Press Releases

Close Encounters with Music Announces Grammy-Award-Winning LA Guitar Quartet

MARCH 30, 2017 -- On Saturday, May 6, Close Encounters With Music presents the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre. Playing consistently to sold-out houses world-wide, their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Haunting works from the time of Cervantes, breathtaking transcription from the opera Carmen, Copland Mexican songs, Jazz, and an arrangement of the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 as well as Far East and Irish classics will transport listeners around the world and through five centuries in a single concert experience. Also making an appearance on the program will be works by Chet Atkins and Path Metheny, arranged by the quartet.

The Art of the String Quartet

Press Releases

MARCH 6, 2017 -- As they soar to the top of the international quartet firmament, the Escher Quartet will make their Berkshire debut at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center 6 PM on April 15 for an unforgettable evening of music Their rare tonal beauty will unfold as they bring their special sheen to three landmark works of chamber music: Mendelssohn’s gripping Quartet in F minor, opus 80, saturated with poetic melancholy and written in memory of his beloved sister Fannie; the Bartók Quartet No. 3, whose string quartets in particular achieve a fusion of folk and Western art music; and Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartet in E minor, opus 59, No. 2, resplendent in its cosmic grandeur. Acclaimed for their keen musical insights and championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the Escher gave debuts at the BBC Proms and has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia.

Press Release of Beethoven Journey and Artists

Close Encounters with Music to Present “Beethoven Journey-Early, Middle and Late”

Press Releases

FEBRUARY 3, 2017 - On Saturday, March 18, Close Encounters With Music presents three stops along Ludwig’s journey, from disciple of Haydn to Olympian master and from historical time and place to transcending earthly connections: the early cello sonata No. 2 in G minor, a middle-period violin sonata No. 7 in C minor, and the glorious “Archduke” Trio Opus 97. The program makes a case for art as biography. With representative works from his three periods, audiences will take away a composite portrait of Beethoven as a cultural giant steered oftentimes by his personal life.

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

Press Releases

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

Press Releases

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!

Press Releases

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

Press Releases

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.