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1 Transforming experiences in chamber music. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 30, 2014 contact: Gabriel Langfur, Managing Director phone: website: Chameleon Arts Ensemble Announces Season Programs July 30, 2014 Boston, MA The Chameleon Arts Ensemble is pleased to announce its season programs. This year marks Artistic Director Deborah Boldin s 17 th season presenting some of the most adventurous programming in Boston. The chamber music series includes five vibrant and innovative programs performed by the area s leading chamber musicians. The concerts take place on Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Sunday afternoons at 4 PM, beginning on September 27 and 28 and continuing with performances on November 8 and 9, January 31 and February 1, March 28 and 29, and May 16 and 17. In addition, Chameleon is launching a new recital series, Chameleon Up Close, with performances on March 8 and April 19. The season s concerts are held at First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, and the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, both in the Back Bay. ABOUT THE CHAMBER MUSIC SEASON Chameleon s chamber music season opens on Saturday, September 27, 8 PM and Sunday, September 28, 4 PM both at First Church in Boston, with music heard above the sway. The program explores the region between human imagination and the world around us: music that shimmers with the spirit of place, including recent Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams reflection on the Alaskan night, Dark Wind for bass clarinet, marimba, vibraphone, and piano. Also on the concert are Schubert s beloved Trout Quintet; Karen Tanaka s exploration of spacetime, Invisible Curve for flute, string trio, and piano; and Ralph Vaughan Williams sublime songcycle Along the Field for tenor and violin with acclaimed tenor William Ferguson, praised for his tenderness and appealing impetuosity by The New York Times. Saturday, November 8, 8 PM at First Church in Boston and Sunday November 9, 4 PM at the Goethe-Institut centers on Robert Schumann, one of the most imaginative and mercurial composers of the Romantic era, who embraced the dualities of his own nature, cultivating emotion and intellect, heart and mind. The program, titled winds of music, passing on, features his Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47, the final piece from his famed chamber music year and a work very much influenced by Schubert, alongside Clara Schumann s Drei Romanzen, Op. 22 and Schubert s String Trio in B-flat Major, D Rounding out the program are two contemporary works inspired by the master. Dan Welcher s Florestan s Falcon for flute & piano takes Schumann s mystical and haunting Waldszenen as its starting point. John Woolrich s A Cabinet of Curiosities for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, and piano is a suite of nine miniatures he describes as containing ghosts of Schumann s musical cryptogram, Rebus Chameleon Arts Ensemble For Immediate Release, 7/30/2014 Page 1 of 5

2 The first concerts of 2015 will be on Saturday, January 31, 8 PM at First Church in Boston and Sunday, February 1, 4 PM at the Goethe-Institut. The program, bid them dance and bid them sing, features a rarity: Prokofiev s unusually scored 1924 Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass, Op. 39. This fiendishly kinetic work was originally conceived as music for a traveling ballet troupe, and Prokofiev took great delight in the fact that his impractical rhythms gave the choreographer a great deal of trouble. Also being performed are the US Premiere of British composer Joseph Phibb s Flex for flute, violin, cello, and piano; Witold Lutoslawski s folk-inspired Dance Preludes for clarinet and piano; Andrea Clearfield s Three Songs After Pablo Neruda for oboe and double bass; and Dvorak s E-flat Major Piano Quartet, Op. 87, a work that embraces the rhythmic vitality and heartfelt lyricism of his native Bohemia. called back on Saturday March 28, 8 PM and Sunday March 29, 4 PM, both at First Church in Boston, is a poignant program of elegies including Schubert s ode to Beethoven, Auf dem Strom for soprano, French horn, and piano; Ravel s Le Tombeau de Couperin for wind quintet; George Rochberg s Contra Mortem et Tempus for flute, clarinet, violin, and piano; and George Crumb s Apparition for soprano and piano, an exquisite cycle of songs and vocalises that is a profound meditation on life and death. The centerpiece of the concert is Louis Vierne s epic c minor Piano Quintet, Op. 42, a rarely-heard, late-romantic masterpiece written in response to the death of his son in World War I. He wrote: I am constructing a Quintet of vast proportions, which will give full expression to my tenderness and the tragic destiny of