MSO Organ Program Oct/Nov 2024 Combined

Page 1


oct 3 | Paul Jacobs

nov 21 | Lyyra Ensemble

Contact

Madison Symphony Orchestra 222 W. Washington Ave., Suite 460 Madison, WI 53703 Phone (608) 257-3734 Fax (608) 280-6192 madisonsymphony.org info@madisonsymphony.org ©2024

Madison Symphony Orchestra, Inc. Amanda Dill, Editor Email: adill@madisonsymphony.org

All rights reserved. May not be produced in any manner, in whole or in part, without written permission from Peter Rodgers, Director of Marketing.

For advertising information, contact: Peter Rodgers (608) 260-8680 x226 prodgers@madisonsymphony.org

#madisonsymphony

Overture Center Box Office 201 State St.

Single Tickets: (608) 258-4141

Ticket Office Hours: Mon. – Fri., 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sat. 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Additional hours on Sunday event days.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

As we gather in this space for these concerts, the Madison Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the

Nation’s ancestral lands and celebrates the rich traditions, heritage, and culture that thrived long before our arrival. We respectfully recognize this Ho-Chunk land and affirm that we are better when we stand together.

sponsors program

thank you

to our generous sponsors for supporting these performances

Stephen Caldwell

Jane Hamblen and Robert F. Lemanske

Skofronick Family Charitable Trust

Condon and Mary Vander Ark

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ

The Overture Concert Organ is the gift of Pleasant T. Rowland.

Support for all Overture Concert Organ Programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund.

We wish to thank our other organ contributors, the Malmquist Family, Margaret C. Winston, and Friends of the Overture Concert Organ.

Greg Zelek is the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Organist and the Elaine and Nicholas Mischler Curator of the Overture Concert Organ.

Overture Concert Organ Series | Subscription Program No. 1

Thursday, October 3, 2024 | 7:30 pm

Paul Jacobs, Organ

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Organ Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op. 65, No.1

Allegro moderato e serioso

Adagio

Andante recitativo

Allegro assai vivace

CÉ SAR FRANCK (1822-1890)

Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op.18

CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)

Variations on “America”

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

Arioso from Cantata No. 156 (arr. Diane Bish)

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”

Moderato — Allegro — Vivace

Adagio — Allegro deciso

Fuga: Allegretto con moto

Please note: This program will be performed without an intermission.

WELCOME TO THE MSO!

Please silence your electronic devices and cell phones for the duration of the concert. Photography and video are not permitted during the performance. You may take and share photos during applause. Thank you!

SCAN HERE

To access the digital program book for this concert!

Paul Jacobs organ

Heralded as “one of the major musicians of our time” by Alex Ross of The New Yorker, as “America’s leading organ performer” by The Economist, and as “a grand New York institution” by James R. Oestreich of The New York Times, the internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new.

No other organist is so frequently re-invited as soloist to perform with prestigious orchestras, thus making him a pioneer in the movement for the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ. One would be hard pressed to find any other musician performing five modern or contemporary concertos in one year. During this 2023-2024 season alone Mr. Jacobs premiered Lowell Liebermann’s Organ Concerto co-commissioned by the Jacksonville Symphony and the Oregon Bach Festival; playing Samuel Barber’s Toccata Festiva with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; performing What Do We Make of Bach? by John Harbison with the New England

Philharmonic: appearing as soloist with the Toledo Symphony in the Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra by Stephen Paulus; and premiering a new version of Michael Daugherty’s Once Upon a Castle for Organ and Orchestra with the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Additionally, Mr. Jacobs has been invited by the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to give a recital of Messiaen’s towering Livre du Saint Sacrément, and he will be presented by the Nashville Symphony in an allBach solo recital.

An eloquent champion of his instrument, Mr. Jacobs is known for his imaginative interpretations and charismatic stage presence. Mr. Jacobs is the only organist ever to have won a GRAMMY Award—in 2011 for Messiaen’s Livre du Saint-Sacrément. Having performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States, Mr. Jacobs regularly appears with the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toledo Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others. Mr. Jacobs is also Founding Director of the Oregon Bach Festival Organ Institute, a position he assumed ten seasons ago.

Mr. Jacobs has moved audiences, colleagues, and critics alike with landmark performances of the complete works for solo organ by J.S. Bach and Messiaen, as well as works by a vast array of other composers. He made musical history at the age of 23 when he played Bach’s complete organ works in an 18hour marathon performance on the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. A fierce advocate of new music, Mr. Jacobs has premiered works by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Bernd Richard Deutsch, John Harbison, Wayne Oquin, Stephen Paulus, Christopher Theofanidis, and Christopher Rouse, among others. As a teacher he has also been a

vocal proponent of the redeeming nature of traditional and contemporary classical music.

Past recital engagements have included performances under the aegis of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center White Light Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, as well as at the American Guild of Organists.

He has given the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Organ Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra—co-commissioned by the National Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic—and, with the Toledo Symphony, has performed Michael Daugherty’s Once Upon a Castle, a work he recorded in 2015 with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero which was released by Naxos in September 2016, and awarded three GRAMMYs, including Best Classical Compendium.

Prodigiously talented from his earliest years, at 15, young Jacobs was appointed head organist of a parish of 3,500 in his hometown, Washington, Pennsylvania. He has performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in marathon performances throughout North America. In addition to his highly esteemed recordings of Messiaen and Daugherty on Naxos, Mr. Jacobs has recorded organ concertos by Lou Harrison and Aaron Copland with the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas on the orchestra’s own label, SFS Media.

Mr. Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, double-majoring with John Weaver for organ and Lionel Party for harpsichord, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ

department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He was awarded Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007. In addition to his concert and teaching engagements, Mr. Jacobs has appeared on American Public Media’s Performance Today, Pipedreams, and Saint Paul Sunday, as well as NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC-TV’s World News Tonight, and BBC Radio 3. In 2021 he received the International Performer of the Year Award from the American Guild of Organists, and in 2017 Washington and Jefferson College bestowed him with an honorary doctorate. Mr. Jacobs has written several well-received articles for the Wall Street Journal

program notes

Oct 3, 2024

program notes by J.

