John DeMain Launches His 25th Madison Symphony Season

Five years have flown; shall we shoot for 30?   I hadn’t thought about it until I sat down to write this review, but five years can really fly by at my age…2013 marked John DeMain’s 20th anniversary as music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and I was favored with penning an article for…

Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Stronger Than Ever

Sewell’s group tackles the usual varied program   Between the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra changing their five-concert Masterworks series to a January-May schedule, and my own conflicts earlier this year, attending Friday night’s concert at the Capitol Theater meant that I had not heard Andrew Sewell and his wonderful chamber orchestra for nearly a year. The…

Token Creek Restored—and at Flood Stage, Musically Speaking

27th season of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival overflows (artistically) in opening concert One of Madison’s sweetest farewells to summer always occurs at the Festival Barn, the former residence of Rose Mary Harbison’s family dating back to the 1930s. During that decade the ecological gem known as Token Creek was ruined by short-sighted commercial…

Madison Symphony Dealt a Pair of “4s”—and Makes It a Winning Hand

Pianist Emanuel Ax takes us to heavenly heights, then DeMain and Mahler lead us through the celestial gates Just about a year ago at this time we were excited to see the announcement for the current season that Emanuel Ax would be returning to appear with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and play one relative and…