Spring 2011 - Chesapeake Music

S p r i n g 2 0 11
And On We Go…..
By Margaret Welch - Last year Chesapeake
Chamber Music celebrated its 25th Anniversary. It
was a wonderful landmark, but who is looking back.
This year, our schedule has continued to expand, we
are visiting three new venues, and as usual, many
of our long-time favorite artists are returning, and
will be joined by new faces and new talent. This year
Margaret Welch,
features thirteen concerts in two weeks with events
Festival Chair
every day except Mondays, including Free Open
Rehearsals both Wednesdays.
The season opens with a new experience in a new venue – a jointly
presented recital presentation at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.
William Neil, Organist from the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
in Washington, DC, will perform with David Bilger, Principal Trumpet
of the Philadelphia Orchestra in a recital utilizing both the organ and
piano at St. Mark’s Church. The recital will be at 5:30 p.m., and will be
performed in lieu of our previous Sunday afternoon street concert. We
are excited about this cooperative venture and about the opportunity to
utilize St. Mark’s magnificent organ.
We will return to Christ Church Easton again this year for another recital
featuring their magnificent Steinway grand donated last year by the family
of
Mrs.
Margaret Nuttle. Peggy Pearson (Oboe) and Ieva Jokubaviciute
Monty
Alexander
(piano) will perform there on Tuesday, June 14. On Thursday, June 16,
Jazz on the Chesapeake Committee
we will have a delightful combination of chamber music and visual art in a
recital to be held for the first time at the Easton Studio and School, hosted
by gallery owner Nancy Tankersley. Daniel Phillips (violin) will perform
surrounded by works of art from Nancy’s South Street Gallery. Nancy, by
the way, is the artist whose painting of Black Walnut Point is our Festival
Image for music on the Eastern Shore this year.
Yet another new venue for our festival is the St. Michaels High School
Auditorium where our
Saturday afternoon,
June 18, concert
will be held. We
are delighted to
be able to utilize
this new-to-us
venue with its
superb acoustics,
and hope that
vacationers visiting the St. Michaels waterfront area will join us for the
concert. Students will be admitted free.
Our Angels Concert this year will conclude the festival with a gala
concert and picnic at “Point Elizabeth,” Oxford. This striking home,
with magnificent views across the Tred Avon River, is the residence of
Elizabeth Fago. We welcome Ms. Fago to the CCM family and thank
her for opening her home to us.
Planning Jazz
By Beth Schucker - Once again, Monty Alexander, legendary jazz pianist, and
Chesapeake Chamber Music are preparing for the 2011 Jazz on the Chesapeake
festival this Labor Day weekend.
Al Sikes, Chairman of the Jazz on the Chesapeake Committee, describes what
it’s like “talking to talent,” as he refers to brainstorming with Alexander, who is
the Artistic Director of Jazz on the Chesapeake. Ideas pop! Pop, pop, pop like a
jazz riff. Names. Talent. Dollars. Sikes admits that the need for the latter tends
to channel discussions back to reality. “But exciting ideas are firming up,” he says.
Getting news of Jazz on the Chesapeake to the shore’s wide-spread audience
of jazz lovers is a major topic on the agenda, says committee member, Leslie
Hamburger. Of course, the possibility of using social networking, was explored -and acted upon quickly. So her advice to Interlude readers who are on Facebook
is to go to Monty Alexander Jazz on the Chesapeake and “like” it. At the same
time, Simone Rones is developing JazzNet to enable wider electronic networking.
Should it be food and jazz or jazz and food? Whichever, the mere combination promises delectable enjoyment as Debbi Dodson, another
committee member, sketches ideas for Café Jazz. As a way to expand the jazz presence for this exciting Labor Day weekend event, the
Committee is working with local restaurants to offer jazz and eats before Saturday afternoon’s concert.
Sikes anticipates near-final plans (as final as jazz can get) in the next thirty days. Meanwhile, mark your calendars for Jazz on the Chesapeake
the weekend of September 2 and 3, 2011.
