The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: After 54 years at the UW-Madison, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will move this fall to the new McFarland Performing Arts Center.
11 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
Starting this fall, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO, below) will have a new home for classes, rehearsals and performances.
The news of moving to the McFarland Performing Arts Center (below) is very good for WYSO. But The Ear feels sad to see the University of Wisconsin-Madison and WYSO parting ways after a partnership of 54 years.
It feels like the UW, a distinguished public institution, is backing away from the Wisconsin Idea of public service to the citizens who fund the university. It is embodied in the saying that “the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.” (Editor’s note: For more about the Wisconsin Idea and its Progressive Era history, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Idea)
It feels, in short, like a setback to community engagement by the UW-Madison and its Mead Witter School of Music, where WYSO once had offices and used Mills Concert Hall.
Be that as it may, here is a WYSO email newsletter’s account of what led up to the decision and move.
“The news from University of Wisconsin-Madison started trickling in a little at a time.
“First, Mills Hall (below), where WYSO had rehearsed almost every Saturday since the Humanities Building opened, was scheduled for transformation from a concert hall into a lecture hall. (You can see WYSO performing in Mills Hall in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Then the UW began to reconsider whether pre-college programs should actually share space with university departments.
“And there was the growth of WYSO itself — from one full orchestra to three, plus two string orchestras, a chamber music program (below top), a full array of ensembles, and the community-impact Music Makers (below bottom).
“Meanwhile, 12 minutes away, the town of McFarland opened an amazing 841-seat, state-of-the-art performing arts center (below).
“And incredibly, the adjacent middle school and high school campus (below) had enough parking and enough rehearsal space to accommodate the entire WYSO program with room to grow — all of the student musicians, all of the orchestras, and all rehearsing at the same time.
“In a unique move of creative place-making, McFarland’s School Superintendent Andrew Briddell reached out to WYSO and suggested all of the above opportunities, plus collaboration with the McFarland schools, staff and community, and the ability to build on the creative history of the town itself.
“Passionate about music and education, Andrew Briddell, earned a double major in music and English from Indiana University, a Master’s degree in bassoon from Temple University, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the UW-Madison.
“”A talented bassoon player, Briddell (below) played with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and was music director of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Birmingham.
“What a perfect match for this collaboration!
“It was an invitation too good to pass up. So starting in the fall of 2020, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will be in residence at the new McFarland Performing Arts Center.”
To read more details about WYSO’s new home, including design and acoustics, go to: https://www.wysomusic.org/the-wyso-weekly-tune-up-april-17-2020-wysos-new-home/
What do you think about the new move WYSO?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AlabamaSymphonyOrchestra, #AndrewBriddell, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ConcertHall, #DoctoralDegree, #DoubleMajor, #EmailNewsletter, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HarpEnsemble, #HighSchool, #HumanitiesBuilding, #IndianaUniversity, #JacobStockinger, #LectureHall, #Master'sDegree, #McFarlandHighSchool, #McFarlandPerformingArtsCenter, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddleSchool, #MillsHall, #MosseHumanitiesBuilding, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #MusicMakers, #PassUp, #PercussionEnsemble, #PerformingArts, #PerformingArtsCenter, #PublicService, #SchoolSuperintendent, #StringMusic, #StringOrchestra, #StudentMusicians, #SymphonyOrchestra, #TempleUniversity, #TheEar, #Wikipediabiography, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinIdea, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouthSymphonyOrchestraofBirmingham, #YouTubevideo, ability, accomodate, account, acoustics, Alabama, analysis, Andrew Briddell, Arts, audience, bassoonist, Birmingham, blog, border, boundary, build, Campus, Chamber music, citizen, classes, Classical music, collaboration, community, Concert, concerto, concerto hall, creative, degree, department, design, detail, doctorate, double major, downtown, Education, educational, email, embody, English, ensemble, entire, Facebook, fall, forward, full, fund, good, grow, grown, high school, History, Home, humanities, humanities building, impact, Indiana University, institution, invitation, Jacob Stockinger, leadership, lecture hall, like, link, Madison, major, masters degree, match, McFarland, McFarland High School, McFarland Performing Arts Center, Mead Witter School of Music, Middle school, Mills Hall, Mosse Humanities Building, move, Music, Music director, Music education, Music Makers, new, newsletter, oepn, opportunities, Orchestra, PAC, parking, partnership, pass, pass up, percussion, perfect, perform, performance, performer, Performing arts, Performing Arts Center, Piano, player, policy, post, posting, pre-college, program, progressive, Progressive Era, public, public service, rehearsal, residence, room, saying, schedule, school, school superintendent, share, sharspace, space, staff\, state, state-of-the-art, string music, String Orchestra, student musicians, symphony, symphony orchestra, tag, talented, Temple University, The Ear, think, town, transformation, unique, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, up, UW-Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Idea, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, WYSO, years, Youth Symphony Orchestra of Birmingham, YouTube
Classical music: This Sunday brings three concerts of choral and orchestral music
1 Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday brings three chances to hear choral and orchestral music.
On this Sunday morning, April 14, at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., in the Atrium Auditorium (below in a photo by Zane Williams) the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will host its spring All-Music Sunday. The public is invited to attend FREE of charge.
The performers are the Society Choir and Friends, a pickup orchestra, and vocal and instrumental soloists.
The program lasts about one hour and includes the Concerto for Two Trumpets by Antonio Vivaldi and the early Mass in G Major by Franz Schubert. (You can hear the Kyrie from the Schubert Mass in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
At 2:30 p.m., at Edgewood College in the St. Joseph Chapel (below, in a photo by Ann Boyer), 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will give its spring concert.
Director Blake Walter (below) will conduct the performance.
Works to be performed are: the Overture to the opera Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven; St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra by Gustav Holst; and the Symphony No. 35, “Haffner,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Admission is $5 for general admission, free with those with an Edgewood College ID.
Here are some program notes provided by Edgewood College.
“The Overture to Fidelio — Beethoven’s only opera — is the first of four overtures composed for the opera, but is perhaps the least often performed.
“In 1904, Gustav Holst was appointed Music Director of St. Paul’s School for Girls in London, and wrote the Suite for the small string orchestra and based it on popular English folk songs.
“Mozart completed his Haffner Symphony in 1785 and dedicated it to his patron, Sigmund Haffner the Elder, a wealthy businessman in Vienna.”
Tags: #All-MusicSunday, #AntonioVivaldi, #AtriumAuditorium, #BlakeWalter, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #ChamberOrchestra, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianMusic, #ChristianReligion, #EdgewoodChamberOrchestra, #EdgewoodCollege, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FranzSchubert, #GustavHolst, #HaffnerSymphony, #InstrumentalMusic, #InstrumentalPlayer, #LondonEngland, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MusicDirector, #OperaMusic, #OperaOverture, #OrchestralMusic, #ProgramNotes, #RomanCatholic, #RomanCatholicism, #St.JosephChapel, #St.Paul'sSchoolforGirls, #StringOrchestra, #ThePublic, #TrumpetConcerto, #ViennaAustria, #VocalMusic, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, #ZaneWilliams, All-Music Sunday, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Atrium Auditorium, attend, audience, Austria, Beethoven, Blake Walter, blog, brass music, businessman, Cello, chamber orchestra, chapel, Choir, choral music, Christian, Christian music, Christianity, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, director, Early music, Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, Edgewood College, English, Fidelio, First Unitarian Society of Madison, folk song, folk songs, folksong, forward, Franz Schubert, girl, Gustav Holst, Haffner, Haffner Symphony, ID, Jacob Stockinger, Kyrie, like, link, London, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mass, movement, Mozart, Music, opera, Orchestra, orchestral music, Overture, performer, popular, program notes, public, Roman Catholicism, share, soloist, spread, Spring, St. Joseph, St. Joseph Chapel, St. Paul, St. Paul's School for Girls, String Orchestra, Suite, symphony, tag, Trumpet, United States, Vienna, Viola, Violin, vocal, vocal music, wealth, wealthy, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, word, YouTube, Zane Williams
Classical music: This weekend also brings holiday brass music, string music and new chamber music with voice to the UW. Plus, live radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera start this Saturday on Wisconsin Public Radio
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
ALERT: This Saturday, Dec. 1, sees the start of the “Live From the Met” opera broadcasts on Wisconsin Public Radio with Arrigo Boito’s opera “Mefistofole.” The weekly series, now in its 88th year, will continue through May 11. Starting time is usually noon. Here is a link to the radio broadcast season: https://www.wpr.org/metropolitan-opera-begins-its-88th-season
By Jacob Stockinger
As usually happens towards the end of the semester, concerts are backing up, especially on the weekends.
Yesterday, information about the two performances of the annual UW-Madison Winter Choral Concert on Sunday afternoon was posted. Here is a link: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/classical-music-two-performances-of-the-uw-madisons-popular-winter-choral-concert-takes-place-this-sunday-afternoon/
But much more is going on.
Take a look and listen:
SATURDAY
Non-music majors, take heart. If you attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, you can still play and perform while pursuing other studies.
At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the All-University Strings (AUS) will perform a FREE concert that is open to the public.
The group (below, in a photo by Jeff Miller for the UW-Madison) is comprised of two non-major string orchestras (named Orchestra One and Orchestra Too), and is open to all interested string players. No audition is required, seating order is voluntary, and there is no ranking within the sections.
The AUS program endeavors to be a true learning community, serving students from virtually every department and major with the goal of nurturing lifelong engagement in music and the arts.
Pedro Oviedo is the conductor, and the guest artists are The Hunt Quartet. (The string quartet is made up of graduate students at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music: Chang En Lu and Ava Shadmani, violins; Fabio Saggin, viola; and Alex Chambers-Ozasky, cello. They will be joined by Max Herteen, double bass.)
The appealing program includes:
Norman Leyden: Serenade for Strings
Karl Jenkins: Allegretto from “Palladio” (A neo-Baroque piece you might recognize from a De Beers “Diamonds Are Forever” ad. Listen to it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Eric Whitacre: October
Modest Mussorgsky, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel: “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)” and “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Pictures at an Exhibition
Astor Piazzolla: La muerte del angel (The Death of the Angel)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Concerto Grosso
SUNDAY
At 12:30 p.m. the UW Horn Choir (below) will present its annual holiday concert at the Chazen Music of Art as part of the Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen series.
The FREE and public concert, directed and conducted by horn Professor Daniel Grabois, takes place in Brittingham Gallery No. 3.
The event will also be streamed live. Here is a link to the streaming portal as well as information about the program, which includes Bach and Mahler, the players and how to reserve seats:
https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/about/news/in-the-news/sunday-afternoon-live-with-the-uw-horn-choir/
At 8 p.m. in Morphy Hall, a FREE concert of chamber music by distinguished guest artists will be held.
The Brooklyn-based soprano-violin duo Cipher Duo (below top, Justine Aronson and Sarah Goldfeather) will team up with cellist Nicholas Photinos(below bottom), a member of the Grammy-winning chamber music ensemble eighth blackbird, for an evening-length performance of both new and reimagined music.
The program will include works by Sarah Goldfeather, Amy Beth Kirsten, David T Little, Dolly Parton and more.
On Monday, the performers will also give public master classes:
The Cello Master Class is Monday, Dec. 3, 12:15-2:15 p.m. in Morphy Hall.
The Violin-Voice Master Class: Monday, Dec. 3, 1:15-3:15 p.m. in Music Hall.
For more information about the program and performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artists-nicholas-photinos-cello-and-cipher-duo-voice-and-violin/
Tags: #All-UniversityStrings, #AmyBethKirsten, #ArrigoBoito, #AstorPiazzolla, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CelloMusic, #ChamberMusic, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #ChristmasHoliday, #CipherDuo, #ConcertoGrosso, #DanielGrabois, #DavidTLittle, #DeBeers, #DiamondsAreForever, #DollyParton, #DoubleBass, #EighthBlackbird, #EricWhitacre, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GraduateStudent, #GrammyAward, #GreatGateofKIev, #GuestArtist, #GustavMahler, #HolidayConcert, #HornChoir, #HuntQuartet, #JohannSebastianBach, #JustineAronson, #KarlJenkins, #LiveFromtheMet, #LiveStreaming, #MauriceRavel, #MetropolitanOpera, #MillsHall, #ModestMussorgsky, #MorphyHall, #MusicEducation, #MusicHall, #NeoBaroque, #NewMusic, #NewTango, #NicholasPhotinos, #NormanLeyden, #NuevoTango, #OpentothePublic, #OperaMusic, #PedroOviedo, #PicturesatanExhibition, #RalphVaughanWilliams, #SarahGoldfeather, #StringMusic, #StringOrchestra, #StringQuartet, #SundayAfternoonLiveattheChazen, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, #WinterConcert, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #YouTubevideo, ad, All-University Strings, Amy Beth Kirsten, angel, Arts, audition, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach, Baroque, blog, Blog post, blog posting, Broadcast, Cello, Chamber music, Chazen Museum of Art, choral music, Cipher Duo, Classical music, community, composer, Concert, Concerto Grosso, conductor, Daniel Grabois, David T Little, De Beers, death, department, diamond, Diamonds Are Forever, Dolly Parton, double bass, Early music, eighth blackbird, engagement, Eric Whitacre, evening, evil, Facebook, fowl, free, graduate student, Grammy, Great Gate of Kiev, guest artist, Gustav Mahler, hiut, Holiday, horn choir, Hunt Quartet, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Justine Aronson, Karl Jenkins, learning, leg, like, link, listen, Live From the Met, live streaming, live-stream, livestream, look, major, master class, masterclass, Maurice Ravel, Mefistofole, Mephistopheles, Metropolitan Opera, Mills Hall, Modest Mussorgsky, Morphy Hall, Music education, Music Hall, New Music, new tango, Nicholas Photinos, Norman Leyden, nuevo tango, October, open, Orchestra, orchestrated, Palladio, Pedro Oviedo, perform, Pictures at an Exhibition, play, portal, program, public, Radio, Ralph Vaughan Williams, ranking, reimagined, Sarah Goldfeather, Satan, Saturday, Season, seating, section, series, share, soprano, string music, String Orchestra, String quartet, studies, Sunday, Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen, tag, tango, the Met, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, voluntary, weekend, weekly, winter, Winter Concert, wisconsin public radio
Classical music: YOU MUST HEAR THIS — the slow movement of the Violin Concerto by Gerald Finzi
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has long had a fondness for the works of the 20th-century British composer Gerald Finzi (below).
His work may be relatively tweedy and conservative, but it is unmistakably modern. It is very poignant and appealing, with accessible harmonies and beautiful melodies. He seems much like a British Samuel Barber.
Ever since he first heard it maybe 20 years ago, The Ear has loved Finzi’s pastoral Eclogue for Piano and String Orchestra, which was meant to be the slow movement of a piano concerto but ended up being an independent work. And, judging by how increasingly often it gets played on Wisconsin Public Radio, the Eclogue seems to be a favorite among a growing number of fans.
But there are other works.
There is the Romance for Violin and Small Orchestra.
There is the Romance for String Orchestra.
There is the Concerto for Cello.
There is his Romance for Clarinet and String Orchestra as well as the Five Bagatelles for Clarinet and Orchestra.
And now The Ear has discovered the slow movement — appropriately marked “very serene” — of the Violin Concerto by Finzi, which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.
It is performed by British violinist Tasmin Little (below, in a photo by Melanie Winning), who four seasons years ago turned in wonderful performances in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under Andrew Sewell. She played Finzi’s rarely heard “Introit.”
If you want to hear the whole concerto, it is available for free on YouTube from a couple of different performers. And you can find many other works by Finzi on YouTube.
In any case, The Ear hopes the Violin Concerto gets programmed at a local concert.
This past summer, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society featured a song cycle by Finzi. Even so, we need to hear more music by Gerald Finzi in live performances.
Finzi was a modest and retiring man, publicity shy and not given to self-aggrandizement or self-promotion, who went underperformed and underappreciated during his lifetime. But he is an extremely welcoming and moving modern composer.
The Ear thinks he deserves a better place among other modern British composers who have become more popular, including Ralph Vaughan Williams (shown, below right, with Finzi), Benjamin Britten, Frank Bridge, William Walton and others.
Are there other Gerald Finizi fans out there?
What do you think about him?
And what is your favorite work by Gerald Finzi?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: accessible, Andrew Sewell, Arts, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, bagatelle, Barber, Baroque, beautiful, Benjamin Britten, British, Britten, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, concerto, conservative, cycle, dance, dynamite, Eclogue, England, English, Frank Bridge, Gerald Finzi, Great Britain, harmony, introit, Jacob Stockinger, live, Madison, melody, modern, movement, Music, Orchestra, pastoral, performance, Piano, promotion, publicity, Ralph Vaughan Williams, recording, Romance, Samuel Barber, self-aggrandizement, self-promotion, serene, singer, Slow movement, society, song, String Orchestra, summer, symphony, Tasmin Little, tweed, U.K., UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, William Walton, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, work, YouTube
Classical music education: Brother and sister alumni return to play cello and conduct in the fall concerts by Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. Plus, hear a free concert of three solo cello suites by Bach on Friday at noon
Leave a Comment
ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison 900 University Bay Drive, features cellist Leonardo Altino playing Suites Nos. 1, 5 and 6 for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
WYSO will kick-off its 51st season with the Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts on this Saturday, Nov. 12, and next Saturday, Nov. 19. Nearly 500 young musicians will display their talents to the community during the concerts, which are dedicated to music teachers.
The Youth Orchestra concert on Nov. 19 will be performed at the River Arts Center in Prairie du Sac, where WYSO will welcome back two alumni guest artists: Kenneth Woods and Cynthia Woods.
Kenneth will be playing cello and Cynthia will be conducting in the Cello Concerto by British composer Philip Sawyers. (You can hear Kenneth Woods conduct the opening movement of the cello concerto in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Youth Orchestra, under the direction of James Smith, will also be playing Symphony No. 2 by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Overture to the opera “Der Freischuetz” by Carl Maria von Weber.
Cynthia Woods (below) is currently the Music Director of the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and the conductor for the Youth Preparatory Orchestra at the New England Conservatory, where she serves on the violin, chamber and conducting faculty.
Along with her conducting activities, Ms. Woods is also a frequent speaker and writer. She has been a guest lecturer at institutions such as MIT and the Longy School of Music of Bard College, a panelist for radio shows such as WGBH’s Callie Crossley, and a frequent contributor to The Boston Herald’s State of the Arts blog. Cynthia was a member of WYSO from 1984–1989 in Concert, Philharmonia and Youth Orchestra.
For more background about Cynthia Woods, go to:
http://www.wysomusic.org/guest-artists/cynthia-woods/
Kenneth Woods (below) is currently the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra. As a cello soloist and chamber musician, Wood’s collaborators have included members of the Toronto, Chicago and Cincinnati symphonies, the Minnesota, Gewandhaus and Concertgebouw orchestras and the La Salle, Pro Arte, Tokyo and Aubudon String Quartets.
He also is currently cellist of the string trio Ensemble Epomeo, with whom he performs regularly in the UK, Europe, and the USA. He writes a popular blog, “A View From the Podium.” Kenneth was a member of WYSO from 1980–1986 in Concert, Philharmonia and Youth Orchestra. He also studied cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music with Parry Karp, of the Pro Arte Quartet.
For more background and an interview with Kenneth Woods, go to:
http://www.wysomusic.org/guest-artists/kenneth-woods-cellistconductor/
Schedule and Programs
November 12, 2016 – 1:30 P.M., Mills Hall
Philharmonia Orchestra
- Rimsky- Korsakov: Procession of the Nobles from Mlada
- Shostakovich: Finale from Symphony No. 5, Op. 47
- Prokofiev: Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliette, 2nd suite
- Shostakovich: Six Pieces from the First Ballet Suite Op. 84
November 12, 2016 – 4 P.M., Mills Hall
CONCERT ORCHESTRA (below)
- Jack Bullock: Okeanos
- James Curnow: Phoenix Overture
- Jaromír Weinberger: Polka from the Opera Schwanda, the Bagpiper
- Albert O. Davis: Moonlight Masquerade
- Richard Strauss: Allerseelen (All Souls’ Day) Op. 10 No. 8
SINFONIETTA
- Domenico Gallo: Sinfonia in G
- Grieg: A Nordic Lullaby Op. 68, No.5
- Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
- Robert S. Frost and Mary Elledge: Tales from Sherwood Forest
- Brian Balmages: Wood Splitter Fanfare
- Norman Leyden: Serenade for String Orchestra
- Michael Korb and Ulrich Roever: Highland Cathedral
- William Owens: Carpathia
- Sebastian Yradier: La Paloma
November 19, 2016 – 7 P.M., River Arts Center
YOUTH ORCHESTRA (below)
- Symphony No.2– Ralph Vaughan Williams
- Overture to the opera “Der Freishuetz”– Carl Maria von Weber
- Cello Concerto– Philip Sawyers with Kenneth Woods – Cello, Cynthia Woods – Conductor
The Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts will be held in Mills Concert Hall in the UW Humanities Building, 455 N. Park Street, Madison, and at the River Arts Center, 105 Ninth St. Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin.
