ROCKPORT MUSIC 33rd Season ROCKPORT CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL Featuring Weeks 3-4 (June 17-July 6) Highlights include Shanghai Quartet, pianist Jeremy Denk and the New Rising Star Series David Deveau, Artistic Director June 6-July 13, 2014 CONTACT: Karen Herlitz, Director of Marketing [email protected] Phone: 978-546-7391, Ext. 110 DATE: May 30, 2014 Rockport Chamber Music Festival Continues with the Shanghai Quartet, pianist Jeremy Denk and much more The 33rd Annual Rockport Chamber Music Festival continues through mid-July with world-class musicians including 2013 MacArthur Award winner pianist Jeremy Denk, the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, as well as amazing young superstars—pianist Joyce Yang, the Claremont Trio, and our new Rising Star Series with the Neave Trio, pianist Daria Rabotkina and the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet Festival Week 3 On Thursday, June 19 at 8 pm, pianist Joyce Yang returns to the Festival after dazzling audiences last year in her substitute performance for Dubravka Tomšič. Yang is a 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (as the youngest contestant). Yang captivates audiences across the globe with her stunning virtuosity and interpretive sensitivity and has performed with major orchestras around the world and has performed with the finest festivals across the country, including the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival where she joined members of the Emerson String Quartet, prompting the New York Times to praise her for “vivid and beautiful playing.” Described as “the most gifted young pianist of her generation” with a “million-volt stage presence,” pianist Joyce Yang also won two additional awards at the Van Cliburn Competition-- the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takàcs Quartet) and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for Best Performance of a New Work. Program DEBUSSY: Selected Preludes SCHUMANN: Faschingsswank aus Wien (Carnival Jest of Vienna), Op.26 MOMPOU: Cancion y danza No.5 DEBUSSY: Estampes (Woodcuts) GINASTERA: Danzas Argentinas Tickets: $49-$68 On Friday, June 20 at 8 pm, visit the Shalin Liu Performance Center for a Schubertiade Evening hosted by Artistic Director David Deveau joined by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and New England Conservatory, including violinist Elita Kang, violist Jonathan chu, cellist Owen Young, bassist Thomas van Dyck and pianists Victor Rosenbaum and Mana Tokuno. Program highlights include the works of Schubert, including the String Trio in B-flat major, Fantasy in F minor for piano four-hands and Piano Quintet in A major “Trout.” A Pre-Concert Talk will be held at 7 pm with Dr. Elizabeth Seitz. Tickets: $45-$65 The Shanghai Quartet—violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras—will perform in two concerts during the Festival. The first is on Saturday, June 21 at 8 pm, perofrming Schubert’s Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703, Zhou Long’s Song of the Ch’in, Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartet and a commissioned work celebrating the Quartet’s 25th anniversary (in 2008) by Penderecki entitled “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary.” Hailed for performances of “stunning authenticity and presence” (The Washington Post), the Shanghai Quartet has worked with the world’s most distinguished artists and regularly tours the major music centers of Europe, North America and Asia. The Quartet has built an extensive discography totaling over 25 recordings, and in 2003, released its most popular CD Chinasong featuring a collection of Chinese folk songs arranged by Yi-Wen Jiang. The Quartet has appeared in a diverse and interesting array of media projects, ranging from a cameo appearance in the Woody Allen film “Melinda and Melinda” playing Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4 to the film “Music of the Heart.” The Quartet currently serves as Ensemble-in-Residence at Montclair State University and is the visiting guest professors of the Shanghai Conservatory and the Central Conservatory in China. A Pre-Concert Talk will be held at 7 pm with Dr. Elizabeth Seitz. Tickets: $39-$58 The second concert on Sunday, June 22 at 5 pm, the Shanghai Quartet is joined by pianist Wendy Chen for a program capped by the 1912 Frank Bridge Piano Quintet, a neglected romantic tour de force. Other works performed in the program include Beethoven’s Quartet in A major, Op. 18, No. 5, and two solo piano works—Brahms’s Waltzes for solo piano and Barber’s Tango. At the age of fifteen, Wendy Chen debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor André Previn. In 1990, she became the youngest winner ever of the National Chopin Competition, was one of the inaugural recipients of the Irving S. Gilmore Young Artists Award, and was named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for the Arts. Since then, her career has flourished, adding Young Concert Artists International Auditions and Washington International Competition to her numerous awards. Critics exclaim that “having pianist Wendy Chen on the program is a guarantee that sparks will fly.” Tickets: $39-$58 Festival Week 4 On Thursday, June 26 at 8 pm, the Claremont Trio, lauded as “one of America’s finest young chamber groups” (Strad Magazine) will perform Beethoven’s Trio in E-flat major, Op.1, No. 1, Brahms’s Trio in B major, Op. 8 and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Folk Songs (newly commissioned in 2012). Lauded for its "aesthetic maturity, interpretive depth and exuberance" (Palm Beach Daily News), the Claremont Trio is the first winner of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award and the only piano trio ever to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. The Claremont Trio is sought after for its thrillingly virtuosic and richly communicative performances and is consistently lauded for its The Trio’s newest release of Beethoven “Triple” Concerto with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Beethoven’s Trio Op. 1 No. 1 received critical acclaim and the Trio’s collaborative disc with clarinetist Jonathan Cohler received a Critic’s CHOICE award from BBC Magazine. Formed in 1999 at the Juilliard School, the Trio is made up of twin sisters Emily Bruskin (violin) and Julia Bruskin (cello) and Andrea Lam (piano). Tickets: $39-$58 On Friday, June 27 at 8 pm, the Grammy-nominated Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, under the direction of concertmaster Robert Mealy, will present a program entitled From the Pleasure Gardens of Europe: Eighteenth-century orchestral music to delight and entertain and will perform works by George Frideric Handel, Arcangelo Corelli, Thomas Augustine Arne, John Stanley and Capel Bond. PROGRAM CORELLI: Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6, No. 7 ARNE: Concerto No. 5 in G minor from Six Favourite Concertos for the Organ, Harpsichord or Piano Forte HANDEL: Concert grosso in B flat, Op. 6, No. 7 from Twelve Grand Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 6 JOHN STANLEY: Concerto No. 1 in D major from Six Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 2 CAPEL BOND: Concerto grosso No. 5 in G minor from Six Concertos in 7 Parts HANDEL: Dances from Terpsichore The evening’s activities also include a Dinner with David (Artistic Director David Deveau hosts a discussion during a 3-course dinner with members of the Ensemble) at 5:45 pm (cost $35/each) and a Pre-Concert Talk for concert attendees begins at 7 pm. Tickets: $39-$58 On Saturday, June 28 at 8 pm, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (BSCP), consisting of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s principal players, is one of the world’s most distinguished chamber ensembles. With performances at Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall and regular appearances at Tanglewood, the BSCP maintain a busy touring schedule throughout the year. This year, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players’ program will include the great Schubert Octet, the newly commissioned work by Yehudi Wyner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ensemble and Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola and harp. The evening’s ensemble will include violinists Malcolm Lowe and Haldan Martinson, violist Steven Ansell, bassist Edwin Barker, flutist Elizabeth Rowe, oboist John Ferrillo, clarinetist William R. Hudgins, bassoonist Richard Svoboda, hornist James Sommerville, with additional BSO members harpist Jessica Zhou and cellist Sato Knudsen. A Pre-Concert Talk by Dr. William Matthews for concert attendees begins at 7 pm. Tickets: $55-$85 On Sunday, June 29 at 5 pm, pianist Jeremy Denk, one of the 2013 MacArthur Award Winners, will perform an incredibly exciting program of Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840-60” and J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. He has established himself as one of America’s most thought- provoking, multi-faceted and compelling artists. Denk is known for his original and insightful writing on music, which has appeared in the New Yorker, New Republic, and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. This year, he performs and serves as music director of the Ojai Music Festival, for which he is also composing the libretto to a semi-satirical opera. His recent recording of Beethoven’s final piano sonata and selected György Ligeti Etudes was named one of the best discs of 2012 by the New Yorker, NPR, and the Washington Post. His recording of Ives’s Piano Sonatas was selected for many “best of the year” lists and his CD French Impressions with violinist Joshua Bell won the 2012 Echo Klassik Award. Tickets: $49-$68 On Sunday, July 6 at 5 pm, two-time Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and marimbist Mika Yoshida Stoltzman perform an eclectic mix of music-both old and new. The program includes works by Bach, Toru Takemitsu, John Zorn, Steve Reich, Ravel and Piazzolla.