The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The critically acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble performs a program of “Sanctuary” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The two performances by the critically acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below) have become an annual summer tradition over the past 17 years, first under the direction of founder Scott MacPherson and since last year under its new artistic director, Michael McGaghie.
This summer, as usual, McGaghie (below, rehearsing) returned to Madison for 2-1/2 weeks of intense rehearsals and two a cappella concerts on this Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
The program this year has the theme of “Sanctuary,” and focuses on refuge, salvation and hope.
The chorus will sing “Come to the Woods” by Jake Runestad, using texts taken from the journals of John Muir, the environmentalist who attended the UW-Madison (you can hear the work in the YouTube video at the bottom); and “Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing” by Herbert Howells. The concert also includes unspecified music by Stephen Paulus, Anton Bruckner, Dale Trumbore and Choi.
Admission is $20 for adults, $10 for students.
Here are more details:
Friday, August 2, at 7:30 p.m.
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
7337 Hubbard Avenue
Middleton, WI 53562
Sunday, August 4, at 3 p.m.
Christ Presbyterian Church
944 East Gorham Street
Madison, WI 53703
For more information about the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, including how to join it, how to support it, how to see a list of past concerts and hear excerpts, go to: https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org
Tags: #ACappella, #AntonBruckner, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristPresbyterianChurch, #CometotheWoods, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DaleTrumbore, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Fridaynight, #HerbertHowells, #IsthmusVocalEnsemble, #JakeRunestad, #JesusChrist, #JohnMuir, #MichaelMcGaghie, #MiddletonWisconsin, #ScottMacPherson, #St.Luke'sLutheranChurch, #StephenPaulus, #Sundayafternoon, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, a cappella, annual, Anton Bruckner, Arts, audience, blog, Choi, choral music, Christ, Christ Presbyterian Church, Christian, church, Classical music, Come to the Woods, composer, Concert, conductor, critically acclaimed, Dale Trumbore, director, Earth, environment, environmental, environmentalist, event, excerpts, Facebook, Focus, forward, founder, Friday night, hear, Herbert Howells, hope, intense, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Jake Runestad, John Muir, join, journals, last year, like, link, listen, Madison, Michael McGaghie, Middleton, new, past, performance, performer, reader, refuge, rehearsal, salvation, sanctuary, Scott MacPherson, share, St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Stephen Paulus, subscriber, summer, Sunday afternoon, support, tag, text, theme, ticket, tradition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, Woods, word, year, YouTube
Classical music: The talented new director of the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble sets the acclaimed and still impressive group on a new path with mixed results and hopeful expectations
6 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (IVE, below) is a well-established part of Madison’s musical summers. It offers dedicated choral singers a chance for intensive rehearsal preparation of highly accomplished choral music, and has delivered some truly memorable events over the years.
Of its concerts this year, I caught the second performance on Sunday afternoon. The choir itself doesn’t need to be shown off by now, but it was the choir’s chance to show off its new conductor in his first appearance here.
Michael McGaghie (below) is that new conductor. He is very plainly a brilliant choral technician who knows how to make a choir sound wonderful. (For more about McGaghie, who is the Director of Choral Activities at Macalester Collge in St. Paul and who leads the Harvard Glee Club Alumni Chorus in Cambridge, Mass., go to: https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org/artisticdirector/)
That he did throughout the program. The IVE — 69 singers strong — certainly responded with an infectious enthusiasm that was also communicated to the large audience that filled the Christ Presbyterian Church. The concert was certainly a feast of great choral singing.
But what about the music?
To begin with, the actual music amounted to no more than about an hour’s worth. McGaghie planned the program as a progress of emotional moods, and he introduced each piece himself.
But what were the contents? McGaghie largely turned his back on the centuries of great choral music, the kind that his predecessor Scott MacPherson explored so ambitiously.
There were, at the beginning, two examples of that, motets by Thomas Tallis of the 16th century and Heinrich Schütz of the 17th century.
There was also an interesting nugget from the Russian composer and conductor Nikolai Golovanov (below), an early work of his (1917), setting the Lord’s Prayer (Otche naš) In a style departing from the previous two centuries of great Russian Orthodox choral writing.
Beyond those, however, the remaining nine items in the program — and the encore — were entirely by recent composers, mostly living and mostly American. These were his introductory calling cards, and so they invite scrutiny.
Ours is not an age of great, idiomatic choral writing, and composers go their own ways variously. Many of them rely upon a kind of chordal declamation with little sense of line or full-bodied texture.
Some pieces I don’t think I would want to hear again, and a couple I would not have wanted to hear even the first time.
