Missouri Chamber Music Festival

Last updated

The Missouri Chamber Music Festival and Adult Chamber Music Intensive (ACMI) was founded in 2010. The goal of the MOCM Festival concerts is to present the fine art of small ensemble music to a wide audience through an accessible, community-based festival. The ACMI workshop is the educational portion of the festival, placing adult instrumentalists in chamber ensembles with Festival artists for coaching and performance.

Contents

History

The MOCM Festival and ACMI was incorporated by Scott Andrews and Nina Ferrigno in 2010 and presented its inaugural season in June 2011. MOCM Advisors include Gil Rose, music director, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera; David Robertson, Music Director Emeritus, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra; Jennifer Lucht, Calyx Piano Trio; Marc Thayer, executive director of Symphony New Hampshire; and Christopher Stark, Assistant Professor of Composition at Washington University

Festival directors

Scott Andrews has been the Principal Clarinet of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 2005 and is a sought-after collaborative musician and concert soloist. Scott was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 11 years before joining the SLSO, and has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Scott is the former Woodwind Department Chair at Boston Conservatory and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. He collaborates regularly with Seiji Ozawa in Japan at the Saito Kinen Festival as Solo Clarinet of the Mito Chamber Orchestra. Originally from Virginia, Scott studied with Edward Knakal, attended the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts, and studied at the Interlochen Music Center in Michigan. He graduated with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music where he was a student of Harold Wright.

Festival Co-chair Nina Ferrigno is a pianist who appears at major concert venues throughout North America. She has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Her chamber music recording of Lansing McLoskey's "Tinted" was released by Albany Records in 2008 and her recording of Elliot Schwarz's "Chamber Concerto IV" with BMOP was released the following year. Nina's festival appearances include those at Tanglewood, Banff, Norfolk, the Skaneateles Festival and the Coastal Carolina Chamber Music Festival. She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music where she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees with distinction. Her principal teachers were Wha Kyung Byun and Randall Hodgkinson. Ferrigno is a founding member of the Boston-based Calyx Piano Trio. She was the long-time member/director of the AUROS Group for New Music and is committed to bringing classical music to new audiences by performing and commissioning new works in a variety of settings.

Events

Three evening concerts and one morning concert highlight the annual MOCM Festival each June. The 2021 Festival concerts will be held on June 14, 16, 18, and 21, at various venues in the St. Louis, Missouri area.

The Adult Chamber Music Intensive is a week-long workshop for adult instrumentalists. The 2021 ACMI workshop takes place 21–27 June at the Community Music School of Webster University.

Other events planned for the 2022 season include a Trivia Night on 28 Jan 2022 at the Shrewsbury City Center in Shrewsbury, MO, a Festival Preview concert on 12 May 2022 at the World Chess Hall of Fame, and various private house concerts throughout the year.

The above events had been cancelled in 2020, plus Trivia Night in 2021.

Programs

Programs from the 2019 Festival concerts:

June 17, 2019

June 19, 2019

June 20, 2019

June 22, 2019

Festival Musicians

MOCM's 2019 season musicians included harpist and composer Hannah Lash, flutist Jennifer Nitchman, oboist Jelena Dirks, bass clarinetist Tzuying Huang, bassoonist Andrew Cuneo, horn player Roger Kaza, percussionist Michael Compitello, pianist Mia Hynes, violinists Catherine French, Eva Kozma, and Angie Smart, violists Michael Casimir and Chris Tantillo, cellists Elizabeth Chung and Jennifer Lucht, the Calyx Piano Trio, and MOCM Festival Directors Scott Andrews, clarinet and Nina Ferrigno, piano.

Location

2019 Festival concerts were held at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves and the 560 Music Center of Washington University.

2021 Festival concerts will take place at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves (14 & 18 June), the 560 Music Center of Washington University (16 June), and the Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus of Washington University (21 June), all of which was cancelled the year before.

The ACMI workshop is hosted by the Community Music School at Webster University in Webster Groves, MO.

Related Research Articles

Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Roussel</span> French composer (1869–1937)

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Casadesus</span> French pianist and composer (1899–1972)

Robert Marcel Casadesus was a renowned 20th-century French pianist and composer. He was the most prominent member of a distinguished musical family, being the nephew of Henri Casadesus and Marius Casadesus, husband of Gaby Casadesus, and father of Jean Casadesus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril Scott</span> English composer and writer (1879–1970)

Cyril Meir Scott was an English composer, writer, poet, and occultist. He created around four hundred musical compositions including piano, violin, cello concertos, symphonies, and operas. He also wrote around 20 pamphlets and books on occult topics and natural health.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including five string quartets and many instrumental sonatas, much of which is only now becoming accessible through modern recordings. Cooke also composed two operas, six symphonies and several concertos.

