The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Madison Choral Project performs “Finding Our Path” this Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Plus, the Madison New Music Ensemble performs a FREE concert this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, the critically acclaimed Madison Choral Project (below) will give two performances – in two different venues this year — of its seventh annual holiday program.
The MCP was founded and is directed and conducted by Albert Pinsonneault (below), who taught at Edgewood College and now works at Northwestern University. The group’s stated goal is to inspire, enhance and improve life through music. (You can hear them singing the Octet from Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In keeping with a format that you often find in places of worship — think Scripture and hymns — the MCP once again uses a holiday formula that remains popular and works very effectively by combining the spoken word with choral music.
This year’s theme is “Finding Our Path” and features music and texts on the theme of feeling adrift, seeking guidance and finding our path.
Performances are on this Friday night, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive; and this Saturday afternoon, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
Noah Ovshinsky (below), the news editor at Wisconsin Public Radio, will once again serve as the narrator.
Unfortunately, The Ear has seen no word about the works or composers in the musical part of the program, except that two commissions, including a world premiere by MCP composer-in-residence Justin Merritt, will be performed.
PREFERRED SEATING has a limit of 20 per concert. A reserved seat is in an acoustically “prime” spot in the house (center, about a third of the way back from the stage) and costs $40.
GENERAL ADMISSION is $28 purchased in advance and online or $32 at the door.
STUDENT TICKETS are $10 and can be purchased in advance or at the door. Please show valid student ID at will-call to redeem the ticket.
To purchase tickets online, go to: http://themcp.org/tickets
For more information, including a list of other concerts this season as well as recordings and videos, go to: http://themcp.org/concerts-2
MADISON NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE
This Friday night, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. the Madison New Music Ensemble (below) will perform a FREE concert at the Capitol Lakes Auditorium, 333 W. Main St., in downtown Madison, two blocks off the Capitol Square.
Parking is available in the ramp across from Capitol Lakes.
The concert features music by Joseph Koykkar (below), a Madison-based composer who teaches at the UW-Madison; Gabriela Lena Frank; Gareth Farr; Astor Piazzolla; and Paul Harvey.
Performers in the Madison New Music Ensemble are: Danielle Breisach, Amy Harr, Xinyi Jiang, Elena Ross, Joseph Ross and Bethany Schultz.
For more information, go to the Madison New Music Ensemble on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonnewmusicensemble/
Or go to the YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oehEnNWbA0Q
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Classical music: Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson talks about the classical music he likes. It includes Schubert and Rossini, and Baroque composers Bach, Vivaldi and Corelli
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By Jacob Stockinger
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has been in the news this week as his campaign flounders with the loss of its manager, deputy manager and communications director, who all resigned.
A while back, The Ear complained about too little attention being paid to the arts by the candidates and questioners during the Republican and Democratic presidential debates.
Here is a link to the posting:
But now Dr. Ben Carson (below) – whose politics seem downright bizarre to The Ear – has indeed talked about classical music, including the music he listened to, and made others listen to, in the operating room.
Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
True, in this interview he doesn’t talk about funding the arts. And one must assume that his conservative, small government policies would probably undermine any support for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
The Ear guesses, perhaps wrongly, that Dr. Ben Carson is or will be a defender of defunding.
But at least it is a start. And given his earlier comments and complaints, The Ear feels obliged to be honest and pass it along:
And in honor of Carson — who especially loves the Baroque composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Arcangelo Corelli — here is a YouTube recording of one of his favorites: the Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” by Franz Schubert as performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the late music director and conductor George Solti:
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Classical music: Today is Thanksgiving. Famed New York City radio station WQXR offers its Top 5 musical expressions of giving thanks. Plus, Wisconsin Public Radio has lots of holiday fare to listen to.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Thanksgiving Day, 2015.
Music is such a part of Thanksgiving Day, from hymns and songs, solo music and chamber music, symphonies and oratorios.
Today, Wisconsin Public Radio will feature a lot of music with the theme of Thanksgiving and giving thanks.
And from 10 until noon, will also feature band, choral and instrumental music from the Honors Concerts of the Wisconsin School Music Association. That involves middle school and high schools students from around the state.
Then from noon to 3 p.m. there is a special National Public Radio (NPR) program for Thanksgiving that includes the British pianist Stephen Hough, who has performed several times in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater and with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and who also held master classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. (The NPR show features music and stories, and will also include Chris Kimball of the popular TV show and magazine America’s Test Kitchen, which he is leaving because of a contract dispute. By the way, you can stream Wisconsin Public Radio,)
But you might also be interested to stream some other music. WQXR, the famed classical music radio station in New York City, has put together the Top 5 musical expressions of giving thanks. The website has audio and visual performances of the works that you can stream.
Here is a link:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/top-five-expressions-thanks-classical-music/
And if you have other ideas about music that is appropriate for Thanksgiving this year, please leave them in the COMMENT section, preferably with a YouTube link if possible.
The Ear wants to hear.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
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