June 12 2014 7 pm at Rennebohm Park 115 North Eau Claire Ave., Madison.
The Capitol City Band presents its first concert of the 2014 season.
June 12 marks the first concert in a summer-long series by the Capitol City Band, now in its 46th concert season. According to long-time bandleader, Jim Latimer, “there are no sweeter sounds than a found purpose” and for the Capitol City Band that found purpose is to “share the music”–something the band has done for so long it is now a Madison tradition.
The concerts feature everything from toe-tapping marches to patriotic favorites, waltzes, polkas and contemporary music. Oh yes, and let’s not forget to mention a little jazz. But the favorites are still the Sousa marches according to one never-miss-a-week fan. Every Thursday from June through August, Madison friends and neighbors and many from beyond the greater Madison boundaries step back in time and hum along as they listen to the music of days gone by and some new music, too.
Despite the weather, a crowd of hundreds shows up for these summer concerts in the park performed by this 27-piece professional concert band. As one patron recently said, “how wonderful amidst the snow and cold of March to picture a band concert in the park on a warm summer evening.” That about says it all. Come June, fashionable folding chairs and picnic tables will surround the shelter at Madison’s Rennebohm Park on the near west side where families and friends gather to listen to the band.
The musicians are led by an enthusiastic and energetic Latimer who is no stranger to the Madison music scene. It’s a thrill to watch him conduct and listen to the little tid-bit philosophies of life he throws in as he addresses the audience each week. At any given concert, he might say “music reflects our lives” or “music makes us feel good and when we feel good, we are good.” One concert-goer said she “comes as much to hear Jim talk as she does to hear the music.”
Latimer often refers to the band’s founder, the late Dr. Elmer Ziegler whose philosophy it was that there should be a professional community band in every city, village and town in America. Ziegler founded community bands in Muscatine, IA, Rock Island, IL and Madison. He was instrumental in prompting the Iowa legislature to pass the 1933 Iowa Band Law that enabled communities to levy a tax to support their local municipal band. According to Latimer, those were the days when great bands and great bandmasters thrived in the U.S. Upon moving to Madison, Latimer met up with bandmaster greats like the late Ray Dvorak and founder Ziegler who both have a long history in the American band movements and who both “met and worked with John Philip Sousa and then passed on some of what they learned [from Sousa] to me.”
And it is in this great tradition that Latimer will open the 46th season with the Capitol City Band in the style of J.P. Sousa and the U.S. Marine Band with marches, waltzes, polkas, contemporary music, jazz, instrumental, vocal and encore favorites. The concerts last one hour but according to associate conductor, David Pedracine, “the audience would sit there for three hours if we continued to play.”
Band concerts are also broadcast on community access television in five communities: Madison, Deerfield, Fitchburg, Oregon and Verona. Consult local listings for Capitol City Band day and time.
The concerts are free and open to the public. Bring a chair and a friend for listening comfort. The band will play each Thursday night from June 12 through August 28 at 7 p.m. at Rennebohm Park (115 N. Eau Claire Ave) at the corner of Eau Claire Avenue and Regent Street. For more information, visit www.mmqccb.org or call 608 835-9861.
Friday June 13 7:30 pm at Overture Center Playhouse, 201 State Street, Madison (repeated Sunday, 6/15 at 2:30 pm at the Taliesin-Hillside Theater, Spring Green).
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society opens its 2014 concert series, “23 SKIDDOO” with a concert titles “Exit Strategy”.
Program:
Maurice Ravel: Greek Folk Songs for soprano and harp
C.P.E. Bach: Quartet in A minor for flute, viola, and piano
Maurice Ravel: Bolero for two pianos
Claude Debussy: Sonata for violin and piano Arnold Bax: Sonata for flute and harp
Witold Lutoslawski: Variations on a theme of Paganini for two pianos
Call: 608-255-9866
Web: www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Email: info@bachdancinganddynamite.org
chamber music festival, 23 SKIDDOO, June 13-29, 2014. This festival features 12 concerts over three weekends, each weekend offers two different programs. Concerts will be performed in The Playhouse at Overture Center in Madison, the Stoughton Opera House, and the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.
Combining the best local musicians and top-notch artists from around the country, a varied repertoire and delightful surprises, BDDS presents chamber music as “serious fun” infused with high energy and lots of audience appeal, and makes this art form accessible to diverse audiences. Led by artistic directors and performers Stephanie Jutt, flute, and Jeffrey Sykes, piano, 15 guest artists will perform in the festival.
“23 Skiddoo” is early 20th century American slang that refers to leaving quickly or taking advantage of an opportunity to leave. Jutt and Sykes have taken some great colloquial expressions and found musical connections for them: sometimes obvious, sometimes oblique–but always leading to thrilling music. Highlights for this season include Latin American music, two pianos on stage in one weekend, a Midwest premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, and a silent film score (including the film by Charlie Chaplin).
We have two spectacular programs our first week, “Getta Move On” and “Exit Strategy.” “Exit Strategy” features music written at the end of composers’ careers. It includes Debussy’s profound violin sonata, the last work he wrote; Ravel’s popular Bolero in its original two piano incarnation, almost his last work; Arnold Bax’s beautiful sonata for flute and harp; and the scintillating Paganini Variations of Witold Lutoslawski for two pianos. “Getta Move On” features music inspired by dance, including Rachmaninoff’s thrilling Symphonic Dances for two pianos, Ravel’s nostalgic La valse for two pianos, and the Midwest premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’ evocative work The Art of the Dance for soprano, flute, harp, viola, and percussion. Madison’s piano star Christopher Taylor will pair up with BDDS artistic director Jeffrey Sykes on the two-piano works. The programs will also showcase the talents of Canadian harp virtuoso Heidi Krutzen and Pro Musicis award winner Yura Lee on violin and viola. Icelandic soprano Dìsella Làrusdóttir, hailed by Opera News as “a voice of bewitching beauty and presence,” will join in the Kernis premiere and other works. Concerts will be performed at The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Friday and Saturday, June 13 and 14, 7:30 PM; and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 15, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM.
