The Well-Tempered Ear
The Madison Early Music Festival will again be virtual this summer
Leave a Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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
|
After much discussion, the 2021 Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) has decided to create an online Festival again this summer.
Whenever possible, the University of Wisconsin–Madison recommends that events and meetings continue to be held virtually. This was a difficult decision, but at this time it doesn’t seem safe for our MEMF community to travel to the UW–Madison campus, stay in the dorm, meet in small classrooms, and teach, sing, dance and play instruments together.
We are currently planning what we will offer, and announcements will be publicized in February 2021. (In the YouTube at the bottom is a sample of the video that the Orlando Consort created for last summer’s virtual festival.) For the latest news regarding classes and campus operations at the UW–Madison, please visit the COVID-19 Response website. Although it has been a difficult nine months, performing artists are creating amazing projects and producing them for virtual audiences. This includes many of our MEMF artists and ensembles, and we are looking forward to sharing their talents with you in the future! |
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #EconomicNews, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #LastSummer, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MEMFOnline, #OnlineConcert, #OnlineFestival, #OrlandoConsort, #PeformingArtists, #TheEar, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWArtsInstitute, #VirtualConcert, #VirtualFestival, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, 2021, after, announcements, Arts, audience, blog, Campus, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, classroom, classrooms, community, composer, Concert, continue, coronavirus, create, currently, dance, decision, difficult, discussion, dorm, dormitory, Early music, earlymusic, ensemble, ensembles, event, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, February, forward, future, home website, instruments, Jacob Stockinger, last summer, latest, like, link, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, meeting, MEMF, month, much, Music, news, online, operations, Orchestra, Orlando Consort, pandemic, performing artists, planning, play, post, posting, projects, publicized, recommend, safe, sample, share, sharing, sing, small, stay, summer, tag, talents, teach, The Ear, together, travel, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Arts Institute, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, virtual, virtually, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra cancels its first Masterworks concert and launches an online virtual Winter Chamber Series in January
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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
With the surge in the coronavirus pandemic, the dominos are starting to fall again — this time for the spring series of live, in-person concerts that had been planned.
Friday night brought important news from the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below, in photo by Mike Gorski).
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) has canceled its first Masterworks concert, with guest cellist Amit Peled, in late January. In its place the WCO is launching its first-ever digital Winter Chamber Series.
The virtual, online series of digital concerts will feature the ensemble’s 34 players in smaller groups of four to eight, That will be safer for both players and audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four home-viewable virtual online concerts are planned: Jan. 22, Feb. 26, March 26, and April 16. Programs are not available except for the first concert.
Also included are a pre-concert talk with WCO music director and maestro Andrew Sewell (below top, in a photo by Alex Cruz) and Wisconsin Public Radio host Norman Gilliland (below bottom), and post-concert reflections with musicians of the WCO.
The ticket price for each concert, which will run 60-75 minutes, is $30 per household. A ticket entitles you to one viewing of the concert between Friday, Jan. 22, and Monday, Jan. 25. The concert will start streaming at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
Patrons who have already purchased season subscription tickets can apply that to the full series of four concerts.
Tickets are available online at the Overture Center box office. See below.
The program for the first Winter Chamber Concert on Jan. 22 is:
Four Canzonas by the Baroque Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli (below):
“Tzigane” (a term for music by Hungarian gypsies or Romani) for Wind Quintet by the contemporary American composer Valerie Coleman (below):
The first movement of the famed String Quintet in C major, D. 956, by the Austrian Romantic composer Franz Schubert (below):
Four Octets by the 20th-century American composer and jazz musician Alec Wilder (below), which you can sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.
To see more background about the composers, more details about the concert and purchase tickets, go to: https://www.overture.org/events/wco-chamber-series
You can also check out the series as it progressively gets announced on the WCO home website: https://wcoconcerts.org/concerts-tickets/winter-chamber-series
The concert series sounds like a terrific substitution for the regular concerts that cannot yet take place.
But The Ear wonders if the price per concert is a bit steep, given that comparable concerts by UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music , the Wllly Street Chamber Players and Just Bach are free – although they do ask for donations — and that the Madison Opera charged $50 for its entire fall digital series while the Wisconsin Union Theater charges between $10 and $20 per virtual concert.
The Ear likes the eclectic programming, but also thinks it is kind of teasing and unsatisfying to offer just the first movement of such an organic masterpiece and profoundly beautiful work as the Schubert Cello Quintet. Doing one movement of a chamber music work somehow seems very different from doing one movement of a symphony.
