The Well-Tempered Ear
Edgewood College will live-stream its FREE Spring Celebration concert this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
At 8 p.m. CDT this Friday night, April 30, the music department at Edgewood College will live-stream its FREE online Spring Celebration concert.
Here is the link: music.edgewood.edu
Here is the program:
The Edgewood Chamber Orchestra (below) will perform music by the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who studied with Mozart and knew Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert (see the Wikipedia bio at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nepomuk_Hummel; Krzysztof Penderecki, a Polish composer who died a year ago March; and the Argentinean “new tango” composer Astor Piazzolla, whose birth centennial was last month. Soloists include Gwyneth Ferguson on trumpet, and Malia Huntsman on oboe.
The Chamber Singers (below) will offer selections from Broadway musicals and contemporary choral arrangements, including Lord of the Rings by Enya, works from Josh Groban, and the Polish composer Henrik Gorecki.
The Guitar Ensemble will perform Haru no Umi (The Sea in Spring) by the Japanese composer Michio Miyagi (below), and a medley from the 1970s rock group Chicago: 25 or 6 to 4/Saturday in the Park, by Mark Lamm.
The Chamber Winds will perform selections from Crooner’s Serenade; Josef Rheinberger’s Evening Song (Abendlied, in the YouTube video at the bottom); and an arrangement of John Williams’ movie score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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As the semester ends, virtual concerts allow UW students to reach many more family members, friends and listeners. Here is how the public can connect to them
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By Jacob Stockinger
Starting tonight and over the next two weeks, as the spring semester at the UW-Madison comes to a close, there will be more than two dozen student recitals to listen to. (Below is the YouTube video for the concert this Thursday night, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. of the Marvin Rabin String Quartet that is comprised of graduate students.)
Often two or more concerts a day are scheduled, often at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
That much is typical.
What is not typical during the pandemic is that technology will allow the recitals to be presented live-streamed and virtual.
The downside is that the students will not experience performing before a live audience.
But there is an upside.
Going virtual also means that the recitals will be available longer to family, friends and interested listeners here as well as around the country and — especially for international students — the world. (Below, in a photo by Bryce Richter for the UW-Madison, is the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the Hamel Music Center.)
It also means you can hear them when it is convenient for you and not at the actual scheduled times.
The Ear has heard his share of student recitals and often finds them to be exceptional events.
If you go to the Mead Witter School of Music’s website, you can see the concerts and the lineups.
You will see that there will be student recitals of vocal music, brass music, wind music, string music and piano music. There are solo recitals, chamber music and even a symphony orchestra concert. (Below, in a photo by Bryce Richter for the UW-Madison, is the Collins Recital Hall in the Hamel Music Center.)
There are too many details for each concert to list them all here individually.
But if you go to the Concerts and Events page on the music school’s outstanding website, you can hover the cursor over the event and then click on the event and get everything from the performers and programs to program notes, a performer biography and a photo with a link to the YouTube performance.
On the YouTube site, if you click on “See More” you will see more details and can even set up an alarm for when the concert starts.
Here is a link: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/
Try it and see for yourself. Below is the YouTube link for pianist Mengwen Zhu, who performs his recital this Saturday, April 17, at 6 p.m.)
Happy listening!
Let us know what you think, especially if it is encouraging for the students.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BaroqueMusic, #BenjaminBritten, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #CarolineShaw, #CecileChaminade, #CelloMusic, #ChamberMusic, #Chinesecomposer, #ClarinetMusic, #ClassicalGuitar, #ClaudeDebussy, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DmitriShostakovich, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FluteMusic, #ForeignStudent, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GabrielFaure, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GraduateStudent, #GuitarMusic, #HamelMusicCenter, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #KatoPerlman, #LeosJanacek, #LiveAudience, #LiveMusic, #LiveStreaming, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MarvinRabin, #MarvinRabinStringQuartet, #MauriceRavel, #MengwenZhu, #OboeMusic, #OnlineConcert, #PercussionMusic, #PerlmanQuartet, #PianoMusic, #ProgramNotes, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #StringMusic, #StringQuartet, #SymphonyOrchestra, #TheEar, #TheUW, #TromboneMusic, #TrumpetMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UW-MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WindMusic, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, alarm, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, available, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, biography, blog, Brahms, brass music, Britten, Caroline Shaw, Cecile Chaminade, cellist, Cello, cello music, Chamber music, Chaminade, China, Chinese, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, Claude Debussy, click, close, composer, comprise, computer, Concert, convenient, coronavirus, country, cursor, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, downside, dozen, Early music, encourage, encouragement, end, event, experience, Facebook, Family, Faure, flute, flute music, flutist, foreign, foreign student, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, friends, Gabriel Fauré, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, graduate student, guitar, Hamel Music Center, Handel, Haydn, hear, information, international, Jacob Stockinger, Janacek, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Leos Janacek, like, link, live, live audience, live music, livestream, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Marvin Rabin, Marvin Rabin String Quartet, Maurice Ravel, member, Mengwen Zhu, Mozart, Music, music student, Oboe, oboe music, oboist, online, Orchestra, pandemic, percussion, Percussion music, percussionist, performance, performer, Perlman, Perlman Quartet, photo, Pianist, Piano, piano music, post, posting, program, program notes, public, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Ravel, recital, schedule, see, semester, Sergei Rachmaninoff, set, share, Shaw, Shostakovich, solo, Sonata, Spring, start, string music, String quartet, Student, symphony, symphony orchestra, tag, technology, Telemann, The Ear, time, tonight, Trombone, trombone music, Trumpet, trumpeter, try, typical, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, upside, UW, UW Symphony Orchestra, UW-Madison, Viola, viola music, Violin, violin music, violinist, violist, virtual, vocal music, week, wind music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world, WYSO, YouTube, Zhu
Starting TODAY, the First Unitarian Society of Madison offers three free, online mini-concerts at noon on Fridays to celebrate Women’s History Month
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post about three free, online mini-concerts to celebrate Women’s History Month through the Friday Noon Musicales at the First Unitarian Society of Madison.
The concerts start today:
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
• To celebrate Women’s History Month, the First Unitarian Society of Madison will present three Friday Noon Musicales during March.
• All three will be guest produced by Iva Ugrcic.
• Iva Ugrcic (below) is Founding Artistic Director of the Madison-based LunART Festival, which supports, inspires, promotes and celebrates women in the arts.
• Each program will feature highlights from past LunART Festival performances.
• Each program will be approximately 45 minutes long.
DATES AND PROGRAMS
Each video will become available at noon on the indicated date, and will remain available for viewing in perpetuity.
This Friday, March 12 — Works by living composers Jocelyn Hagen, Salina Fisher and Missy Mazzoli (below top), as well as Romantic-era composer Clara Schumann (below bottom, Getty Images). Specific titles are not named.
Performers include: Iva Ugrcic, flute; Matthew Onstad, trumpet; Tom Macaluso, trombone; Elena Ross and Todd Hammes, percussion; Kyle Johnson, Jason Kutz, Satoko Hayami and Yana Avedyan, piano; Beth Larson and Isabella Lippi, violin; Karl Lavine, cello (below); ARTemis Ensemble.
Friday, March 19 — Works by living composers Linda Kachelmeier, Elsa M’bala, Doina Rotaru (below top) and Eunike Tanzil, as well as Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen (below bottom) and Romantic-era Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Specific works are not named. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear flutist Iva Ugrcic play Doina Rotaru’s haunting “Japanese Garden.”)
Performers include: Iva Ugrcic, flute; Jose Ignacio Santos Aquino, clarinet; Midori Samson, bassoon; Breta Saganski and Dave Alcorn, percussion; Satoko Hayami (below), Jason Kutz and Eunike Tanzil, piano; ARTemis Ensemble
Friday, March 26 — Alexandra Olsavsky, Edna Alejandra Longoria, Kate Soper and Jenni Brandon as well as post-Romantic era American composer Amy Beach (below bottom). Specific pieces are not named.
Performers include: ARTemis Ensemble; a string quartet with violinists Isabella Lippi and Laura Burns, violist Fabio Saggin, and cellist Mark Bridges (below); Jeff Takaki, bass; Vincent Fuh and Kyle Johnson, piano; Jennifer Lien, soprano; Iva Ugrcic, flute.
