Broyhill Ensemble Will Open NFoM Season

The 23rd season of Newtown Friends of Music starts early this fall. On Sunday, September 24, at 3 pm, classical music at its best will again be heard in the acoustically beautiful auditorium of Edmond Town Hall, at 45 Main Street. Fresh from their triumphant residence at An Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina, Broyhill Chamber Ensemble will present a concert for members and guests of NFoM.

The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble is an extraordinary association of internationally acclaimed musicians which presents an alternative to the conventional approach to chamber music programming. Whether in traditional concert format, in residency, or in its unique interdisciplinary series “Music and Ideas,” the ensemble members step outside the customary boundaries by presenting programs that freely associate the great masterpieces of the repertoire with brilliant works for unusual combinations.

The group frequently commissions composers to create new works for diverse instrumentations. Its recent collaborations include original programming with the Smithsonian Institution and leading choreographers.

The ensemble’s musicians have won top prizes at many of the world’s most prestigious competitions and have appeared as guest artists with virtually every major American orchestra and at numerous festivals. The Broyhill Chamber Ensemble is regularly heard on National Public Radio.

Artistic director of the Appalachian Summer Festival since 1990 is violinist Gil Morgenstern, recognized as one of America’s leading concert violinists. He is also the first violinist and artistic director of Broyhill Chamber Ensemble.(The name of the group pays tribute to Broyhill Furniture Manufacturing Company, a major sponsor of the Festival).

Mr Morgenstern is the recipient of many honors and awards, including Outstanding Young American by the Jaycees of American, and a Rockefeller grant.

Joining Mr Morgenstern will be flutist Linda Chesis, who has been called “a marvelous artist whose sophisticated technical resources and lively, informed musicality vitalize everything she plays” (The New York Times).  

Carol Cook, a Scottish born violist, started her musical training at the age of three on the violin. She continued her studies at Oberling Conservatory and with Toby Appel at Juilliard School of Music.

Cellist Darrett Adkins, a native of Tacoma, Wash., holds degrees from Oberlin College, Rice University and Juilliard School. He has been a member of the cello faculty of the Encore School for Strings and is an assistant faculty member at Juilliard.

Brian  Zeger has built a career as a solo pianist, an ensemble performer, an artistic administrator and educator. He had his New York recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and has gone on to perform in concert venues throughout the United States and Europe.

On the program for Sunday’s performance will be Flute Quartet in D by Mozart, Lowell Liebermann’s piano trio, a Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia, Villa-Lobos Jet Whistle, and Schumann’s piano quartet.

Free parking and handicap access are available at Edmond Town Hall. Concertgoers should park in the lower parking lot, behind the town hall building. If the lots are full, limited spaces are available behind Newtown Savings Bank and Newtown Youth Services, the lots adjacent to Edmond Town Hall.

Light refreshments are usually served following the performance to give the audience an opportunity to speak with the artists in an informal setting.

Tickets for the concert on September 24 are available either by subscription to the entire season ($45 for six concerts) or at the box office in the theater one hour before the start of the concert.

Tickets for adults are $14 and seniors and students pay $12. Children between the ages of five and 14 are welcome and admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket holding adult. For further information and reservations call 426-6470.