Kenosha, doncha know

After our exciting season opener last weekend, there was no chance we would take any time off. This weekend Fifth House takes Wisconsin by storm! Yesterday, five of us visited Tremper HS and performed for two band classes, discussed chamber music rehearsal techniques, and the privilege of working with living composers. We sure do love our school visits, and Tremper was no exception.

On this sunny day, we are doing a day-long residency at Carthage College. This morning we coached two chamber groups, playing Vaughn Williams' Household Music and Stravinsky's Octet. Look carefully, and you'll see the student ensemble's newest members, Melissa and Herine, subbing in for missing musicians on wildly innappropriate instrumentations. To quote Herine, "This is just like the nightmare I had last night." What Herine, you don't like playing bassoon lines?

As I type, our ensemble is recording works from tonight's concert for Mark Petering, our esteemed composer du jour. At 7:30, we have a concert of 5 pieces by Mark, all premieres (except for Kakadu, which was premiered on our series last weekend). Tomorrow at 3, we have another concert at First United Methodist Church in Kenosha playing another premiere by Mark, as well as Loeffler's Rhapsodies and Poulenc's Sextet for winds and piano. If you didn't know we loved you, Kenosha, you know it now.

For all of our Wisconsin fans, stay tuned. We have a residency at UW Milwaukee on February 21st, and our string quartet will perform at the Racine Art Museum on May 1st.

Till then, Wisconsin...Till then.

Thanks to all of the wonderful faculty at students at Carthage who made this weekend possible!

-AM

Act I Performance Partner - Lillstreet Art Center

As most of you know, one of the most popular parts of our subscription series is our collaborations. Last year's performance partners included Joel Hall Dance, Gingarte Capoeira, Merit School of Music Musicians, and CircEsteem.

Lest you think we aren't constantly expanding our horizons, I'm proud to share the results of our latest partnership! I had the pleasure of visiting the Intuitive Painting Class at Lillstreet Art Center, a fantastic place for people of all ages and experiences to explore their creativity.

Our lucky guinea pigs got sneak previews of the repertoire for Act I, painting works inspired by our music. I was completely amazed by how much was created in just a few hours, and can't wait to share their pieces with you at our concert. Some works will be used in projection during the performance, but we'll have a gallery of works for you to experience before and after the show as well as at intermission.

So a huge thanks to Melanie Brown, Amy Mayfield, and the brilliant artists of Lillstreet!

-AM

Commedia dell'Arte Launches on Saturday!

Our second annual subscription series titled, "Commedia dell'Arte: A Concert Series in Four Acts," launches on Saturday, October 11 at 7pm with Act 1!

For this year's series, we've created a storyline loosely based on Commedia plots/characters, and we'll be using silent film-inspired slides to help tell the tale as we score it with music.

Join us for Act 1, as we introduce our cast (two lovers, their family members, happy townspeople, an evil cast of strings). We'll be featuring music of Janacek, Loeffler, Hindemith, Petering and Nielsen.

For those of you who heard about our HILARIOUS photo shoot and said you'd pay money to see the results, here's your chance. Tickets are available online and at the door for $15 general, $8 students/seniors.

We look forward to seeing you there!

"This is How Jenny Rolls" Fundraiser

Jenny Woodrum, Fifth House clarinetist and "roller-skating ninja" took it upon herself to start a fundraiser for our group. Her grand efforts and amazing costume brought in over $1700!! A big thank-you to all who supported the cause - an updated donor list is now posted on our site. Congratulations Jenny!!!