Next season, Present Music plans to blend classics with new music
Artistic director Kevin Stalheim has almost nothing to say about Present Music’s season-concluding concerts Friday but plenty to dish about the new-music ensemble’s next season, which will include music by Mozart and Vivaldi, who haven’t been considered new music for a couple of centuries now.
To paraphrase the philosopher Vince Lombardi, what the heck is going on out here? For “Present Music Nation,” this season’s finale, PM will perform a concert of music selected through fan voting.
Stalheim and company posted excerpts of music from composers; about 40 fans voted for their favorite pieces. PM will play six or seven of them during the June 5 concerts at the Hot Water Wherehouse, 818 S. Water St.
Now, as for next season, which PM has dubbed “Lines,” Stalheim has programmed some contemporary music that responds to or echoes, either in intention or instrumentation, the music of old masters.
Beyond those individual choices, Stalheim said the programming is “trying in a little way to reach out to classical music lovers.”
Here’s a look at Present Music’s 2015-’16 season. Programs are subject to change.
7:30 p.m. Sept. 5. Stalheim decided to open the season with John Adams’ “Grand Pianola Music,” a large piece for an ensemble of more than 20 musicians, mostly brass and woodwind players. Then he realized the same instrumentation also fit Mozart’s Serenade No. 10, also known as the “Gran Partita.” UWM Zelazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Stalheim
Smythe
“Mozart?!,”
IF YOU GO
“Present Music Nation”
6 and 9 p.m. June 5
Where:
Hot Water Wherehouse, 818 S. Water St.
Tickets:
$35, $25 and $15. Visit
www.presentmusic.org.
7:30 p.m. Oct. 24. Pianist Cory Smythe, a PM regular and a Grammy winner for a recording with Hilary Hahn, returns for a solo piano concert. Smythe will intersperse music by living composers, including his own, with movements from Robert Schumann’s “Carnaval.” Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway.
5 p.m. Nov. 22. PM has commissioned Christopher Cerrone to write a new work for this concert, on the theme of “coming home,” Stalheim said. PM’s vocal group, Hearing Voices, will perform, as will as traditional guest artists the Bucks Native American Singing and Drumming Group. Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 812 N. Jackson St.
“Carnaval,”
“Thanksgiving,”
late February. Once again PM will stage small-group concerts in small venues, times and locations to be announced.
“In the Chamber,”
March 20. This program will feature Robert Honstein’s “Night Scenes From the Ospedale,” which juxtaposes Honstein’s music against the Vivaldi compositions that inspired it. Turner Hall Ballroom, 1032 N. 4th St.
“Equinox: Light and Dark,”
June 3, 2016. Guest conductor David Bloom will lead the ensemble at Turner Hall. For subscription and other info, visit
or call (414) 271-0711.
Season finale and party,
presentmusic.org