Tickets for the 2019 Tudor Dinner concerts now on sale!

Need a Little Christmas?  Right this very Minute?

Then we have just the ticket!  Tudor Holiday Dinner Concert tickets, in fact. The concerts in Great Hall of the Memorial Union are Wednesday, December 4, through Sunday, December 8, 2019, and general ticket sales begin Monday, October 28. Don’t hesitate, for the concert series, now in its 86th year, is a popular event. Last year all concerts sold out in no time. To learn more and order online, visit the Memorial Union site, Tudor Holiday Dinner Concerts.

The concerts provide a great start to the holiday season, a festive evening for family and friends to dine together, laugh, sing carols with the chorus, and then sit back, relax and enjoy a concert extraordinaire by our a capella chorus under the direction of Dr. Patrick Gorman. Since 1972, the chorus has joined with the Memorial Union in presenting Tudor Holiday Dinners and evenings.

This year, there is even more reason to join us for a festive evening in Great Hall! This is Pat Gorman’s 25th year as director of the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison. Not only that, he is back by popular demand as our emcee and master of the hall.

Gorman said, “I’m very pleased to serve as emcee. What is most important for me, and certainly for the chorus, is that our guests have a wonderful evening. Many people tell me that the Tudor evening is the start to their Christmas season, so I know it’s an important event. Our guests spend a fair amount of money on it, and I want to make it the best night possible for them. It’s such a blessing to be able to put a little happiness in peoples’ lives these days.”

Added Gorman, “I’ve learned over time that it’s most important people just have fun. They’re sitting with friends, they’re drinking wine, and they’re having a good meal. They are not going to have fun because of anything I do. They are going to have fun because of their friends. My job is to help keep the evening moving, make them laugh now and then, and introduce and direct the chorus. I’ve always said that the chorus is the real star of the show. People love the chorus.”

This year, with Gorman directing, the chorus begins an evening of merry making with We Need a Little Christmas, a lively, fun piece to sing. Following dinner, complete with figgy pudding and cookies, comes the concert. “The concert has more serious songs, and those are usually my favorites,” Gorman said. This year the chorus is offering O Magnum Mysterium and O Salutaris Hostia, featuring a beautiful soprano duet. Another selection sure to take one’s breath away is Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria.  “The first time I heard it, the Notre Dame Glee Club was performing a men’s arrangement of it,” Gorman recalled.”  It nearly brought me to tears, so it is truly satisfying to be able to offer it.”

Finally, one more reason to order tickets this year: The chorus is producing a new CD of past Tudor music, and it plans to make the CD available for purchase. Named Welcome Yule, it includes selections that won enthusiastic applause last year as well as favorites from earlier Tudor concerts. Earlier CDs, such as What Cheer, will also be available, great stocking stuffers all.

“I was very proud of What Cheer, but with each passing year, it seems the chorus gets a little better, and the music is a little different,” Gorman said. This CD will have Northern Lights, which our audiences loved.  It will also have a setting of Welcome Yule, a couple spirituals, and a lovely Ave Maria with Nicole Saunders as soloist.”