Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra Announces 2010-2011 Season

Aug. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- Milwaukee, WI – The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is pleased to announce three concerts in its 2010-2011 season; September 19, 2010, February 20, 2011 and March 27, 2011. Richard Hynson returns as music director and will conduct all performances which cover a diverse repertoire. The season includes works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Schönberg, Dvořák, Pergolesi, and a United States premiere of a piece by Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson. All concerts will take place in the intimate space of Calvary Presbyterian Church, 934 W. Wisconsin Ave., in downtown Milwaukee.

“Passionate intimacy and a profound connection with the music have become the hallmarks of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra,” said Richard Hynson, music director. “The 2010-2011 season contains pieces that are well-loved, but seldom performed by a professional ensemble. I invite everyone to these extraordinary live-concert experiences, where you’ll feel like you’re a part of the performance.”

The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season opens Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. Pieces to be performed include Giovanni Pergolesi’s final work, “Stabat Mater,” for solo soprano and mezzo-soprano voices. Amy Conn, soprano, and Nicole Warner, mezzo-soprano, co-winners of the 2010 Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition, will sing the text based on a sequence for the Feast of Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Conn also will perform contemporary composer John Tavener’s “Cantus Mysticus,” scored for B flat clarinet, soprano and strings. First performed in 2005 and based on a text by Goethe, “Cantus Mysticus” uses a contemplative approach at the opening, leading to upbeat jazz to portray the ecstatic celebration of the Divine Feminine. Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite,” a ballet piece based on the music of Pergolesi, rounds out the first concert.

The second concert is Sunday, February 20, 2011 4:00 p.m. and begins with the brooding, sensual “Verklärte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”) by Arnold Schönberg. This piece for string sextet was inspired by a poem and by his first meeting of the woman who would soon become his wife. In homage to Schönberg’s “Verklärte Nacht,” Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson’s “A. S. in Memoriam” mirrors the vocabulary, gesture, and intensely dark, sensual nature of the original. Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra is proud to present the United States premiere of the chamber orchestra version of this work. “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3” by Ottorino Respighi concludes the concert. Using Baroque dance forms, the Italian composer imbues this work with a broad range of emotional expression.

The third and final concert in the MCO’s season is Sunday, March 27, 2011at 4:00 p.m. Three pieces from three centuries comprise the program. Evoking the Slavonic style that he used so well, Antonín Dvořák recreates the old-world atmosphere of Prague in his “Wind Serenade,” Op. 44. Drawing inspiration from Bach’s “Brandenburg Concertos,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks Concerto in E-flat” is named for the Dumbarton Oaks estate of Robert Woods Bliss in Washington, D.C., who commissioned it for his thirtieth wedding anniversary. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 marks a light-hearted beginning to the greatest set of symphonies in the western world.

All Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra performances are held at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 935 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee. Complimentary valet parking is available at the southeast corner of 10th Street and Wisconsin Ave. All patrons are invited to a free wine tasting one hour prior to each concert, presented by Vino 100 of Wauwatosa.

Season tickets are $60 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $24 for students with school ID. Individual tickets are $25, $23, $10. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.MilwaukeeChamberOrchestra.org, by phone at 414-881-9900, or at the door.

Richard Hynson has served as music director of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra since 2006. This year marks Hynson’s 23rd season as music director of the Bel Canto Chorus and Orchestra. In demand as a guest conductor, Hynson’s past engagements include performances the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Skylight Opera Theatre, and the Racine, Sheboygan, and Waukesha Symphony Orchestras. He has conducted the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in a Concert on the Square in Madison, Wis.. He also has conducted the popular outdoor music festival, Gathering on the Green, in Mequon, Wis., for the last two summers. Hynson is in much demand locally and nationally as a clinician and has led multiple choir clinics in Boston, Mass.; Lexington, Ky.; Washington, D.C.; and the greater Milwaukee area. In addition to his work as a conductor and educator, Hynson is a composer. His written contributions include a substantial body of published choral, vocal, and ensemble works, many of which he has recorded with Bel Canto. Music critic Barbara Castonguay (Third-CoastDigest.com, January 31, 2010) wrote, “Under the direction of Richard Hynson, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra was spot on. The complicated rhythms never seemed scattered or frantic. Phrasing was impeccable”

Praised by the Chicago Sun-Times for her “glowing, pure line,” soprano Amy Conn is in demand as an intelligent and communicative artist. Recent performances include Monteverdi’s “Vespers of 1610,” Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and “Exsultate, jubilate,” Charpentier’s “Te Deum,” Schumann’s “Das Paradies und die Peri,” Purcell’s “King Arthur,” Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel's “Israel in Egypt,” Vivaldi's “Dixit Dominus,” Couperin's “Leçon du Ténèbres,” Orff's “Carmina Burana,” and Haydn’s “Creation,” “Lord Nelson” Mass and “Theresienmesse.”  . Conn has appeared as a soloist with Music of the Baroque, Baroque Band, Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Elgin Choral Union and Symphony, Chorus Angelorum, North Shore Choral Society, Lutheran Choir of Chicago and Bach Chamber Choir. She is a former member of Chicago a cappella. In 2006 she participated in the Handel Singing Competition in London and was a semi-finalist in the American Bach Soloists Young Artist’s Competition in Berkeley, Calif..  In 2010 she was a finalist in the New York Oratorio Society’s 34th Annual Competition and appeared in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.  In the same year she was a co-winner of Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artist’s Competition.

Mezzo-soprano Nicole Warner always has been equally at home in a multitude of genres, from musical theater, to works-in-progress, to opera. Recently, she sang the Fairy #2 solo in Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Hans Graf. In 2008 she joined Nautilus Music-Theater for the Composer-Librettist Studio and sang her first Handel’s “Messiah.” From 2003 to 2008 Warner resided in Germany, where she made her German Oratorio debut in 2004, singing the alto solo in Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” and sang with orchestras such as the Kammer Sinfonie Bremen and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. In 2006 pianist Amy Wegge and Warner joined forces and developed the song program “Songs and Praise of Thanksgiving” specifically for a Hauskonzert for the American Consulate in Leipzig, and they repeated the same performance in the Großer Lindensaal in Markkleeberg, Leipzig in 2007. Warner received a Bachelor of Music degree from Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minn. in 2001, and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, New York, N.Y. in 2003..

The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the only professional chamber orchestra in the greater Milwaukee area, has been performing the highest quality chamber music for more than 30 years. The MCO provides a unique experience for audience members as well as important performance opportunities to professional musicians in the area, many of whom play with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and are in demand around the world.

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The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the only professional chamber orchestra in the Greater Milwaukee Area, provides a unique, intimate musical experience for its audience. Director Richard Hynson continues a 30 year tradition. www.theMCO.org