Madison Bach Musicians

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Benjamin Lenzmeier

Madison Bach Musicians during rehearsal.

Madison Bach Musicians

This performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers, directed by Northwestern University’s Andrew Megill, features 15 outstanding period instrument players and nine vocal soloists. Period instruments include the violone, the theorbos and the sackbut. Read Sandy Tabachnick’s preview here. Performances are preceded by an informative lecture 45 minutes before the shows, which are Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

$38 adv.; livestream also available, $20.

media release: Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610

conducted by Andrew Megill

First Congregational Church, Madison

Saturday, May 18–7:15 pm lecture/8 pm concert

Sunday, May 19–2:45 pm lecture/3:30 pm concert

We really can hardly wait to perform Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers for you in the magnificent acoustics of Madison’s First Congregational Church. Renowned choral conductor Andrew Megill from Northwestern University will direct fifteen outstanding period-instrument specialists and nine internationally acclaimed vocal soloists in a masterwork that bridges late-Renaissance celestial, melismatic choral writing with dramatic, angular, early Baroque operatic style—where the music often follows the grain of the text. There is no explaining this one-of-a-kind, spellbinding work that seems to invent its own form as it moves along. At every surprising turn of events, one feels a sense of the inexorable: “Yes, I never could have thought of it, but that is just where we need to go next.” Come, experience Vespers with us!

Sarah Brailey & Nola Richarson–SOPRANOS, Geoffrey Williams–COUNTER TENOR, Steven Wilson–HAUTE-CONTRE, Dann Coakwell & James Reese–TENORS, David Newman–QUINTUS, Joshua Copeland & Jeffrey Fields–BASS-BARITONES, Kangwon Kim & Emily Dupere–VIOLINS, Micah Behr & Madlen Breckbill–VIOLAS, Anna Steinhoff–VIOLA DA GAMBA, Jerry Fuller–VIOLONE, Brandon Acker & Lucas Harris–THEORBOS, Ben David Aronson, Garrett Lahr & Liza Malamut–SACKBUTS, Kiri Tollaksen & Bill Baxtresser–CORNETTI, Stephen Alltop–ORGAN, Trevor Stephenson–HARPSICHORD

“Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is astonishing for the grandeur of its conception and the opulence of its sound … combining the grandest of public music with the most intimate of solo songs; no other such work calls for the many colorful obbligato instruments and uses them in such a daringly modern, virtuosic way.” —Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque 6