Say ‘viol da gamba’ and most musical cognoscenti will think of cod pieces, doublets, farthingales and music of the European Renaissance. Very few, if any, will think of Japan. Yet the Chrysanthemum Empire has a long history of stringed musical instruments, and quickly took to the European viol when it was introduced by Portuguese sailors in the mid-1500s. The first report of a viol da gamba actually made in Japan dates from 1603.
It’s precisely this long and rich fusion of Eastern and Western traditions that’s celebrated by the Yukimi Kambe Viol Consort from Yokohama, Japan, who perform in Milwaukee at 5 p.m. April 8 to close the 19th season of Early Music Now. The program, ‘European Roots and International Flowerings,’ traces the influences of early European composers on the development of music in Japan with works ranging from 7th-century Japanese court music to works of Bach, Banchieri, Conceiçäo, Purcell and other Europeans, plus music by Japanese composers Ryouhei Hirose and Yoko Sato. After the revival of the viol in the 20th century, Japanese composers wrote some of the best contemporary music for viols. The Yukimi Kambe Viol Consort performs on a set of four matched viols built especially for them by Kazuya Sato.
The concert is at Wisconsin Lutheran College, 8815 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee. Tickets, $25 each, can be purchased from Early Music Now by calling (414) 225-3113 (Milwaukee area) or (877) 546-8742 (outside Milwaukee), as well as at www.earlymusicnow.org. The concert will be preceded at 4:30 by remarks from Consort director Yukimi Kambe.
The Lakeside Pride Symphonic Band once again will prove that it knows a marimba from a mouth organ, a clarinet from a licorice stick and a slider from a slide trombone as it offers a spring concert April 8 at 8 p.m., entitled Cruisin’—Adventures on the High Seas. The program of music on nautical themes will feature selections from HMS Pinafore by Gilbert & Sullivan, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. The concert by Chicago’s 80-piece gay and lesbian symphonic band will be presented in the theater of Northside College Preparatory School, 5501 N. Kedzie. Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in advance; www.lakesidepride.org.
A new Web site devoted to classical music has been launched by The Arts & Business Council of Chicago as a collaboration between eight of the Chicago area’s finest serious music organizations. The internet Web site, www.ChicagoClassicalMusic.org, provides the first online community for classical music enthusiasts in the Chicago metropolitan area. The eight founding groups are: Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, Music of the Baroque and the Ravinia Festival. Development of ChicagoClassicalMusic.org was made possible with funding from The Boeing Company.
ChicagoClassicalMusic.org explores what’s going on behind the scenes at Chicago-area orchestras and chamber music groups and provides tools for visitors to learn more about classical music, publish their own reviews, swap concert tickets and discuss music with other listeners. Executive staff members of some of the region’s most prominent classical music organizations contribute to a daily blog on music and the arts and discuss and debate issues with readers. The site’s principal features inclue an interactive blog; forum; articles and reviews; chat room; calendar; and links to many other classical music organizations and Web sites.
The Museum of Contemporary Art offers high art as cabaret this weekend (March 30-April 1) with a seldom-seen/heard performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 song cycle, Pierrot Lunaire (loosely translated as Moonstruck Pierrot or, better, Loony Pierrot), performed by the eighth blackbird ensemble, virtuoso soprano Lucy Shelton and puppeteer Blair Thomas & Company. Contemporary works by Jennifer Higdon and Jacob Druckman (a marimba solo) also will be performed by eighth blackbird. Call (312) 397-4010; $22 (a good deal).
Other upcoming performance highlights: Symphonic Hollywood, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays music from Lord of the Rings, Wuthering Heights, Spiderman, Forrest Gump and other flicks beneath projected film clips, March 31, 8 p.m. at Symphony Center; Music of the Baroque celebrates the women who influenced Mozart’s life and work (chiefly his mother, wife and sister-in-law, the latter two both singers), with estimable Jane Glover conducting, April 3, Harris Theater; Cesaria Evora, the earthy and profound Cape Verde Islands vocalist of Creole-Portuguese popular music, in concert Tuesday, April 4 at Symphony Center; and the Vermeer Quartet in music of Beethoven, Benjamin Britten and Schumann, April 10 at the Harris Theater.