It’s an evening of Baroque composers, but with a twist: Vivaldi’s sun-dappled orchestral work appears on the program, of course; but there’s also Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto for Two Violins, the lesser-known Giuseppe Valentini, and Henirich Ignatz Frantz von Biber’s Battalia, designed for exhibition and entertainment and demonstrating an experimentalism not generally associated with the Baroque. Welcome to the Close Encounters With Music early holiday celebration where the Baroque pantheon just took on a few worthy new members!

For their third appearance with Close Encounters With Music, Camerata San Marco, an all-women ensemble fashioned after Vivaldi’s La Pietà orphanage players, is joined by violin soloists Jonathan Keren and Cordelia Hagmann and cellist Yehuda Hanani. The concert, Saturday, December 4, 6 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, also includes C.PE. Bach’s Symphony in G, brimming with his signature inventiveness and improvisatory élan.

The new Baroque ensemble Camerata San Marco is comprised of outstanding soloists and chamber musicians who have performed at international festivals and with leading ensembles in concert halls around the world: Marlboro, Kneisel Hall, Alice Tully, Da Capo Chamber Players, Bargemusic, Aspen, and Prussia Cove. They are noted for their precision of attack and synthesis of Baroque performance practice with contemporary virtuosity.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC

Close Encounters With Music stands at the intersection of music, art and the vast richness of Western culture. Entertaining, erudite and lively commentary from founder and Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich the concert experience. Since the inception of its Commissioning Project in 2001, CEWM has worked with the most distinguished composers of our time—Paul Schoenfield, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Kenji Bunch, John Musto, among others—to create important new works that have already taken their place in the chamber music canon and on CD. A core of brilliant performers includes pianists James Tocco, Adam Neiman, Walter Ponce and William Wolfram; violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi, Yehonatan Berick, Vadim Gluzman and Toby Appel; harpsichordist Lionel Party; clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein, Charles Neidich; vocalists Dawn Upshaw, Amy Burton, Jennifer Aylmer, Robert White, Lucille Beer and William Sharp; the Vermeer, Amernet, Muir, Manhattan, Avalon, Hugo Wolf quartets, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano; and guitarist Eliot Fisk. Choreographer David Parsons and actors Richard Chamberlain, Jane Alexander and Sigourney Weaver have also appeared as guests, weaving narration and dance into the fabric of the programs.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $40 (orchestra and mezzanine) and $30 (balcony), are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, or through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or by emailing [email protected]. Subscriptions are $175 ($150 for seniors) for a series of 6 concerts. Visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Note: Tickets for June 4th concert at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall can be purchased through CEWM only.

2010-11 CALENDAR

Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Saturday, October 16, 6PM
Baroque Pantheon: A Holiday Concert Saturday, December 4, 6PM
Thus Spake German Romanticism Saturday, March 12, 6PM
Viola Quintets: Dvorak and Mendelssohn Saturday, April 16, 6PM
The Avalon Quartet: Steve Reich, Osvaldo Golijov and Schubert Saturday, May 7, 6PM

These five performances at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA. A reception with light refreshments follows each concert.

Tickets for Conversations with…. events on Sundays, November 21 and May 15, Hudson Opera House, Hudson NY, are $15 per person which includes refreshments.

Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance takes place Saturday, June 4, 6PM, at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Lenox, MA. Tickets: $50 Orchestra and Loges; $40 Balconies.

For information and tickets for the inaugural season of Close Encounters with Music at the Frick Museum in NYC call 212.547.0696 or www.frick.org.

“A chamber music series on a par with anything heard at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are blessed.” —Rogovoy Report

“There’s a palpable mystique about these Close Encounters concerts.” —Berkshire Eagle

“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Prutsman and Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”

—Albany Times Union

“An all-star lineup…CEWM’s usual high caliber.” —Metroland

Inaugural season of CEWM at the Frick Collection in New York City

(Great Barrington, MA) As the Berkshires blaze with Autumn splendor, Close Encounters With Music offers a bountiful harvest of classical, contemporary, and cutting edge music. Now in its 19th season, CEWM presents world-renowned musicians, dancers, composers, and others in works that span the Renaissance to the 21st century, the brilliance of the Italian baroque to the introspection of the Russian masters, the spirituality of the late German Romantics to the extroversion of Latin fusion artists.

The season begins at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 16, 6PM with the Berkshire debut of Chamber Orchestra Kremlin in a program including Tchaikovsky’s lush Serenade for Strings and Prokofiev’s collection of miniature gems of mood, Visions fugitives. The “crème de la Kremlin,” known for its supercharged brilliance, has toured the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America with Misha Rachlevsky, conductor. Artistic director Yehuda Hanani joins as soloist for Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile and Max Bruch’s cantorial, uplifting Kol Nidrei.

With a discography of over 30 recordings, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin garners universal raves: “The ensemble’s music director elicited warm, full-blooded and virtuosic playing with colorfully shaped, gleaming phrases,” The New York Times has written.

The Camerata San Marco, CEWM’s resident Baroque string ensemble, sets off fireworks with Baroque Pantheon, the annual Holiday concert, on Saturday, December 4, 6PM. Here are Baroque composers with a twist: Vivaldi’s sun-dappled orchestral work, of course, but also Geminiani’s Concerto for Two Violins; the lesser known Valentini; Biber’s Battalia, entertainment demonstrating an experimentalism uncharacteristic of the period; and C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in G, brimming with his signature inventiveness and improvisatory élan.

The late German Romantics sought answers to the West’s malaise in Eastern spirituality, philosophy, poetry and art. Thus Spake German Romanticism on Saturday, March 12, 6PM, highlights this via songs by Mahler, chamber music by Strauss, and the world premiere of Jorge Martín’s Four Noble Truths inspired by Buddhist wisdom and the pathways of the 19th Century German Romantics. Opera star Jennifer Rivera makes her Close Encounters debut: “A ravishing mezzo-soprano bloom from top to bottom, effortlessly negotiating the filigree with grace” – Opera News. She is joined by Walter Ponce, piano, and Yehuda Hanani, cello.

On Saturday, April 16, 6PM, the series continues with Viola Quintets: Dvořák and Mendelssohn. The two exuberant and rarely heard string quintets with viola doubled, Mendelssohn’s Op. 87 and Dvořák’s Op. 97, abound with wit, elegance and some of the most exquisite combinations of string sounds ever conceived. Performers are Yehonatan Berick and Renee Jolles, violins; Toby Appel and Tony DeVroye, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello.

The Avalon String Quartet (“Engrossed, impassioned and imaginative…” – The New Yorker) returns to the Mahaiwe for an electrifying evening on Saturday, May 7, 6PM with works by Steve Reich, Osvaldo Golijov and Schubert. Reich, considered one of “our greatest living composers” by The New Yorker, shares with Golijov the ability to transcend regional and cultural boundaries, incorporating influences from around the world and across time. The program includes Reich’s Holocaust-themed Passing Trains, Golijov’s Tenebrae, and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, an iconic chamber work that has inspired films by Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.

The season finale, FIESTA! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance, sizzles with the rhythms of Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain on Saturday, June 4, 6PM in a most unusual and fun fusion evening at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall in Lenox. Stars from the chamber music and dance world share the stage: David Parsons’ choreography of Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango (commissioned by CEWM in 2001), and composer-in-residence Jorge Martín’s hypnotic Ropa Vieja (also a CEWM commission), along with works by Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, and Granados. Performers include Boston Pops favorite Michael Chertock, piano; Bill Schimmel, accordion; Arti Dixson, percussion; Yehuda Hanani, cello; and David Parsons Dance soloists.

An exclusive event for season subscribers on Saturday, February 26, 6PM at The Lenox Athenaeum, the Midwinter Fireside Concert features Chopin, Scriabin, César Franck, and two rising stars: Ukrainian pianist Pavel Gintov, first prizewinner in the first Takamatsu International Piano Competition, and Russian violinist Artur Kaganovsky who recently made his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall.

