Chamber Music Festival June 15 – July 1, 2012
3 weekends, 3 cities, 6 programs

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society (BDDS), an Overture Center Summer Resident Company, presents its 21st annual summer chamber music festival "Mixology," June 15 – July 1, 2012. This festival features 12 concerts over three weekends, each weekend offers two different programs. Concerts will be performed in the Playhouse at Overture Center in Madison, Stoughton Opera House, and the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.

Combining the best local musicians and top-notch artists from around the country, a varied repertoire and delightful surprises, BDDS presents chamber music as "serious fun" infused with high energy and lots of audience appeal, and makes this art form accessible to diverse audiences. Led by artistic directors Stephanie Jutt, flute, and Jeffrey Sykes, piano, 12 guest artists will perform in the festival.

Our 21st season has been named "Mixology" in honor of all the mixing, shaking, muddling, stirring, and tweaking that go into making the perfect summer musical libation. We'll have concoctions for every taste, all made with the finest ingredients mixed with the greatest of care. We promise you an unforgettably heady blend served with a serious twist of BDDS flair.

Our first week's programs are White Russian, and Corpse Reviver. A White Russian is a tasty combination of cream, vodka, and coffee liquor. Our musical version of this classic includes Tchaikovsky's epic and opulent piano trio—the cream in our cocktail—played by the San Francisco Piano Trio. Prokofiev's flute sonata, his neoclassic masterpiece, provides the kick of the finest vodka. The coffee liquor is provided by the well-caffeinated trio for flute, cello, and piano by Marcelle de Manziarly, one of a handful of female Russian composers.

A corpse reviver is a famous morning-after cocktail; our musical Corpse Reviver showcases works that knock you out at the beginning but give you a serious lift at the end. It opens with Jolivet's Chant de Linos for flute and piano, an ancient Greek mourning chant that begins with wailing and ends with ecstatic, celebratory dancing. Mozart's great piano concerto in D minor, a turbulent work that ends in a blaze of sunshine, will be featured in Hummel's transcription for piano, flute, violin, and cello with artistic co-director Jeffrey Sykes as soloist. The program concludes with Mendelssohn's fiery piano trio in C minor—a dark and anguished piece that ends with a setting of the resurrection hymn "Before your throne I now appear."

Week one will feature performances by the San Francisco Piano Trio: Axel Strauss, violin, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, cello, and Jeffrey Sykes, piano; and Stephanie Jutt, flute. Concerts will be performed in The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Friday, June 15 and Saturday, June 16, 7:30 PM, and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 17, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM.

The second week's programs will be B&B and Manhattan. Our take on the classic B&B—Benedictine & Brandy—features works by the three great B's of classical music, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartók. The centerpieces for this program are two works written for two pianos: the Variations on a theme of Haydn by Brahms, one of his greatest and most beautiful works; and the thrilling, rhythmically propulsive Sonata for two pianos and percussion by the Hungarian master Béla Bartók. The program will be rounded out with Beethoven's rarely heard trio for flute, cello, and piano.

Manhattan is a program infused with the scintillating energy of New York. The familiar, beloved Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, arranged for two pianos and percussion, forms the centerpiece of the program. Samuel Barber's beautiful Cello Sonata shows us the romantic side of New York, and Ned Rorem's Trio for flute, cello, and piano gives us the city's nervous energy. The great tango master Astor Piazzolla grew up in New York; our program concludes with a set of heart-on-the-sleeve tangos arranged for our entire ensemble.

Guest artists include Randall Hodgkinson, piano, of the New England Conservatory; Dane Richeson and Anthony Di Sanza, percussion, from Lawrence University and the UW-Madison, respectively; and Parry Karp, cello, of the Pro Arte Quartet. Concerts will be performed at The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Friday, June 22, and Saturday, June 23, 7:30 PM, and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 24, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM.

The third week's programs are Kir Royale and Old Fashioned. The Kir Royale, that most noble of cocktails, is the inspiration for a program of noble music. We begin with François Couperin's Concert Royaux, written for the French king Louis XIV. We continue with Haydn's Symphony no. 85, "The Queen of France," written for Marie Antoinette and arranged by Haydn for flute, string quartet, and harpsichord. Our program concludes with what many consider to be the greatest, most noble piece of chamber music ever written: the String Quintet in C Major of Franz Schubert.

Our take on the classic Old Fashioned features works by composers who were considered old-fashioned in their day but who are now considered to have been very forward-thinking. We begin with one of Bach's beautiful flute sonatas and continue with Couperin's "Apotheosis of Lully," written in a consciously antique style in honor of the great composer Lully. Stravinsky's Suite Italienne was inspired by the light baroque dances of Pergolesi. The program concludes with Brahms' great Piano Quintet, a work that is old-fashioned in its outlines and structure but thoroughly modern in its sweep and passion.

Week three features performances by Layton James, harpsichord, from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Carmit Zori, violin, of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Brooklyn Chamber Music Society; Katarzyna Bryla, violin, from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Panner, viola, from Juilliard School; and Beth Rapier and Anthony Ross, both cellists from the Minnesota Orchestra. Concerts will be performed at the Stoughton Opera House, Friday, June 29, 7:30 PM; The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 30, 7:30 PM, and Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, July 1, at 2:30 PM and 6:30 PM. The performance in Stoughton will also be taped for Wisconsin Public Television's Jewel Box Theater Series.

For the second year, BDDS will also perform one free family concert, "Feel the Beat" and will feature percussionists playing music by Béla Bartók and Leonard Bernstein at 11:00 AM, on Saturday, June 23, in The Playhouse. This is a performance for families with children ages 6 and up and seating will be first come first served. This performance is generously underwritten by CUNA Mutual Group, Murphy Desmond, S.C., Lawyers, and The Overture Center.

Carolyn Kallenborn and Michael Velliquette, local artists, will create stage settings for each concert in The Playhouse. All concerts at The Playhouse, the Opera House and Hillside Theater will be followed by a meet-the-artist opportunity.

Locations: Stoughton Opera House (381 E. Main Street); Overture Center in Madison (201 State Street); Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Hillside Theater (CHY 23 in Spring Green).

Single general admission tickets are $38. Student tickets are only $5! Various ticket packages are also available starting at a series of three for $108. First time subscriptions are ½ off. For tickets and information visit www.bachdancinganddynamite.org or call (608) 255-9866. Single tickets for Overture Center concerts can also be purchased at the Overture Center for the Arts box office, (608) 258-4141, or at overturecenter.com (additional fees apply). Hillside Theater tickets may be purchased from the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor's Center on CHY C, (608) 588-7900. Tickets are available at the door at all locations.

Chamber music with a bang. More bang for your Bach. What Bach would be doing if he were more fun and less dead. However you describe what we do, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society always features great music played with joy, creativity, spontaneity, and a technique that is second to none. BDDS is aimed at people who are curious, open-minded, and up for anything. People who want to have serious fun.