We welcome the internationallyrenowned soloist Paul Jacobs to open this season’s Overture Concert Organ Series. (Mr. Jacobs, I must add, was also was also the teacher of our own Greg Zelek at Juilliard!) We open with an organ sonata by Felix Mendelssohn. He was largely responsible for the revival of interest in J.S. Bach’s music in the early 19th century, and this organ work contains deliberate references to the great Leipzig master. Next is a grand French work by Franck, his Prelude, Fugue, and Variation. Charles Ives improvised much the Variations on “America” he was when he was working as a church organist at age 16. This is a witty and sometimes uproarious take on this patriotic classic. Then, following a brief work by Bach himself, Mr. Jacobs tackles of of the largest and most challenging works in the solo organ repertoire, Franz Liszt’s titanic Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam.”

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Organ Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op. 65, No.1

Felix Mendelssohn had such a busy (and lamentably short) career as a composer and conductor, that we tend to forget that he was also one of 19th-century Germany’s great organists. He certainly had a pedigree: as a child, he studied with the eminent organist and composer August Wilhelm Bach, at that time organist of the Marienkirche in Berlin, and later Director of the Royal Institute of Church Music in Berlin. [Note: A.W. Bach was not directly related to J.S. Bach.] Mendelssohn played organs everywhere he went,

most famously in England, where he is credited with popularizing the construction of larger pedalboards that could accommodate the pedal parts of J.S. Bach’s music. In 1832, when Mendelssohn first visited London, Charles Edward Horsley, who would later study with Mendelssohn in Leipzig, noted that:

“I have heard most of the greatest organists of my time… English, German, and French, but no respect have I ever known Mendelssohn excelled, either in creative or executive ability. And it’s hard to say which is the most extraordinary, his manipulation or his pedipulation; for his feet were quite as active as his hands, and the independence of the former, being totally distinct from the latter, produced a result which of the time was quite unknown in England, and undoubtedly laid the foundation of a school of organ playing in Great Britain which has placed English organists on the highest point attainable in their profession.”

On his second visit to England in 1837, he played Bach fugues and his own improvisations on the large instrument in St. Paul’s cathedral after an evensong service—apparently going overtime to the immense annoyance of the cathedral vergers, who expected the crowd—who were rapt by Mendelssohn’s playing—to disperse promptly at the end of the service. They finally cut the performance short: by forbidding the bellows-blower to pump the air needed for the organ to sound!

In 1844, a London publisher asked Mendelssohn for a set of organ voluntaries (“voluntaries” being short improvisatory-style pieces used at the opening of Anglican services.) This seems to have been the spur for the composer to write his Opus 65: a set of six much more substantial multi-

movement organ sonatas, published in 1845. They were advertised as Mendelssohn’s School of OrganPlaying, with the benefit of preparing organists for the study of Bach, and in fact all six contain masterful fugal writing. The Sonata No. 1 opens (Allegro moderato e serioso) by building into a chromatic fugato. He then introduces the chorale Gott will, dass g’scheh allzeit (What my God Wills is Always done) quietly, on one manual, with thundering reponses, and then he proceeds to create a prelude on the chorale very much in the form of Bach’s preludes from the Orgelbuchlein...hardly surprising, as Mendelssohn was at the very same time preparing the Orgelbuchlein for publication. And, true to his penchant for pedipulation, this movement has a very active part of the pedalboard! If the opening movement is all about Bach, the Adagio is all about Mendelssohn: it is a limpid and quiet piece that recalls the sound of his Songs Without Words. The Andante recitativo combines quiet recitatives and angry responses, eventually serving as a prelude to the final movement. He returns to Bach as the inspiration for the finale (Allegro assai vivace): this is a grand toccata, albeit one with some wildly romantic harmonies! Near the end he makes a reference to the fugato theme from the opening movement before a final keyboard-spanning flourish.

César Franck (1822-1890)

Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op.18

The Belgian-born organist and composer Cesár Franck cast a long shadow over the organ music of 19th-century France. He began studies at the Paris Conservatory as a teenager, but never completed his studies there. He eventually returned to Paris in 1845, securing a series of increasingly prestigious organ jobs that led eventually to his appointment

as organist at the church of SainteClothilde in 1858. In 1872, Franck secured the most influential organ position in France: he became organ professor at the Paris Conservatory, remaining there until his death in 1890. Though his career at the Conservatory was not without its controversies (Parisian musical politics of the day was a rough contact sport, particularly among his colleagues at the Conservatory.), Franck remained a popular teacher, and gathered a large and devoted group of students. Louis Vierne, Vincent D’Indy, and Ernest Chausson were among his more prominent students.

Like many of his organ works, the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation seems to have been inspired by the new style of large organ pioneered by the French builder Aristide CavailléColl. This work was one of several he composed shortly after SainteClothilde installed a new Cavaillé-Coll instrument in 1859. It opens with a wistful Prelude, which develops a pair of melancholy ideas. A short and dark transitional passage leads to a Fugue that shows Franck’s mastery of the form. The closing Variation brings together both references to Franck’s gnarly chromatic fugue theme and the music of the Prelude

Charles Ives (1874-1954)

Variations on “America”

Background

Charles Ives was the most original American composer of his generation—a man who created an intensely personal and thoroughly American musical soundscape in his works. Ives was born and raised in Danbury, Connecticut, the son of a bandmaster and musical experimenter who provided him with his earliest training. He attended Yale, where he studied with Horatio Parker., a staunch musical conservative of the Germanic school. Parker would

have a strong influence on Ives, although the two had radically different musical perspectives. After leaving Yale, Ives moved to New York City to work as an organist, but by 1902 he had apparently given up on a musical career and began to work in the insurance business. (He was eventually one of the chief executives of the Mutual Insurance Company.) Most of Ives’s music was completed by the time he was thirty, although he continued to tinker with his works for years afterwards. By the time he turned his back on a full-time musical career, Ives’s music, which experimented with quotation, polytonality, atonality, free dissonance, mixed meters, and unique formal structures, was already far in advance of the works of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or any other composer of his generation. Unlike many other avant garde composers, however, Ives was not so much scorned as ignored. Most of his music remained unperformed and unknown until the 1940s and 1950s, when a younger generation of musicians discovered the works of this uniquely American genius.