Close Encounters With Music continues its tea and talk series Conversations with…, intimate and stimulating afternoons of music and exchanges of ideas with notable performers, critics, authors, and cultural personages, on Sunday, November 21, 3PM at the Hudson Opera House in Hudson, NY. CEWM’s Composer-in-Residence, Cuban born Jorge Martín, gives a presentation with musical and visual illustrations on his first full-length opera, Before Night Falls, based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas who chronicled the persecution of gays under Fidel Castro. On May 15, 3PM at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, David Bull, Senior Consultant in the Painting Conservation Department at the National Gallery of Art, explores The Conundrum of Restoration and Interpretation and addresses the question of the shared responsibility of conservators and performers as re-creators: How to implement the artist’s intentions as an interpretive custodian when you are handed a neglected or “aging” painting or score?

This year marks the inaugural season of CEWM at the Frick Collection in New York City with an innovative two-part series. A Gilded Age Evening on October 12 features Lydia Artymiw, piano; Yehonatan Berick, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello; and special guest, actor Richard Chamberlain reading from Frick family diaries and period accounts. Chopin in Paris on March 29, a toast to the intimacy of the salon, includes Chopin’s Ballades, Waltzes, Polonaises and Cello Sonata, framed by works of his contemporaries and features Jeffrey Swann, piano and Yehuda Hanani, cello. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera sings arias by Donizetti and Bellini whose operas influenced Chopin’s “bel canto” piano style.

Close Encounters With Music concerts are broadcast on WMHT-FM, and audiences are encouraged to tune into the new weekly broadcasts of Classical Music According to Yehuda on WAMC Northeast Radio or visit www.wamc.org.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC

Close Encounters With Music stands at the intersection of music, art and the vast richness of Western culture. Entertaining, erudite and lively commentary from founder and Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich the concert experience. Since the inception of its Commissioning Project in 2001, CEWM has worked with the most distinguished composers of our time—Paul Schoenfield, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Kenji Bunch, John Musto, among others—to create important new works that have already taken their place in the chamber music canon and on CD. A core of brilliant performers includes pianists James Tocco, Adam Neiman, Walter Ponce and William Wolfram; violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi, Yehonatan Berick, Vadim Gluzman and Toby Appel; harpsichordist Lionel Party; clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein, Charles Neidich; vocalists Dawn Upshaw, Amy Burton, Jennifer Aylmer, Robert White, Lucille Beer and William Sharp; the Vermeer, Amernet, Muir, Manhattan, Avalon, Hugo Wolf quartets, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano; and guitarist Eliot Fisk. Choreographer David Parsons and actors Richard Chamberlain, Jane Alexander and Sigourney Weaver have also appeared as guests, weaving narration and dance into the fabric of the programs.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $40 (orchestra and mezzanine) and $30 (balcony), are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, or through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or by emailing [email protected]. Subscriptions are $175 ($150 for seniors) for a series of 6 concerts. Visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Note: Tickets for June 4th concert at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall can be purchased through CEWM only.

2010-11 CALENDAR

Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Saturday, October 16, 6PM
Baroque Pantheon: A Holiday Concert Saturday, December 4, 6PM
Thus Spake German Romanticism Saturday, March 12, 6PM
Viola Quintets: Dvorak and Mendelssohn Saturday, April 16, 6PM
The Avalon Quartet: Steve Reich, Osvaldo Golijov and Schubert Saturday, May 7, 6PM

These five performances at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA. A reception with light refreshments follows each concert.

Tickets for Conversations with…. events on Sundays, November 21 and May 15, Hudson Opera House, Hudson NY, are $15 per person which includes refreshments.

Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance takes place Saturday, June 4, 6PM, at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Lenox, MA. Tickets: $50 Orchestra and Loges; $40 Balconies.

For information and tickets for the inaugural season of Close Encounters with Music at the Frick Museum in NYC call 212.547.0696 or www.frick.org.

“A chamber music series on a par with anything heard at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are blessed.” —Rogovoy Report

“There’s a palpable mystique about these Close Encounters concerts.” —Berkshire Eagle

“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Prutsman and Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”

—Albany Times Union

“An all-star lineup…CEWM’s usual high caliber.” —Metroland

Close Encounters With Music continues its 18th season Saturday, April 24, 6PM with Chopin and His Circle, the second of two programs celebrating the bicentennial of Chopin’s birth. From John Field, father of the Nocturne, who paved the way for Frederic Chopin’s masterworks in the genre, to Hummel, whose music he heard in his youth and whose concerti he performed, to the cellist Franchomme, for whom Chopin composed his Cello Sonata, to the charismatic Paganini, a frequent collaborator, this program offers a spectrum of works by Chopin’s friends and mentors, as well as his own sublime Ballades and Nocturnes.

