Blog

In 1972, Swiss actors Bernie Schürch and Andres Bossar and Italian-American actress Floriana Frassetto formed their now celebrated visual theatre group. They gave themselves an original name, Mummenschanz (roughly meaning masquerade), and set out with a sense of fun and imagination to invent a new form of theatre.

I had such a formative concert experience as a 22-year-old with a performance by the Chicago Symphony that every time they come back to UMS, I relive it…and get really excited and…

Growing up as an active musician in a small town in Wisconsin, the names of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra section leaders were practically as well known to us as the neighbors down…

In Bluebeard’s Castle, seven doors are opened, revealing something terrifying behind each. What’s behind seven doors in Ann Arbor? You tell us!

One of the wonderful aspects of the Fondly… project is that the company has kept a blog that documents the show’s creative journey. On the blog you can follow the company through the rehearsal process, the premiere, and, now, the tour. The blog provides a rare glimpse into how the art is made, casting light on some of the more mysterious elements in the performance and providing both artistic and historical context.

The Orchestra made its UMS debut in January 1978 with a performance of Handel, Boccherini, Mozart, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins (as a violinist, I don’t think this piece is performed nearly often enough).

The audience at the Power Center 21 years ago got to see a real Czardas, which the program says is “a virtuosic dance from northern Hungary.”

In 1948, Bartók was new music – the composer had died only two years before.

A video with the London Philharmonic playing Béla Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle”.