For Festival tickets and further information please visit the CCM website
www.ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org or call the office at 410-819-0380
T H REE I S T H E K E Y ! ! !
By Philip J. Webster - What do The Three Tenors, a
String Trio, three-part harmony, triplet notes, three
quarter time and a Concerto in Three Movements
have in common with the 26th Chesapeake
Chamber Music Festival?
Three is the key!!!
Festival 26 will feature three totally new musical
venues to delight and astonish our audience – St.
Mark’s United Methodist Church and the Easton
Studio and School in thriving Easton, and the
St. Michaels High School Auditorium in bucolic
St. Michaels, the town where the Festival first
performed some 26 years ago.
According to Executive Director Donald Buxton,
“the three new venues will not only bring a freshness
to the Festival, but each serves a unique purpose –
St. Mark’s with its soaring organ sound and high
pitched ceiling perfect for reflecting a trumpet’s
vibrancy; Easton Studio and School for its intimacy,
superb acoustics and artistic surroundings; and
the St. Michaels High School Auditorium for
its marvelous acoustics and tier-style seating for
maximum audience visibility.”
The Festival will open on Sunday afternoon, June
5, not with its traditional concert, In The Streets,
but with a jointly presented recital at St. Mark’s
at 5:30 p.m. for organ and trumpet featuring
two world-class virtuosi. William Neil, organist
and harpsichordist for the National Symphony
Orchestra and organist of Washington’s National
Presbyterian Church, and David Bilger, principal
trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will take
chamber music to a new level of both sound and
brilliance with music by Telemann, Bach, Neruda,
Eben, Elgar, Gershwin, Beiderbeck and Clark.
Festival veteran Daniel Phillips will then treat
recital-goers with his violin virtuosity on Thursday,
June 16, at 5:30 p.m. at the Easton Studio and
School. Daniel Phillips will be joined by Tara Helen
O’Conner, flutist, who will share her musical talent
to complete this special program. The recital will
combine Daniel and Tara’s music with wonderful
art. This recital is hosted by gallery owner and artist
Nancy Tankersley.
Nancy painted the work that
graces the flyer, program book cover and poster art for
St. Marks United Methodist Church, Easton
the 2011 Festival,
an iconic image
of a sailboat at
anchor off Black
Walnut Point.
At the end of
the second Festival
week, Festivalgoers will take a short drive down Route 33 past our former concert
venue at MEBA to the relatively new auditorium at St. Michaels
High School for a Saturday, June 18, concert at 3 p.m. Completed
in 2009, this venue designed by architect Tom King features
amphitheater seating, state-of-the-art lighting, a time-delayed
sound system, and
Artists at Easton Studio and School will move easels aside for recital
sound clouds that
photo by Nancy Tankersley
create
amazing
acoustics. John
Masone, former
A s s i s t a n t
Superintendent
of Talbot County
Schools, who
oversaw
the
renovation of
the educational
complex, says “the residents and town of St. Michaels asked for a
performing arts center. To date, the auditorium has hosted musicals,
ballets and dramas for the community to enjoy. The sound clouds in
the auditorium’s raised ceiling provide amazing acoustics, while the
space itself has an intimate feel.” Well, on June 18, the auditorium
gets its CCM premiere, with Mozart’s Piano Quartet in g minor,
K. 478; Michael Torke’s Telephone Book for Flute, Clarinet,
Violin, Cello
and Piano; and
St. Michaels Middle and High School auditorium
photo provided by Sally Lentz
M e n d e l s s o h n’s
Quartet in B-flat
Major, Op. 87,
arranged by the
Fe s t i v a l ’s o w n
Pe g g y Pe a r s o n .
St. Michaels
will never be the
same!!!!
Someone once
said, “Good things come in threes.” How about chamber music
to-kill-for in three spectacular new settings?
Thank You to all the Chesapeake Chamber Music Volunteers
Volunteers enjoy picnic in 2010
photos by Bill Geoghegan, Jennifer Jackson and Jerry Michael
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ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org
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Three Composers from Two Worlds in a Third – Chestertown
By David Jeffery - The bricks to build Emmanuel
Episcopal Church in Chestertown were shipped from
England in 1768 to enclose a space whose acoustics are
still noted for transparency and warmth.
Eighteen years later, a Slovak boy and prodigy, Johann
Nepomuk Hummel, was a live-in pupil of Mozart’s,
making his concert debut at age nine. A piano virtuoso,
Hummel was praised by such luminaries as Schumann,
Schubert, Chopin, and Goethe. Although most noted for
piano compositions, his Quartet for Clarinet and Strings,
S. 78, shows mastery of the chamber genre.
Of Czech origin, Antonín Dvořák rose in the world
of music not prodigiously but steadily. By 1892 he had
been appointed director of the National Conservatory
of Music in New York City and a year later composed
Recent Festival concert at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Chestertown
Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” The summer of
1893 found Dvořák in Spillville, Iowa, a small town settled
by Czech refugees. There he wrote the “American” quartet,
closely followed by the Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97.
An advocate for native popular influences on American
music, Dvořák might have enjoyed numbers later played at
the Innwood Inn in Spillville by such as Louis Armstrong,
Glenn Miller, and The Byrds.
Born in Argentina in 1960, Osvaldo Golijov absorbed early
influences from classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and
klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. His
music has been called “a volatile and category-defying style,”
and he has been associated with a gypsy band, a Mexican
rock group, and the traditions of Christian liturgical music.
He has also written two scores for Francis Ford Coppola
films. Currently a professor at the College of the Holy
Cross in Massachusetts, Golijov has accepted many awards
including a MacArthur (“Genius”) Fellowship. The song,
How Slow the Wind, based on two short poems by Emily
Dickinson, was prompted by the sudden death of a friend.
He has described the song Lúa Descolorida, as in part, “a
slow motion ride on a cosmic horse.”
Attendees of the concert and following reception who may
wish to make a day in Chestertown can find information
about restaurants, shops, and other attractions at www.
chestertown.com and www.washcoll.edu for area attractions.
Totally French
“ C’est magnifique, enchanté, charmante” will be among the
enthusiastic words exchanged on the afternoon of June 11
at the Aspen Institute “French Masters” Concert and French
Country Picnic in Queenstown.
Artistic Directors Marcy Rosen and Lawrie Bloom have
selected music by three French composers, Gabriel Fauré,
Maurice Ravel and Nicolas Bacri, for this concert.
100 works
in many
genre. He is
considered
one of the
outstanding
figures in
contemporary
French music.
The American
Letters are three
Dinner at Aspen for the 25th Anniversary Festival
trios each dedicated to
a major American composer, Elliott Carter, John Adams and
Aaron Copeland, who are contemporaries of Bacri.
Fauré, a composer, organist and teacher who lived in the late
19th and early 20th century, helped free French music from
German influences and is regarded as a transitional figure
in French music. The Piano Quartet in c minor, Op.15 was
written between 1876-1879 when Fauré was in his early 30s;
the final movement which did not satisfy Fauré was rewritten
The unique music of these French composers will set the
in 1883. In its completed form the quartet is an extraordinary
mood for the elegant French Country Picnic following the
achievement both for the range of its expression and for its
concert. Gathered under a white tent, seated at tables
imaginative craftsmanship.
covered with crisp checkered tablecloths, overlooking the
Twenty years later Maurice Ravel completed his only string sunset on the Wye River and surrounded by the tall trees
quartet, the String Quartet in F Major, at the age of 28.
of Wye Woods, concert-goers will enjoy an elegant picnic.
