CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL OF SAUGATUCK
ANNOUNCES 2010 SEASON PROGRAMS,
ADDS SATURDAY CONCERT

The Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck has announced its 2010 season. The six week program of concerts features the theme “Around the World in Six Weeks”. After building a concert last season around French music, Artistic Directors Andrew Le and Jennifer Walvoord heard positive feedback from their audience. “People really loved it”, said Le. “Then we started getting other requests…for Russian music…for Czech music…so we decided to do a musical world tour this season.” “It was important to us that we didn’t get too boxed in by the theme”, Walvoord added. “So we broadened it by not only including composers who were native to each country but also composers who were influenced by that country’s culture, or inspired by traveling there, or by another composer from there. It led to a really interesting and wide variety of works and instrumentation. We think it will be a really exciting season.”

The festival’s 23rd season is scheduled to run from July 8 to August 13 on Thursday and Friday evenings. Due to the growing popularity of this festival, organizers will add a Saturday concert on July 24.

The first concert of the season, “From Russia with Love”, will include works by Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, the two “titans of Russian musical literature”, says Le. Also featured is composer Aram Khachaturian who was born in Armenia and studied in Moscow. A work by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was inspired by a classic Russian romance and written while on a trip to St. Petersburg.

The second concert, “C’est Magnifique!”, will be an all winds and piano program featuring quintets by French composers Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc. In addition, each instrument will be featured in a solo work, drawn from the vast woodwind repertoire written by French composers including DeBussy, Ravel and Saint-Saëns.

For the third concert of the season Le and Walvoord have invited Trio Terzetto to the festival. “This is an up and coming trio”, says Le. “They are getting raves everywhere they perform. Diana Cohen, violin, appeared at the festival last season and we’re excited to have her back with her trio this year.” Their program will center on German music with the works of Beethoven and Brahms featured. They will also perform a piano trio by Leon Kirchner, a contemporary American composer who studied with Schoenberg.

The fourth week of the season coincides with Saugatuck’s Venetian Festival weekend and in recognition of that Le and Walvoord have planned an Italian program. “Viva Italia!” will include an early, rarely performed work by Italian-born Ottorino Respighi. Also featured are three composers – the Hungarian-born Liszt, Austrian-born Wolf and Russian-born Tchaikovsky – who, while not Italian by birth, all composed works inspired by that country’s artistic heritage.

The fifth concert, “American Journey”, offers an array of American composers from the legendary Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber to the contemporary Aaron Jay Kernis and (Michigan resident) William Bolcom. Performing at the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck for the first time in this concert will be contralto Meredith Arwady, a Michigan native and Hope College graduate, who has appeared at both the New York Metropolitan and Chicago Lyric Operas.

The season will conclude with “Czech Mate”, featuring much loved chamber music compositions by Antonin Dvorák and Ernst von Dohnányi. Also on the program is Bohuslav Martinu, a modern Czech-born composer whose music is known for its difficulty. “His piece keeps performers and the audience on the edge of their seats”, says Le.

Season tickets are now available for $100 for all six weeks of concerts. Tickets for the Saturday, July 24th concert, featuring Trio Terzetto, are also available for $20 ($10 for students). Individual tickets for all other concerts will be available after June 1. All performances are scheduled for 7:30 pm at the Saugatuck Woman’s Club. For complete program and ticket information visit www.saugatuckmusic.org/tickets.asp or call 269-857-1424.

“Congratulations to Kirstie Shashaguay, a Saugatuck High School senior, who created the art work for this year’s CMFS poster. Kirstie was awarded a $200 check for her winning design.”