Season 2018-2019 Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus for Music and Art Moravian College Faith United Church of Christ 5992 Route 378 Center Valley, PA 18034 Program information and single ticket sales at www.cmsob.org
Season 2018-2019 About the concerts The Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem invites you to experience the performances of world-class ensembles as it celebrates its 67th anniversary with the 2018-2019 season. We are privileged to present a series of seven concerts, which include the highly anticipated return of several audience favorites, a warm welcome to others for their first introduction to our audience, and a special summer offering that takes a fresh approach to the enjoyment of chamber music. Parker Quartet Sunday, October 7, 2018, at 3:00 p.m. Schumann Quartet Sunday, November 11, 2018, at 3:00 p.m. Walden Nonet Friday, November 30, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. Signum Quartet Friday, February 22, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. Horszowski Trio with Masumi Per Rostad, viola Friday, April 19, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. Jasper String Quartet with Gilles Vonsattel, piano Friday, May 17, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. Summer Concert Details to be announced Please note: all programs throughout the Season are subject to change. Four Friday evening concerts three at and one at will begin at 7:30 p.m. Two Sunday afternoon concerts one at Foy Concert Hall and one at will begin at 3:00 p.m. New this season is a summer date for our seventh concert featuring some surprises in artists, instrumentation, and programming. Details will be announced. We re very pleased to have a special relationship with the Young People s Philharmonic. Look for announcements of their string and brass ensemble performances as curtain warmers a half hour before selected concerts. Concertgoers can enjoy significant savings by purchasing a full subscription for 7 concerts or packages of 4, 5 or 6 tickets. All tickets are flexible and can be used at any concert. You might also consider purchasing a subscription package as a gift for someone special. Single tickets can be purchased at the door or online. We invite you to join us for our traditional post-concert receptions, where you can enjoy refreshments as you chat with the artists and fellow concertgoers. Program information and single tickets sales at www.cmsob.org
Schumann Quartet Sunday, November 11, 2018, at 3:00 p.m. Center Valley, PA 18015 Parker Quartet Sunday, October 7, 2018, at 3:00 p.m., Moravian College A string quartet for the new millennium, the Parker Quartet was formed in 2002 by graduate students at the New England Conservatory of Music, refined in that institution s Professional Quartet Training Program from 2006 to 2008, and mentored by original members of the Cleveland Quartet. Based in Boston, the ensemble is currently in residence at Harvard University, as well as at the University of South Carolina School of Music. In 2011, the group s Naxos recording of György Ligeti s complete string quartets won the Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. Other Parker Quartet recordings feature the works of Bartók, Augusta Read Thomas, and Jeremy Gill. Recent gigs include jamming with jazz pianist Billy Childs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and performing in the Jukebox series at the Kennedy Center. The Schumann Quartet boasts of a strong bond among its members three German brothers and a violist from Estonia. This musical connection partly derives from but significantly exceeds even their close family ties and leads them to a spiritual metamorphosis in the absolute Now of a performance. Make no mistake; the Schumanns mean to draw the audience into active participation with that absolute Now. Anyone present at the group s CMSOB concert last season can attest to the power of the individual members, trusting in each other, to communicate with [the audience] in music. The audience, for its part, is challenged by the group to be prepared for all eventualities as the quartet defies expectations (limitations, really) of sound, approach, or style. The quartet s eclecticism grows out of influences clearly identified in its latest recording, Landscapes (2017), which features works by Haydn, Bartók, Takemitsu, and Pärt. The album won an Annual Award of German Record Critics, received 5 Diapasons, and was an Editor s Choice selection of BBC Music Magazine. Its title refers to the Takemitsu piece, Landscape I, which creates a musical vision of Japan, homeland of the mother of the three Schumann brothers, who speak fluent Japanese. Schubert String Quartet No. 6 in D Major, D. 74 Hindemith Quartet No. 6 in E-flat Major (1943) Brahms Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1 Confessing to a passionate belief in the power of music to change lives and assuming the responsibility to keep the string quartet repertoire relevant and alive for audiences of all ages, the ensemble frequently collaborates with other artists on special projects, for example, participating in the Schubert Effect project with pianist Shai Wosner at the 92nd Street Y and supporting Music for Food, violist Kim Kashkashian s project benefitting food banks and shelters across the United States. Debussy Quartet in G Minor, Op.10 Paul Wiancko Strange Beloved Land (2013) Beethoven Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, The Harp