America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee) was widely known as a patriotic song in 1891, Ives’s Variations on “America” had a typically long gestation: he improvised the piece at an organ recital in Brewster, New York in on July 4, 1891, when he was just age 16, and soon wrote it down. Then in 1909 or 1910, he returned to the work, adding the interludes, and finally, it was edited for publication in 1949 by the American organist E. Power Biggs. Ten years after Ives’s death, composer William Schuman scored the now well-known version for orchestra.

What You’ll Hear

After a bravura introduction, full of humorous touches, Ives presents

the theme quite formally, before launching into the first variation, which lays an extravagantly chromatic line above the tune. Though Variation II is not quite polytonal, it certainly has trouble deciding which key it is actually in! Then comes a short interlude that is polytonal: the left hand and foot are in one key and the right hand is in another. Variation III transforms the tune into a rather silly 6/8 march, and Variation IV is a ludicrous polonaise. After a short dissonant interlude comes Variation V, which Ives marks Allegro—as fast as the pedals can go. (In 1892, he described playing this as “more fun than playing baseball.”—and for Ives, that meant a lot of fun!) The variation starts normally enough with a decorative obbligato for pedals, but the pedal part soon starts to wander through other keys. The ending is hilarious: As the music becomes ever more polytonal, it reaches a maximum dissonance level and suddenly pauses, before a return to the figure of the introduction. The feet briefly attempt to hijack the tune for themselves, before the hands regain control (barely) for a powerful closing.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Arioso from Cantata No. 156 (arr. Diane Bish)

J.S. Bach’s church cantatas are sources of wonderful vocal and choral music. But they also supply wonderful instrumental works as well. His cantata Ich steh mit einen Fuss im Grabe, BWV 156 (I Stand with one Foot in the Grave), was composed for the third Sunday after Epiphany, probably during for his fourth annual cycle of cantatas, which would put itrs first performance date as January 31, 1729. (A “cycle” includes cantatas appropriate to each Sunday in the Lutheran Church Year, plus additional cantatas for the Christmas and Easter season—a total of about 60 works.

(Bach completed five of these—some 300 cantatas—during his first years in Leipzig!) Given the need to crank out a multimovement cantata once a week, it is certainly understandable that Bach recycled older works in his. Leipzig cantatas. For the opening Sinfonia, he reached back to the lovely slow movement (Arioso) from a now-lost oboe concerto written when Bach had served as Kapellmeister at the court of Cöthen (1717-1723). It has become one of Bach’s most beloved melodies. In 1738, Bach reused the outer movements of this same phantom oboe concerto for his Harpsichord Concerto No. 5, BWV 1056. Because of this, together with the lyrical Arioso that survived as the opening movement of BWV 156, modern editors have been able to reconstruct the complete oboe concerto.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”

Franz Liszt was the preeminent piano virtuoso of the 19th century, and the model for many pianists to follow. He was also an imaginative and groundbreaking composer, but as a young man, he was so much in demand as a soloist that he was allowed little time to develop his composing skills. Liszt’s concert tours in the 1830s and 1840s were nothing short of sensational—contemporaries used the term “Lisztomania” to describe the frenzy surrounding his playing. He performed hundreds of concerts to packed houses throughout Europe, and produced for the most part compositions that focused on his own technical showmanship, rather than musical content. It was not until he settled in Weimar in 1848, taking a secure and stable job as music director to the Weimar court, that Liszt’s music took a turn away from these showy pieces.

In 1848, Liszt attended the premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s huge, five-act grand opera Le prophète in Paris and was deeply impressed. Le prophète, set against the background of Dutch religious upheaval in the early 16th century, is based upon the life of the Anabaptist leader John of Leiden. John was able to establish a religious state in the city of Münster, proclaiming himself “King of New Jerusalem,” before his eventual downfall and death by torture. Liszt studied Meyerbeer’s score closely, and in 1849-50 completed a set of three Illustrations du Prophète for solo piano. Virtuoso transcriptions of music from popular operas were nothing new at the time—Liszt himself had written dozens of them in previous years—but the Illustrations du Prophète were built on another scale. This set, lasting nearly 40 minutes in total, very freely adapts Meyerbeer’s music, sometimes reordering and fragmenting themes to make new musical connections. In the winter of 1850, he completed what was essentially a fourth Illustration from the opera, his Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”—this one written not for piano but rather for organ. Liszt actually became interested in the organ during in his Weimar years, at least partly inspired by a deep reverence for Bach—who had of course held the same the same job as Liszt in Weimar 135 years earlier. The Fantasy and Fugue was the first of some 45 works for organ Liszt would compose over the next 20 years. However, though Liszt was a phenomenal pianist, he was less skilled as an organist; in particular, he never seems to have mastered the pedals. The work was premiered by one of his students, Alexander Winterperger, at the dedication of a new organ in Merseberg Cathedral, on September 26, 1855.

The Fantasy and Fugue is an enormous virtuoso work, sprawling over some 765 measures, and lasting nearly half an hour. In the opera, the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam (Come to us, to the waves of salvation) is sung by a trio of sinister Anabaptist priests, who will eventually have a hand in John of Leiden’s destruction. It appears in the opera’s first act, as the priests recruit peasants to start a religious rebellion. Meyerbeer apparently found the melody in a 17th-century hymnal. Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue is laid out in three large sections, opening with a brief and dissonant introduction, before he introduces the rather creepy chorale melody. After a mysterious, atmospheric transition, Liszt begins a long, free development of this theme. After the music reaches a roaring climax, there is another quiet transition into the second large section (Adagio). This opens with a simple, unadorned statement of the melody, and moves through six calm variations. This section closes with an agitated and highly dissonant passage—Liszt makes extensive use of the whole-tone scale here—that leads into the Fugue In keeping with the dimensions of the Fantasy, the Fugue is massive, some eight minutes long. This was the first time Liszt used a fully-developed fugue in his works, though he uses a thoroughly unorthodox version of this traditional form. The piece ends with a colossal, fiercely triumphant statement of the chorale.

program notes ©2024 by J. Michael Allsen

sponsors program

thank you

to our generous sponsors for supporting these performances

Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation

The Overture Concert Organ is the gift of Pleasant T. Rowland.

Support for all Overture Concert Organ Programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund.

We wish to thank our other organ contributors, the Malmquist Family, Margaret C. Winston, and Friends of the Overture Concert Organ.