Chopin explored the resources of the developing pianos of his day, resulting in the creation of new territory for future generations to admire and plumb – with harmonies from beyond the boundaries of what was then theoretically possible. His calling cards were a polished personality and a body of highly individualistic music which projected its novel beauty instantaneously. In music as seduction of the ear, no composer has surpassed him.

Joining artistic director Yehuda Hanani at the Mahaiwe performance are pianist Adam Neiman, violinist Stefan Milenkovich, and cellist Amy Gillingham. The concert will be complemented by a Chopin Hour the following afternoon, part of Close Encounters’ Conversations With… a series of illuminating talks by notable speakers and performers. Guest pianist Adam Neiman is featured both at the Mahaiwe concert Saturday evening and on Sunday, April 25, 2 PM at the Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY.

Adam Neiman is hailed as one of the premier pianists of his generation and praised for possessing a rare blend of power, bravura, imagination, and technical precision. With a burgeoning international career and an encyclopedic repertoire that spans over fifty concertos, he has performed as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Minnesota, and San Francisco, as well as with the New York Chamber Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. He has won the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and joined the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II for the 2004-2006 seasons. As a composer, his output includes works for solo piano, voice, chamber ensembles, a symphony and a violin concerto.

Violinist Stefan Milenkovich is recognized internationally for both exceptional artistry and his life-long commitment to humanitarianism, begining with his appointment as Child Ambassador of the First Children’s Embassy founded in Medjasi, Yugoslavia, during the war in Bosnia. At age seven he won the grand prize in the Jaroslav Kozian Violin Competition, and came to international attention when at age ten he was invited to perform for President Ronald Reagan at a White House Christmas celebration. He also performed for former Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev and twice for Pope John Paul II. He has made concerto appearances with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra of Radio-France, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies in Australia. He has served on the violin faculty of the Perlman Music Program on Shelter Island and is a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Cellist Amy Gillingham is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician and has given concerts across the eastern United States, Canada, Latin America, and Italy. She was hailed for her “rich sonority” by the Portland Press Herald. She holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she is currently finishing a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree as a student of Yehuda Hanani and is an adjunct faculty member in the theory department. She recently performed with the Central Michigan Symphony Orchestra as solo cellist in a premiere performance of Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew and at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Taipei and Seoul symphonies, among others. His recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata—the first ever—received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and his other discs have won wide recognition. His best-selling recording of the Unaccompanied Bach Suites has become a standard-setter, and of his recent Naxos CD with the National Symphony of Ireland Fanfare Magazine wrote: “Renowned cellist Yehuda Hanani, great virtuoso that he is, handles this with astounding aplomb… .”

Close Encounters continues its tradition of commentary before each performance and of inviting the entire audience to the Afterglow reception to meet the artists immediately following the concerts.

Tickets for Saturday, April 24, $35 or $25 for adults and $10 for students, are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778, or by emailing [email protected]. Please visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Chopin and His Circle Saturday, April 24, 6 PM

Prague Spring—Czech Idyll Saturday, June 5, 6 PM

All performances take place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Chopin Hour Sunday, April 26, 2 PM at the Hudson Opera House, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, New York. Tickets are available at the door. Reservations are suggested: [email protected]. $25 includes tea and pastries by Verdigris of Hudson

“A chamber music series on a par with anything heard at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are blessed.” —Rogovoy Report

“‘L’Histoire” known in English as “A Soldier’s Story,’ … was an intriguing project, and a noble effort… [an]exuberant theatrical adventure… Stravinsky’s winsomely galloping waltzes, polkas and marches framing the dialogues were in superb hands with the ensemble…”

—Berkshire Eagle (December 2009)

“There’s a palpable mystique about these Close Encounters concerts.” —Berkshire Eagle

“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Prutsman and Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”