An example of the latter is a piece about sirens and sailors by Chinese-American Chen Yi (below top), a collage of weird choral sounds but no musical content recognizable to any but Chinese ears.
Another was a loudly trashy adaptation of a Civil Rights “freedom song” by Jeffrey Douma (below bottom), plus the gesture to multicultural triviality in a Philippine folksong arrangement.
Three of the items came with piano accompaniment. In The Whole Sea in Motion by Dale Trumbore (below top) — which uses a text from Anne Brontë — the piano gave an underlying ripple to support declamatory, non-linear writing.
In Eternity by Donald Martino (below), the pleasantly lyrical choral writing really didn’t need the piano at all. And that part was much too prominent against Morten Lauridsen’s nicely polyphonic, and quite self-sufficient, choral texture in “Sure on This Shining Night” that treated James Agee’s famous poem. (You can hear the Lauridsen work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
There were certainly some among these contemporary items that I found quite enjoyable.
In Ophelia, a setting the account of that woman’s death in Hamlet, Jocelyn Hagen (below top) was overly concerned with story-telling, but the work certainly contained some lovely writing. O Radiant Dawn by Scottish master James MacMillan (below bottom) was a beautifully sonorous tribute to Catholic liturgical tradition.
What does this conducting debut point to for the future?
McGaghie can create the most splendid choral beauty — though often at the sacrifice of clear diction. On the basis of this program, it looks like he could now focus the IVE on lots of short contemporary pieces, rather than on the vast traditional literature.
We will have to see.
Tags: #Americancomposers, #AmericanRecordGuide, #AnneBrontë, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CambridgeMassachusetts, #ChenYi, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ChristPresbyterianChurch, #CivilRights, #DaleTrumbore, #DonaldMartino, #EmeritusProfessor, #GleeClub, #HarvardUniversity, #HeinrichSchütz, #IsthmusNewspaper, #IsthmusVocalEnsemble, #JamesAgee, #JamesMacMillan, #JeffreyDouma, #JesusChrist, #JocelynHagen, #JohnW.Barker, #Lord'sPrayer, #MacalesterCollege, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MedievalHistory, #MichaelMcGaghie, #MortenLauridsen, #MusicCritic, #NikolaiGolovanov, #PianoAccompaniment, #PolyphonicMusic, #RomanCatholicism, #RussianComposer, #ScottMacPherson, #St.PaulMinnesota, #ThomasTallis, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WilliamShakespeare, #WORT-FM89.9, 16th century, 17th century, accompaniment, alumni, American Record Guide, Anne Brontë, arrangement, Arts, Baroque, beauty, brilliant, Chen Yi, Chinese, Chinese-American, Choir, choral, choral music, chordal, Christ, Christ Presbyterian Church, church, civil rights, Classical music, classicalmusic, collage, composer, Concert, conductor, Dale Trumbore, declamation, director, Donald Martino, Early music, earlymusic, emeritus, emotion, emotional, enthusiasm, event, famous, feast, folk song, folksong, gesture, Glee Club, Hamlet, Harvard, Heinrich Schütz, History, infectious, Isthmus, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, James Agee, James MacMillan, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jocelyn Hagen, John W. Barker, lecture, liturgical, Lord, Lord's Prayer, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Medieval, MEMF, memorable, Michael McGaghie, Morten Lauridsen, motet, multicultural, Music, Nikolai Golovanov, Ophelia, Philippine, photo, Piano, piece, plan, poem, Poetry, polyphonic, polyphony, prayer, Presbyterian, professor, program, recent, rehearsal, Roman Catholicism, Russian, Scotland, Scott MacPherson, Scottish, sea, Shakespeare, singer, Singing, St. Paul, summer, Thomas Tallis, tribute, triviality, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble performs old and new music this Friday night and Sunday afternoon when its new director also makes his debut
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Since it was founded in 2002, the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below) has been critically acclaimed for the concert it puts together each summer in just a couple of weeks or less. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This summer, the group will be under the baton of its new artistic director, Michael McGaghie (below), who will be making his performing debut with the group.
McGaghie directs choral activities at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and also conducts the Harvard Glee Club Alumni Chorus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The program this weekend ranges from the 16th century and early Baroque to the contemporary.
It will begin with works from established masters such as Thomas Tallis, Heinrich Schütz and the Soviet conductor-composer Nikolai Golovanov.
It will then explore works from contemporary composers such as Jocelyn Hagen, Morten Lauridsen and Dale Trumbore in a program called Horizons. (Sorry, The Ear has not received the titles of specific works on the program.)
Admission is $20 for adults, $10 for students. Tickets can be bought at the door or ordered at the links below.
