Join Milwaukee Musaik for ‘Romantic Adventures’ at the Wilson Center

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Milwaukee Musaik - Romantic Adventures

Milwaukee Musaik - Romantic Adventures

Located in Brookfield’s pastoral Mitchell Park, the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts is an ideal location for a Milwaukee Musaik-Melinda Masur program entitled “Romantic Adventures.” The concert will include Mel Bonis’ Scenes de la Floret and William Grant Still’s Ennanga as well asBrahms’s soulful and exhilarating Piano Quartet in G minor Op. 25, “Gypsy.”

Bonis is a lesser-known composer whose real name was Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858-1937). She struggled against her family, who thought a career in music was inappropriate for a girl. She persisted and at age 16 showed some of her compositions to César Franck. Impressed, he encouraged her and gave her private lessons. But she lived at a time where women were discouraged from pursuing musical careers and women composers were looked down upon. Her music is wonderful and parts of the composition sound like raindrops falling in a forest. This piece will be performed by Musaik musicians Heather Zinninger on flute, Nathan Hackett on viola, and Kelsey Molinari on harp. 

Bonis is included in Women Composers (2021), a documentary on four female composers written and directed by the Leipzig pianist Kyra Steckeweh. A film dedicated to Bonis’ life could be amazing. 

The next piece on the program is Ennanga for harp, piano and string quartet(1956) by the African American composer William Grant Still (1895-1978). It’s only in recent years that Still is getting the attention he deserves. He was the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936. Almost 20 years later he was the first African American to conduct a major orchestra in the deep south, leading the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra in 1955. 

Still uses pentatonic scales throughout Ennanga, named for the African harp found in Uganda normally often with as many as eight strings tuned to a pentatonic scale. He also incorporates blues, jazz and spirituals motifs for a unique symphonic synthesis reflecting the complexity and richness of the black experience in the post-Civil War musical era. 

Melinda Lee Masur on piano will be joined by Musaik musicians Kelsey Molinari on harp, Jeanyi Kim and Alexander Mandl on violins, Nathan Hackett on viola, and Nicholas Mariscal on cello.

After intermission the program will conclude with Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, composed between 1856 and 1861. It premiered in 1861 in Hamburg, with Clara Schumann at the piano. It was also played in Vienna in 1862 with Brahms at the piano along with members of the Hellmesberger Quartet. Its success enabled Brahms to move to Vienna, at that time the musical capital of the Western World.

For this final composition Melinda Lee Masur on piano will be joined by Musaik musicians Kelsey Molinari on harp, Jeanyi Kim and Alexander Mandl on violin, Nathan Hackett on viola and Nicholas Mariscal on cello.

According to Musaik board member Alexander Mandl, “musician input into programming has enabled it to become more diverse and inclusive of repertoire and composers that should be spotlighted; more artistic minds from various backgrounds provide for a richer melting pot of repertoire and genre options. When musicians feel that they have part ownership over the artistic product, it takes the whole performance experience to a higher level of enrichment and fulfillment.”

Musaik invited Melinda Lee Masur to join them as the featured pianist on this program. Here’s what she had to say: “I’m so looking forward to playing with the incredible musicians of Milwaukee Musaik who always curate such engaging programs. I’m especially looking forward to Ennanga, William Grant Still’s only piece he wrote for harp which will highlight the wonderful Kelsey Molinari. And of course, the Brahms G minor piano quartet is just great, soulful, romping chamber music!”

Mandl noted that the pieces display wide contrasts in compositional styles but that “musical romanticism is the connective tissue bookending the program.”

“Romantic Adventures,” 2 p.m., March 19 at Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, 3270 Mitchell Park Drive, Brookfield. Information about tickets and directions can be found on the Wilson Center website: wilson-center.com.