Festival to celebrate Schumann, Chopin with 80 performances

BRUNSWICK – Over the next six weeks, more than 250 musicians from 25 countries will present more than 80 concerts from Portland to Bath as part of the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Opening this week, the festival salutes the 200th anniversary of the births of Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin.

The concert season begins with the first Wednesday Upbeat! concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Studzinski Recital Hall on the Bowdoin College campus. Pianist and festival newcomer Boris Slutsky, a concert artist and Peabody Institute of Music faculty member, will perform Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasy, Op.61.

The Ying Quartet will open its three-week residency with Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.9 in E Flat Major, Op. 117. The program opens with Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17, featuring festival artists Maria Schleuning, violin; Rosemary Elliott, cello; and Elinor Freer, piano.

Tickets cost $25.

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The festival will present the first of six Festival Fridays concerts at 8 p.m. Friday at Crooker Theatre, Brunswick High School. The first program will feature three works by Schumann, with performances by New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Wang, pianist Elinor Freer and Glenn Dicterow, first violinist of the New York Philharmonic. Dicterow will be joined by his wife, violist Karen Dreyfus, pianist Emma Tahmizi? cellist Steven Doane and violinist Ray Chen.

The Bowdoin Festival Orchestra, conducted by festival founder Lewis Kaplan, will collaborate with pianist Olivier Gardon. Tickets are $35.

The festival’s new educational series, Bowdoin Festival Extra, will open with three events that are free and open to the public.

At 4 p.m. Monday, the Ying Quartet will give a musical talk and performance, “Making Music: Commissioning Music and Working with Composers.” They will speak about and perform excerpts from recent commissions of string quartets by Richard Danielpour and John Novacek.

Robert Judd, the executive director of the American Musicological Society, will present a lecture, “Music, Language, and Time: Thoughts on Why We Do Music” at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, will give a violin masterclass at 4 p.m. Thursday.

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All three events are at Studzinski Recital Hall. A listing of all festival performances and ticket information is available at www.bowdoinfestival.org, or call 725-3895.

ROCKLAND

Sculptors to host discussion of the ‘Four in Maine’ project

On July 7 and July 14, the Farnsworth Art Museum will host talks by the sculptors participating in “Four in Maine: Site Specific.” Warren Seelig and Aaron T. Stephan will give back-to-back presentations at 5:30 p.m. July 7, and Kazumi Hoshino and Jesse Salisbury will talk at 5:30 p.m. July 14.

The talks will take place in the Farnsworth auditorium. Admission is $8. To reserve seats, call 596-0949 or visit www.farnsworthmuseum.orgeducation.

BAR HARBOR

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Annual music fest to feature nation’s music, opera singers

The Bar Harbor Music Festival opens its 44th season with Brass Venture returning for opening night at 8:15 p.m. Friday at the Bar Harbor Congregational Church. The Boston-based band will perform a program of American music by Frances Scott Key, George M. Cohan, W.C. Handy and John Philip Sousa.

Highlights of the festival include the New Composers concert on July 14, “Madame Butterfly” on July 16, the Wolverine Jazz Band on July 18, and the Festival Gala featuring the Bar Harbor Festival String Orchestra on July 25. In all, 12 performances are scheduled through July 25.

For “Madame Butterfly,” the Bar Harbor Music Festival Opera Theatre will feature soprano Shana Blake of Los Angeles Opera and Scott Scully, an emerging tenor.

Most tickets cost $25 and $35, or $15 for students. Opera tickets cost $25, $35, $45 and $75. For information, visit www.barharbormusicfestival.org or call 285-5744.

WALDOBORO

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Tenants Harbor resident wins logo contest as auction nears

Geoff Bladon of Tenants Harbor has won the Paint the Town logo contest. His drawing features several Waldoboro landmarks, and communicates energy and optimism. Paint the Town celebrates its fifth paint-out and auction Aug. 21. Registration forms are available at Tidemark Gallery from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday.

BOOTHBAY

Botanical gardens welcomes artists, plans exhibit and sale

Artists who enjoy working outdoors may sign up for a free day or days of painting at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Artists can set up an easel or sketch pad wherever they like from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 4.

To register for either or both days, call 633-4333.

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From July 18 to 25, selected works by the plein-air painters will be on exhibit and for sale in the visitor center at the gardens. An artist’s reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. July 19. The reception is free and open to the public.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is on Barters Island Road in Boothbay. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 for ages 3 to 17, and free for children 2 and younger.

PORTLAND

Portland Ovations brings in new community coordinator

Portland Ovations has hired Gretchen Berg to fill the newly created position of community outreach coordinator, created to co-design and manage Portland Ovations’ expanding education and outreach program known as Ovations Offstage.

The position works within the Greater Portland community and throughout Maine to further the organization’s community outreach initiatives, including pre-curtain lectures, master classes and workshops.

Berg will also foster relationships between Portland Ovations and other cultural institutions to bolster the community’s experience with the live performing arts through collaborations and arrangements for activities related to Ovations’ artist residencies.

 


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