—Albany Times Union

“An all-star lineup…CEWM’s usual high caliber.” —Metroland

About Soldier’s Tale! performance December 2009: “…an intriguing project, and a noble effort… exuberant theatrical adventure… Stravinsky’s winsomely galloping waltzes, polkas and marches framing the dialogues were in superb hands with the ensemble.” —Berkshire Eagle

Saturday, December 5 at 6 PM Close Encounters With Music will bring all the magic and inspiration of A Soldier’s Tale! to life in its annual holiday concert with renowned English baritone Benjamin Luxon narrating the classic tale. This theatrical production features nine performers, a decorative scrim, choreographed dance interlude, and special lighting effects.

Set to music by Igor Stravinsky, with a libretto based on a Russian folk tale, the much-loved l’Histoire du Soldat is a parable about a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil for a get-rich-quick recipe. The music—orchestral color at the fore—is scored for a septet of strings, winds and percussion; and the story is told by a narrator. Virtuoso violinist Yehonatan Berick leads the performance and other holiday fare, including light-hearted and virtuosic works by Rossini and Eugene Ysaye. Helping participants discover the charm of Stravinsky’s score, Berick and Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani will be joined by a diverse ensemble, all of whom are faculty members at the University of Michigan who have served as first desks with the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Rochester Symphony, and other venerable American orchestras across the U.S.

Young and old alike will respond to the aural excitement of the winds, brass and percussion instrumentation. Performers include Willam Campbell, trumpet; Daniel Gilbert; clarinet; David Lee Jackson, trombone; Jeffrey Lyman, bassoon; Diana Gannett, bass; Joseph Gramley, percussion; and Yehuda Hanani, cello.

Benjamin Luxon CBE was one of Great Britain’s major international singers. His career of some 30 years displays an unusual versatility and he was equally renowned as recitalist, concert, and opera singer. He began as a member of the English Opera Group which was formed by Benjamin Britten and quickly became one of Britten’s key singers culminating with Britten composing the role of Owen Wyngrave (his television opera) specifically for his voice. A regular guest artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Glyndebourne, he performed at the most important European opera houses, worked with the world’s major conductors and orchestras and made well over 100 recordings. His work was graced with a high musicality, honesty and a very fine acting ability. In 1986 he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his service to British Music. In the early 90s his singing career came to an end due to severe hearing loss. His career is now focused on the spoken word, creating and performing programs of poetry and working with various theatrical companies, mainly as a Shakespearean actor.

Violinist Yehonatan Berick, soloist, recitalist, chamber musician (violin and viola), and pedagogue, was a prizewinner at the 1993 Naumburg Competition and a recipient of the 1996-97 Prix Opus. A member of The Los Angeles Piano Quartet, he has performed with the symphony orchestras of Quebec, Winnipeg, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and the Israel, Cincinnati, Montreal, and Manitoba chamber orchestras. Berick’s festival credits include Marlboro, Ravinia, Seattle, Great Lakes, Vancouver, El Paso, Maui, and Bowdoin; and he is a frequent guest performer with Close Encounter With Music. A member of Musicians from Marlboro, the Lortie-Berick-Lysy Piano Trio, and the Huberman String Quartet, he can be heard on recordings on the Summit, Gasparo, and Helicon labels. Currently Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan, his studies were at Tel Aviv University’s Music Academy and at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Close Encounters continues its tradition of commentary before each performance and of inviting the entire audience to an Afterglow reception to meet the artists immediately following the concerts. Now in its 18th season in the Berkshires, the series’ exceptional artistic and audience success has made it one of the leading chamber music associations in the U.S., captivating music lovers from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Calgary, Scottsdale and the Berkshires. Since its inception, the Close Encounters Commissioning Program has supported the creation of, produced and premiered fifteen new works by major American and European composers, with several recorded on the Naxos label. In 2010-11, Close Encounters With Music will be in residence at the Frick Museum in New York City.

Tickets, $35 and $25, are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, or through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or by emailing [email protected]. Please visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Upcoming!

Soldier’s Tale: Holiday Concert! Saturday, December 5, 6 PM
A Night of Quartets Saturday, February 20, 6 PM
The Romantic Bach Saturday, March 20, 6 PM
Chopin and His Circle Saturday, April 24, 6 PM
Prague Spring—Czech Idyll Saturday, June 5, 6 PM

These performances at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Chopin Hour Sunday, April 26, 2 PM at the Hudson Opera House, Hudson, New York

“A chamber music series on a par with anything heard at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are blessed.” —Rogovoy Report

“There’s a palpable mystique about these Close Encounters concerts.” —Berkshire Eagle

“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Prutsman and Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”
—Albany Times Union

“An all-star lineup…CEWM’s usual high caliber.” —Metroland

A smart blend of classical, contemporary, and cutting edge from October through May

Saturday, October 17 marks the beginning of the highly anticipated 2009-2010 Close Encounters With Music season in the Berkshires. In its 18th year, Close Encounters presents six innovative and captivating programs of chamber music, thirty performers, and more than twenty composers at South County’s premier venue, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. To celebrate the Chopin anniversary year of 2009, Close Encounters will present two programs that include works by Chopin and his contemporaries: Liszt, Hummel, Field, Paganini, Bellini, and Donizetti. In addition, the Conversations With… series resumes on October 11 with “Music Rooms of the Gilded Age” and a “Chopin Hour” on April 25.

Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani will be joined by returning favorites and exciting newcomers to the Close Encounters roster of artists. Pianists Walter Ponce, James Tocco, Lydia Artymiw, and Adam Neiman; violinists Yehonatan Berick, Cordelia Hagemann, and Stefan Milenkovich; violist Toby Appel, and the Avalon Quartet, all familiar to Close Encounters audiences, will perform treasured masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Composer Jonathan Keren contributes a world premiere, his Bach-inspired chamber piece to be offered at the March concert. Artists making their first appearances with Close Encounters With Music include the violinists Lily Francis and Erin Keefe, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel and English baritone Benjamin Luxon narrating A Soldier’s Tale! by Igor Stravinsky.

The concert season begins on Saturday, October 17, 6PM with Chopin in Paris: A toast to the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, with Ballades, Mazurkas and Polonaises—framed by works of his contemporaries, including his friendly rival Franz Liszt. Acclaimed in every major concert hall throughout the world, and with a special affinity for Chopin and the Romantics, pianist Walter Ponce has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “magical.” Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition laureate Stephanie Houtzeel brings her vocal luster to arias by Donizetti and Bellini, whose operas influenced Chopin’s bel canto style, and to his rarely heard Polish songs.

The Conversations With… series opens Sunday, October 11, 2 PM with Music Rooms of the Gilded Age. Harvey Rosenberg, professor of the History of Interior Design and Architecture at FIT/SUNY for 25 years, and frequent lecturer at Parsons, Pratt and the New School of Interior Design, offers a slide presentation and discussion of how European design principles were incorporated into the Berkshire “cottages” of the Gilded Age. Ventfort Hall in Lenox, the Elizabethan Revival mansion built in 1893 for the sister of J.P. Morgan, provides the perfect setting for this event.

On Saturday, December 5, 6PM Close Encounters presents its annual holiday concert A Soldier’s Tale! Set to music by Igor Stravinsky, with a libretto based on a Russian folk tale, the much-loved l’Histoire du Soldat is a parable about a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil for a get-rich-quick recipe. The music—orchestral color at the fore—is scored for a septet of strings, winds and percussion; and the story is told by a narrator, in this case renowned English baritone Benjamin Luxon. Virtuoso violinist Yehonatan Berick leads this performance and other holiday fare, with Willam Campbell, trumpet; Daniel Gilbert; clarinet; David Lee Jackson, trombone; Jeffrey Lyman, bassoon; Diana Gannett, bass; Joseph Gramley, percussion; and Yehuda Hanani, cello.

The Avalon String Quartet (“Engrossed, impassioned and imaginative…” –The New York Times) returns on Saturday, February 20, 6PM to offer A Night of Quartets, a striking program of works by Beethoven, Arensky, and Prokofiev, all mining overlapping Russian folkloric themes. The Opus 59 No. 2 Razumovsky Quartet represents the pinnacle of Beethoven’s quartet writing, revolutionary in character and symphonic in reach. Arensky’s arresting work is for two cellos, and Prokofiev’s Quartet No. 2 bears his infatuation with folk instruments. Yehuda Hanani joins the Quartet in the Arensky.

