Wisconsin Union Theater stage lights up for a stunning 2011-12 season

Concert Series

The world-touring Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble is a string octet with over 30 CDs to their name. They will be playing classical pieces from Brahms, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn.

 

Caroline Goulding, just 19, is said to be the next Hilary Hahn, a master American violinist. Known for her fresh sound and new interpretations, Goulding was recently awarded the coveted Avery Fischer Career Grant and was nominated for a Grammy for her 2009 debut album. In addition to her solo recital, she will perform a concert with the UW Chamber Orchestra.

 

In similar stature, Cellist David Finckel, pianist Wu Han and violinist Philip Setzer rank among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. These powerhouse performers will be playing an all Mendelssohn program.

 

 

Championing both classical and contemporary string chamber music, UW Madison’s Pro Arte String Quartet plays “wonderfully personal, intense music, performed with real devotion and accomplishment,” according to the New York Times. They will be celebrating their 100^th anniversary with four free concerts next season, one of them in the Wisconsin Union Theater.

 

Jazz Series

On Oct. 12, Madeleine Peyroux will continue this unique series. With a distinct vocal style reminiscent of Billie Holiday, she hit the jazz scene on the streets of Europe as a teenage busker.

 

Trumpeter, bandleader, and arranger, Terence Blanchard is known as a straight-ahead artist in the hard bop tradition, but has recently used an African-fusion style of playing.

 

Winner of the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, New York’s Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is a group of all-star musicians renowned for their originality and virtuosi skills. The band has garnered nine Grammy nominations and two awards.

 

World Stage Series

It opens with Yamato, the drummers of Japan, who dance and drum with dozens of large and small drums.

 

 

 

 

Madison favorite Dobet Gnahoré, a singer, dancer and percussionist from the Ivory Coast, will enchant with songs and styles from several African cultures. From Mandingue melodies to Congolese rhumba, her music is varied and colorful.

 

Back from their Spring 2011 sell-out theater gig, Gaelic Storm will play their less traditional Irish music, adding influences from American rock, pop, and any other style that strikes their fancy. They will perform on the Theater stage on Feb. 17.

 

Blending Celtic with numerous musical styles, Leahy is a Canadian powerhouse of eight musical brothers and sisters. But don’t forget to watch for their eclectic dancing as well.

 

The first group to revive the old-style son line-up, Cuban bandSierra Maestra, has led the global explosion in popularity of Cuban music. USA World Music Central said, “If son is indeed the soul of Cuba, then Sierra Maestra are the heartbeat at the center of that soul.”

 

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, the son and band of Afro-pop’s pioneer Fela Kuti, combine a tight brass section, an incomparable groove of African percussion and voices and pointed lyrics to create beautiful music with a purpose: unreserved fight on corruption in Africa.

 

Special Event Series

Just as imagined, the musical style of the Grammy Award-winning band Béla Fleck & The Flecktones is indescribable; from classical and jazz to bluegrass, African music to electric blues and Eastern European folk dances – the result is impossible to explain.

Sweet Honey in the Rock is a female a cappella featuring sounds of Blues, gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, Hip Hop, and jazz improvisation—to make a truly unique sound. All Sweet Honey in the Rock performances are interpreted in American Sign Language by member Shirley Saxton.

The Special Events series will make room for unique movement as well. With a series of radically groundbreaking and globally acclaimed dance works, the dance-theater group Pilobolus is truly a spectacle.

 

Also performing is Savion Glover, the King of Tap, with his gravity-defying rhythm and inventive sounds. In his most pared down, minimal concert to date, “A Classical Encounter with Savion Glover” will allow sounds to sweep through audiences like thunder, providing insight into the relationship between music and dance in a way no other contemporary dance performance could.

 

The 21^st annual Marcia Légère Student Play Festival will provide an incredible opportunity for UW students, showcasing them as writers, directors, and actors. Students of all ages will also shine in the Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition Winners Recital, a free concert with some of the most talented classical student musicians in Wisconsin.

Lastly, the returning series, Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel, will include discussions and music from the classical composers Bach, Brahms, and Schuman.

Students pay only $10 for these high-caliber performances and Union members, UW-Madison faculty and staff receive discounts on already affordable tickets. For more information about ticket prices and to see some intriguing media on each of these performers, visit the Wisconsin Union Theater’s website. 

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Erin Bannen is a marketing intern for the Wisconsin Union Theater and has been working there since January 2011. She is a fifth year senior studying English with an emphasis in creative writing at UW Madison. Her potential plans after graduation include graduate school for English literature, employing her marketing skills somewhere in Madison or writing about technology. She has been an employee at the DoIT Help Desk since 2007. Erin loves yoga and swimming in her spare time.