my child Perhaps one who has suffered every grief, every bitterness, every anguish, may be able to ease and console the sufferings of others that is the role of the artist. The season finale, words and phrases found, on Saturday, May 16, 8 PM at First Church in Boston and Sunday, May 17, 4 PM, at the Goethe-Institut, takes musical prose as its starting point. Leos Janacek s theory of speech-melody, in which the rhythm and pitch of the Czech language become part of his musical lines, is on display in his 1914 Violin Sonata. Bernard Rands draws us into the distilled, highly-charged world of Samuel Beckett with Prelude sans voix, parmi les voix for flute, viola and harp. Stravinsky spins a dream-like tale of exile and alienation in his Suite from Histoire du Soldat for clarinet, violin and piano. Clint Needham creates a series of miniatures that evoke famous adages with Axioms for flute, clarinet, string trio, piano, and percussion. Finally, Brahms, with his supreme command of variation and metric flow, takes musical poetry to new heights with his C Major Piano Trio, Op. 87. NEW SERIES CHAMELEON UP CLOSE This season, we are thrilled to launch a new recital series that will give audiences members the opportunity to see and hear Chameleon s superb artists in an informal and up close way. Performances will take place at the Goethe-Institut, which will be transformed into an intimate cabaret setting with table seating and a complimentary glass of wine. The programs, hosted by Artistic Director Deborah, feature our hallmark mix of classic, neglected and contemporary works. We christen the new series on Sunday, March 8 at 4 PM at the Goethe-Institut with a concert of breakthrough works for cello and piano, featuring Rafael Popper-Keizer, called a local hero by The Boston Globe, and pianist Vivian Chang-Freiheit, praised in The Boston Musical Intelligencer as [Her] playing was soulful, passionate, playful, delicate, and her sense of ensemble brilliant. The program includes one of only three chamber works by Richard Strauss, his Sonata in F Major, Op. 6, an early piece that is rooted in classical traditions but filled with his burgeoning heroic Chameleon Arts Ensemble For Immediate Release, 7/30/2014 Page 2 of 5

3 voice; Frank Bridge s Elegie, striking for its simplicity and elegance; Elliott Carter s monumental 1948 Sonata, which stands at the crossroads where his early neo-classical style meets the modernist he would become; and Beethoven s famous A Major Sonata, Op. 69, the first truly equal duo sonata for cello and piano. On Sunday, April 19 at 4 PM at the Goethe-Institut, we present pianists Gloria Chien and Elizabeth Schumann in a program of music for piano 4-hands. Ms. Chien was praised in The Boston Globe for a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration. The Washington Post raved about Ms. Schumann as deft, relentless, and devastatingly good the sort of performance you experience not so much with your ears as your solar plexus. The program will include a very special reprise of Stravinsky s The Rite of Spring for piano 4-hands. The Arts Fuse called their performance in May of 2013 one I will never forget, capturing every nuance of the excitement and terror, brutality and beauty, of this piece. A spectacular, shattering rendition. Also on the concert is one of Schubert s final works, Grand Rondo in A Major, D. 951; Steven Stucky s dream of Schubert, Allegretto quasi Andantino; and Debussy s own evocations of ancient gods and exotic rituals, Six épigraphes antiques. ABOUT CHAMELEON ARTS ENSEMBLE OF BOSTON Founded in 1998, Chameleon Arts Ensemble has distinguished itself as one of Boston s finest, most versatile chamber ensembles. Chameleon and Artistic Director Deborah Boldin have earned unqualified praise for integrating old and new repertoire into unexpected chamber music programs that are themselves works of art. They were recognized nationally with 2009 and 2007 Awards for Adventurous Programming from Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The Boston Globe praised Ms. Boldin s discerning ears and cosmopolitan tastes, noted planning a good chamber music program is an art unto itself, and few in town have mastered it as persuasively and remarked, During intermission, concertgoers could be overheard marveling at the program's breadth and wondering why other groups aren't as adventurous. Chameleon makes daring seem easy. The artists of the Ensemble are highly respected and sought-after performers, with growing national and international reputations. Their superb artistry and finely honed collaborative skills ensure luminous performances and dynamic musical dialogues. The Boston Phoenix hailed A performance that was as tender as it was ferocious, as expansive as it was intimate, as mysterious as it was open-hearted...i doubt I ll ever hear it played better SEASON ARTISTS Deborah Boldin, flute Vivian Chang-Freiheit, piano Gloria Chien, piano Vivian Choi, piano Nancy Dimock, oboe William Ferguson, tenor Gary Gorczyca, clarinet Susan Hagen, double bass Whitacre Hill, horn Franziska Huhn, harp Karen Kim, violin Tessa Lark, violin Jessica Lee, violin Kristin Lee, violin Mary Mackenzie, soprano William Manley, percussion Kelli O Connor, clarinet Margaret Phillips, bassoon Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello Elizabeth Schumann, piano Aaron Trant, percussion Scott Woolweaver, viola Chameleon Arts Ensemble For Immediate Release, 7/30/2014 Page 3 of 5

