Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society is a homegrown classical music festival noted for diverse music, distinguished nationally-known and Wisconsin musicians, and delightful surprises. All are invited to this playground for some serious fun!
Our theme for 2018 is Toy Stories. Chamber music is a great vehicle for recapturing that spirit of imaginative play that came to us so easily as kids. Our “toys” aren’t dolls and bears and rubber ducks, but incredible pieces of music that live and breathe, that have their own personalities, that cry with us and laugh with us. We “play” chamber music in every sense of that word. Each of our programs is organized around our quirky take on iconic toys. And in celebration of our 27th season, we’ve scattered various “27s” across our programs.
Just ask Ernie from Sesame Street: there’s nothing like a rubber ducky to transform bath time into fun time. Our week-three program RUBBER DUCKY, YOU’RE THE ONE makes concert time fun time, too, featuring music connected (sometimes obliquely) to waterfowl. This theme might seem unpromising, but in fact is the inspiration for a great program of chamber music. We start with Prokofiev’s whimsical settling of The Ugly Duckling for soprano and piano. Naturally we include The Swan, Saint-Saëns famous work for cello and piano. The British impressionist composer Eugene Goossens (get it?) is represented by Four Sketches, a beautiful work for flute, violin, and piano. We include Ravel’s Mother Goose, a masterpiece of the four-hand piano repertoire, as well as a set of songs about ducks, geese, and swans by composers as varied as Orlando Gibbons, Gian Carlo Menotti, Emmanuel Chabrier, Gabriel Fauré, and Samuel Barber. In honor of our 27th season, the program concludes with Mozart’s 27th piano concerto, one of his greatest works.
Our third week features radiant soprano Emily Birsan, an audience favorite, singing the Prokofiev and Barber songs as well as Richard Strauss’ op. 27 songs. Local favorites Suzanne Beia, violin, and Leanne League, violin, will be joined by Dynamite Factory artists Jeremy Kienbaum, viola, Trace Johnson, cello, and Satoko Hayami, piano.
Single general admission tickets are $43. Student tickets are always $10! Various ticket packages are also available starting at a series of three for $109.50, but only until June 1. First time subscriptions are ½ off. For tickets AFTER FEBRUARY 15, visit: http://www.overture.org/events/bach-dancing
For information visit www.bachdancinganddynamite.org or call (608) 255-9866. Tickets can also be purchased at Overture Center for the Arts, (608) 258-4141, www.overturecenter.org (additional fees apply). Tickets are available at the door at all locations.