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.

Early ticketing for donors of $600 and above opens on April 18th, general ticketing opens online at 7 pm on May 1st.

Franz Schubert, Fantasie in F minor for piano four-hands
Scott Cuellar, Jon Kimura Parker

Joaquín Turina, Piano Quartet in A minor
Benjamin Beilman, Aloysia Friedmann, Barry Gold, Scott Cuellar

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Duo for violin and viola in G Major, KV 423
Carmit Zori, Toby Hoffman

Johannes Brahms, Viola Quintet in G Major, Op. 111
Carmit Zori, Benjamin Beilman, Toby Hoffman, Aloysia Friedmann, Desmond Hoebig

Franz Joseph Haydn, Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 71, No. 3
Miró Quartet

Antonín Dvorák, String Sextet in A Major
Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheuer, John Largess, Toby Hoffman, Joshua Gindele, Barry Gold

Johann David Heinichen, Trio Sonata for oboe, violin, and continuo in C minor
Nathan Hughes, Margaret Batjer, Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Jon Kimura Parker

Edward Elgar, Piano Quintet in A minor
Scott St. John, Carmit Zori, Aloysia Friedmann, Desmond Hoebig, Scott Cuellar

Johann Sebastian Bach Six Brandenburg Concertos
No. 1 in F Major, No. 3 in G Major, No. 5 in D Major
No. 6 in B-flat Major, No. 4 in G Major, No. 2 in F Major

Jeffrey Kahane, Director and Harpsichord; Violins: Margaret Batjer, Scott St. John, Carmit Zori, Daniel Ching, William Fedkenheuer; Violas: Aloysia Friedmann, Toby Hoffman, John Largess; cellos: Desmond Hoebig, Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Barry Gold, Joshua Gindele; Double Bass: David Grossman; Oboe: Nathan Hughes, Emily Tsai, Tad Margelli; flutes: Joachim Becerra Thomsen, Garrett Hudson, Bassoon: Kara LaMoure; horns: Danielle Kuhlmann, Anni Hochhalter; trumpet: David Washburn

Jacques Offenbach (arr. WindSync), Overture to A Trip to the Moon
WindSync

Lili Boulanger, Deux Morceaux for violin and piano
Robyn Bollinger, Jon Kimura Parker

Sergei Prokofiev (arr. Trevor Cramer), Peter and the Wolf
WindSync

Camille Saint-Saëns, Septet for piano, trumpet, and strings
Jon Kimura Parker, David Washburn, Carmit Zori, Robyn Bollinger, Toby Hoffman,
Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, David Grossman

Francis Poulenc, Sextet for winds and piano
WindSync, Jon Kimura Parker

Jean Françaix, Les petits nerveux (Nervous Children)
WindSync, Jon Kimura Parker

Franz Joseph Haydn, Trio in C Major, Hob. XV:27
Robyn Bollinger, Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Jon Kimura Parker

Charles Loeffler, Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola and piano
Nathan Hughes, Aloysia Friedmann, Jon Kimura Parker

Antonín Dvorák, Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87
Robyn Bollinger, Aloysia Friedmann, Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Jon Kimura Parker

Franz Schubert, Fantasie in F minor for piano four-hands
Scott Cuellar, Jon Kimura Parker

Joaquín Turina, Piano Quartet in A minor
Benjamin Beilman, Aloysia Friedmann, Barry Gold, Scott Cuellar

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Duo for violin and viola in G Major, KV 423
Carmit Zori, Toby Hoffman

Johannes Brahms, Viola Quintet in G Major, Op. 111
Carmit Zori, Benjamin Beilman, Toby Hoffman, Aloysia Friedmann, Desmond Hoebig

Posted on CBC News August 28, 2017

‘I’m hopeful’: Vancouver pianist weathering Hurricane Harvey

‘This couldn’t be more different from the dry summer we had here in Vancouver,’ says Jon Kimura Parker

A pianist from Vancouver who now lives in Houston says his home — and piano — have so far survived the pummelling winds and catastrophic floods of Hurricane Harvey.

But Jon Kimura Parker says he and his wife are still stranded in their house, as the flooding has wound through their street and pooled in their backyard.

“I’m hopeful,” Kimura Parker told Early Edition guest host Stephen Quinn.

“We’ve survived the last two days and the water hasn’t reached our house … but it just keeps happening,” he said.

View full article here.

Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival brings Carnegie Mellon University music professor Monique Mead to Orcas Island as Musician-in-Residence May 15th through 19th. She will work with string players of all ages in the public school music program and at an Advanced Master Class for community members.

Monique Mead and her graduate assistant, Abbey Roemer, have been virtual instructors in the Orcas Island public school music classes this winter and spring, coaching Pamela Wright’s strings classes every month via Skype. Ms. Mead has enjoyed the distance-learning process, and says, “I love connecting with the students through Skype. It allows us to collaborate over an entire semester and builds excitement for the Musician-in-Residence week. The most frustrating thing is that I can’t reach out and lift those sagging elbows, but just you wait!”

Mrs. Wright is pleased with the progress her students have made with this novel mode of learning and remarked, “The Skype sessions that we have had so far with Monique and Abbey have been very instructive!  We have been helped to reevaluate our bowing, which changed the emotion of one of our pieces.”

The week of intensive instruction culminates in the school music program’s Spring Concert, “Waltzing Through the Ages,” on May 18th at 7:00 p.m. in the High School gym. The students will play waltzes and courtly dances along with other dance forms. Many familiar tunes will include selections from “The Sound of Music” and waltzes for dukes, skaters, sailors, and even a river or two. Monique and Abbey will add to the evening’s entertainment, performing “Navarra,” a collection of flashy Spanish dances by Pablo de Sarasate, accompanied by Monique’s 12-year-old son Tino.

Community musicians have an opportunity to work with Monique Mead at an Advanced Strings Masterclass on Tuesday, May 16th, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. in the high school band room. The class is for advanced string players and string ensembles who would like coaching on pieces they are working on. Members of the community are also invited to come and observe the masterclass. This is a great opportunity to watch and learn from a very engaging master instructor. For more information about the masterclass and to sign up, contact Laura Gibbons at the Orcas Island Chamber Music office, 360-376-6636 or laura@oicmf.org.

This week of music instruction and performance is presented by Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival with the generous support of Rick Gould and Mimi and Slim Sommerville. OICMF has offered its Musician-in-Residence program to Orcas Island students and community members for over ten years, bringing musicians and music educators into the community to teach, coach, and inspire musicians of all ages.