Close Encounters with Music Presents Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance

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APRIL 1, 2011

The 2011-2012 season will mark the 20th anniversary of CEWM’s presence and contribution to the cultural life of the Berkshires. To kick off the celebration of this landmark year, CEWM announces a gala concert at Tanglewood’s famed Ozawa Hall on Saturday, June 4. Fiesta! A Latin Splash of Music and Dance embraces the sizzling rhythms of Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Spain. The program includes Chick Corea’s jazzy, flamenco-inspired La Fiesta!, performed by accordionist Bill Schimmel, one of the principal architects of the tango revival in America; Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, choreographed by David Parsons as a 2001 CEWM commission; Ropa Vieja, a hypnotic work by composer-in-residence Jorge Martin and also a CEWM commission; plus works by Granados, Ginastera, and Villa-Lobos. Close Encounters promises an unusual evening of fusion fun.

A Close Encounters tradition that has featured artists ranging from Sigourney Weaver, Richard Chamberlain, and Jane Alexander to diva Dawn Upshaw , and that has seen world premieres of commissioned works by Osvaldo Golijov and Paul Schoenfield, this first major concert of the Berkshire summer season brings stellar musicians and performers to the Ozawa stage in original productions. Joining artistic director and cellist Yehuda Hanani are pianist Michael Chertock, percussionist Arti Dixson, and premier dancers from the Parsons Company. Fittingly, CEWM—“A celebration of the uncommon in chamber music” (The Miami Herald)—launches its next decade true to form.

“FIESTA: A Latin Splash of Music and Dances” is scheduled for Saturday, June 4, 6 PM at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood (Lenox, MA). Tickets for this extraordinary concert are $50 for orchestra seats, $40 for all balconies, and can be purchased by calling 800-843-0778 or online at www.cewm.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

“Gorgeous, just the right poetic tone” – Cincinnati Enquirer

Pianist MICHAEL CHERTOCK has fashioned a successful career as an orchestral soloist, appearing, among others, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He made his debut at seventeen, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Andrew Litton conducting, and has toured Asia with the Boston Pops and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. His 2003 performance on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Petrouchka with Paavo Järvi turned in rave reviews in Gramophone and American Record Guide. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, performing Duke Ellington’s New World A’Comin’. In June 2005 with the Boston Pops Orchestra, he performed the world premiere of a work by Todd Machover, commissioned by the Boston Pops expressly for him.

Yehuda Hanani is “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and is a consistently expressive artist.” – The New York Times

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, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and BBC Welsh Symphony, to name a few. He is a frequent guest at the Aspen, Chautauqua, Pablo Casals Prades Festival (France), Finland Festival, Oslo Festival, Ottawa Festival, and the Australia Chamber Music Festival. He has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Dawn Upshaw and Vadim Repin, among others. This distinguished artist made the first recording ever of the monumental Alkan Cello sonata, receiving a Grand Prix du Disque nomination.

“One of the great movers of modern dance.” –The New York Times

DAVID PARSONS founded Parsons Dance in 1987 with lighting designer Howell Binkley. Since then, he has created more than 70 works for the company, through commissions from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, the American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Spoleto Festival, and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, among others. His works have also been performed by BatSheva Dance Company of Israel, English National Ballet, Feld Ballets/NY, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theatre, and Paris Opera Ballet, among many others. He choreographed and directed the dance elements for Times Square 2000, the 24-hour festivities in Times Square celebrating the turn of the Millennium, viewed live on television by billions of people all over the globe.

“Accordion player the star” – The New York Times

WILLIAM SCHIMMEL, virtuoso accordionist, teacher and lecturer, received his diploma from the Neupauer Conservatory of Music and his BM, MS and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School. Mr. Schimmel has performed with virtually every major symphony orchestra in America and enjoys a longstanding relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra. He is founder of the Tango Project, which appeared with Al Pacino in the film Scent of a Woman, won the Stereo Review Album of the Year Award, received a Grammy nomination, and rose to number one on the Billboard Classical Charts. An authority on the music of Kurt Weill, he has recorded all of Weill’s music that employs the accordion and has written many new works for concert hall as well as Broadway and off-Broadway.