Our second week features “Take a Hike” and “Hasta La Vista, Baby”. “Take a Hike” includes music inspired by the countryside, from an Amy Beach Romance, to Brahms’ gorgeous clarinet trio and Mozart’s pastoral 23rd piano concerto (celebrating the Austrian countryside) to works by Latin composer Carlos Guastavino (Argentinian pampas). “Hasta La Vista, Baby” is an extravaganza of Latin chamber music: from the sultry, sensuous, heart-on-the-sleeve tangos of Astor Piazzolla to the mystic profundity of Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. We are thrilled to have clarinetist Alan Kay, principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, joining BDDS for the first time. He will be joined by audience favorites Carmit Zori and Suzanne Beia, violins; David Harding, viola; and Tony Ross and Beth Rapier, cellos. Finally, we have invited master pianist and arranger Pablo Zinger, one of Piazzolla’s champions and an international authority on Latin music, to give our programs authentic Latin flair. Concerts will be performed at the Stoughton Opera House on Friday, June 20, at 7:30 PM; The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 21, at 7:30 PM; and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 22, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM.
Our final week includes “Cut and Run” and “Hightail It.” “Cut and Run” features music by composers who made well-timed exits or transitions in their lives. Martinu escaped Europe just before the outbreak of World War 2; when he arrived in the US, he wrote his jazzy Trio for flute, cello and piano. In Russia, Shostakovich responded to the war by writing his very moving piano trio. In this work, he got himself back into the good graces of the Soviet authorities—and yet still managed to sneak into his work an ironic critique of Soviet life. Milhaud’s great work for piano four hands, “Le boeuf sur le toit,” was originally intended as the score for Charlie Chaplin’s silent movie The Count, a movie that culminates in a hilariously well-timed exit. Our program will reunite the movie with its erstwhile score. “Hightail It” includes music with fast codas. “Coda” is the Italian word for “tail,” and it refers to the final section of a movement or a piece. This program includes William Hirtz’s fun, over-the-top Fantasy on the Wizard of Oz for piano four-hands, and the jazzy, rhythmic Sonata, for violin and cello, of Maurice Ravel. The thrilling, symphonic piano trio in F minor of Antonin Dvorak brings the season to a close. The San Francisco Piano trio–violinist Axel Strauss, cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau, and BDDS Artistic Director pianist Jeffrey Sykes–will be joined by Boston Symphony pianist Randall Hodgkinson and BDDS Artistic Director flutist Stephanie Jutt in these programs. Concerts will be performed at The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Friday, June 27, 7:30 PM; Stoughton Opera House on Saturday, June 28; and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 29, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM.
For the fourth year, BDDS will also perform one free family concert, “Getta Move On Kids,” an interactive event that will be great for all ages. Together with the audience, BDDS will explore why dance-like melodies and rhythms can get people on their feet; they’ll listen to and repeat rhythms and move to the music. This will take place at 11:00 AM, on Saturday, June 14, in The Playhouse. This is a performance for families with children ages 6 and up and seating will be first come first served. CUNA Mutual Group, and Overture Center generously underwrite this performance.
Carolyn Kallenborn, local textile artist, will create a stage setting for each concert in The Playhouse. All concerts at The Playhouse, the Opera House and Hillside Theater will be followed by a meet-the-artist opportunity.
Locations: Stoughton Opera House (381 E. Main Street); Overture Center in Madison (201 State Street); Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Hillside Theater (CHY 23 in Spring Green).
Single general admission tickets are $39. Student tickets are only $5! Various ticket packages are also available starting at a series of three for $111. First time subscriptions are 1/2 off. For tickets and information visit www.bachdancinganddynamite.org or call (608) 255-9866. Single tickets for Overture Center concerts can also be purchased at the Overture Center for the Arts box office, (608) 258-4141, or at overturecenter.com (additional fees apply). Hillside Theater tickets may be purchased from the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor’s Center on CHY C, (608) 588-7900. Tickets are available at the door at all locations.
Chamber music with a bang. More bang for your Bach. What Bach would be doing if he were more fun and less dead. However you describe what we do, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society always features great music played with joy, creativity, spontaneity, and a technique that is second to none. BDDS is aimed at people who are curious, open-minded, and up for anything. People who want to have serious fun.
Saturday June 14 7:30 pm at Overture Center Playhouse, 201 State Street, Madison (repeated Sunday June 15, 6:30 pm at Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Hillside Theater (CH 23) in Spring Green)
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society Presents a concert titled “Getta Move On”.
Maurice Ravel: La valse for two pianos
Aaron Jay Kernis: L’arte della danssar for flute, viola, harp, percussion, and sopranoPamela Mather &
Carlos Guastavino: Introduction and Allegro for flute and piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances for two pianos
Call: 608-255-9866
Web: www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Email: info@bachdancinganddynamite.org
Saturday June 14 8 pm at Mills Hall, 455 North Park Street, Madison
Concert by participants in the National Summer Cello Institute
Music by Villa-Lobos, Franck, Poulenc, Rautavaara, Rchaikovsky, J.S. Bach, Offenbach
Compiled by Rich Samuels, host of “Anything Goes” which airs Thursday, 5-8 am on WORT 89.9 FM Madison and streams at http://wortfm.org