Author: Catherine

NEXT WEEKEND! October 29, 2022

including local artists that are residents, too

And announcing…a new concertmaster!

The Cape Ann Symphony’s Musicians Unleashed programs were launched in 2019 and have become a wonderfully popular series with overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response. Ticket prices for American Classical Music are $40 for Adults and $15 for Youth. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets.

Read all about it from the Cape Ann Symphony press release:

Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces the return of the popular Musicians Unleashed Concert Series with American Classical Music at 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2022 at The Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street in Gloucester, MA. The ticket price for American Classical Music is $40 for Adults and $15 for Youth.  Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets.

The first Musicians Unleashed Concert of the 2022-2023 season, American Classical Music features music made in America.

“We wanted to put together a program of great music that reflects the vast and wide diversity of peoples and cultures that have made up and continue to make up our great country of America” says Cape Ann Symphony Music Director and Conductor Yoichi Udagawa.

The American Classical Music concert program includes a wide range of musical styles and composers from Dvorak to the Grateful Dead. The music from an eclectic slate of composers featuring Florence Price, Cape Ann Symphony’s recently appointed Concertmaster Scott Moore, William Grant Still, The Grateful Dead, Rachel Grimes, and Dvorak will be performed by four CAS musicians: violinist Scott Moore; violinist Erica Pisaturo; cellist Seth MacLeod; and violist Brandon White. 

“How exciting to hear such a unique mix of composers performed by these talented musicians …all musicians who are relatively new to our CAS audiences,” points out Maestro Udagawa, “This is a great opportunity for audiences to get to to know some of the newest members of the orchestra.”

The concert program includes: Florence Price’s Juba from String Quartet No. 2: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello; Scott Moore’s Duo selections: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello; Grateful Dead’s Truckin’, arranged by Minsky: Seth MacLeod, cello; Rachel Grimes’ Egon and Gertie – Violin/Cello Version: Scott Moore, violin; Seth MacLeod, cello; Scott Moore’s Fiddle Tunes (solo): Scott Moore, violin; and Dvorak’s American Quartet, 1st Movement: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello.

Cape Ann Symphony’s new Concertmaster Scott Moore makes his MU debut as a violinist and a composer in American Classical Music. 

“Scott Moore is a fabulous violinist who plays at an incredibly high level in all kinds of styles from classical music to Kentucky Bluegrass. He’s also an unbelievable composer, arranger and all-around musician, say Udagawa, “We are thrilled that he is the new concertmaster of the Cape Ann Symphony, and I’m looking forward to our audiences getting to know him and his music making!”

Scott Moore was born and came of age in rural Kentucky. He began his career as a violinist and composer as a four-year-old in New York. He’s been a soloist with a number of orchestras, played Mozart for the Archduke of Austria, and given an impromptu recital in Carnegie Hall for an audience of ghosts. In 2018, he began performing, from memory, the complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach.

Mr. Moore has been an organic farmer and a professional driver, learned fiddle tunes from old-timers in the hills of eastern Kentucky, drunk bourbon with rock stars on a steam-powered riverboat, and played music on four continents. An enthusiastic collaborator on stage and in the recording studio, he has forged a reputation as a skillful and inventive musician unbound by genre equally at home as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, with bands at festivals, or in the recording studio with Jim James, Tyler Ramsey, Houndmouth, Dawn Landes, Rachel Grimes, and many more. 

A composer as well, he has composed six adventurous new scores for the Louisville Ballet, including As You Like It in August 2022. Recent seasons trace an exciting arc, with appearances running the gamut from contemporary classical to rock, jazz, bluegrass, and beyond. These include solo engagements with the Louisville Orchestra and extensive collaboration with LO music director Teddy Abrams. Ongoing work with pianist-composer Rachel Grimes includes several albums and performances like WNYC’s Soundcheck, NPR’s Performance Today, and two stints at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival. As a longtime member of the 23 String Band, he has performed across the country as a crowd favorite at festivals like Rockygrass, Grey Fox, Forecastle, ROMP, Festival of the Bluegrass, and many more. He has also recorded two as-yet-unreleased albums with his own band, blurring the lines between acoustic and electric back porch folk and vintage rock-n-roll.

This native Kentuckian is now a resident of Gloucester. He and his wife violinist Erica Pisaturo, also a member of CAS, moved to New England in the fall of 2019. Moore is the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Annisquam Village Church, where he recently performed the complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J. S. Bach.

photo credit: June Stratton

Violinist Erica Pisaturo is a native of New England, where she began her violin studies at the age of four. After earning a BA in Music and Art History from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, she escaped the harsh winters to earn an MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

While in the South, Ms. Pisaturo played violin in a number of professional symphony orchestras, including the Hilton Head Symphony and Savannah Philharmonic, both of which she also served as Orchestra Librarian. She has has toured and traveled the world extensively including studying architecture in Italy, making music on tour in China and Japan, and serendipitously meeting her husband, Scott Moore, CAS’s new Concertmaster. She and her husband moved to Gloucester in 2019 and Ms. Pisaturo now plays with the Cape Ann Symphony and Symphony By The Sea. Though she has left the South, she continues to perform in Georgia, South Carolina, and Kentucky when life allows. She recorded with Rachel Grimes and performed in the world premiere of The Way Forth (2019) with the Louisville Orchestra. Other recent performances include the Forecastle Festival and the Big Ears Festival.

Cellist Seth MacLeod earned his Bachelor of Music in cello performance from Boston University, where he studied with George Neikrug who dedicated to Seth a cadenza he composed for the Dvořák Cello Concerto. In September Mr. MacLeod joined the Cape Ann Symphony as Principal Cellist. He has performed as a soloist with the Wellesley Symphony, Lincoln-Sudbury Civic and the Metrowest Symphony Orchestras. Mr. MacLeod is also the principal cellist of the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, and he is a member of Symphony By The Sea. He is a versatile chamber musician and string instructor at area schools. .  

Violist Brandon White made his CAS debut in March 2022’s Musicians Unleashed Concert, the Virtual Clarinet Quintet Concert. Originally from New York and now residing in the Boston area, Brandon White has enjoyed a varied career as a violist. A classically trained violist, Mr. White has been recognized as an analytical, and forward-thinking musician with a love of all viola music and new compositions. He holds degrees from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam where he studied under Shelly Tramposh and earned his BM in Viola Performance, as well as The Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he studied under Lila Brown and earned his MM in String Performance. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Jordan Hall, and Sanders Theater and played with the Orchestra of Northern New York, Hamptons Festival Orchestra and the Choral Society of the Hamptons. Mr. White currently performs in the Rivers Symphony Orchestra and is also a member of the contemporary viola duo Waterhouse Row alongside Emilie Catlett. He performs on a Hungarian Viola from 1968 made by Otto Erdesz.