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Cooperstown
Chamber Music Festival, Cooperstown, N.Y.
(Source: Cooperstown
Chamber Music
Festival Web Site) The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival was
started in 1999 by artistic director and flutist Linda Chesis. A
renowned flutist who has collaborated with Jessye Norman, James Levine,
and the late Jean-Pierre Rampal, Chesis made appearances each summer at
chamber music festivals throughout the United States. As a child,
Chesis' husband spent all his summers in Cooperstown, at a house his
family still owns at the north end of the lake. Chesis longed to spend
more time in Cooperstown, and realizing that the village had as much to
offer as other festival venues, set out to create the Cooperstown
Chamber Music Festival.
"Once
I saw the barn at
The Farmers' Museum, I knew that would be a fantastic place for the
festival," explains Chesis. After clapping her hands to test the
acoustics, Chesis contacted the Museum. The Farmers' Museum had faith
in the idea, and now what started in 1999 as a festival of two evening
concerts and one daytime concert for children has grown through
community support to 10 concerts offered throughout the Cooperstown
area in 2006.
Operating
under the
auspices of The Farmers' Museum through the 2005 season, the festival
begins its 2006 season as a separate non-profit organization. For more
information, call toll-free 877- MOOSIC1 (877-666-7421), visit
Festival's Web site, www.CooperstownMusicFest.org,or
email tickets@cooperstownmusicfest.org.
Cooperstown
Concert
Series shows through Aug. 19
Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival
Kicks-off 10th Anniversary Season with Concerts, Family Music Fest, and
First-Ever Pro-Am Seminar.
[Cooperstown, NY, July 3, 2008] The
Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival will kick-off its tenth anniversary
season with two evening concerts, a Family Music Fest concert, and the
Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar. The Festival continues through
August 19 with a mix of classical and jazz offerings performed by an
engaging roster of artists. On
July 11, the concert Nature Calls, features Schubert’s popular Trout
Quintet, a new arrangement of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and
Heinrich von Biber’s Sonata Representiva, and George Crumb’s Voice of
the Whale for three masked players. “The
program shows how composers from three different centuries portrayed
animals in music,” says Festival artistic director Linda Chesis, who
will be performing in the concert. “The Farmers’ Museum is the ideal
venue for this thematic concert. You’ll hear all sorts of animals, from
cats, cuckoos, and swans to frogs, elephants and beluga whales,” says
Ms. Chesis. This concert,
which will be held at The Farmers’ Museum Louis C. Jones Center at 7:30
pm, includes a pre-concert chat with the artists at 7 pm, and a
post-concert reception with the artists, hosted by Brewery Ommegang.
Artists include: Linda Chesis, flute; Gil Morgenstern, violin; Kathryn
Lockwood, viola; Wilhelmina Smith, cello; Shirley Irek, piano; and
Jeremy McCoy, double bass.
On Saturday, July 12 at 11 am, the
Festival offers a kid-friendly introduction to the string quartet.
Family Music Fest: What’s That Four? features the highly acclaimed
Parker String Quartet. This event, which includes a post-concert
instrument petting zoo, where kids can try out musical instruments,
costs $15 per family. The
Parkers perform works by Haydn, Janáček, and Beethoven on Sunday, July
13 at 7:30 pm at The Farmers’ Museum. The Boston-based string quartet
won both the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the
Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005.
“The
Parker String Quartet is one of the very best young quartets performing
today,” says Ms. Chesis. “The concert features a great Haydn quartet,
one of Beethoven’s blockbuster quartets that marked the arrival of his
heroic period, and the dramatic Janáček quartet inspired by Tolstoy’s
novel, The Kreutzer Sonata. Continuing
its tradition of offering free community concerts, the Festival’s
first-ever Pro-Am Seminar pairs accomplished amateurs with three
professional musicians. “We see this as an opportunity to celebrate
chamber music as a lifelong pursuit that can be enjoyed and shared,”
says Ms. Chesis, who will be leading the Pro-Am Seminar with David
Geber, cello, and Shirley Irek, piano. These concerts will be held in
venues throughout the Cooperstown area, July 14-16.
“The individuals
joining us for the seminar are truly amazing people, who have excelled
in their professional life while dedicating time and talent to their
love of music,” explains Ms. Chesis. Mark Ptashne, who holds the Ludwig
Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in
New York, is a violinist who has performed at many festivals. Bruce
Harris is an attending neurosurgeon at Cooperstown’s Bassett Healthcare
who is an accomplished pianist. Matt Rosen, a managed healthcare
consultant with a Ph.D. in sociology, plays cello and has participated
in chamber music workshops in the US and abroad along with his wife,
Geraldine Van Dusen. Ms. Van Dusen, a violinist, is a managing editor
at St. Martin’s Press in New York City. Also
participating in the Pro-Am Seminar are three students from the
Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Geber is Dean of the Faculty for
Instrumental Performance and Ms. Chesis is a member of the flute
faculty and chair of the Woodwind Department. The students are Monica
Davis, violin/viola; Leat Sabbah, cello; and Emily DiAngelo, oboe, who
is also serving as the Festival’s intern and production manager.
After
coaching sessions and rehearsals, the artists will perform at
Pathfinder Village on July 14 at 7 pm, the Fenimore Art Museum
auditorium on July 15 at 12 noon and July 16 at 12 noon. These concerts
are free and open to all. The group also will perform for the residents
of the Thanksgiving Home in Cooperstown. Season continues through August 19
The
Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival tenth anniversary season also
features a Baroque concert on July 23, the Daedalus Quartet and
clarinetist David Shifrin on August 3, Flute Fest at the Otesaga
(another free community concert) on August 7, Chords and Strings with
The Brasil Guitar Duo on August 9, Trio Solisti and Linda Chesis on
August 13, Family Music Fest: Go for Baroque on August 16, Gala 10th
Anniversary Concert: The Brandenburg Concertos on August 17, and jazz
with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet on August 19. Evening concerts begin
at 7:30 pm. Audiences are invited to attend 7 pm pre-concert chats with
the artists on the following dates: July 11, 13, 23, and August 3, 9,
13. Tickets and Information
Evening
concerts are $30 for adults. Students (6-18) tickets for evening
concerts are $15. Daytime Family Music Fest events are $15 per family.
Pro-Am Seminar concerts and the Flute Fest at the Otesaga concert are
free and do not require a ticket or reservation. Program subject to
change.
For more information, call toll-free 877- MOOSIC1 (877-666-7421), visit the Festival’s web site, www.CooperstownMusicFest.org, or email info@cooperstownmusicfest.org. Tickets may be purchased on the Festival's web site, by phone, or at the door as available.
The
Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival is made possible in part with public
funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The
Festival is made possible with funding by the Otsego County Bed Tax
Event Grants Program. Otsego County Tourism, 800/843-3394/thisiscooperstown.com. Festival pianos are provided courtesy of Artist Pianos.
About Linda Chesis
Flutist
Linda Chesis is founder and artistic director of the Cooperstown
Chamber Music Festival. She is a member of the flute faculty and chair
of the Woodwind Department at the Manhattan School of Music. She has
been hailed by critics on three continents as one of the most exciting
and dynamic flutists of her generation. The top prize winner at the
Paris and Barcelona International competitions, and at the National
Flute Association Competition, Ms. Chesis has performed with orchestras
and in solo recitals throughout the US, France, Great Britain, Germany,
Japan and Korea. Her recordings can be heard on the EMI, Nonesuch and
Music Masters labels.
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