CONTRIBUTING WRITER
July 03, 2014 12:00 AM
The Buzzards Bay Musicfest has always featured alternating orchestral and chamber music concerts. For this, its 18th season, a new musical style enters the mix — an evening of jazz.
The second year under the leadership of Artistic Director Charles Stegeman brings jazz trumpeter Sean Jones to Tabor Academy's Hoyt Hall July 11 as part of the five-day festival.
"After last year, the board said they were open to something new," Stegeman says, "and if you think about chamber music, well, really, it's very much like a jazz trio or quartet. I suggested that we get the best jazz trumpet player alive, and when the board did the research, they agreed with me. That's how we got Sean Jones.
"He's as elegant and sophisticated as any chamber music player," Stegeman says. "He makes music at the highest level. We've had jazz programs for the past three years at the Sunflower Festival (another summer series that Stegeman directs), and audiences that came for the standard repertory have come to love it. It's not like going to a pop or rock concert, and when it's free you have the opportunity to test the waters."
The Musicfest, which has always been free to concertgoers, will open Wednesday with an orchestral performance featuring Mozart's fourth horn concerto, with soloist James Thatcher, and the rarely heard Symphony No. 1 by Franz Schubert. A second orchestral program will end the series on July 13, with Haydn's "London" symphony and the Vieuxtemps Op. 37 violin concerto. Chamber concerts fill the programs on July 10 and Juky 12, with highlights including performances of Schubert's "Trout" quintet, the Brahms F minor quintet, and wind quintets by Danzi and Jongen.
Stegeman, one of the founders of Buzzards Bay Musicfest, took over artistic leadership last season, replacing the late Russell Patterson. Stegeman, who lives in Pittsburgh and serves as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Theatre, as well as chair of the string department at Duquesne, approaches the idea of free concerts from both a practical and an aesthetic point of view.
read more: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140703/ENTERTAIN/407030326
0 Comments:
Post a Comment