Past Performances
“A Little Winter Magic!” Holiday 2023
For the past 50 years, the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison brought holiday spirit to the annual Wisconsin Memorial Union Tudor Dinners. This year, kick off your winter season with the Chorus as they present a special one-night only updated festive holiday show at the Union’s Shannon Hall on November 30!
Enjoy light snacks, drinks, and sweet holiday memories in this new musical tradition.
“A Little Winter Magic” is a new holiday tradition that begins with light snacks, drinks, and strolling minstrel groups. Following your musical appetizer, assemble in the beautiful Shannon Hall for a fun-filled evening of classic favorites from Palestrina, Lauridsen and Rutter, with new holiday music from Finkle, Crocker and Englehardt. Fans of past Tudor Dinners will relive favorite traditions, including carol singalongs, cookies, and coffee, with new music to celebrate the holidays and the wonders that winter brings!
This concert will remind you of sweet holiday memories, make you laugh, and introduce you to some new musical styles along the way! Join us and you are sure to leave feeling the joy and the magic of winter!
“A Little Winter Magic” - Thursday, November 30, 2023, 6:30 pm,
Shannon Hall - Memorial Union - 800 Langdon St - Madison WI
Summer 2023
A summer Collaboration Concert set for June 25, 2023
The Philharmonic Chorus of Madison welcomes the Bella Voce choir to Madison!
Bella Voce Young Women's Choir is based in Rochester, Minnesota. Founded in 2006 as part of the Sing Out Loud organization, Bella Voce consists of 30+ singers in grades 9-12. Sing Out Loud encourages singers to find their voice, courage and sense of belonging through the power of song!
Madison is Bella Voce’s last stop on their spring 2023 singing tour. Please join us on Sunday June 25, 2023, 4:30pm at Christ Presbyterian Church for a combined concert. Admission is free. Freewill donations gratefully accepted and will benefit the Madison Youth Choirs. This concert is sure to leave your hearts filled with joy!
Spring 2021
Virtual Spring Concert: Virtually in Love With You
As concerns about singing together in person continued due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, in the spring of 2021 we opted to present another virtual concert as we had done over the winter in lieu of our traditional Tudor Dinner concerts. This time, we chose to perform 6 songs as a chorus, and members presented several small group and solo pieces.
concert program
Chorus: “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal”
Traditional Hymn Arranged by Alice Parker
Nicole Saunders and Kim Huff: “Closer to Fine”
Indigo Girls
Ladies Must Sing: “Till There Was You”
Words and music by Meredith Wilson
Chorus: “Only in Sleep”
Sara Teasdale, Eriks Esenvalds
Kelly Wroblewski and Lee Swimm: “You Have More Friends than You Know”
Music by Jeff Marx, Mervyn Warren
Small group: “My Sweetheart’s Like Venus”
Welsh Folk Song arranged by Gustav Holst
Kristine Beck, Joe Bauer, and Mike Flottmeyer: “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”
Sandy Denny
Chorus: “Sure on this Shining Night”
Morten Lauridsen (poem by James Agee)
Small group: “The Ash Grove”
Welsh Folk Song Arr. by Ralph E. Marryott
Chorus: “Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord”
Arr. by Undine S. Moore
Chorus: “The Battle of Jericho”
Traditional Spiritual Arr. by Moses Hogan
—
This was the last concert we had the joy of rehearsing and sharing under the direction of Dr. Patrick Gorman.
The full chorus pieces can be viewed on our videos page through the end of 2021.
Fall/Winter 2020
Virtual Tudor Dinner Concert
For more than 85 years, the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison has rung in the holiday season with an annual Tudor Dinner holiday concert, an event that has become a Madison tradition. Chorus members and guests dress in festive holiday attire to share a delicious meal, wonderful music, and good cheer.
In 2020, however, as with so many events this year, things had to be a little different. The Chorus and the Wisconsin Union determined that an in-person celebration of the holiday season would not be a safe or prudent activity for the chorus members, Union staff, or our guests. In lieu of these festivities, we invited guests to make up a batch of wassail, don your most festive holiday sweater, and enjoy a virtual Tudor Dinner at home this season.
On December 1, the Chorus presented a virtual Tudor Dinner concert. The production included recordings and photos from past concerts, as well as several songs the group recorded at home. A link to the virtual concert was posted to the Chorus’ webpage for the month of December.
