The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Friday night, the UW Concert Choir marks the assassination of JFK and the opening of Hamel Music Center. Plus, WYSO gives a Wisconsin premiere with a returning alumna as soloist

November 21, 2019
1 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.

ALERT: This Friday night, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Orchestra, under conductor Kyle Knox, will present a concert with two guest artists performing the Wisconsin premiere of the Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon composed for them by American composer Jonathan Leshnoff, who is known for his lyricism. (Sorry, there is no word about other works on the program.) Tickets are $10, $5 for 18 years and under, and are available at the door starting at 6:15 p.m.)

The two soloists are principals with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The bassoonist is Nancy Goeres, a Lodi native who is a returning WYSO alumna. If you want to read an interview with her and get more background, you can’t do better for a preview than the piece by Greg Hettmansberger for Madison Magazine and Channel 3000. Here is a link: https://www.channel3000.com/madison-magazine/arts-and-culture/wisconsin-youth-symphony-welcomes-two-special-guests/1143372727

By Jacob Stockinger

At 8 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 22, in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the UW-Madison Concert Choir (below) will perform its first solo concert in the new Hamel Music Center.

Conductor Beverly Taylor (below), the director of choral activities at the UW-Madison who will retire at the end of this academic year, sent the following announcement:

“The a cappella program is entitled “Fall Favorites: Houses and Homecomings.”

“This year I’m particularly picking some of the pieces I like the best from my years here, although I’ll still add a few new things.

“The “Houses” part is primarily “Behold I Build an House” by American composer Lukas Foss (below), which was written for the dedication of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and which I thought was a good piece for the opening of the Hamel Music Center.

“We’re also performing the wonderful -and difficult —“Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing,” which British composer Herbert Howells (below top) wrote in memory of John F. Kennedy (below bottom). You’ll notice our concert is also on Nov. 22, the same day in 1963 when JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. (You can hear the Howells work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

“Besides these two big works are wonderful motets by Orlando di Lasso, Maurice Duruflé, Heinrich Schütz and Melchior Vulpius, plus some African, American and African-American folk songs.”

 


Posted in Classical music
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Classical music education: Before leaving for a festival in Scotland, the Madison Youth Choirs boy choirs will give a FREE send-off concert on Tuesday night. It features the world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Scott Gendel

July 23, 2018
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement to post:

This July, 55 members of Madison Youth Choirs’ boy choirs will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland to sing in the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Arts, a new celebration of talented young performers from across the world. (Below is the Britten boy choir.)

The festival will continue the legacy of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (below), a tradition which had been running nearly 50 years when it was cancelled in late 2017 after Aberdeen city councilors withdrew its funding, citing budgetary concerns.

A groundswell of local and global support for the festival led to the creation of a new event, hosted by the Aberdeen Multicultural Center, which will continue to offer world-class performing opportunities for young artists.

In order to ensure that every eligible singer, including those whose families face significant financial challenges, had the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary experience, MYC undertook a major fundraising effort for the Scotland Tour Scholarship Fund, led by a generous anonymous benefactor who offered to double every dollar donated up to a total of $10,000. In total, 107 individual donors contributed to the fund, raising $20,224 to support the young singers’ journey.

Prior to their departure to Scotland, the MYC boys will present a send-off concert on Tuesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison. The concert is FREE and open to the public, but donations at the door will be accepted.

The concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by UW-Madison graduate and Madison composer Scott Gendel (below), “For That Alone,” which combines text from Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” with text from a work that may have inspired it, the “Declaration of Arbroath,” written in 1320 to assert Scotland’s independence.

The full list of repertoire includes:

“Sumer is icumen in,” Anonymous, mid-13th century

“O là, o che bon echo” by Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)

“No che non morira” (from Tito Manlio) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

“Bar’chu” by Salamon Rossi (c. 1570-1630)

“Il est bel et bon” by Pierre Passereau (fl. 1509-1547)

“Hopkinton” by William Billings (1746-1800)

“The Pasture” (from Frostiana) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)

“Gloria Tibi” (from Mass) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

“II. Adonai ro-I” from Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

“For That Alone” (world premiere) by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)

“Chorus of Street Boys” from Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

“Weevily Wheat,” American play-party song, arr. Krunnfusz

“The Plough Boy,” Traditional, arranged by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) You can hear it for solo tenor with piano in the YouTube video at the bottom.

“Rustics and Fishermen” (from Gloriana) by Benjamin Britten

“I Will Howl” by Timothy Takach (b. 1978)

“Fugue for Tinhorns” (from Guys and Dolls) by Frank Loesser (1910-1969)

“Bonse Aba,” Traditional Zambian

“Birdsong” by Heather Masse, arranged by Randal Swiggum

“Revelation 19:1” by Jeffrey LaValley

“Anthem” (from Chess) by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Tim Rice, arranged by Randal Swiggum

“Will Ye No Come Back Again,” Traditional Scottish, arranged by Randal Swiggum

For more information about the Madison Youth Choirs, including how to join them and how to support them, go to:

https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org


Posted in Classical music
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 1,249 other subscribers

    Blog Stats

    • 2,413,944 hits
    April 2023
    M T W T F S S
     12
    3456789
    10111213141516
    17181920212223
    24252627282930
%d bloggers like this: