The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra and violinist Naha Greenholtz perform this Wednesday night in the new Hamel Music Center at the UW-Madison. At noon, the FREE Just Bach concert celebrates Christmas
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.
ALERT 1: This Wednesday, Dec. 18, at noon in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, Just Bach wraps up its FREE one-hour period-instrument concerts for this semester. The program features “joyous selections” from the Christmas Oratorio, the Magnificat, and the Advent Cantata 36. For more information about the program and the performers, go to: https://justbach.org
ALERT 2: The Madison Symphony Orchestra, which just gave three sold-out performances of its Christmas concert, is holding its annual holiday ticket sale. It started Monday and runs through Dec. 31. You can save up to 50 percent on tickets to the remaining concerts of the season. For more information and to order, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/holidaysale/
By Jacob Stockinger
Looking for a break from holiday music?
This Wednesday night, Dec. 18, the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below) will perform in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the new Hamel Music Center at the UW-Madison – NOT at its usual venue, the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School.
The appealing program under guest conductor Kyle Knox starts at 7:30 p.m. It features the dramatic Overture to “Die Meistersinger” (The Master Singers) by Richard Wagner (you can hear the Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom); the popular and virtuosic Symphonie Espagnole (Spanish Symphony) by French composer Edouard Lalo, with violin soloist Naha Greenholtz; and the lovely Suite from the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss.
There will be a post-concert reception in the lobby.
Admission is $15; free for students. Tickets are available at the door – student tickets are available at the door only — and at the Willy Street Coop West. The hall is at 740 University Avenue with parking in the nearby Lake Street Ramp. The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and doors to the hall open at 7 p.m.
The Ear asked the co-founders and co-directors of the group – Mindy Taranto and Larry Bevic — why they chose to play in the Hamel Music Center this time. He recieved the following reply:
“We decided to rent the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall (below top, in photo by Bryce Richter for University Communications) in the Hamel Music Center (below bottom) for several reasons.
“This is our 10th anniversary season and we wanted to give our musicians a really special experience. Many of us are curious about the new hall and are really excited to be playing there.
“Also, Kyle Knox (below) – a UW-Madison graduate and the music director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras — is a phenomenal conductor and this program is exceptionally difficult and beautiful.
“It is an honor to get to perform at the UW-Madison with Kyle conducting such a beautiful program. He has brought this orchestra along so far, and for that we are incredibly grateful. He is a brilliant musician and our work with him has improved the orchestra so remarkably over the eight years he has been regularly working with us.
“We also thought that so many of our patrons enjoy our concerts when violinist Naha Greenholtz (below, in a photo by Chris Hynes) – the concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — is our soloist, and with the MSO connection, holding the concert at Hamel will hopefully boost attendance at the concert.
Naha sounds amazing and if you could see how much our musicians enjoy her annual appearance with MCO, you’d know why we want to play with her every year.
“As we conclude the first half of our 10th season, we are grateful to the musicians in MCO and to the community that supports us.
“We are probably one of the few organizations on the Madison arts scene that puts literally every dollar into music. As the two co-founders, we run the organization on a volunteer basis and we don’t spend any money on advertising.
“All of our resources go to hiring astonishing local musicians, renting performance space, and buying music to provide meaningful musical experiences for our musicians and our patrons.”
For information about how to join the orchestra, how to support it and what its remaining concerts are this season, go online to: http://middletoncommunityorchestra.org or call 608-212-8690.
Tags: #AmateurMusicians, #ArtsPatron, #BachCantata, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOratorio, #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoxOffice, #ChristianChurch, #ChristmasOratorio, #CommunitySupport, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DerRosenkavalier, #DieMeistersinger, #EdouardLalo, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Frenchcomposer, #HamelMusicCenter, #HolidayMusic, #HomeWebsite, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JustBach, #KyleKnox, #KyleT.Strauss, #LakeStreet, #LarryBevic, #LutherMemorialChurch, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MiddletonHighSchool, #MiddletonPerformingArtsCenter, #MindyTaranto, #MusicDirector, #NahaGreenholtz, #PerformanceSpace, #PopularMusic, #RichardStrauss, #RichardWagner, #SymphonieEspagnole, #TheEar, #TheMagnificat, #TicketSale, #UniversityAvenue, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinConcerto, #WillyStreetCoopWest, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouTubevideo, acclaimed, Advent, advertising, amateur, anniversary, annual, Arts, attendance, Baroque music, beautiful, blog, boost, box office, brilliant, buy, Cantata, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christmas, Christmas Oratorio, church, Classical music, classicalmusic, co-director, co-founder, community, composer, Concert, concertmaster, concerto, conclude, conductor, critically acclaimed, curious, daving, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, difficult, door, doors, dramatic, Edouard Lalo, ensemble, excited, experience, Facebook, forward, France, free, French, graduate, grateful, group, guest soloist, hall, Hamel Music Center, hiring, Holiday, holiday music, home website, improve, information, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Johann Sebastian Bach, join, Joy, Just Bach, Kyle Knox, Lake Street, Lalo, Larry Bevic, like, link, lobby, local, Luther Memorial Church, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Magnificat, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, meaningful, Middleton Community Orchestra, Middleton High School, Middleton Performing Arts Center, Mindy Taranto, money, Music, Music director, Musician, Naha Greenholtz, online, opera, oratorio, Orchestra, organization, Overture, parking, patron, performance space, performers, play, playing, popular, post, posting, reason, reception, remarkable, Rent, reply, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, sale, save, scene, Season, semester, share, special, spend, Strauss, Suite, support, Symphonie Espagnole, tag, The Ear, ticket, ticket sale, United States, University Avenhue, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, venue, Violin, violinist, virtuosic, virtuoso, volunteer, Wagner, Website, Willy Street Coop West, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, work, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra is offering an unlimited, season-starting single ticket sale with 20 percent off, through this Saturday
8 Comments
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
For the first time ever, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) is offering a sale on tickets to the first three concerts this season.