THREE OPTIONS FOR ATTENDING
• Website — https://www.fusmadison.org/musicales
• Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/fusmadison
• YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/fusmadison > “Playlists” > “Music at FUS”
ABOUT THE “FRIDAY NOON MUSICALES” RECITAL SERIES
• The Friday Noon Musicales at First Unitarian Society is a free noon-hour recital series offered as a gift to the community.
• Founded in 1971, 2020-2021 is the series’ 50th season.
• The series has featured some of the finest musicians in the Midwest, who flock to perform in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Landmark Auditorium.
• The music performed is mostly classical, but folk, jazz and musical theater styles are presented on occasion.
• During the pandemic, the Musicales have largely been on hiatus.
JUSTICE AND MUSIC INITIATIVE (JAM)
• The Justice And Music Initiative (JAM) at the First Unitarian Society of Madison represents a commitment to more socially equitable and earth-friendly music practices.
• This commitment includes music performed on our campus, both for worship and non-worship events.
• To help achieve our goal, we recognize and celebrate recognition days and months with our musical selections, such as Hispanic Heritage Month (9/15–10/15), LGBT History Month (October); Native American Indian Heritage Month (November), Black History Month (February), Women’s History Month (March), and African-American Music Appreciation Month (prev. Black Music Month; June).
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Classical music: The adventurous Oakwood Chamber Players open their new ”Panorama” season of unusual repertoire this coming Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
How many of the composers’ names below do you recognize?
Probably very few, if you are like The Ear.
But here is your chance to explore new musical territory.
Over many years, the adventurous Oakwood Chamber Players (OCP) have built a reputation for first-rate performances of rarely heard repertoire, both old and new.
This year is no different.
The group will begin its new season — entitled Panorama— with performances on this coming Saturday night, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Sept. 15, at 2 p.m.
Both concerts will be held at the Oakwood Village Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks — no credit cards — at the door: $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors and $5 for students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
Members of the Oakwood Chamber Players (below) are: flutist Marilyn Chohaney; clarinetist Nancy Mackenzie; bassoonist Amanda Szczys; hornist Anne Aley; violinist Elspeth Stalter-Clouse; and cellist Maggie Darby Townsend.
Guest artists are: pianist Eric Tran; flutist Dawn Lawler; oboist Valree Casey; bassoonist Midori Samson; and trumpeter John Aley.
The ensemble is pleased to feature a new member at its opening concert. Violinist Elspeth Stalter-Clouse’s talents will be heard in two works: a fiery piano trio by Spanish composer Gaspar Cassado (below top); and as a soloist on the sweetly expressive Canzonetta for violin and piano by Italian-American composer Rosa Alba Vietor (below bottom). You can hear the Recitative movement, which takes about 10 seconds to start, from the Piano Trio by Gaspar Casado in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The program will include two larger wind works by French composers: Pastoral Variations in the Old Style by Gabriel Pierne (below top); and Octet for Winds by Claude Pascal (below bottom).
The ensemble will round out the program with two short contrasting works for winds and piano: the flute trio La Bergere des Brise de Vallee (The Shepherdess of the Valley Breezes) by American composer Margaret Griebling-Haigh (b. 1960, below top); and Suite for flute, oboe, clarinet and piano by Danish composer Johan Amberg (below bottom).
The Oakwood Chamber Players is a group of Madison-area professional musicians who rehearse and perform at Oakwood Village University Woods. Members also play in other area ensembles, including the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and have ties to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation.
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Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra and solo trumpeter Jessica Jensen score big with an unusual program
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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 hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The concert by the largely amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by Margaret Barker) on Wednesday night presented a novel program at the Middleton Performing Arts Center.
In the relatively brief first part, it presented two unusual items.
The first was by Nebojsa “Neb” Macura (b. 1982, below right with conductor Steve Kurr), a local musician of Serbian background, who has been particularly identified with Russian folk music and ensembles. But he also plays viola in the MCO, which gave him this opportunity in the spotlight.
His piece, Polar Night, is quite brief, but in this version for full orchestra (with piano), it is grounded with secure melodic flow, and it unfolds into a tonal picture full of beautiful colors. My only reservation was that I wanted more of it — either more music in this piece or other sections around it.
Macura is obviously talented, and he has a confident sense of orchestral writing. I really look forward to hearing more of him. Indeed, the MCO might well serve as exactly the laboratory in which he can develop new creations.