Greg Zelek is the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Organist and the Elaine and Nicholas Mischler Curator of the Overture Concert Organ.

Overture Concert Organ Series | Subscription Program No. 2 Thursday, November 21, 2024 | 7:30 pm

Lyyra Ensemble

MaryRuth Miller

Anna Crumley

Elizabeth Tait

Ingrid Johnson

Aryssa Leigh Burrs

Cecille Elliott

Greg Zelek, Organ

Don MacDonald, When the Earth Stands Still

Leonora d’Este, Haec Dies

Vienna Teng arr. Kerry Marsh, Hymn of Acxiom

Samuel Barber, Heaven Haven

William Byrd, Sing Joyfully

Ellen Gilson Voth, Aure volanti

JVKE arr. Emily Drum, Golden Hour

Greg Zelek, Solo Organ Work

Alexander L’Estrange, Panis Angelicus

Leslie Bricusse, arr. Matthew Nielsen, Pure Imagination arr. Gene Puerling, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

Warren & Gordon arr. Kerry Marsh, At Last

London Grammar arr. Cecille Elliott, Lose Your Head

Marvin Fisher arr. Anna Crumley, When Sunny Gets Blue

Leslie Savoy Burrs, Rise Up My Love

traditional arr. Anthony Trecek-King, Tryin’ to Get Home

Peter Eldridge arr. Erik Jacobson, Dark Out of the Night

Paul Simon, Bridge over Troubled Water

Irving Berlin arr. Michael Wheaton, Blue Skies

WELCOME TO THE MSO!

Please silence your electronic devices and cell phones for the duration of the concert. Photography and video are not permitted during the performance. You may take and share photos during applause. Thank you!

SCAN HERE

To access the digital program book for this concert!

About the Lyyra Ensemble

With a broad texture and exhilarating range of sound, Lyyra specializes in classical, jazz, pop, and folk music from diverse traditions and backgrounds.

Reflective of music, harmony and the night sky, Lyyra takes its name from the constellation that represents Orpheus’ famed lyre. Formed of six exceptional women, Lyyra seeks to redefine what is possible for upper voices in this genre, and to extend The VOCES8 Foundation’s global mission to deliver world-beating concert experiences alongside integrated learning and participation work. Lyyra delivers inspirational, uplifting, dynamic performances and has the desire to make change in the world.

Lyyra is produced for VOCES8 Records by Barnaby Smith and Paul Smith, and its Creative Director is Erik Jacobson for The VOCES8 Foundation USA.

MaryRuth Miller

Praised for her “clear soprano” and “tasteful dramatic interpretation”, MaryRuth Miller has appeared throughout North America as a concert soloist and choral artist. Recent performance highlights include solo features with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Upper Valley Baroque, Pegasus Early Music, San Diego Baroque, the Charlotte Master Chorale, the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. MaryRuth has sung regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus, New York City’s Clarion Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, and made her debut with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in 2022. She is an alumna of the VOCES8 US Scholars Program.

Anna Crumley

Anna Crumley is a versatile vocalist, arranger, songwriter, session singer, and music director based in the Los Angeles area. She is a soprano for the choral group Tonality, has toured across the country with the Kronos Quartet, and has sung for Disney, Netflix, DC Comics, HBO MAX and National Geographic. Anna holds bachelor’s degrees in both Jazz Studies Voice Performance and in Choral Music Education from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, where she was an Ella Fitzgerald Foundation scholar and a 2022 DownBeat award-winning soloist. She also currently performs as one half a neo-soul inspired guitar-voice duo called DeissMarie, who recently released their debut EP “Dream State”.

Elizabeth Tait

Elizabeth Tait is a Houston-based vocalist with roots in choral music. She is currently a staff soprano at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church and soprano with the Houston early music ensemble Harmonia Stellarum. Elizabeth has sung previously with the Houston Chamber Choir, and performed on their Grammy award-winning album, “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works”. Her performance experience ranges from female a cappella, to jazz, to musical theatre. With a degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Education, Elizabeth has taught choral music in Katy, Texas for nine years.

Ingrid Johnson

Praised for her sensitivity and style, mezzo-soprano Ingrid Johnson captivates from soaring high notes, to intimate, emotional portrayals that feel unapologetically authentic. As a performer, scholar, and discoverer, Ingrid is always seeking new adventures in music. Ingrid sings regularly with the Colorado Bach Ensemble and St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, Servire, whose “Sing & Serve” mission strives to bring communities together through music, is a Teaching Artist with the VOCES8 Foundation, and is a founding member of the brand new vocal ensemble, Quorum. Other engagements include work with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, Aspen Music Festival with the Seraphic Fire Professional Chorus Institute, Quintessense, Emmanuel Music Inc’s Bach Institute, the JSB Ensemble with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Opera Colorado, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, the Montreal Bach Festival, Boulder Bach Festival, Opera McGill, the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, the Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes, and the Colorado Music Festival.

Aryssa Leigh Burrs

Vocalist Aryssa Leigh Burrs is hailed for her “rich sound and thoughtful musical ideas’’ while “transcending vocal styles and genres with flexibility and ease.” An avid choral artist and soloist, she can be seen with The Crossing, Clarion Society, The Thirteen, and Cathedra. Aryssa has been a Resident Artist with Central City Opera and Opera Columbus. Recent engagements include Orfeo/Speranza (Nightsong of Orpheus), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Woman in Sleeve (The Juliet Letters), Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Captain (Dog Days), and Mame Dennis (Mame). Aryssa has performed as a 2023 American Traditions Competition Semifinalist and with the Charlotte Symphony, and is also the founder/creator of ALB Produces and the concert experience Identify.

Cecille Elliott

Cecille Elliott is a multifaceted musician currently based in Portland, Oregon. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, her music journey began with studying violin and viola alongside members of her family, learning and playing orchestral and chamber music with them regularly. Her interests continued expanding to songwriting, film music, theater, and pop music styles. During college in Kalamazoo, Michigan, she shifted her studies from strings to voice, engaging primarily with vocal jazz, classical, and contemporary choral styles.She can be found performing and collaborating regularly with artists in Portland and around the country. She frequents as a vocalist and a featured artist with Resonance Ensemble. She is a commissioned composer and regularly engages in creative pursuits such as songwriting, arranging, electronic music production, and improvisation. Her artistic passions center on topics such as exploring and cultivating creative and artistic literacy, music as a vehicle of expression, connection and communication, and celebrating the diversity of music and how her instruments find voices around the world across various genres, styles, purposes, cultures, and artistic mediums.

