The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Winter Concert Series by the Madison Youth Choirs next Saturday and Sunday feature the theme of “Resilience” with guest artist Tony Memmel
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
This semester, the Madison Youth Choirs welcome guest artist Tony Memmel, a singer-songwriter and guitarist whose story of ingenuity and resilience will inspire young singers and audience members alike.
Born without a left forearm or hand, Memmel (below) taught himself to play guitar by building a homemade cast out of Gorilla Tape, and has become an internationally acclaimed musician, thoughtful teacher and ambassador for young people with limb differences. (You can hear Memmel talk about himself in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
On this coming Saturday night, Dec. 8, and Sunday afternoon, Dec., 9, at the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol Street, Memmel will join the Madison Youth Choirs in a Winter Concert Series called “Resilience” because it focuses on the ability to overcome challenges both visible and invisible, and along the way discover the limitless possibilities that exist inside each of us.
Here is the schedule:
Saturday, Dec. 8, at 7:00 p.m. – Purcell, Britten, Holst and Ragazzi choirs
Sunday, Dec. 9, at 4:00 p.m. – Choraliers, Con Gioia, Capriccio, Cantilena and Cantabile choir
Tickets will be available at the door, $10 for general admission; $5 for students 7-18; and free for children under 7.
These concerts are generously endowed by the Diane Ballweg Performance Fund with additional support from our sponsors, American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. This project is also supported by the Madison Arts Commission and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from 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, personal 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.
For more information about supporting or joining MYC, go to: https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org
HERE IS THE COMPLETE REPERTOIRE OF THE MYC 2018 WINTER CONCERT SERIES “RESILIENCE”:
SATURDAY, DEC. 8, at 7:00 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Boychoirs)
Combined Boychoirs with Tony Memmel
“Clenched Hands, Brave Demands” by Tony Memmel
“Though My Soul May Set in Darkness,” text by Sarah Williams, composer unknown
Purcell
“Who Can Sail” Scandinavian Folk Song, arr. Jeanne Julseth-Heinrich
“Hine Ma Tov” Hebrew Folk Song, arr. Henry Leck
Britten
“Jerusalem,” poem by William Blake, music by Sir Hubert Parry
“This Little Babe” from A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten
Holst
“Keep Your Lamps,” traditional spiritual, arr. André Thomas
“Out of the Deep” by John Wall Callcott
“Shosholoza,” Traditional song from Zimbabwe, arr. Albert Pinsonneault
Combined Boychoirs
“Angels’ Carol” by John Rutter
Tony Memmel
Selections to be announced
Ragazzi
“Wie Melodien” (Op. 5, No. 1) by Johannes Brahms
“The Chemical Worker’s Song” by Ron Angel, arr. after Great Big Sea
“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” by Abbie Betinis
Combined Boychoirs with Tony Memmel (below)
“America to Go” by Tony Memmel
SUNDAY, DEC. 9, at 4:00 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Girlchoirs)
Combined Girlchoirs with Tony Memmel
“Clenched Hands, Brave Demands” by Tony Memmel
Choraliers
“Be Like a Bird,” Text from Victor Hugo, music by Arthur Frackenpohl
“Art Thou Troubled” by George Frideric Handel
“Blustery Day” by Victoria Ebel-Sabo
Con Gioia
“Bist du bei mir” by Johann Sebastian Bach from “The Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach”
“I Heard a Bird Sing” by Cyndee Giebler
“Ask the Moon” from Three Settings of the Moon by Ron Nelson
“I’ll Overcome Someday” by C.A. Tindley
“We Shall Overcome” arr. by Marie McManama and Con Gioia
“i shall imagine” by Daniel Brewbaker, text by e.e. cummings
South African National Anthem by E.M. Sontonga and M.L. de Villiers
Capriccio
“Resilience” by Abbie Betinis
“Be Like the Bird” by Abbie Betinis
“Esurientes” from Magnificat in G minor by Antonio Vivaldi
“And Ain’t I a Woman!” by Susan Borwick, adapted from a speech by Sojourner Truth
Tony Memmel
Selections to be announced by Tony Memmel
Cantilena
“Vanitas vanitatum” by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
“Chant for a Long Day” by Stephen Hatfield
“Wir eilen mit schwachen doch emsigen Schritten”(from BWV 78) by Johann Sebastian Bach
“The Storm is Passing Over” by Charles Albert Tindley, arr. Barbara Baker
Cantabile
“Ich weiss nicht”(Op. 113, No. 11) by Johannes Brahms, text by Friedrich Rueckert
“Widmung” (Op.25, No. 1) by Johannes Brahms, text by Friedrich Rueckert
“I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Charles Davidson
Combined Choirs with Tony Memmel
“America to Go” by Tony Memmel
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Classical music: Prize-winning violinist Ilya Kaler returns to perform Paganini with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra this Friday night
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features bassoonist Juliana Mesa-Jaramillo, clarinetist Jose Garcia-Taborda and pianist Satoko Hayami in music by Mikhail Glinka, Max Bruch and Carlos Guastavino. The concert takes place from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
If you were in the audience two years ago when violinist Ilya Kaler (below) made his Madison debut with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, it is unlikely that you have forgotten it.
Kaler proved himself a complete virtuoso when he performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major. The audience went wild and so did the critics, including The Ear.
Backed up with a first-rate accompaniment by music director and conductor Andrew Sewell and the WCO, Kaler showed a perfect mix of dramatic virtuosity, songful lyricism, lush tone and sonic clarity that you rarely hear.
This Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center Kaler returns to perform with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below), again under the baton of music director Andrew Sewell.
The vehicle this time is the Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7, by perhaps the most famous violin virtuoso of all time, Niccolo Paganini (below, playing for astonished listeners).
The concerto is famous for the “La Campanella” (The Bell) theme of the last movement that inspired the show-off etude of the same name by the great pianist Franz Liszt, who sought to emulate and transfer Paganini’s fiendish violin virtuosity on the piano. (You can hear that last movement in YouTube video at the bottom.)
Also on the program are: The Mozart-like and operatic String Sonata No. 2 by a 12-year-old Goiachino Rossini; and the Symphony No. 81 in G Major by Franz Joseph Haydn, a composer who is one of the interpretative strengths of Sewell (below).
Tickets are $15-$80. For ticket information and purchases, got to: http://www.overture.org/events/ilya-kaler
Born in Russia and trained at the famed Moscow Conservatory, Kaler now teaches at DePaul University in Chicago. He also won major gold medals in the 1980s at three major international competitions: the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow; the Paganini Competition in Genoa; and the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki.
He also records frequently for Naxos Records. To find out more about the impressive Kaler, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Kaler
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