For the City Times

The University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music will bring two quintets to the Performing Arts Center (PAC) in Wisconsin Rapids for a free concert on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

The concert celebrates the Mead Witter Foundation’s $25 million gift to the University of Wisconsin to construct a new performance center in Madison. The PAC is located at 1801 16th St. South in Wisconsin Rapids.

Following an afternoon of clinic sessions with local students, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet, the Wingra Wind Quintet, and Scott Teeple, UW-Madison conducting professor, along with the Lincoln High School Wind Ensemble, will present the free public concert designed to educate as well as entertain.

The Feb. 9 concert is open to the public free of charge. Besides thanking the Foundation for its support, the concert furthers the UW mission of public service through spreading the “Wisconsin Idea.” About 50 music students from area high schools are expected to attend the afternoon clinic sessions and evening concert.

In the fall of 2015, the Mead Witter Foundation commemorated a century-long relationship between the Witter and Mead families with the University of Wisconsin by providing major funding that enabled the UW-Madison to construct its new music performance building in one phase, rather than in multiple phases over time.

In appreciation of the gift, UW-Madison named its music school the Mead Witter School of Music, and the large concert hall within the performance building will be known as the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall. The new performance building will be sited at the corner of University Avenue and Lake Street adjacent to the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison.