Middleton Community Orchestra
UW Hamel Music Center 740 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
media release: Thomas Kasdorf, piano
Christopher Ramaekers, conductor
Wagner: “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla” from Das Rheingold (1854)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 (1875)
Respighi: Pines of Rome (1924)
General Admission - $20. All students admitted free of charge. Tickets are available at the door and at Willy St. Co-op West starting two weeks before each concert.
Timing:
Box Office opens at 6:30pm
Doors open at 7:00pm
All concerts begin at 7:30pm
Christopher Ramaekers is currently director of orchestras at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, associate conductor of the Chicago Composers Orchestra, artistic director of the Davis Theater Concert Series for Access Contemporary Music. During the 2018-2019 season he was interim assistant conductor of the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Quad-City Youth Orchestras. He has been music director of the Orchestra of St. Vincent’s and the Hyde Park Youth Symphony, principal conductor of the Ravenswood Community Orchestra, and spent nine summers as director of orchestras at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the Kalamazoo Symphony, Skokie Valley Symphony, Salt Creek Chamber Orchestra, Lake Forest Civic Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Opera Vanguard, and internationally with the Berlin Sinfonietta.
Dr. Ramaekers has held fellowships with the Allentown (PA) Symphony Orchestra and the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, WI. He was winner of the 2011 American Prize in Orchestral Conducting and holds degrees from Western Michigan University and Northwestern University.
Thomas Kadsorf, piano
Thomas Kasdorf is a collaborative pianist inspired by connections through various art forms merging through the piano. Active in the fields of chamber music, art song recital, opera, and musical theater, he has concertized throughout the US and Canada. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in May 2020 at the Mead Witter School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a Paul Collins Distinguished Fellow. He currently serves on the faculty as the music director and opera coach for UW Opera’s productions.
Thomas has long held an interest in musical theater. He has performed in over 200 productions as an actor, pianist, musical director, stage director, and conductor. With a special interest in the works of Stephen Sondheim, he has been called upon to prepare productions or perform in reduced orchestrations in Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Putting it Together, Side by Side by Sondheim and Sweeney Todd. He is currently Artistic Director of Middleton Players Theatre (MPT) in Middleton, Wisconsin, where he resides.
Thomas has performed a major piano concerto annually with the Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO) since its inception in 2010 and has also engaged the orchestra to collaborate in staged productions of Carousel and Sweeney Todd with MPT.