WYSO concerts generally run about an hour and a half in length, providing a great orchestral concert opportunity for families.
Tickets are available at the door, $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
This project is supported by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Evjue Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times. This project is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tags: alumni, Arts, Audubon, Bach, ballet, Bard College, blog, British, brother, Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Carl Maria von Weber, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Concertgebouw, concerto, conductor, Cynthia Woods, Dane Arts, Dmitri Shostakovich, English Symphony Orchestra, Europe, Evjue Foundation, fall, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Gewandhaus, Great Britain, Grieg, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ka Salle Quartet, Kenneth Woods, lullaby, Madison, Minnesota, MIT, moonlight, Music, Music education, music teachers, National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, New England Conservatory, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Philip Sawyers, Phillip Sawyers, polka, Prairie du Sac, Pro Arte Quartet, Radio, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, River Arts Center, Romeo and Juliet, Serenade, Sergei Prokofiev, sinfonia, sister, solo, String Orchestra, strings, Suite, suites, symphony, Tchaikovsky, Teacher, The Capital Times, Tokyo String Quartet, Toronto, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, UK, United Kingdom, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, Viola, Violin, WGBH, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Pianist Adam Neiman laments the neglect of piano concertos by Shostakovich and Poulenc, which he will perform this Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
This week, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will open the second half of its indoor season with a program that plays to its strong suits.
The concert takes place this Friday night at 8 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 211 State St,
The program feature works from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
There will be the Overture to the opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Symphony No. 6 in C Major by Franz Schubert.
In between will come two rarely heard piano concertos that feature the return of soloist Adam Nieman (pronounced KNEE-man), who several years ago made a fine recording of early Mozart piano concertos with the WCO and its music director and conductor Andrew Sewell, who possesses a mastery of the Classical-era style and has a special fondness for French music.
Neiman will perform the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor by French composer Francis Poulenc.
Tickets are $15-$80 with $10 student rush tickets on the day of the concert. For tickets, call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141.
For more information about the concert, including a lengthy biography of Adam Neiman, visit:
Adam Neiman recently did an email Q&A with The Ear:
Can you briefly bring the public up to date with highlights about you and your career since you last performed here in 2008 with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and recorded the early Mozart concertos?
I have been very actively performing over the last several years, since my last appearance with the WCO in 2008. My touring schedule has encompassed roughly 100 concerts a year, and I have had the pleasure of presenting some epic solo recital tours throughout the United States.
Specifically I have been engaged in three monumental projects: the Complete Liszt Transcendental Études in 2011-2012; Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Diabelli Variations in 2013-2014; and the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes and Études-tableaux in 2014-2015.
I have issued eight recordings since the Mozart piano concertos recording with the WCO, and three more solo records are on the way in 2017. In addition, I have founded a record label, Aeolian Classics, formed in 2014.
I have simultaneously kept an active teaching profile, and in 2015 I was awarded the position of Assistant Professor of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a full-time member of the faculty, I have since relocated to Chicago, so now I am a fellow Midwesterner!
Composition has always played a major part in my musical life, and since 2008 I have written a number of works for premieres, including my Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, which can be viewed on my YouTube channel at:
You have chosen an unusual program. What would you like the public to know about the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich? What would you like the public to know about the Piano Concerto by Francis Poulenc? Why do you think both concertos are not programmed more often? Why do you perform them and what do you like about each one?
The Piano Concerto No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich (below) is one of my favorite works of all time, and when Andrew approached me about the possibility of performing it in conjunction with another concerto, I immediately suggested the Piano Concerto by Francis Poulenc.
Both works share certain core qualities, namely irony, humor, radiant beauty and spirited fun. These are works that do not disparage the concept of beauty, though they were both written during a post-war generation.
As such, rare moments of absolute Romanticism are intertwined with musical jokes, sardonic twists of phrase, and ridicule, rendering the messages of each piece complex and ironic. (You can hear Neiman perform the opening of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
At one point, during the last movement of the Poulenc, he spontaneously quotes George Gershwin’s “Swanee” in a moment of jazz ease, in between sparkly, jaunty sections of impish humor. In a sense, you could describe both pieces as tonal expressions of longing for a bygone era from the perspective of a bleak machine age.
From a compositional perspective, both works are solidly grounded in classical form, and both are ingeniously orchestrated, making use of each instrument’s range and dynamic qualities to draw out a maximum of character possibilities.
The piano writing is virtuosic, powerful, and expressive, and the combination will take the audience by storm – I think the WCO audiences will walk away from this performance humming passages of the works, and they will be delighted by the wit and charm that wins out in the end.
As to why the Poulenc is rarely performed, I can offer no other possible explanation than the innate closed-mindedness of many people in the music world.
Poulenc (below) is a composer who deserves a place at the very center of the main repertory. Yet due to the prejudices of the ignorant critics of his day who preferred to elevate the splendors of Germanic music to an Olympian height above the “avant-garde” of Russia and France, he, among others, garnered an undeservedly poor following.
What would you like to say about performing in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Andrew Sewell, with whom you seem to share a deep musical affinity? Do you have plans to record something else with them?
Each performance I have played with the WCO stands out as a musical highlight for me. The orchestra is as fine as they come, and I am inspired by the love of music that seems to be the keystone of the ensemble.
Andrew Sewell (below) is not only a very fine conductor and exemplary musician, but I am lucky to count him as a close friend. We have a musical rapport that is powerful, with a long history, and it would be a privilege to keep performing and recording with him and the orchestra in the future.
There are no current plans in place to record together, but the experience of making the Mozart concertos CD in 2008 was so sweet, that I would be happy to do it again! Maybe a Shostakovich/Poulenc disc, hmmm?
What else would you like to say?
I feel truly honored to be a part of the 2016 performance season of WCO, and I cannot wait to say hello to all my Madison friends!
For more information about me, please visit my website at www.adamneiman.com
Tags: Adam Neiman, Andrew Sewell, Arts, Beethoven, Chicago, Chicasgo College of Performing Arts, Classical, Classical era, Classical music, Compact Disc, concerto, conductor, Diabelli Variations, etude, France, Franz Schubert, French music, George Gershwin, German music, Hammerklavier sonata, Jacob Stockinger, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mozart, Music, Music director, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Piano, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Roosevelt University, Russia, Schubert, Shostakovich, soloist, String Orchestra, strings, Swanee, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music education: The University of Wisconsin-Madison will have a chamber orchestra after all for this season.
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
In the on again-off again saga of having a chamber orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, there is good news to report.
That is heartening to hear, given that the music school has been ranked in the Top 10 of the nation and a chamber orchestra is important for student education because it offers a very different educational experience than a symphony orchestra. (The UW-Madison continues to have the UW Symphony Orchestra.)
This academic year and concert season, 2015-16, the UW-Madison will indeed once again have a chamber orchestra (below), which, if The Ear recalls correctly, had been threatened earlier with the lack of various instruments and players of high enough quality.
That lack was blamed on the lack of scholarships to lure top students away from competing music schools.
First, it was the lack of winds and brass that threatened the orchestra.
So the chamber ensemble was redesigned as a string orchestra.
But even a couple of weeks ago, the stumbling block appeared to be a lack of violists.
But now that problem has apparently been solved.
Conductor James Smith sent The Ear a tentative schedule of concert programs for the first semester. And the repertoire – subject to change — looks quite engaging.
Here it is:
SUNDAY, OCT. 4, AT 2 P.M. IN MILLS HALL: Serenade for Strings by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and “Death and the Maiden” by Franz Schubert as arranged by Gustav Mahler.
SUNDAY, NOV. 1, AT 2 P.M. IN MILLS HALL: Chamber Symphony for String Orchestra by Dmitri Shostakovich as arranged by Russian violist and conductor Rudolf Barshai; and the Serenade, Op. 22, by Antonin Dvorak
SUNDAY, DEC. 6, AT 7:30 P.M. IN MILLS HALL: the haunting beat score “Apollon Musagete (Apollo, Father of the Muses, heard at bottom in a YouTube video) by Igor Stravinsky; and the Serenade, Op. 6, by Czech composer Josef Suk.
Tags: Apollo, Arts, ballet, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Classical music, conductor, Franz Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Jacob Stockinger, Josef Suk, Madison, Mahler, Music, Orchestra, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rudolf Barshai, Serenade, String Orchestra, strings, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) gives an impressive display of how it continues to grow and develop.
7 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker, who also took performance photos. 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
On Saturday night, in Mills Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, Mikko Rankin Utevsky led his Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) in the first of this year’s two summer concerts. More than ever, it showed Utevsky in new degrees of bravery and enterprise.
The program was organized around the idea of the Baroque concerto grosso, in various later transformations.
To begin, there was one of the “Morning, Noon, and Night” trilogy of Haydn’s symphonies, No. 6 in D, Le Matin. Haydn used the first of his symphonies composed for his new Esterhazy employer to show off the solo skills of his players.
The young MAYCO counterparts did themselves proud in both ensemble and solo playing, with particular flair displayed by first violinist Valerie Clare Sanders (below) in her virtuosic solos. And Utevsky’s care in have his string players totally avoid vibrato gave a good demonstration of 18th-century instrumental sound.
The second work, by recent UW-Madison School of Music graduate in composition, Jonathan Posthuma (below), more explicitly recreated the old configuration in his Concerto Grosso No. 1 in E minor.
It presents indeed the proper concertino of two violins and cello, against a ripieno string orchestra. In place of the traditional continuo, however, Posthuma brought in four percussionists and a pianist. The percussionists are members of the local ensemble Clocks in Motion (below), currently making a name for itself as an avant-garde group.
The idea was fascinating, but in two of the three movements the results were confusing. In the first, the string orchestra was overwhelmed by floods of color worthy of a Busby Berkeley Hollywood spectacular, while the second movement was a long procession of pops and moans. All color and hardly any real musical ideas.
The third movement, on the other hand, was a lusty fugue, given forth at first by only the strings, with the percussionists then integrated into a quite well-balanced texture. This is stated as the first in what will be a full set of 12 concertos, to make up a typical Baroque dozen.