Concert venues are:
This Friday, Aug. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lutheran Church of the Living Christ, 110 North Gammon Road, on Madison’s west side. For tickets, go to:
https://isthmusvocalens.yapsody.com/event/index/282736/ive-2018-friday-concert
This Sunday, Aug. 5, at 3 p.m. in Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham Street. For tickets, go to:
https://isthmusvocalens.yapsody.com/event/index/282791/ive-2018-sunday-concert
For more about the impressive background of the new director, go to: https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org/artisticdirector/
For more about the past performances and the organization, including sound samples to listen to and how to join or support the group, go to: https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org
Tags: #ArtisticDirector, #BaroqueMusic, #CambridgeMassachusetts, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ChristPresbyterianChurch, #ContemporaryComposers, #ContemporaryMusic, #DaleTrumbore, #GleeClub, #HarvardGleeClub, #HarvardGleeClubAlumniChorus, #HarvardUniversity, #HeinrichSchütz, #IsthmusVocalEnsemble, #JesusChrist, #JocelynHagen, #LivingComposer, #LutheranChurch, #LutheranChurchoftheLivingChrist, #MacalesterCollege, #MichaelMcGaghie, #MortenLauridsen, #NewMusic, #NikolaiGolovanov, #SoundSample, #Sovietcomposer, #SovietMusic, #Sovietmusicians, #St.PaulMinnesota, #ThomasTallis, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, admission, Artistic director, Arts, Audio, background, Baroque, Cambridge, choral music, chorus, Christ, Christ Presbyterian Church, Christian, church, Classical music, composer, conductor, Dale Trumbore, debut, Early music, earlymusic, established, Glee, Glee Club, Harvard University, Heinrich Schütz, horizon, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus Christ, Jocelyn Hagen, Living composer, living composers, Madison, Massachusetts, Master, Michael McGaghie, Minnesota, Morten Lauridsen, Music, New Music, Nikolai Golovanov, performance, program, sample, Sound, Soviet, St. Paul, support, Thomas Tallis, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Isthmus Vocal Ensemble performs two concerts this weekend that honor choral conductor Robert Fountain. Then founder and director Scott MacPherson steps down
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Even 21 years after his death at 79 in 1996, the University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s legendary choral conductor Robert Fountain (below) is spoken of with reverence and awe.
And with good reason, according to many singers and musicians.
The story goes that Fountain was offered a professional performing career, much like his friend Dale Warland enjoyed, but he chose instead to go into academia and teaching.
Fountain’s legacy will be celebrated this weekend with two performances by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below).
IVE is a summer-only group that has performed for the past 16 years under its founder and artistic director Scott MacPherson (below), who worked at the UW-Madison with Fountain and now directs choral activities at Kent State University.
Performances are this Friday, Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the High Point Church on the far west side, 7702 Old Sauk Road, and on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 6 at 3 p.m. at Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students. (Cash or check only will be accepted at Mills Hall.)
Here are some comments that The Ear received from MacPherson:
“These are my final concerts as artistic director with IVE. I am stepping down after 16 years. The IVE Board is in the process of finding a new artistic director and should be able to announce the new person in the coming week or so.
“It is the centennial of my mentor and former UW colleague Robert Fountain’s birth, so I have chosen to honor him with a tribute for my final concerts with IVE.
“Robert Fountain: A Choral Legacy” is a concert programmed as he would have programmed with his UW Concert Choir.
“Music from the Renaissance to living composers and everything in between will be featured. Many of my singers sang under his direction at one time or another. Some are even travelling from out of state to participate.”
“The composers represented include Johann Sebastian Bach, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Randall Thompson, Pavel Chesnokov, Gyorgy Ligeti, Andrew Rindfleisch and a spiritual arranged by Fountain.”
(IVE will perform Chesnokov’s “Salvation Is Created,” which you can hear sung by the Dale Warland Singers in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For the complete program, plus links to ticket information and purchases, go to:
https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org/upcoming-performances
For more information about the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble and about Scott MacPherson, go to:
https://www.isthmusvocalensemble.org
Tags: academia, adult, Andrew Rindfleisch, Artistic director, Arts, awe, Bach, Baroque, birth, centennial, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, chorus, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, contemporary, created, Creation, Dale Warland, Early music, founder, György Ligeti, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kent State University, legacy, living, Madison, mentor, Music, Musician, New Music, Pavel Chesnokov, performance, professional, Randall Thompson, Renaissance, Retirement, reverence, Robert Fountain, Russia, salvation, Salvation Is Created, Scott MacPherson, senior, singers, spiritual, Student, Teacher, teaching, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, weekend, YouTube
Classical music: The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble will mark its 15th anniversary this Friday night and Sunday afternoon with the “German Requiem” by Brahms and the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Andrew Rindfleisch
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below) will mark its 15th anniversary with two performances this coming weekend of the “German” Requiem by Johannes Brahms and the world premiere of a work by the contemporary American composer Andrew Rindfleisch.
