The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Festival Choir of Madison will perform Slavic music – including several U.S. and world premieres — under a guest Spanish conductor this Saturday night
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Festival Choir of Madison (below) will perform the program “The Slavic Soul” this coming Saturday night, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive.
The Festival Choir will have guest conductor Nikoleta Popova for the event, who is coming from Spain to conduct a program comprised of songs either by Slavic composers or inspired by Slavic music. More about the conductor is below.
Several U.S. premieres are marked with an asterisk and there is one world premiere.
Tickets are $20, $15 for seniors 65 and over; and $10 for students. For information and tickets, go to: https://festivalchoirmadison.squarespace.com/concerts/2018/5/theslavicsoul
Here is the complete program:
THE SLAVIC SOUL
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) – Four Slovak Folk Songs (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1908-1975) – Two Russian Folk Songs. With Anya Gubenkova, alto
Alexander Davidenko (1899–1934) – “At Ten Versts From the Capital”* with Ted Reinke, piano, and Dan Broner, organ
Vera Nasha (Our Faith)* Serbian Folk Song, arr. Yónatan Sánchez Santianes with James McKenzie, percussion
Szymon Godziemba-Trytek (1988) Agnus Dei (World Premiere) with Ted Reinke, organ
Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998) – “A Wondrous Birth”; “Balalaika”; and “Reveille.” With Anya Gubenkova, alto
Dobri Hristov (1875–1941) – “Rachenitsa”
Todor Popov (1921–2000) – “Stara Sa Maika” (The Old Mother)*
“Kalinka,” a Russian Folk Song arranged by Vadim Prokhorov
The guest conductor is Nikoleta Popova (below) of Bulgaria and Spain. She is a renowned specialist in Eastern European and Bulgarian music and has offered seminars and master classes all over the world.
Currently, Popova is Professor in Conducting at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias in Las Palmas, Spain, where she is also music director of the conservatory orchestra and choirs. She has appeared as guest conductor in Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the U.S., as well as her native Bulgaria.
Born in Dobrich, Bulgaria, Nikoleta Popova received her education as a conductor from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, and from Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz. Among her teachers are Eric Whitacre, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Alex Schillings, Klaas Stok, Marco Antonio Da Silva Ramos, and others.
In 2011 Nikoleta Popova received her Ph.D. from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with a dissertation on the performance of the black spiritual. Since 2012, she has published three books in Spanish with in-depth analysis of the problems that singers and conductors face in the interpretation of African-American spirituals.
Tags: #AgnusDei, #AlexanderDavidenko, #AmericanPremiere, #BelaBartok, #Bulgarianmusic, #DmitriShostakovich, #DobriHristov, #EasternEuropean, #EricWhitacre, #FestivalChoir, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FolkMusic, #GeorgySviridov, #NikoletaPopova, #PercussionMusic, #RussianMusic, #SaturdayNight, #SerbianMusic, #SlavicCulture, #SofiaBulgaria, #SpanishLanguage, #TodorPopov, #UnitedStates, #VeraNasha, #WorldPremiere, African American, African-American music, Agnus Dei, Alexander Davidenko, alto, analysis, Arts, Austria, balalaika, Bartok, birth, Bulgarian, choral music, Classical music, composer, conductor, conservatory, Dmitri Shostakovich, doctorate, Eastern European, Eastern European music, Eric Whitacre, Festival Choir, Festival Choir of Madison, folksong, interpretation, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mother, Music, Nikoleta Popova, Orchestra, organ, percussion, PhD, Piano, Poland, premiere, professor, Saturday, Seminar, singer, Singing, Slavic, Slovak, Sofia, song, soul, Spain, Spanish, spiritual, U.S., Vera Nasha, wondrous
Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Choir performs a varied holiday concert of all-classical music this Saturday night
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following notice to post:
The Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) will perform “O Wondrous Mystery” this coming Saturday night, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin Ave., in Madison.
Tickets are $15 (for students, $10) in advance; $20 ($12) at the door. Advance tickets are available from www.wisconsinchamberchoir.org, via Brown Paper Tickets, or at Orange Tree Imports and Willy Street Coop (East, West and North locations).
Explore the magic and mystery of the holiday season with the Wisconsin Chamber Choir, whose program highlights the beloved Latin chant ”O magnum mysterium” in musical settings by Tomas Luís de Victoria and Francis Poulenc. (You can hear Poulenc’s setting, conducted by the legendary Robert Shaw, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Rounding out the performance are the remainder of Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets along with seasonal works spanning five centuries by William Byrd, Heinrich Schütz, Johannes Brahms, Herbert Howells and Bob Chilcott, plus the world premiere of “Methinks I See a Heavenly Host” by Peter Bloesch (below).
The 50-voice choir will be joined by organist Mark Brampton Smith (below top) of Grace Episcopal Church, and Madison Symphony Orchestra trombonist and program annotator J. Michael Allsen (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), who will accompany the Schütz selections on the sackbut, the Renaissance ancestor of the trombone.
Founded in 1998, the Madison-based Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Bach, Mozart, and Brahms; a cappella masterworks from six centuries; and world premieres.
Robert Gehrenbeck (below), who heads the choral program at the UW-Whitewater, is the Wisconsin Chamber Choir’s artistic director.
Tags: a cappella, ancestor, Artistic director, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Bethel Lutheran Church, Bob Chilcott, Brahms, Byrd, chant, Choir, choral music, chorus, Christmas, church, Classical music, composer, Early music, Grace Episcopal Church, Heinrich Schütz, Herbert Howells, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Latin, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, motet, Mozart, Music, mystery, O magnum mysterium, oratorio, Orchestra, organ, Peter Bloesch, Poulenc, program notes, Renaissance, Robert Gehrenbeck, Robert Shaw, sackbut, Schütz, Singing, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Trombone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Whitewater, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Choir, wondrous, world premiere, 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 