Spring 2019
Program
O sing joyfully, Adrian Batten (1591-1637)
Crucifixus, Antonio Lotti (1667-1740)
O clap your hands, Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
When David Heard, Norman Dinerstein (b. 1937)
Quatre Motets sur des themes gregoriens, Maurice Durufle (1902-1986)
Ubi caritas et amor
Tota pulchra es, Maria
Tu es Petrus
Tantum ergo
Die Nachtigal, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1947)
The Bluebird, Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Lerchengesang, Felix Mendelssohn
Only in sleep, Eriks Esenvalds (b. 1977)
Dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Maruska
Hark! I hear the harps eternal, from The Southern Harmony, (1834)(arr. Alice Parker)
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)
Motherless Child, African-American Spiritual (arr. Robert Fountain)
Battle of Jericho, African-American Spiritual (arr. Moses Hogan)
Gerry and Jeanne Maruska with Director Pat Gorman
About the 2019 Concert Series
The Philharmonic Chorus of Madison presented a concert series, “Sing Joyfully!”, three, free performances in April to celebrate spring’s long awaited arrival, pay tribute in memory of longtime member Jeanne Maruska, and award summer music clinic scholarships at the finale to area high school choral students.
At the final concert, the chorus also will award three scholarships to Madison area high school choral students, allowing them to attend the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic. In 1981, the chorus began this initiative, offering students an opportunity to spend a week with teachers devoted to excellence in music education. Since 1991, the chorus has awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships to over 130 students.
Under the direction of Dr. Patrick Gorman, the premier a cappella group is best known for a festive start to the holiday season with the ever popular Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts in Great Hall of the Wisconsin Memorial Union. However, Gorman and the chorus offer an equally enjoyable start to springtime and summer days to follow with the April concert series, and the performances are free, including a reception following each.
Gorman’s spring concert program includes Quatre Motets sur des themes gregoriens by Maurice Duruflé, When David Heard by Norman Dinerstein, and works from the Baroque Era by Antonio Lotti and Orlando Gibbons. Dr. Gorman also has included a spiritual, always popular, The Battle of Jericho, arranged by Mose Hogan.
A highlight, especially for members past and present, is Only in sleep, a contemporary piece by Ēriks Ešenvalds. The selection is dedicated in memory of Jeanne Maruska. She was a soprano for many years, not only with the chorus, but Symphony Singers, Madison Theatre Guild, Madison Opera, and church choirs. Her husband, Gerald “Gerry,” sang tenor with the chorus. She passed away on Feb. 7, 2018.
“Jeanne was a very fine soprano, with a very lovely, full rich voice,” Gorman said. “She could sing solos, sing in a section, almost always had a big smile, and she took on any job. She served on the board, would host receptions. She was Tudor czarina for many, many years. She really loved the chorus.”
When Gorman heard people donated funds for music in her memory, Ešenvalds’ piece quickly came to mind. “It was the first thing I thought of,” he said, “because I think the poem is so touching, seeing people in the past in your dreams, kind of being there with them. And then you wake up and they’re gone. I think Jeanne would have liked and actually would have sung it beautifully. It’s a beautiful piece, one that I think will be a great addition to our library and to our concert.”
The challenge in singing Only in sleep is maintaining one’s composure, for it tugs at the heart strings, even those of newer members who didn’t know Jeanne as well as members who sang with her for years. Soprano Shannon O’Brien Kaszuba, soloist in the moving tribute to Jeanne Maruska, recalls her first year with the chorus and how welcoming Jeanne was, quick to invite her to join a newly formed women’s sextet for Tudor dinners.
“Very friendly, always smiling, of good humor,” Kaszuba said. “She reminded me very much of my own grandmother.”
Said Gorman, “She was always so kind to me from the first day I started. I still remember, after about the second Tudor dinner my first year, she came up to me just all giddy and excited about how it went, because I think the members were worried that I would be a big flop, just as much as I was worried about it.”
To be sure, the tribute to Jeanne Maruska will bring sadness. And yet a smile or two, if not laughter, when one recalls her as the diva, claiming center stage as the soloist in the The Twelve Days of Christmas during Tudor holiday concerts not so long ago.
“She played the role of the diva perfectly, and I have to say, every single night we did it, I had to laugh, because she was just so funny, and her voice, she could pull it off, too! It was such a big voice.”
When the chorus performs The Twelve Days of Christmas, Kaszuba draws enthusiastic applause and laughter as the leading lady. But in her mind, Maruska reigns diva supreme. “She was always expressive in her singing, but especially when she was given an opportunity to ‘ham it up’,” Kaszuba said. “I’m pretty sure Christmas was a favorite holiday for her as well. I will always remember her smile and generosity.”
All are welcome to join Gorman and the chorus for the “Sing Joyfully” concerts, a celebration of spring, Jeanne Maruska and a new generation of talented young vocalists.