Ravel dedicated this piece to his friend and teacher Gabriel Building on the success of last year’s French Picnic, Bernice
Fauré who was an important influence and inspiration for Michael and the Marriott management have planned a
Ravel’s music. Today Ravel’s String quartet in F Major
delectable buffet spread and suitable wines to complete the
is one of the most widely performed chamber music
dining experience.
works in the classical repertoire.
C’est magnifique, enchanté, charmante, indeed! This will be
Born in 1961, Nicolas Bacri is the composer of some an event to remember!
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R e a c h i n g Yo u t h T h r o u g h M u s i c
By Amy Blades Steward - When the Monumental Brass Quintet of
Washington, DC, arrived at St. Michaels and Cambridge-South
Dorchester High Schools’ auditoriums on April 20, to play for a
combined 600 elementary school students, excitement filled
the room. Children were having a hard time not swaying in
their seats as the familiar Ragtime and classical pieces were
played. Chesapeake Chamber Music’s YouthReach Program
sponsored the programs this year in an effort to reach a larger
number of schoolchildren than was possible at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Family Concert, held during the CCM
Festival each June. The purpose of the YouthReach concerts
over the years has been to feature world-class musicians demonstrating and discussing their instruments and their music
in a child-friendly concert. According to Don Buxton, CCM Executive Director, “The longer-term goal of the program is to
awaken young people’s interest in, and ultimately their love
for, the classical music art form.”
This year’s concert at the new St. Michaels Elementary-High
Auditorium was particularly rewarding. Students got to hear
firsthand the amazing acoustics of the new facility as the
brass instruments were played. In addition to the YouthReach concerts, the YouthReach Program provides elementary school children in Talbot County, MD with a beginning
string music experience called “First Strings,” as well as the
“Presto!” program, an afterschool program of small group
classes of five
Monumental Brass Quintet
to eight stuphoto by Amy Steward
de n t s w h o
have graduated from the
“First Strings”
program.
Over 600 elementary
school children have
taken part in
the program.
Angels Concert: Sunset and a String Quartet
By Shar McBee - Picture this:
It is sunset over the water. You stand at the juncture
where the Tred Avon River meets Oxford’s Town
Creek. World class musicians tune their instruments
while you delight in delicious hors d’oeuvres and
vintage wine.
Elizabeth Fago’s Nantucket-style waterfront mansion
and gardens – “Point Elizabeth” – are the perfect setting
for a perfectly angelic afternoon. Welcome to the 2011
Angels Concert. Sunday, June 19th, 4 pm.
Interlude Editorial Staff
6
If you have attended an Angels Concert, you
know that this is true. If you have not, or you
have a family member that has not yet learned to
love chamber music, this is an occasion to share.
Beauty through simplicity and balance are the
hallmarks of chamber music. The selections for
this year’s Angels Concert have an additional
emphasis on accessibility which complement
the magnificent setting:
Composer CharlesMarie Widor’s Suite for F lute and Piano, Op. 34;
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ’s String Quartet in
B-flat major, K.589; André Jolivet ’s Sonatine for
F lute and Clarinet; with additional works to be
announced.
Sunset and a string quartet – Doesn’t that
sound angelic?
Point Elizabeth
Point Elizabeth, Oxford
Editor... Writers…
Design...
Photos....
As you stroll about, perhaps admiring the
statuar y, waterfront pool, an homage to ee
cummings, the herb garden or the Ladies of
Oxford calendar (brain child of our host) -suddenly music wafts across the great hall.
NOTHING could be more enchanting. You take
your seat and promptly find yourself immersed
in the evening, the setting, and the reason that
chamber music was created – to ease tension
within the heart and make a human being soar.
Susan Koh
David Jeffery Shar McBee
Amy Steward Philip Webster
Dyanne Welte
Tim Young, Eclectic Graphics
Jerry Michael Beth Schucker
Margaret Welch We would like to keep you informed of the latest
events in our growing series of year round programs.
To help us reach you, please sign up on the website
www.ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org.
ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org
Musical Magic Along the Blue Danube
By Dyanne Welte - A perfect match . . . Europe’s rich musical legacy
meets Chesapeake Chamber Music friends for a fabulous music-filled cruise
along Europe’s beautiful Blue Danube River.
Hungarian State Opera House
Barbie Smith of Smith Travel in Easton contacted Chesapeake Chamber
Music last fall with an exciting opportunity for a group trip on the Danube
aboard a brand new state-of-the-art riverboat. If CCM could fill six
cabins on the cruise by mid-April, then the agency would make a generous
contribution toward the support of CCM programs. The Board of Directors
jumped at the chance, and Tauck Tours set aside six cabins for CCM
travelers to be held if they could be filled by mid April.
Mission accomplished on the last day of the dead line! Our lucky
travelers are Carolyn and Charles Thornton, Mike and Ella Bracy, William
Dempsey and his wife Elizabeth McGrory, as well as the Welte clan, who
will be along to celebrate Bob’s 80th birthday during this musical journey.
Lobkowicz Palace
The Danube, Budapest
These music lovers will travel together for twelve days filled with glorious
music, luxury accommodations, fine dining and music-themed sightseeing.
The adventure begins October 16th in Budapest and culminates in
Prague. Tauck’s knowledgeable musical “maestros” will offer workshops
and seminars prior to performances at concert venues in cities including
Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Salzburg, Passau and Prague, to name a few.
These musical scholars will guide the group as it visits the homes where
Europe’s great musical giants, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Bartók, Wagner,
Liszt, Strauss, Haydn and others, lived, composed and performed their
music. Some of the many exquisite highlights of this trip are: a visit to the
Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest, an insider tour of Bratislava’s
Opera House, and a behind-the-scenes visit to the Bösendorfer piano salon
in Vienna’s Musikverein. Dinners and musical performances will be held
at a premier concert venue in Budapest, at a 15th century Slovakian winery
where one becomes a ”wedding guest” at an interactive traditional Slovak
wedding, at a palace in Vienna and at the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague.
Before departing Prague for the Eastern Shore, the group will experience
a gala evening at a private palace filled with music and magic.
GERMANY
Bratislava Opera House
Prague
Maximum Elevation: 1,200 ft.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Regensburg
Passau
Salzburg
ITALY
Budapest
6
Melk
AUSTRIA
SLOVAKIA
Vienna
Bratislava
Danub
eR
iver
HUNGARY
Budapest
SLOVENIA
ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org
26th Annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival
Sunday, June 5 at 5:30 PM,
Recital, presented in collaboration with St. Mark’s United
Methodist Church: William Neil (Organ & Piano) & David Bilger
(Trumpet)
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Easton
Georg Phillip Telemann
Musique Héroique
Johann Sebastian Bach
Fantasia in G Major, BWV 572
And works by Neruda, Eben, Elgar, Gershwin, Beiderbeck and Clark
Tuesday, June 7 at 5:30 PM,
Recital: Christine Brandes (Soprano) & Ieva Jokubaviciute
(Piano)
The Inn at 202 Dover, Easton
(Optional dinner available for $30. Call 410-819-8007 for
reservations)
Wednesday, June 8 at 10:00 AM,
Open Rehearsal
Academy Art Museum, Easton
FREE!
Thursday, June 9 at 12:00 noon,
Recital: Kim Kashkashian (Viola) & Robert McDonald (Piano)
Academy Art Museum, Easton
Friday, June 10 at 8:00 PM,
Concert: “Inspirational Schumann”
Avalon Theatre, Easton
Robert Schumann
Lieder for Soprano and String Quartet (arranged by A. Reimann)
György Kurtág
Homage á R. Schumann, Op. 15d for Clarinet, Viola and Piano
Robert Schumann
Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44
Saturday, June 11 at 4:00 PM,
Concert: “French Masters”
Aspen Institute, Wye Woods, Queenstown
(Includes a French Country Picnic)
Maurice Ravel
String Quartet in F Major
Nicolas Bacri
American Letter No. 3, Op. 35 No. 3 for Clarinet, Viola and Piano
Gabriel Fauré
Piano Quartet in c minor, Op. 15
Sunday, June 12 at 3:00 PM,
Concert
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Chestertown
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Quartet for Clarinet and Strings, Wo0 5, S. 78
Osvaldo Golijov
Two Songs for Soprano and String Quartet:
Lúa Descolorida
How Slow the Wind
Antonín Dvořák
Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97
Tuesday, June 14 at 5:30 PM,
Recital: Peggy Pearson (Oboe) & Ieva Jokubaviciute (piano)
Christ Church, Easton
Wednesday, June 15 at 10:00 AM,
Open Rehearsal
Academy Art Museum, Easton
FREE!
