Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF)

05/30/2022

Do you know the history of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo? Originally written for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua in 1607, it has become the earliest surviving opera still performed today. The early 17th century was a transitional period, where the traditional “intermedia” began evolving into the form of a complete musical drama or "opera". The production of L'Orfeo served as the first fully developed example of the new genre and its influence lives on even today. Join APERI ANIMAM and Milwaukee Opera Theatre June 9-12, 2022 at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee to experience this critical piece of operatic history live - and, thanks to Danny Brylow and Joseph Krohlow, in English!

Buy your tickets here today: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lorfeo-tickets-336800187427

05/12/2022

Beautiful playing by Piffaro at Corpus Christi Church in New York City.

05/07/2022

If you missed Piffaro’s concert in Madison on April 22 join them online from Philadelphia!

https://piffaro.secure.force.com/ticket #/instances/a0F1H00000FcV9bUAF

05/05/2022

Check out the ensemble Forgotten Clefs that include past MEMF participants Adam Dillon, Sarah Huebsch Schilling and Kelsey Schilling!

05/01/2022

Our Spring Workshop Series concludes ONE WEEK FROM TODAY on Saturday, May 7 at 2pm with the wonderful Bill Hudson! He will discuss Baroque performance practice.

Non-CILNATS members - $10
CILNATS members - $5
Students of CILNATS members - FREE

**Registrants will receive a Zoom link. ALL registrants will receive access to the recording afterward, REGARDLESS of attendance at the presentation.**

Register here! https://forms.gle/yUkcPyu4hw1jvnit7

Image Design: Matthew Vala

04/23/2022

Working hard, or hardly working?! Having a blast rehearsing for EXILE at the Madison Early Music Festival this weekend 🤩🎶

04/22/2022

The Festival opens today! Carol Moseson, host of Musica Antiqua, interviewed Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, Co-Artistic Director of MEMF, about the plans for the last festival before her retirement. We hope you join us in the celebration this weekend at the Hamel Music Center ar the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music

Madison Early Music Festival begins tomorrow, Friday, April 22. Cheryl Bensman Rowe gave Musica Antiqua listeners an inside look at all the concerts and events ahead on April 17's Musica Antiqua program. Here's the abridged interview: https://www.wortfm.org/cheryl-bensman-rowe-previews-the-madison-early-music-festival-on-musica-antiqua/.

To hear the entire conversation with the musical examples included, skip ahead to the third hour of the archived Sunday, April 17 Musica Antiqua show here: https://archive.wortfm.org/.

Post-interview update: The Jori Vinikour harpsichord recital has been cancelled due to illness. Check madisonearlymusic.org for updates.

Thank you, Cheryl, for the interview. WORT is a proud co-sponsor of the 2022 Madison Early Music Festival. Image provided by Madison Early Music Festival.

04/22/2022

They are here! The concert is Friday night at 7:30, Hamel Music Center with a pre-concert lecture by Mike Allsen at 6:30 pm in Collins Recital Hall! University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music

Five dulcians in rehearsal for our show at ❤️

04/17/2022

If you missed Musica Antiqua hosted by Carol Moseson this morning on WORT FM 89.9 you can still listen to the archived show! For the first two hours the program features Ukrainian Baroque choral music sung by the Kyiv Chamber Choir, Chanticleer's Mysteria Gregorian Chants, and music of Salomone Rossi by Ensemble Bet Haget and other selections.
The last hour is an interview about next week's MEMF Festival, "The Happy Journey" with Co-Artistic Director of MEMF, Cheryl Bensman-Rowe.
Thank you to Musica Antiqua for so many years of supporting early music in Madison!
http://archive.wortfm.org/

We're Listener Sponsored Community Radio And we want to hear from you! What do you like about WORT? What makes you want to pull your hair out? Take this 2 minute survey and let us know how we're doing. Your archived show will still be here when you finish. Thanks!

04/02/2022

Listen to new releases of early music on Musica Antiqua hosted by MEMF Board member Alan Muirhead!

Old music is new again! On Musica Antiqua this Sunday, host Alan Muirhead will highlight recordings that were issued in the past year by several early music groups, including Pacific MusicWorks, Concordian Dawn, Agave Baroque, Marian Consort, El Mundo, the Yale Institute for Sacred Music, Concerto Scirocco, and others. Tune in, and you will hear selections such as medieval music from France, an early Baroque sonata by Isabella Leonarda, a lament by Johann Christoph Bach, and theater music from Restoration England. That’s this Sunday, April 3, 8-11am on WORT, 89.9FM, Madison, or streaming live on wortfm.org, where you can also find archives and playlists. Tell your friends about us! The image is of Young Lady Playing a Lute; early 1500s, anonymous.

