PRESS RELEASE
32^nd Annual Rockport Chamber Music Festival
At the Shalin Liu Performance Center

Rockport Music’s 32^nd Annual Rockport Chamber Music Festival opens on Friday, June 7 with wonderful chamber music offerings for all.

On Thursday, June 13 at 8 pm, Rockport Music presents Wagner at 200 (and Bruckner at 189).  Primarily known for his operas, Richard Wagner’s 200^th anniversary of his birth marks the tremendous influence his work had on the development of classical music.  His Tristan und Isolde is often described as the start of modern music.  His Wesendonck Lieder was inspired by Mathilde Wesendonck who provided the poetry for the five songs, two of which Wagner subtitled as “studies for Tristan und Isolde.”

This program features several outstanding young musicians including highly-acclaimed mezzo-soprano Naomi O’Connell who was recently hailed as “…a radiant mezzo-soprano” by the New York Times and is a 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition First Prize Winner. In this program, she performs Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.  Other works in the program include Wagner’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in A-flat major performed by Cristian Budu, Siegfried Idyll (arr. for piano duet) performed by George and Andrew Li, and Bruckner’s String Quintet in F major highlighting violinists Joana Genova and Heather Braun, violists Ariel Rudiakov and Scott Woolweaver, and cellist Sophie Shao (winner of both Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions).  Tickets: $39-$58

On Friday, June 14 at 8 pm, celebrate the 200^th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth with a performance of his singular string quartet and Lady Macbeth’s Sleepwalking Aria from his popular opera Macbeth.  Mezzo-soprano Naomi O’Connell received rave reviews for her performance of this aria during her leading role in Master Class, opposite Tyne Daly.  Hailed by the New York Times as, “a radiant mezzo-soprano,”  she will also perform three additional Verdi songs: La seduzione, Stornello, and Brindisi.

The program includes Vittorio Giannini’s Quintet for Piano and Strings performed by pianist Adam Neiman, violinists Joana Genova and Heather Braun, violist Ariel Rudiakov, and cellist Sophie Shao.  At age 19, Shao won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and won top prizes at both the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions. The New York Times called her interpretations “eloquent, powerful.”   Concert preceded by lecture at 7 pm.  Tickets: $39-$58

On Saturday, June 15, 8 pm, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Anton Nel perform a tremendous program including Mozart’s Sonata in F major, K. 377, Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Speigel, Ravel’s Sonata No. 2 in G major, as well as works by Piazzolla and de Falla.  Meyers performs around the world as a recitalist and soloist with major orchestras and her 2012 Air-The Bach Album debuted at #1 on Billboard charts.  An incredibly diverse musician, Meyers has collaborated with pop singing sensation Il Divo, as well as top jazz artists Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis.  She performs on one of the most iconic violins ever made—the “Ex-Vieuxtemps” Guarneri Del Gesu (1741). The American Record Guide hails that, “through her peerless mastery and vivid imagination there seems to be no limit to the colors she can draw from her instrument.” 

Pianist Anton Nel is the 1987 first prize winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition and a top prizewinner at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition.  An acclaimed Beethoven interpreter, Nel performs around the world as both a soloist and collaborator with the finest classical musicians of today.   Currently on faculty at University of Texas at Austin, he “…is a pianist of exceptional sensitivity and stylistic discrimination.”  Los Angeles Times  Concert preceded by lecture at 7 pm.  Tickets: $45-$65

On Sunday, June 16, 5 pm, The Boston Trio–Heng-Jin Park, piano; Irina Muresanu, violin; Denise Djokic, cello—perform Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces for Piano Trio, Op. 88, John Musto’s Piano Trio, and Brahms’s Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87. Acclaimed for their superb sense of ensemble and wondrous balance, these virtuosic and profound musicians are committed to creating exceptional and daring performances of standard and contemporary repertoire.  The Boston Globe hails that, “whenever this trio plays, drop everything and go hear them!” Tickets: $45-$65

