Unruly Music at Marcus Center for the Performing Arts
April 1, 2013Events

Unruly Music at Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

ELECTRO BEATS A Milwaukee Laptop Orchestra performance consists of pounding drums and clicking keys. Photo by Paul Mitchell Christopher Burns’ must-hear music series is “unruly” in many ways. The music is often adventurous and disorderly, and it’s also not fond of rules, traditions or categories. This spring’s three-day installment of “Unruly Music” is no exception. It opens on a global note, including music by Cambodian composer Chinary Ung, Brazilian Alexandre Lunsqui and Argentine Osvaldo Golijov. The show concludes in an all-American spirit, showcasing a piece by the late godfather of American modernism, Elliott Carter, alongside works by Milwaukee composers. But…

BY Paul Kosidowski

ELECTRO BEATS A Milwaukee Laptop Orchestra performance consists of pounding drums
and clicking keys. Photo by Paul Mitchell

Christopher Burns’ must-hear music series is “unruly” in many ways. The music is often adventurous and disorderly, and it’s also not fond of rules, traditions or categories. This spring’s three-day installment of “Unruly Music” is no exception. It opens on a global note, including music by Cambodian composer Chinary Ung, Brazilian Alexandre Lunsqui and Argentine Osvaldo Golijov. The show concludes in an all-American spirit, showcasing a piece by the late godfather of American modernism, Elliott Carter, alongside works by Milwaukee composers. But things should really get unruly on Friday, when Burns fields an “improvisation summit” that will have violins and saxophones playing alongside the Milwaukee Laptop Orchestra.

Unruly Music (April 4-6). Vogel Hall. Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. 929 N. Water St., 414-273-7206, marcuscenter.org.

Paul Kosidowski
Paul Kosidowski is a freelance writer and critic who contributes regularly to Milwaukee Magazine, WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio and national arts magazines. He writes weekly reviews and previews for the Culture Club column. He was literary director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater from 1999-2006. In 2007, he was a fellow with the NEA Theater and Musical Theater Criticism Institute at the University of Southern California. His writing has also appeared in American Theatre magazine, Backstage, The Boston Globe, Theatre Topics, and Isthmus (Madison, Wis.). He has taught theater history, arts criticism and magazine writing at Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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