Summer Choir concert spotlights American poets

For its depth and meaning to be truly experienced, poetry should also be heard, and not just read. As evidence, the blossoming of spoken word, open mics and poetry slams are bringing the joy and power of poetry to a new generation.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Summer Choir will take that idea a few steps further in a concert that focuses on choral settings of American poets, including Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost and more.

Titled “I Hear America Singing,” the performance will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 11, in Mills Concert Hall at the Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St. The concert is free and will last approximately one hour.

The 60-member choir is conducted by Bruce Gladstone and is made up of students, faculty, staff and singers from the Madison community. They will be joined by pianist Susan Gaeddert.

Among the works performed will be Howard Hanson’s “Song of Democracy,” set to the poetry of Whitman; two movements from “Frostiana” by Randall Thompson featuring the words of Frost; Gwyneth Walker’s “Harlem Songs,” molded to the rhythms and beats of Hughes’ celebrations of a pulsing, joyful Harlem; and selections from “Flower Songs” by Vincent Persichetti that take their scattered and unpredictable structure and mood from e.e. cummings’ poems.

Also on the program are traditional American folk songs and spirituals.

For more information on “I Hear America Singing,” contact Gladstone at (608) 262-9297 or bgladstone@wisc.edu.