Event

Live, Laugh, Love

Join the Wisconsin Chamber Choir on February 16th for Johannes Brahms Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, along with a wide variety of solos, duets and ensembles encompassing music by Puccini, Bizet, Clara Schumann, John Dowland, Stephen Sondheim, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. 3:00 pm, Sunday, February 16, at First Unitarian Society Landmark Auditorium, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison, Wisconsin.

Brahms completed his second group of Love Song Waltzes in 1874, setting poems that are alternately passionate, brooding, fiery, and contemplative. Building on the success of his first installment of Liebeslieder from five years earlier, Brahms music for the later set is more deeply emotional, mirroring the composers own complex romantic entanglements. Out of all Brahms female friends, he seems to have maintained the deepest affection for Clara Schumann, whose music appears on the first half of our program. Classic arias and duets from the operas La bohème, and The Pearl Fishers, and contemporary selections by Stephen Sondheim and Hamilton composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, round out the program. Presented in the intimate Landmark Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this is an event not to be missed. A wine-and-cheese reception will follow the concert.

Advance tickets available online for $15 ($10 for students) from Brown Paper Tickets or from a member of the choir. Ticket price at the door on February 16th is $20.

Founded in 1998, the Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Brahms; a cappella works from various centuries; and world-premieres. Artistic Director Robert Gehrenbeck has been hailed by critics for his vibrant and emotionally compelling interpretations of a wide variety of choral masterworks.