Walter Sinclair Hartley was an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Dan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franciszek Zachara</span> Polish pianist and composer

Franciszek Zachara (b Tarnów, Austrian Poland (now Poland), 10 December 1898; d Tallahassee, Florida, United States, 2 February 1966) was a Polish pianist and composer who concertized extensively throughout Europe in the years leading up to 1928. He was a professor of piano at a Polish conservatory from 1922–1928, and two American colleges from around this time until his death in 1966. Zachara composed well over 150 works, including many works for piano solo, a piano concerto, a symphony, several works for band, and various chamber pieces. The archive of his manuscripts is held at the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University. Most of these manuscripts are originals (or copies) from the composer's own hand.

Sean Osborn is a former clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and a regular substitute in the clarinet section of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He has been a student of Stanley Hasty, Frank Kowalsky, and Eric Mandat.

Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Cohler</span> Musical artist

Jonathan Cohler is an American classical clarinetist, conductor, music educator and record producer.

William Jay Sydeman was a prolific American composer. He was born in New York. He studied at Duke University, and received a B.S. degree in 1955 from the Mannes School of Music, having studied with Felix Salzer, Roy Travis, and Roger Sessions. He received his master's in music from the Hartt School in 1958, studying under Arnold Franchetti and Goffredo Petrassi. From 1959 to 1970 he joined the composition faculty at his alma mater Mannes School of Music.

Gary Alan Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002. He currently teaches on the music faculty at the University of Toronto.

Konstantin Petrossian is a composer, pianist and conductor.

Leonard Hokanson was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.

Michael Kibbe is an American contemporary classical music composer born in San Diego, California. He has composed over 240 concert works and created numerous arrangements. His writing covers many musical styles, encompassing tonal, modal and non-diatonic languages. His style often incorporates modern structures but is still accessible to the popular classical listener. Some of his works come right of the Romantic Era yet his style in some writings has been compared to Prokofiev. There are influences of American composer Gershwin in the Serenade Number 2 for two clarinets that seem at once blues, jazz and classical. His music can often reflect themes that bring to mind different cultures.

Leone Buyse is the Joseph and Ida K. Mullen Professor of Flute and Chair of Woodwinds at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Prior to a full-time career teaching, Buyse spent over 22 years as an orchestral flutist, including a decade from 1983-1993 as Principal Flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra. Other orchestral positions include Rochester Philharmonic as solo piccolo and second flute, and assistant principal of San Francisco Symphony. In addition to the Shepherd School, she has held faculty positions at the New England Conservatory, Boston University, University of Michigan, as visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music and numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Institute. Her primary teachers include Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Michel Debost and Joseph Mariano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Luedeke</span> American and Canadian composer of classical music

Raymond Luedeke is an American / Canadian composer of contemporary classical music. Praised for his idiosyncratic instrumental writing and for his orchestration, Luedeke has more recently concentrated on works for music theatre. Although born in New York City, he spent 29 years as Associate Principal Clarinet with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a position he left in 2010. A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Ray Luedeke is artistic director of Voice Afire Opera-Cabaret in New York City.

Igor Krivokapič is a Slovenian composer, retired tubist and instrument inventor.

Leslie Parnas was an American classical cellist. A prize winner at several international music competitions, he appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the world and performed and recorded a number of chamber works. His playing has been described as "characterized by a sure technique and an aggressive approach to phrasing". For a number of years, he taught at the Boston University School of Music.

References

Intimate spaces give audience an edge at Missouri Chamber Music Festival. St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 2018

2017 Radio Interview, St. Louis Public Radio

Great trios at the Missouri Chamber Music Festival. St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 2015

Best Chamber Music Festival. St. Louis Post-Dispatch July 2014

Missouri Chamber Music Festival takes a satisfying journey. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 2014

Missouri Chamber Music Festival presents grand finale at the Sheldon. St. Louis Public Radio, June 2014

Missouri Chamber Music Festival returns for a fourth season. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 2014

Missouri Chamber Music Festival features Stravinsky and Schubert. St. Louis Beacon, June 2013

Missouri Chamber Music Festival celebrates Schubert and Stravinsky. St. Louis Public Radio, June 2013