The Well-Tempered Ear
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s new CD and Friday night concert champion racial diversity
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By Jacob Stockinger
“Musical Landscapes in Color” is a five-year initiative by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with its award-winning, composer-in-residence Dr. William Banfield (below), who has produced a body of work in the past 25 years that includes music, books, teaching and creative work that contributes to contemporary arts leadership.
The cultural undertaking aims to elevate the voices of an array of living, diverse composers of color throughout the United States. The project represents a significant step towards diversifying the classical music landscape through compositions and audiences, according to the WCO.
The first of several installments (below) — “Harmony in Black” — has just been released by Albany Records.
The album is available in a physical format and for digital streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube, where you can sample it at the bottom.
Performed and recorded live on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, it features excerpts from three compositions: one by four-time Grammy nominee Patrice Rushen entitled “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”; and two by renowned composer Banfield entitled “Testimony of Tone, Tune, and Time” and “Symphony No. 8: Here I Stand.”
Their three compositions do not quote spiritual melodies directly, but do embody the spirit of those songs by drawing either on direct quotations of speeches or writings.
Multi-Grammy-nominated artist Patrice Rushen (below) is admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements including serving as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th and 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
CONTENTS:
Patrice Rushen: Movement 1: ”Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
Dr. William Banfield: (starting at 8:10): “Testimony of Tone, Tune and Time” — Symphony No. 8
Performers are: retired City of Madison, Dane County and State of Wisconsin Judge Paul Higginbotham (below) as the narrator; saxophonist Matthew Sintchak; and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under conductor and music director Andrew Sewell.
For more background, including a release reception, go to a story in Madison 365:
A WORLD PREMIERE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
The project continues with a concert that takes place this Friday night, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center features the WORLD PREMIERE of Banfield’s Symphony No. 14 “Revelation.”
Guest artists include the Madison Youth Choirs, the Festival Choir of Madison and the Edgewood College Chamber Singers. Soloists include soprano Angela Brown, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone William Volmar.
Opening the 90-minute concert is Symphony No. 1 in G major, Op. 4 (1901) by British composer Edwin York Bowen, whose music shows influences of Rachmaninov, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
Tickets are still available and cost $34.50, $75 and $95. For more information and tickets, go to: https://wcoconcerts.org/
Have you heard Banfield’s music?
What do you think of it?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: On Saturday, concerto competition winners perform with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). On Sunday, Edgewood College gives a FREE concert of choral and guitar music
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ALERT: This weekend at Edgewood College, the Women’s Choir, Chamber Singers, Guitar Ensemble and Chorale will give FREE concerts. The performances are on Sunday, May 5, at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive.
The concert features the Women’s Choir, directed by Kathleen Otterson; the Chorale and Chamber Singers, both conducted by Sergei Pavlov; and the Guitar Ensemble, directed by Nathan Wysock.
The Women’s Choir will perform works including “One Voice” by Ruth Moody; the Chamber Singers continue with a variety of works, including “Ballad to the Moon” by Daniel Elder. The Guitar Ensemble performs “Walk, Don’t Run,” arranged by Nathan Wysock, and “New Beatles Medley,” arranged by Guitar Ensemble member Dick Stransky. The concert concludes with the Chorale performing works including “Schlof Mayn Fegeleby” by Mikhail Lermontov.
The Women’s Choir and Chamber singers are student ensembles, while the Chorale and Guitar Ensemble have both student and community members.
By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will start presenting the Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts series on Saturday, May 4 and Saturday, May 18 in Mills Concert Hall, 455 North Park Street, in Madison. A schedule of times and groups is below.
Winners of the annual Youth Orchestra (below) and Philharmonia Orchestra Concerto Competitions will perform a concerto with their orchestra.
Youth Orchestra cellist Grace Kim (below), of Waunakee, will perform the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Camille Saint-Saens.
Youth Orchestra violinist Ellen Zhou (below), of Middleton, will perform the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn.
Philharmonia Orchestra percussionist Anais Griffith-Oh (below), of Madison, will perform the Concertino for Xylophone and Orchestra by Toshiro Mayuzumi.
WYSO orchestras will also perform pieces from Modest Mussorgsky, Lili Boulanger, Jean Sibelius, Antonin Dvorak and more. Visit wysomusic.org to view the concert repertoire and learn more about the WYSO program. You can listen to young participants talk about WYSO in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Tickets for each concert are available at the door 45 minutes prior to each concert, and are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
WYSO students travel from communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois during the concert season to rehearse on the UW-Madison campus.