These performances mark the first time the vocal group will be joined by an orchestra.
Performances are in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus this Friday, Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 7 at 3 p.m.
Soloists are soprano Sarah Brailey (below top) and UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe (below bottom).
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 with a student ID. Children under 6 under should not attend. More information can be found at www.isthmusvocalensemble.org
The Ear asked Scott P MacPherson (below), formerly of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and now the director of choral activities at Kent State University in Ohio, to talk about the anniversary and concert. MacPherson is the founder and artistic director of the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.
MacPherson writes:
“We are excited to announce that the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble is celebrating it’s 15th Anniversary with two performances of Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) with soloists and professional musicians for the 45-piece orchestra.
“Additionally, IVE marks this significant milestone by presenting the world premiere of the Song of Jubilation, by Andrew Rindfliesch, the native Wisconsin composer’s first choral-orchestral piece.
“Started in 2002, the critically acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble is Madison’s “temporary” choir—it gathers some of the region’s finest singers every summer for two intensive weeks of rehearsal (below) culminating in two performances on the first weekend of August.
“IVE started up as a summer group of dedicated singers who wanted to perform great choral music together. Many charter members sang under the direction of Robert Fountain in the Concert Choir or with me and the UW Madrigal Singers or Chamber Singers when I was on the UW faculty in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The group has grown from about 35 in its first year to averaging over 60 singers each year. This summer, I have expanded the choir to 115 singers in order to meet the musical and vocal demands of the Brahms German Requiem. (You can hear one of the most popular movements, “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place,” in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
“From the beginning, IVE has served the Madison choral community with excellent performances of a varied and demanding repertoire, from Renaissance and Baroque motets to part songs and motets of the 19th century to choral works either unaccompanied or with piano or organ accompaniment in the 20th century to music by living composers of our time.
“A few years ago, I suggested to the IVE board that we commemorate our 15th anniversary in 2016 by performing a completely different repertoire than our usual fare.
“The Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem immediately came to mind—there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that this would be the right piece to commemorate this milestone. A favorite for the singers and audiences alike, the music of Brahms has frequently been highlighted on IVE’s programs over the years.
“Also, IVE has never before collaborated with an orchestra for an entire concert, although in 2008 we prepared Coronation Anthem No. 2 by George Frideric Handel for Concerts on the Square with Andrew Sewell and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra). Performing the German Requiem, arguably Brahms’s finest work, symbolizes the “pinnacle achievement” for many choirs.
I also approached my dear friend composer Andrew Rindflebisch (below), a UW-Madison alumnus who now serves as professor of music and heads the composition program at Cleveland State University, about sharing in our celebration by writing a choral-orchestral piece especially for IVE.
I asked Andy for a brief piece to serve as an opener for the Brahms. Song of Jubilation is a fanfare, a short celebratory anthem of power and beauty. Since it specifically introduces the Brahms, Rindfleisch uses nearly the same instrumentation and even selected one of the texts from the Requiem for his new composition. We are honored and privileged to present the world premiere of this fine work.
Brahms (below) was likely inspired to write his Requiem by the death of his mother in 1865 and possibly also by losing his dear friend Robert Schumann a decade earlier.
In contrast to the Roman Catholic Requiem or Mass for the Dead, which places a great deal of emphasis on the hoped-for salvation of the deceased, Brahms chose a path unheard of in his time: he selected biblical texts in his native German language mostly with themes of consoling the living, comfort in the time of loss, hope, and even a sense of joy for the bereaved for his Requiem.
The resulting 7-movement work quickly became an enduring statement of universal consolation, a “Human” Requiem as Brahms once called it. We hope that not only our dedicated audience members over the years will come and be moved by this incredible music, but that many more new audience members will be there as well.
Tags: A German Requiem (Brahms), accompaniment, Andrew Rindfleisch, Andrew Sewell, anthem, Arts, baritone, Baroque, Brahms, choral music, Classical music, Concert Choir, Concerts on the Square, coronation, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Kent State University, Madison, madrigal, motet, Music, New Music, Ohio, Orchestra, organ, Paul Rowe, Piano, Renaissance, Requiem, Robert Fountain, Sarah Brailey, song, soprano, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer. So here are guides to this summer’s local, national and even international festivals of classical music
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Get out your datebooks.
