Chamber Music Northwest announces 40th summer festival

by James Bash on March 21, 2010

Chamber Music Northwest has just announced its 40th summer festival with five weeks of concerts anchored by top-tier musicians from Lincoln Center. CMNW’s artistic director David Shifrin has lined up a promising series that extends from Monday, June 21 to July 25th. One of the artists I’m looking forward to hearing is soprano Sylvia McNair (see Week 3 below).

Chamber Music Northwest’s website contains the details. Here are some of the highlights:

Week 1:
Opens celebrating the 100th anniversary of Samuel Barber (with his famous Adagio for Strings) and the bicentennials of Schumann and Chopin. We mark CMNW’s own 40th year with a special commission by the Pulitzer-winning Steven Stucky, then shine the spotlight on the Steinhardt brothers and the Kavafian sisters, with members of Opus One.
Week 2:
Explores the intimate and powerful worlds of chamber music, from Messiaen’s revelatory Quartet for the End of Time to Debussy and Dvořák. We welcome back harpist Nancy Allen, offer a second world première by Sheridan Seyfried, and conclude with the incomparable Emerson Quartet joined by David Shifrin, in an evening to honor the timelessness of Mozart.
Week 3:
Experience an enormous range of music and ensembles, from the Romantic era to the 20th century. Brahms’ evocative Horn Trio offers contrast to Prokofiev’s colorful Overture on Hebrew Themes and Shostakovich’s early string octet. Then immerse yourself in one of the great voices of our time with an intimate evening with soprano Sylvia McNair.
Week 4:
Winds, strings and keyboards join together to revel in a Baroque extravaganza, including four of Bach’s monumental Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s masterpiece, “The Four Seasons.” Enjoy the delightful chemistry of two CMNW favorite pianists (and newlyweds!) Anna Polonsky and Orion Weiss, in great music for piano four-hands.
Week 5:
Ends with a full week of favorites, from Schubert’s sublime “Trout” Quintet, timeless trios from Brahms and Mozart, to an appealing new duo by Paul Schoenfield. Join us on Sunday for a special musical buffet to conclude our 40th year, and our anniversary cycle of all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos!

James Bash

James Bash writes articles for a variety of publications, including magazines such as Opera America, Open Spaces, Opera, MUSO, International Arts Manager, American Record Guide, Symphony, Opera Canada, and PSU Magazine. The newspapers include Crosscut, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian, The Columbian, The Portland Tribune, The Register-Guard, and Willamette Week. James has also written a number of articles for the Oregon Arts Commission. James was a fellow to the 2008 NEA Journalism Institute for Classical Music and Opera. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America (mcana.org) and lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kathy.