Sherman Chamber Ensemble Summer Music Series
Continues, August 8, 9 and 10
Following on the heels of July’s sold-out season-opening performance the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, under the artistic direction of Eliot Bailen, will present the second concert of its Summer Music Series. The program features works by Amy Beach, celebrated during her lifetime as the foremost woman composer of the United States, and George Frideric Handel, Rosy Wertheim, and Felix Mendelssohn.
Concerts will take place on Thursday, August 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10 at 8 p.m.
The program includes Beach’s Theme and Variations for flute and strings, Op. 80,
Passicaglia for violin and cello by Handel and arranged by Johan Halverson, Three Preludes for Lancelot by Wertheim and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80.
Susan Rotholz (flute), Jill Levy (violin), Doori Na (violin), Michael Roth (viola) and Sherman Chamber Ensemble Artistic Director Eliot Bailen (cello) will perform.
Performance program notes by Susan Halpern say that “Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor is a late, mature work, written in the very last year of the composer’s life. This quartet is impassioned and tragic and contains uncharacteristic intensity and turbulence.”
Together with the Sherman Library, the Ensemble will present a free special open rehearsal, An Inside Look at Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor” at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 10 at the Sherman Library, 1 Sherman Center, Sherman, CT.
“This special discussion and “info-hearsal” will help the audience gain a richer understanding that will enhance their enjoyment of this piece,” said Bailen.
The program is sponsored by the Sherman Library and the Sherman Chamber Ensemble’s Kemp Mandeville Education Fund.
The 7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 8 performance will take place at The Smithfield Church, 656 Smithfield Valley Road in Amenia, NY. Doors opens at 7 p.m.
The Friday, August 9 concert will take place at St. Andrew’s Church on Main Street in Kent. On Saturday, August 10 the Ensemble will perform at 8 p.m. at the JCC in Sherman, CT. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
A “Meet and Greet the Artists” reception will follow the performances.
General Admission to the concerts is $30. Senior and Student admission is $25. Children 15 and under receive free admission when accompanied by an adult purchasing a regular admission ticket. Tickets may be purchased at ShermanChamberEnsemble.org or by calling 860-355-5930. Tickets may also be purchased at the door subject to availability.
The Ensemble’s summer season ends with Questions of Travel, a musical journey to Mexico, Venice, Scandinavia, America and England. Works for flute by Edith Hemenway and works by Mendelssohn will carry the audience through heavenly Scandinavian folk music for string quartet and the Piano Quintet Op. 84, Elgar’s grand and magnificent ode to nature, with the acclaimed pianist, Margaret Kampmeier. She’ll be joined by Susan Rotholz (flute), Jill Levy (violin), Paul Woodiel (violin), Sarah Adams (viola) and Sherman Chamber Ensemble Artistic Director Eliot Bailen (cello). Concerts begin at 8 p.m. and will be held on Friday, August 30 at St. Andrew’s Church, Main Street in Kent and Saturday, August 31 at the Lake Mauweehoo Club, Leech Hollow Road in Sherman.
Also on Labor Day weekend, the SCE Blue Grass Band will present its annual free Bluegrass Jamboree featuring Paul Woodiel (fiddle) and Gary DiGiovanni (banjo) on Saturday, August 31 at 2 p.m. at the Lake Mauweehoo Clubhouse, Sherman, CT and on Sunday, September 1 at 1 pm at the Kent Village Barns, Kent, CT.
The Sherman Chamber Ensemble was founded in 1982 to bring world-class live classical music performance to Western Connecticut and nearby New York State. Its summer chamber music series has been described in The New York Times as “about as close as it gets to the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert.” Additional events coming later this year include Labor Day weekend bluegrass jamborees; the annual “Live at the Lake” coffeehouse; and Thanksgiving weekend classical-jazz matinee performances.
