These departures from the conventions that characterize the usual chamber music concert are a unique feature of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, which is planning its 12th season. The first of five concerts begins September 11. The Festival continues for the next two weeks. Perhaps the most important reason for this fresh approach to musical performance is the contribution of the two Festival founders, cellist Raphael Bell and violinist/violist Timothy Summers, both originally from Charlottesville but who, after their Juilliard training, have made their homes in Europe. They have attracted an international group of young musicians, all of whom have outstanding professional credentials. These musicians know when they come to Charlottesville that they will be playing the classical repertoire with outstanding colleagues, but they will also have an opportunity to play more daring pieces that are rarely programmed. For these reasons (and the fact that the Charlottesville audiences have been most welcoming), many have returned year after year.

This year’s group of musicians features the principal chairs from several of the world’s outstanding orchestras including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Some also participate in smaller but equally prestigious groups such as Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and the Daedalus Quartet. In all, there will be more than twenty musicians giving the audience an opportunity to hear a variety of string players, two outstanding pianists, a harpsichord, wonderful performers on the clarinet, oboe, and flute, and even a world-class soprano who, like Rafe Bell and Tim Summers, is originally from this area (Lynchburg) but who resides in Amsterdam. Each performance will contain a variety of instrumental combinations as well as a variety of musical genres.

The Festival begins on Sunday afternoon, September 11, at the Paramount Theater and includes a Haydn string quartet, a new piece for clarinet and strings by David Bruce, and finishes with a major work by Max Bruch, his String Octet in B flat major. The program involves a large group of musicians. In addition to Bell and Summers, there are three violinists (Annette zu Castell, Jonathan Gandelsman, and Sharon Roffman), two violists (Nicholas Cords and Melissa Reardon), the cellist Edward Arron, and Matthew Hunt, the superb English clarinetist making his return to Charlottesville.

On the following Thursday evening, September 15, the Festival moves to Old Cabell Hall where Mr. Hunt will be featured in two exciting works: The Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet and piano by Carl Maria von Weber and the famous Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor. In addition, there will be a piano trio by Peteris Vasks. The concert will also feature the young Scottish pianist, Alasdair Beatson.

Still at Old Cabell Hall, the Festival continues on the following Sunday afternoon, September 18, with two major works for piano and strings, the Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G minor and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2. The two Festival co-directors, Rafe Bell and Tim Summers, will be participating with pianist Beatson for these pieces. The concert opens with Mozart’s String Duo No. 1 featuring violinists Steven Copes (concertmaster of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra) and Summers. It also features French violinist Aki Saulière, member of the Capuçon Quartet.

On Thursday evening, September 22, the Festival returns to the Paramount Theater with a program that is highly diverse in both the choice of composers and instrumentation. The composers include André Previn, Respighi, Erik Satie, Gabriel Fauré and the Grammy-winning American composer, Joan Tower. In addition to Bell and Summers, the string players include David Quiggle (viola), Jesse Mills (violin) and Raman Ramakrishnan (cello). To this group are added Emma Schied (principal oboist of the Budapest Festival Orchestra), the fine Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa and the internationally renowned soprano, Roberta Alexander.

Finally, the Festival concludes Sunday afternoon, September 25, at Old Cabell Hall where the music covers several centuries from the pre-classical works of Telemann and Bach, through a classical composition by Mozart, to the 20th century composers Copland and Elliott Carter. Joining the strings are James Wilson (cello), Byron Schenkman (harpsichord), Roberta Alexander (soprano), and the prize-winning flutist, Sooyun Kim.

Tickets go on sale to the general public in late July. For further information, contact Festival Manager Rebekah Brooks at (434) 295-5395 or info@cvillechambermusic.org.

Tickets will go on sale in late July and can be purchased online, by phone, or by mail.

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March 2011

May 2011

]]> http://cvillechambermusic.org/news/update2/feed 0 http://cvillechambermusic.org/news/update1 http://cvillechambermusic.org/news/update1#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:39:32 +0000 chamber_webmaster http://cvillechambermusic.org/?p=789 Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival has a new look! We are proud to launch our new website, just in time for the upcoming 12th Season. Keep checking back here for concert information, tickets, news and updates, and more details on this season’s performers.

Performances

Sunday, September 25, 2011 – 3PM at Old Cabell Hall

A keen chamber musician, Emma Schied was awarded a scholarship to study with Celia Nicklin, Douglas Boyd and Christine Pendrill at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she graduated with First Class Honors. She won many prizes including Her Royal Highness Princess Alice Prize, the Leila Bull Prize, the Maklin Bursary, and the John West Prize. Ms. Schied then went on to study at the Geneva Conservatoire de Musique with the world-renowned teacher Maurice Bourgue. She graduated from his virtuosité class, obtaining a first prize with distinction, and in the same year won the Raymond Weil prize. In 2004, she was nominated by Claudio Abbado and was awarded the European Förderpreis. In 1997, Ms. Schied co-founded the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with other musicians who were passionate about excellence and pushing the boundaries in music making. She has been a dedicated member of this orchestra ever since. Apart from playing in many chamber music concerts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Schied also plays with the Ensemble Paris Bastille. In 2003, she became solo cor anglais of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and, in 2009, solo oboe of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Emma Schied is also regularly invited to play with prestigious orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de France.