It would also be nice to see the programs for all the concerts plus a series discount as an incentive.
What do you think about the WCO’s Winter Chamber Series?
What do you think about the price and the programming?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #20thCentury, #AlecWilder, #AmitPeled, #AndrewSewell, #BaroqueChamberMusic, #BaroqueMusic, #BlackComposer, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoxOffice, #ChamberGroup, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberOrchestra, #ClassicalMusician, #ConcertSeries, #ContemporaryComposer, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzSchubert, #Fridaynight, #GiovanniGabrieli, #GuestArtist, #JacobStockinger, #JetPlane, #JustBach, #LiveMusic, #LivingComposer, #MasterworksConcerts, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MEMFOnline, #MusicDirector, #NormanGilliland, #OnlineConcert, #OvertureCenter, #Pre-concertTalk, #PrincipalCellist, #RomanticComposer, #SeasonSubscription, #TheEar, #TheUW, #ValerieColeman, #VirtualConcert, #WillyStreetChamberPlayers, #WindMusic, #WindQuintet, #WinterChamberSeries, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WomanComposer, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, Afro-American, Alec Wilder, America, American, Amit Peled, Andrew Sewell, April, Arts, ask, audience, Austria, Austrian, available, Baroque, black, blog, box office, canceled, cancellation, canzona, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Classical, Classical music, classicalmusic, Coleman, composer, Concert, concert series, conductor, contemporary, coronavirus, different, do, domino, donation, Early music, eclectic, ensemble, entitle, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fall, famed, feature, February, first, first-ever, Franz Schubert, Friday, Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli, group, guest artist, gypsy, Home, host, household, Hungarian, Hungary, important, in person, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, January, Jazz, jazzy, Just Bach, launch, like, live music, Living composer, Madison, Maestro, march, Masterworks Season, Mead Witter School of Music, minutes, Monday, movement, Music, Music director, Musician, news, night, Norman Gilliland, Octet, one, Orchestra, organic, Overture Center, Overture Center for the Arts, pandemic, patron, per, plan, players, post, post-concert, posting, pre-concert, price, progam, programming, progressive, purchase, Quartet, quintet, Radio, reflections, Romani, Romantic, safe, safety, sample, Schubert, Season, septet, series, sextet, smaller, Spring, start, steep, stream, streaming, subscription, supply, surge, talk, The Ear, ticket, Tzigane, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, VALERIE COLEMAN, view, viewing, virtual, WCO, Wilder, Willy Street Chamber Players, wind music, Wind quintet, Winter Chamber Series, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Union Theater, woman, YouTube
Classical music: The weeklong 21st annual Madison Early Music Festival is virtual and will be free online here and worldwide starting this Saturday
Leave a Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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 Ear has received the following announcement from the directors of the Madison Early Music Festival and the UW-Madison Division of the Arts to post:
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and concerns about public health for performers and audiences, the 21st annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) will be virtual.
It will be held as MEMF Online! from this Saturday, July 11, through next Saturday, July 18. It can be accessed at Facebook.com/MadisonEarly or madisonearlymusic.org.
All events are FREE. Lectures and special features begin at NOON (not 11 a.m., as first listed) and concerts begin at 7 p.m. (CDT). All events will be available nationwide and internationally.
The Madison Early Music Festival is internationally recognized as a top early music festival that features music from medieval, Renaissance and baroque eras from award-winning performers and distinguished faculty.
The uncertainty of the future for the arts and MEMF is daunting, but we have persevered and put together a virtual experience to showcase the musicians and faculty members that were supposed to perform this summer.
Each ensemble prepared a special video of highlights from past performances, and other faculty members recorded lectures.
Our focus was going to be “Musical Life from the Burgundian Court,” and the videos of the Orlando Consort, Piffaro, performances and lectures by Michael Allsen and Peggy Murray reflect that theme.
The other two ensembles, Trefoil and Nota Bene, sent us live concert recordings of Trecento and Italian repertoire.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are launching a fundraiser campaign to help support the artists that were to perform this season. It is critical that we help these musicians as many of them have lost substantial and irreplaceable income for the foreseeable future.
People can donate online at madisonearlymusic.org — where you can also see the concert programs — and click on the Support tab at the top of our home page. All money raised is for the MEMF musicians.
HERE IS A COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF MEMF ONLINE:
Different events will be released each day of the festival, but the content will be available after that time for later viewing.
Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m.: Orlando Consort (below) in 15th-Century Chansons from the Library of Congress
Sunday, July 12, at 7 p.m.: Piffaro, The Renaissance Band: (below) Excerpts from Burgundian Beginnings and Beyond, Philadelphia
Monday, July 13, at noon: Michael Allsen (below), Musical Life and History at the Burgundian Court
Tuesday, July 14, at 7 p.m.: Trefoil (below): Trecento Music from Bowerbird Concert Series, Philadelphia
Wednesday, July 15, at noon: T-shirt challenge! Post a photo wearing a MEMF T-shirt! #MEMF2020; plus Lecture by William Hudson (below) on style in singing and ornamenting Baroque songs
Thursday, July 16, noon: Renaissance Valois Dance at the Burgundian Court, a lecture by Peggy Murray (below)
Friday, July 17, at 7 p.m.: Nota Bene viol consort (below) in Sonetti Spirituali; Italian Madrigals and Divine Poetry of the High Renaissance composed by Pietro Vinci (c.1525–1584) to settings of the poetry of Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547) Brandeis University in Boston
Saturday, July 18, at 7 p.m.: All-Festival Concert videos from previous festivals. There will be a sing-along of Pastime With Good Company! by King Henry VIII (below). It will be led by a virtual MEMF Faculty Ensemble. You can hear the popular song — also known as “The King’s Ballad” — in the YouTube video at the bottom. (You can download the music and lyrics at: https://memf.wisc.edu/annual/online-program/)
We hope to see everyone in 2021, and that a vaccine is approved to help us gather again as a community experiencing all the arts with musicians, artists and audiences — at MEMF in Madison and around the world.
Tags: #All-FestivalConcert, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOrnamentation, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonMassachusetts, #BowerbirdConcertSeries, #BrandeisUniversity, #BurgundyFrance, #ChamberMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #CourtMusic, #COVID-19, #DivisionoftheArts, #EnglishComposer, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FundraisingCampaign, #GreatBritain, #HenryVIII, #HomePage, #InstrumentalMusic, #ItalianMusic, #J.MIchaelAllsen, #JacobStockinger, #LibraryofCongress, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MedievalMusic, #MEMFOnline, #Musicfaculty, #NotaBene, #OrlandoConsort, #PeggyMurray, #PietroVinci, #PiffaroRenaissanceBand, #PublicHealth, #RecordedMusic, #RenaissanceMusic, #SheetMusic, #TheEar, #TheKing'sBallad, #TrefoilEnsemble, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VittoriaColonna, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, access, All-Festival concert, annual, approve, Arts, audience, available, award-winning, band, Baroque, blog, Boston, Bowerbird Concert Series, Brandeis University, Burgundy, campaign, century, challenge, Chamber music, chanson, classicalmusic, community, company, compose, composer, Concert, consort, coronavirus, court, critical, dance, daunting, distinguished, divine, division, Division of the Arts, download, early msuic, Early music, earlymusic, England, English, ensemble, era, event, excerpts, experience, Facebook, faculty, feature, festival, foreseeable, France, free, fundraiser, future, good, Great Britain, Henry VIII, highlight, History, home page, income, instrumental, international, internationally, irreplaceable, Italian, Italy, J. Michael Allsen, Jacob Stockinger, King, lecture, Library of Congress, life, like, link, live, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, madrigal, Mead Witter School of Music, Medieval, MEMF, MEMF Online, Michael Alsen, money, muisician, Music, musical, nationwide, Nota Bene, online, Orlando, Orlando Consort, ornament, ornamentation, pandemic, past, pastime, Peggy Murray, perform, performers, persevere, Philadelphia, Pietro Vinci, Piffaro, Poetry, popular, post, posting, program, programming, Public health, recognize, record, recorded, reflect, Renaissance, repertoire, repertory, Saturday, schedule, Season, series, setting, share, sheet music, short, showcase, sing-along, Singing, song, specail, start, substantial, summer, support, T-shirt, tag, tee short, The Ear, The King's Ballad, theme, top, Trecento, Trefoil, Trefoil Ensemble, UK, uncertainty, unemployed, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, vaccine, video, Vinci, Viol, virtual, Vittoria Colonna, vocal music, weeklong, Wisconsin, world, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 
The Madison Early Music Festival joins the UW-Madison School of Music’s regular program and undergoes a major revamping. There will be no more separate summer events, and the two directors will retire next spring
2 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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
After refining the format over the past 20 years, the Madison Early Music Festival (below) has grown into a popular event that is recognized regionally, nationally and internationally. It usually takes place for about 10 days in July.