Madison now has great classical music year-round, including in the summer, which long ago ceased being an artistic desert.
LOCAL
This summer’s offerings include:
The 25th anniversary season, filled with new music but also tried-and-true treasured masterpieces, of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society that runs June 10-26:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
The 17th annual Madison Early Music Festival, which runs from July 10-16 and will focus on William Shakespeare in honor of the 400th anniversary of his death:
https://artsinstitute.wisc.edu/memf/
The annual Madison Savoyards’ production of Gilbert & Sullivan will stage “The Gondoliers” for six performances July 29-Aug. 7:
The second season of the Willy Street Chamber Players (below):
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
The 27th annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, which runs Aug. 27-Sept 4 and this year features music celebrating water and the natural world. Programs include music by Johann Sebastian Bach, English Renaissance music of John Dowland, William Byrd and Henry Purcell and a Wisconsin premiere by composer and co-director John Harbison plus Franz Schubert’s song cycle “Die Schöne Müllerin” and his equally famous masterpiece, the “Trout” Piano Quintet:
Plus there are a lot of smaller groups including the Madison Summer Choir and the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, both of which have received critical acclaim. And there is the Green Lake Festival. Some I might also include the six Concerts on the Square by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, which this year features a hefty dose of classical fare.
NATIONAL
But if you don’t stay around town and hit the road instead, there is a lot that might interest you in the way of summer music festivals around the country. There are festivals of chamber music, orchestral music and opera.
And The Ear has always wanted to attend the Bard Music Festival (below), which emphasizes the cultural context of the music, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. One of these years! (You can hear from co-artistic director and Bard College president Leon Botstein how the unique Bard Music Festival is run in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a roundup by The New York Times, which put all kinds of genres together. Just scroll down until you hit the Classical Festivals section that was compiled and annotated by the Times’ trustworthy critic Vivien Schweitzer:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/arts/summer-festivals.html?_r=0
Here is a fairly comprehensive national guide from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Classical_music_festivals_in_the_United_States
Here is a guide from two years ago, done by NPR or National Public Radio, that includes the Madison Early Music Festival and divides up the selection by regions of the country:
And for good measure, for those taking international vacations here is a guide to international music festivals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_festivals
Happy hunting and choosing. Then happy and safe traveling. And finally Happy Listening.
The Ear hopes you have a classic “classical” summer.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Bard College, Baroque, Byrd, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, concerto, critic, Dowland, Early music, Europe, festival, Franz Schubert, Gilbert and Sullivan, international, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, local, London, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Summer Choir, Mostly Mozart, Music, national, National Public Radio, natural world, nature, New York Times, NPR, opera, Orchestra, Piano, Purcell, song, summer, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, travel, Trout Quintet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, Viola, Violin, vocal music, water, William Shakespeare, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble performs its annual summer concerts this Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear’s friends at the critically acclaimed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble write:
When conductor Scott MacPherson convened some of Madison’s top singers in 2002, he had no way of knowing that the newly formed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below) would begin one of Madison’s most anticipated summer musical traditions.
Known as “Madison’s most temporary choir,” the ensemble – a semi-professional choir of approximately 60 singers – brings new life to over 500 years of choral music within a brief two-week rehearsal period.
This intense spirit of camaraderie produces a singular remarkable experience, year after year. (You can hear the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble sing the “Abendlied” (Evening Song) by Josef Rheinberger in 2012 in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
This summer, Madison-area audiences have two opportunities to hear the 2015 program.
The traditional Friday night concert takes place on at 7:30 p.m. on this Friday, July 31, at Christ Presbyterian Church (below), located at 944 East Gorham Street in downtown Madison.
The program will be repeated at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 2, at Lutheran Church of the Living Christ (below), located at 110 North Gammon Road, on Madison’s far west side.
General admission tickets are available online at isthmusvocalensemble.org or at the door. Admission is $15 for adults; $10 for students and seniors.
The program, “Unconventional Images” is a tapestry of unexpected beauty, including works spanning from the 1500s up to brand new compositions, featuring a world premiere from composer Corey Rubin (below) entitled “The Snow Man.”
Director Scott MacPherson writes: “For these concerts, prepare your ears and mind to be led down an unconventional path, where you will ponder such images as the nativity, snow in the summer, sensual beauty, the desert, glory, mortality and divine renewal.”
Other featured works include “Three Nativity Carols” by the late Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus (below top); “Beati quorum via” and “Coelos ascendit hodie” by Charles Villiers Stanford; “Du bist aller Dinge schön” and “Fahet uns die Füchse” by Melchoir Franck; “Schaffe in mir Gott” by Johannes Brahms; the Gloria by Dominick Argento; and several newly composed pieces, including “Desert Rose” by Frank Wiley, as well as “I Sing to Use the Waiting” and “An Irish Blessing” by University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus, Andrew Rindfleisch (below bottom).