Greg Zelek organ

Praised as “extraordinary in the classical music world” (Jon Hornbacher, PBS Wisconsin Life) and a “musical star” (Bill Wineke, Channel 3000), Greg Zelek is the Principal Organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ, where he oversees all of the MSO’s organ programming. Since September 2017, Greg has proudly held the Elaine and Nicholas Mischler Curatorship.

In addition to concertizing throughout the United States, Greg regularly performs with orchestras as both a soloist and professional ensemble member, including the MET Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Florida Orchestra, New World Symphony, Ridgewood Symphony, Miami Symphony, and Madison Symphony. He regularly performs as a soloist around the country, including venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jacoby Symphony Hall with the Jacksonville Symphony, and St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN, among others.

In 2016, Greg was chosen by The Diapason magazine as one of the top “20 Under 30” organists, a feature which selects the most successful young artists in the field. He was the First Prize winner in the 2012 Rodgers North American Classical Organ Competition, 2012 West Chester University Organ Competition, and the 2010 East Carolina University Organ Competition. A recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship, Greg received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, as well as an Artist Diploma, from the Juilliard School as a student of Paul Jacobs. Greg, who is Cuban-American and a native Spanish speaker, grew up in Miami, Florida. For more information on upcoming performances, please visit www.gregzelek.com.

ENSURING A BRIGHT FUTURE for the OVERTURE CONCERT ORGAN

Please help us raise $20,000 for the Organ Endowment Fund in celebration of the Organ’s 20th Anniversary!

The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Organ Endowment Fund provides a permanent source of long-term support for organ programming and care of the instrument. In honor of the Overture Concert Organ’s 20th Anniversary, the MSO and FOCO hope to raise an additional $20,000 for the Organ Endowment Fund through our Adopt-aStop naming program.

We invite you to “adopt” part of the organ with an endowment gift of $1,000 or more. Your gift will help to ensure a bright future for the Overture Concert Organ!

$25,000Division

$10,000Stop

$5,000Façade pipe

$2,500Single pipe - Major

$1,000Single pipe - Minor

Up to $999 General donation

madisonsymphony.org/adoptastop

Contact: Casey Oelkers, Director of Development, (608) 257-3734

Adopt-a-Stop gifts do not qualify for FOCO membership benefits.

ADOPT-A-STOP

Thank you to these generous donors for their gifts of $1,000 or more to the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Overture Concert Organ Endowment Fund. Donors who have chosen to adopt individual parts of the organ are listed with their individual adoptions.

ORGAN CONSOLE

Catherine Burgess, in memory of Jim Burgess

TUTTI

Nicholas and Elaine Mischler

DIVISION

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ in honor of Samuel C. Hutchison

Great Division

Gamber F. Tegtmeyer, Jr., in memory of Audrey Tegtmeyer

Swell Division

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ in honor of Gregory C. Zelek in celebration of his Golden Birthday

Solo Division

STOP

In memory of Ruth and Frederick Dobbratz

Great Principal 8’

John and Christine Gauder

Pedal Contra Bombarde 32’

Reynold V. Peterson

Swell Basson 16’

Lise Skofronick

Solo Harmonic Flute 8’

John and Carol Toussaint

Pedal Posaune 16’

Ann Wallace

Solo French Horn 8’

Susan and Rolf Wulfsberg

Great Gedeckt 8’

An Anonymous Friend

FAÇADE PIPE

Dr. Frederick W. Blancke

Great Principal 16’ – F²

Daniel and Stacey Bormann in memory of Larry Shrode

Great Principal 16’ – D²

LEARN MORE

Lau and Bea Christensen

Great Principal 16’ – C²

Thomas A. Farrell in honor of Ann Farrell

Great Principal 16’ – A³

Jane Hamblen and Robert F. Lemanske

Great Principal 16’ – B¹

Sandra L. Osborn

Great Principal 16’ – C³

In Memory of Jennie Biel Sheskey and Biel Orchestra, The John and Twila Sheskey Charitable Fund

Great Principal 16’ – B2

MAJOR PIPE

Anne Bolz in honor of Greg Upward

Solo Harmonic Flute 8’ – G³

In Memory of Lila Smith Lightfoot

Solo Tuba 16’ – C¹

Vicki and Marv Nonn Pedal Double Open 32’ – C¹

Reynold V. Peterson

Choir Unda Maris 8’ – A3

Barbara and Richard Schnell

Solo French Horn 8’ – D1

Barbara and Richard Schnell

Solo French Horn 8’ – E1

MINOR PIPE

Fernando and Carla Alvarado

Solo Principal 8’ – C³

Fernando and Carla Alvarado in honor of Nicholas and Elaine Mischler

Swell Quintflöte 2 2/3’ – F¹

Brian and Rozan Anderson Bassoon 16’ – A2

Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith

Choir Clarinet 8’ – B²

Nancy Becknell

Solo French Horn 8’ – C¹

Ed and Lisa Binkley

Pedal – Vox Balinae 64’ – C¹

Patricia Brady and Robert Smith

Solo French Horn 8’ – B2

Capitol Lakes

Swell Fugara 4’ – D3

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ in honor of Reynold Peterson

