The Well-Tempered Ear

The UW-Madison’s Wingra Wind Quintet performs a FREE online virtual concert this Wednesday night. Plus, local music critic Greg Hettmansberger has died

December 8, 2020
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NEWS ALERT: Local music critic and blogger Greg Hettmansberger (below) was killed in a car accident on Dec. 2, near Wichita, Kansas. Hettmansberger, 65, was driving when he hit a deer and then another car hit him. His wife survived but remains hospitalized in Wichita in critical condition. Here is a link to a news account:  https://www.kake.com/story/42993718/man-dies-in-crash-caused-by-deer-in-pratt-county

By Jacob Stockinger

This Wednesday night, Dec. 9, the UW-Madison’s Wingra Wind Quintet (below, in 2017) will perform a FREE virtual online concert from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Here is a direct link to the pre-recorded video premiere on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/e1NhVZJW2cA

Due to the pandemic, the Wingra Wind Quintet has been unable to perform chamber music in a traditional way since March 2020. (You can hear the quintet play “On, Wisconsin” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

In response, the quintet put together a program that allowed each member to record parts separately and have those parts edited together.

Current faculty members (below) are: Conor Nelson, flute; Lindsay Flowers, oboe; Alicia Lee, clarinet; Marc Vallon, bassoon; and Devin Cobleigh-Morrison, horn

The engineer/producer is Kris Saebo.

The program is: 

The first piece “Allegro scherzando” from Three Pieces by Walter Piston (below, 1894-1976)

The Chaconne from the First Suite in E-flat for Military Band by Gustav Holst (below, 1874-1934)

“Retracing” by Elliott Carter (below, 1908-2012)

Selections from “Mikrokosmos” by Bela Bartok (below, 1881-1945)

“A 6 letter letter” by Elliott Carter

Intermezzo from the First Suite in E-flat for Military Band by Gustav Holst

“Esprit rude/esprit doux” by Elliott Carter

Since its formation in 1965, the Wingra Wind Quintet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music has established a tradition of artistic and teaching excellence.

The ensemble has been featured in performance at national conferences such as MENC (Miami), MTNA (Kansas City), and the International Double Reed Society (Minneapolis). 

The quintet also presented an invitational concert on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess series at the Chicago Public Library, broadcast live on radio station WFMT.

In addition to its extensive home state touring, the quintet has been invited to perform at numerous college campuses, including the universities of Alaska-Fairbanks, Northwestern, Chicago, Nebraska, Western Michigan, Florida State, Cornell, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Paris Conservatoire, where quintet members offered master classes.

The Wingra Wind Quintet has recorded for Golden Crest, Spectrum, and the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music recording series and is featured on an educational video entitled Developing Woodwind Ensembles.

Always on the lookout for new music of merit, the Wingra has premiered new works of Hilmar Luckhardt, Vern Reynolds, Alec Wilder, Edith Boroff, James Christensen and David Ott. The group recently gave the Midwest regional premiere of William Bolcom’s “Five Fold Five,” a sextet for woodwind quintet and piano, with UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (below).

New York Times critic Peter Davis, in reviewing the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall appearance, stated “The performances were consistently sophisticated, sensitive and thoroughly vital.”

The Wingra Wind Quintet is one of three faculty chamber ensembles in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music. 

Deeply committed to the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, the group travels widely to offer its concerts and educational services to students and the public in all corners of the state. (Editor’s note: For more about the Wisconsin Idea, which seems more relevant today than ever, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Idea.)

Portions of this recording were made at the Hamel Music Center, a venue of the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 


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Classical music: Guitar, woodwind and trombone music is featured at the UW-Madison this week, while cello and piano music will be performed at the Unitarian Society’s Friday Noon Musicale.

November 20, 2013
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By Jacob Stockinger

There are some big events this week, including two performances by the UW Choral Union and UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. That event will be featured tomorrow.

But other music on a smaller scale is also available for FREE in the next several days.

WEDNESDAY

The FREE Guitar Departmental Recital by Student Ensembles at the UW-Madison School of Music will take place tonight at 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall under faculty director and guitar department head Javier Calderon (below).

Sorry, no word yet on the program.

Javier Calderon color

THURSDAY

Then on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the Wingra Woodwind Quintet (below, in a photo by Michael Anderson) will perform a FREE concert on the UW Faculty Concert Series.

Wingra Woodwind Quintet 2013 Michael Anderson

The program includes 
the Quintet in C by
 Claude Arrieu (Louise-Marie Simon, 1903-1990, below top)
 — heard in a YouTube video at the bottom — and the Wind Quintet by György Orban (below bottom, born 1947).

Claude Arrieu

Gyorgy Orban

After intermission will be the “Little Musical Offering” by Nino Rota (below top, 1911-1979), famous for his soundtracks to films by Federico Fellini; and the String Quartet Op. 12, No. 1 , by Felix Mendelssohn (below bottom, 1809-1847) in a transcription by David Walter.

nino rota at piano

Mendelssohn

Founded in 1965, the Wingra Woodwind Quintet is ensemble-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Since its formation, the quintet has established a tradition of artistic and teaching excellence. The ensemble has been featured in performance at national conferences of MENC (Miami), MTNA (Kansas City) and the International Double Reed Society (Minneapolis).

In addition to its regular statewide touring, the quintet has been invited to perform at such college campuses as the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Cornell University, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Nebraska, Western Michigan University and Florida State University.

New York Times critic Peter Davis, in reviewing the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall concert, wrote: “The performances were consistently sophisticated, sensitive, and thoroughly vital.” The Wingra Woodwind Quintet has recorded for Golden Crest, Spectrum, and the School of Music recording series, and has released an educational video entitled “Developing Woodwind Ensembles.”

Currents members of the Wingra Woodwind Quintet
 are: Linda Kimball, horn; 
Stephanie Jutt, flute; 
Marc Vallon, bassoon; 
and Linda Bartley, clarinet. Replacing the retired oboist Marc Fink is oboist Kostas Tiliakos (below, in a photo by Kathy Esposito).

kostas tiliakos 2013

FRIDAY

The FREE Friday Noon Musicale from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature cellist Ben Solomonow – seen below performing on the NPR show about young talent “From the Too” — and pianist Claire Mallory in the music of J.S. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Benjamin Solomonow playing cello on NPR's %22From the Top%22

SUNDAY

The Trombone Choir will perform on Sunday afternoon at at 5 p.m. in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Ave. (A photo of the church’s interior is below.)

luther memorial church madison

Members of the Trombone Choir are Alan Carr, Michael Donatello, Joseph Greer, Dan Joosten, Tom Kelly, Ty Peterson, Toby Shucha, Brittany Sperberg and Holly Wilinski.

The group will perform under director and UW trombonist Mark Hetzler (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot).

The program includes: “O Mille Volte” by Luca Marenzio (1553-1599) as arranged by Jay Lichtmann; “Beati Estis” by Peter Philips (1560-1633) as arranged by Jay Lichtman; “Sweet Suffolk Owl” by Thomas Vautor (1579-1620) arranged by Jay Lichtmann; Two Movements (”Kyrie” and “Agnus Dei”) from the Mass in G minor by Ralph Vaughn-Williams (1872-1958) as arranged by Mark Hetzler; Fantasia in C Major by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); “Elegy for a Lion” by David P. Jones (b. 1958); and Concerto for 4 by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) as arranged by Alan Lumsden

Mark Hetzler 2011 BIG COLOR Katrin Talbot


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