The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Fresco Opera of Madison will hold an “aria hunt.” It starts this Friday, Aug. 28, and runs through Sept. 27 with unspecified rewards
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the board of directors of the always imaginative Fresco Opera Theatre of Madison:
“Fresco Opera is trying to stay alive in the world of the global coronavirus pandemic. So many organizations are going to social media platforms with live streaming.
“We have found that audiences have become numb to this. So Fresco Opera has decided to change the game.
“Our artistic director has created a “geo-caching” opera — similar to a treasure hunt –where the patron goes on an interactive adventure to discover hidden spots in our city. It is accompanied with a recorded story and arias.
“Fresco Opera is pleased to present “Aria Hunt” – an interactive opera experience that will allow you to enjoy beautiful music, while you join in the experience.
“Beginning this Friday, Aug. 28, participants can explore and seek out seven “hidden” locations in the Madison area, which we have paired up with an operatic aria.
“Once you find a location, you will listen to an aria, which will be available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.
“Fresco will provide clues to seek out each of the locations. In addition, a story will accompany you on your quest.
“You are the opera!
“To add to the excitement, we want you to take a “selfie” at each of the locations, to be posted on our social media sites. You will then be eligible for a reward!
“All locations must be discovered to qualify.
“Aria Hunt is the perfect way to end this summer on quite literally a high note! The hunt will run from this Friday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 27.
“Here are details and the cast (below) of the Aria Hunt:
“Music Streaming Release Date: August 28th
“Per-Person tickets (or donations) are $8 and are available at www.frescoopera.com
“Singers are: Erin Bryan; Melanie Cain; Diana Eiler; Rachel Eve Holmes; Cat Richmond; Emily Triebold and Thomas Weis
“The Writer and Narrator is: Andrew Ravenscroft
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Classical music: The Festival Choir of Madison performs Yiddish music Saturday night. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performs the child-friendly “Beethoven Lives Next Door” for FREE twice on Saturday morning
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ALERT: Do you have children or grandchildren you want to introduce to classical music? This Saturday morning, March 14, at 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. in the Goodman Community Center, at 149 Waubesa Street on Madison’s near east side, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will give two FREE public performances of “Beethoven Lives Next Door.” The interactive, multi-media event includes live music and story-telling, and is designed for children age 4-10 and their families. Because space is limited, advance registration is strongly recommended. You can register for one of the performances by going to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances
By Jacob Stockinger
The Festival Choir of Madison will present its second concert of the season, “Ner Tamid: Eternal Flame,” on this Saturday night, March 14, at 8 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison at 900 University Bay Drive.
The choir (below), under the artistic direction of Edgewood College professor Sergei Pavlov (below, front right) will perform songs drawing on Yiddish folklore, Klezmer innovations, the pain and cultural fusion of the diaspora, and the poignancy of love in the Holocaust.
Spanning geography and time, this array of Sephardic folk songs, Middle Eastern melodies, the high European tradition of the late 19th century, and contemporary settings of ancient texts paints a rich picture of the breadth of Jewish musical tradition.
The performance includes works by Gustav Mahler, Jacob Weinberg (below top) and Alberto Guidobaldi (below bottom) for classical composers, as well as Paul Ben Haim and Josef Hadar, who are more contemporary Israeli and Jewish composers, respectively.
The Festival Choir of Madison (FCM) is an auditioned, mixed-voice volunteer choir of over 50 experienced singers. FCM performs thematic concerts of artistically challenging choral music from around the world for listeners who enjoy traditional, modern, and eclectic works, and for singers who enjoy developing their talents with others.
The choir performs three thematic concerts annually in November, March and May. It also serves as the core choir for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s annual “Messiah” concert. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the Festival Choir of Madison perform “The West Lake” by Chinese composer Chen Yi in 2019.)
Concert admission — general seating — is $10 for students, $15 for senior citizens, and $20 for adults, with tickets available at the door the day of the concert. Tickets can also be purchased online at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4383496
To learn more about the choir and see details about its May 16 performance of Mozart’s Requiem, visit: www.festivalchoirmadison.org
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Classical music: This Friday at noon, technology meets Beethoven when UW-Madison pianist Kangwoo Jin plays a FREE concerto performance
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By Jacob Stockinger
This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale — tomorrow, March 6 — at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features an unusual concert in which classical music meets high technology.
