Zak Stowe
Concerts on the Square.
Concerts on the Square
We all get into ruts, and that includes our listening habits. This summer’s area music roster seems designed to bring different kinds of music together, and urge listeners to try something new. Who knows, you may find your new favorites from among the varied genres onstage this summer.
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Madison’s hot spot for chamber music, celebrates its 34th chamber music festival June 6-22 at Hamel Music Center with nine concerts over three weekends.
This season is titled Fire from Heaven and artistic directors Stephanie Jutt (flute) and Jeffrey Sykes (piano) have named each concert with a fire motif. “While we were driving along the northern California coast last summer, Jeffrey and I talked about the kernel of creativity that’s at the heart of every great piece of music,” says Jutt. “Jeff and I want to honor that inspiration, that spark, in our 2025 season.”
A popular segment of the festival is the Incendiary Artist Spotlight that includes an interview with one of the guest artists as well as a performance and reception. On June 13, the spotlight is on violist Ara Gregorian, the chair of string and piano chamber music at the New England Conservatory. He and Sykes will play Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano. “This piece is amazing,” says Sykes. “The passion, the drive, the color of this music is remarkable.”
The centerpiece of the season is the June 14 performance of Brahms’ German Requiem, Op. 45. Usually performed with a symphony orchestra and choir, this performance features a choir, chamber ensemble, and pianists Sykes and Christopher Taylor, professor of piano at UW-Madison.
“Hearing this piece in this version — a small group of singers together with only eight instrumentalists — is revelatory,” says Sykes. “The lines, the counterpoint, and the interaction of the different parts are all so much easier to hear.” Albert Pinsonneault conducts the chamber ensemble and the Madison Choral Project in this monumental work.
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra — Concerts on the Square
The Capitol grounds, site of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s Concerts on the Square, are carpeted with lawn chairs and blankets long before 7 p.m., the start time for the shows. Concerts are every Wednesday from June 25 to July 30 at the King Street entrance. This year marks the 42nd anniversary of this popular free event.
The opening show on June 25 is titled "Dancing in the Street," a nod to the Motown hit popularized by Martha and the Vandellas in 1964. Who can forget its hard-hitting 4/4 rhythm that blared from radios and 45 RPM vinyl? In this concert, Radiance, an all-woman vocal group from Las Vegas, pays tribute to the Motown sound.
The July 2 concert features two young musicians — violinist Indre Raghavan and pianist André Previn Peck. “These are extraordinary WCO Young Artist Competition winners performing Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1 first movement, and the Sibelius Violin Concerto first movement,” says Andrew Sewell, the WCO’s music director.
The emphasis turns to American songs on July 9 with Metropolitan Opera star Angela Brown, and on July 16 WCO musicians Johanna Wienholts, harp, and Brandon LePage, flute, take center stage. Yaniv Dinur, former resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony, conducts.
The July 23 concert is titled "Dark Side of the Moon," after Pink Floyd’s hit album from 1973. Selections from Pink Floyd’s The Wall album are also featured. Guest soloists are Jeans ’n Classics, a group that merges rock music with symphonies.
The concert on July 30 is what Sewell describes as “classical through and through.” A work by contemporary composer Eric Gould is paired with Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F starring New York-based pianist Sylvia Jiang. The concert — and this season — ends with a bang, with Beethoven’s mighty Fifth Symphony.
Madison Opera — Opera in the Park
Arias under the moonlight are part of the magic of Opera in the Park. The event is free at Garner Park in Madison on July 19 at 8 p.m.
This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the event and includes four soloists — soprano Renée Richardson, mezzo-soprano Emily Treigle, tenor Andrew Bidlack, and baritone Benjamin Taylor. John DeMain, principal conductor of the Madison Opera, conducts the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Opera Chorus.
Some of the soloists who sing at Opera in the Park will also sing in the company’s 2025-2026 indoor season at the Overture Center. These include Richardson as Mimi in La Bohème, Bidlack as Trout Shue in Everlasting Faint and Treigle as Despina in Così fan tutte. The Opera in the Park audience will hear selections from these and other operas and musicals, including Carmen, Fidelio and West Side Story.
Kathryn Smith, Madison Opera’s general director, says that when she saw the UW Opera’s premiere reading of Everlasting Faint in 2023, she was impressed and knew that the Madison Opera needed to commission its completion and prepare a world premiere performance. Everlasting Faint is an opera by Madison composer Scott Gendel and librettist Sandra Flores-Strand.
“The opera is part ghost story and part true crime novel,” says Smith. The libretto is based on a murder in 1897 West Virginia, and a ghost that comes back to tell about it. Two selections from the opera will be included at Opera in the Park: “That Devil Killed Her” and "Whiskey Girl.”
Jazz at Five Summer Performance Series
The Capitol grounds will be the place to hear cool jazz on Wednesday evenings. The Jazz at Five Summer Performance Series runs from Aug. 6 to Sept. 3. Concerts are free and happen at the South Hamilton Street corner beginning at 4 p.m.with a youth combo, followed by two back-to-back concerts that go from 5-8 p.m..
Event director Spencer Stanbery says there will be local musicians and teachers, as well as artists from Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. “We are also continuing with our fan favorite evenings, like UW Night and the Summit of the Big Bands,” he says.
The series starts with the Charlie Painter Quartet. Painter is a Madison-based guitarist whose music has a relaxed vibe no matter how fast the tempo gets. Up next the same evening is Take That Back, featuring Joan Hutton (bass clarinet and alto sax) and Sue Orfield (tenor sax). Hutton and Orfield are composers and improvisers from the Twin Cities.
Another highlight is the Eric Jacobson Quintet on Aug. 20. Jacobson is a jazz trumpeter from Milwaukee whose style is reminiscent of Miles Davis, before Miles ventured into funk. The group’s virtuosic improvisations show just how far a little musical motif can go.
