The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Ear names The Willy Street Chamber Players as “Musicians of the Year” for 2016
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By Jacob Stockinger
It can’t be easy to start a new classical music group in a city that already has so many outstanding classical music groups and events.
Yet that is exactly what The Willy Street Chamber Players (below) have done – and with remarkable success.
To be honest, The Ear thought of awarding the same honor to them last year.
But that was their inaugural year. And launching a new enterprise is often easier than continuing and sustaining it.
But continue and sustain it they have – and even improved it.
The main season for The Willy Street Players is in July,, usually around noon or 6 p.m.
But they also usually offer a preview concert in the winter, and will do so again at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, and Sunday, Jan. 22, when they will perform string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Astor Piazzolla and Daniel Bernard Roumain at A Place to Be, 911 Williamson Street. Admission is $20.
For tickets and more information about that concert as well as the group in general, go to: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
The Ear finds so much to like about The Willy Street Chamber Players.
To start, the quality of the playing of the mostly string players and pianists — most of whom are products of the UW-Madison — is unquestionably superb. So are their guest artists such as Suzanne Beia. They have never disappointed The Ear, and others seem to agree.
The programming is ideal and adventurous, combining beloved classics, neglected works and new music from contemporary composers. And it all seems to fit together perfectly.
The ensemble’s repertoire ranges from the Baroque era through the Classical, Romantic and modernist eras to today. They have performed an impressively eclectic mix of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Peter Tchaikovsky, Pietro Mascagni, Arnold Schoenberg, George Crumb, Philip Glass, Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw and UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger.
The concerts are very affordable.
The concerts are short, usually running only about an hour or 75 minutes. That allows you both to fully focus or concentrate on the performance but then also to do something else with your precious leisure time.
The group of sonic locavores stays true to its name and mission, playing at various venues on or near Williamson Street on Madison’s near east side – including the Immanuel Lutheran Church (below) on Spaight Street and at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center on Jenifer Street. But they have also collaborated with the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
At the post-concerts receptions, they even offer outstanding snack food from local purveyors in the Willy Street area. And it’s there that you can also meet the performers, who are fun, informative and congenial whenever they talk to the public, whether before and after a performance.
Most of all, The Ear has never heard anything dull or second-rate from the Willy Street Chamber Players. They are a fantastic breath of fresh air who invest their performances of even well-known works, such as the glorious Octet by Mendelssohn, with energy and drive, zest and good humor.
They are exactly what classical music – whether chamber music or orchestral music, choral or vocal music –needs to attract new and younger audiences and well as the usual fans. They have just the right balance of informality and professionalism.
The many musicians, all of them young, work hard but make the results seem easy. That is the very definition of virtuosity. Small wonder that many of them play with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Middleton Community Orchestra and the Madison Bach Musicians among other groups. But this group seems special to them, and it shows.
If you don’t already know the Willy Street Chamber Players, you should get to know them. You should attend their concerts and, if you can, support them. They are a new gem, and constitute an outstanding and invaluable addition to Madison’s music scene.
NOTE: The Ear offers one piece of advice to The Willy Street Chamber Players: Since he can’t find a sample of you in action, please post some of your outstanding performances, which have been recorded by radio host Rich Samuels and broadcast on WORT-FM 89.9, on YouTube. The public needs a way to hear them and whet its appetite for your live performances.
In any case, The Ear wishes them well and hopes that, despite the inevitable personnel changes that will surely come in the future, The Willy Street Chamber Players stay on the Madison music scene for many years to come.
The Ear sends his best wishes for the New Year and another great season, the group’s third, to The Willy Street Chamber Players as Musicians of the Year for 2016.
Tags: Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Brahms, Caroline Shaw, Cello, Chamber music, Classical era, Classical music, concerto, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Early music, Franz Schubert, George Crumb, George Frideric Handel, Haydn, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Laura Schwendinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mascagni, Mendelssohn, Middleton Community Orchestra, modern, Mozart, Music, Orchestra, Philip Glass, Piano, Piazzolla, program, Pulitzer Prize, repertoire, Romantic, Sonata, strings, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, venue, Violin, Wil-Mar, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The Willy Street Chamber Players excel again – this time in music by Franz Schubert, Arnold Schoenberg and UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger
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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 for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
The Willy Street Chamber Players (below) gave the second concert of their 2016 season on Friday night at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1021 Spright Street, on Madison’s near east side.