Kangwoo Jin (below, in a photo by Steve Apps for the Wisconsin State Journal), a gifted and prize-winning pianist from South Korea, will perform the second and third movements of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58.
But instead of a second piano or a full orchestra, Jin will be accompanied by a newly developed interactive app that adjusts to Jin and allows him to play his solo part flexibly with a real orchestra accompaniment that has been recorded minus the piano part.
Jin is studying for his doctorate with UW Professors Christopher Taylor and Jessica Johnson. He will graduate this May.
Next week Jin — who has won the UW-Madison Concerto and Beethoven Competitions and who teaches at Farley’s House of Pianos, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and the UW Continuing Education program– will open and close the UW-River Falls Piano Festival with two performances of the same Beethoven concerto with the St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra
Jin suffers from hemophilia and has to be careful about injuring himself from over-practicing and over-playing. He has a fascinating and inspiring personal story to tell. Here is a link to a story about him in the Wisconsin State Journal: https://madison.com/wsj/entertainment/uw-pianist-shares-musical-gift-despite-health-challenge/article_fdba6f0f-9245-5816-a97c-c4f3a6e2d0ed.html
You can follow his Facebook page. And here is a link to Jin’s own website, which has more biographical information and videos: https://www.pianistkangwoojin.com
Jin says that, in addition to the two concerto movements, he will also play several short pieces: “Clair de Lune” (Moonlight) by Claude Debussy; the “Raindrop” Prelude by Chopin; and two song transcriptions by Franz Liszt — Schubert’s “Litany” and Schumann’s “Widmung” (Dedication).
The orchestral accompaniment for the Beethoven concerto is performed by MusAcc — an iPad app. It is an app that can customize and manipulate the audio, much like an actual instrument, in real time. Think of it as an orchestra in a box that you can use anywhere.
Jin explains the reasons for his FUS concert, which starts at NOON (not 12:15 p.m., as it used to be) and goes to about 1 p.m.:
“Playing a concerto is not possible in that venue, so I am using a recorded file for the orchestra part,” Jin says. “My friend Yupeng Gu, who developed this audio controlling device, will conduct and control the pacing of the recording so that the sound synchronizes with my playing. It is quite incredible and will be a very interesting concert.”
“I hope this breaks the barrier of having to have a big venue and other difficulties for performing concertos, and lets local people enjoy a more accessible and diverse repertoire,” he says. “If people like it, I would like to play the whole concerto and maybe more concertos — hopefully, all five Beethoven piano concertos — this way. This is something I have not tried before, so I am excited about it.”
“People have much easier access to solo performances, but not to concertos due to many limitations,” Jin adds. “So I expect them to have a novel experience with this concert.”
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a similar performance, done with the same device, featuring a different pianist playing the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #Clairdelune, #ClaudeDebussy, #ContinuingEducation, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FranzLiszt, #FredericChopin, #FridayNoonMusicale, #FullOrchestra, #HighTechnology, #HomePage, #HomeWebsite, #HumanInterest, #InteractiveApp, #JacobS, #JessicaJohnson, #KangwooJin, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicEducation, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PianoConcerto, #PianoConcertoNo.4, #PianoFestival, #PianoTranscription, #Prize-Winning, #RaindropPrelude, #RealTime, #RiverFalls, #RobertSchumann, #SouthKorea, #SouthKorean, #St.CroixValleySymphonyOrchestra, #SteveApps, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UW-RiverFalls, #WisconsinConservatoryofMusic, #WisconsinStateJournal, #YouTubevideo, #YupengGu, accompany, accomplished, acocmpaniment, app, Arts, audience, Audio, Beethoven, biography, blog, Chopin, Clair de Lune, Classical music, Claude Debussy, close, Competition, composer, Concert, concerto competition, concertos, conduct, Continuing Education, control, customize, Debussy, dedication, develop, device, different, doctoral, doctorate, drop, event, Facebook, Farley's House of Pianos, festival, file, first, First Unitarian Society of Madison, flexible, flexibly, forward, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, free, Friday Noon Musicale, friend, gifted, graduate, Gu, hemophilia, home website, human, human interest, information, injure, instrument, interactive, interesting, intuitive, invent, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Johnson, Kangaroo Jin, Korea, like, link, litany, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, manipulate, Mead Witter School of Music, meet, minus, moonlight, movement, MusAcc, Music, Music education, open, Orchestra, orchestral