Percussionist ARTI DIXSON studied drum set concepts with the legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette. With folk-pop singer Janis Ian, he has performed in most major concert halls in the United States and toured Israel, Japan, Australia, Holland, Belgium, Spain and South Africa. He has also appeared with pianist Ahmad Jamal, throughout Europe as well as at Tanglewood, Saratoga, and Carnegie Hall and has worked at the the Foxwood Casino with Harry Connick and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $50 (Orchestra) and $40 (Balcony), are available through Close Encounters With Music at 800-843-0778/ or by emailing [email protected]. Visit our website at www.cewm.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. In addition to tours that have taken the series to cities such as Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Omaha, Calgary, and Kansas City, and South Florida, Close Encounters presents concerts each season in Scottsdale, Arizona, and in the Berkshires. To date, over one hundred fifty themes have been explored in the series’ programs. 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, and Jorge Martin, 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, 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. In 2006, CEWM presented the world premiere of American composer Paul Schoenfield’s trio for clarinet, cello and piano, released for NAXOS in an all-Schoenfield CD. Naxos is scheduled to release a CD of CEWM’s discovery composer Eduard Franck, one of Felix Mendelssohn’s only students, in 2011 (Yehuda Hanani, James Tocco and Shmuel Ashkenasi), and Albany Records will release a CD of CEWM commissioned Jorge Martin works this summer.

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.

For information and tickets for the Close Encounters with Music at the Frick Museum in NYC (October 4, 2011 and March 27, 2012) call 212.547.0696 or www.frick.org.

PRESS

Berkshire Living
“Must-see concerts, engaging hearts and minds.”

Kansas City Star
“Spontaneity, sophistication and gritty music-making….Hanani’s congenial manner and entertaining anecdotes succeeded in bringing the audience closer to the music.”

Omaha World-Herald
“Audiences at the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC series have come to expect the unexpected…..This series demonstrates the important lesson that great music-making does not require superstars from the classical music world.”

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC opened its season with a typically imaginative, ambitious program.”

Albany Times-Union “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.”

“Close Encounters with Music, under the direction of cellist Yehuda Hanani, began its 19th season Saturday night with a leap of faith that paid off in a stunning performance by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin.”

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

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

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

Photograph of Jennifer Rivera

Cultural Voyage to the East: “Thus Spake German Romanticism”

Songs about lotus flowers and pagodas, chamber music by German Romanticist par excellence Richard Strauss, and the Berkshire debut of opera star Jennifer Rivera highlight the Close Encounters With Music March 12 concert “Thus Spake German Romanticism” 6 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. “Radiant…ravishing mezzo soprano bloom from top to bottom” is how Opera News recently described Rivera’s opulent voice.

Also scheduled is the world premiere of this season’s Composer-in Residence Jorge Martin’s Four Noble Truths, a brilliant addition to the chamber music repertoire inspired by Buddhist wisdom and following in the footsteps of late nineteenth century German Romantics. According to artistic director Yehuda Hanani “Mr. Martin comes out of this tradition, and his musical language, sonorities and spiritual affinities are a continuation of this grand saffron-scented Silk Road that so influenced the 19th century arts. That’s why this 2008 work is programmed alongside Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Mendelssohn.”

In the nineteenth century, Europe, and especially Germany, discovered in Indian civilization an entire ancient system of religious thought, mythology, and poetry that was still breathing with life (against which Greco-Roman classicism seemed a pale shadow of a dead past that championed reason over imagination). Convinced that the roots of spirituality and answers to the West’s malaise lay in the Far East, German poets and musicians, from Goethe and Heine to Hermann Hesse and Richard Strauss, made a cultural voyage to the Far East and found inspiration in Oriental philosophy, poetry and art. Not only silks and spices, but ideas as well, influenced 19th century German culture. India, in particular, represented an age of innocence, the childhood of humanity, and religious sentiment closely allied with nature. Hesse, one of the few who, in 1916, actually traveled to India, envisioned a homecoming and renewal from the spirit of the East.

Richard Strauss, who was inspired by Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, is represented on the program by his youthful Sonata for Cello and Piano. In musical settings by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Strauss and Wolf the poets Heine and Goethe transport us to the banks of the Ganges to be intoxicated by the perfume of exotic flora. Award-winning composer Jorge Martin, continuing in the German Romantic tradition, leads his listeners through four stages, from suffering and strife, to enlightenment and nirvana, in the new Four Noble Truths, which receives its world premiere on March 12.

THE PERFORMERS

Jennifer Rivera is a superb lyric mezzo soprano who was invited to join the roster of the New York City Opera while still a student at Juilliard. She recently debuted as Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito with the Teatro Regio di Torino and will make her debut this season with the Berlin Staatsoper as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She has been praised repeatedly by the New York Times for her “radiant mezzo soprano,” her “warm dark tone,” and “fresh ready singing.” Ms. Rivera created the starring role of Sharon Falconer in the critically acclaimed 2007 Nashville Opera world premiere of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry and sings this season with the Portland Opera as well as the Innsbruck Early Music Festival. She has recorded for Harmonia Mundi. Internationally acclaimed pianist Walter Ponce has been heard in every major city of North and South America, as well as concert halls in Europe, Japan, Korea, and Africa. Born in Bolivia, his musical beginnings were in Buenos Aires, where he attended the National Conservatory and came under the influence of Alberto Ginastera before arriving in the United States on a Fulbright grant. Mr. Ponce has made guest appearances with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society and given the world premieres for more than two hundred works, including those by Hugo Weisgall, George Rochberg, Karel Husa, William Bolcom, Morton Gould and Ezra Laderman. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Mannes College of Music, and Master of Science and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Juilliard where was one of three students chosen to play and study with Vladimir Horowitz.

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

Photograph of Carmalata San Marco Playing Music

Early Festivities at Close Encounters with Music: “Baroque Pantheo, A Holiday Concert!”

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

Photograph of Jorge Martin

Composer-In-Residence Jorge Martin Speaks on his opera Before Night Falls

“Conversations With…,” Close Encounters With Music’s intimate and stimulating series of talks with musicians, artists and scholars, presents this year’s composer in residence

In a talk illustrated musically and visually on Sunday, November 21, 3PM, Cuban-born Jorge Martín presents excerpts from his first full-length, large-scale opera, Before Night Falls, based on the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas. The book by the same name, which chronicles the persecution of gays under Fidel Castro, will be familiar to movie aficionados from the film version by Julian Schnabel, starring Javier Bardem. This installment of “Conversations With…” takes place at the Hudson Opera House.

Martín, this year’s Close Encounters With Music’s Composer-in-Residence, has received awards from the Cintas Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Mr. Martín is the first CEWM Composer-in-Residence which follows a warm relationship that has yielded four commissioned works over the last several years, all of which are being recorded on Albany Records for release in 2011. Following the opera’s Fort Worth Opera Festival world premiere in 2010, critic Jay Nordlinger wrote: “Brave, both in its libretto and in its score.”

Built in 1855, the Hudson Opera House, located at 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY, is one of the oldest surviving theaters in America. Hudson River painter Frederic Church showed his works here, Bret Harte read his poems, and Susan B. Anthony rallied support for women’s suffrage.

This series of intimate and stimulating conversations about music and ideas is an intrinsic part of the Close Encounters With Music season. “Conversations With…” has presented such notable speakers as writer, editor and Bob Dylan biographer Seth Rogovoy; composer, National Endowment grantee and Guggenheim fellow Judith Zaimont; pianist and author Walter Ponce; Emmy Award-winning animator, illustrator, cartoonist and children’s-book author R.O. Blechman; Academy Award nominee Daniel Anker; scholar/performer/multimedia artist Robert Winter; and former Yankee, author and sportscaster Jim Bouton.

Tickets for Before Night Falls are $15 and include light refreshments, provided by Verdigris. They can be ordered by emailing [email protected], calling 800-843-0778, or contacting the Hudson Opera House at 518-822-1438.