But no longer.
The Ear has received the following updates from the two co-founders and co-directors, singers Cheryl-Bensman Rowe and UW-Madison Professor Paul Rowe.
Curiously, no reasons or causes are given for the major changes and revamping, or for the cancellation of the event this summer.
The Ear suspects it has something to do with the lack of funding and the reorganizations and consolidations being carried out because of the budgetary effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the UW-Madison, the whole UW System and the performing arts scene in general.
But that could be completely wrong. We will probably find out more details in the near future.
For more information and background, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/2021/02/01/memf-school-of-music-announce-administrative-partnership/
And to sound off, please leave your reactions to the news in the comment section.
Here is the letter from the Rowes (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot):
Dear MEMF Supporters,
It is difficult to believe that February is over and spring is on its way. We hope everyone is having luck scheduling coronavirus vaccines, and that you have all stayed healthy throughout this past year.
We are writing to give you advance notice of the latest MEMF news before you read it in an upcoming press release.
Due to programming realignment in the UW-Madison Division of the Arts, the Madison Early Music Festival will become a program of the Mead Witter School of Music, which will be our new administrative home.
After much discussion with the Director of the School of Music and the Interim Director of the Division of the Arts, the details of the move have been finalized.
The School of Music is excited to bring MEMF into its programming, and would like MEMF to be an integral part of the academic year so more students can have an opportunity to work with professionals in the field of early music.
At this point, in order to focus on this goal, the decision has been made to discontinue the summer festival in its current (pre-pandemic) format.(You can hear a sample of that in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We know this is disappointing news, but at the same time we are excited that MEMF concerts, lectures and classes will now be offered in some capacity throughout the year.
Although MEMF will be taking a different direction than the one we have all known and loved over the past 20 years, we are thrilled that it will continue to provide early music learning and presentation opportunities through this new collaboration.
We also want to announce that the two of us will be retiring from MEMF in the spring of 2022 and new leadership will take the helm.
Current plans are to present a celebratory MEMF concert and workshop next spring with School of Music students and faculty and former MEMF participants and faculty.
We want all of you to know that we appreciate everything you have done for MEMF. Some of you have been involved for 21 years!
We are grateful for your support, the friendships we have made, and all the beautiful music we have heard and made together. The success of the festival would not have been possible without each and every one of you.
This is an exciting new journey for MEMF, although different from what we have known and experienced. We hope that you will continue to be involved in MEMF in its new format, and we hope to see you in the spring of 2022!
Thank you for all your generosity in so many ways,
Cheryl Bensman-Rowe and Paul Rowe, co-founders and co-artistic directors of the Madison Early Music Festival
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #AcademicYear, #ArtisticDirector, #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #ChoralMusic, #CityofMadison, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #IntegralPart, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MEMFOnline, #MusicEducation, #Musicfaculty, #NewsUpdate, #PaulRowe, #PerformingArts, #PeriodInstruments, #SoundOff, #TheEar, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSystem, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, 2021, 2022, academic, academic year, administration, administrative, advance, Arts, audience, Bach, background, baritone, Baroque, beautiful, blog, budget, budgetary, cancel, cancellation, capacity, cause, celebratory, Cello, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, choral music, class, classes, Classical music, co-artistic directors, co-founders, collaboration, comment, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, consolidate, consolidation, coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, current, details, disappoint, disappointment, discontinue, Early music, earlymusic, event, excite, excited, experience, Facebook, faculty, Feburary, festival, field, finalize, finalized, financial, fiscal, Focus, format, forward, friendship, funding, future, grateful, grow, healthy, helm, historically informed performance practices, Home, information, instrument, integral, international, involve, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, know, leadership, lecture, like, link, Love, luck, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, MEMF, move, Music, Music education, music faculty, national, new, news, notice, offer, opera, opportunity, Orchestra, paerticpant, pandemic, part, past, Paul Rowe, performer, Performing arts, period instruments, plans, popular, possible, post, posting, presentation, professionals, program, progrramming, provide, reactions, realign, realignment, reason, recognized, refine, regional, reorganization, reorganize, retire, Retirement, revamp, sample, scene, schedule, share, sing, Singing, Sonata, sound off, Spring, Student, summer, support, tag, The Ear, thrill, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, UW, UW System, UW-Madison, vaccine, Viola, Violin, vocal music, way, Wisconsin, work, workshop, wring, year, you, YouTube