The program might have been called the “three Sch-es” in view of the alphabetical incipits of the three composers involved.
The first item was titled The Violinists in My Life, composed in 2011 by Laura Schwendinger (below), the American composer currently on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
The Belgian violin virtuoso and composer Eugène Ysaÿe set an example with his set of six Sonatas, Op. 27, for solo violin, each one a tribute to a great musician with whom he had worked. So Schwendinger composed five pieces for violin and piano, each one a kind of character piece about violinists with whom she has had fruitful contact.
The style can be sharp and abrupt, but there is a clear individuality to each piece, evoking the different personalities. The first of the five is dedicated to UW-Madison alumna Eleanor Bartsch (below), one of our Willys, and she played the whole set, deeply engaged in it, with pianist Thomas Kasdorf, also a graduate of the UW-Madison.
Kasdorf (below) joined another of the group’s violinists, Paran Amirinazari, who also graduated from the UW-Madison, in a rarely heard late work by Franz Schubert, the Fantasie in C Major (D.934).(You can hear it played by violinist Benjamin Beilman, who has performed with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Schubert’s compositions for violin and piano are rarely heard in concerts these days, but this one has particular interest in that its latter portion is another of the composers set of variations on one of his own songs—in this case, the beautiful Sei mir gegrüsst. The total piece has a lot of lively passage work, which Amarinazari played with a mix of flair and affection.
The crowning work was that extraordinary string sextet by Arnold Schoenberg (below), Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Composed in 1899 at the beginning of the composer’s career, it catches him still emerging from Late Romantic sensibilities, a good way before his radical move into the 12-tone idiom he created.
The score is just a trifle longish for the musical content, but its gorgeous chromatic richness is irresistible. It was inspired by a poem of Richard Dehmel, and both the original German text and an English translation were supplied to the audience, an interesting touch.
Above all, however, the performance was glowing, avoiding too much sentimental lushness, but conveying the emotionally charged writing with beautiful balance.
A clever touch, too, was the sitting pattern chosen, with the two violas facing the two violins and the two cellos in the rear—allowing the recurrent interaction between the first violin and first viola to emerge more clearly.
In sum, this was another wonderful session of first-class music-making by this remarkable assemblage of young talent.
NOTE: A program of music by Ludwig vanBeethoven, Philip Glass and Dmitri Shostakovich will be given next Friday at Immanuel Lutheran, but at NOON; and then that evening (at 8:30 p.m.) the group will participate in a special performance of George Crumb’s “Black Angels” — with an accompanying video — at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in the Overture Center.
The final Friday evening concert will be back at Immanuel Lutheran, at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 29, with music by Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli (Concerto Grosso), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Clarinet Quintet), and George Enescu (Octet).
Tags: 12-tone, American Record Guide, Arcangelo Corelli, Arnold Schoenberg, Art, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, Belgium, Benjamin Beilman, Black Angels, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, concerto, Concerto Grosso, Corelli, Dmitri Shostakovich, Early music, Eleanor Bartsch, Enescu, English, Eugene Ysaye, Franz Schubert, George Crumb, German, History, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, Late Romanticism, Laura Schwendinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Medieval, Mozart, Museum, Music, Octet, Overture Center, Paran Amirinazari, Philip Glass, Piano, quintet, Romantic, Romanticism, sextet, Sonata, song, strings, Thomas Kasdorf, Transfigured Night, twelve tone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, Willy St. Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: Next Friday night starts the second season of the acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players. This afternoon you can hear Norwegian music performed live at the Chazen Museum of Art
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ALERT: The Ear reminds you that TODAY is the monthly “Sunday Live From the Chazen” chamber music concert. The program today features UW-Madison soprano Mimmi Fulmer, violinist Tyrone Greive (retired concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra) and pianist Michael Keller in music by Edvard Grieg and other Norwegian composers, including songs and sonatas. The live concert starts at 12:30 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery 3. Admission is FREE. You can also stream it live by using this link:
By Jacob Stockinger
Probably the premiere musical event of 2015 was the summer debut of the new group the Willy Street Chamber Players (below).
