The Madison Symphony Orchestra, housed in the Overture Center for the Arts, is considered one of the best regional orchestras in the country, and lucky for UW students, it is welcoming Badgers with open arms.
"We're competing, literally, with every orchestra in the world," explained MSO Conductor John DeMain, explaining how difficult it can be to get top-tier guests to Madison. "We're trying to get the biggest-name artists we can."
This is no simple task-DeMain and MSO Executive Director Rick Mackie have worked to get this weekend's guest violinist Midori to Madison for almost 12 years.
"She certainly exists within the top echelon of solo violinists in the world," DeMain said. "Because she's in such demand it's been very difficult [to get her here] and so this year we're just very lucky that it's worked out."
Students are perhaps even more fortunate, being that student rush tickets cost only $10 to witness world-renowned classical musicians. And this all for a show some community-goers are paying five times more to see. However, the price was not always this great according to MSO Marketing Director Ann Miller.
Midori requested students' seats, typically located in the balcony, be made the best in the house. Miller didn't see the point of letting the good seats remain empty when they had the bodies available to fill them. Plus, it gives students an experience she hopes they will want to continue later in their life.
"It's important to me and everyone that we build the next generation of symphony-goers or we won't be able to have symphony orchestras," she explained.
"[Students] are our future," DeMain agreed.
Not only does it give donors hope for the outlook of the symphony, seeing young faces in the crowd is also exciting for players in the orchestra. Although some musicians do travel from cities like Chicago and Milwaukee, many members of the symphony are actually students and faculty within the UW School of Music.
A junior studying at UW Madison and violinist in the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Nathaniel Wolkstein, said playing for fellow students is always exhilarating.
"While it is nice to have the appreciation of older audiences... it's just a different feeling to be interacting with the people you go to school with and people your own age," said Wolkstein. He also believes attending the symphony is an all-around great opportunity for students. "At this time, classical music is something that a lot of us have a chance to be exposed to," he said. "It's a different repertoire of material and different ways [of playing] that make it more accessible to students and people who aren't really familiar or trained in classical music."
DeMain suggested supporting and celebrating classmates is yet another reason for students to attend.
So if UW students make the decision to attend one of this weekend's concerts-they are always offered Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon once a month-what they expect to hear from the orchestra and Midori is exceptional.
According to DeMain, the orchestra will begin with only 54 people to play Hayden's last symphony, "No. 104," which DeMain described as "spirited and very, very beautiful." Concertgoers will then hear one of DeMain's favorites, Joseph-Maurice Ravel's "La Valse," which in MSO's seasonal brochure is said to conceal "the dark reflection of a war-ravaged Europe beneath the glittering formality of a Viennese waltz," performed by a starkly contrasted orchestra of almost 100 instrumentalists.
The night will finish when Midori joins the symphony for Dimitri Shostakovich's "Violin Concerto No. 1", a 45 minute piece DeMain called "breathtakingly beautiful and majestic."
Yet even if those names sound completely unfamiliar, attending can still be an enjoyable experience.
"I would encourage anybody who has any interest in music at all [to attend]. I don't care what form of music it is," Ann Miller, Director of Marketing, said. "We want as many students to come as possible."
Don't have anything fancy to wear? Miller doesn't care.
"I think the important thing is coming and enjoying the experience however that is for you," she said. "You'll see some guy in a Badger t-shirt who came right from the game in jeans and a baseball hat for God sakes-and that's an adult, not a student."
But she does feel the symphony can also offer an opportunity for students to dress up in an otherwise casual city. Miller said you should feel comfortable getting fancy for a night at the symphony.
However students want to treat the night, it certainly offers something different to do with their weekend. Personally, I went in October and had a lovely night, and it even finished early enough to still go out afterward, if so desired.
If attending, be sure to pick up student rush tickets at the Overture Center for the Arts box office on the day of the show. The earlier students pick them up, the better the seats will be. This weekend's concerts will be on the Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Take advantage of one of Madison's more refined organizations, support fellow, musical Badgers and discover or continue to appreciate the ever-inspiring classical music that has graced history for centuries. It can be a truly enlightening experience.
As DeMain said, "Powerful and incredible compositions that have been written by men and women of great genius is man at his most civilized."