accompaniment, pace, pacing, part, perform, performer, personal, Pianist, Piano, Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven), piano festival, playing, possible, post, posting, practicing, Prelude, rain, raindrop, Raindrop Prelude, real, real time, recorded, rehearse, relative, River Falls, Robert Schumann, sample, Schumann, second, share, small, society, solo, South Korea, South Korean, St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra, Steve Apps, story, Student, symphony, synchronize, tag, teach, technology, Tempo, The Ear, third, time, transcription, Unitarian, United States, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unusual, use, UW, UW-Madison, UW-River Falls, venue, Website, win, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Wisconsin State Journal, YouTube, Yupeng, Yupeng Gu
Classical music: Sound Out Loud and Madison Public Philosophy explore cultural appropriation in three FREE concerts and discussions over the coming week
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
Musicians from the Sound Out Loud ensemble (below) and Madison Public Philosophy are teaming up to present an interactive exploration of cultural exchange, appreciation, appropriation, and assimilation in music, from Claude Debussy‘s Pagodas (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom) to the hit song The Lion Sleeps Tonight to Irving Berlin’s nostalgic White Christmas.
There will be three performances:
Monday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at Lathrop Hall’s Virginia Harrison Parlor (1002 University Avenue, below);
Saturday, Oct. 28, at 1:30 p.m. at the American Family Insurance‘s DreamBank (1 N. Pinckney Street , below);
and Sunday, Oct. 29 at 2:30 p.m. at the Arts + Literature Laboratory (2021 Winnebago Street, below).
Audience members will hear live music performed by Sound Out Loud accompanied by historical context and analysis from UW-Madison musicologist Andrea Fowler.
After the performances, Madison Public Philosophy will lead a discussion about the musical examples. Audience members will be asked to decide which of the following categories the examples fall into: exchange, appropriation, appreciation, and assimilation.
The events are free, but donations are accepted. Each program will last just over one hour.
For more information, got o these websites:
https://www.soundoutloudensemble.com
https://publicphilosophysite.wordpress.com
About the Organizations:
Madison Public Philosophy is a group of philosophy students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its mission is to share philosophy with all members of the community through educational programs and public performances.
Sound Out Loud is a new music performance ensemble currently based out of Madison, Wisconsin. The group seeks to expand the realm of possibilities within the chamber ensemble repertoire through the implementation of experimental techniques, innovative performance practice, and the use of live electronics.
Tags: American, American Family Insurance, Andrea Fowler, appreciation, appropriation, Arts, Arts and Literature Laboratory, assimiilation, audience, Chamber music, Christmas, clarinet, community, composer, context, cultural, Debussy, Education, electronic, ensemble, exchange, experimental, exploration, explore, Family, flute, free, historical, History, hit, insurance, interactive, Irving Berlin, Jacob Stockinger, Laboratory, Lathrop Hall, lion', literature, live, Madison, Music, musicologist, musicology, New Music, nostalgia, Pagodas, performance, philosophy, Piano, pop, pop music, practice, program, public, singer, Singing, Sleep, song, Sound Out Loud, technique, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, tonight, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, white, White Christmas, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The second annual Madison New Music Festival will take place this Thursday through Sunday
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By Jacob Stockinger
The summer classical season in Madison just keeps getting busier and more interesting.
The Ear has received the following announcement from Zachary Green (below), a native Madisonian and composer who graduated from Oregon High School and the Juilliard School, which awarded him a grant to start the first Madison New Music Festival last year. He now directs the event:
Dear friends, family, colleagues, and mentors,
I am extremely pleased to invite you to the second season of the Madison New Music Festival, taking place this Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 10-12.
The Madison New Music Festival is an annual weekend-long concert series dedicated to strengthening Madison’s cultural vitality through the celebration of fresh classical music from our lifetimes.
The festival strives to affordably and accessibly share music by the world’s leading living composers with the Madison community, with special emphasis placed on Wisconsin-based composers and performers.
This year, over the course of four concerts, we will be featuring 30 performers playing the music of over 20 composers— including the music of a different living Wisconsin composer at every concert.