The critics and audiences agreed: The programs and performances were simply outstanding. Many of the players perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, there Middleton Community Orchestra, the Madison Bach Musicians and other acclaimed local groups.
Now the second season of five concerts – including one noontime lunch concert — will begin on this coming Friday night, July 8, at 6 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1021 Spaight Street, on Madison’s near east side.
The first program features regular members and guest violinist Suzanne Beia (below).
Beia plays second violin in the Pro Arte Quartet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, and also serves at concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and assistant concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she performs in the Rhapsodie Quartet of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The program includes the lovely “Souvenir of Florence” (1892) by Peter Tchaikovsky and the haunting Entr’acte for String Quartet (2011) by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw (below, in a photo by Dashon Burton). You can hear the Entr’acte in the YouTube video at the bottom. (The Ear hopes one day the group will do Shaw’s “By and By” with strings and a vocalist.)
It’s too bad that the fourth annual Handel Aria Competition is on the same night. You would hope that such conflicts could be avoided in the summer.
Theoretically you can make it to both concerts since the aria competition starts at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. But it will probably be a hectic scurry from one to the other.
Here is a link to more information about the Handel Aria Competition:
In any case, here is the schedule of the entire second season of the Willy Street Chamber Players.
It is varied and impressive, especially in how it combines old masterpieces with modern and contemporary works. It features pieces by Philip Glass, Arnold Schoenberg, UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger, George Crumb, Dmitri Shostakovich, Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Arcangelo Corelli and Georges Enescu :
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/events1.html
A season subscription is $50. Individual concerts are $15 except for the Black Angels video art concert, which is $20.
Tags: Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, Caroline Shaw, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, contemporary, Corelli, Dmitri Shostakovich, Early music, Enescu, Franz Schubert, George Crumb, Jacob Stockinger, Laura Schwendinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Middleton Community Orchestra, modern, Mozart, Music, New Music, Norway, Norwegian music, Orchestra, Peter Tchaikovsky, Philip Glass, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Pulitzer Prize, Schubert, singer, Sonata, song, soprano, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocalist, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger wins a national grant for her new opera and just completed a residency with the Richmond Symphony
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By Jacob Stockinger
Artemisia, a new opera based on the life of Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Laura Elise Schwendinger (below), is a recipient of an OPERA GRANT FOR FEMALE COMPOSERS from OPERA America, the nation’s leading champion for American opera.
The awards were announced last week and are supported by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Seven composers and seven opera companies were awarded a total of $200,000.
Artemisia, Schwendinger’s new opera is based on the life of Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 –1656), and an important follower of Caravaggio with her father Orazio.
Artemisia was the first women member of the Accademia del Arte, Florence. When 16, Artemisia was raped by Agostino Tassi, while studying with the elder painter. Tassi was sentenced to prison, after Artemisia’s father Orazio pushed for Tassi’s prosecution, but Tassi never served time in prison.
The case overshadowed Artemisia’s achievements for years. However, today she is regarded as one of the greatest painters of her time. Below top is her “Woman Playing a Lute” (1609-1612) and her self-portrait (ca. 1630).
The opera is a co-commission by Trinity Wall Street Novus, N.Y., and by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in San Francisco, California.
Librettist Ginger Strand (below), is a writer and author of four books including her acclaimed new book “The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic” from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Composer Schwendinger has just returned from her successful residency with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, where her “Waking Dream” was played on their 2016 Altria Masterworks Series, with principal flutist Mary Boodell as flute soloist and Steven Smith conducting at the Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Arts Center.
Her residency was made possible through Music Alive: New Partnerships, a residency program of New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. During her week-long residency, Schwendinger gave presentations of her music to hundreds of high school students at seven schools in the Richmond area.
She also heard a rehearsal of her Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra commission “Animal Rhapsody,” as well as being interviewed on WCVE Public Radio Richmond and discussing “Waking Dream” in a pre-Richmond Symphony concert interview with Maestro Smith. (You can hear her discuss the work with Smith in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a link to the interview:
http://ideastations.org/music/classical/composer-laura-schwendinger-visits-richmond-symphony
“Waking Dream” received a glowing review in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Clarke Bustard wrote:
“Laura Elise Schwendinger’s “Waking Dream” for flute and orchestra, being performed this weekend by the Richmond Symphony and its principal flutist, Mary Boodell, audibly echoes the Debussy — might even be heard as an “answer song” to the prelude — and not just because the flute is the lead voice of both pieces. Some of Debussy’s trademark orchestration techniques, such as single high notes dotting a soundscape of very low tones, shimmering string figures that evoke rippling water and pregnant or resonant silences, are what make “Waking Dream” sound so dreamy. The elaborated fanfares that are among solo flute’s chief contributions to the piece also harken back to Debussy and the Impressionists.”
