Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society Chamber Music Festival

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Diana Popowycz

A trio at the June 9, 2024, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concert.

A trio at the June 9, 2024, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concert.

BDDS enters its second weekend of performances on Friday, with “Kay Será, Será,” a program featuring clarinetist Alan Kay and works from composers Max Reger Albumblatt, Johannes Brahms, Theresa Martin, Takashi Yoshimatsu and Joseph Horovitz. In Saturday’s program, “One for the Record,” BDDS will collaborate with the Madison Choral Project and Madison Youth Choirs. Sunday’s program “In Record Time” explores the ways time passes in Carlos Simon’s trio “Be Still and Know,” Copland’s jazzy Sextet and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes. Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, and tickets are at artsticketing.wisc.edu. BDDS finishes its run June 21-23; read Sandy Tabachnick’s season preview here.

7:30 pm Fridays, Collins Recital Hall: Incendiary Artist Series with Stas Venglevski, June 7; Alan Kay, June 14; Joseph Johnson, June 21

7:30 pm Saturdays: "Set the Record Straight," June 8, Collins; "One for the Record," June 15, Mead Witter Hall; "B-Side," June 22, Collins.

2:30 pm Sundays, Collins: "Broken Record," June 9; "In Record Time," June 16; "Track Record," June 23.

More on the concerts below.

media release:  Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society (BDDS) presents its 33rd summer chamber music festival––33 seasons...33 1/3 RPM records...LPs, long playing––HIGH FIDELITY, June 7-23, 2024. This festival features nine concerts over three weekends, each weekend offers three different programs. We've always been faithful to the highest standards of performance, bringing audiences riveting performances with luminous sound. Fidelity also characterizes our relationship with our enthusiastic audience, our generous supporters, our friends. After 33 years, BDDS is proud to be one of Madison’s long-playing musical institutions! Performances will be held in the state-of-the-art new Hamel Music Center: Collins Recital Hall and the Mead Witter Concert Hall, in the Mead Witter School of Music, on the UW-Madison campus.

HIGH FIDELITY’s nine different concerts range from traditional riches of the chamber music repertoire—masterpieces of Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, and Copland—to great chamber music that has long been undervalued—masterpieces by women composers (Rebecca Clarke, Delores While, Jennifer Higdon), BIPOC composers (Carlos Simon, Gabriela Lena), a new collaboration with Madison Choral Project and Madison Youth Choirs, and musical accompaniment to Buster Keaton’s silent film, “Seven Chances.”

Concerts are spiked with stories about the music, mystery guests, and even door prizes. Artistic co-directors and performers Stephanie Jutt, flute, and Jeffrey Sykes, piano, are joined by 19 musicians from Madison and around the country including violinists Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio (Fresno Symphony Orchestra), Carmit Zori (Brooklyn Chamber Music Society), and Hye-Jin Kim (East Carolina University); violist Ara Gregorian (East Carolina University); cellists Joseph Johnson (Toronto Symphony Orchestra), Anthony Ross (Minneapolis Orchestra) and Parry Karp (Pro Arte Quartet); accordionist Stas Venglevski (international bayan virtuoso); pianist Christopher Taylor, (UW-Madison); harpist Johanna Weinholts (Madison Symphony Orchestra); clarinetist Alan Kay (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard School); oboeist Lindsay Flowers (UW-Madison); hornist Dafydd Bevil (Madison Symphony Orchestra); and Madison’s own violinist Leanne League; violist, Madlen Breckbill; cellist Trace Johnson; and bassist David Scholl.

Our new Incendiary Artist Spotlight series gives audiences a chance to connect with some of their favorite artists on a more personal level. Interviewed by our artistic co-directors, our featured artists this season will talk about their musical pathways, their foibles and aspirations, and what draws them to the music they perform. STAS ‘N STRIPES FOREVER features bayan (a kind of accordion) player Stas Venglevski performing and discussing his own compositions as well as music by Spanish and Eastern European composers. Collins Hall, Friday, June 7, 7:30 – 8:30 pm. In KAY SARÁ, SARÁ, clarinetist Alan Kay will perform a variety of music by Romantic era and contemporary composers. Collins Hall, Friday, June 14, 7:30 – 8:30 pm. CUPPA JOE will feature cellist Joseph Johnson performing new but accessible works by Delores While, Jennifer Higdon, and Guillaume Connesson. Collins Hall, Friday, June 21, 7:30 – 8:30 pm. Each spotlight concert is only one hour long and a reception in the lobby follows each performance.

Concert highlights:

SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT includes music by composers whose contributions have been undervalued. We want to set the record straight by highlighting their achievements. Gabriel Fauré’s magical Piano Trio, one of his last and greatest works, is the centerpiece of our program. We celebrate Fauré’s music on the centenary of his death. Bohuslav Martinu, another undervalued composer, is represented by his vivacious Trio for flute, cello, and piano written in the U.S. We round out the program with music by Tatiana Sergeeva and others for bayan and piano. Collins Hall, Saturday, June 8, 7:30 pm.

BROKEN RECORD features Beethoven’s whacky but adorable “Kakadu” Variations for piano trio that at times sounds like a broken record! Black Latina composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s gorgeous Folk Songs for piano trio and original compositions by Stas for the ensemble are worth listening to again and again. Collins Hall, Sunday, June 9, 2:30 pm.

We’re featuring a one-for-the-record collaboration with Madison Youth Choirs (led by Michael Ross) and Madison Choral Project (led by Albert Pinsonneault) entitled ONE FOR THE RECORD. We’re joining forces to perform John Corigliano’s magnificent setting of poet Dylan Thomas’ Fern Hill, a beautiful meditation on his childhood. The program will include Mozart’s sparkling Piano Concerto no. 17 in G Major, Ravel’s exquisite Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet, and Strauss’ great Emperor Waltz. Mead Witter Foundation Hall, Saturday, June 15, 7:30 pm.

IN RECORD TIME features music that changes our sense of the flow of time. Black composer Carlos Simon’s trio “Be Still and Know” and Claude Debussy’s magical Sonata for flute, harp, and viola both give us a sense of time standing still. Copland’s jazzy and rhythmically driving Sextet for clarinet, string quartet, and piano, and Prokofiev’s great Overture on Hebrew Themes both give us a sense of time on the go. It’s a concert that will seem like it’s over in record time! Collins Hall, Sunday, June 16, 2:30 pm.

B-SIDE features the Quintet in G Major by Luigi Boccherini—a fun-filled romp of a piece that’s only recently been recovered from library archives. Rebecca Clarke’s glorious “Midsummer Moon” for violin and piano will be brought to life by virtuosa violinist Hye-Jim Kim. And for the B-Side of this program, what could be better than Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor that ends with that sizzling Gypsy Rondo? Collins Hall, Saturday, June 22, 7:30 pm.

TRACK RECORD features Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet and Rebecca Clarke’s deeply emotional setting of “I’ll bid my heart be still” for viola and piano. BDDS has a track record of innovation, and this program is no exception. It concludes with a showing of Buster Keaton’s silent movie masterpiece Seven Chances—with an all-new fun-filled chamber music score composed by Steven Prutsman. Collins Hall, Sunday, June 23, 2:30 pm.

Location: Collins Recital Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, UW-Madison campus (740 University Avenue).

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Single general admission tickets can be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/bdds2024. Single tickets start at $47. Student tickets are always $10! Tickets are available at the door at all locations. Series tickets, starting at $123 for three different concerts, are available through Campus Ticketing until May 1. For tickets visit https://tinyurl.com/bdds2024 For information visit www.bachdancing.org or call (608) 255-9866.

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.