Each orchestra performs three concerts per season, with additional performance opportunities available to students.
Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts
Saturday, May 4, in Mills Hall at 4 p.m. — Youth Orchestra
Saturday, May 18, in Mills Hall — 1 p.m. Opus One and Sinfonietta; 4 p.m. Harp Ensemble and Concert Orchestra; 7 p.m. Percussion Ensemble and Philharmonia Orchestra
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Classical music: The Concert Band of Edgewood College performs TONIGHT. On Sunday afternoon, the Concert Choirs, Women’s Choir and Guitar Ensemble at Edgewood give FREE concerts
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By Jacob Stockinger
TONIGHT, Friday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in the renovated St. Joseph Chapel at Edgewood College, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Concert Band (below in a photo by Ann Boyer) will perform a FREE concert under the direction of Walter Rich.
The program includes Claude T. Smith’s Incidental Suite, and Beyond the Horizon by Rossano Galante.
Admission is FREE with a freewill offering to benefit the Luke House Community Meal Program.
On this Sunday afternoon, Oct., 21, the Edgewood College Choirs and Guitar Ensemble also perform at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel.
Admission is FREE.
The Women’s Choir (below top), Chamber Singers (below bottom) and Chorale offer vocal works that celebrate fall.
The choral ensembles are conducted by Sergei Pavlov (below).
The Guitar Ensemble, conducted by Nathan Wysock (below), performs classical and other selections.
Sorry, no word on specific composers or titles of works on the program.
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Classical music: Edgewood College closes out the concert season with FREE performances of choral, band and guitar music on Friday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Edgewood College will close out its 90th academic year and the current concert season with two FREE performances this weekend.
On this Friday night, May 4, at 7 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, choral and guitar performances will take place.
The Women’s Choir (below top), directed by Kathleen Otterson (below bottom), performs a wide variety of traditional and modern music specifically for women’s voices.
The Chamber Singers (below top) and the Edgewood Chorale both perform under the direction of Sergei Pavlov (below bottom). The Chorale offers students and Madison-area singers the opportunity to perform larger choral works. The Chamber Singers is Edgewood College’s premier a cappella choral ensemble.
Sorry, no words about composers or works on any of the programs.
The Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Nathan Wysock (below), is an acoustic guitar group that performs music ranging from medieval dances to modern compositions. Again, there is no word on specific composers or works on the program.
Then on Sunday afternoon, May 6, at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive. The Edgewood Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble will give their spring concerts.
Admission is free, with a freewill offering to benefit the Luke House Community Meal Program.
The Concert Band is under the direction of Walter Rich (below), and the Jazz Ensemble performs under the direction of Dan Wallach.
No word on composers or works to be performed.
Tags: #ACappellaMusic, #ChamberSingers, #ConcertBand, #EdgewoodChorale, #EdgewoodCollege, #GuitarEnsemble, #GuitarMusic, #JazzMusic, #KathleenOtterson, #LukeHouse, #ModernMusic, #NathanWysock, #SergeiPavlov, #St.JosephChapel, #TraditionalMusic, #WalterRich, #Women'sChoir, a cappella, acoustic, Acoustic guitar, Arts, benefit, choral music, community, composer, Composition, Concert, dance, Early music, Edgewood College, Edgewood College Chamber Singers, ensemble, free, freewill, Friday, guitar, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Kathleen Otterson, Luke House, meal, Medieval, modern, Music, Nathan Wysock, offering, Sergei Pavlov, sing, singer, song, Spring, Sunday, United States, vocal music, voice, Walter Rich, Wisconsin, women
Classical music: Edgewood College offers two promising band and choral concerts this coming weekend. Plus, a FREE concert of new music for harp and cello is Friday at noon
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features harpist Linda Warren and cellist Carol Wessler in the music of Harper Tasche and Laura Zaerr.
By Jacob Stockinger
Two promising band and choral concerts are on tap this weekend at Edgewood College.
Both will take place in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive.
FRIDAY
The Edgewood College Concert Band, under the direction of Walter Rich (below), will perform a benefit concert for Luke House on Friday at 7 p.m.
Admission is FREE with a freewill offering to benefit the Luke House community meal program.