Here is a link to the full review:
http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_6b058f07-7c76-5419-8bf8-4836e1117a9a.html
Tags: animal, Art, Arts, Baroque, choral music, Classical music, conductor, Debussy, flute, France, French, Ginger Strand, grant, Impressionism, Impressionists, interview, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Laura Schwendinger, Madison, Music, opera, Orchestra, painting, Radio, residency, Richmond Times-Dispatch, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Virginia, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: This season’s last Sound Waves program, to explore origins and beginnings in science and music, is at the UW-Madison this Friday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following notice:
The final SoundWaves event of the year will be on this Friday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Center of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discover (WID), 333 North Orchard Street, across from the Union South.
SoundWaves events explore a broad theme through different lenses from the sciences and the humanities, ending with a related performance.
The title of Friday’s event is “Let’s Start at the Very Beginning: Origins in Science and Music.”
The presenters are John Yin, speaking about the COOL (Chemical Origins Of Life) Project; Clark Johnson speaking about the first billion years of the Earth’s history; Elizabeth Hennessy on the interaction of man and animal in a pristine environment (the Galapagos) and about Darwin; and the School of Music’s own composer Laura Schwendinger (below), speaking about the inspiration for the creation of new works.
Then, SoundWaves Curator Daniel Grabois (below, in a photo by James Gill), horn professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music, will speak about the process of creating a new CD recording.
The event will conclude with a performance by School of Music pianist Christopher Taylor (below). He will be playing a dual-manual piano (a piano with two keyboards).
This is an instrument that creates whole new possibilities in piano performance, and Professor Taylor will be performing selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations as well as his own arrangement of Liszt’s “Paysage” (“Landscape” from the Transcendental Etudes) made for this instrument.
(You can hear the haunting opening Aria from Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, from the second recording made by Glenn Gould, in a popular YouTube video at the bottom that has almost 1.9 million hits.)
Admission is free.
Cash bar opens at 7 p.m.
Registration is suggested at www.discovery.wisc.edu/soundwaves
Tags: "Goldberg" Variations, animal, Arts, Bach, Baroque, beginning, chemistry, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, Compact Disc, Daniel Grabois, Darwin, Earth, Galapagos Islands, Horn, humanities, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Laura Schwendinger, life, Liszt, Madison, man, Music, New Music, origins, Paysage, performance, Piano, science, theme and variations, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, YouTube
Classical music: The UW-Madison Concert Choir performs a FREE concert of three contemporary works this Sunday afternoon. Plus, here are the winners and works of the Beethoven piano competition’s FREE concert on Sunday
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ALERT: The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music has announced the winners of the 31st annual Beethoven piano competition. The FREE winners’ concert is this Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. Oxana Khramova will play the Polonaise in C Major, Op. 89, and Two Rondos, Op. 51; Kyle Johnson will play the Sonata in F minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata“; and Shuk-Ki Wong will play the late Sonata in E Major, Op. 109. There will be a reception after the concert. The judge for the competition was Dan Lyons, a UW-Madison graduate and the pianist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here is a link to more information about the winners and their teachers:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/31st-annual-beethoven-piano-competition-honors-concert/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following message:
This Sunday, April 17, at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall the UW-Madison Concert Choir (below top) will perform a FREE concert under its director and conductor Beverly Taylor (below bottom).
The “Three for Free” program, features three wonderful contemporary works that have something delightful for everyone.
We’ll begin with “The Hope of Loving” by Jake Runestad – for chorus with a string quartet — a warm, and Romantically phrased work that was premiered by the ensemble Seraphic Fire last year.
It will feature three fine Concert Choir soloists: Kenny Lyons, Talia Engstrom and Eliav Goldman.
Runestad recently received the ASCAP award for composers.
