Press Releases

Close Encounters with Music to Present “The Intimate Back” Mid-Winter Fireside Concert at the Newly Renovated Saint James Place

JANUARY 9, 2017 -- The wonders of Bach are inexhaustible, and after decades of intimate dialogue with the suites, artistic director Yehuda Hanani is “still awed by his mastery, his architectural strength and harmonic daring, the human truth reflected in his balancing tension and release.” Three of the sublime unaccompanied suites that have taken dances from the courts of Europe and lifted them to the most spiritual realm will be presented in contrasting modern and historical approaches on modern cello and its earlier cousin the Baroque cello. These are works that were conceived under uneven non-electric light, predating the metronome, paved roads, and assembly lines, with no two performances or performers alike—an unending realm of possibilities. CEWM is delighted to return to the legendary acoustics of the newly “converted” Saint James Place, its earliest home.

“A Studio of Her Own-Shattering the Glass Ceiling” with Prize-Winning Composer Hannah Lash

Press Releases

OCTOBER 17, 2016 -- Just a century ago, you could count on one hand the number of women composers whose works were heard in public. As recently as the mid-19th century, Fanny Mendelssohn’s father declared it unseemly for her to publish her music—just a few decades before Edith Wharton's family compelled her to publish her literary works under the name of her father’s friend. On Sunday, November 20, at 3 PM, Yale composer Hannah Lash, who has been lauded hailed by the New York Times for music that is “striking and resourceful…handsomely brooding,” will provide first-hand insights into what has changed and what remains of this restrictive legacy.

Close Encounters with Music Announces 25th Anniversary Season with its Signature Mix of Innovative Programs- Chamber Orchestra Kremlin Launches Season October 15; La Guitar Quartet takes the Stage; Season Finale Commemorates 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage; Celebrity Talks, Fireside Concert; Commissions, Collaborations, Celebrations All Season

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SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 -- CEWM marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in NY State and declares 2016-17 the Year of the Woman, launching a three-season initiative to bring works by women composers to the fore! The season culminates with a gala concert of commissions—a “quilt” of miniatures by Thea Musgrave, Tamar Muskal, Joan Tower, and Judith Zaimont, musical portraits of suffragettes and other women of valor—Ethel Smyth, Emma Lazarus, and Sojourner Truth—who advanced the causes of everyone with their steadfastness, ingenuity and idealism. A light shines on the work and life of French composer Augusta Holmès and her relationship with Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck—and two superstar speakers (see Conversations With… panel) present women’s themes.

Close Encounters with Music Summers on a Mountain Top: Catskill High Peaks Music Festival August 7-18 Brigs “The Miracle of Back and his Legacy” to the Hudson Valley and Capital Region with Internationally Acclaimed Musicians and Young Artists Around the Clock Festivities at Carey Institute Location – Baroque Themed Concerts, Lectures, master Classes and Film! “Beethoven, Back and Beer” on Tap; J.S. Back at the Top of the Charts!

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JULY 7, 2016 -- “The Miracle of Bach” is the theme of the seventh edition of the Catskill High Peaks Festival, hosted by the Carey Institute for Global Good, August 7-18. A joint presentation of the Carey Institute and Close Encounters With Music, the Berkshire-based chamber music organization, High Peaks this year turns its attention to the architectural genius and spiritual force of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose influence hovered over every future generation of composers that followed him. On a recent New York Times survey of the all-time top ten classical composers, opinions varied from number two on; however, number one was unanimous, and Bach remains securely at the top of the chart!

The Music that Shook the World Press Release

Close Encounters June 11 Gala Concert “Music that Shook the World” Earthquakes for the Ears-Musical Ground Resettles into Modernism Beethoven, Stravinsky, Debussy, Antheil Transform Music

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MAY 24, 2016 -- The 20th century saw a series of cultural earthquakes that shook the music establishment and scandalized audiences. Now that modernism has receded, we can view them in perspective and see how they entered the mainstream and vitalized our concert experience. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Debussy’s breaking through the German hegemony with Impressionism; granting Jazz concert hall respectability; coupling music with film (from “Bad Boy of Music” George Antheil and Fernand Léger’s 1924 Ballet Mécanique); and the advent of Latin American vernacular—all radically transformed our notion of classical music. Amplifying the music, passages from Igor Stravinsky’s and Antheil’s memoirs will be threaded through the program and read by brilliant comedienne Alison Larkin.

Audiophiles Hear Hear! Close Encounters with Music’s “Conversations with…” Series Groundbreaking Acoustician Edgar Choueiri Reveals Revolutionary Recording Sounds of the Future

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APRIL 14, 2016 -- Audiophiles will enjoy the sounds of Edgar Choueiri demonstrating how the brain can be tricked into believing it is experiencing a live performance, when it is actually a recording being heard. An avid acoustician, Choueiri is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University and head of the school’s 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab. On May 22 he brings his binaural audio set-up to Time & Space Limited’s art space in Hudson, NY to discuss the fruits of a decade of development, application, and refinement of this revolutionary, groundbreaking system of recording that captures lifelike 3D audio in picture-perfect fidelity. Binaural recording systems are unique because they emulate the workings of the human head. Prepare to be fooled, says Choueiri: "You can hear a bird flying over your head. You’ll hear a whisper in one ear.”

Close Encounters Presents “The Art of the String Quartet” Hot and Highly Sought After – The Dover Quartet

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APRIL 11, 2016 -- A rising quartet takes the stage in the Berkshires—the Dover—dubbed by The New Yorker “the young American string quartet of the moment” and catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The program’s triad of Beethoven, Dvořák and Alban Berg offers up the “American” Quartet, a triumph of Dvořák’s astonishing melodic vision, disarming immediacy, and attempt to capture the American spirit; Beethoven’s cosmic “Razumovsky” Quartet; and Alban Berg’s Second String Quartet Op. 3 (1908), written during a turbulent courtship with his wife-to-be Helene. It is the composer at a compositional as well as personal crossroads and, in spite of its rigor, is full of Viennese flavor—somewhat like eating a Sachertorte with cream. These three core works of chamber music will be delivered by the first quartet to be honored with a residency at the venerable Curtis Institute.

Close Encounters April 17 Concert “Fiddler Off the Roof” Explores Jewish Music Spanning, Cultures and Centuries Pianist Michele Levin, Clarinetist Paul Green, Tenor Alex Richardson, Violinist Sarah McElravy, and Cellist Yehuda Hanani, Gershwin, Bernstein, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Bruch, Ravel, and… Klezmer

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FEBRUARY 25, 2016 -- The fascinating phenomenon of Jewish music—spanning multitudes of cultures and centuries—its ancient roots, its meandering trails as it wends its way across continents, and its contribution to the American voice—takes center stage at a matinee performance. Works by Gershwin, Bernstein, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Bloch, and Max Bruch, (non-Jewish, but who adopted Jewish modes and themes), will be performed. And of course, expect a touch of klezmer, the toe-tapping Eastern European celebratory music imbued with spirituality. Medieval Iberian ballad repertoire will meet German Enlightenment (Bruch’s Kol Nidre and Felix Mendelssohn’s incomparable Piano Trio in D minor). The musical material has been passed from generation to generation, with adaptations, emendations, additions, and reinterpretations. Ravel’s rendition of Kaddish, which recycles the ancient chant in Aramaic for the departed dating back to the First Century, will be sung by tenor Alex Richardson, who this season appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Symphony, at Santa Fe Opera and Spoleto USA.