Thursday August 22, 5 pm and 8:30 pm at the Token Creek Festival Barn, 037 Hwy. 19 , DeForest.
The Token Creek chamber Music Festival presents “Harry Warren & Vocal Jazz”.
The Token Creek Festival opens this year on August 21 & 22nd with a program of jazz featuring the music of Harry Warren and the first Wisconsin appearance of Boston-based Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
The Token Creek Festival, which takes place annually late in August, has become known for its unique and imaginative programming and the welcoming beauty of its magical performance space in a refurbished barn at the sylvan summer retreat of John and Rose Mary Harbison, who serve as the Festival’s artistic directors.
The Festival began offering its jazz events in 2003 and quickly established itself as one of Madison’s premiere jazz venues. Each year devoting itself to one or two composers, and offering an impressive roster of guests artists who join the house band, the barn is transformed for a few evenings into an authentic jazz club, complete with small tables, dim lighting and candles, beverages and refreshments available during sets, and – most important – a vibrant atmosphere conducive to respectful listening. The room accommodates 85 listeners, contributing to its intimacy and intensity.
This summer the Festival’s jazz program surveys composer Harry Warren, an especially appropriate choice for a tenth anniversary celebration. The program includes some of his best-known hits (“I Only Have Eyes for You,” “At Last,” “Lulu’s Back In Town”), while also – as always – offering some choice little-known treasures like “I Want to be a Dancing Man,” “You’re Gettin’ to be a Habit,” and “This Heart of Mine.”
The Vocal Jazz Ensemble was formed at MIT in the spring of 2011, and has been coached since its inception by Institute Professor John Harbison. The ten singers, each of whom passes a rigorous audition process by peers, have quickly risen to notoriety not only on campus but throughout Boston. Recent performances include an appearance in May with the Boston Pops at Boston’s Symphony Hall, and a professional recording with the Festival Jazz Ensemble. Five members of VJE will perform at Token Creek with the house band, made up of John Harbison (piano), John Schaffer (bass), Todd Steward (drums), Tom Artin (trombone), and Rose Mary Harbison (violin).
Info at tokencreekfestival.org
Thursday August 22, 7 pm at Rennebohm Park 115 N. Eau Claire Ave. , Madison.
The Capitol City Band presents its next-to-last free concert for the 2013 season.
Saturday, August 24, 7 pm at the Memorial United Church of Christ, 5705 Lacy Rd. Fitchburg.
The Ekaterinburg Triopresents the Kat Trio Chamber Music Concert Series.
The violin-clarinet-piano ensemble from Ekaterinburg, Russia was formed in May 1998 in
Ekaterinburg by three friends–Victoria Gorbich (violin), Vladislav Gorbich (clarinet) and
Vasil Galiulin (piano). They had just graduated from the Ural State Music Conservatory. Today The Kat Trio is Victoria, Vladislav and pianist Heidi Wiskur. Victoria and Vlad are doctoral graduates of Arizona State University. Heidi is a graduate of Indiana University. Their concerts
showcase unique Russian arrangements and transpositions of timeless melodies and feature
classical works, well-known inspirational songs, and even American pop standards, including
Scott Joplin’s rags.
The Kat Trio will present a concert series, featuring their music and that of guest artists,
beginning in August. Memorial United Church of Christ, 5705 Lacy Road, Fitchburg, will
host the Kat Trio Chamber Music Concert Series. The sanctuary has wonderfully warm
acoustics and a beautiful grand piano. Artists will do an audience Q&A prior to their
performances. There’s plenty of convenient free parking at Memorial UCC.
The Kat Trio will perform in the series debut at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, August 24, 2013. Be sure to watch www.thekattrio.net and local media for the announcement of upcoming concerts.
Joyful is the word that audiences use to
describe the Ekaterinburg Classical Trio’s presentation of classical, inspirational, and
pop standards. The Kat Trio loves performing live and has played 600 concerts in more than a decade of touring.
They did their first US tour in 2000. When not found in concert venues, college or high school auditoriums, or in class rooms doing Master Classes, the Trio is performing for Sunday services or presenting concerts in churches.
The Ekaterinburg Trio’s website, www.thekattrio.net, features a Music page where fans can hear music files from all 10 CD’s. The Video link features dozens of Kat Trio videos on YouTube.
Sunday August 25, 4 pm at the Token Creek Festival Barn, 4037 Highway 19, DeForest
The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival presents the Open End Ensemble.
On Sunday August 25th at 4:00 p.m. Open End members Andrew Waggoner (violin), Caroline Stinson, (cello), and Molly Morkoski (piano) will present a program of recent works and improvisations in a program including music of Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Anna Weesner, Andrew Waggoner, and Bach, concluding with the premiere of a new work by Waggoner. He has been characterized by The New Yorker as “the gifted practitioner of a complex but dramatic and vividly colored style” His new piano quintet, inspired by Alice Munro, was written this summer for the 2013 Token Creek Festival and is dedicated to Artistic Directors John and Rose Mary Harbison.
Info at tokencreekfestival.org.
Tuesday August 27 at 8 pm (repeated Wednesday, August 28 at 8 pm) at the Token Creek Festival Barn, 4037 Highway 19, DeForest.
The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival presents “Shakespeare in Scene and Song”.
The program opens with the premiere of John Harbison’s Invention on a Theme of Shakespeare (solo cello and small ensemble), followed by scenes from Shakespeare plays accompanied by new incidental music, and songs and arias on texts from the same plays set by to music by composers from the Renaissance to the present day. The plays include As You Like It, Hamlet, Cymbeline, Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Tempest.
The two principal performers for the evening both were born and raised in Madison and return for this Token Creek Event: Guthrie Theatre trained actor, Allison Schaffer will dramatize the play excerpts, and New York soprano Mary Mackenzie, together with pianists Molly Morkoski, will offer songs by composers including Morley, Arne, and Purcell; Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf; and Poulenc, Bridge, Tippett and Harbison.