Oakwood Chamber Players

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Laura Medisky

press release: The Oakwood Chamber Players begin their 2018-2019 season series “Vignettes” with a concert on Saturday, September 15th at 7:00pm and Sunday, September 16th at 2:00pm. Each program of the 2018-19 series will focus on how composers create specific themes to tell stories, and represent emotions, places or characteristics to enhance the listening experience.  The concerts will both be held at the Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road.

Central to the program is poetry and narration paired with music that will feature Boston-based guest soprano Mary Mackenzie. She has been described by the New York Times as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration,” and the Boston Globe as “sensational”. Ms. Mackenzie is a passionate performer of contemporary vocal music, and has appeared with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and The Knights.

American composer Byron Adams was commissioned by renowned American clarinetist Yehuda Weiner to set Nightingales, a poem by British Victorian poet Robert Bridges, as a memorial to his brother. The composer chose a quartet of soprano, clarinet, cello and piano to evoke the breathtaking beauty of the natural world that is overlaid with a sense of loss and longing.

By contrast, American composer Jennifer Higdon set four poems that have titles that reference roses by James Whitcomb Riley for the combination of flute, soprano and piano. Bentley Roses was written as a surprise tribute for the retirement of her former music teacher, Judith Bentley. The settings are sunny and accessible, the music weaves around the words with swirling energy, coy interactions, and graceful interplay.

Conductor, composer, and pianists Andre Previn’s yearning Vocalise conveys emotion using the voice without words as a chamber instrument. The combination of soprano, cello and piano carries the shifting harmonies and sinuous melodic line through a series of subtle yet powerful transformations. A second Previn piece puts the cello and soprano in conversation with his setting of Pulitzer Prize winning writer Toni Morrison’s poem Stones.  

American film composer and bassoonist Charles Fernandez wrote Quatuor Parisienne for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. It consists of three movements.:  a tongue-in-cheek march; a gracefully flowing reflection: and a farcical musical conversation with a dash of merriment.

Budapest based clarinetist and composer Endre Szervansky’s Quintet No. 1 was written in 1953. Audiences will hear some characteristics similar to the writing of Kodaly and Bartok. It is a pleasing four movement work that shows his strong understanding of each of the instruments, demanding both melodic expressiveness and technical panache.

The program concludes with poetry by British writer Roald Dahl, known for his children’s darkly humorous stories. Composer Martin Butler incorporated The Pig, The Tummy Beast, and The Crocodile into his piece Dirty Beasts for speaker, piano and woodwind quintet. Butler mirrors the acerbic wit of the text with clever effects, closing out the program with some unexpected twists and turns!

Guests Mary Mackenzie, soprano, Joseph Ross, piano and Laura Medisky, oboe, join Oakwood Chamber Players members Marilyn Chohaney, flute, Nancy Mackenzie, clarinet, Amanda Szczys, bassoon, Anne Aley, horn, Maggie Darby Townsend, cello.

This is the first of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2018-2019 season series entitled Vignettes. Remaining concerts will take place on November 24th and 25th, January 12th and 13th, March 2nd and 3rd, and May 18th and 19th.

The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years. Tickets may be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $25 general admission, $20 seniors and $5 students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com or call (608) 230-4316 for more information.