Friends Of Music

Announce Schedule For 2011-12 Season

Where were you in May 1978? The very first Newtown Friends of Music sponsored concert, presented that month, featured a then little known pianist named Todd Crow. Today Mr Crow is deemed an “American Treasure” by Fanfare, hailed equally by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The London Times. Also performing that season was the violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky, who is also a huge success in classical music today.

For the past 34 years, Newtown Friends of Music have been inviting superior artists to grace the stage of Edmond Town Hall, where they have performed a wide variety of classical music from the past several hundred years. The 2011-12 season promises to once again showcase stellar performances by six different ensembles to enchant and mesmerize the audience.

The first concert of the 2011-12 season will fall on Sunday, September 11, the tenth anniversary of the devastation of 9/11. The occasion will be solemnly commemorated in Newtown with the world premiere of a composition written for the occasion, for Newtown Friends of Music. “A Song Without Words” was written by Lev Mamuya and was inspired, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Eagle.” The music conveys the simultaneous frailty and fierceness of the eagle in addition to the tension felt that fateful day and the days following.

In addition to this piece, there will be a quartet by Haydn, and music by Bach and a quintet by Mendelssohn, performed by members of Winsor Music, led by oboist Peggy Pearson. This concert will begin at 3 pm.

A special treat is in store for the October 23 concert, when two nationally recognized artists will engage in a Chopin and Schumann celebration.  Well known Pianist Christopher O’Riley and New York Philharmonic Principal Cellist Carter Brey have teamed up and chosen a program of these two famous composers’ beloved cello pieces for their Newtown recital.

This concert will begin at 2 pm to give concertgoers the chance to drive home in daylight.

On  more than a dozen recordings and in concert halls Aulos Ensemble has set the standard for its vibrant, spirited, original instrument performance combining scholarly insight with virtuosic artistry in imaginative programs of uncompromised excellence. Those who were in Newtown in 2005 may recall the town’s 300th anniversary candlelight concert at Newtown Meeting House by this group. Countless others may have been lucky enough to have been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where every December, Aulos performs by the magnificent presepio (nativity scene) under the stately Christmas tree.

On November 6, Aulos will perform a program they have created called “Music at Versailles: A Royal Entertainment.” The press has been unanimous in praise for this group. “This was authentic Baroque performance at its best,” said The New York Times, which” The San Francisco Examiner called it “most exhilarating” and The Toronto Globe supposed “If only Bach could have been there to hear it.”

This concert will also begin at 2 o’clock.

NFoM will continue its longstanding tradition of not interfering with the multitudinous pre-Christmas concerts, choral performances and dance recitals during the months of December and January.

As the daylight hours become more prevalent, a pre-Valentine’s Day concert is scheduled for Sunday February 12. Trio Solisti, an often appreciated piano trio of exceptional talent, will be welcomed back to the stage at 45 Main Street that afternoon.

Trio Solisti — violinist Maria Bachmann, pianist Jon Klibonoff and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach — will perform music by Mozart, Moravec Hubay, and Dvorak. Of the appearance by Bachmann and Klibonoff in Newtown two years ago, Newtown Bee reviewer Wendy Wipprecht wrote “All we listeners could do was applaud furiously, and hope that Maria Bachmann and Jon Klibonoff would return soon, whether as soloists, a duo, or [with Gerlach] as … Trio Solisti.”

So, as soon as it could be arranged, a return engagement was negotiated. The February 2012 concert will begin at 3 pm, as will the remaining concerts of the season.

NFoM annually invites a pianist to give a recital on the venerable Knabe concert grand that Mary Hawley so thoughtfully included in furnishing the Edmond Town Hall Theater. Over the past 33 years many well-known, admired and sought after pianists have given us thrilling afternoons of piano music.  This year will be no different.

On March 11, Ann Schein will give a recital of music by Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Liszt and Chopin.

Ms Schein has a long and illustrious career, based on her studies, among others, with Arthur Rubinstein. Her highly acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut, as an artist on the Sol Hurok roster, has led to an amazing career in more than 50 countries around the world.               

For the last concert of the 2011-12 season, NFoM has re-engaged Escher String Quartet and the guitarist Jason Vieaux for an April 1 performance.  Their Edmond Town Hall performance in October 2010 was so overwhelmingly well received, says Friends of Music President Ellen K. Parrella, “we had no choice but to invite them back again.”

The young musicians — violinists Adam Barnett-Hart and Wu Jie, violist Pierre Lapointe, and cellist Dane Johnson — will perform a Castel-Nuovo quintet, a Boccherini Quintet, the Verdi String Quartet, and ending with the Vivaldi Concerto in C.

“It will be a grandiose finale to the 34th season,” promises Mrs Parrella.

Season tickets are currently available, priced at $65 for adults for all six concerts and $55 for those age 65 and above. Individual tickets will be available shortly, and those will be $20 each.

Children between the ages of 5 and 14 will again be welcomed, free of charge, with a ticket holding adult.

For season ticket purchases or additional information call 203-426-6470 or visit www.NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.