Friday January 30 12:15 pm at the First Unitarian Society 900 University By Drive, Madison
The Noon Musicale presents Peiyi Guan, flute and Zijin Yao, piano.
Music of Schubert, Schumann, Chen Yi and Dutilleux
Friday January 30 8 pm at Mills Hall, 455 North Park Street, Madison
Showcase Concert: A Schubertiade: Celebrating the Music of Franz Schubert with Martha Fischer, Bill Lutes and friends.
Cost: $10 (students free)
Call: 608-263-2787
Web: www.music.wisc.edu
Schubertiade: A Celebration of the Music of Franz Schubert: Showcase Series
UW collaborative pianist Martha Fischer and husband-pianist Bill Lutes perform a selection of songs, four-hand works, and chamber music by composer Franz Schubert. In addition to performances by UW faculty and students, this year’s Schubertiade will feature guest cellist Norman Fischer from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
A Schubertiade is an intimate “house concert” featuring the songs (known as “lieder”) and chamber music of Franz Schubert, the prolific Austrian composer who lived only from 1797 to 1828. Schubert is now considered one of the most important composers of the early Classical era and remains extremely popular today.
In the 19th century, Schubertiades became a popular form of informal entertainment among aficionados of his music, frequently with drink and food, and often with Schubert himself at the center. Nowadays, Schubertiades are often much larger multi-day affairs held in swank European locations.
Our first Schubertiade, held in January of 2014 on the Mills Hall stage festooned with chairs, rugs, and lamps, was a hit, receiving a great review by John Barker in the Well-Tempered Ear.
Friday, January 30 at 8PM, we will present our second Schubertiade, organized by UW-Madison professor of collaborative piano Martha Fischer. Performers will include Fischer; her husband, pianist Bill Lutes; her brother, cellist Norman Fischer of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music (who is also the chamber music coach at the Tanglewood Music Festival); singers Jennifer D’Agostino, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, Daniel O’Dea, Joshua Sanders, Michael Roemer and Paul Rowe; and violinist Leslie Shank. Tickets are $10 adults, available through Campus Arts Ticketing and at the door. Free to students.
This year’s program will center around two rather broad periods in Schubert’s creative life. The first half, Early Mastery, features music from 1812-1818, including lieder to poems by three poets who figure most prominently in the Schubert oeuvre: two giants of German literature, Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and Johann Mayrhofer, who became one of the composer’s closest friends. It will include the famous Erlkönig, a setting of a terrifying ballad by Goethe, about a night journey on horseback, with a father trying to comfort and protect his young son from the menacing, seductive attempts by the supernatural Erlking to lure the child into his realm. The song, one of several sent in a packet to the famous poet and returned unopened, was later published as Schubert’s Opus 1.
The second half of the concert will feature music largely taken from the last decade of Schubert’s life, 1818-1827, particularly focusing on the time before and after the year 1823, which marked the onslaught of the illness that would eventually take his life in 1828.
The concert will also feature a beloved sonata, the Arpeggione, played by cellist Norman Fischer with his sister Martha at the piano, as well as two Polonaises for piano duet.
Saturday January 31 8 pm at Mills Hall 455 North Park Street, Madison
The Pro Arte Quartet with soprano Emily Birsan
This is a free concert
Program:
Haydn: String Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 71 No. 3
Schönberg: String Quartet No. 2
Founded in 1911 by students at the Brussels Conservatory, the Pro Arte Quartet quickly became known as an exponent of modern music and began touring throughout Europe and North America. Stranded by Hitler’s invasion of Belgium after playing a concert in Madison in 1940, the University of Wisconsin’s chancellor offered a permanent home to the quartet, and the Pro Arte remained the school’s quartet in residence until the late 1950’s, when it became the faculty string quartet, an appointment that continues to this day.
The Pro Arte Quartet continues to maintain an 85-year tradition of dedication to classical and contemporary string chamber music. In addition to their residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where duties range from formal concerts and radio broadcasts to a variety of educational activities, the quartet tours nationally and internationally, often presenting premieres of new works, many of which are written for the ensemble.
Emily Birsan:
Soprano Emily Birsan has been praised by the Chicago Tribune for her “fineness of expression” and “sincerity and rich beauty in her singing,” by the London Telegraph for her “radiant delicacy,” by Madison Magazine as “a bona fide darling diva in the making,” by Madison Isthmus for her “strong, clear, handsomely balanced and beautiful voice,” and by Classical Music Knoxville for her “surprising reserves of power, depth and warmth in her lower range, and a thrilling goose-bump raising ability in her substantial upper range.”
On the brink of an international career, Emily recently finished her third year as a member of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Last season Ms. Birsan was heard on the main stage of the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Servilia in the critically acclaimed Sir David McVicar production La Clemenza di Tito and as the 1st Flower Maiden in a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal. In fall 2014, the 60th anniversary season of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she appeared in the role of Italian Singer in Strauss’ Capriccio.
In the 2013-2014 season, Ms. Birsan covered the roles of Adele in Die Fledermaus and Violetta in La Traviata. Previous operatic credits include Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. Mme. Silberklang in Mozart’s Der Schauspeildirektor with the Grant Park Music Festival, Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Lawrence, Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte with the Ryan Opera Center Workshop and her debut as Xenia in Mussorgksy’s Boris Godunov, and covers of Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo, and Ms. Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, all with the Lyric. In the “Rising Stars” Concerts with the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Emily achieved great success for her performances of arias from La Sonnombula, La Traviata, and A Rake’s Progress. Ms. Birsán is also featured on 98.7 WFMT-Chicago in a themed recital series (Other Americans in Paris, Shakespeare Songs, 1929, Voices of Women, Chicago), and recorded in collaboration with pianist Virginia Eksin and WFMT the world-premiere of songs of Amy Beach to be released in 2015. Ms. Birsán’s future recording projects include “The Saga of St. Olaf” with Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic in Bergen, Norway.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Birsan has performed as the soprano soloist in the Mozart Requiem with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Schubert’s Mass in Eb with the Grant Park Symphony, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion as well as a concert of Bach Cantatas No. 22 and 32 with the Madison Bach Musicians, and triumphed in “A Mirror on Which to Dwell” by Elliot Carter at the Ravinia Festival this past July. Ms. Birsan was also featured as a soloist on the Rush Hour Concert Series and has recorded arias for composer Jimmy Lopez’ new opera Bel Canto, which will have its world premier at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2015.
This year, Emily was awarded first prize from the Musicians Club of Women Competition and was the 2014 Richard F. Gold Career Grant through the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms. Birsan earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, WI studying with mezzo-soprano Karen Leigh-Post. Master of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Music in 2010, where she performed the title roles in Massenet’s Thaïs, Handel’s Alcina and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. A student of Julia Faulkner, Ms. Birsan was also awarded the Paul Collins Fellowship during her residency at the university. Ms. Birsan was Winner of the 2010 Rose M. Grundman Scholarship from the Civic and Arts Union League Competition, First Place in the 2007 Senior Women’s Division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, and multiple award wins from 2008-2011 at the Upper Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Dvorak: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 61
Sunday February 1 3 pm at the Stoughton Opera House 381 Main Street, Stoughton
Con Vivo presents a special winter event.
Cost: $20
Call: 608-877-4400
Web: www.convivomusicwithlife.org
Con Vivo! … music with life!
Sunday February 1 – 3:00pm
Con Vivo!…music with life is a professional chamber music ensemble founded in 2002 and comprised of seven core musicians who draw upon professional experience with the Madison Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and other regional performing groups to deliver dynamic, high-caliber performances. Con Vivo!’s repertoire represents a variety of time periods and styles from the classics to lesser-known chamber works presented in a concert setting that is uniquely engaging and inviting. Each program includes an element of surprise and a dash of humor, through unannounced additions to the program, antiphonal performances and unusual encore selections. Concerts are followed by a reception where audience members and musicians can meet and discuss the performance.
Wednesday February 4 Noon at Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University, Madison
Free organ concert with Bruce Bengston