Summer Soundtrack: Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival

Don’t let the summer sound track fall prey to the manufactured top 40, add a little bit of culture to your life with the twenty-fourth annual Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival, striking a chord from July 2-26. The four-week festival will cover all of Palm Beach County, playing three different venues each week in order to bring the cultural verve to all Palm Beachers, as well as give talented local musicians a chance to perform during the slower summer months.

string quartet - Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival

   This year, the traveling troupe of musicians will setup shop at the Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Helen K. Persson Recital Hall on Friday evenings, Palm Beach State College’s Eissey Campus Theatre on Saturday evenings, and the Delray Beach Center for the Arts’ historic Crest Theatre on Sunday afternoons, with a special Thursday evening performance on July 2 at the Lighthouse ArtCenter (there will not be a concert on July 4 at Eissey). Each week the program pivots, featuring a new and diverse collection of classical works by some of the giants of the genre, while the intimate playing venues gives the audience a true chamber music experience—its not called chamber music for nothing.

   Described as a musical conversation, chamber music composition takes a relatively small number of musicians and blends their complementary parts into a whole, testing not only their musical abilities but social graces as well. The artistic contribution of each can be measured, unlike an orchestra, where individual play is often lost in the sheer mass of musicians and sound. Chamber music’s long lineage has emerged from baroque trios and opulent palace soirees, evolved with the Age of Enlightenment, weathered the Industrial Revolution to find sure footing in the age of the Romantics, was gripped with the wave of Nationalism, and marched on into the Modern era, where the new world began to make its musical presence known.

   The 2015 Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival pulls from a diverse and talented pool of musicians from all over the world. The Palm Beach Chamber’s twenty-fourth season will cover compositions from all over the musical map, giving new meaning to the expression “summer soundtrack.” Tickets for the Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival cost $25 per person per program (subscriptions cost $85 for each location). To purchase, call the box office at 800-330-6874, or click here.

Palm Beach Chamber Music Summer Festival Musicians

Concerts will be held at Lighthouse ArtCenter on Thursday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Helen K. Perrson Recital Hall on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Palm Beach State College’s Eissey Campus Theatre on Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; and Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square’s Crest Theatre on Sundays at 2 p.m. The weekly program of performances is as follows:

Week One:

Julius Röntgen: Trio, Opus 86 for flute, oboe and bassoon

Eric Ewazen: Trio for violin, trumpet and piano

Stefan Cwik: 8 Miniatures (Hommage à Igor Stravinsky) for flute, violin, bassoon and piano

Antonín Dvo?ák: Terzetto, Opus 74, B. 148 for 2 violins and viola

Week Two:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Quintet in Eb Major, Opus 71 arranged by Mordechai Rechtman for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon

Morton Gould: Benny’s Gig for clarinet and double bass

Johannes Brahms: Trio, op. 40 for violin, horn and piano

Georg Philipp Telemann (arr. James Stephenson): Heroic Marches (Heldenmusik), TWV 50: 31-33 for piccolo trumpet, 2 violins, viola, cello and bass

Théodore Dubois: Piano Quintet in F Major for oboe, violin, viola, cello and piano

Week Three:

Franz Josef Haydn: String Quartet in C Major Opus 33, Russian, No. 3, Hob.III: 39 “The Bird” for 2 violins, viola, and cello

Gabriel Pierné: Pastorale Varieé for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, horn and 2 bassoons

Vincent D’Indy: Chansons et Danses for flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, horn and 2 bassoons

Carlos Chávez: Soli I for oboe, clarinet, trumpet and bassoon

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Quintet in f# minor, Opus 10 for clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello

Week Four:

Heinrich Neumann: Trio, Opus 40 for clarinet, horn and bassoon

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Andreas Wiebecke-Gottstein): 3 Tangos for violin and bass

Claude Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp

Louise Farrenc: Nonetto, Opus 38 (1849) for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and bass

Artists include:

Core Artists

  • Oboe: Sherie Aguirre
  • Cello: Susan Moyer Bergeron
  • Flute: Karen Fuller Dixon
  • Bassoon: Michael Ellert
  • Clarinet: Micahel Forte
  • Piano: Lisa Leonard
  • Bass: Jason Lindsay
  • Violin: Mei Mei Luo
  • Viola: René Reder
  • Trumpet: Marc Reese
  • Horn: Ellen Tomasiewicz

Guest Artists (in order of appearance):

  • Oboe: Erin Gittelsohn (week one)
  • Clarinet: Scott Ellington (week three)
  • Bassoon: Matthew Corey (week three)
  • Trumpet: Brian Stanley (week three)
  • Oboe: Erika Yamada (week four)
  • Horn: Corbin Wagner (week four)
  • Harp: Deborah Fleisher (week four)

 

Lighthouse ArtCenter

373 Tequesta Dr.

Tequesta, FL  33469

561-746-3101

 

Helen K. Perrson Recital Hall

Palm Beach Atlantic University

901 S. Flagler Dr.

West Palm Beach, FL 33401

 

Eissey Campus Theatre

Palm Beach State College

11051 Campus Dr.

Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

561-207-5900

 

Crest Theatre

Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square

51 n. Swinton Ave.

Delray Beach, FL 33444

561-243-7922, ext. 1

 

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