Friends Of Music Announce Program For Season-Opening Concert

Newtown Friends of Music (NFoM) will launch its 26th season of sponsoring concerts – “exquisite music, superbly performed” – on Sunday, October 5, at 3 pm, with a program in which several outstanding artists will combine their talents. The concerts this season will again be performed in the theater of Edmond Town Hall, at 45 Main Street in Newtown, and each will begin at 3 pm.

“Marikou Anraku & Friends” will feature the assistant principal harpist of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra along with some of her hand-picked and invited friends – the bold and exciting young Avalon String Quartet; Michael Parloff, principal flutist from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the clarinetist Patrick Messina, from the Orchestre National de France; and guest narrator Elliott Forrest, the voice of programs and specials on WQXR, A&E, CNN and PBS – to join her in a diverse program of music from the 19th and 20th centuries. Mr Forrest will narrate Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Masque of the Red Death, accompanying the music of Andre Caplet’s Conte Fantastique for harp and strings.

In addition to the Caplet piece, Ms Anraku and Avalon String Quartet will perform several other works. In two of them, they will be joined by woodwinds. On the program is Aria in Classic Style for harp and string quartet by Marcel Grandjany; Gabriel Fauré’s Impromptu, Opus 86 for solo harp, to be performed by Ms Anraku; Joseph Jongen’s Concert a Cinq, Opus 71 for flute, violin, viola, cello and harp, with Mr Parloff; and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, string quartet and harp, with Mr Messina.

Marikou Anraku is renowned not only for her technical brilliance and virtuosity, but also for her sensitivity to composers’ styles, her expressive range, and especially her rapport with her audiences. Her commitment to expanding the boundaries of the harp repertoire is a major reason for the varied and unusual program in Newtown.

Since her debut as soloist with the Toronto Symphony in 1987, Ms Anraku has appeared with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Yomiuri Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Japan America Symphony, and Tokyo Solisten, among others. As a recitalist, she has been heard in major concert halls on three continents and as an active chamber musician, Ms Anraku has performed at numerous major festivals.

NFoM audiences enjoyed her recital in Newtown in March 1997 and clamored for a return visit. She has received many outstanding reviews, one of the latest for her “lovely Act I harp solo” in Donizetti’s Lucia de Lammamoor, performed this past summer by the Metropolitan Opera in Central Park.

Avalon String Quartet was formed in 1995 at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Since then the group has become established as one of the United States’ leading chamber ensembles. The Los Angeles Times spoke of “dramatic, charged-up performances,” while The New York Times called its members “eager, full of vim, full of ideas… with inner parts that speak, or rather sing.”

Elliott Forrest’s voice is familiar to listeners of WQXR’s “Weekend Morning” program, which he has been hosting since July 2002. He is in his 11th year with the A&E Television Network as host of Breakfast with the Arts; heard on CNN and PBS. For more than five years Mr Forrest has been a “voice” of program specials on CNN including the 2000 Presidential debates, the vice presidential debates, election night coverage, and numerous other memorable occasions.

Mr Forrest has also narrated Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with Robert Kraft and is featured with Professor Peter Schickele on the Telearc recording PDQ BACH: WTWP Classical Talkity Talk Radio, which won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Michael Parloff, who has been the principal flutist of Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1977, is also heard regularly as recitalist and concerto soloist throughout North America, Europe and Japan. Among his many appearances have been solo recitals at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many more.

Last October Mr Parloff opened the MET Orchestra concert season with a performance of Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra under the direction of James Levine. Mr Parloff’s annotated volume, Opera Excerpts for Flute, published by Presser Company in 2000, was a top prizewinner in the National Flute Association’s 2001 Newly-Published Music Competition.

Clarinetist Patrick Messina, assistant principal clarinetist of the Orchestre National de France, has garnered praise and prizes both in the USA and in Europe. He made his US orchestral debut in 1996 performing the Debussy Rhapsodie and Rossini Variations with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and in the same year debuted at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall as winner of the East and West Artists International Auditions. He has won numerous prestigious prizes at competitions and was laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation where Mr Menuhin bestowed on him the sobriquet “The Magic Clarinet.”

Free parking and handicapped access are available at Edmond Town Hall. Light refreshments will be served following the performance to give the audience an opportunity to speak with the artists in an informal setting.

Tickets are available at the box office in the theater one hour before the start of the concert, and can also be reserved in advance; call 426-6470, write to FriendsOfMusic@snet.net, or visit www.NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.

Tickets are $15 for all adults. Children between the ages of five and 14 are welcome and admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult.

Subscription Drive

Newtown Friends of Music is conducting a subscription drive promoting the 26th season, offering subscription tickets for 2003-04.  The five concerts and two school outreach programs are offered to all music lovers and are especially important to parents whose children are taking music lessons, instruction in any instrument, both in public school and from private music tutors, or interested in choosing between one instrument or another.

NFoM offers imaginative programming and superb artists at an exceptional value, says NFoM president Ellen Parrella.

“As a community resource the concerts are available to everyone and free to children, while the outreach programs bring world-class musicians into the schools at no cost to the school nor to the taxpayer,” says Mrs Parrella. “Grateful audience members contribute tax deductible contributions to make it all happen.”

In addition to next weekend’s season-opening concert, the season will also offer performances by The Los Angeles Piano Quartet, The Pacifica Quartet, the pianist Melvin Chen, and The Cavani String Quartet.

The Pacifica Quartet will offer the first outreach program of the season, visiting Reed Intermediate School in February. The Cavani String Quartet will hold a mini-residency at Newtown High School in April.

Season tickets are available for $55 for all five concerts. Children between the ages of five and 14 are welcome to attend any concert free of charge, as long as they are attending with a ticket-holding adult. For information concerning season tickets contact Mrs Parrella at 426-6470 or visit www.NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.