With an international reputation for groundbreaking work reviving Baroque opera masterpieces, the Boston Early Music Festival, under the direction of Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubs, brings the glamorous world of Baroque opera to life, complete with an internationally-acclaimed cast of operatic stars, the Grammy-nominated Boston Early Music Festival orchestra, lavish period sets and costumes, astonishing special effects, and fantastic Baroque dance on Monday, June 17 at 8 pm.  The BEMF will present two stunning works of Marc-Antoine Charpentier—La Descente d’Orphèe aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs. Tickets $45-$78

The Calder String Quartet will perform two concerts during the Festival—Thursday,June 20, and Saturday, June 22, both at 8 pm.  Hailed by the New York Times as “outstanding…superb,” the Calder Quartet defies boundaries through performing a broad range of repertoire and always striving to communicate the true intention of the composer.  The group’s distinctive approach and musical curiosity has brought them recognition for the discovery, commissioning, and recording of some of today’s best emerging composers.    Thursday evening’s concert will feature Salonen’s Homunculus, Bartok’s String Quartet No. 5, and Ravel’s String Quartet in F major. 

The Calder Quartet’s Saturday evening concert (June 22) will feature clarinetist John Bruce Yeh and pianist David Deveau performing  Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio in E-flat major, K.498 for clarinet, viola, and piano; Aaron Jay Kernis’s Perpetual Chaconne (2012) for clarinet and strings; and Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. 

A prize-winner at the 1982 Munich International Music Competition and the 1985 Naumburg Clarinet Competition, John Bruce Yeh is director of the Grammy® Award winning ensemble Chicago Pro Musica and Assistant Principal Clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  David Deveau is an avid chamber musician internationally acclaimed for his expressive and poetic interpretations.  Having performed with members of the Juilliard, Borromeo, Kronos, Orion, and St. Lawrence string quartets, as well as many others, he has also performed numerous premieres of composers such as John Harbison and Scott Wheeler.  Tickets: $45-$65

The Gotham Early Music Scene (NY)’s critically-acclaimed production of The Play of Daniel: A Twelfth-Century Music-Drama is performed at the Shalin Liu Performance Center on Friday, June 21, at 8 pm.  In the twelfth century, this production celebrated the Feast of Fools. Performing in full costume and sung in Latin, this moving drama incorporates lively music on medieval instruments and dance to tell the story of the prophet Daniel interpreting the handwriting on the wall and his miraculous delivery from the lion’s den.  “…charming production of this austerely beautiful work…”  (The New York Times).  Tickets: $45-$78

On Sunday, June 23, at 5 pm, baritone Mischa Bouvier, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Daria Rabotkina perform in a showcase of Concert Artist Guild Competition winners.  Pianists Yegor Shevtsov and Jacob Greenberg perform with Mischa Bourvier and Jay Campbell, respectively.  This NYC international competition has launched the careers of countless major artists over the past 50 years.

Praised by San Francisco Classical Voice for his “immensely sympathetic, soulful voice,” Bouvier is known for his tremendous communication skills and musicality.  Hailed as an “astonishing cellist” (Seen and Heard International) and for his performances which “conveyed every nuance” (The New York Times),Jay Campbell has earned awards from BMI and ASCAO Foundations which led to collaborations with such artists as Elliott Carter and Pierre Boulez to members of Radiohead.  Winner of the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Daria Rabotkina’s earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degrees from Mannes College of Music and is completing her doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. “…a display of breakneck piano virtuosity…” San Francisco Chronicle

The evening’s program includes Mischa Bouvier performing Rachmaninoff’s In the Silence of the Secret Night and I Was with Her, Paul Bowles’s Blue Mountain Ballads, and selected songs by Charles Ives. Campbell performs Wuorinen’s An Orbicle of Jasp and Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne and Rabotkina performs Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite for solo piano, Op. 75.  Tickets: $39-$58

On Thursday, June 27, at 8 pm, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players perform with pianist David Deveau.

