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Close Encounters with Music Presents the Ariel String Quartet Performing Works by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Leos Janacek – the String Quartet as Psychological Drama

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 -- Three “storied” string quartets share the theme of a love triangle. The first three years of Schumann’s marriage to his beloved Clara Wieck were an exceedingly productive period for the young composer, and the time when he focused on the genre of the string quartet, producing the String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, one of the most poignant and satisfying of his works. Brahms, Clara’s platonic and cherished confidante and friend, reportedly destroyed some twenty string quartets before allowing the two Op. 51 quartets to be published, the achingly beautiful A minor No. 2 being one of these.

Close Encounters with Music Presents “A Close Encountertenor” — 2017 MET Audition Winner Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen Performs English Songs, Yehuda Hanani Plays Back Gamba Sonatas

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JANUARY 8, 2018 -- Three “storied” string quartets share the theme of a love triangle. The first three years of Schumann’s marriage to his beloved Clara Wieck were an exceedingly productive period for the young composer, and the time when he focused on the genre of the string quartet, producing the String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, one of the most poignant and satisfying of his works. Brahms, Clara’s platonic and cherished confidante and friend, reportedly destroyed some twenty string quartets before allowing the two Op. 51 quartets to be published, the achingly beautiful A minor No. 2 being one of these. Identified as one of opera's most promising rising stars, in 2017 he received a Richard Tucker Music Foundation grant, made his European debut at the Theater an der Wien and was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition.

Photograph of the Amernet String Quartet

Close Encounters with Music Presents “Souvenir De Florence-An Italian Holiday Celebration”– with the Amernet String Quartet

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NOVEMBER 9, 2017 -- The Italian fixation that runs deep in the collective artistic psyche is on musical display Saturday, December 9, 6PM. It was de rigueur for 19th century painters, musicians and literary types—Byron, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn—to make the Grand Tour to Rome and Florence, imbibe the classicism, passion, bel canto, and expressivity that are hallmarks of Italian art, and bring them home to their studios where memories of the sunshine sustained them in chilly northern Europe. The centerpiece of the program is Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, written as he recovered from a disastrous marriage and developed an infatuation with the city that spawned the Renaissance. Florence worked its magic on Tchaikovsky, and the result is one of the most delightful and charming pieces in the repertory for string sextet. This Italian showcase includes Chrysanthemums, the only chamber music Puccini ever wrote; works by the Venetian Vivaldi; Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade; and a Verdi string quartet. Bellissimo!

Close Encounters with Music Presents “The Politics of Opera” with Author and Scholar Mitchell Cohen Conversations with… Series of Talks Continues with Intimate and Stimulating Conversations About Music and Ideas

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OCTOBER 13, 2017 -- To what extent do operas express the political and cultural ideas of their age? How do story lines, harmonies and musical motifs reflect the composer's view of the changing relations among art, politics, and society? Mitchell Cohen, who combines his academic expertise in political science and lifelong interest in the spectacle of opera in his new book (The Politics of Opera—A History from Monteverdi to Mozart, Princeton Press), will underscore the political dimensions of libretti and ideological elements of opera, which absorbs and mirrors currents of the day in dramatic dress-up. Professor of political science at Baruch College and the Graduate School of CUNY, he has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement (London), Les Temps Modernes (Paris), and edited Princeton Readings in Political Thought (1995) and Rebels and Reactionaries: An Anthology of Great Political Stories (1992). Your next night at the opera won’t be the same!

26th Season of Close Encounters with Music Press Release

Close Encounters with Music Launches 26th Anniversary with its Signature Mix of Innovative Programs- Season Starts Strong with Titans of Chamber Music October 21 Finishing with a Dazzling Leonard Bernstein Tribute June 9, Celebrity Talks, Mid-Winter Fireside Concert; Commissions, Collaborations, Celebrations All Season

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OCTOBER 6, 2017 -- Close Encounters returns with its customary artistic vigor, crystalline focus and fresh look at our great musical heritage, old and new. Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani has led the series since its founding, providing entertaining, erudite commentary that puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich and enlighten the concert experience. “We have created a rare cultural zone we call Close Encounters With Music, with innovative concerts, outstanding colleagues, and a sumptuous menu of the best music of our classical canon.”

Close Encounters with Music Summers on a Mountain Top: Catskill High Peaks Music Festival August 6-17 Brings “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” to the Hudson Valley and Capital Region with Internationally Acclaimed Musicians and Young Artists Around the Clock Festivities at Carey Institute in Rensselarville with Additional Suffragette Themed Concerts at Basilica Hudson and New York State Museum in Albany

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JULY 5, 2017 -- “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” is the theme of the eighth edition of the Catskill High Peaks Festival, hosted by the Carey Institute for Global Good, August 6-17. A joint presentation of the Carey Institute and Close Encounters With Music, the Berkshire-based chamber music organization, High Peaks this year features remarkable composers who stormed the barricades and helped revolutionize the place of women in the arts as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in NY State.

Close Encounters with Music June 10 Gala Concert “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” Unveils Quilt of Many Colors, Composers and Dedicatees World Premieres, Blending of Young, Established and Historic First Ladies of Music

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APRIL 21, 2017 -- Anonymous may have been a woman composer. Clara Schumann, Fannie Mendelssohn, Maria Theresia von Paradis, Ethel Smyth, Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Marianna Martinez, and Augusta Holmes (a precursor to Edith Piaf with 120-some songs!) move from footnotes to forces in the annals of classical music as women gain the vote and their artistic voices. The June 10 gala “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” features remarkable composers who stormed the barricades and helped revolutionize the place of women in the arts—playing four-hand piano with Mozart, conducting their works from an English prison, and overcoming the taboo to write but not be heard, especially in public. As this extraordinary evening progresses, works will span the demur and lyrical, the bold, propulsive and cosmic.

Close Encounters with Music Presents Author Linda Hirshman and the Feminine Mystique Conversations with… Series Continues with Intimate and Stimulating Conversations About Music and Ideas

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APRIL 4, 2017 -- Lawyer, best-selling author, and cultural historian Linda Hirshman has chronicled battles that have changed the social landscape of America in her books Get to work: A Manifesto For Women of the World, Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex, and others. Her dual biography of Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sisters in Law reveals how these trailblazers shaped the legal framework of modern feminism, also situating their respective ascents to the Court within the broader women's rights movement. A fitting way to celebrate Mother's Day, with historic and current-day women of note-with the backdrop of Edith Wharton's majestic and beloved Lenox property The Mount; a discussion resting on heroines of our legal system; and the brilliant author and thinker Linda Hirshman!