First CD in School of Music series now available

Three well-known musicians who met on campus about seven years ago — and have collaborated on various projects ever since — now can be heard together for the first time outside campus concert halls.

Details “Postcard from Madison” was recorded in Mills Concert Hall. Sale proceeds will support School of Music scholarships. The $14.95 CD is available at area music and record stores, book stores and the Elvejhem Museum Shop. It is also sold at all Faculty Concert Series performances. To order by mail, send a check for $16.50 (which includes shipping) payable to “UW School of Music” to: School of Music CDs, 455 N. Park Street, Madison WI 53706-1483. U.W. Press also offers the first recording through a Chicago Distribution Center ($14.95 plus $3.50 shipping/handling). Call (800) 621-2736.

“Postcard from Madison,” the first compact disc in a planned series of recordings from the School of Music, features flutist Stephanie Jutt, cellist Parry Karp and pianist Jeffrey Sykes.

The purpose of the new series of sound recordings is to present world-class performances of accessible classical music as part of an effort to better acquaint the regional and national communities with the rich wealth of talent right in Wisconsin’s backyard.

Established in 1895, the School of Music maintains an international roster of nearly 60 faculty artists and scholars. “These are wonderful artists who deserve to be heard beyond the concert hall,” says School of Music director John Schaffer. “I’m very pleased that we have embarked on this project, as it will enhance the visibility of our faculty and high quality student ensembles.”

Jutt, the recording’s executive producer, says Provost John Wiley inspired the CD project and helped get funding from the Hilldale Trust. “The Provost approached us because he wanted us to do a recording suitable for general audiences — it’s just incredible to get that kind of support,” Jutt says.

Jutt, associate professor of music, is principal flutist for the Madison Symphony Orchestra and co-founder of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, an annual summer chamber music festival known for its energetic, engaging and critically acclaimed performances of the finest of modern and established chamber repertoire.

Cellist Parry Karp is professor of music, artist-in-residence, director of the string chamber music program, and a member of UW–Madison’s renowned Pro Arte Quartet. In addition to his very active career in Madison, Karp has performed around the globe.

Pianist Jeffrey Sykes is a UW–Madison alumnus and co-founder with Jutt of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. He has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and is also the music director of Opera for the Young, which adapts and performs opera for children throughout the upper Midwest.

This first volume includes works of a diverse group of composers, ranging from tango and Tin Pan Alley to Bach. The three performers join forces in Martinu’s Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, an effervescent composition played often by this ensemble.

And just as every great concert ends with a beautiful encore, the recording concludes with the ethereal sarabande from Bach’s e-minor flute sonata.

A second volume due soon contains compositions by Schubert, Prokofiev, Chausson, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Pierne, Haydn and Bach. Jutt, Karp and Sykes will be joined on the recording by violist Sally Chisholm, associate professor of music.

“We think of the recording as a musical postcard,” writes Sykes in the liner notes. “A postcard sent from us to you that says, ‘We’re having a great time! Wish you were here!'”