The concerts will take place Thursday at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (8 p.m.), Friday at Bethel Lutheran Church (8 p.m.), and Saturday at the Memorial Union Terrace (3 p.m.) and Robinia Courtyard (7:30 p.m.).
PROGRAM AND TICKET INFORMATION:
Thursday, Aug. 10, at 8 p.m., Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in the Overture Center. (Below is a photo at MMoCA from last year’s festival)
After an incredibly successful launch in 2016, the Madison New Music Festival is set to return to MMoCA for a concert combining contemporary visual art and new music.
The festival presents brand new pieces by emerging composers, underplayed classics of the contemporary repertoire, and shines a spotlight on new music created here in Wisconsin.
The concert at MMoCA features music with thematic ties to MMoCA’s current exhibitions, including politically charged works such as “But I Still Believe” by composer Zachary Green and inspired by Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, and “Drums of Winter” from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and environmentalist John Luther Adams (below). You can hear “Drums of Winter” in the YouTube video at the bottom.
There will be a cash bar and opportunities to walk around the exhibits. Tickets are $10, $5 for students and FREE for MMoCA members.
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13011
Friday, Aug. 11, at 8 p.m. in Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin Avenue
The festival’s second night features an eclectic range of music, from the inventive, folk-inspired music of Romanian composer Doina Rotaru (below top) to the improvisatory soundscapes of recently departed legend Pauline Oliveros (below bottom).
Also featured is local composer Scott Gendel (below top) , who will present a set of his own music with frequent Madison Opera guest soprano Emily Birsan (below middle). Both are graduates of the UW-Madison.
Other performers include Chicago-based new music ensemble Chartreuse (below top), local flutist Iva Ugrcic (below middle) and local violinist Lydia Sewell (below bottom). Tickets are $10, $5 for students.
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13028
Saturday, Aug. 12, at 3 p.m., Memorial Union Terrace
Local new music wind quintet Black Marigold (below top) will perform “Beer Music” by Brian DuFord (below bottom), inspired by different kinds of beer– and you can sip as you listen!
But first, get your groove on with rhythmic works by emerging composer Andy Akiho (below top), Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, and local percussionist Dave Alcorn (below bottom) of Clocks in Motion — interspersed with interactive interpretations of Renaissance motets and an electroacoustic work for vibraphone. Featured musicians include percussionist Garrett Mendelow and Chicago-based new music ensemble Chartreuse. Admission is FREE.
Saturday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 PM, Robinia Courtyard (Jardin Restaurant) at 827 East Washington Avenue.
Join us at Jardin Restaurant, part of the newly redeveloped Robinia Courtyard to hear local ensemble Mr. Chair (below) present an eclectic, head-banging set ranging from original compositions to versions of Erik Satie, Olivier Messiaen and Igor Stravinsky.
Also featured are the genre-bending Echelon String Quartet(below) and a mesmerizing solo bass piece performed by Grant Blaschka. Cash bar. ($10/$5 student)
Tickets: https://www.artful.ly/madison-new-music-festival/store/events/13029
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Classical music: The Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society gets its 24th three-week summer season underway this coming weekend. This year’s theme is “Guilty as Charged.” Here is part 1 of 2 with background and Week 1.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Our friends at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society – which The Ear named Musicians of the Year two years ago – will begin its new summer season this coming weekend.
The season features six concert programs performed over three weekends in three different venues and cities.
Here is the first part of two postings based on the BDDS press release. Part 2 will run tomorrow:
BACH DANCING AND DYNAMITE SOCIETY (BDDS) PRESENTS ITS 24TH ANNUAL SUMMER CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL — GUILTY AS CHARGED — JUNE 12–28, 2015.
This festival features 12 concerts over three weekends. Each weekend offers two different programs. Concerts will be performed in The Playhouse at Overture Center in Madison, the Stoughton Opera House, and the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.
Combining the best local musicians and top-notch artists from around the country, a varied repertoire and delightful surprises, BDDS presents chamber music as “serious fun” infused with high energy and lots of audience appeal, and makes this art form accessible to diverse audiences. Led by artistic directors and performers (below) Stephanie Jutt, flute, and Jeffrey Sykes, piano, 20 guest artists will perform in the festival.
So, what is the meaning of this year’s theme?