The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble is led by Scott MacPherson (below), director of choral activities at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Its members include professional singers, choral directors, professors, lawyers, students and passionate advocates for the arts. The choir has performed by invitation at the North Central Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, commissioned several world premieres and released two professional CDs.
Tags: Andrew Rindfleisch, Arts, Brahms, Charles Villiers Stanford, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, Corey Rubin, Domenick Argento, Dominick Argento, Frank Wiley, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Josef Rheinberger, Kent State University, Lutheran, Madison, Melchior Franck, Minnesota, Music, Presbyterian, Scott MacPherson, Stephen Paulus, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble gives its last concert of the summer this afternoon at 3 with music of Brahms, Bruckner, Josquin des Prez, Rachmaninov and Andrew Rindfleisch. Don’t miss this annual treat.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Loyal readers of this blog know very well the name of Mikko Utevsky. The young violist and conductor will be a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, where he studies with Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm and plays in the UW Symphony Orchestra.
Utevsky, who has won awards and impressive reviews for his work in music education since his days at Madison’s East High School, is the founder and conductor of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, which will perform the second concert of its fourth season on Friday, Aug. 22, at 7:30 p.m., in Music Hall. Utevsky is also the new Music Director of a local community orchestra, The Studio Orchestra. The ensemble has a website here (www.disso.org).
You can check out his many honors and projects by typing his name into the search engine on this blog site.
Utevsky offered The Ear a review of this weekend’s concert by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.
The Ear immediately took him up on the offer. After all, Utevsky is a discerning listener and a perceptive writer who, you may recall, blogged for this post when he was on tour three summers ago with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) tour to Vienna, Prague and Budapest.
Here is the review by Mikko Utevsky (below):
By Mikko Utevsky
The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below), now in its 13th season with founder Scott MacPherson, delivered a polished and professional concert Friday night at Christ Presbyterian Church.
The performance opened with a wrenching rendition of Imant Raminsh’s “Come, my Light,” followed by a pure and beautiful “Hear My Prayer” by Henry Purcell (below).
Two back-to-back settings of “Mille regretz,” the first by Josquin des Prez (below top) and the second by University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Andrew Rindfleisch (below bottom), made for an interesting comparison — Rindfleisch produced an introspective, dark reading, while Josquin’s famous setting was ably rendered beside it as well.
The crown jewel of the first half was the final motet by Johannes Brahms (below), the anguished, searching “Warum ist das Licht gegeben?” (Why Is the Light Given to Those In Misery?, which can be heard in a YouTube video at the bottom).
In four movements, this motet is, apart from the “German Requiem,” which the IVE has announced they will perform — with orchestra — for their 15th season in 2016, Brahms’ greatest choral work, with densely chromatic lines and twisting, intricate counterpoint. The chorus dug into this tremendously difficult music with gusto, singing with a complex and varied sound and excellent blend.
The second half began with a work by Anton Bruckner (below), “Virga Jesse floruit,” another German masterwork, again sung with a secure sound and attention to the drama of the composer’s setting.
“Tebe poyem” (from the Orthodox liturgy) by Sergei Rachmaninov (below top) was my favorite piece on the concert, displaying a depth and richness of sound surpassing anything else on the program. The solo line by Chelsea Propst (below middle) soared over the chorus, whose basses rose to the challenge of Rachmaninov’s tremendously low writing with aplomb. Another Russian work captured much of the same magic, “Ne riday Mene, Mati” by Alexander Gretchaninov (below bottom).
Lionel Daunais (below), a French-Canadian composer and singer, produced a comic treat in his “Figures de danse,” a suite of six hilarious settings of short, original poems about dancers and theater performers. The only work with piano on this program (with a difficult and prominent part performed excellently by Jane Peckham), these little vignettes had the audience in stitches.
The concert concluded with two spiritual settings by Moses Hogan. The first was a soulful solo rendition of “There’s a Man Goin’ Round,” sung by Kathleen Otterson (below), who teaches at Edgewood College, over the hummed accompaniment from the chorus.
The second was a rapid-fire, high-energy “Elijah Rock” to close out the evening. (A humorous encore will remain unidentified — go hear the repeat Sunday to find out what it was!)
My only programming regrets were the absence of any works between Purcell and Brahms — surely that two-century gap must have yielded some works worthy of inclusion! — and the preponderance of Christian sacred music.
