Concerts on the Square

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Alexander Gouletas

Clark Snavely and violin.

Clark Snavely

July 5 update: Due to severe weather in the forecast between 12 and 8 PM July 5, this week’s concert will be postponed to Thursday, July 6, at 7:00 PM. Each week we work with our media partner, News3 and the incredible team of meteorologists at the station, to make these types of difficult decisions. The current forecast for tomorrow looks beautiful with a dry Capitol lawn!  

As we look ahead, we are so excited to share in the grand opening of the 40th Anniversary season of Concerts on the Square® with you.

media release: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s famous Concerts on the Square returns for its 40th Season this summer. Concerts will take place on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM starting June 28, 2023, and ending on August 2, 2023 on the King Street corner of Capitol Square and are free and open to the public.

An iconic Madison tradition, Concerts on the Square has grown from an idea by American Girl Founder Pleasant Rowland into a nationally recognized concert series, attracting 250,000 people annually for free concerts on the steps of the Wisconsin state Capitol.

Join us on July 5 for an unforgettable night. Revel in the WCO’s annual celebration of Independence Day with familiar favorites including The Stars and Stripes Forever and the Armed Forces Salute. Virtuoso trombonist Joël Vaïsse joins the WCO for Contrastes, a concerto requiring world-class technique written specifically for Joël himself. All that, plus the winner of the WCO’s Young Artist Concerto Competition shows there are musical stars living just next door.

Guest soloists:

JOËL VAÏSSE is well known to orchestras and audiences as one of the leading trombone players of our times. Principal Trombone of the Florida Orchestra under Michael Francis since November 2017, Joël was previously Principal Trombone of all the major French orchestras (Orchestre National de France from April 1999 to July 2013 under Daniele Gatti, Kurt Masur and Charles Dutoit; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Marek Janowski ; Orchestre de Paris under Christoph von Dohnanyi and Frans Brüggen; Orchestre National de Lyon under Emmanuel Krivine and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson). Learn more.

Clark Snavely, age 17, is from New Berlin, Wisconsin. He made his solo orchestral debut at the age of 13 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He has subsequently gone on to perform solos with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Festival City Symphony, and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestras. In 2022 Clark was awarded the Steenock Youth Music Award in the Madison Symphony’s Bolz Young Artist Competition, and his solo performance with the MSO was broadcast live by PBS-Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio. Learn more.

The decision to continue or cancel a concert due to weather conditions will be made at 3 PM on concert days. The official announcement will be made on wcoconcerts.org and on the WCO’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Email will also be sent to WCO subscribers. If the concert is postponed at that time, it will be held the following day at 7 PM. If the concert is not postponed by 3 PM but is subsequently canceled due to poor weather conditions, that week’s concert will not be held or may be cut short. Table reservations can be made here.

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