Chestnut Hill Concerts season opens August 5

Four superb young artists perform music by
Piston, Beethoven, and Dvorák

July 5, 2011 | For Immediate Release

In its forty-second year of presenting world-class chamber music on the Connecticut Shoreline, Chestnut Hill Concerts will present its first concert of the 2011 season on Friday, August 5 at 8:00 p.m. at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (“The Kate”), 300 Main Street, in Old Saybrook. Chestnut Hill Concerts’ artistic director, renowned cellist Ronald Thomas, has invited four of America’s leading solo and chamber musicians to perform this opening concert: violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Jonathan Vinocour, cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, and pianist Steven Beck.

The program begins with Walter Piston’s Duo for Viola and Cello, written in 1949. The Duo is a terse, eloquent work that highlights many of Piston’s strengths as a composer: his neoclassical sense of form, mastery of counterpoint, rhythmic vitality, and ear for melodic line. Beethoven’s Violin Sonata in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2, follows. Written in 1802, when Beethoven realized in despair that he was losing his hearing, the sonata is a dramatic and tumultuous work. After intermission, the four musicians come together for Antonín Dvorák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op.87. This piece, like much of the Bohemian master’s music, is marked by melodic invention, structural mastery, harmonic richness, and irresistible high spirits.

Single tickets are $30 for orchestra seats and $25 for the balcony. Children and teens are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. To purchase tickets, contact the Kate box office at 877-503-1286 (locally 860-510-0473), or visit www.thekate.org. The 2011 season of Chestnut Hill Concerts includes four consecutive Fridays: August 5, 12, 19, and 26. Subscriptions for series are $100 (orchestra) and $80 (balcony).

The opening concert on August 5 is sponsored by an anonymous donor. The Kids and Teens Come Free! program is sponsored by Judith Fisher.

For further information about the programs and artists, visit the Chestnut Hill Concert web site, www.chestnuthillconcerts.org. The series is supported by a generous grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

About the performers

One of today’s most outstanding young artists, violinist Harumi Rhodes performs extensively with some of the most prestigious musicians worldwide.  Having just completed her residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she has also joined the Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Seattle Chamber Music Societies.  Some of her recent solo engagements include performances in the 2007 Vermont Mozart Festival featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”  Harumi has also participated in several Musicians from Marlboro tours.  As an avid supporter of contemporary music, Harumi had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees.  She has also recorded Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet and most recently performed at Zankel Hall in a tribute to George Perle. Harumi received degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Ronald Copes and Earl Carylss, and the New England Conservatory studying with Donald Weilerstein where she received the Gunther Schuller Award.

Principal violist of the Saint Louis Symphony since 2007, Jonathan Vinocour has previously served as guest Principal of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan. Jonathan is also an active solo performer having recently received First Prize in the Holland America Music Society Competition. As a result of this award, he has been featured on the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series and “Live from WFMT”, a recital program on Chicago’s classical radio station. He has also performed as soloist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra with conductors Nicholas McGegan and Hans Graf. In addition to his orchestral and solo pursuits, Jonathan is an avid and passionate chamber musician. He has been a regular participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and has toured extensively with Musicians from Marlboro in past seasons. Other festival credits include the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center where he was awarded the Henri Kohn Memorial Prize. Jonathan is a regular guest of the Boston and Andover Chamber Music Societies and has toured with the International Sejong Soloists and collaborated with artists such as Paula Robison, Gilbert Kalish, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Jaime Laredo, and members of the Amadeus, Arditti, Borromeo, Chicago, Cleveland, Guarneri, Juilliard, Mendelssohn, Orion, and Shanghai String Quartets. Originally form Rochester, NY, Jonathan graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2001 with a degree in Chemistry and was awarded the university’s Sudler Prize in the Arts. He then completed his Master’s Degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in 2003, where he studied with Kim Kashkashian.

Cellist Raman Ramakrishnan is a member of the Daedalus Quartet, winner of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition. With the quartet, he has performed coast-to-coast in the United States and Canada, in Japan and Panama, and across Europe on a tour developed by the European Concert Halls Organization, which also provided for a Carnegie Hall debut. The quartet was in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2005 until 2007, and is currently in residence at Columbia University and at the University of Pennsylvania. Raman has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and has performed chamber music on Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series, at Bargemusic, and at the Marlboro, Bravo! Vail, Charlottesville, Lincolnshire (UK), Mehli Mehta (India), OK Mozart, and Four Seasons Chamber Music Festivals. He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed frequently with the Zankel Band, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and the contemporary chamber group Proteus, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2001. As a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, he has collaborated with musicians from the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra and performed in New Delhi and Agra, India and in Cairo, Egypt. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers have been Fred Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff. His cello was made in Naples, Italy in 1837 by Vincenzo Jorio. He lives in New York City with his wife, the violist Melissa Reardon.

Steven Beck, piano, is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. Mr. Beck made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and toured Japan as a soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, and has appeared with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Sequitur, and the Virginia Symphony. Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, Steinway Hall, and Tonic, as well as on WNYC. Summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the Woodstock Mozart Festival. He is an Artist Presenter and regular performer at Bargemusic, and performs frequently as a musician with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has worked with Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, and George Perle, and has appeared with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, New York Philomusica, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Omega Ensemble.  His recordings are on the Albany, Monument, and Annemarie Classics labels.
Subscriptions to the four concerts are $100 (orchestra) and $80 (balcony). Single tickets are $30 for orchestra and $25 for the balcony. To purchase tickets, contact the Kate box office at 877-503-1286, or visit www.thekate.org.

About Chestnut Hill Concerts

Chestnut Hill Concerts was founded in 1969 by Dr. Elsa Redlich in Killingworth, Connecticut. The concerts evolved from informal performances that were associated with Dr. Redlich’s summer program, the Chestnut Hill Creative Arts Center for Children. Many of the performers, who also served as faculty at the camp, were drawn from the Yale School of Music. From the beginning, the concerts sought to involve young people in experiencing fine classical music. That goal has persisted throughout Chestnut Hill’s history.

The present Artistic Director, Ronald Thomas, has led the series since 1989. He has brought musicians and programs of both musical excellence and broad appeal. As Artistic Director and co-founder of the Boston Chamber Music Society he has succeeded in enhancing Chestnut Hill’s growth, support and acclaim.

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS

Friday, August 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook.

Chestnut Hill Concerts
Ronald Thomas, Artistic Director

Music by Piston, Beethoven, and Dvorák. Violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Jonathan Vinocour, cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, and pianist Steven Beck.
Tickets: $30 and $25; Subscriptions for 4 concerts, August 5, 12, 19, and 26, $80 and $100. Children and teenagers admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Box office: 877-503-1286, www.thekate.org.
Information: www.chestnuthillconcerts.org