Certainly it forms the backbone of the choral literature, but on a program of 11 works (if “Mille regretz” is to be counted twice), to have only three (again, including the above twice) works that were not both sacred and Christian seems striking, especially for a chorus with no religious affiliation. A little more diversity in selection would be welcome on both counts.
Throughout the performance, the chorus (below top) sung with clear diction and strong sound, rising to the technical challenges of every work with apparent ease. IVE founder and conductor Scott MacPherson (below bottom, conducting a rehearsal), who teaches at Kent State University and is a UW-Madison graduate, directed with energy and excitement, and the chorus clearly responded.
Despite its once-a-year schedule, this group is clearly a Madison fixture, and thoroughly earned their full house and standing ovation Friday night.
The performance will be repeated this afternoon, Sunday, August 3, at 3 p.m. in the Covenant Presbyterian Church (below) on 326 South Segoe Road. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 students and seniors. Children 12 and under are admitted free.
Tags: Alexander Gretchaninov, Arts, Bruckner, Budapest, choral music, chorus, Christian, church, Classical music, Early music, Edgewood College, German Requiem, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Josquin Des Prez, Kent State University, Lionel Daunais, Madison, Mikko Utevsky, Music, Orchestra, Prague, Pro Arte Quartet, Purcell, Rachmaninov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, spiritual, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Viola, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble will use its 13th annual summer concerts to explore expressions of LOSS on this Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Plus, you can check Day 6 of WYSO’s tour to Argentina.
1 Comment
ALERT: For the latest news from the 10-day tour to Argentina by the Youth Orchestra (below) of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), here is a link to Day 6:
By Jacob Stockinger
One of the many summer musical events that have become institutions to look forward to are the two concerts by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.
Here are the details, from a press release, for this weekend’s sets of two concerts:
ISTHMUS VOCAL ENSEMBLE RETURNS FOR ITS LUCKY 13TH SEASON
MADISON – When conductor Scott MacPherson –- a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music — convened some of Madison’s top singers in 2002, he had no way of knowing that the newly formed Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below) would begin one of Madison’s most anticipated summer musical traditions. (You can hear a stirring sample at the bottom in a YouTube video of a live performance by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.)
Now in its 13th year, the ensemble -– a professional-level choir of approximately 60 singers –- brings new life to over 500 years of choral music. Amazingly, the choir continues to do it all within a brief two-week rehearsal period.
This intense spirit of camaraderie produces a singular and remarkable experience, year after year.
Madison-area audiences have two opportunities to hear the 2014 program.
The traditional Friday night concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. on this Friday, August 1, at Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham Street. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors; children 12 or under get in for free. Tickets can be bought at the door or on-line at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/802712
The program will be repeated at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, August 3, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 326 South Segoe Road. General admission tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students and seniors. Children under 13 get in free. Tickets can be bought at the door or on-line at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/802714
This year, the singers will tackle texts in Latin, French (medieval and modern), Russian, German, English and even a form of nonsense language, notated loosely in Finnish, inspired by both Scandinavian folk dance and the Muppets’ Swedish Chef (below).
This year’s performance includes introspective choral masterworks by Henry Purcell, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner and others, exploring the labyrinth of emotions begat by LOSS.
Also featured are contemporary works by Andrew Rindfleisch and Lionel Daunais, and a rousing conclusion with spirituals arranged by Moses Hogan.
The French chanson “Mille regretz” by the 15th century composer Josquin des Prez (below top) is matched by a modern setting by Andrew Rindfleisch (below bottom). Here is a link top the home website for the Prix de Rome-winning composer Andrew Rindfliesch, who did his bachelor’s degree at UW-Madison:
The choir’s renowned low basses will be on display in Russian works including Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Tebé poyém (We Hymn Thee)” and Alexander Gretchaninoff’s stunning “Ñe rïdáy Meñé, Máti (Do not lament me, O Mother).”
From the German tradition, Johannes Brahms’ Two Motets, Op. 74 (beginning with “Warum ist das Licht gegeben”), join Anton Bruckner’s classic “Virga Jesse.”
Other composers represented include Jaako Mäntyjärvi, Lionel Daunais, Henry Purcell (below), Imant Raminsh and the great spiritual arranger Moses Hogan.
The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble is led by Scott MacPherson (below), director of choral activities at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, who trained at the UW-Madison.
The IVE’s members include professional singers and choral directors, professors, lawyers, students and passionate advocates for the arts. The choir has performed by invitation at the North Central Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, commissioned several world premieres and released two albums.
For more information, visit www.isthmusvocalensemble.org or the choir’s page on Facebook.