Walden Nonet Friday, November 30, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. Center Valley, PA 18015 Photo credit: Cydney Scott The Walden Chamber Players are old friends of the CMSOB audience, although a fresh selection of artists and instrumentation appear for each visit. Founded in 1997, the Boston-based group mixes and matches its twelve string, piano, and wind artists for concerts and residencies. Programming is similarly eclectic, blending and contrasting sources and styles, classical and contemporary. In this appearance, nine Walden musicians violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn will perform some unexpected treasures. The ensemble is named for Walden Pond, where American writer Henry David Thoreau famously reflected on nature, the individual, and society. It is not surprising, then, that educational outreach is taken seriously by the group and that Music and the Social Conscience is one of its most popular offerings, recently garnering The Gold Star Award of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. While the Walden artists love nurturing performers at such prestigious institutions as the New England Conservatory of Music and Julliard, they are equally committed to engaging non-professional listeners and take pride in such long-standing residencies as the one at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science. Signum Quartet Friday, February 22, 2019, at 7:30 p.m., Moravian College Communication and collaboration are important to all musicians but, perhaps, especially so for string quartet players. Communication is essential to four individual musicians who, with a look or a nod, must completely understand where the others are heading and arrive at that destination as one. Recognizing the popularity today of social media communication led Cologne, Germany s Signum Quartet to announce its #quartweet project at Princeton University in 2015. The Signum website invites, composers of all ages and abilities to tweet us a short quartet of 140 notes or less on Twitter a #quartweet! The ensemble members regularly perform submissions at concerts and online. Their CMSOB audience was treated to one in 2017. Maybe they will play another for us this season. If communication is a centripetal force drawing quartet members and their audiences together, collaboration is a centrifugal force flinging those musicians into enriching contact with other musicians and composers. The Signum Quartet debuted Bruno Mantovani s String Quartet No. 3 across Europe in the 2016-7 season. It is dedicated to the group, which actively seeks similar cooperative workshops and projects with other contemporary composers and performing synergies with fellow musicians and ensembles. Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546 Robert Fokkens Glimpses of a half-forgotten future Webern Langsamer Satz in E-flat Major (1905) Schubert Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703 Bach Counterpoint 18 from Art of the Fugue, WV 1080 (The Unfinished) Konstantia Gourzi No. 2, P-llion fragments of an (b. 1962) eternity Beethoven Grosse Fuge in B-flat Major, Op. 133 Martinu Nonet No. 2, H.374 (1959) Nielsen Serenata in vano, FS 68 (1914) Strauss/Hasenöhrl Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders (Till Eulenspiegel Differently), Op. 28 Spohr Nonet in F Major, Op. 31
Horszowski Trio with Masumi Per Rostad, viola Friday, April 19, 2019, at 7:30 p.m., Moravian College The artists of the Horszowski Trio, active soloists and members of other successful chamber groups before debuting the ensemble in 2011, named themselves after the great Polish- American pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski, inspired by his musicianship, integrity, and humanity. New Yorker Magazine predicted that the ensemble was destined for great things, and they quickly set about fulfilling that destiny, touring widely across the United States, Japan, and India including a stop in Bethlehem for a well-received CMSOB concert in 2014. By the time they prepared for another tour of Asia in 2018, the Los Angeles Times had crowned them power players. The year 2019 marks their European debut, including a performance at London s Wigmore Hall. Frequent collaborators in various combinations of instruments, the Horszowskis bring to their encore Lehigh Valley concert a favorite partner, violist Massumi Per Rostad of the Pacific Quartet (which wowed the CMSOB audience at a performance here in 2011). The Brahms piano quartet slated for the current CMSOB season is part of a Rostad/Horszowski All-Brahms Piano Quartets recording project scheduled with Bridge Records, which has also planned an All-Schumann Piano Trios recording with the trio, following the group s 2014 debut album with Bridge, featuring works by Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and D Indy. Jasper String Quartet With Gilles Vonsattel, piano Friday, May 17, 2019, at 7:30 p.m., Moravian College Formed by undergraduates at Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2004, growing through studies at Rice University s Shepherd School of Music, and matured by the mentoring of the Tokyo String Quartet at Yale School of Music, the Jasper String Quartet is currently the Professional Quartet in Residence at Temple University s Center for Gifted Young Musicians and Guest Artist in Residence at Swarthmore College. The Jaspers have garnered many awards, prizes, grants, and accolades (the New York Times included their fourth album Unbound among the 25 Best Classical Recordings of 2017), as well as the affection of audiences throughout the world. The ensemble s fresh, youthful spirit is evident in its enthusiastic showcasing of new works, e.g., a 2019 commission of four composers to address four seasons; association with exciting young artists like Gilles Vonsattel, the Swiss-American pianist joining the quartet for our CMSOB concert; and passionate commitment to children. Through two Picasso Project Grants from Public Citizens for Children and Youth and, as Astral Artists, funding for three years from the William Penn Foundation, the quartet plays frequently in elementary school classrooms throughout Philadelphia. It received the 2016 Educator Award from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association for outstanding and imaginative programming for children and youth in the United States. Haydn Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, Emperor Akira Nishimura String Quartet No. 2, Pulse of the Lights (1992) Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81 Germaine Tailleferre Piano Trio Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67 (1944) Brahms Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26
