ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features the Ann Arbor Ensemble. The group consists of Berlinda Lopez, flute; Marie Pauls, viola; and Stacy Feher-Regehr, piano. The all-French program includes the Trio Sonata by Claude Debussy and the Trio No. 2 in A minor, Op. 34, by Cecile Chaminade.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) continue their 2016-2017 season with a concert titled Looking Within on this coming Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m.
The concerts will both be held at the Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $5 for students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
Here are notes to the eclectic and unusually noteworthy program:
In 2011, American composer Byron Adams (below top) wrote a piece to honor the notable Czech-American composer Karel Husa (below bottom), who was also his composition teacher at Cornell University. The Serenade (Homage de Husa) not only illuminates Husa’s Czech heritage through musical references but also captures the essence of his positive influence in a piece that shows musical charm and wit. With the death of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Husa this past December, the intended tribute is particularly appropriate.
The Notturno (Nocturne) by Arnold Schoenberg (below) is a sweetly atmospheric, late Romantic work for harp and strings. After premiering in 1896 to an appreciative audience, this lovely piece of music was lost for decades and not rediscovered until 2001.
Originally written by French composer Maurice Ravel (below) in 1914, Kaddisch was set as a song using Aramaic text from the Jewish prayer book. The Oakwood Chamber Players will perform an evocative arrangement by David Bruce for a mixed ensemble of strings, winds, harp and English horn.
Music by British composer Gabriel Jackson (below, in a photo by Joel Garthwaite) is written with directness and clarity. In the Mendips, written in 2014, depicts the natural beauty of limestone hills in Somerset, England. The influence of generations of British composers, such as Vaughan Williams who was also inspired by pastoral beauty, is deftly woven into this piece for flute, clarinet, string trio, and harp.
Composer Frances Poulenc (below) was surrounded by the impressionist influence of his fellow French contemporaries Debussy and Ravel.
However, known for humor in how he approached his compositions, his creativity is resoundingly experienced in the high-energy Sextet for piano and woodwind quintet.
The listener will experience quicksilver shifts from the zesty vivace opening to glimpses of introspection to a dazzling high velocity finale. (You can hear the opening of the Sextet in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Oakwood Chamber Players are joined by guests Geri Hamilton and Maureen McCarty, violins; Brad Townsend, string bass; Aaron Hill, oboe and English horn; and Mary Ann Harr, harp (below).
This is the third of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2016-2017 season series entitled Perspective. Remaining concerts will take place on March 18 and 19, and May 13 and 14.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received a the following announcement to post:
Con Vivo!…music with life (below), opens its 15th season with a chamber music concert entitled “All That Jazz” on this Saturday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave., across from Camp Randall.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Con Vivo!’s fall concert, “All That Jazz” features pieces from our standard repertoire as well as jazz music performed by the Edgar Knecht Jazz Trio visiting from our Sister County in Kassel, Germany.
The trio’s appearance is in conjunction with their Dane County visit as a cultural exchange reciprocating con vivo!’s Germany tour in 2015.
Here is the program: “Man Nozipo” for string quartet and percussion by Dumisani Maraire; Selected movements from “Benny’s Gig” for clarinet and double bass by Morton Gould; Rhapsody in Blue arranged for solo organ, by George Gershwin; “Overture on Hebrew Themes” by Sergei Prokofiev; Divertimento in F Major, K. 138, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and various selections of original music for jazz trio by Edgar Knecht.
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
In remarking about the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor said: “With this Con Vivo! concert, we are hosting the Edgar Knecht Trio as well as doing some collaborative pieces with members from both of our groups. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“I think this a great way to begin our 15th season with exceptional music that combines the wonderful sounds of winds, strings and organ along with jazz. Our Madison audience will be able to hear our musicians up close and personal playing music of extreme delight and depth.”
For more information, visit: http://www.convivomusicwithlife.org/home.html
Con Vivo! is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players will kick off their 2016-2017 season with a concert entitled “Looking Across the Table: Can We Find Common Ground?” on this coming Saturday night, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Sept. 11, at 2 p.m.
The concerts will both be held in the Oakwood Village University Woods Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $5 for students.
Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com or call (608) 230-4316 for more information.
The season’s theme of “Perspective” is full of interesting viewpoints on life and relationships; the blended use of diverse musical styles with film and theater will help the audience see things from another’s point of view.
Here is a link to a preview of the entire season:
This weekend’s program concert will begin Cafe Music for piano trio by the Michigan-based composer Paul Schoenfield. The work draws inspiration from a range of styles including 20th-century American, Viennese, gypsy and Broadway. (You can hear the catchy music in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Cuban composer Paul Colina’s “Stairway to Midnight Café” has a delightful current of dance influence and is dedicated to his friends in the First Coast Chamber Ensemble.
The Oakwood Chamber Players will welcome guests to the stage for the charming Dixtuor by French composer Jean Françaix (below). The engaging interplay of strings and winds creates an atmosphere of instrumental commentary parallel to an upbeat social gathering.
Guest musicians include Maureen McCarty, violin; Katrin Talbot, viola; Brad Townsend, string bass; Jennifer Morgan, oboe; and Juliana Mesa-Jaramillo, bassoon.
Famed British composer Sir Edward Elgar (below) wrote Elegy, a poignant adagio, when processing the untimely loss of a friend and colleague. He created a piece that tugs at the heartstrings of both listeners and performers.
This is the first of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2016-2017 concert season. Remaining concerts include “Looking Back and Forward” on Nov. 27; “Looking Within” on Jan. 21 and 22”: “Looking Through the Lens” on March 18 and 19; and “Looking Closely at the Score” on May 13 and 14.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years. They have experience with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and other groups and institutions.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation.