Monadnock Music Festival 2012
Opening Night July 6 Peterborough Town House
By: Monadnock - May 07, 2012
As it closes in on a half century of presenting exceptional classical music to New England, the Monadnock Music Festival is already beginning a new era with the announcement of its 2012 season. “We’ve been energized by the appointment of our new artistic director Gil Rose, who comes to us with a stellar resume as artistic director of Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Opera Boston,” said William Chapman, executive directorof Monadnock Music. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Rose is reinvigorating the festival’s programming in harmony with the vision of the festival’s founder James Bolle.
“I am thrilled to begin my inaugural season as Monadnock Music’s artistic director following in the great tradition of the last 46 years,” said Rose. “I am looking forward to a fabulous season with great repertory, incredibly gifted artists, and unforgettable performances. We have a wonderful artistic legacy here in New Hampshire, and an exciting future.”
“What has always made Monadnock Music special is the intimacy of our venues and the quality and range of offerings across a spectrum of periods, styles, and genres,” said Chapman.
Highlights of the 2012 season include the Monadnock Music conducting debut of artistic director Rose at the opening event of the festival season on July 6 at the Peterborough Town House. Rose will lead the Monadnock Sinfonietta in a program of music commissioned by Martha Graham for her dance company, including Aaron Copland’s masterpiece, Appalachian Spring. Opera will return to Monadnock Music with two one-act chamber operas The Boor and A Water Bird Talk by American composer Dominick Argento on July 29 at the Colonial Theatre in Keene, New Hampshire. Grammy and Emmy award-winning baritone Sanford Sylvan will appear in Schubert’s beloved Winterreise on Aug. 4 at the Peterborough Town House. The Lorelei Ensemble, rising stars in the classical music scene, will make its first appearance with Monadnock Music, performing new and early music for women’s voices in the historic stone ambiance of Peterborough’s All Saints’ Church on Friday, Aug. 10. "This season, and in coming seasons, we intend to focus on the chamber music repertory of important American composers, with a featured composer each season,” said Rose. “This year we are thrilled to present a comprehensive look at often-overlooked chamber works of American icon Virgil Thomson."
This year the festival will also debut the Monadnock Quartet, comprised of renowned and highly-accomplished Monadnock Music regulars: cellist Raphael Popper-Keizer, violinist Gabriela Diaz, violinist Charles Dimmick and violist Wenting Kang. The season will also feature distinguished artists and ensembles such as acclaimed Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu, the Claremont Trio, baritones James Maddalena and Aaron Engebreth, tenor Frank Kelley, and soprano Heather Buck. Internationally acclaimed pianist (and former Monadnock Music Artistic Director) Alan Feinberg will return to the Peterborough Town House in a recital that ranges from Scarlatti to Kagel. Building on the contribution to music of the neighboring MacDowell Colony, Monadnock Music will also feature works composed by current MacDowell colonists such as Stewart Wallace, Sebastian Currier and others.
As it has for nearly half a century, Monadnock Music will continue to present its free Village Concert series of chamber music in the historic meeting houses of the Monadnock region throughout the summer.
Performances take place in various venues in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. Sunday concerts begin at 3 p.m., and all others at 7:30 p.m. Concerts at the Peterborough Town House and Colonial Theatre are ticketed, and go on sale May 20. All other performances are FREE Village Concerts. For a complete schedule of Monadnock Music Festival’s 2012 season, go to www.monadnockmusic.org
OPENING NIGHT
Monadnock Sinfonietta performs music commissioned by Martha Graham
Norman Dello Joio - Diversion of Angels
Paul Hindemith - Herodiade
Huang Ro - Chamber Concerto No. 4 "Confluence" *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
Sunday, July 8 – Harrisville Community Church
Monadnock Players
Virgil Thomson - Portraits for Violin Alone
Virgil Thomson - In a Bird Cage for Solo Cello
Reza Vali - Persian Folk Songs Set #9
Virgil Thomson - Sonata for Flute Alone
Max Reger - String Trio No. 2 in d minor, Op141b
Virgil Thomson - Sonata for Flute & Violin
Dan Welcher - Zephyrus *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Wednesday, July 11 – Deering Community Church
Guest Artists: Irina Muresanu (violin), Rob Auler (piano)
Johannes Brahms - Scherzo
Virgil Thomson - Waltz
Virgil Thomson - Five Ladies
Ludwig van Beethoven - “Kreutzer” Sonata
Franz Liszt - Mephisto-Waltz
Virgil Thomson - Sonata
William Bolcom - Graceful Ghost
Griforas Dinicu – Skylark
Friday, July 13 – Peterborough Town House
Guest Artist: Claremont Trio
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Trio in C Major, K. 548
Daniel Crockett - Night Scenes
Johannes Brahms - Trio in B Major, Op. 8
Sunday, July 15 – Wilton Center Unitarian Church
Monadnock Players
Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata in F Major for Horn and Piano Op. 17
Arnold Bax - Clarinet Sonata in Bb Major
George Antheil - Sonata for Trumpet and Piano
Stjepan Sulek - Sonata for Trombone and Piano
Johannes Brahms - Sonata for Viola and Piano in F Minor
Virgil Thomson - Sonata da Chiesa for Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone & Viola
Wednesday, July 18 - Keene Ahavas Achim Synagogue
Guest Artists: Evan Hirsch, Sally Pinkas (pianos), Jonathan Hess, Robert Schulz (percussion)
Johannes Brahms - Variation on a Theme by Haydn for Two Pianos
Bela Bartok - Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
John Bergamo - Piru Bowle
Stewart Wallace - Gorilla In a Cage *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Friday, July 20– Peterborough Town House
Guest artist: Alan Feinberg (piano)
Domenico Scarlatti - 4 Sonatas
Frederic Chopin - Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise, 3 Etudes
Franz Schubert - Impromptu Op. 90 #3
Mauricio Kagel - An Tasten
Franz Schubert - Wanderer Fantasy
Sunday, July 22 – Francestown Old Meeting House
Monadnock Players
Michael Gandolfi - Preludes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Five Divertimenti for Winds in Bb Major
Samuel Barber - Summer Music
Gunther Schulller - Suite for Woodwind Quintet
Heitor Villa-Lobos - Quinteto em forma de chôros
John Harbison - Wind Quintet
Wednesday, July 25 – Temple Community Church
Guest artists - Terry Everson (trumpet), Scott Jarett (organ)
Johann Sebastian Bach - "Zurücke, zurücke, geflügelten Winde" from Cantata 205
Georg Frideric Handel - Suite in D major
Georg Phillip Telemann - Concerto in D major
David MacDonald - Voices * MacDowell Colony Fellow
Petr Eben - Okna
Franz Josef Haydn - Concerto in Eb Major
Thursday, July 26 – Sullivan Congregational Church
Guest Artists, F. A. E. Duo: Nicholas DiEugenio (violin), Chi-Chen Wu (fortepiano)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata for Piano and Violin in D major, op. 12, no. 1
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Sonata in E-flat major, K. 282
Franz Schubert - Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major D. 384
Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata for Piano and Violin op. 30, no. 2
Sunday July 29 – Keene Colonial Theatre
Guest Artists: Heather Buck (soprano), James Maddalena (baritone), Frank Kelley (tenor), Aaron Engebreth (baritone); directed and conducted by Gil Rose
Dominick Argento - A Water Bird Talk
Dominick Argento - The Boor
Wednesday, Aug. 1 – Hancock Community Church
Monadnock Players with Krista River
Kate Moore - Red Flame, Blue Flame *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Virgil Thomson - Four Songs to the Poems of Thomas Campion
Luciano Berio - Chamber Music
Paul Ben-Haim - Chamber Music
Arthur Berger - Words for Music, Perhaps: Three Poems of Yeats
Frank Martin - Quatre Sonnets a Cassandre
Claude Debussy - Trio for Flute, Viola & Harp
Thursday, Aug. 2 – Washington Congregational Church