Thursday, June 16 at 5:30 PM,
Recital: Daniel Phillips (Violin), with guest artist Tara Helen
O’Connor (flute)
Easton Studio and School, Easton
Friday, June 17 at 8:00 PM,
Concert: “Evening in Vienna”
Avalon Theatre, Easton
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Quartet in d minor, K. 421 (Arranged by P. Pearson)
Johann Strauss II
Emperor Waltz, Op. 437 for Flute, Clarinet, String Quartet and Piano
(Arranged by A. Schoenberg)
Franz Schubert
Piano Trio in B-flat Major, D898
Saturday, June 18 at 3:00 PM,
Concert
St. Michaels High School Auditorium, St. Michaels
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Quartet in g minor, K. 478
Michael Torke
Telephone Book, for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
The Yellow Pages
The Blue Pages
Felix Mendelssohn
Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 87 (arranged by P. Pearson)
Sunday, June 19 at 4:00 PM,
Angels Concert
“Elizabeth Point,” Oxford
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 589
Domenico Gabrielli
Canon a due Violoncelli
Charles-Marie Widor
Suite for Flute and Piano, Op. 34
André Jolivet
Sonatine for Flute and Clarinet
Enro von Dohnanyi
Serenade in C Major, Op. 10
Week 1 Artists
Week 2 Artists
Todd Phillips, Violin
Catherine Cho, Violin and Viola
Yura Lee, Violin and Viola
Kim Kashkashian, Viola
Maiya Papach, Viola
Marcy Rosen, Cello
Ieva Jokubaviciute, Piano
Robert McDonald, Piano
J. Lawrie Bloom, Clarinet
Christine Brandes, Soprano
Catherine Cho, Violin
Daniel Phillips, Violin
Todd Phillips, Violin
Maria Lambros, Viola
Julia Lichten, Cello
Marcy Rosen, Cello
Ieva Jokubaviciute, Piano
Tara Helen O’Connor. Flute
Peggy Pearson, Oboe
J. Lawrie Bloom, Clarinet
ALL ARTISTS AND PROGRAMS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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C HESAPEAKE
C HESAPEAKE
CHAMBER MC
USIC
HAMBER MUSIC
N ON -P ROFIT O RG .
U.S. P OSTAGE
PAID
P ERMIT N O . 82
E ASTON , MD
61 ~ PO
E ASTON
M D 21601
B OX, 461
~ E ASTON , M D 21601
AKE C HAMBER
M USIC . ORG
C HAMBER M USIC . ORG
C HESAPEAKE
Board
of
21601
Directors
Chloe L. Pitard, President
Bernice Michael, Vice President
Carolyn Thornton, Secretary
Michael Bracy, Treasurer
Betty Anderson
Penelope Proserpi
Garry Clarke
Michael Smilow
Bill Geoghegan
Margaret Welch
Jean McHale
Kathleen Wise
Rush Moody
Hanna Woicke
Chuck Petty
J. Lawrie Bloom, Artistic Co-Director
Marcy Rosen, Artistic Co-Director
Donald Buxton, Executive Director
Lois Campbell, Executive Director’s Asst.
Chesapeake Chamber Music Presents:
Monty Alexander – Photo by Peter Rickards
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