It will be interesting to see how such a project unfolds. But one must credit Utevsky (below) for giving this first venture its world premiere performance.
Another premiere followed the intermission. Utevsky was able to secure from the contemporary British composer Cecilia McDowall (below) the rights to the first American performance of her piece for chamber orchestra, Rain, Steam, and Speed, inspired by J.M.W. Turner’s powerful painting of the same title, with its subtitle of The Great Western Railway.
Less literally conceived than Arthur Honegger’s famous railroad evocation, Pacific 231, this piece is an effort to suggest the kaleidoscopic contents of the painting, in what might be called a British neo-Impressionist style. A challenging work for the orchestra, which they brought off very effectively.
Finally came not a concerto grosso, but a Romantic solo concerto, the one for Cello and Orchestra by Robert Schumann. Not as often heard as it should be, it is a handsome and enjoyable work.
The soloist was Parry Karp (below), of the UW-Madison School of Music faculty, of the Pro Arte Quartet, and of so much else. He approached the piece not in bravura pretentiousness but with a kind of affectionate warmth that suited it admirably, while also allowing Utevsky the chance to give his players experience in collegial ensemble interaction with a soloist.
What these gifted young players of high school and college ages are able to do is really amazing. Utevsky grows better and better in giving them — and himself — marvellous training opportunity. Watch for the second concert, with music by Ernest Bloch, George Frideric Handel and Haydn (the famed “Surprise” Symphony) with piano soloist Jason Kutz, at 7:30 pm. on Friday, August 21, location to be announced.
You can find more information here: http://www.mayco.org
Tags: "Surprise" Symphony, Arthur Honneger, Arts, avant-garde, Baroque, Beethoven piano sonatas, Bloch, British Impressionism, Busby Berkeley, Cecilia McDowall, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Classical music, Clocks in Motion, concertmaster, Concerto Grosso, conductor, continuo, contrapuntal, counterpoint, fugue, Handel, Haydn, Hollywood, Impressionism, Isthmus, J.M.W. Turner, Jacob Stockinger, Jonathan Posthuma, La Matin, Madison, Medieval history, Music, Music education, Orchestra, painting, Parry Karp, percussion, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Robert Schumann, Romaniticism, Romantic, soloist, String Orchestra, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, Youth Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: John W. Barker finds the Wisconsin Chamber Choir “moving” and “overwhelming” in its performance of the “German” Requiem by Johannes Brahms.
2 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 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. He also provided the performance photos for this review.
By John W. Barker
Having already established an enviable level of achievement with his Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below), conductor Robert Gehrenbeck led it to new heights with the concert on Saturday night at Luther Memorial Church.
The program opened with two examples of Gehrenbeck’s interest in promoting new choral works through commissions.
The first, sung by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chamber Singers at his academic base, was by American composer Christian Ellenwood (below).
Entitled “Prairie Spring,” it set a poem by Willa Cather, celebrating the Nebraska landscape, scored for choir and string orchestra. This is a gentle piece, full of lyric grace, in a neo-Romantic style, and reflecting a confident command of choral texture. It made me think a little of the music of British composer Gerald Finzi. The words were somewhat obscured, but that may partly have been a function of the church’s spacious acoustics.
The second new work was by the older British composer Giles Swayne (below) that sets selected lines from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, under the title of “Our Orphan Souls.” Solo baritone Gregory Berg (below) delivered reflections of Captain Ahab, with chorus, alto saxophone, harp, double bass and percussion.
The solo writing has strength, and might have been built into a more extended soliloquy—and baritone Gregory Berg delivered it with strength. But the choral writing — sung by the Wisconsin Chamber Choir itself — was unsettled and unidiomatic, running from word to word without much continuity of lines.
Ah, but the main event! Nothing less than the “German” Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem), one of the greatest of choral works, by one of the greatest of choral composers, Johannes Brahms (below). Setting passages from Scripture in the Martin Luther translation, Brahms made this a big work, both in length and in performing demands.
The chancel of Luther Memorial has only so much space, forcing a lot of crowding. The orchestra—37 players, familiar local performers—was arrayed through the center, while the two blended choirs were stationed on risers to either side: sopranos and tenors on the left, altos and basses on the right (below).
Such an arrangement could have strained ensemble coordination, but in fact it worked quite well. Indeed, it actually made it possible to follow the interaction of voice parts better than when the whole choir is in a single clump. German diction was a bit blurred, but, again, acoustics must take some blame. (I should note that I sat close and up front, so that what and how I heard may have been somewhat different from those in seating further back.)
The two soloists were both engaging. A last-minute replacement, soprano Catherine Henry (below left), was deeply expressive, a rich-voiced exemplar of the comforting mother we would all want to have.
The baritone, Brian Leaper, was a deft guide to the mysteries of mortality.
The orchestra took on its large assignment with skill, and the choral singers were simply magnificent. But the highest praise must go to Gehrenbeck himself. His tempos were flexible, his balances neatly coordinated, and his sense of what each of the seven movements had to say was perfect. This is not only a superb choral conductor, but a musician of true artistry.
I write as someone for whom the Brahms Requiem has profound meaning. I have known and loved it since student days. I have sung in it several times, and listened to it in many recordings and performances. It is one of the musical threads of my life.
