SCC Chamber Music Series

Primary contact: Marc Levine, Artistic Director
646 279-2799
mhlevine@gmail.com

The Southampton Cultural Center announces the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Music Series. Held between December 13, 2009 and May 2, 2010 the series will present a variety of groups performing works from the standard chamber music repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as baroque and modern classics. Concerts will fit into one of three categories: the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players, established ensembles including the Escher String Quartet and Yarn/Wire and Stony Brook University ensembles. A special benefit concert will be held on May 2, 2010 with guest Philip Setzer from the Emerson String Quartet – time, pricing and other details for this concert are TBD.
All performances will be held at Southampton Cultural Center’s Levitas Center for the Arts, 25 Pond Lane, Southampton.
Tickets will be sold at the door: $20/$10 students and seniors. Cash and checks will be accepted. Credit Cards will NOT be accepted. Contact: Southampton Cultural Center at 631 287-4377 or reservations@southamptonculturalcenter.org
www.southamptonculturalcenter.org
The Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Music Series*
Sunday, December 13 at 3:00pm – Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players
Saturday, December 19 at 8:00pm - Yarn/Wire*
Sunday, February 14 at 3:00pm – Stony Brook Opera
Sunday, March 7 at 3:00pm – Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players: Complete Brahms sonatas for violin and piano; Marc Levine, violin and Ling Ju Lai, piano
Sunday, March 14 at 3:00pm – Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players
Sunday, April 4 at 3:00pm - Escher String Quartet
Sunday, April 18 at 3:00pm – Stony Brook Baroque
Sunday, April 25 at 3:00pm – Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players: New Music
Sunday, May 2, time TBD – Benefit Concert with Philip Setzer from the Emerson String Quartet and the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players
*Please note that all concerts occur on Sundays at 3:00pm excepting Yarn/Wire on Saturday, December 19 at 8:00pm.

The Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Players is a group of extraordinary musicians formed specifically for the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Series. The group’s members hail largely from the New York area and are members of or have performed with such prestigious ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Montreal Symphony and the Colorado Quartet and, between then, have been seen in virtually every major venue on the east coast. The SCCCP is excited, this season, to welcome Philip Setzer, violinist with the Emerson String Quartet as a guest performer on May 2, 2010.

Yarn/Wire is the only active new music ensemble in the United States dedicated to expanding the body of works written for two pianists and two percussionists. Influenced by its members' diverse experiences in classical music, avant-garde theatre, and experimental popular music, the quartet champions both acoustic and electro-acoustic works that often challenge existing trends in musical aesthetics. Yarn/Wire's primary mission is thus to present contemporary music performances which reflect a historical perspective while seeking to expand the current musical canon. Newly commissioned works form the centerpiece of this vision, and Yarn/Wire aims to forge connections with the younger generation of composers from around the world.
Since its inception in 2005, Yarn/Wire has presented concerts throughout the US that have focused on the past and present of this repertoire. Committed to innovative programming which highlights the contributions of new composers, Yarn/Wire is actively participating in the creation of new works, and has premiered a number of works by American composers such as Mei-Fang Lin, David Bithell, John Arrigo-Nelson, Brendan Connolly, Ryan Carter, and Benjamin Carson. In the 2009-10 season, Yarn/Wire will present "Composing New York", a two-part series featuring 9 world premieres written for the quartet by young composers living in New York City such as David Franzson, Aaron Einbond, Alex Mincek, and more.
Additionally, Yarn/Wire has presented a number of US premieres by some of Europe's leading composers such as Stefano Gervasoni, Georg Friedrich Haas, Enno Poppe, and Paul Usher. Yarn/Wire's interest in avant-garde theatre has led to collaboration in 2009-10 with New York experimental theatre company Theater of a Two-Headed Calf, and together the groups will present performances of Susan Glaspell's 1916 work "Trifles" at the Prelude NYC Festival 2009 as well as in a run at the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 2010.
Based in New York City, Yarn/Wire maintains a commitment to performing around the country, often in festivals, chamber music series, universities and colleges. It has appeared at the "April in Santa Cruz" Festival of Contemporary Music (California), The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Queens College, The University of Notre Dame, Stony Brook University, and Dartmouth College. In 2009-10, the ensemble will be featured on the North River Concert Series (NYC), Southampton Chamber Music Series, Pixelerations Festival 2009 (Providence, RI), The Islip Arts Council Discover Music Series (Long Island, NY), and at Davidson College (North Carolina).
Members of Yarn/Wire--Laura Barger and Jacob Rhodebeck, pianists; Ian Antonio and Russell Greenberg, percussion--have appeared throughout the United States and internationally at festivals and venues such as The Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), , The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), Darmstädter Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), Tanglewood (Lenox, MA), The Festival of New American Music (Sacramento, CA), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA), Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival (Putney, VT), The National Gallery of Ireland, and Västerås Konserthus (Sweden).