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society is clearly a criminal enterprise. After all, we are named after the only major composer to ever spend a significant amount of time in jail, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Our crime at BDDS?
We’ve destroyed the stuffy, starched-collar atmosphere of traditional chamber music concerts and replaced it with a seriously fun vibe. We’ve broken down the barriers that separate audience and performer, making our concerts into riotously interactive events. Rather than leading audiences through a museum, we invite audiences to trespass into the creative and re-creative process right in the concert hall.
We own up to our crimes, and we proudly proclaim that we are GUILTY AS CHARGED.
GUILTY AS CHARGED features six programs, each performed multiple times and in multiple venues, and each named after some “crime.”
In “Stolen Moments” we feature music that has been stolen in some fashion: stolen from another composer, stolen from oneself, stolen from a completely different land and culture.
Felix Mendelssohn stole a chorale tune from Johann Sebastian Bach as the basis of the slow movement of his second cello sonata (heard at bottom in a YouTube video with cellist Lynn Harrell and pianist James Levine).
Franz Joseph Haydn stole from himself to create his flute divertimentos; Ludwig van Beethoven stole Irish and Scottish folksong texts and tunes as the basis for his songs with piano trio accompaniment.
“Stolen Moments” will be performed at The Playhouse in the Overture Center for the Arts, on Friday, June 12, at 7:30 p.m., and in the Hillside Theater at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green, on Sunday, June 14, at 2:30 p.m.
“Rob the Cradle” features the music or poetry of artists who died tragically young, robbing the world of their creative talents.
The Flute Sonata by Dick Kattenburg, a light-hearted and joyous work, was written at the age of 18 shortly before he died in a Nazi concentration camp.
The powerful “Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok” by Dmitri Shostakovich feature the luminous poetry of the man many considered Russia’s finest poet, a man whose life was cut short by the conditions of early Soviet years.
Both programs feature the talents of two great singers—bass-baritone Timothy Jones (below top) and soprano Emily Birsan (below bottom) — familiar to BDDS audiences as the voices of Robert and Clara Schumann from our 2013 season.
“Rob the Cradle” will be performed in The Playhouse of the Overture Center for the Arts, on Saturday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m., and at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green, on Sunday, June 14, at 6:30 p.m.
For the fourth year, BDDS will also perform one free family concert, “What’s So Great About Bach?” an interactive event that will be great for all ages. Together with the audience, BDDS will explore interwoven layers of melody. Everyone will be up on their feet helping to compose for the musicians on stage.
This event takes place 11–11:45 a.m. on this Saturday, June 13, in The Playhouse of the Overture Center. This is a performance for families with children of all ages and seating will be first come first served.
CUNA Mutual Group, Pat Powers and Thomas Wolfe, and Overture Center generously underwrite this performance.
BDDS Locations are: the Stoughton Opera House (381 E. Main Street, below top); the Overture Center in Madison (201 State Street); and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Hillside Theater (below bottom, County Highway 23 in Spring Green).
Single general admission tickets are $40. Student tickets are always $5.
Various ticket packages are also available, starting at a series of three for $114. First-time subscriptions are half off.
For tickets and information visit www.bachdancinganddynamite.org or call (608) 255-9866.
Single tickets for Overture Center concerts can also be purchased at the Overture Center for the Arts box office, (608) 258-4141, or at overturecenter.com additional fees apply).
Hillside Theater tickets can be purchased from the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center on County Highway C, (608) 588-7900. Tickets are available at the door at all locations.
TOMORROW: PART 2 WITH WEEKS 2 AND 3
Tags: accompaniment, Alexander Blok, artists, Arts, audience, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, BDDS, Beethoven, Cello, Cello Sonata, Chamber music, charged, children, Clara Schumann, Classical music, concentration camp, concerto, cradle, crime, culture, Dick Kattenburg, divertimento, Family, Felix Mendelssohn, flute, folk, folksong, Frank Lloyd Wright, German language, guilty, Haydn, interactive, Irish, Jacob Stockinger, jail, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, melody, Museum, Music, Nazi, Piano, Piano Trio, poem, Poetry, Robert Schumann, Romance, Russia, Scottish, Shostakovich, Sonata, song, songs, Soviet, Soviet Union, Taliesin, text, tune, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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