Great Trompete 8’ – G3

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ

2015-2016 Board of Directors in honor of Elaine Mischler

Choir Clarinet 8’ – B-Flat¹

Friends of the Overture Concert

Organ 2019-2020 Board of Directors in honor of Ellsworth Brown

Solo Harmonic Flute 8’ – E³

Paul Fritsch and Jim Hartman

Solo French Horn 8’ – A3

Paul Fritsch and Jim Hartman in honor of Karissa Fritsch

Solo French Horn 8’ – F4

Paul Fritsch and Jim Hartman in honor of Bethany Hart

Solo Harmonic Flute 8’ – B3

Paul Fritsch and Jim Hartman in honor of Paige Kramer

Solo French Horn 8’ – G2

Dr. Robert and Linda Graebner

Great Principal 8’ – C¹

Kris S. Jarantoski

Swell Bordun 8’ – C³

Darko and Judy Kalan in honor of Samuel C. Hutchison

Swell Basson–Hautbois 8’ – C¹

Carolyn Kau and Chris Hinrichs

Choir Suavial 8’ – C³

Gary Lewis

Swell Basson–Hautbois 8’ – C³

Connie Maxwell

Swell Basson–Hautbois 8’ – A³

Gale Meyer

Solo French Horn 8’ – G1

Susanne M. Michler

Swell Trompette Harmonique 8’ – C³

Stephen D. Morton

Swell Bourdon 16’ – C¹

Casey, Eric, Dylan, and Kendall Oelkers in honor of Walter & Barbara

Herrod's 50th Anniversary

Solo Harmonic Flute 8' - G2

Larry and Jan Phelps

Pedal – Subbass 16’ – C¹

Hans and Mary Lang Sollinger

Swell Traversflöte 4’ – A²

Harriet Thiele Statz

Choir Gemshorn 8’ – A3

Two Friends in memory of Jack Hicks

Great Principal 8’ – C3

Anders Yocom and Ann Yocom

Engelman

Solo Principal 8’ – A²

GREAT

4-1/2” wind

Principal

Principal

Offenflote

Salicional

Gedeckt

Principal

Rohrflote

Quinte

Octave

Cornett V

Mixtura mayor V

Trompete

Trompete

SWELL (enclosed)

4-1/2” wind

Bordun

Tibia

Bordun

Viola da Gamba

Voix Celeste

Fugara

Transversflote

Quintflote

Octavflote

Terzflote

Plein jeu IV

Basson

ORGAN SPECIFICATION

Johannes Klais Orgelbau — Bonn, Germany

2004 • 72 Ranks

SOLO (enclosed)

11” wind

Principal

Harmonic Flute

Stentor Gamba

Gamba Celeste

Tuba

Tuba

French Horn

PEDAL

5” wind

Vox Balinae (Resultant)

Double Open

Untersatz

Open Wood

Violon (Gt)

Bourdon (Sw)

Subbass

Octavbass

Harmonic Flute (Solo)

Stentor Gamba (Solo)

Gedackt

Octave

Contra Bombarde

Posaune

Tuba (Solo)

Trompete

Trompette harmonique

Basson-Hautbois

Clairon harmonique

Tremulant

CHOIR (enclosed)

4” wind

Geigen Principal

Suavial

Rohrflote

Gemshorn

Unda maris

Octave

Viola

Waldflote

Quinte

Terz

Mixtura minor IV

Clarinet

Tremulant

Gt to Ped

to Ped Sw to Ped Sw to Ped Ch to Ped Ch to Ped Solo to Ped

Solo to Ped

Sw to Sw

Sw Unison Off

Sw to Sw

Sw to Gt

Sw to Gt

Sw to Gt

Ch to Gt

Ch to Gt

Ch to Gt

Solo to Gt

Solo to Gt

Solo to Gt

Gt to Gt

Gt Unison Off

Gt to Gt Sw to Ch

to Ch

to Ch

to Sw

General Pistons

General Toe Studs

Divisional Pistons

Pedal Divisional

Toe Studs

Divisional

Cancel Pistons

Sequencer

Programmable

Crescendo and Tutti

FRIENDS OF THE OVERTURE CONCERT ORGAN

We gratefully acknowledge the Friends of the Overture Concert Organ for their support of Overture Concert Organ programming and production for the 2024-2025 Season. This list includes current members as of September 25, 2024.