You will get 20 percent off if you buy tickets through the Overture Center box office in person, by phone (608 258-4141) or online at https://www.overture.org/events
The discount code to say or use is FIRST3SYMPHONY.
Be forewarned: You will NOT find the ticket sale on the MSO website.
There is no limit of how many tickets you can buy, says MSO marketing director Peter Rodgers who also said the traditional holiday ticket sale, with two-tiered discount pricing, will take place as usual from Dec. 16 through Dec. 31.
The season-starting sale runs through this coming Saturday, Aug. 31. You can get discounted single tickets to the concerts on Sept. 27-29, Oct. 18-20 and Nov. 8-10 with performances on Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $19-$95, up about 2 percent from last year to keep up with inflation, Rodgers added.
Why isn’t the sale on the MSO website?
“We did it digitally and in a printed brochure that we mailed out just to try and reach out to either season subscribers or people who have already bought single tickets before and have already been to the symphony,” says Rodgers. “We just wanted to give some people a little nudge. But anyone can take advantage of the sale.”
Rodgers also said that the inaugural sale is not being held because ticket sales are slow. “Ticket sales for this season are competitive with last season’s,” he said, adding that some buyers might use the sale to get tickets as birthday gifts or for other special occasions.
Although there is no limit to the number of single tickets an individual can buy, Rodgers said that once you get to 10, you are better off going with the usual 25 percent off group rate.
MSO music director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) will conduct all performances of the first three concerts.
The September concerts open the season with MSO organ soloist Greg Zelek (below) and features the Overture to the opera “Tannhauser” by Richard Wagner; the “Toccata Festiva” by Samuel Barber; the tone poem “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy; and the Symphony No. 7 by Antonin Dvorak.
The October concerts feature guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine. The all-Russian and all-20th century program includes the Violin Concerto by Aram Khachaturian; the Symphony No. 9 by Dmitri Shostakovich; and the Suite from “Lieutenant Kije,” for trumpet and orchestra, by Sergei Prokofiev.
The November concerts feature guest pianist Joyce Yang. The program is the Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann; the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev; and “Newly Drawn Sky” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy Award-winning contemporary American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, who teaches at the Yale University School of Music. (You can hear “Newly Drawn Sky” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more details about the three opening concerts and the entire 2019-20 season, including complete programs, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/concerts-events/2019-2020-symphony-season-concerts/
Tags: #AaronJayKernis, #AmericanComposer, #AntoninDvorak, #AramKhachaturian, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoxOffice, #BrandenburgConcerto, #ChoralMusic, #ClarinetMusic, #ClaudeDebussy, #ContemporaryComposer, #DigitalMedia, #DmitriShostakovich, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GrammyAward, #GregZelek, #GuestArtist, #JohnDeMain, #JoyceYang, #LivingComposer, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MusicDirector, #Musicfaculty, #NewlyDrawnSky", #NewMusic, #OperaOverture, #OrganMusic, #OvertureCenter, #PianoConcerto, #PreludetotheAfternoonofaFaun, #PulitzerPrize, #RachelBartonPine, #RichardWagner, #RobertSchumann, #RussianComposer, #SamuelBarber, #SchoolofMusic, #SeasonBrochure, #SergeiProkofiev, #Sovietcomposer, #TicketSale, #TonePoem, #TrumpetMusic, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinVirtuoso, #YaleSchoolofMusic, #YaleUniversity, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, 20th-century classical music, Aaron Jay Kernis, advantage, afternoon, American, Antonín Dvořák, anyone, Aram Khachaturian, Arts, audience, Barber, birthday, blog, box office, brochure, buy, choral music, clarinet, Claude Debussy, code, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, contemporary music, Debussy, digital, digital media, discount, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dvorak, Facebook, faculty, faun, forward, gift, Grammy Award, Greg Zelek, group, guest artist, Holiday, inaugural, inflation, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Joyce Yang, Khachaturian, Kije, last year, lieutenant, like, link, Living composer, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mail, market, marketing, marketing director, MSO, Music, Music director, music faculty, New Music, Newly Drawn Sky, online, opera, opera overture, Orchestra, organ, organist, Overture, Overture Center, People, percent, performer, phone, photo, photograph, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, poem, post, posting, Prelude, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, price, pricing, print, professor, program, Pulitzer Prize, Rachel Barton Pine, range, rate, reader, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann, Russia, Russian, sale, Samuel Barber, Saturday, School of Music, Schumann, Season, Sergei Prokofiev, share, single, soloist, subscription, Suite, symphony, tag, Tannhauser, teach, ticket, ticket sale, tier, toccata, tone, tone poem, Trumpet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USSR, Viola, Violin, Violin concerto, violinist, Wagner, Website, Yale, Yale School of Music, Yale University, year, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Ronnie on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Polly Kuelbs on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
| welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Ann Boyer on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 