Included on the program are Flourish for Wind Band by Ralph Vaughan Williams; “Serenity” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo; “Chorale and Capriccio” by Caesar Giovanini; “Jerusalem” by Hubert Parry; “I’m Seventeen Come Sunday” by Percy Grainger; “Daybreak” by Carl Strommen and “Children of Gaia” by Robert Sheldon.
The Music Department at Edgewood College has hosted benefit concerts for Luke House since 1994.
SUNDAY
Two vocal ensembles will perform a concert at 2:30 p.m., Sunday in St. Joseph Chapel. Admission is FREE.
Featured will be the Chamber Singers (below), under the direction of Sergei Pavlov (center at the bottom of the stairs). The group has just returned from performances at the International Sacred Music Festival in Quito, Ecuador.
The Chamber Singers will perform excerpts from the Mass in F by Domenico Zipoli; “Usnijze mi, usnij” by Polish composer Henryk Gorecki; “Holy, Holy” from the Gospel Mass by Robert Ray; and a Victor Johnson arrangement of “Bonse Aba,” a traditional Zambian work. Todd Hammes, adjunct faculty member in the Music Department, will assist on percussion.
Also performing will be the Women’s Choir (below top), under the direction of Kathleen Otterson (below bottom). The Women’s Choir will perform Israeli and Jewish folk songs, a spiritual, and the “Domine Deus” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in G major, also featuring Victoria Gorbich on violin. (You can hear the glorious Bach piece performed in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Tags: Arts, Bach, band, Baroque, benefit concert, Caesar Giovannini, Capriccio, Carl Strommen, Cello, Chamber music, chamber singers, choral music, Chorale, Classical music, Domenico Zipoli, Ecuador, Edgewood College, Edgewood College Chamber Singers, Europe, First Unitarian Society of Madison, folk song, Frank Lloyd Wright, harp, Henryk Gorecki, Hubert Parry, Israel, Israeli, Jacob Stockinger, Jerusalem, Jewish, Johann Sebastian Bach, Latin America, Luke House, Madison, mass, Music, musicale, Norway, Ola Gjeilo, Percy Grainger, Piano, Quito, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Sheldon, spiritual, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, winds, Wisconsin, women, YouTube
Classical music: The Edgewood College Chamber Singers will make history when it performs by invitation at a sacred music festival in Quito, Ecuador later this month.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has just a small — yet big — news item to pass along today:
The Edgewood College Chamber Singers (below) will perform by invitation later this month at the International Sacred Music Festival in Quito, Ecuador.
The choir will perform under the direction of Sergei Pavlov (below), who writes:
“The Festival Internacional de Música Sacra in Quito is a long-standing tradition and one of the most prestigious Easter music festivals in South America.
“It is organized by the National Theater (Teatro Nacional Sucre) and the Municipality of the City of Quito.
“In previous years, it has featured groups from about 15 countries, and all the performances — around 20 concerts — are completely free for the audience and are presented in numerous historic churches in Quito.
“The Edgewood Chamber Singers is the first American youth choir to be invited (last year the group from the U.S. was the professional American Spiritual Ensemble). We will be performing together with the youth choir of Teatro Sucre and the National Chamber Choir of Ecuador.
“The concert will feature music by the Baroque composer Domenico Zipoli – who was an 18th-century missionary in South America; traditional African Christian music; music by Karl Jenkins and Aaron Copland; and spirituals. (You can hear a beautiful non-choral work — an Air — by Domenico Zipoli, performed by the Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
“The festival runs for two weeks before Holy Week. We will be there March 17-24 and our concerts are March 21 and March 22.
“Unfortunately, in South America people still rely on TV and newspaper advertising and the on-line info appears only a few weeks before the festival.”
For more information, visit:
http://www.edgewood.edu/News/chamber-singers-prepare-for-performances-in-ecuador
Tags: Aaron Copland, Africa, America, American Spiritual Ensemble, Arts, Baroque, chamber orchestra, choral music, Christian music, Christianity, church, Classical music, Domenico Zipoli, Early music, Easter, Ecuador, Edgewood College, Edgewood College Chamber Singers, Holy Week, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Francois Paillard, Karl Jenkins, missionary, Music, National Theater, Newspaper, on-line, Orchestra, Quito, scared music, South America, spirituals, Television, TV, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, youth choir, YouTube
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