Author: Catherine

Heidi Dallin shares happy news:

Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series Returns LIVE On Sunday, October 3, 2021

AUTUMN AWAKENING at The Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church

Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces Autumn Awakening, a Musicians Unleashed Concert, at 3:00 pm on Sunday, October 3, 2021 at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street, Gloucester, MA. Musicians Unleashed is a series of musical events featuring Cape Ann Symphony musicians performing in a variety of intimate settings on Cape Ann and beyond. CAS launched the popular series to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response in 2019. The ticket price for Autumn Awakening is $40.  Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets. In accordance with the CAS Covid Safety Policy, all concert attendees will be required to show proof of Covid 19 vaccination or to present documentation of a negative test within 72 hours prior to the event and will be required to wear a mask during the performance.

Autumn Awakening is a chamber music concert featuring music written for flute, oboe, clarinet and strings in various combinations and performed by seven CAS musicians at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church. An historic meetinghouse founded in 1779, the church was the first Universalist congregation in the United States. Built in 1806, the building was created in a perfect “shoe box” design which gives it ideal acoustics. CAS Music Director Yoichi Udagawa programmed a varied selection of music written by a mix of well known and lesser known composers from all over the world.  Maestro Udagawa and the musicians will introduce each piece of music to offer audiences insight and little known facts about the composers and their music.  

Maestro Udagawa looks forward to these intimate Musicians Unleashed concerts, “ The Cape Ann Symphony is made up of extraordinary musicians, and we are thrilled to be able to highlight them! This concert will feature our principal flute, oboe and clarinet as well as some of our outstanding string players. We tried to make this concert a mixture of different composers as well as combination of instruments, and I’m sure the audience will enjoy this concert very much.” The musicians performing in Autumn Awakening are Stephanie Stathos, flute; Izumi Sakamoto, oboe; Bill Kirkley, clarinet; Oksana Gorokhovskiy, violin; Olga Kradenova, violin; Anna Stromer, viola, and Johnny Mok, cello. The concert program includes Salem, MA  born and raised composer Arthur Foote’s Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet; British composer Malcolm Arnold’s Divertimento for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet; Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Oboe Quartet; German composer Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, 1st Movement; and Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s American String Quartet, 4th Movement.

Salem native composer Arthur Foote, known for his chamber music, art music and choral music, was also a musician and a teacher.  “When thinking about the program for the concert, we wanted to include music by a ”local”,” explains Udagawa, “and this charming piece by Arthur Foote fit the bill perfectly! We have an amazing tradition of musicians, writers and artists who worked right here in our area, and left great works for all of us to enjoy. And Gloucester’s Unitarian Universalist Church is a perfect venue for Foote’s music with his strong ties to the Unitarian Church.” Foote’s father, Caleb Foote, was the owner and editor of the Salem Gazette and his mother, Mary Wilder Foote, was a devout Unitarian. Arthur Foote began composing while studying harmony at the newly formed New England Conservatory in 1867. He then went on to study music at Harvard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts and the very first Master of Arts degree in Music awarded by an American university according to Foote’s Faculty Papers at New England Conservatory .

Arthur Foote was a leading member of a group of composers known as the Boston Six or the Second New England School. Together, the Six: John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach, and Arthur Foote wrote the first substantial body of “American” classical music. “In his time Foote was considered to be the ‘Dean of American Composers'” points out Maestro Udagawa.

 Arthur Foote was the organist and Choirmaster at the First Unitarian Church in Boston for 32 years, taught piano in his own studio for over 50 years and served on the faculty of New England Conservatory for 16 years, teaching piano and piano pedagogy. Foote helped edit Hymns of the Church Universal in 1890, and collaborated in the writing of Hymns for Church and Home, prepared for the American Unitarian Association in 1896 according to Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society

Ticket prices for Autumn Awakening are $40. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets. In accordance with the CAS Covid Safety Policy, all concert attendees will be required to show proof of Covid 19 vaccination or to present documentation of a negative test within 72 hours prior to the event and will be required to wear a mask during the performance.