HONORARY

LIFETIME MEMBERS

W. Jerome Frautschi

& Pleasant T. Rowland

Diane Endres Ballweg

Bruce & Suzanne Case

Samuel C. Hutchison

CURATOR CIRCLE

$1000 & above

Carla & Fernando Alvarado

Chuck Bauer & Chuck Beckwith

Jeff & Beth Bauer

James & Diane Baxter

Barbara & Norman Berven

Dr. Annette Beyer-Mears

Patricia Brady & Robert Smith

Janet & Scott Cabot

Stephen Caldwell & Judith Werner

Martha & Charles Casey

Dennis & Lynn Christensen

Lau & Bea Christensen

Mike & Quinn Christensen

Audrey Dybdahl

John & Christine Gauder

George Gay

Jane Hamblen & Robert F. Lemanske

Susan S. Harris

Darko & Judy Kalan

Myrna Larson

Charles McLimans & Dr. Richard Merrion

Bonnie McMullin-Lawton & Jack Lawton

Elaine & Nicholas Mischler

Genevieve Murtaugh

Vicki & Marv Nonn

Peter & Leslie Overton

Reynold V. Peterson

Walter & Karen Pridham

Charitable Fund

Bill & Rhonda Rushing

Kay Schwichtenberg & Herman Baumann

Lise R. Skofronick

Gerald & Shirley Spade

William Steffenhagen

Dr. Condon & Mary Vander Ark

Two Anonymous Friends

J. S. BACH SOCIETY

$650–$999

David & Karen Benton

Richard Cashwell

Jerome Ebert & Joye Ebert Kuehn

Timothy & Renée Farley

Terry Haller

Walter & Barbara Herrod

Kris S. Jarantoski

Ann & David Martin

Joan & Doug Maynard

Joseph Meara & Karen Rebholz

David Myers

Faith & Russ Portier

James J. Uppena

Leonard & Paula Werner

Faye Whitaker

David Willow

One Anonymous Friend

GREAT

$300–$649

Lyle J. Anderson

Ellis & Susan Bauman

Mary & Ken Buroker

Dr. Larry & Mary Kay Burton

Bonnie & Marc Conway

Louis Cornelius & Pris Boroniec

Paula K. Doyle

John & Deidre Dunn

Crystal Enslin

John & Will Erikson

Bobbi Foutch-Reynolds & Jim Reynolds

Donna B. Fox

Paul Fritsch & Jim Hartman

Joel & Jacquie Greiner

Vicki Hamstra

Betty & Edward Hasselkus

Jack Holzhueter

& Michael Bridgeman

James & Cindy Hoyt

Maryanne & Bob Julian

Chris & Marge Kleinhenz

Larry M. Kneeland

Richard & Claire Kotenbeutel

Peggy Lescrenier

David Parminter

Patricia Paska

William E. Petig

Sue Poullette

Lori & Jack Poulson

Ron Rosner & Ronnie Hess

Andrew & Erika Stevens

Karen M. Stoebig

Karla Stoebig

David Stone

Martha Taylor & Gary Antoniewicz

Harry Tschopik

Ellen M. Twing

Ann Wallace

John & Janine Wardale

Sally Wellman

Willis & Heijia Wheeler

Derrith Wieman & Todd Clark

Jeffrey Williamson

Susan & Rolf Wulfsberg

SWELL

$150–$299

Carolyn Aradine

Leigh Barker Cheesebro

James Conway & Katherine Trace

John Daane

Paula & Bob Dinndorf

Donalea Dinsmore

Marilyn Ebben

Elizabeth Fadell

Douglas & Carol Fast

Jill Gaskell

Michael George & Susan Gardels

Pauline Gilbertson & Peter Medley

Lynn & Peter Gilbertson-Burke

William & Sharon Goehring

Margaret & Paul Irwin

Greg & Doreen Jensen

Dan & Janet Johnson

Jerome & Dee Dee Jones

Fr. C. Lee & Edith M. Gilbertson

Judy Lyons & Doug Knudson

Tom Kurtz

Steve & Karen Limbach

Margaret & Paul Miller

Casey & Eric Oelkers

Ron & Jan Opelt

Gerald & Christine Popenhagen

Don & Roz Rahn

John & Rachel Rothschild

Steven & Lennie Saffian

Cary & Barbara Schultz

Sandy Shepherd

Curt & Jane Smith

Kenneth Spielman

Tom & Dianne Totten

Colleen & Tim Tucker

John & Shelly Van Note

Jim Werlein & Jody Pringle

Carolyn White

Rebecca Wiegand

One Anonymous Friend

CHOIR

$85-$100

Judy & Tim Adrianson

Ginger Anderle & Pat Behling

Joyce Bringe

Catherine Buege

Gina Degiovanni

Ann Ellingboe

Marthea Fox

Joan Gilbertson

Barbara Grajewski & Michael Slupski

Bob & Bevi Haimerl

Bob & Dianna Haugh

Conrad & Susan Jostad

Valerie & Andreas Kazamias

Miki & Ivan Knezevic

Laurie & Gus Knitt

Joanna Kramer Fanney

Ann Kruger

Jim Larkee

Charles Leadholm & Jeanne Parus

Gary Lewis & Ken Sosinski

Bonnie Orvick

Ernest J. Peterson

Tom Pierce

Ellen & Kenneth Prest

Randy & Deb Raasch

Kathleen Rasmussen

Sherry Reames

Richard & Donna Reinardy

Sarah Rose

Barbara & Donald Sanford

Sinikka Santala & Gregory Schmidt

Dennis & Janice Schattschneider

Thomas & Lynn Schmidt

Reeves Smith & Glenna Carter

Chris & Ronald Sorkness

Rob & Mary Stroud

Cheri J. Teal

Ed & Jan Vidruk

Karl & Ellen Westlund

Dorothy Whiting

Wade W. & Shelley D. Whitmus

Anders Yocom & Ann Yocom Engelman

Three Anonymous Friends

FRIEND

$25*-$84

David & Ruth Arnold

Louis & Sandra Arrington

Bob & Bonnie Block

Dorothy Blotz

Jonathan Boott

Kathleen Borner

Waltraud Brinkmann

Barbara Constans & Deb Rohde

Lucy Dechene, Ph.D.

Paul DiMusto & Molly Oberdoerster

Elizabeth Enright

Sandra L. Erickson

Jim Esmoil

Joann & John Esser

Emily & Milton Ford

Francis & Glynis Friend

Kenneth & Molly Gage

Sam Gratz

Marjorie K. Gray

Frank & Catherine Greer

Andrew Halbach

Christina Hull

Joe Johnson

Marilyn Kay

Barbara Kell

Melissa Keyes & Ingrid Rothe

Noël Marie & Steven Klapper

Linda Krueger

Ed & Julie Lehr

David MacMillan

Kathlyn Maldegen

Jan L. McCormick

David & Joan Milke

Kathleen & Richard Miller

Wendy Miller

Caleb Mitchell

Terry Morrison

Ann & David Moyer

Susan Mueller

Mary Murray

Don & Krista Nelson

Darlene M. Olson

Phillip & Karen Paulson

Mark E. Puda & Carol S. Johnston

Robert A. Reed

Mark & Zoe Rickenbach

Cora Rund

John & Susan Schauf

David & Gail Schultz

Roger & Kathleen Schultz

Terrell & Mary Smith

Steve Somerson & Helena Tsotsis

Mary Lou Tyne

Nakkiah & Korvid Stampfli

Robert & Barbara Stanley

Teresa Venker

Greg Wagner & Fred Muci

Bill & Jackie Wineke

Celeste Woodruff & Bruce Fritz

Carolyn Young

Jennifer Younger & Tom Smith

Ledell Zellers & Simon Anderson

Seven Anonymous Friends

*For the 2024-2025 Organ Season, new members can join FOCO for $20 as First Time Friends.

We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list. If you have any questions about the list, please contact the MSO’s development department at (608) 257-3734.

Single tickets on sale now for all performances. Be enchanted and buy single tickets at madisonsymphony.org/organ20

ORGAN SINGLE TICKETS:

Subscribe to 5–7 concerts and save 10-20% off single ticket prices (starting at $70-$470 for 5 concerts). Subscriptions are available until November 1, 2024. Purchase single tickets for any concerts. Anticipate, subscribe, and purchase single tickets at madisonsymphony.org/99

SINGLE TICKETS

IN-PERSON: Overture Center Box Office, 201 State Street BY PHONE: (608) 258-4141 ONLINE: madisonsymphony.org or overture.org

Board of Directors and Administrative Staff

FRIENDS OF THE OVERTURE CONCERT ORGAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 2024–2025

OFFICERS

William Steffenhagen

President

David Willow

Secretary-Treasurer

Robert Lemanske

Past President

DIRECTORS

Beth Bauer

Herman Baumann

Janet Cabot

Quinn Christensen

Paula Doyle

Audrey Dybdahl

Mark Huth

Charles McLimans

Doug McNeel

Caleb Mitchell

David Parminter

Rhonda Rushing

Jennifer Younger

ADVISORS

Fernando Alvarado

Diane Ballweg

James Baxter

Barbara Berven

Ellsworth Brown

John Gauder

Terry Haller

Ellen Larson Latimer

Gary Lewis

Elaine Mischler

Vicki Nonn

Reynold Peterson

Teri Venker

Anders Yocom

EX OFFICIO

Greg Zelek, Elaine & Nicholas Mischler

Curator, Overture Concert Organ

MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC.