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

Photograph of Chamber Orchestra Kremlin

Close Encounters with Music New and Expanded 2010-2011 Season Chamber Orchestras, String Quartets, Stars of Opera, Dance, Theatre, and the Chamber Music World Perform at the Mahaiwe PAC in Great Barrington, Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, The Clark Art Institute, the Hudson Opera House and Lenox Athenaeum Fall, Winter, Spring

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

Lily Francis Holding a Violin

Music of Dvorak, Smetana & Janacek

Close Encounters With Music ushers in the summer season in the Berkshires Saturday, June 5, 6PM with Prague Spring—Czech Idyll, a program at the historic Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts celebrating the land of Franz Kafka, bucolic landscapes, and Bohemian crystal. The music of Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček glows with lyricism and melodiousness. Dvořák’s Piano Quintet, a recognized masterpiece, along with other selections, overflows with Mittel-European ease, cultivation, and affecting tenderness. We are never far, in this music, from the Czech countryside and a languid summer’s evening. The influence of nationalism on nineteenth century music extended to the Czech masters. As Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, and Grieg drew from the folk traditions of Hungary, Poland, and Norway, so too, Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček, created a distinctively Czech musical voice, reflecting the rhythms and harmonies of native song and dance.

Joining artistic director Yehuda Hanani are pianist Lydia Atrymiw, violinists Erin Keefe and Lily Francis, and violist Toby Appel. The program is repeated Sunday afternoon, June 6, 2:30 PM at the Doctorow Center for the Arts in the Catskill region in Hunter, NY.

Lydia Artymiw, one of the most compelling talents of her generation, has performed with the orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington, and numerous others. Solo tours have taken her to all major American cities, to London, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Rome, and throughout the Far East. Festival appearances include Aspen, Caramoor, Hollywood Bowl, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart. She has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Stoltzman, Kim Kashkashian, the Guarneri and Tokyo Quartets, and toured nationally with Music from Marlboro. A recipient of top prizes in the Leventritt and Leeds International Competitions, she graduated from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts and studied with Gary Graffman for twelve years. Artymiw is the McKnight Distinguished Professor of Piano at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Violinist Erin Keefe, winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, is praised as a compelling artist of exhilarating temperament and fierce integrity. She took the Grand Prizes in the Torun International Violin Competition (Poland) and was Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen Competition. She has appeared throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East and collaborated with Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, and Leon Fleisher and appeared with Michael Tilson Thomas premiering his own chamber music at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Her festival appearances have included Marlboro, Ravinia, and Bridgehampton. As a member of Chamber Music Society Two, she has appeared at Lincoln Center and on tour and was featured on Live From Lincoln Center.

The dynamic Lily Francis is sought after both as violinist and violist. A member of Chamber Music Society Two, she regularly performs at Lincoln Center. She has appeared with the Hartford Symphony and is the violist of the Vertigo String Quartet. Ms. Francis has performed at the Marlboro and Aspen Festivals and has played alongside Richard Goode, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, and Mitsuko Uchida. She has appeared at Bridgehampton Chamber Music, Caramoor’s Rising Stars series, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Violinist Toby Appel has appeared in recital and concerto performances all over the world. He has been a member of such renowned ensembles as TASHI and the Lenox and Audubon quartets and guest artist with the Vermeer, Manhattan, and Composers quartets, as well as with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and jazz artists Chick Corea and Gary Burton. Festival performances include Mostly Mozart and Marlboro. He is a regular commentator for National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Mr. Appel currently teaches at the Juilliard School and has toured for The United States State Department and performed at the United Nations and the White House.

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… .”

Tickets for Saturday June 5 are $40 or $25 for adults and $10 for students, and 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]. For information about the Doctorow Center performance, call 518-263-2063. Please visit our website at www.cewm.org.

Prague Spring—Czech Idyll Saturday, June 5, 6 PM and Sunday, June 6, 2:30 PM

The performances take place at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts and at the Doctorow Center for the Arts, Hunter, 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

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

A Painting of Chopin

Chopin and His Circle Chopin’s Piano Revolution with Adam Neiman

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

Image of Cordelia Hagmann holding Violin

The Romantic Back

Close Encounters With Music continues its 18th season Saturday, March 20, 6PM offering The Romantic Bach, a selection of Bach’s works reimagined by masters of the Romantic Era who wrestled with his revolutionary legacy. Brahms, Liszt, and Busoni, each from his own perspective, offered homage to the master they all revered through arrangements for the piano, the instrument of choice in their own time. Busoni, the tireless transcriber of Bach’s works, is represented by two Organ-Chorale Preludes, Liszt by an organ Fantasy and Fugue, and Brahms by his brilliant arrangement of the violin Chaconne for piano left hand. The program also includes Bach undiluted in the Violin Sonata No. 3 and the third Suite for Solo Cello and concludes with the premiere of a neo-Bach chamber work composed by Jonathan Keren that was commissioned by Close Encounters.

The performers include violinist Cordelia Hagmann who appears frequently as a chamber musician, recitalist and concertmistress in Europe and the U.S. She won top prizes at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition with the Moirae Trio in Winterthur and Zurich in her native Switzerland and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Tonhalle in Zürich, KKL in Luzern, the Tel Aviv Conservatory, and the Jerusalem Music Center. As a soloist she has performed with the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Temple Symphony Orchestra among others, and has been heard on Swiss National Radio.

Pianist James Tocco is widely regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of American masterworks, and his extensive discography, which reflects his varied tastes and astonishing versatility, includes the world premiere recording of Bernstein’s complete solo piano music, an all-Copland disc, the complete Chopin Préludes, the complete piano music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Erwin Schulhof ’s Cinq Etudes de Jazz, Bach-Liszt organ transcriptions, the four piano sonatas of Edward MacDowell, and Corigliano’s Etude-Fantasy. He is acknowledged to be the definitive interpreter of Corigliano’s Piano Concerto. Recent engagements include his Royal Concertgebouw debut, performing the MacDowell Concerto and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, both under Leonard Slatkin. He is associated particularly with Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, which he recorded with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC London Symphony. He has performed with most major American and European orchestras including the Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh as well as the Berlin, London, and Munich Philharmonics. He is Eminent Scholar/Artist-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber 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 a reception to meet the artists immediately following the concerts.

Tickets, $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.

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

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

Tickets for the Conversations with… event is $25 which includes light refreshments:

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

“‘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

A Painting of Soldiers

Igor Stravinsky’s Iconic Masterpiece: L’Histore Du Soldat

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

Image of Ventfort Hall

“Music Rooms of the Gilded Age”

Close Encounters’ Conversations With… series opens Sunday, October 11, 2 PM, at Ventfort Hall, Lenox, 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, an imposing Elizabethan-style mansion, was built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, the sister of J. P. Morgan. Designed by the architects Rotch & Tilden, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and declared an official project of “Save America’s Treasures,” a Millennium program of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was one of the approximately seventy-five so-called “cottages” built in Lenox in the last century when the village became a popular resort and now home of The Museum of the Gilded Age. Located on spacious grounds in the heart of the village, it is partially restored and open to the public.

A series of intimate and stimulating conversations about music and ideas and an intrinsic part of the Close Encounters With Music season, Conversations With… has presented such notable speakers as writer and editor and WAMC’s “cultural czar” Seth Rogovoy; composer, National Endowment grantee and Guggenheim fellow Judith Zaimont; pianist and author Walter Ponce; Emmy Award-winning animator, illustrator, cartoonist and children’s-book author R.O. Blechman; Academy Award nominee Daniel Anker; scholar/performer/multimedia artist Robert Winter; and former Yankee, author and sportscaster Jim Bouton

Tickets for Music Rooms of the Gilded Age are $25 and include light refreshments. They can be ordered by emailing [email protected] or calling 800-843-0778.
Ventfort Hall is at 104 Walker Street, Lenox, MA.

Please join us for our concerts as well at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington:

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, $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.

“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