Monadnock Players
Ben Hjertmann - Bhyxe *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Franz Danzi - Trio in E Minor
Ingolf Dahl - Concerto a Tre
Zoltan Kodaly- Duo for Violin & Cello
Saturday, Aug. 4 – Peterborough Town House
Guest Artists: Sanford Sylvan (baritone), David Breitman (fortepiano)
Franz Schubert - Winterreise
Sunday, Aug. 5 – Walpole Unitarian Church
Monadnock Players
Luigi Boccherini - Trio in d minor, G. 117
Paul Hindemith - String trio #1 op. 34
Andrew Norman - A Companion Guide to Rome (2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist) *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Wednesday Aug. 8 – Jaffrey Center
Monadnock Quartet
Virgil Thomson - String Quartet #1
Sebastian Currier - Quiet Time *MacDowell Colony Fellow
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - String Quartet #3
Friday, Aug. 10 – Peterborough All Saints’ Church
Guest Artists: Lorelei Ensemble
Kassiane - I en polles amarties (The Fallen Woman, 9c. Greece)
Sungji Hong - Kyrie, from Missa Lumen de Lumine
Francisco Guerrero - "O Virgen" from Villanescas y Canciones Espirituales
Cristóbal Morales - O Magnum Mysterium
Robert Kyr - "Song of the Virgin to Her Son (upon his death and resurrection)" from From the Circling Wheel
Sungji Hong - Agnus Dei from Missa Lumen de Lumine
Heather Gilligan - Dona Nobis Pacem
David Lang - "I lie"
Mary Montgomery Koppel - "A la lune"
Maggi Payne - Desertscapes
I. Pyramid Lake
II. Bryce Canyon
III. Death Valley
IV. Devil's Playground
Carson Cooman - Golden Callings
Saturday, Aug. 11 – Dublin Emmanuel Church
Monadnock Quartet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Adagio & Fugue
Arthur Shepherd - Triptych for High Voice and String Quartet
Virgil Thomson - String Quartet #2
Virgil Thomson - Stabat Mater
Maurice Ravel - String Quartet
Investing in the future
Strengthening the position of Monadnock Music as a showcase for the finest classical music while maintaining a commitment of service to the community is a challenge in tight economic times, but one made easier by a number of recent grants and challenges. “We have received at $40,000 grant from an anonymous national foundation to fund a five year strategic plan that will take us through our 50th anniversary season in 2016,” said Chapman. “We’ve also been awarded a grant from the Virgil Thomson Foundation to perform and record the chamber music of American composer Virgil Thomson. We envision this recording project as the first of a series on our own record label for eventual commercial distribution.”
Monadnock Music also stands to benefit from challenge gifts. “We have been awarded a dollar-for-dollar challenge for $40,000 from an individual to be used for enhanced programming in 2012,” said Chapman. “We have until July 31 to meet the challenge and we’ll need to match it with new or increased gifts to receive the gift.” Generous donors have already contributed $15,000 to the challenge, including a $5,000 gift from the Merrill Family Charitable Foundation, Inc. “All of us at Monadnock Music are deeply grateful to the foundations and the individuals who are investing in our future by making the strategic plan and the enhanced programming possible,” said Chapman.
Monadnock Music president Michael Petrovick is equally upbeat. “The restructuring, the new artistic leadership, the greater diversity in our programs, the launching of a five–year strategic plan culminating in our 50th anniversary in 2016, and the challenge grants all testify to the vigor of Monadnock Music’s new direction and to the community’s support for it.”
Founded in 1966 by James Bolle, Monadnock Music enriches lives and deepens a sense of community by means of diverse classical programming throughout the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. It annually mounts a summer festival situated in iconic and intimate New England settings less than two hours from Boston.
Among the many distinguished artists whose work Monadnock Music has presented or commissioned are Elliott Carter, John Adams, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Peter Sellars, James Maddalena, Lorraine Hunt, Richard Goode, Sanford Sylvan, Craig Smith, Ursula Oppens, and Russell Sherman.
In addition to its Peterborough Town House Series, Monadnock Music also presents a series of Village Concerts bringing distinguished artists to historic meeting houses throughout the region free of charge, making some of the greatest classical music accessible to all. During the school year, Monadnock Music provides vital music education support to the region’s elementary schools through its Lend an Ear! program. Since its establishment, LAE! has enriched the lives of over 25,000 children.