In honor of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; actual birth date unknown), Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is pleased to announce that the complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle, performed by the Miró Quartet, will return in June of 2020. The Cycle will consist of six concerts, June 17th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, and 25th, all performed at Orcas Center in Eastsound, Washington. Ticketing information and other details to follow, but for now – save the dates!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aloysia Friedmann, Artistic Director, violin, viola

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Kimura Parker, Artistic Advisor, piano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robyn Bollinger, violin

 

Martin Chalifour, violin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chee-Yun, violin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Friesen, broadcaster/writer/speaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lilit Gampel, violin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mak Grgic, guitar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artem Kuznetsov, piano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew Laslo, magician

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charlotte Marckx, violin
https://www.fromthetop.org/musician/charlotte-marckx/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olivia Marckx, cello
https://www.fromthetop.org/musician/olivia-marckx/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miró Quartet
            Daniel Ching, violin
            John Largess, viola
            Joshua Gindele, cello
            William Fedkenheuer, violin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin Puts, composer-in-residence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Cedar Chamber Music
            Jan Boland, flute
            Carey Bostian, cello
            John Dowdall, guitar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerard Schwarz, conductor/composer speaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Schwarz, cello

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Zahs, historian/speaker
https://time.com/5280029/brooklyn-bridge-early-film-rediscovered/

 

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is thrilled to bring Time for Three back to Orcas Island. After their knockout performances at the 2016 Festival, the trio is ready to dazzle once again with their infectious trailblazing, genre-bending music! Time for Three will be on Orcas Island April 16th and 17th to be OICMF Musicians-in-Residence, performing, teaching, and entertaining at school assemblies, a workshop for musicians of all genres, and an evening concert at Orcas Center.

At 7:30pm on Wednesday, April 17th, Time for Three plays a concert for the Orcas community at Orcas Center. High-energy performances by the trio, double bassist Ranaan Meyer and violinists Nick Kendall and Charles Yang, include arrangements of traditional and contemporary repertoire from Bach and Mozart to the Beatles and Katy Perry, as well as performances of world premieres by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and the trio’s own originals. The trio won a well-deserved Emmy Award for their album Time for Three Live! with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. With their classical training and enthusiastic appreciation of popular music, Time for Three appeals to an unusually broad audience. In 2016, Time for Three played a few “teaser” concerts around Orcas before their Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival performances and drew an enthusiastic and varied audience, from staunch classical music lovers to classic rock fans to two sell-out concerts. Don’t miss this opportunity to see this trio of exuberant world-class musicians on Orcas Island! Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students 18 and under.

Time for Three grew from Nick and Ranaan’s downtime at the Curtis Institute of Music when they and violinist Zachary DePue (who left the band in 2015 and was eventually replaced by Juilliard graduate Charles Yang) started jamming together. The trio draws much of its energy from the members’ unique musical backgrounds, from positions in major orchestras and jazz bands to collaborating with nonprofit groups to bring the joy of music to disadvantaged areas.

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival thanks sponsors Barbara Bedell, Carl de Boor, Janet Ketcham, and Mimi and Slim Sommerville for generously underwriting this Musicians-in-Residence experience.

Time for Three Members

Ranaan Meyer
Double bassist Ranaan Meyer has performed with major orchestras and jazz stars, including Branford Marsalis and Jane Monheit. He publishes The Next Level Bassist, a free online journal dedicated to bass education. Ranaan has received a multi-year Community Partner grant from the American Composers Forum to compose 10 pieces for student musicians in disadvantaged areas.

Nick Kendall
Nick Kendall first picked up the violin at age three and trained in the Suzuki Method, which his grandfather, John Kendall, brought to America in the 1960s. Irreverent, funny, and relentless, he has become a force for bringing people together through music, on stage and off. Several years ago, Nick gathered his friends to form a band whose direction comes from the power of the collective, now the critically acclaimed East Coast Chamber Orchestra.

Charles Yang
American genre-crossing violin virtuoso Charles Yang has been awarded the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award. The Boston Globe describes him as one who “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star.” Not just confined to classical violin, Juilliard graduate Charles Yang’s improvisational abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to featured performances with a variety of artists and festivals.

The 2019 Festival dates have been set—mark your calendars for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival August 2 through 17. Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann plans to present internationally renowned mezzo-soprano and Metropolitan Opera star Susan Graham in recital with Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker, the Miró Quartet will give a world premiere of a new string quartet by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts on both Orcas Island and Lopez Island, and violinist Chee-Yun returns to perform the dazzling Chausson Concerto.

What’s the difference between a concerto and a sonata? How about a Philharmonic, a Symphony, and an Orchestra? Do you know when it’s okay to clap between movements, or what a movement is in the first place? Next month, we’ll have top-notch answers to those questions—and any others you come up with!

Our own personal OICMF professors, Artistic Director Aloysia Friedmann and Artistic Advisor Jon Kimura Parker (Jackie), will be beamed in direct from Professor Parker’s studio at Rice University for OICMF’s Music 101. The two sessions, on Thursday, May 3 and Thursday, May 10, from 7-9pm, will be hosted by our dear friends at Funhouse.

To register for the event, submit questions, or learn more, give us a call at (360) 376-6636 or drop us a line at laura@oicmf.org.

Thanks to a grant from the Gould Family Foundation, these world-class sessions are free!

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is excited to bring the fun and energetic brass quartet The Westerlies to the San Juan Islands in late April to spread the joy of brass music through performances and educational workshops on Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw islands. Formed in 2011, the self-described “accidental brass quartet” takes its name from the prevailing winds that travel from west to east. Childhood friends from Seattle now based in New York, trumpet players Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler and trombonists Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch are “skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” (NPR’s Fresh Air). The Westerlies explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create music for audiences of all musical tastes.

The Westerlies are frequently invited to engage in educational and community outreach. They have presented masterclasses at music institutions such as The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, and Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival is pleased that students of all ages in the San Juan Islands will have the opportunity to play and learn with these dynamic and talented musicians. The week-long residency is based on “A Common Language: Development of the American Song,” a lecture/demonstration developed by The Westerlies.

The quartet begins their action-packed OICMF residency on Monday, April 23rd, in an early morning session with Orcas High School students. The Westerlies continue their day with an afternoon masterclass for Orcas Island brass players and in the evening The Westerlies work and play with Orcas Island Community Band.

On Tuesday, April 24th, The Westerlies board a morning ferry bound for Lopez Island, where they will share their energetic music with the students of Lopez schools at an afternoon assembly. Lopez Islanders are invited that evening to Lopez Center for a free Community Concert at 6:30pm.

The Westerlies are back on Orcas Wednesday morning, and might just be seen strolling the streets of Eastsound with their instruments before they play for an Orcas Christian School assembly in the afternoon.

Thursday, April 26th, will find The Westerlies back in the Orcas School Band Room to continue working with high school and middle school band students before performing at Orcas Center for the Orcas Island Elementary students in the afternoon.

Mark your calendars for 7:00pm on Thursday, April 26th, and come to the Orcas Island Grange for a Community Concert with The Westerlies! Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students 18 and younger, and are available at Darvill’s Bookstore.

The Westerlies complete their musical tour of the San Juan Islands on Friday, April 27th, with a stop on Shaw Island to work with students at the Shaw School in the afternoon, and at 6:00 the Shaw Island community is invited to hear The Westerlies at a Community Concert at the Shaw Community Center. Admission to the Shaw concert is by donation.

This week-long series of Musicians-in-Residence events is supported in part by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts and generous underwriting from Mimi and Slim Sommerville, Carolyn Haugen, The Shaw School Foundation, the Driftwood Fund, and kind patrons like you.