04/01/2022

Dancing with the Scandinavian-American Old-Time Dance Music Ensemble is a good warm up for dancing with Peggy Murray at the Madison Early Music Festival! On Monday, April 18th
in the Great Hall in Memorial Union. Beginning at 6pm there will be a half-hour of dance instruction, and from 6:30-8:30pm the Scandinavian American Old-time Dance Music Ensemble will perform for dancers. There will be appetizers and the event is free and open to the public. Check out their events at: https://folklife.wisc.edu/event/spring-dance/

Come join us for a Spring Dance featuring Musician-in-Residence Beth Hoven Rotto and the Scandinavian American Old-time Dance Music Ensemble!   Mark your calendar for the evening of Monday, April 18th, and come dance to …

01/21/2022

A motet for voice and continuo from Leonarda's Motetti a voce sola, Op. 6 (Venezia, 1676). To learn more about Isabella Leonarda and this piece, check out Ti...

01/19/2022

01/15/2022

On Musica Antiqua for January 16 host Alan Muirhead will review many of the early music recordings that were issued last year. You'll hear samples of CDs from groups like Boston Camerata, Cinquecento, Contrapunctus, and ¡Sacabuche! and artists including Corina Marti, Lukas Henning, and Julie Roset. All these plus Madison favorites Quicksilver, New York Polyphony, and Newberry Consort. The only over-riding theme for the show is that this is all great music, wonderfully performed. Tune in Sunday, January 16, 8-11am to WORT, 89.9FM, Madison. You can also hear us streaming live at wortfm.org, or listen to the archive any time over the next 2 weeks. Check it out! image is of 4 angelic musicians, photo taken by Michael Fuller and Neathery Fuller

12/31/2021

12/30/2021

Season’s Greetings!

It's not too late to make a donation to MEMF before the old year passes! This will help support our April 22-24 celebration with a weekend filled with concerts, lectures, classes and a concluding All Festival concert.
We continue to have the same affiliation with the UW Foundation. You can donate online at:
https://secure.supportuw.org/give/?id=B34181BE-0E37-4153-B21F-51C22288C82B
Or, send a check by mail to:
Madison Early Music Fund - 112903448
UW Foundation
U.S. Bank Lockbox 78807
Milwaukee, WI 53278-0807

Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in April.

Happy New Year!
Cheryl and Paul
[email protected]
www.madisonearlymusic.org

12/09/2021

Piffaro brings resounding music from the Renaissance with its upcoming weekend concert celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, and the winter solstice. Gail Obenreder previews.

12/08/2021

Merry Piffmas!
Piffaro’s Christmas concert is performed this weekend!

A selection from our program Let the Holidays Resound, recorded November 11, 2021 at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Guest artists Clara Rottsolk, sopr...

12/04/2021

Now that it's December, Musica Antiqua this Sunday will be featuring music of the Advent and Christmas season. You will hear music, familiar and not so, from medieval England and France, Renaissance Germany, and from Spain and the New World. Composers featured will include Schütz, Morales, Daquin, Telemann, Bach, Billings, Padilla, and many others. Please join host Alan Muirhead live on Sunday, 8-11am on WORT, 89.9FM, Madison. Or listen at any time in the next 2 weeks on wortfm.org, where you can also find the archive and the playlists. Tell all your friends! Local listeners, don't forget that Alan will highlight some of the live concerts coming up in Madison over the next week during the Classical Calendar at 10am. (image is December from the Grimani Breviary)

11/25/2021

Happy Thanksgiving from Piffaro!

A selection from our program Let the Holidays Resound, recorded November 11, 2021 at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Guest artist Fiona Last, recorder ...

11/09/2021

Please join us for a special recital with Kathryn Montoya, recorder and baroque oboe, on Monday, November 22nd at 7:30 pm in Collins Recital Hall at the Hamel Music Center at UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
School of Music Faculty members Marc Vallon, baroque bassoon, and John Chappell Stowe, harpsichord will join Kathryn in a program featuring works of Couperin, Sammartini, Telemann and Platti. https://www.oberlin.edu/kathryn-montoya
The concert is free, and tickets are not necessary to attend.
For more information: https://music.wisc.edu/concerts-events/
https://www.facebook.com/MeadWitterSchoolOfMusic

11/05/2021

We've received word that next week's in-person concert at Boston Early Music Festival is SOLD OUT! But, you can still watch the program, "Point/Counterpoint," online beginning on November 26. Rep will include selections from our 2017 recording, Back Before Bach, and highlights from last year's online concert, Fuguing from Obrecht to Bach.

Tickets: https://bemf.org/concert-season/piffaro/

10/20/2021

Nota Bene Viol Consort Online: from Friday 1st October, 8pm (BST) (3pm EDT) ‘Like A Virgin’ – The 15th century song Comme femme desconfortée (attributed to Binchois) became the basis of a number of works by Josquin and his contemporaries Ghiselin, Agricola, Isaac, and Senfl. In this concert N...