4 TICKETS Individual tickets for the chamber music series are $45, $35 and $25, with $5 discounts for students and seniors. Subscription prices range from $68 to $180. Single tickets for Chameleon Up Close are $45; two-concert subscriptions are $80. Telephone: WWW: The closest subway stops are Arlington Street on the Green Line and Back Bay Station on the Orange Line. First Church in Boston and the Goethe-Institut are wheelchair accessible venues. CALENDAR LISTINGS - CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES Concert 1: Program: music heard above the sway Ralph Vaughan Williams, Along the Field for tenor & violin Karen Tanaka, Invisible Curve for flute, string trio & piano John Luther Adams, Dark Wind for bass clarinet, vibraphone, marimba & piano Franz Schubert, Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 114, D. 667, Die Forelle The Trout Saturday, September 27, 2014, 8 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Sunday, September 28, 2014, 4 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Concert 2: winds of music, passing on Program: Clara Schumann, Drei Romanzen for violin & piano, Op. 22 John Woolrich, A Cabinet of Curiosities for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano Franz Schubert, String Trio in-b-flat Major, D. 581 Dan Welcher, Florestan s Falcon for flute & piano Robert Schumann, Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47 Saturday, November 8, 2014, 8 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Sunday, November 9, 2014, 4 PM, Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston Concert 3: bid them dance and bid them sing Program: Witold Lutoslawski, Dance Preludes for clarinet & piano (1954) Joseph Phibbs, Flex for flute, violin, cello & piano Sergei Prokofiev, Quintet in g minor for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola & bass, Op. 39 Andrea Clearfield, Three Songs After Pablo Neruda for oboe & bass Antonin Dvorak, Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87 Saturday, January 31, 2015, 8 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Sunday, February 1, 2015, 4 PM, Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston Chameleon Arts Ensemble For Immediate Release, 7/30/2014 Page 4 of 5

5 Concert 4: called back Program: Franz Schubert, Auf dem Strom for soprano, French horn & piano, D. 943, Op. 119 Maurice Ravel, Le Tombeau de Couperin for wind quintet George Crumb, Apparition for soprano & piano George Rochberg, Contra Mortem et Tempus for flute, clarinet, violin & piano Louis Vierne, Piano Quintet in c minor, Op. 42 (1917) Saturday, March 28, 2015, 8 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Sunday, March 29, 2015, 4 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Concert 5: words and phrases found Program: Leos Janacek, Sonata for violin & piano, JW 7/7 Bernard Rands, Prelude...sans voix parmi les voix for flute, viola & harp Igor Stravinsky, Suite from Histoire du Soldat for clarinet, violin & piano Clint Needham, Axioms for flute, clarinet, string trio, piano & percussion Johannes Brahms, Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87 Saturday, May 16, 2015, 8 PM, First Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston Sunday, May 17, 2015, 4 PM, Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston CALENDAR LISTINGS - CHAMELEON UP CLOSE RECITAL SERIES Up Close 1: Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello & Vivian Chang-Freiheit, piano Program: Richard Strauss, Sonata in F Major, Op. 6, TrV 115 Elliott Carter, Sonata for cello & piano Frank Bridge, Elégie, H. 47 (1904) Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69 Sunday, March 8, 2015, 4 PM Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston Up Close 2: Gloria Chien & Elizabeth Schumann, piano four-hands Program: Claude Debussy, Six épigraphes antiques, L. 131 Steven Stucky, Allegretto quasi Andantino (Schubert Dream) Franz Schubert, Grand Rondo in A Major, Op. 107, D. 951 Igor Stravinsky, Le sacre du printemps for piano four-hands Sunday, April 19, 2015, 4 PM Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon Street, Boston ****** Chameleon Arts Ensemble For Immediate Release, 7/30/2014 Page 5 of 5