The 2012 Rockport Chamber Music Festival collaboration of Boston Symphony Chamber Players with pianist David Deveau was hailed by Keith Powers of the Cape Ann Beacon, “There were far too many musical highlights to spot individually; suffice to say, the trio sounded as if they had played together for years.”  This year’s program includes Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, K. 493, Martinu’s Nonet, Carter’s Figment III, and Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114.  Tickets: $55-$85

Performing on Friday, June 28, at 8 pm, the Vega String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University, is on the cutting edge of the new generation of chamber music ensembles.  After their Lincoln Center debut in 2001, the New York Times raved about their “playing that had a kind of clean intoxication to it, pulling the listener along…the musicians took real risks in their music making…”   They perform Haydn’s Quartet in B minor, Op. 33 No.1, David Kirkland Garner’s i ain’t broke (but i’m badly bent), Zhou Long’s Song of the Ch’in, and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op.130.  A Pre-Concert Talk is at 7 pm by Dr. Elizabeth Seitz.  Tickets: $45-$65 

Performing on Saturday, June 29, at 8 pm, Gold Medalist Winner of the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Cello Competition Sergey Antonov and pianist Ilya Kazantsev, 1998 Gold Medal Winner of the Artur Rubinstein International Competition in Paris, come together for a special evening of spectacular chamber music.  Antonov is known for his expressive playing and rich, warm tone.  He performs throughout Europe, Japan, and the US, and even performed a work specifically commissioned for him to perform with the Moscow Philharmonic.  Rhode Island’s Journal Arts hailed that his was, “…a performance with soaring phrases and a tone to die for.”  The evening’s program includes Grieg’s Sonata for cello and piano, Op. 36, Paul Creston’s Suite for cello and piano, Op. 66, and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 19.  A Pre-Concert Talk is at 7 pm by Dr. Elizabeth Seitz. Tickets:  $45-$65 

Performing Sunday, June 30, at 5 pm, the celebrated Slovenian pianist Dubravka Tomšič performs a program of Scarlatti sonatas, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 (Tempest), Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante, and works by Debussy and Liszt.  She is the only protégé of legendary pianist Artur Rubinstein, who considered her “a perfect and marvelous pianist.”  She has performed with the greatest orchestras and conductors in modern time and with more than 80 CD recordings released since 1987, Tomšič won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Franz Liszt Society for her all-Liszt CD in 2003.  Tickets: $55-$85

Community and Education Events

HD Broadcasts

Tuesday, June 17, 7 PM— Helen Mirren stars as Queen Elizabeth II in the National Theatre of London’s The Audience.  The play directed by Stephen Daldry imagines discussions between Her Majesty the Queen and various prime ministers in their weekly private meetings.  “Helen Mirren, brilliantly reprising her Oscar-winning role.”  The Independent    Tickets: $22 Adults, $15 Seniors & Students

Community and Education Events

Saturday, June 15, 10 AM-Strings ‘N Things
A free community concert fun for people of all ages!
Generously supported by a grant from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation

On Thursday, June 20, at 2 pm, come by the Shalin Liu Performance Center for an Open Rehearsal.  Observe the creative and collaborative process of a masterful group of musicians—the Calder Quartet!  Free and open to the public.

On Saturday, June 29, at 10 am, David Coffin delights audiences both young and old in performing on a wide array of early wind instruments.  Hear the history of the recorder from the primitive ocarina through the medieval gemshorns and the recorders of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  This Family Concert is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, June 22, at 2 pm, watch a master clarinetist and teacher coach aspiring young musicians. John Bruce Yeh is an accomplished performer and teacher as well as a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has taught master classes at top universities and conservatories across the nation.

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival concludes on July 14, but other concerts and events continue throughout the year.  For ticket information and details on these and other 2013 Summer offerings, please visit our website at www.rockportmusic.org or gimmesound.com  Tickets are also available through the Box Office at 978-546-7391 or visiting 35 Main Street, Rockport, MA.  The Box Office is open Monday-Friday, 10am-4 pm.