The Bowdoin International Music Festival is welcoming more than 300 artists and aspiring musicians from around the world to Brunswick this week to open its 52nd season — the second under the artistic direction of David Ying and Phillip Ying.
The 2016 Festival theme is “Re- Invention” — an idea always at the heart of composition, performance and teaching — and everything the festival is about. Highlights include Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms; works by contemporary composers Joan Tower and Gabriela Lena Frank; and performances by Steven Doane, Amir Eldan, Paul Katz, Pei-Shan Lee, Ayano Ninomiya and Sergiu Schwartz, and the Ariel, JACK, Jupiter, Shanghai, and Ying Quartets.
Gala Concert and Fundraising Dinner: June 28
BIMF is kicking off the summer with a fundraising gala June 28 on the Bowdoin College campus. The event celebrates 52 years of educational and creative collaboration at the festival with all funds raised to benefit scholarships for festival participants. The evening begins at 5 p.m. with a concert by the Kaplan Fellows in Studzinski Recital Hall followed by a cocktail reception and sit-down dinner in nearby Moulton Union. Dinner will be crowned with an artisanal dessert crafted by longtime Festival friend and James Beard Foundation Award Winner Sam Hayward, chef and co-owner of Portland’s Fore Street and co-owner of Scales. The concert is free for all to attend.
Wednesday Upbeat! Performance: June 29
The festival’s concert season gets underway in earnest on June 29 with the Wednesday Upbeat! series at Studzinski Recital Hall with “Sonata for Piano and Cello in F Major, Op.6.” The piece is an early Strauss composition that introduces the heroic style that characterized his later works. Next is Penderecki’s “String Trio,” which invites the audience to experience his perspective and distinctive language. The evening concludes with Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66,” a composition offering expansive melodies. This concert, which showcases many of the festival’s favorite musicians, including new faculty violist Rebecca Albers, will remind listeners of the breadth of talent and range of music presented throughout the Festival.
Wednesday Upbeat! concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. in Studzinski Recital Hall on the campus of Bowdoin College. Tickets are $40.
Festival Fridays Performance: July 1
The festival’s premier concert series, Festival Fridays, begins July 1 in Crooker Theater. The performance consists of two rarely heard gems and one beloved masterpiece, all featuring the theme of re-invention. Maurice Duruflé’s “Prelude, Recitatif et Variations, Op. 3,” presented by Linda Chesis, Rebecca Albers, and Pei- Shan Lee, employs reinvention as the basis for its form structure; theme and variations. Written as a ballet scored for full orchestra, Stravinsky’s “A Fairy’s Kiss” is presented at Bowdoin as an adapted version for violin and piano, arranged by the composer himself. Performing on violin is long time Festival artist Ani Schnarch. The evening concludes with Brahms’ first piano trio, one of the most beloved works in the piano trio repertoire. The piece, full of ardent, yearning themes is presented tonight by Ayano Ninomiya, Amir Eldan, and Tao Lin.
Festival Friday concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. in Brunswick High School’s Crooker Theater. Tickets are $40.
Music at the Museum: June 30
In collaboration with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, BIMF will present festival artists in the museum’s gallery spaces this summer. The first of two concerts takes place on June 30 at 11 a.m., and will present Beethoven’s 10 Variations on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu, Op. 121a,” Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and artists such as cellists Paul Katz and David Requiro , pianists Pei-Shan Lee and George Lopez, and more.
Music at the Museum concerts are held at 11 a.m. at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Free. RSVP recommended at (207) 725- 3275.
Artists of Tomorrow: June 30
The first Artists of Tomorrow student concert on June 30 will feature the the top young artists studying at the Festival this summer. The concert program will be announced the day of the concert at bowdoinfestival.org.
Artists of tomorrow concerts are held in Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College, and have a suggested donation of $10.
Bowdoin Festival Extra: June 27 & 30
The Festival’s public educational programs, collectively publicized under the Bowdoin Festival Extra banner, begin with a special program on June 27 at 4 p.m. featuring the Ying Quartet demonstrating chamber music rehearsal in Studzinski Recital Hall on the Bowdoin College campus.
On Thursday, June 30, Todd Frazier will present Music Medicine, and Healing. Todd Frazier is a composer and Director of The Center for Performing Arts Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital. The event will examine the intersection of music and medicine which is an area of great interest and possibility, as well as the subject of current research. Even before the wave of publicity given to the “Mozart Effect,” neurologists and others have been exploring the effects of music on the mind, and on overall wellness. This should be a fascinating talk and discussion. 4 p.m. in Bowdoin’s Studzinski Recital Hall.
For a complete schedule of Festival concerts, ticket information, and to sign up for emailed program updates, visit bowdoinfestival.org. Tickets may also be ordered at the box office, (207) 725-3895.
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