ADMINISTRATION

Robert Reed, Executive Director

David Gordon, Executive Assistant & Board Liaison

Ann Bowen, General Manager

Alexis Carreon, Office & Personnel Manager

Jennifer Goldberg, Orchestra Librarian, John & Carolyn Petersen Chair

Lisa Kjentvet, Director of

Education & Community Engagement

Katelyn Hanvey, Education & Community Engagement Manager

Casey Oelkers, Director of Development

Meranda Dooley, Manager of Individual Giving

Rachel Cherian, Manager of Grants & Sponsorships

Peter Rodgers, Director of Marketing

Amanda Dill, Marketing/ Communications Manager

Lindsey Meekhof, Audience Experience Manager

Chris Fiol, Digital Marketing and Engagement Specialist

Sarah Bergmann, Bolz Marketing Associate

Greg Zelek, Elaine & Nicholas Mischler Curator, Overture Concert Organ

Friends of the Overture Concert Organ (FOCO) play an important role in supporting MSO’s Overture Concert Organ programming. FOCO helps the MSO:

• Bring you live performances by some of the best organists in the world

• Produce a variety of free educational programs showcasing the organ

• Tune and maintain our magnificent organ

Members receive invitations to behind-the-scenes events and opportunities to meet our guest organists.

In celebration of the organ’s 20th anniversary, first-time friends can join FOCO for just $20!

LimmiePulliam , tenor

Greg Zelek , organ

Limmie Pulliam awed our Madison audience with his performances in Madison Opera’s Tosca and our own 2023 Madison Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert. He and I will join forces in a program featuring some of the most well-known operatic arias, gospel works arranged for organ and tenor, and solo organ arrangements of opera overtures and instrumentals. I can’t wait to bring Mr. Pulliam back to wow our audience once again! – Greg Zelek music

Giuseppe Verdi, Celeste Aida from Aida

Giacomo Puccini, Nessun Dorma from Turandot

Giuseppe Verdi, La donna è mobile from Rigoletto

Giuseppe Verdi, Grand March from Aida

Giacomo Puccini, E lucevan le stelle from Tosca

Moses Hogan, Give Me Jesus

Traditional, Steal Away

Traditional, Ride On, King Jesus

Andraé Crouch, Through It All

MAJOR SPONSORS

Fernando and Carla Alvarado

Peter and Leslie Overton

Walter and Karen Pridham Charitable Fund

ADDITIONAL SPONSORS

Janet and Scott Cabot

Martha and Charles Casey

become a friend

Each season, many new individuals become Friends of the Overture Concert Organ by making gifts of support. Friends’ generosity helps us cover the costs of ticketed and free concerts that so many people in our community enjoy, as well as tuning and maintenance of the instrument.

For the Organ’s 20th Anniversary, new members can join FOCO as a First Time Friend at a special anniversary rate of just $20!

Renewing memberships start at $35. Friends, at all levels, have access to exclusive benefits and opportunities throughout the season.

Ticket sales cover less than half of the costs of producing a season.

Discover more about Friends of the Overture Concert Organ. Visit: madisonsymphony.org/foco

Member benefits are subject to change.

2024–2025 FRIENDS OF THE OVERTURE CONCERT ORGAN MEMBERSHIP LEVELS & BENEFITS

Benefits are available during the concert season your gift supports.

Recognition in organ concert program books

Special member communications

Invitation to Showcasing the Organ events

Invitation to FOCO Annual Meeting

Recognition in MSO program books

Two complimentary beverage vouchers

Invitation to one organ post-concert reception

Open invitation to all organ post-concert receptions

Private, reserved parking for organ concerts and events*

Invitation to a special member appreciation event

^Note: The First Time Friend membership level is a special introductory offer for the 2024-2025 Organ Season. New members can join FOCO for just $20 in celebration of the 20th season of the Overture Concert Organ.

*Note: The parking benefit has a fair market value of $35, and may reduce the tax-deductibility of your gift.

MEMBERSHIP DONATION FORM

24-25 Season Calendar

Symphony and Organ Concerts

oct 3

Organ

Paul Jacobs, Organ

oct 18–20

Visions

Nicholas Hersh, Guest Conductor

Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Violin

nov 15–17

Michael Stern, Guest Conductor

Garrick Ohlsson, Piano

nov 21

Organ

Lyyra Ensemble, Organ

Greg Zelek, Organ

nov 23

Kyle Knox, Conductor

Disney and Pixar’s Coco in Concert

dec 6-8

jan 17–19

John DeMain, Conductor

Gil Shaham, Violin

Orli Shaham, Piano

Sterling Elliott, Cello

feb 22-23

Organ Momentum Legacy

John DeMain, Conductor

Vanessa Becerra, Soprano

Craig Irvin, Baritone

Madison Symphony Chorus, Beverly Taylor, Director

Mount Zion Gospel Choir, Tamera and Leotha Stanley, Directors

Madison Youth Choirs

Michael Ross, Artistic Director

Kyle Knox, Conductor Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert

feb 25

Organ

Limmie Pulliam, Tenor

Greg Zelek, Organ

mar 14–16

John DeMain, Conductor

Amanda Majeski, Soprano

Kirsten Lippart, Mezzo-Soprano

Martin Luther Clark, Tenor

Matt Boehler, Bass

Madison Symphony Chorus, Beverly Taylor, Director

apr 3

Empire Brass Celebration

Greg Zelek, Organ

apr 11–13

Joseph Young, Guest Conductor

Time For Three:

Nicolas Kendall, Violin

Charles Yang, Violin

Ranaan Meyer, Double Bass

may 9-11

John DeMain, Conductor

Garrick Ohlsson, Piano

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.