Friends Of Music Are Preparing For 24th Season

While most take the month of August and escape the summer heat by relaxing on the beach, practicing their golf swing or set records swimming, mountain climbing or visiting faraway relatives, some of the area’s most ardent music lovers have been hard at work putting into place another season of classical music concerts for Newtown and area audiences.

Following a highly successful 23rd season, which brought six concerts into Newtown’s Edmond Town Hall and saw the inauguration of a school outreach program, Newtown Friends of Music feel just as confident for the upcoming series of concerts. The 2001-02 season is once again filled with talented musicians who will be performing the best in classical music on Edmond Town Hall’s fine stage.

After more than twenty years in existence, Newtown Friends of Music (NFoM) has established a fine reputation among musicians. As a result, many artists now submit their programs for consideration and request to perform under the auspices of NFoM.

Members of NFoM’s program committee attend concerts, recitals, competitions and other musical performances not only during the summer months but all through the year. The procedure of selecting outstanding musicians here in Newtown, where audiences have come to expect the very highest standards, is a long, drawn out process, with competition for the five available performance spots.

Year after year, NFoM manages to negotiate terms with exceptionally talented artists who enjoy performing for a sophisticated audience. Audience members have turned out for concerts from as far away as Bristol, New Haven and Southport, and even nearby Putnam and Westchester counties in New York.

Planned for the 2001-02 season are five Sunday afternoon concerts plus two school outreach programs which will employ approximately twenty uniquely gifted artists.

September 23 will see the opening performance by The Greenleaf Chamber Ensemble, under the artistic direction of oboist Peggy Pearson. Appearing on the program with Ms Pearson will be the violinists Catherine Cho and Todd Phillips, violist Maria Lambros, cellist Marci Rosen, pianist Diane Walsh, and Peter Sykes on harpsichord. The program will showcase the premiere of Divertimento for Oboe and Strings by the American composer Martin Brody.

Additional pieces on the program will be a sonata by J.S. Bach, Trio for Oboe D’amoré by Haydn and, following intermission, Johannes Brahms’ Quintet in F minor.

On Sunday, November 4, for the second concert of the season, NFoM will present a return visit by the greatly admired American String Quartet. These four musicians have been working together for 25 years and have garnered the highest praises for their “comprehensive display of ensemble mastery, passion, precision and interpretive smarts in perfect synchrony” (The Los Angeles Times).

The quartet often performs on a set of matching Stradivarius instruments, which are housed at the Smithsonian Institute. They have recorded the complete cycle of Mozart string quartets in a six-volume CD set for the MusicMasters label using the rare instruments.

Vioninists Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violist Daniel Avshalomov and cellist David Geber profess a special affinity for Newtown, and have said they look forward to their third visit to Edmond Town Hall.

February 3 will welcome the first concert of the new year, when The Amadeus Trio, a singularly well-versed piano trio, brings its artistry to town. Numerous performances by the trio have been broadcast over National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” program, and the trio recently recorded a CD of works by Dvorak and Smetana for Helicon Records. (The trio will visit Newtown schools the day after its concert in the first of this season’s two planned outreach programs.)

Pianist Marian Hahn, a top prize-winner in national and international competitions, has been hailed as “passionate, poetic and quite breathtaking” and praised for “her finely balanced technique and thorough musicality.”

Joining her is violinist Timothy Baker, a much sought-after chamber musician, concert master and violin soloist. Mr Baker owns and performs on the famous “Guitar” Stradivarius violin made in 1726. He was invited by Boston Symphony Orchestra to perform a solo recital in Greece in honor of the orchestra’s first visit to that country.

The trio’s third member, the cellist Jeffrey Solow, has enthralled audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and the Orient with his impassioned and compelling cello playing. His extensive solo repertoire includes performances of more than twenty concertos as well as many shorter works for cello and orchestra.

Local audiences have been waiting to hear Icelandic violinist Judith Ingolfsson since her victory in the 1998 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, where she won first prize and was praised as much for her musicianship and technique, and also received a special award for Best Performance of Bach.

Sunday, March 10, will finally see Newtown’s opportunity to welcome Ms Ingolfsson into Edmond Town Hall along with her husband, the pianist Ronald Sat. For her concert the artist has chosen works by Dvorak, Isaye, Brahms, Bartok and Ravel. She will follow her performance with a visit to Newtown schools the following day.

For the final concert of the 2001-02 NFoM season, the young Pacifica Quartet will be in town on April 7, performing music by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev and Beethoven. Violinists Simim Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and cellist Brandon Vamos make up the prize-winning string quartet that first burst onto the music scene with it captured three of the country’s most important awards: Grand Prize at the 1996 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, top prize at the 1997 Concert Artists Guide Competition, and the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.

Since then the quartet has been invited to perform both in the United States and abroad and has earned a well-deserved reputation for championing contemporary music. In the 1999-2000 season alone, eight new string quartets were written for the Pacifica.

All performances begin at 3 pm in the auditorium of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street in Newtown. Subscription tickets for the entire season are still available at $45 for adults, or $35 for seniors. Children age 12 and under who are attending the concerts with a ticket-holding adult are admitted free of charge. Tickets for individual concerts are $14 each, $12 for senior citizens.

Seats are not assigned, parking is free, and an informal post-performance reception with the performers follows each concert.

To receive a brochure for the 2001-02 season or to inquire about subscription tickets write to Newtown Friends of Music, PO Box 295, Newtown, CT 06470; call 426-6470; or send email to FriendsOfMusic@snet.net.