Directions Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus for Music and Art Moravian College South Campus at Main and Church Streets, Bethlehem PA, 18018 FROM THE NORTH Follow Route 378 South to the Center City Exit (#3). Turn left onto Third Avenue; then turn left onto West Broad Street. Turn right onto Main Street and continue south, through the light beyond the Hotel Bethlehem. will be on your left. N ew this Season The Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem Brings You Summer Sounds! Traditionally, the seventh concert in a CMSOB season is scheduled in late April or early May. For the 2018-2019 season, the seventh concert is going to spring forward (sort of like daylight savings time). We are planning a very special seventh concert in late June or early July. And while you may be losing a month or two, you will be gaining an exciting, new chamber music experience. FROM THE SOUTH Follow Route 378 North to the Main Street Exit, which is just north of the Lehigh River. At the end of the bridge, turn right onto Main Street. and parking lot will be on your left. PARKING Lighted parking lots are adjacent to the Foy Concert Hall and under the Hillto-Hill Bridge. City parking garages are located at Walnut Street and North Street. Negotiations are ongoing as this brochure goes to press, so details must remain under the CMSOB hat for a little bit longer. But check our website, local media, and your mailboxes both real and virtual for an announcement soon. And look forward not only to a new date, but also to some different instrumentation, fresh programming, and performers selected from a roster of acclaimed international artists. Meanwhile, mark yolarly flexible and financially attractive packages of 4, 5 or 6 tickets are also available. And, as always, single tickets for the summer concert and any other concert in the 2018-2019 season may be purchased at the door or online. For anyone who wants to look at the details of the summer concert before leaping into a 7-concert package or just hesitates to plan too far ahead, similarly flexible and financially attractive packages of 4, 5 or 6 tickets are also available. And, as always, single tickets for the summer concert and any other concert in the 2018-2019 season may be purchased at the door or online. See you at the concerts! FOY CONCERT HALL
Directions 5992 PA Route 378, Center Valley, PA 18034 From Route 309 traveling south, take Route 378 north in Center Valley. Make a left turn toward Bethlehem (cross over Route 309 North). Continue past the gas station and the Church will be on your left. If traveling from the Bethlehem area, take route 378 South and continue through the traffic light at Preston Lane, passing the Copperhead Grill restaurant and the Center Valley Post Office on your left. The church will be on your right shortly after the intersection with Preston Lane. If you are traveling north on Route 309, from the Quakertown area, bear right at the stop light in Center Valley onto Route 378. The church will be on your left. See www.faithchurchucc.org for more info. Subscription Subscribe and SAVE! We offer several cost-saving subscription options listed in the table below. In addition, concertgoers aged 25 and younger will enjoy complimentary admission to all of our concerts. Subscription tickets can be used at any concert during the season. Your subscription tickets will be available at the ticket desk at from 6:30 p.m. until 7:20 p.m. before the first concert on October 7, 2018. If you are unable to attend this concert, your tickets will be mailed to you before November 1. Single tickets purchased online or at the door are $27. Please print clearly Name Street Address City, State and Zip Code Daytime phone Evening phone Email address FOR DONORS: Your name as it should appear in the Program: SUBSCRIPTION HOW OPTIONS PRICE MANY COST Seven-ticket package: (save $29) Six-ticket package: (save $22) Five-ticket package: (save $15) Four-ticket package: (save $8) $160 x = $ $140 x = $ $120 x = $ $100 x = $ Tax-deductible donation to operations $ Tax-deductible donation to endowment. $ TOTAL AMOUNT $ Please complete this form and mail with your check made payable to: Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem (CMSOB) P.O. Box 4336, -0336
Donations We are extremely appreciative of the generous donations we receive from our many friends each year. Your donations are vital to the continued success of the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem. All donations are tax deductible. Please check to see if your employer has a matching gift program. These donations are acknowledged in our concert program in these gift denominations: Rubato................ $5,000 and above Fortissimo............. $1,000 - $4,999 Crescendo............. $500 - $999 Allegro................ $250 - $499 Espressivo............. $50 - $249 Tranquillo............. up to $49 Endowment............ any amount Contact You can reach the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem at: 610-435-7611 chambermusic@cmsob.org www.cmsob.org The Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The mission of the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem is to further appreciation of chamber music by presenting concerts to the greater Lehigh Valley community featuring world-class ensembles.
PO Box 4336-0336 610-435-7611 www.cmsob.org chambermusic@cmsob.org Return service requested Season 2018-2019 NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID Lehigh Valley, PA Permit No. 129