centennial of Bernstein’s birth.
For more information about the contestants and their photos, as well as how to get tickets, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/symphony-showcase-concerto-winners-solo-recital-reception/
You can also hear interviews with the winners, who discuss the pieces and their teachers, in the terrific YouTube video below:
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Classical music: Here are the performers, programs and schedule for Saturday’s concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras to post:
Join us for our second concert series of the season, the Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts on this Saturday, March 10, in Mills Concert Hall, 455 North Park Street, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Programmed pieces include works from Brian Balmages, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ralph Matesky, Gustav Holst, Samuel Barber, and more.
For the full concert repertoire, go to: https://www.wysomusic.org/2018-winterfest-repertoire/
“Every one of these concerts is jam-packed with great music—the kind of classics that have endured,” said interim WYSO artistic director Randal Swiggum (below).
“These concerts will inspire audiences, guaranteed, not just with masterworks like Holst’s ‘Jupiter’ from The Planets, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, but with the energy and freshness that young musicians bring to this music.” (You can hear the dramatic and well-known opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, with an engaging graphic display of its structure, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Additional highlights from the concerts include an Opus One collaboration with the WYSO Music Makers Honors Ensemble on the traditional piece Goin’ To Boston; a guest appearance from NBC-15 TV News Anchor/Reporter John Stofflet (below top) who will narrate Sinfonietta’s performance of Lincoln at Gettysburg; and concerto performances from the 2017-2018 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winners, violist Maureen Sheehan (below middle) of Middleton and violinist Dexter Mott (below bottom) of Madison.
“Both Maureen with the Walton Viola Concerto, and Dexter with the Sibelius Violin Concerto, have tackled mature pieces that demand not just technical prowess, but thoughtful, nuanced interpretation,” Swiggum said. “I know audiences will be truly moved by their playing.”
Tickets are available at the door the day of the concerts, and are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts Schedule
11:30 a.m. – Opus One with WYSO Music Makers (below, playing at the Wisconsin Union Theater) and Sinfonietta with NBC-15 News Anchor/Reporter John Stofflet narrating Lincoln at Gettysburg.
1:30 p.m. – Harp Ensemble (below) and Concert Orchestra.
4:00 p.m. – Philharmonia Orchestra (below), with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and Holst’s “Jupiter” from The Planets.
7:00 p.m. – Youth Orchestra, with performances from the 2017-2018 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winners, Dexter Mott and Maureen Sheehan.
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