Strings to Shine at Sherman Chamber Ensemble Concert

Strings to Shine at Sherman Chamber Ensemble Concert

Three Performances Throughout the Local Area 

The Sherman Chamber Ensemble’s Summertime Sounds music series continues on the second weekend in August on three separate evenings, each in in a separate location.

Czech It Out is an ambitious program highlighting violinist Doori Na in a solo performance of Valor for Solo Violin – an original composition by Charles Ives Music Festival Artistic Director Paul Frucht.

Joining Na will be Susan Rotholz (flute), Jill Levy (violin), Monica Davis (viola), and Eliot Bailen (cello). Other works include Flute Quartet in C, K285b by Amadeus Mozart and Antonín Dvorak’s String Quartet The Slavonic in E flat Op. 51.

The concerts begin on Thursday, August 12 at 7 pm at the Salem Covenant Church, 96 Baldwin Hill Road in Washington. It will be followed by two outdoor concerts – Friday, August 13 at the Kent Barns in Kent, CT, followed by Saturday, August 14 at the Sherman Town Center (IGA Plaza) in Sherman, CT. Friday and Saturday concerts are at 6 p.m and attendees are asked to bring their own chairs. There will be alternate locations in case of rain. Concert goers are asked to check the Ensemble’s website at www.SCEmusic.org the day of the concert.

Also, on Saturday, August 14 at 11 a.m., Bailen, Rotholz and Na will present A Concert for Children of All Ages with musical retellings of favorite stories, The Story of Ferdinand and Mirette on the Highwire. Plus there will be sing-along songs and a classical “show-and-tell” performance. At the Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens. Bring your chairs or a blanket. Admission is free.

Violinist Doori Na is known for his sweet and “sumptuous tone” (The New York Times). He took up violin at the age of four and began his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He made his debut with The San Francisco Symphony performing Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with Itzhak Perlman and Michael Tilson Thomas in the fall of 2018.

Currently living in New York City, Na plays with numerous ensembles including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with tours in the US, Japan, and Europe performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musiverien in Vienna. Na is also a member of Argento Chamber Ensemble performing works of living composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Tristan Murail, and many more. Also a solo violinist for New Chamber Ballet, he has been a part of the company since 2013 with recent tours in Lake Tahoe, Germany, and Guatemala.

Na attended the Juilliard School with the Dorothy Starling and Dorothy Delay scholarships and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree where he studied under Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Donald Weilerstein, and performed as concertmaster for the Juilliard Orchestra.

Frucht is an American composer whose music has been acclaimed for its “sense of lyricism, driving pulse, and great urgency” (WQXR) and “excellent orchestration” (Ridgefield Press).

His music has been commissioned and performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, Chelsea Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Weill-Cornell Music and Medicine Orchestra, Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, Asian American New Music Institute, Euclid Quartet, LONGLEASH Trio, New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute, Utah Arts Festival, and the Eastern Music Festival among numerous other performing ensembles and organizations.

Frucht has been the recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Brian H. Israel Prize from the Society of New Music, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon, Arthur Friedman, and Gena Raps Prizes, the American Composers Orchestra’s 2016 Audience Choice Award and has been recognized for his work by the American Modern Ensemble, the Nashville Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Red Note New Music Festival, Chelsea Symphony, and Periapsis Music and Dance.

Concerts will follow CDC and State of Connecticut Covid guidelines for social distancing and rules for events and programs. Face masks are requested for those who are unvaccinated. Attendees may bring their own food, snacks and beverages to picnic, or visit and support local purveyors.

General Admission to the concerts is $25. Children 15 and under will receive free admission when accompanied by an adult purchasing a regular admission ticket. Tickets may be purchased at SCEmusic.org or by calling 860-355-5930. Tickets may also be purchased at the door subject to availability.

Concerts are possible due to generous support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and supporters, local businesses and donors.

The Sherman Chamber Ensemble was founded in 1982 to bring world-class live classical music performance to Western Connecticut and nearby New York State. It has been described in The New York Times as “about as close as it gets to the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert.”

Author: Harlem Valley News