PERFORMANCES

Thursday, September 22, 2011 – 8PM at the Paramount Theater

Sunday, September 25, 2011 – 3PM at Old Cabell Hall

links

Biography (Mahler Chamber Orchestra)

Byron Schenkman performs as a soloist,  chamber musician, and as harpsichordist and artistic director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.  A recipient of the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music, Schenkman has recorded more than thirty discs of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century repertoire, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.   He has been a featured guest with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, the Daedalus Quartet, the Northwest Sinfonietta,  Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra.  His piano playing was described in The New York Times as “sparkling,” “elegant,” and “insightful.”  In 2009 he participated in the Haydn and Mendelssohn bicentennial celebrations with performances at the Frick Collection in New York and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.  Schenkman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received his Master of Music degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University School of Music.  He currently teaches music history at Seattle University and is an adjunct instructor of piano and harpsichord at Cornish College of the Arts.

performances

Sunday, September 25, 2011 – 3PM at Old Cabell Hall

links

Byron Schenkman’s Official Website

As a founding member of the Capuçon Quartet she regularly performs in Europe’s leading halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Salle Pleyel in Paris, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as in Madrid, Bilbao, and Dortmund, and at festivals such as the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg, Gstaad, Deauville, St. Denis, Bel-Air, Port-Royal and Périgord Noir. The quartet recently recorded the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Paul Meyer on EMI. Her frequent chamber music partners include Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, as well as Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Clemens Hagen, Alois Posch and Gérard Caussé. She has also performed at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Alti Hall in Kyoto, the Berlin Philharmonie, and at many other festivals in Europe, the United States, and Japan.

Ms. Saulière has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2000, performing and recording under conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund and Bernard Haitink, and for the past three years has been invited by Claudio Abbado to be member of the prestigious Lucerne Festival Orchestra. In addition, she has played in the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra, and in the period-instrument ensembles Le Concert Astrée with Emmanuelle Haim, Musica Saeculorum, and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe. Ms. Saulière was a founding member of the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensemble, and is regularly invited to Japan to train young violinists including at the Academy of French Music in Kyoto. She has taught at the National Conservatory of Singapore in masterclasses and been a jury member of the national violin competition there.

Aki Saulière is Artistic Director of La Loingtaine, an espace artistique in Montigny-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau, co-director of La Loingtaine Summer Academy of Chamber Music, and a member of La Bande de La Loingtaine. She also teaches at the Schola Cantorum in Paris as assistant to Jean-Pierre Wallez.

performances

Thursday, September 15, 2011 – 8PM at Old Cabell Hall

Sunday, September 18, 2011 – 3PM at Old Cabell Hall

links

La Loingtaine

PERFORMANCES

Sunday, September 11, 2011 – 3PM at the Paramount Theater

links

Sharon Roffman’s Official Website

Grammy-nominated violist Melissa Reardon is a versatile performer whose playing spans all genres of the viola literature.  A First Prize Winner of the Washington International Competition, and the only violist win top prizes in consecutive HAMS International Viola Competitions, Melissa’s playing has been described as  “elegant,” and “virtuosic”(Classical Voice).  Melissa received the prize for “best performance of a newly commissioned piece” at HAMS in 2006 as well the Tourjee Award in 2002.  Solo engagements have included performances at the Stevens Center, Kennedy Center, Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, as soloist with Camerata Notturna and the Boston Symphony and most recently, as soloist with the East Carolina Symphony.   Melissa has given recitals in North Carolina, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and maintains a busy performing schedule as a member of the Enso String Quartet.

Melissa is also a founding member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) and a sought-after collaborative musician.  She has performed with the Miami, Daedalus,  Borromeo String Quartets, with members of the Guarneri, Mendelssohn, Brentano, St. Lawrence and Shanghai quartets and with the Beaux Arts Trio. In concert, Melissa has appeared in numerous festivals across the US, Europe, India and Korea.  Recent festivals have included Music in the Vineyards, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival and Sangat Chamber Music Festival in Mumbai, India.  Melissa has also toured the US and France with Musicians from Marlboro and toured with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.  In 2006, she was chosen as one of four violists internationally to participate in Chamber Music Connects the World with Gidon Kremer and Yuri Bashmet in Kronberg, Germany.  Melissa holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory; her principal teachers include: Kim Kashkashian, Michael Tree, Joseph dePasquale, Karen Tuttle, Samuel Rhodes, Hsin-Yun Huang and early chamber music studies with Eugene Lehner. Since 2007 Melissa has held the position of Assistant Professor of Viola at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.  She is married to the cellist Raman Ramakrishnan.

PERFORMANCES

Sunday, September 11, 2011 – 3PM at the Paramount Theater

Raman has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and has performed chamber music on Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series, at Bargemusic, and at the Charlottesville, Four Seasons, Lincolnshire (UK), Marlboro, Mehli Mehta (India), OK Mozart, and Vail Music Festivals.  He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed frequently with the Zankel Band, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and the contemporary chamber group Proteus, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2001.  As a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, he has collaborated with musicians from the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra and performed in New Delhi and Agra, India and in Cairo, Egypt.  This season, in addition to touring with his quartet, he will perform solo recitals in New York and Seattle, concertos with several New York orchestras, and chamber music at various festivals around the world.

Raman was born in Athens, Ohio and grew up in East Patchogue, New York.  His father is a molecular biologist and his mother is the children’s book author and illustrator Vera Rosenberry.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in music from The Juilliard School.  His principal teachers have been Fred Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff.  He lives in New York City with his wife, the violist Melissa Reardon.  His cello was made in 1837 by Vincenzo Jorio, in Naples.

PERFORMANCES

Thursday, September 22, 2011 – 8PM at the Paramount Theater

Links

Daedalus Quartet