The second item was only a bit longer, a Trumpet Concerto by Russian composer Aleksandra Pakhmutova (b. 1929, below). Her long career has involved her in jazz, and also in extensive scoring for films. But she has a feeling for Russian traditional song, and that could be heard in this concerto.
It is cast in only a single movement, but it proceeds episodically. There is certainly much flashy writing for the solo instrument, and local trumpeter Jessica Jensen (below) brought off her role dashingly.
The longer second part of the concert was devoted to the Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” by Robert Schumann. This splendid work was inspired by observation of life along the Rhine River.
It is unusual in being written in five movements, not the conventional four. (Oddly, their individual markings were not printed in the program, but conductor Steve Kurr (below) gave a clever spoken introduction that outlined the score for the audience.)
This is a very extroverted work, calling for a lot of orchestral sonority. I suspect that a little more rehearsal time would have helped the avoidance of some blemishes: rapid passages, especially in the first movement, were roughly articulated, and there were some tiny gaffes all along.
But the players were devoted in responding to maestro Kurr’s rather propulsive tempos. This score gives a lot to do particularly to the horn section, which played with ardent splendor.
As always, then, the MCO earned further laurels for presenting this very adventurous program.
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Classical music: This Wednesday night, the Middleton Community Orchestra will perform a Russian trumpet concert and a new work by an orchestra member along with a famous Schumann symphony
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by Brian Ruppert) to post:
“For our winter concert, we are excited to welcome trumpeter Jessica Jensen back to the stage on this Wednesday night, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. to perform the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by Aleksandra Pakhmutova with the musicians of the Middleton Community Orchestra led by conductor Steve Kurr (below).
“I am beyond thrilled to be playing Aleksandra Pakhmutova’s Trumpet Concerto with the Middleton Community Orchestra,” says Jensen (below).
“After completing her concerto in 1955, Pakhmutova (below) — who is still actively composing and performing today at the age of 89 — cultivated a legendary career as one of Russia’s top film and popular music composers.
“Her future cinematic success was foreshadowed in her trumpet concerto as parts of it sound as though they could have been taken directly out of the score to a 1950s film. Week after week the MCO adds a new electricity to the work. I cannot wait to share this rarely performed fiery, dramatic piece with everyone.”
The program will open with “Polar Nights,” a piece composed by MCO violist Nebojsa Macura (below), who says: “‘Polar Nights’ uses a variety of instrumental colors to conjure up images of winter above the Arctic Circle. I’m tremendously honored to perform my own piece as a member of such a dedicated orchestra.”
The program will conclude with the famous Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish” by Robert Schumann. (You can hear the lyrical second movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert is at the Middleton Performing Arts Center, which is attached to Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol Street.
General admission is $15. All students are admitted free of charge. Tickets are available at the door and at Willy St. Coop West.
The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and the concert hall doors open at 7 p.m.
A meet-and-greet reception (below) follows the concert.
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Classical music: Four UW concerto competition winners and the student composer winner are featured in the annual Symphony Showcase concert this Sunday night. Plus, the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s “Final Forte” high school concerto competition airs tonight at 7 on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television
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REMINDER: The final round of the Madison Symphony Orchestra‘s teenage concerto competition, “The Final Forte,” will be broadcast live TONIGHT at 7 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television.
ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Ave., features a “Triple Play” of trumpeter David Miller, cellist Amy Harr and pianist Jane Peckham in music by Pärt, Piazzolla, Scarlatti, Levy and Verdi. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
This sure is the week for concerto competitions.
The Big Event this week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the annual Symphony Showcase concert devoted to student performances of concertos and the world premiere of new music by a student composer.
The concert takes place on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall.
Tickets are $10, free to students and children.
The concert features the UW Symphony Orchestra (below top) under the baton of its new conductor, Chad Hutchinson (below bottom).
The four winners of the concerto competition will perform and the work by the UW composition winner will receive its first public performance.
There will be reception in the lobby following the concert.
The four concerto winners, who study at the UW’s Mead Witter School of Music, are:
Violinist Kaleigh Acord (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson), who will perform the first movement from the Violin Concerto in D Major by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Percussionist Aaron Gochberg (below), who will perform the “Prism Rhapsody” by Japanese composer Keiko Abe.