The Romantic Bach, on Saturday, March 20, 6PM features Bach through the filter of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms (the brilliant Chaconne arrangement for left-hand piano) and Liszt, and unfiltered, in his own voice, in Suites and Partitas. Truly a composer for all seasons and for all times, Bach, like Shakespeare, emerges always relevant through different ages and treatments. A highlight of the program is the world premiere of a new neo-Bach chamber piece commissioned by CEWM in homage to his magisterial presence. Performers are Cordelia Hagemann, violin; James Tocco, piano; Yehuda Hanani, cello.

Saturday, April 24, 6 PM Chopin and His Circle will be a second evening celebrating the Chopin 200th anniversary. From John Field, father of the nocturne, who paved the way to Chopin’s masterworks of the genre, to Hummel, whose music Chopin heard in Poland and whose concerti he played, to August Franchomme, his cohort, and to the charismatic Paganini, a frequent collaborator, this program offers a spectrum of Chopin’s friends and mentors as well as his sublimely poignant, swoon-inducing Ballades and Nocturnes. Adam Neiman, a latter-day Romantic, elicits lavish praise for his Chopin—“Playing of wisdom and light” —The Washington Post. Joining Mr. Neiman are Stefan Milenkovich, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello; Amy Gillingham, cello.

As a complement to the April 24 concert, Adam Neiman will host a Chopin Hour, the season’s second installment of Conversations With…, Sunday, April 26, 2 PM at the Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY. Hailed as one of the premiere pianists of his generation, with a burgeoning international career, Mr. Neiman will demonstrate the special place Chopin holds in the instrument’s repertoire and how the composer revolutionized the world of piano, presenting particular challenges to the performer as he pushed piano technique to a level unsurpassed at the time. The Hudson Opera House, built in 1855—only six years after Chopin’s death in Paris, is one of the oldest surviving theaters in America. Another Frederic, Hudson River painter Frederic Church showed his works here; Bret Harte read his poems; and Susan B. Anthony rallied support for women’s suffrage.

Concluding the season will be Prague Spring—Czech Idyll on Saturday, June 5, 6 PM. From the land of Franz Kafka, bucolic landscapes, and Bohemian crystal, music by Dvořak, Smetana, and Janaček that glows with lyricism and melodiousness. Dvořak’s Piano Quintet is a recognized masterpiece and, along with the other selections, it overflows with Mittel-europäische ease, cultivation, and affecting tenderness. It’s never too far from the Czech countryside and a languid summer’s evening. The stellar performers are Lydia Artymiw, piano; Erin Keefe, violin; Lily Francis, violin; Toby Appel, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello.

Close Encounters continues its tradition of commentary before each performance and of inviting the entire audience to a reception to meet the artists immediately following the concerts.

Tickets, $35 (and $40 for the June 5, 2009 concert) for adults and $10 for students, are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413.528.0100, or through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778 or by emailing [email protected]. Subscriptions are $150 for a series of 6 concerts, $130 for seniors (65+). Please visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Chopin in Paris Saturday, October 17, 6 PM
Soldier’s Tale: Holiday Concert! Saturday, December 5, 6 PM
A Night of Quartets Saturday, February 20, 6 PM
The Romantic Bach Saturday, March 20, 6 PM
Chopin and His Circle Saturday, April 24, 6 PM
Prague Spring—Czech Idyll Saturday, June 5, 6 PM

These six performances at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Tickets for the two Conversations with… events are $25 which includes light refreshments:
Music Rooms of the Gilded Age Sunday, October 11, 2 PM at Ventfort Hall, Lenox, Massachusetts
Chopin Hour Sunday, April 26, 2 PM at the Hudson Opera House, Hudson, New York

“A chamber music series on a par with anything heard at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are blessed.” —Rogovoy Report

“There’s a palpable mystique about these Close Encounters concerts.” —Berkshire Eagle

“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Prutsman and Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”
—Albany Times Union

“An all-star lineup…CEWM’s usual high caliber.” —Metroland