Stony Brook Opera, a premiere University opera program, presents a program of songs by contemporary American composers as part of the Southampton Cultural Center Chamber Series on February 14, 2010. Each year, Stony Brook Opera presents several productions at their home, the Staller Center for the Arts, including Baroque, contemporary and standard repertory including an annual fully staged opera. The program’s co-director/conductor, Timothy Long, will accompany.

The Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players (Eduardo Leandro and Gilbert Kalish, Directors) have a long tradition of presenting world-class contemporary music concerts in New York City and Long Island. The group performs “classic” new music repertoire ensuring the preservation of important works by such composers as Ligeti, Xenakis, Reich, and Cage. The Contemporary Chamber Players also actively premieres new works by promising young composers at Stony Brook as well as more established composers on the annual “Premieres” concert.

The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its individual sound, inspired artistic decisions and unique cohesiveness. The Quartet has performed at prestigious venues and festivals across the United States including Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y and Symphony Space in New York, Boston's Gardner Musuem, the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals, Music@Menlo and La Jolla SummerFest; and has collaborated with eminent artists such as Lawrence Dutton, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Jeffrey Kahane, Joseph Kalichstein, David Shifrin and Pinchas Zukerman. Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be the quartet-in-residence at each artist's summer festival: The Young Artists Programme at Canada's National Arts Centre and The Perlman Chamber Music Program on Shelter Island, NY.

During the 2008-2009 season the Escher debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Louvre in Paris as well as in New Orleans, Orange County, CA, and San Jose. In addition, the Quartet continues its CMS Two residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and travels to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The Escher began the season with appearances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo and the Gold Coast Festival in California.

Last season, the Escher began its Chamber Music Society Two Residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, served as the 2007-2008 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence in Caramoor--where the Escher recently performed its first commissioned work by Pierre Jalbert--and joined the faculty of Stony Brook University as Visiting Artist-in-Residence in a unique relationship with the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet. The ensemble also performed at the Ravinia, Green, Great Lakes, Music @ Menlo and La Jolla Festivals. Additional 2007-2008 appearances included Symphony Space and the New School in New York; Boston's Gardner Museum; Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society; Concordia College; and University of Idaho. The Quartet has also performed with guitar luminary Pepe Romero for a New Year's Eve performance at the 92nd Street Y, and with pianist Wu Han at the Greenwich Library Concert Series. Nightclub engagements at Tonic and Union Hall saw the Escher in joint concerts with pop-folk singer-songwriter Luke Temple.

The Escher String Quartet takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher inspired by Escher's method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.

"The individual and sometimes concertolike playing of the four musicians was notable for its polish and tonal beauty."
-The New York Times

Stony Brook Baroque, directed by harpsichordist Arthur Haas, is comprised of the cream of the crop of graduate students from the Stony Brook University Department of Music and has performed throughout the east coast with regular performances in New York City and at the Boston Early Music Festival. Stony Brook Baroque, winner of the prestigious 2006-2007 Collegium Musicum Grant Competition, boasts alumni that fill the ranks of America and Europe’s greatest baroque ensembles.