Bassoonist Eleni Katz (below), who will perform the Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major, K. 191, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Pianist Eric Tran (below), who will play the Keyboard Concerto No. 4 in A Major, BWV 1055, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Blooming” is by UW composition student Mengmeng Wang (below), who is from China.
The concert will open with the Overture to “Candide” by Leonard Bernstein. This year is the centennial of Bernstein’s birth.
For more information about the contestants and their photos, as well as how to get tickets, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/symphony-showcase-concerto-winners-solo-recital-reception/
You can also hear interviews with the winners, who discuss the pieces and their teachers, in the terrific YouTube video below:
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Songs by Black composers trace their cultural realities in a free online UW performance TONIGHT of “Verisimilitudes.” Plus, the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition perform Sunday.
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ALERT: This Sunday, April 25, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition at the UW-Madison will perform in a winners’ concert. Included in the program are the popular and dramatic “Appassionata” Sonata, Op. 57, and the famous and innovative last piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op 111. Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMF0Hd1MJwMg. Click on “Show More” and you can see the full programs and biographical profiles of the winners.
By Jacob Stockinger
The concert could hardly be more timely or the subject more relevant.
Think of the events in and near Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.; of the Black Lives Matter movement and social protest; of the political fight for D.C. statehood and voting rights – all provide a perfect context for an impressive student project that will debut online TONIGHT, Saturday, April 24, at 7 p.m.
The one-hour free concert “Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown and Tan” originated at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. It seems an ideal way for listeners to turn to music and art for social and political commentary, and to understand the racial subtexts of art.
Soprano Quanda Dawnyell Johnson (below) created, chose and performs the cycle of songs by Black composers with other Black students at the UW-Madison.
Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/-g5hjeuSumw
Click on “Show More” to see the complete program and more information.
Here is the artist’s statement:
“Within the content of this concert are 17 art songs that depict the reality of the souls of a diasporic people. Most of the lyricists and all of the composers are of African descent. In large part they come from the U.S. but also extend to Great Britain, Guadeloupe by way of France, and Sierra Leone.
“They speak to the veracity of Black life and Black feeling. A diasporic African reality in a Classical mode that challenges while it embraces a Western European vernacular. It is using “culture” as an agent of resistance.
“I refer to verisimilitude in the plural. While syntactically incorrect, as it relates to the multiple veils of reality Black people must negotiate, it is very correct.
“To be packaged in Blackness, or should I say “non-whiteness” is to ever live in a world of spiraling modalities and twirling realities. To paraphrase the great artist, Romare Bearden, in “calling and recalling” — we turn and return, then turn again to find the place that is our self.
“I welcome you to… Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown, and Tan”
Here, by sections, is the complete program and a list of performers:
I. Nascence
Clear Water — Nadine Shanti
A Child’s Grace — Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Night — Florence Price (below)
Big Lady Moon — Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
II. Awareness
Lovely, Dark, and Lonely — Harry T. Burleigh
Grief –William Grant Still (below)
Prayer — Leslie Adams
Interlude, The Creole Love Call — Duke Ellington
III. The Sophomore
Mae’s Rent Party, We Met By Chance –Jeraldine Saunders Herbison
The Barrier — Charles Brown
IV. Maturity
Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man, Dream Variation; I, Too — Margaret Bonds (below)
Dreams — Lawren Brianna Ware
Song Without Words — Charles Brown
Legacy
L’autre jour à l’ombrage (The Other Day in the Shade) — Joseph Boulogne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges, below)
The Verisimilitudes Team
Quanda Dawnyell Johnson — Soprano and Project Creator
Lawren Brianna Ware – -Pianist and Music Director
Rini Tarafder — Stage Manager
Akiwele Burayidi – Dancer
Jackson Neal – Dancer
Nathaniel Schmidt – Trumpet
Matthew Rodriguez – Clarinet
Craig Peaslee – Guitar
Aden Stier –Bass
Henry Ptacek – Drums
Dave Alcorn — Videographer
Here is a link to the complete program notes with lyrics and composer bios. And a preview audio sample is in the YouTube video at the bottom: https://simplebooklet.com/verisimilitudesprogramnotes#page=1
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