But I think I can honestly say that this was the most meaningful performance of the work that I have ever experienced. I often felt moved to tears by the beautiful, truthful messages that Robert Gehrenbeck (below) — who heads the choral program at UW-Whitewater — brought to realization out of it.
There is a small lifetime list I keep of concerts and performances that I forever cherish, and this one is a rare addition—a presentation I will remember for the rest of my days.
One more reminder, then, of the riches Madison offers in choral music alone!
Tags: A German Requiem (Brahms), acoustics, Ahab, alto, American Record Guide, Arts, baritone, bass, choral music, Christian Ellenwood, Classical music, diction, double bass, Gerald Finzi, German Requiem, giles swayne, Grassland, harp, Herman Melville, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Martin Luther, Moby Dick, Music, neo-Romantic, Orchestra, percusssion, Robert Gehrenbeck, Romantic, Saxophone, Scripture, soprano, String Orchestra, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Whitewater, Willa Cather, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Choir, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) will give two FREE afternoon performances this Saturday and Sunday with the world premiere of a socially relevant piece by local composer Lawren Brianna Ware
1 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 Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below) will present its ninth season this weekend, performing two free afternoon concerts.
Co-directed by the husband-and-wife team of conductor Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below left) and concertmaster Thalia Coombs (below back), the orchestra will perform music of Haydn, Wagner and Grieg, plus a commissioned work from local composer Lawren Brianna Ware.
Performances are Saturday, Aug. 3, at noon on the “Grace Presents” concert series at Grace Episcopal Church, located downtown at 116 West Washington Avenue on the Capitol Square; and on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Lobby of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, as part of “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.”
(Please note that Sunday’s concert is NOT in the Brittingham Gallery III due to space constraints.) Sunday’s performance will be live-streamed on the Chazen website. Here is a link to the portal for streaming: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen7/
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Utevsky and Coombs offer the following comments about the program:
We’re excited to be working with Lawren Brianna Ware (below) on a new work she composed for us, Un sueño aplazado (A Dream Deferred – a quote from the African-American poet Langston Hughes), which chronicles the emotional trajectory of a migrant’s journey from Central America to the United States.
Our two high school Conducting Apprentices, Luke Whittingham (below top) and Quinn Wilson (below bottom) will each conduct one performance of a movement from Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Whittingham conducts on Saturday and Wilson does so on Sunday.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is a luxurious tone poem for small orchestra that he composed as a love letter to his wife Cosima, first performed on the staircase of their villa in Switzerland on her birthday. Often chamber orchestras don’t get the chance to dig into the great German Romantic repertoire, but this gem is a notable — and unforgettably beautiful — exception. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We conclude our program with Franz Joseph Haydn’s final symphony, No. 104. Nicknamed the “London,” it is one of 12 symphonies he wrote for performances there late in his career, and it remains one of his finest essays in symphonic form.
MAYCO is made possible by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
For more information about the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, go to www.mayco.org or call (608) 514-5537.
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #ADreamDeferrred, #artmuseum, #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrittinghamGalleryIII, #CapitolSquare, #CentralAmerica, #ChamberOrchestra, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #ChristianChurch, #CommissionedMusic, #ConcertSeries, #ContemporaryMusic, #CosimaWagner, #EdvardGrieg, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #GracePresents, #HighSchool, #HolbergSuite, #HumanEmotion, #husband-and-wife, #LangstonHughes, #LawrenBriannaWare, #LivingComposer, #LondonEngland, #LondonSymphony, #LoveLetter, #LukeWhittingham, #MadisonAreaYouthChamberOrchestra, #MadisonArtsCommission, #MeadWiiter, #MikkoRankinUtevsky, #OrchestralMusic, #QuinnWilson, #RichardWagner, #SiegfriedIdyll, #SociallyRelevant, #StringOrchestra, #SudayAfternoonLiveattheChazen, #ThaliaCoombs, #TonePoem, #UnitedStates, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, A Dream Deferred, African American, afternoon, apprentice, Art, audience, beautiful, birthday, blog, Blog post, blog posting, Brittingham, Brittingham Gallery III, Capitol Square, Central America, chamber orchestra, Chazen, Chazen Museum of Art, Christian, chronicle, church, comments, commission, commissioned, Concert, concert series, concertmaster, Conducting, conductor, constraints, contemporary, contemporary music, Cosima Wagner, downtown, Edvard Grieg, emotion, emotional, essay, event, Facebook, form, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, free, gallery, gem, German, Grace Episcopal Church, Grace Presents, great, Haydn, high school, Holberg Suite, intimacy, journey, Langston Hughes, Lawren Brianna Ware, letter, like, link, live-stream, live-streamed, Living composer, lobby, local, local composer, London Symphony, Love, love letter, Luke Whittingham, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, Madison Arts Commission, MAYCO, Mead Witter, migrant, Mikko Rankin Utevsky, movement, Museum, Music, new, notable, notes, Orchestra, orchestral music, performer, poem, poet, Poetry, portal, Pro Arte Quartet, program, Quinn Wilson, reader, repertoire, Richard Wagner, Romanticism, Saturday, Season, series, share, Siegfried Idyll, small, small business, socially relevant, space, String Orchestra, subscriber, Suite, Sunday, Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen, Switzerland, symphonic, symphony, tag, team, Thalia Coombs, tone poem, trajectory, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, version, Website, weekend, Wisconsin Arts Board, work, world premiere, YouTube