The second work on our program is the 2016 edition of “Llorona,” written for the Concert Choir and guitar by UW-Madison composition Professor Laura Schwendinger (below), who has won numerous awards for her works.
It’s based on a famous Mexican song and tale of a woman who dies with her children; her voice can be heard on the wind.
Our final work is “The World Beloved” by Minnesota composer Carol Barnett (below). It is a “Bluegrass Mass,” which features many Concert Choir soloists and blue grass instruments. (You can hear it in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Mass combines parts of the usual mass forms of Kyrie and Agnus Dei with folk hymn ballads presented both by themselves and used to replace part of the usual mass text.
The program will be approximately 75 minutes long, including a short intermission.
Tags: Agnus Dei, Appassionata, Arts, ASCAP, Beethoven, blue grass, Carol Barnett, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Competition, composer, Concert Choir, folk, folk song, guitar, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, Jake Runestad, judge, Kyrie, Laura Schwendinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mass, Mexico, Minnesota, Music, polonaise, rondo, Sonata, String quartet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: This will be a busy week at the UW-Madison for students and faculty members who will give FREE recitals. But what will they play?
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By Jacob Stockinger
This will be a very busy week for student and faculty recitals at the UW-Madison.
The good news? All concerts will be FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
The bad news? Sorry, but in most cases The Ear has not received word about the program with specific composers and specific works.
That’s an annoyance that could cut into attendance, an issue that The Ear dealt with in another recent post:
WEDNESDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the UW-Madison Guitar Ensemble, under its director Javier Calderon, will perform. No word on the program.
(Photo by Jeff Miller/UW-Madison)
At 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall, the brass ensemble Twisted Metal (below), under its director hornist Daniel Grabois – who is also a member of the Wisconsin Brass Quintet – will perform its annual concert of music inspired by rock music. Once again, no word on specific songs or composers.
THURSDAY
The UW-Madison Percussion Ensemble (below) will perform solo and chamber works under its director Anthony Di Sanza. No word on specific composers or works.
FRIDAY
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Women’s and University Chorus will perform a FREE concert under conductors Sara Guttenberg and Mark Lehnowsky. Sorry, no program specifics.
At 8 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, bassoonist Marc Vallon (below) will perform a faculty recital using several bassoons.
The Ear has received no word on specific program. But in a Facebook posting, the congenial and charming, very talented and witty French native – who just won raves for his conducting of George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” for the Madison Bach Musicians this past weekend — displays a great sense of humor. He says the concert will feature: “Some Baroque music, some pretty pieces and a couple of annoying modern ones.”
That’s brave talk from a musician who worked with the late Pierre Boulez.
Let’s hear it for Annoying Modern Music!
![Marc Vallon 2011 James Gill (baroque & modern)[2]](https://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/marc-vallon-2011-james-gill-baroque-modern2.jpg)
SATURDAY
At 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, flutist Ivana Urgcic will give a recital for her Doctor of Musical Arts degree. No program is listed.
At 6:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. Soprano Yanzelalee Rivera will give a recital. There are no specific works, but at least she lists composers: “In this recital, Ms. Rivera will be presenting works by Robert Schumann, Joseph Marx and Claude Debussy with the collaboration of ChanMi Jean, first year doctoral student of Prof. Martha Fischer.”
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Contemporary Chamber Ensemble (below) will perform under its director, composition professor Laura Schwendinger. No program information has been given.
SUNDAY
From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, there is a free recital by young student in the Community Music Lessons program. No program is listed, but a reception follows the performance.
For information about the program that serves “learners of all ages,” visit:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/cml/
Photo by: Bryce Richter
At 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Rectial Hall, trombone graduate student Matthew Bragstad will “collaborate with pianist Jason Kutz to provide an eclectic showcase of both standard and new repertoire for the trombone. The program will include works by composers Pryor, Scelsi, Jesse (a world premiere), L. Mozart and Castérède.”
Hmmm. How many of you recognize those non-Mozart names?
At 2 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Choir, under UW-Madison Choral Director Beverly Taylor will perform a program of new music that was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 16. The Ear will post more about this concert later this week.
At 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the winning pianists in the annual Beethoven Sonata Competition will perform. The names of the winners and the selection of the sonatas to be performed have not been announced yet.
But The Ear has attended many of the winners’ recitals and has rarely been disappointed.
Tags: Arts, Baroque, Bassoon, Beethoven, brass, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, Classical music, community, composer, Debussy, Facebook, faculty, flute, France, French, George Frideric Handel, guitar, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, Joseph Marx, Laura Schwendinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Messiah, metal, modern, modern music, Mozart, Music, New Music, percussion, Piano, Pierre Boulez, Rock, Schumann, Sonata, songs, soprano, Student, Trombone, twisted, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Brass Quintet
Classical music: Winners of the UW-Madison concerto and new music competitions perform this Sunday night in the annual “Symphony Showcase” concert
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following news and invitation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music:
“SYMPHONY SHOWCASE” BRINGS OUT THE BEST, LITERALLY
They’ve prepared for months and now are ready to show off a bit on the stage of Mills Hall.
Our annual Symphony Showcase is a concert featuring the winners of our annual concerto competition in solo performances with the UW Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Smith.
This year’s winners are all graduate students with impressive worldwide résumés; one is a composer whose new work will be premiered by the orchestra. (Below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson, they are, left to right: Kangwoo Jin, piano; Luis Alberto Peña, piano; Garrett Mendelow, percussion; and Paran Amininazari, violin.)
Please join us on Sunday, February 14, at 7:30 p.m. for our concert and reception in Mills Hall.
Please Note: Parking is FREE on Sundays in Grainger Hall.
Concert tickets are $10, but are free for students of all ages. You can Buy in advance (with a $4 handling fee) or in person in the lobby of Mills Hall.
Here are the winners:
Violinist Paran Amirinazari is a doctoral student of Professor Soh-Hyun Park Altino. She will play a movement from the Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor by Sergei Prokofiev.
Pianist and Collins Fellow Kangwoo Jin is a doctoral student of Professors Christopher Taylor and Jessica Johnson. He will perform the third movement of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18, by Sergei Rachmaninoff. (you can hear it played by Yuja Wang at the bottom in a YouTube video.)
Garrett Mendelow is doctoral percussionist and Collins Fellow studying with Professor Anthony Di Sanza. He will play the Arena Concerto by Swedish composer Tobias Brostrom.
Luis Alberto Peña is a doctoral piano student of Professor Christopher Taylor. He will perform the Burleske in D Minor by Richard Strauss.
Yunkyung Hong (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson) is a doctoral composer studying with Professors Laura Schwendinger and Stephen Dembski. Her work is titled “Transluceny.”
Read their full biographies here: http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/12/17/showcase-concerto-winners-announced/
We also encourage you to read our full newsletter, complete with photos and additional links, at this site:
https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/symphony-showcase-outreach-engagement/
Tags: Arts, Burleske, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, concerto, Jacob Stockinger, Korea, Laura Schwendinger, Madison, Music, New Music, Orchestra, Piano, Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff), Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Stephen Dembski, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: Madison’s classical music critic Greg Hettmansberger has launched his own blog and has also been given a monthly slot on TV. Plus, this Wednesday night the UW-Madison Contemporary Chamber Music Ensemble will perform a FREE concert of new music
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ALERT: This Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m in Mills Hall, the UW Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, directed by UW-Madison composition professor Laura Schwendinger, will perform a FREE concert of new works by “rising young stars.”
On the program are: “Fluidity” by Yunkyung Hong; “Obnoxia” by Nathan Froebe; “Concerto da Camera II” by Shulamit Ran; Kay Ryan Songs by Laura Schwendinger; and a New String Quartet by Adam Betz.
Featured special guest performers are pianist Christopher Taylor, cellist Leonardo Altino, Erin K. Bryan and percussionist Sean Kleve, of Clocks in Motion, as well as students Biffa Kwok, Saya Mizuguchi, Mounir Nessim, Steve Carmichael, Seung Jin Cha, Joshua Dieringer, Seung Wha Baek, Saya Mizuguchi, Erin Dupree Jakubowski and Yunkyung Hong.
By Jacob Stockinger
One of the Madison-based classical music critics who deserves your respect is Greg Hettmansberger (below).
Hettsmanberger has two news items to announce.
He has just launched his own blog called “What Greg Says.”
First, some background.
Since August, 2011 Hettmansberger has authored the blog “Classically Speaking” for Madison Magazine, and added a print column of the same name two years ago.
He was first published as a critic by the Los Angeles Times in 1988, and freelanced as a critic and features contributor for a number of newspapers and other publications in Southern California.
He began writing program notes in 1996, and is currently completing his 19th season as an annotator for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Moving to the Madison area in 2001, Hettmansberger was the director of bands for Abundant Life Christian School until 2008.
Now Hettmansberger has also been tapped by WISC-TV Channel 3, a local CBS affiliate, to appear once monthly on a morning show (at 6:40 a.m.) to offer previews, reviews and news about the local concert scene. He will get 3-1/2 minutes on the third Wednesday of each month.
Hettmansberger is a discerning listener and a fine judge of musicians and music.
That makes him worth paying attention to. He always has important insights into performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, the Wisconsin Union Theater, the Overture Center and the countless chamber music groups in the area.
So perhaps you will want to bookmark his blog or subscribe to it.
The Ear will.
Here is a link:
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com
Says Greg, in his typically modest manner, about his first major topic and posting:
“My blog space is up and running. In fact, I’ve posted twice. I still don’t feel fluent, but at least it’s serviceable, and my reviewing schedule begins in earnest this Friday.”
Presumably, he talking about a review of Friday night’s concert of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Francis Poulenc and Dmitri Shostakovich by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top)and piano soloist Adam Neiman (below bottom).
Here is the latest post, a reminiscence of Pierre Boulez (below), the avant-garde French composer and conductor who died recently at 90 and who gave Hettmansberger a personal interview that he recounts in his blog posting:
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/merci-monsieur-boulez/
Wish Greg Hettmansberger well and leave your words of congratulations in the COMMENT section.
Tags: Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, blog, Boulez, California, CBS, Cello, Chamber music, Channel 3, choral music, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, Clocks in Motion, concerto, contemporary music, critic, Early music, Greg Hettmansberger, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John DeMain, Kay Ryan, Laura Schwendinger, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New Music, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, percussion, Piano, poems, Poulenc, Pro Arte Quartet, review, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Schubert, Shostakovich, String quartet, TV, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, WISC-TV, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Union Theater
Classical music: Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Club 201 marks 10 years of reaching out to young professionals to promote classical music. Plus, the UW-Madison Contemporary Chamber Ensemble performs a FREE concert of new music on Wednesday night.
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ALERT: The UW Contemporary Chamber Ensemble will perform a FREE program of new music this coming Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. It will play under the direction of UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger. The program includes two works by “post-tonal” American composer Cindy Cox (b. 1961, below in a photo by K. Karn), who teaches at the University of California-Berkeley.
By Jacob Stockinger
Club 201, a group affiliated with the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO, below), will hold its first event of the 2015-16 season on this coming Friday, Oct. 16. (Club 201 is named after the address of the Overture Center, which is located at 201 State Street.)
Later this year, Club 201 will celebrate its 10th anniversary, fulfilling its mission as the premiere organization promoting classical music to the young professional community in Madison.
For a $45 ticket – a savings of $36-$56 — young professionals, aged 22 to 40, will have access to outstanding seats in Overture Hall to hear the 7:30 p.m. performance by violinist James Ehnes (below), conductor John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra perform three highly regarded staples of the classical repertoire: Symphony No. 85 “La Reine” by Franz Joseph Haydn; the “Scottish Fantasy” for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch; and the Symphonic Dances by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The ticket also includes access to an exclusive post-performance party in the Promenade Lounge on the second floor of the Overture Center with food, one drink ticket and a cash bar.
Conductor John DeMain, as well as young musicians who play in the symphony, will be attending to mingle with Madison’s young professionals.
The deadline to purchase tickets is this Wednesday, Oct. 14. Tickets can be purchased for this event, as well as the other three events throughout the 2015-16 season at the Club 201 website: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/club201.
Additionally, interested parties can stay up-to-date by liking the Club 201 Facebook page:
Tags: Arts, Chamber music, Cindy Cox, Classical music, Club 201, composer, concerto, contemporary music, dance, Facebook, Haydn, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, La Reine, Laura Schwendinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Max Bruch, Music, New Music, Orchestra, Overture Center, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Russia, Scottish Fantasy, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances, symphony, Symphony No. 85, tonal, United States, University of California-Berkeley, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, young professionals
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