A SY M P H O N Y O F G R AT I T U D E Elgar and Poulenc, and our incredible 60-piece string ensemble dazzled us with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
2021–2022 Reflections from the Podium by John DeMain, Music Director It was an absolute joy to return to Overture Hall for the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s 2021-2022 Season! With the help of our amazing production staff, especially our General Manager, Ann Bowen, we overcame many significant COVID-19 related challenges, such as social distancing, regular testing, and last-minute substitutions when members of the orchestra became ill. By no small miracle, we performed our entire season from September through May with no significant disruptions. Due to Dane County’s masking requirements, which prevented us from opening the season with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, we devised an alternate program for strings, organ and timpani. Our Rhapsodie Quartet and Principal Organist Greg Zelek starred in works by
Throughout the season, we welcomed stunning guest artists such as pianists Olga Kern and Garrick Ohlsson, violinists Gil Shaham and Kelly Hall-Tompkins, and cellist Thomas Mesa. We demonstrated our commitment to programming works by diverse composers in November with the Lyric for Strings by Pulitzer Prizewinning composer, George Walker, and in January with Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto, an absolutely masterful work that demanded top-level virtuosity by the orchestra and violinist Kelly HallTompkins. Our annual Christmas concerts and collaboration with the Madison Symphony Chorus, Mt. Zion Gospel Choir, Madison Youth Choirs and guest opera stars Jared Esguerra and Elizabeth Caballero, unofficially kicked off the Christmas season. In February, our dynamic Associate Conductor Kyle Knox and incredible actors from American Players Theatre took us “Beyond the Score®” of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, in a unique multi-media format created by the Chicago Symphony that has become very popular with our Madison audience over the last several years. And, we (finally!) celebrated Beethoven’s 250th birthday, showcasing many works from his Heroic period: his “Eroica” Symphony, his “Emperor” Piano Concerto (Garrick Ohlsson), his Violin Concerto (Gil Shaham), his sublime Missa Solemnis featuring the Madison Symphony Chorus and guest opera soloists (including my two stars from the opera “Blue”), his “Egmont” Overture, and of course one of the most famous works in all of orchestral music, his Fifth Symphony. In December, we threw a birthday party for Beethoven, with two all-Beethoven chamber music concerts featuring MSO musicians and special guests, and a reception with balloons, birthday cake and champagne.
I M PAC T 2021–2022 ORCHESTRA SEASON IN REVIEW
29,005 tickets sold for 24 concerts 21 masterpieces performed 10 guest artists featured
String Spirit, September 2021
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, January 2022
“The range of emotion was almost overwhelming. We left exhausted and quite literally stunned after one of the most profoundly stirring experiences in our decades of attending MSO concerts. Truly a triumphant performance.” – Audience member (April) “This was an absolutely extraordinary concert. Each of the works on the program, being quite diverse in character, were prepared and performed to the highest standards.” – Audience Member (March)
THE SCORE FALL 2022
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