Tags: American Choral Directors Association, Andrew Rindfleisch, Anton Bruckner, Argentina, Arts, Brahms, Bruckner, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Early music, Gretchaninoff, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Josquin Des Prez, Kent State University, Lionel Daunais, Madison, Moses Hogan, Muppets, Music, Negro spirituals, North Central Conference, Prix de Rome, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Romantic music, Rome Prize, Sergei Rachmaninoff, spirituals, Swedish Chef, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Wisconsin words and Wisconsin music will meet when the Rural Musicians Forum in Spring Green hosts state Poet Laureate Max Garland and noted UW-Oshkosh pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi performing Wisconsin composers on Monday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hillside Theater of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound Taliesin.
1 Comment
ALERT: Two days ago, I offered reviews by John W. Barker of last weekend’s concerts by the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (below top) and pianist Frank Glazer (below bottom). Two more reviews, both by Greg Hettmansberger, have come to my attention. Hettmansberger writes his “Classically Speaking” blog for Madison Magazine. Here are links to his reviews:
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a press release about an upcoming unusual event tat mixes words and music from a low-profile group that deserves wider circulation:
“Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate, Max Garland (below), will visit the Wisconsin River Valley and Spring Green on Monday, August 12, as part of “Music for a Summer Evening,” the annual series of concerts sponsored by the Rural Musicians Forum. The concert of words and music, free with donations accepted, is at 7:30 p.m. in the hillside Theater of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound
“Garland has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of Wisconsin’s poetry landscape,” travelling the state for the next year, sowing seeds of knowledge and promoting the value of arts and culture. (You can hear him reading at the bottom in a YouTube video from the Wisconsin Book Festival in 2010. Garland read at Avol’s Bookstore in Madison.)
“The laureateship, announced in 2012 by the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Science, is the latest addition to Garland’s long list of honors, which includes a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship, a James Michener fiction fellowship and two Wisconsin Arts Board literary fellowships.
“Garland is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a post he has held since 1996. Before entering the academic world, he worked at many non-academic jobs in his native western Kentucky, including 10 years as a rural mail carrier on the route where he was born, a route formerly run by his grandfather.
“This experience was drawn upon in his first book of poems, “The Postal Confessions” (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of the 1994 Juniper Prize for Poetry. The poems brought to the fore the unknown residents of his rural hometown. For Garland, the book was a tribute to a particular time and place in his home state of Kentucky.
“When Garland (below, reading) visits the Wisconsin River Valley this month as part of RMF’s summer concert series, he will read his poetry to honor the countryside and ordinary people of Wisconsin.
“At the Hillside School Theater presentation Garland and noted Wisconsin pianist, Jeri-Mae Astolfi (below), will capture the spirit of the state’s people, places, events and culture, making the connection between music and poetry.
“Astolfi is the soloist for the Wisconsin Soundscapes project, which features new piano music inspired by the people and places of Wisconsin, commissioned by the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
“Astolfi is a Canadian-born pianist whose repertoire, ranging from the Renaissance era through the present, expresses her keen interest in “new” music, which has led her to commission and premiere many new solo and collaborative works.
“Jeri-Mae Astolfi is currently a member of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Her concert appearance in Spring Green with Poet Laureate Max Garland is an extension of a 2012 state-wide tour made possible through the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers (WAC) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
“In Spring Green she will play original compositions by Wisconsin composers Geoffrey Gordon, UW-Madison composer Joseph Koykkar (below) and Donald Young. The compositions create musical maps of such places as Black Earth, Mineral Point and Spring Green (Geoffrey Gordon) for example, as well as streets and bridges (Joseph Koykkar) and scenes along the Root River (Donald Young).
“The composers themselves will be present for the concert.
“The August 12 concert goes to the heart of what Max Garland most wants to do in his term as Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, examining, as he says, “the life that quietly happens in our heads and hearts, and the connection of that life to places where we live, the roots of that life in the places we know and love.”
“Taliesin’s Hillside School Theater (below), part of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright compound, is located at 6604 State Hwy. 23 in Spring Green.
“There is no admission charge for the concert. However, a free-will offering assists in underwriting the concert series.
“The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Seating is limited.
“For further information on Wisconsin Poet Laureate Max Garland or to see a schedule of his upcoming appearances, please visit www.wisconsinacademy.org/poetlaureate. For more information on the concert series see www.ruralmusiciansforum.org.”
Tags: blog, Classically Speaking, Frank Glazer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Greg Hettmansberger, Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, Johnny Appleseed, Kentucky, Madison, Madison Magazine, Max Garland, Poet laureate, University of Massachusetts Press, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, Wisconsin, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 